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Oral history interview with Al Hansen

Interviewee:
Hansen, Al, 1927-1995  Search this
Interviewer:
Cummings, Paul  Search this
Names:
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
Pratt Institute -- Students  Search this
Reuben Gallery  Search this
Brecht, George  Search this
Callahan, Harry M.  Search this
Dine, Jim, 1935-  Search this
Dunn, Bob  Search this
Dunn, Judith  Search this
Eisenhauer, Lette  Search this
Goldfine, Pauline  Search this
Groth, John, 1908-1988  Search this
Higgins, Dick, 1938-1998  Search this
Kaprow, Allan  Search this
Karp, Ivan C., 1926-2012  Search this
Mac Low, Jackson  Search this
Maciunas, George, 1931-1978  Search this
Marisol, 1930-2016  Search this
McCarey, Don  Search this
Moorman, Charlotte  Search this
Müller, Jan, 1922-1958  Search this
Nakian, Reuben, 1897-1986  Search this
Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-  Search this
Ortiz, Rafael Montanez  Search this
Paik, Nam June, 1932-  Search this
Poons, Larry  Search this
Segal, George  Search this
Smith, Tony, 1912-1980  Search this
Vostell, Wolf, 1932-1998  Search this
Waring, James, 1922-1975  Search this
Watts, Robert, 1923-1988  Search this
Extent:
2 Sound tape reels (Sound recording, 5 in.)
112 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound tape reels
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1973 November 6-13
Scope and Contents:
Interview of Al Hansen conducted 1973 November 6-13, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Hansen traces his personal history, recalling his childhood and early education in Queens; his service in the armed forces; and jobs he held in social work, advertising, off-Broadway theater, and art galleries. He describes taking classes with John Groth at the Art Students League in the 1940s; with Reuben Nakian at Pratt in the 1950s; and with John Cage at the New School in 1958. He also discusses the rise of New York as an art center; his interest in film; his involvement in experimental sound and music; his approach to creating Happenings and that of other artists; organizing poetry readings at the Epitome Coffee Shop; his Hershey bar wrapper collages; the writing of his book, "A Primer of Happenings and Space Time Art," (New York: Something Else Press 1965); his interactions with Fluxus and George Maciunas; participating in the "Below Zero" show at the Reuben Gallery in 1959; attending the Destruction In Art symposium in London in 1966; and his recent exhibitions in Germany. People he recalls include Tony Smith; Pauline Goldfine [ph]; Dick Higgins; Wolf Vostell; Larry Poons; Allan Kaprow; Claes Oldenburg; Don McCarey [ph]; Jim Dine; George Brecht; Jackson Mac Low; James Waring; Marisol Escobar; Ivan Karp; Bob Watts; George Segal; Judith Dunn; Bob Dunn; Jan Müller; Nam June Paik; Raphael Ortiz; Charlotte Moorman; and Lettie Lou Eisenhauer.
Biographical / Historical:
Al Hansen (1927-1995) was an artist from New York, New York. Founder of Fluxus art movement and one of the first Happenings artists.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Fluxus (Group of artists)  Search this
Art, American  Search this
Art -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Happenings (Art)  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.hansen73
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9934acc05-c372-46fa-924a-d3cdb5649cbf
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-hansen73
Online Media:

