Society of Independent Artists (New York, N.Y.) Search this
Extent:
179 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1979 January 16-1980 October 22
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Allan Rohan Crite conducted 1979 January 16-1980 October 22, by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art. Also participating in the interview is Crite's assistant, Susan Thompson.
Crite describes his family background and his youth in Boston. He gives great detail about his childhood interest in art and the art classes he took as a child, sharing drawings he did then with the interviewer. He remembers his art education at the Museum of Fine Arts School and involvement with the Society of Independent Artists. Crite discusses his ideas about the Episcopal church, his religious beliefs, and his interest in the liturgy and spirituals in his artwork. He recounts his engagement in the Navy, participation in the WPA, and work with the Rambusch Company. Crite describes paintings he did of street life in Black communities of Boston in the 1930s, a series of portraits, and paintings he did to illustrate spirituals and the Episcopal liturgy. He speaks about race relations and explains his motivations for an educational project in progress entitled, "The Cultural Heritage of the United States: a Rediscovery," promoting a multicultural view of American history. The last segment of the interview includes Susan Thompson, a fabric artist and close friend collaborating with Crite on projects mostly of a religious nature, including vestments and altar cloths.
Biographical / Historical:
Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) was a painter and illustrator from Boston, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hr., 8 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
An interview of John Woodrow Wilson conducted 1993 March-1994 August, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Wilson discusses his childhood as a member of a family of middle class blacks from British Guiana (now Guyana); his father's grave disappointments in the face of racial discrimination; his parents' push for their children to succeed; early urge to read and draw; encouragement by School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston students who taught at the Roxbury Boys Club; his secondary education; and friends.
He talks about his education at the MFA School, Boston, and comments on such teachers as Ture Bengtz and Karl Zerbe and compares their exacting methods with those of Fernand Leger, his teacher in Paris.
His work of the 1940s prior to going to Paris; the importance of early awards and sales received while still a student at the MFA School; the excitement of sharing a studio with fellow students, Francesco Carbone and Leo Prince; and encouragement to stay in school during WW II with the promise of a European study fellowship after the war.
The great impact of his years in Paris (1948-49); the lack of racial prejudice; the liberating effect of Leger's teaching; his awe of the work of Masaccio and Piero della Francesca during a trip to Italy; and the deep impression made on him by seeing tribal art in the Musee de l'Homme, Paris.
Continued discussion of Leger; his teaching methods; and influences on his work.
His first teaching position at the MFA School; his involvement in civil rights in Boston; his gregariousness and the use of his studio as a meeting place for artists and political activists; his involvement with socialism in Boston and New York; and working in a socialist children's camp. He remembers meeting Paul Robeson, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, and Bob Blackburn, who was then setting up his printmaking atelier in New York; marriage to a fellow socialist (June 1950); move to Mexico on a fellowship to study with Jose Orozco on the advice of Leger, only to find that Orozco had died; terrors of travel as an interracial couple through the U.S.; and different racial attitudes in Mexico and the U.S.
Living in Mexico (1950-56) and anecdotes of David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera; his wife's meeting with Frieda Kahlo and seeing her collection of folk art; their free and cosmopolitan, if impoverished, life in Mexico; his work in a printmaking atelier and on the production of frescoes, and a lengthy aside about his brilliant brother, Freddie, who because he was black was not allowed to pursue his first love, geology, for many years.
Continued discussion of his experiences in Mexico; the dreary year (1957) he spent doing commercial art for a meatpackers' union in Chicago, a city he disliked; his move to New York in 1958, taking on commercial work to support his family, and teaching anatomy at the Pratt Institute.
Teaching art at a junior high school in the Bronx, and his gaining respect of students through special projects; teaching drawing at Boston University (1965-86), his approach to teaching including his demanding standards, the seriousness of the students, his opposing rigid attendance and grading rules, and colleagues, such as David Aronson who had created the School, Reed Kay, Jack Kramer, Sidney Hurwitz, and the University president, John Silber.
Working with the black arts entrepreneur, Elma Lewis, in setting up a visual arts program for the Boston black community (late 1960s-1970s), including the selection of a curator, Edmund Barry Gaither, a young art historian, who eventually established a museum of African-American art; his participation in various black art exhibitions, despite his belief that art should be seen regardless of the ethnic origins of artists; his move toward sculpture, beginning in the early 1960s, as a medium most expressive of black persons, culminating in the 1980s in a series of colossal heads and a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. for the U.S. Capitol (1985-86); and why he makes art and will so long as he is able.
Biographical / Historical:
John Wilson (1922- ) is an African American painter, sculptor, illustrator, printmaker, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. Full name John Woodrow Wilson.
General:
Originally recorded on 11 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 22 digital wav files. Duration is 16 hr., 2 min.
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding for the transcription and microfilming of the interview provided by the Newland Foundation.
Charles Mahoney collection of photographs of students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ca. 1925. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art students -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Photographs Search this
Art schools -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Photographs Search this
Afro-American artists: New York and Boston; [exhibition] The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, the Museum of Fine Arts [and] the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 19 May-23 June, 1970
Author:
National Center of Afro-American Artists Museum Search this
The papers of Boston portrait painter Marie Danforth Page measure 5.9 linear feet and date from 1867 to 2016. The papers document her career in Boston, Massachusetts, through biographical material, correspondence, subject files, personal business records, printed material, artwork, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Boston portrait painter Marie Danforth Page measure 5.9 linear feet and date from 1867 to 2016. The papers document her career in Boston, Massachusetts, through biographical material, correspondence, subject files, personal business records, printed material, artwork, and photographic material.
