Search Results

Interviewee:

Davis, Leroy  Search this

Langdale, Cecily  Search this

Interviewer:

Berman, Avis  Search this

Names:

Barnes Foundation -- Students  Search this

Hirschl & Adler Galleries  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

Barnes, Albert C. (Albert Coombs), 1872-1951  Search this

Bly, Boris  Search this

Bouché, Louis, 1896-1969  Search this

Davis, Terry Ritter  Search this

De Mazia, Violette, 1899-  Search this

Levine, David, 1926-2009  Search this

Penn, Arthur, 1922-  Search this

Shikler, Aaron, 1922-  Search this

Extent:

119 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

2007 June 26-August 7

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Leroy Davis and Cecily Langdale conducted 2007 June 26-August 7, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art, in New York, New York.

Davis speaks of losing his parents at a young age; attending music school in Philadelphia; studying at Tyler School of Fine Arts and the Barnes Foundation; usage of the word "art" in terms of music and painting; being drafted into the Air Force during World War II; opening a gallery in New York City; working as a framer on the side; working on the White House Fine Arts Commission; selling English watercolors. Langdale speaks of focusing on history, literature, and art history in college; working on shows at Hirschl & Adler gallery; opening a gallery with Davis; writing a book on monotypes. Davis also recalls Aaron Shikler, Boris Bly, Arthur Penn, Violette de Mazia, Albert C. Barnes, Louis Bouché, Terry Ritter Davis, David Levine, Herman Gundersheimer, Arthur Penn, Minnie Cushing, Paul Mellon, Jackie Kennedy, Jock Whitney, and others. Langdale also recalls Robert Walker, Richard Cowdery, Meredith Long, Seymour Remenick, Dr. Thomas Conroy, and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Leroy Davis (1922- ) is an art dealer from New York, New York. Cecily Langdale is an art dealer from New York, New York and Avis Berman is a writer and art historian from New York, New York.

General:

Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette, 3 sound discs, and 3 data compact discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 50 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.

Restrictions:

The transcript and recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Topic:

Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation.

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.davis07

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw995c26909-9f3c-463b-b2c7-6950120ad525

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-davis07

Interviewee:

Winokur, Robert, 1933-  Search this

Interviewer:

Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

Alfred University -- Students  Search this

Helen Drutt Gallery  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (U.S.)  Search this

North Texas State University -- Faculty  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Faculty  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

Babu, Victor, 1936-  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

Ferguson, Ken, 1928-2004  Search this

Giacometti, Ignazio  Search this

Hamada, Shōji, 1894-1978  Search this

Hay, Dick  Search this

Klee, Paul, 1879-1940  Search this

Kline, Franz, 1910-1962  Search this

Levy, Marge  Search this

Minter, Myrna  Search this

Notkin, Richard  Search this

Randall, Theodore, 1914-1985  Search this

Reitz, Don, 1929-2014  Search this

Rhodes, Daniel, 1911-1989  Search this

Schulman, Norman, 1924-  Search this

Staffel, Rudolf, 1911-2002  Search this

Vavrek, Ken  Search this

Voulkos, Peter, 1924-2002  Search this

Wildenhain, Marguerite  Search this

Wood, John, 1922-2012  Search this

Extent:

7 Items (Sound recording: 7 sound files (5 hr., 35 min.))

159 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Date:

2011 July 23-24

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Robert Winokur conducted 2011 July 23 and 24, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Winokur's home and studio, in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

Robert speaks of his mother earning an award for her artwork; his father and other family members being Communists and having to distance himself in being identified with them; his mother making ceramic jewelry while his father was working as a welder at Cramps Shipyard in Philadelphia during World War II; feeling like he had an attention deficit disorder of some kind, which prevented him from doing well in school, so he took ceramics classes in high school to bring his grades up; starting in painting at the Tyler School of Art, finishing in sculpture, clay, and ceramics; appreciating the Abstract Expressionist work of Franz Kline; of the opinion that one learns art by doing and that the teachers are there to direct you only; feeling that he did not have the freedom to experiment with clay as he wished at Alfred University, School of Art and Design for fear of being compared to Peter Voulkos; his first job teaching at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas; teaching in Peoria, Illinois for a year; beginning Cape Street Pottery in Ashfield, Massachusetts; when he began salt firing and working more in sculptural forms; his work influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Ignazio Giacometti, Zen master calligraphers, Peter Voulkos, and others; feeling that the computer cannot, as of yet, produce the quality of art that humans can through repetition; that the process of creating is more important than the subject; starting his 30-year teaching career at Tyler School of Art in 1966; that students today are approaching ceramics conceptually and academically rather than through a relationship with the material; the beginning of NCECA [National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts]; and how he enjoys making what he wants to, now that he is retired. Robert also recalls Rudolf Staffel, John Wood, Ted Randall, Daniel Rhodes, Shoji Hamada, Marguerite Wildenhain, Ken Ferguson, Norm Schulman, Victor Babu, Myrna Minter, Don Reitz, Helen Drutt English, Richard Notkin, Dick Hay, Marge Levy, and Ken Vavrek.