Oral history interview with David Ellsworth

Interviewee:
Ellsworth, David, 1944-  Search this
Interviewer:
Shea, Josephine, 1958-  Search this
Creator:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this
Names:
Anderson Ranch Arts Center  Search this
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts -- Faculty  Search this
Bellas Artes (Santa Fe, N.M.)  Search this
Cooper-Lynn Gallery  Search this
Del Mano Gallery  Search this
Gargoyle Gallery  Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
Oberlin College  Search this
United States. Army  Search this
University of Colorado -- Students  Search this
Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.) -- Students  Search this
Woodstock School of Painting  Search this
Bressler, Charlie  Search this
Bressler, Fleur  Search this
Dodson, Virginia  Search this
Foster, Clay  Search this
Gibson, Giles  Search this
Hogbin, Stephen  Search this
Holzapfel, Michelle, 1951-  Search this
Klein, Bonnie  Search this
LeCoff, Albert B., 1950-  Search this
Lindquist, Mark, 1949-  Search this
Lindquist, Melvin  Search this
Lipton, Irving  Search this
Mason, Arthur K.  Search this
Mason, Jane S.  Search this
Mastelli, Rick, 1949-  Search this
Moran, Lois  Search this
Moulthrop, Ed, 1916-2003  Search this
Prestini, James, 1908-  Search this
Rapp, Joanne  Search this
Scarpino, Betty  Search this
Sfirri, Mark  Search this
Extent:
5 Items (Sound recording: 5 sound files (2 hr., 41 min.), digital, wav)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place:
Colorado -- description and travel
Iowa -- Description and Travel
Date:
2007 July 16
Scope and Contents:
An interview of David Ellsworth conducted 2007 July 16, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Ellsworth's home, in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Ellsworth speaks of living and growing up in Iowa for the first fourteen years of his life; moving to Boulder, Colorado when his father became the director of libraries; being the youngest of two boys; his parents meeting at Oberlin College; his early interest and skill in leatherwork and woodwork as a child; spending time with the family at their cabin up in the mountains in Colorado; his experiences with music, vocals, and woodshop in junior high; attending a preparatory high school that had a very strong art program; singing in the Army for the Army Air Defense Command; traveling around with the band; being sent to the headquarters of United States Army of Europe in Heidelberg as a speed typist; studying and learning German while abroad; getting admitted into the architecture department at Washington University in St. Louis; flunking out after three semesters; going to New York City to follow a love interest as well as to study art; attending The New School for Social Research; moving back to the Midwest due of the heavy toll of city life; enrolling in the sculpture department at the University of Colorado and receiving both a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts; his first independent show at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado; working as a designer for a stainless steel food services equipment company called Green Brothers; working at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado; opening up a private studio in Boulder; partaking in various craft shows; working with the Belles Artes Gallery in New York City and Santa Fe, the Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, The Hand and the Spirit Gallery in Scottsdale which became Materia Gallery, the Gargoyle Gallery in Aspen; and the Cooper-Lynn Gallery in New York City; working as a teacher at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg; his experiences working with resin; his past experiences working with various kinds of wood; his past divorce; the influence of Native American and Southwest architecture and landscape on his work; the lack of reviews on woodturners and woodturning exhibitions; the difficulty of writing about craft art because of the lack of language; turning down commission work because of the limitations it imposes on the artist or creator; the direction in which he believes the craft of woodturning is going; woodturning as predominantly a hobby for retirees seeking to satisfy a need for creative energy; woodturning as a male-dominated craft; the surprisingly large number of well-known men in the fiber field today; designing and making his own line of tools; creating tutorial videos; holding woodturning classes at his home studio; his working process and how it has changed over time; how he and his wife Wendy ended up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania; and how he came up with his various series and how each developed. Ellsworth also recalls Ed Moulthroup, Melvin and Mark Lindquist, JoAnn Rapp; Steven Hogbin, Lois Moran, James Prestini, Irving Lipton, Albert LeCoff, Rick Mastelli, Clay Foster, Michelle Holzapfel, Mark Sfirri, Virginia Dodson, Betty Scarpino, Bonnie Klein, Arthur and Jane Mason, Fleur and Charlie Bressler, Giles Gibson, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
David Ellsworth (1944- ) is a studio woodworker from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Josephine Shea (1958- ) is a curator from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
General:
Originally recorded 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 41 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:
Decorative arts  Search this
Woodworkers -- Pennsylvania -- Interviews  Search this
Woodwork  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Identifier:
AAA.ellswo07
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw988134bfb-2ba4-48a8-bbb6-42b23cb1a364
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-ellswo07
Online Media:

Oral history interview with Dore Ashton

Interviewee:
Ashton, Dore  Search this
Sampson, George E., 1951-  Search this
Creator:
Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project  Search this
Names:
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art -- Faculty  Search this
Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project  Search this
Harvard University -- Students  Search this
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
New York Times Company  Search this
De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this
Devree, Howard, 1891-1966  Search this
Guston, Philip, 1913-1980  Search this
Kline, Franz, 1910-1962  Search this
Klüver, Billy, 1927-2004  Search this
Motherwell, Robert  Search this
Orlovsky, Peter, 1933-2010  Search this
Paz, Octavio, 1914-  Search this
Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008  Search this
Reynal, Jeanne, 1903-  Search this
Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this
Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019  Search this
Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this
Yunkers, Adja, 1900-1983  Search this
Extent:
67 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2010 November 21 - 2011 March 9
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Dore Ashton conducted 2010 November 21 and 2011 March 9, by George W. Sampson, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Ashton's home, in New York, New York.
Ashton talks about growing up politically active; protesting the internment of the Japanese Americans during WWII; attending The New School and then Harvard University; briefly working as a gallery receptionist; writing her first reviews for Art Digest; Howard Devree hiring her as a writer for The New York Times; travels and living in Europe; writing feature pieces about individual artists for The New York Times; writing for Cahiers d'art; her relationships Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Billy Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Octavio Paz, and others; marriage to Adja Yunkers; teaching at Cooper Union; interest in Latin American Art; flirting; being a "dedicated reader of Nietzsche"; visits to the Cedar Tavern; being a peacenik; and other topics. She recalls Jeanne Reynal, Mario Pedrosa, Alger Hiss, Peter Selz, Peter Orlovsky, David Smith, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Dore Ashton (1928-2017) was an art historian in New York, New York. George W. Sampson (1951-) is an arts administrator in Charlottesville, Virginia.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 memory cards. Duration is 2 hr., 57 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 critics -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Topic:
Women art critics  Search this
Women art historians  Search this
Women authors  Search this
Women educators  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.ashton10
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9b7c38826-8734-452b-afbe-3303efd2db24
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-ashton10
Online Media:

Oral history interview with Michelle Stuart

Interviewee:
Stuart, Michelle, 1933-  Search this
Interviewer:
Leddy, Annette  Search this
Names:
Alfred Schmela Galerie  Search this
Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Students  Search this
Fluxus  Search this
Heresies Collective, Inc.  Search this
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
Alloway, Lawrence, 1926-1990  Search this
Bartoli, Joseph  Search this
Cook, James, 1728-1779  Search this
Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this
Munro, Eleanor, 1928-  Search this
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this
Extent:
7 Items (Sound recording: 7 sound files (5 hr., 9 min.), digital, wav)
154 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Interviews
Sound recordings
Date:
2015 November 3-2017 May 23
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Michelle Stuart, conducted 2015 November 3 and 13, and 2017 May 23 by Annette Leddy, for the Archives of American Art at Stuart's studio in New York, New York.
Stuart speaks of her Los Angeles childhood with a Swiss mother and Australian father; her paternal and maternal grandparents; her early interest in history, travel, and art; her schooling; her father's enlistment in the U.S. military during World War II and being raised during her teenage years by her mother; her fascination with Captain Cook; art classes at Chouinard Institute of Art; her work with Diego Rivera in Mexico City; her marriage to Spanish painter Joseph Bartoli and their home life in Paris, France; her return to the U.S. in the late 1950s and life in New York City's West Village; courses at the New School; early exhibitions of her work in New York City gallery group shows; her breakthrough Art Park piece; her relationship to the "Land" artists; Lucy Lippard; Eleanor Munro; the influence of Fluxus; Lawrence Alloway's early essay on her scroll pieces; how she was brought into Galerie Schmela; the founding of Heresies; site specific work in the American Southwest; the enduring impact of the Pacific Ocean on her imagination and art; her use of rocks and other natural materials; her transition to photographic collage; commissions in Sweden, Japan, Alaska, and New York City.
Biographical / Historical:
Michelle Stuart (1933- ) is a visual artist in New York, New York. Annette Leddy is a collector for the Archives of American Art.
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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Topic:
Collage  Search this
Environment (Art)  Search this
Women artists  Search this
Women painters  Search this
Women sculptors  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Identifier:
AAA.stuart15
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a3b47808-a202-4e0d-adf4-8776845781ef
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-stuart15
Online Media:

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