Biographical information includes award certificates and diplomas, biographical sketches, family records, membership cards, notes, notebooks, and some writings by others. The series also contains material on the artist's husband Calvin G. Page.
There is correspondence with Marie Danforth Page from family, friends, colleagues, museums, and galleries. Notable correspondents include Abbott H. Thayer, Elizabeth Bartol, George Bellows, Frank W. Benson, Aldro T. Hibbard, Jonas Lie, and Cecilia Beaux. There is also posthumous correspondence with Calvin G. Page concerning memorial exhibitions for Marie Danforth Page, and a fair amount correspondence with other family members such as daughters Margaret and Susan.
Subject files consist of card files of artwork, meeting minutes and other material for The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Council (Boston) and the Hazeltine Portrait Committee, and records related to memorial exhibitions of Marie Danforth Page's artwork.
Personal business records include estate papers, lists of artworks, loan receipts, insurance records, and insurance policies.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs, annual reports, books, bulletins, magazines, and clippings. Works of art consist of printing plates, handmade Christmas cards, sketchbooks, and drawings.
Photographs are albums, prints, and glass plate negatives of Page, artwork, exhibitions, and other people and places.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1869-1952 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 1, 7)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1867-2011 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Subject Files, circa 1901-1949 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1867-1951 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1882-2016 (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 2-4)
Series 6: Artwork, 1881-1940 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 4, 7)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1880-1940 (1.9 linear feet; Boxes 4-8, OVs 9-11, GPN Box 12)
Biographical / Historical:
Marie Danforth Page (1869-1940) was a portrait painter in Boston, Massachusetts. Page was a member of the conservative Boston School of Painting. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with Frank W. Benson and Edmund Tarbell, from 1890 to 1895. She married Dr. Calvin Gates Page in 1896.
In 1904, Page took a summer course at Harvard with Denman Ross, and she also studied informally with Abbott Handerson Thayer. She was a charter member of the Guild of Boston Artists, active in the Copley Society, and on the Board of Visitors of the Museum of Fine Arts School.
Provenance:
The Marie Danforth Page papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1985 by Danforth Page Fales and H. Gordon Fales, Page's grandchildren. Additional material was donated in 2020 by Danforth Page Fales.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Portrait painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Elizabeth Saltonstall, 1981 November 18. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- France -- Paris Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert O. Preusser, 1991 January-October. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ralph Rosenthal, 1997 February 10-April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Ceramicists -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
An interview of Robert O. Preusser conducted 1991 January-October, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Preusser discusses the establishment of an art department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his involvement with it first as a visiting lecturer and then as a professor of visual design. He speaks often of Gyorgy Kepes, whom he had known at the Institute of Design, Chicago, in the early 1940s, and who recruited him to M.I.T; he also discusses other faculty members, like Minor White, professor of photography. He gives attention to his courses at M.I.T., 1954-1985; early computer design projects by students; his writings on the importance of visual arts to technology; and his supervision of educational programs at M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, 1974-85. An extensive part of the interview is held in an exhibition of Preusser's work at the M.I.T. Museum (April 4, 1991), discussing in particular his incorporation of various plastic and metallic materials in his works from the 1960s and 1970s. He speaks as well of the importance of his inclusion in group exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery, New York, ("Newcomers," 1951, and "Recent Arrivals, 1952) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston ("Collectors Exhibition," 1954), and of his exhibitions at the Boris Mirski Gallery and the Joan Peterson Gallery, Boston, during the 1950s and 1960s, and at various galleries in Houston during the 1980s. Other topics of discussion are his early art instruction in his native Houston, Texas, by the painter Ola McNeill Davidson, 1930-39; further training in painting and design at the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1930-39, 1941-42; Newcomb School of Art at Tulane University, 1940-41; service with a camouflage unit in the U.S. Army, 1942-45; classes at the Art Center School, Los Angeles, 1946-47; his teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1947-54, and at the University of Houston, 1951-54, and his role as co-director of the Houston Contemporary Arts Association, 1948-50.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Preusser (1919-1992) was a painter and art instructor from Houston, Texas and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Poor sound quality. The first 35 minutes of the interview have been lost.
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 18 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
An interview of Elizabeth Saltonstall conducted 1981 November 18, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Saltonstall discusses her experiences with art as a child in Boston (mentioning Frank Weston Benson as an influence) and her subsequent art education at the Winsor School, the art school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and independent study in Paris. She remembers the various teaching styles of the Museum School faculty (Frederick A. Bosley, Henry Hunt Clark, Anson K. Cross, Philip Leslie Hale, Alexander James, and Leslie P. Thompson), especially as they contrasted with French teaching methods. She also speaks of her teachers in France and on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (including Frank Swift Chase), and recalls some of her co-students (including Josef Presser). Particular mention is made of a lithography workshop taught by Stow Wengenroth, and of George C. Miller, who printed her lithography stones. Her cousin, Nathaniel Saltonstall, is discussed as a patron of the arts, especially his contributions to the establishment of the Institute of Modern Art [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Boston. She touches also on her own teaching career at Winsor School and Milton Academy, and her involvement with the Boston Society of Independent Artists and the Grace Horn Gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Elizabeth Saltonstall (1900-1990) was a painter, printmaker, and instructor of Chestnut Hill, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 25 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