Biographical / Historical:

Robert Winokur (1933- ) is a ceramist in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is an independent scholar in San Francisco, California.

General:

Originally recorded as 7 sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 35 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:

Abstract expressionism  Search this

Ceramicists -- Pennsylvania -- Interviews  Search this

Ceramics -- Study and teaching  Search this

Communism  Search this

Painting -- Study and teaching  Search this

Sculpture -- Study and teaching  Search this

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Ceramics  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Identifier:

AAA.winokr11

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9bbe0c1c7-246e-45b7-966f-6278587c8612

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-winokr11

Interviewee:

Metcalf, Bruce, 1949-  Search this

Interviewer:

Cooke, Edward S., 1954-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

Colorado State University -- Faculty  Search this

Kent State University -- Faculty  Search this

Montana State University (Bozeman, Mont.)  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Society of North American Goldsmiths  Search this

State University of New York at New Paltz -- Students  Search this

Syracuse University -- Students  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

University of the Arts (Philadelphia, Pa.) -- Faculty  Search this

Adamson, Glenn  Search this

Arneson, Robert, 1930-1992  Search this

Bauer, Fred  Search this

Bennett, Jamie, 1948-  Search this

Burns, Mark, 1950-  Search this

Church, Sharon, 1948-  Search this

Clark, Garth, 1947-  Search this

Craig, Gabriel  Search this

Cummins, Susan  Search this

Daley, William, 1925-2002  Search this

Ebendorf, Robert, 1938-  Search this

Eidelberg, Martin P.  Search this

Flynn, Pat, 1954-  Search this

Getty, Nilda  Search this

Gill, John, 1949-  Search this

Griffin, Gary, 1945-  Search this

Halem, Henry  Search this

Hammer, Wayne  Search this

Hash, Arthur, 1976-  Search this

Jerry, Michael John, 1937-  Search this

Kington, L. Brent (Louis Brent), 1934-2013  Search this

Koplos, Janet  Search this

Koss, Gene  Search this

Kumata, Carol  Search this

La Plantz, David  Search this

Lechtzin, Stanley, 1936-  Search this

Long, Randy  Search this

Matzdorf, Kurt  Search this

Mawdsley, Richard, 1945-  Search this

Moran, Lois  Search this

Morris, William, 1834-1896  Search this

Pritchard, Marian  Search this

Rogers, Harriet  Search this

Rogers, Steve  Search this

Ruskin, John, 1819-1900  Search this

Schaechter, Judith, 1961-  Search this

Shaw, Richard, 1941 Sept. 12-  Search this

Slivka, Rose  Search this

Slosberg, Jill  Search this

Wilson, Anne, 1949-  Search this

Woell, J. Fred, 1934-  Search this

Extent:

96 Pages (Transcript)

5 Items (Sound recording: 5 sound files (4 hr., 10 min.), digital, wav)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Place:

California -- description and travel

Seoul (Korea) -- Description and Travel

Date:

2009 June 10

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Bruce Metcalf conducted 2009 June 10, by Edward S. Cooke, Jr., for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Metcalf's home, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Mr. Metcalf discusses his early years in Amherst, Massachusetts; beginnings as a maker with modeling clay and plastic airplane models; undergraduate years at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York in the late 1960s; early interest in architecture; early disenchantment with modernist discourse and theory; introduction to Marxist theory and idealism of the 1960s; summer trip to California in 1970; return to the East Coast upon the death of his father; return to college, transferring into jewelry in his senior year; influence of his teacher Michael Jerry; seeing the work in "Objects: USA" exhibition (1969) and influence of the work of J. Fred Woell, Richard Mawdsley, L. Brent Kington; rejection of current trends in art, including conceptual art and formalism; his affinity for the medium of metal, and hammersmithing; influence of funk ceramics, including work by Fred Bauer and Richard Shaw; brief stint at Montana State University, Bozeman; working in cardboard and wood; graduate school at the State University of New York, New Paltz; working with Robert Ebendorf and Kurt Matzdorf at New Paltz; work as a production artist/craftsperson; attending Rhinebeck, New York, craft fair in the mid-1970s; the influence of writings by William Morris and John Ruskin and the notion of "dignified labor"; graduate school at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; formulating his aesthetic of narrative symbolism; publication of his first article in 1977 as a response to review of the exhibition "Forms in Metal: 275 Years of Metalsmithing in America" (1975); yearlong teaching position at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado; taking a teaching position at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio (1986-1991); publication of his article "Crafts: Second-Class Citizens?" in the first issue of Metalsmith, 1980; growing involvement with the Society of North American Goldsmiths; development of his notion of "social utility" and the role and function of crafts and making; expansion of his writing on craft; rejection of the deconstructivist school of thought in the 1980s; abandonment of sculptural objects for jewelry in the early 1990s; return to Philadelphia in 1991; early teaching of history of craft, first at Kent, then on a Fulbright scholarship in Seoul, South Korea (1990), later at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, in the early 1990s; influence of Martin Eidelberg; development of his vision for a history of craft course; collaboration with Janet Koplos on "Makers: A History of American Studio Craft"; use of his medium and craft to explore issues of nurturing and anxiety; the psychological/social effect and aesthetic importance of wearing jewelry (for the wearer and the artist); the pros and cons of craft collectors; the problematics of installation work by craft artists; recent trends in craft, including Anne Wilson's notion of "sloppy craft" and an "anti-craft" attitude; recent artists, including Arthur Hash and Gabriel Craig; lack of exhibition opportunities for younger/emerging artists; influential recent texts, including "Shards," by Garth Clark. He also recalls Robert Arneson, Randy Long, Carol Kumata, Jamie Bennett, Steve and Harriet Rogers, Wayne Hammer, Stanley Lechtzin, Gene Koss, Henry Halem, Mark Burns, Rose Slivka, Nilda Getty, Jill Slosberg, Sharon Church, John Gill, David La Plantz, Lois Moran; Gary Griffin; William Daley, Marian Pritchard, Glenn Adamson, Pat Flynn, Susan Cummins, and Judith Schaechter.

The following oral history transcript is the result of a recorded interview with Bruce Metcalf on June 10, 2009. The interview took place in Bala Cynwyd, Penn., and was conducted by Edward S. Cooke, Jr. for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. This interview is part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Bruce Metcalf has reviewed the transcript. His corrections and emendations appear below in brackets with initials. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability by the Archives of American Art. The reader should bear in mind that they are reading a transcript of spoken, rather than written, prose.

Biographical / Historical:

Bruce Metcalf (1949- ) is a jeweler and writer in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

General:

Originally recorded as 5 sound files. Duration is 4 hr., 10 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.

Restrictions:

This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Topic:

Ceramics  Search this

Communism  Search this

Deconstructivism (Architecture)  Search this

Conceptual art  Search this

Formalism (Art)  Search this

Jewelers -- Pennsylvania -- Interviews  Search this

Metal-work  Search this

Jewelry making  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Identifier:

AAA.metcal09

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw974054f15-9dfd-4aea-98f7-707fd609918e

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-metcal09

Interviewee:

Butt, Harlan W., 1950-  Search this

Interviewer:

Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

American Craft Council  Search this

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts -- Faculty  Search this

Enamelist Society  Search this

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts -- Faculty  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Penland School of Crafts -- Faculty  Search this

Rhode Island School of Design -- Faculty  Search this

San Diego State University -- Faculty  Search this

Society of North American Goldsmiths  Search this

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale -- Students  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

University of North Texas -- Faculty  Search this

Brooks, Jan  Search this

Glantz, Ken  Search this

Kington, L. Brent (Louis Brent), 1934-2013  Search this

Lechtzin, Stanley, 1936-  Search this

Moty, Eleanor  Search this

Paley, Albert  Search this

Pijanowski, Eugene, 1938-  Search this

Pijanowski, Hiroko Sato, 1942-  Search this

Pujol, Elliot  Search this

Scanga, Italo, 1932-2001  Search this

Shirk, Helen Z., 1942-  Search this

Snyder, Gary, 1930-  Search this

Staffel, Rudolf, 1911-2002  Search this

Winokur, Robert, 1933-  Search this

Extent:

7 Items (Sound recording: 7 sound files (5 hr., 19 min.), digital, wav)

90 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place:

Australia -- Description and Travel

India -- description and travel

Japan -- Description and Travel

Date:

2009 July 27-28

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Harlan W. Butt conducted 2009 July 27-28, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Butt's studio, in Ptarmigan Meadows, Colorado.

Harlan Butt speaks of the influence of Asian art on his work; the use of text and imagery in his work; the use of pattern in his work; his undergraduate minor in weaving; the influence of Asian religion and mythology; series The Earth Beneath Our Feet , Garden Anagogies, and Snakes in Heaven; his childhood growing up in Hopewell, New Jersey, near Princeton; undergraduate work at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; discovery of Buddhism and Eastern religions; his mother's death when he was 20; studying with Stanley Lechtzin and Elliot Pujol at Tyler; graduate school at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; interest in Japanese tea ceremony; more exploration of Zen Buddhism; use of color in his work; studying with L. Brent Kington; reliquary series; move to Connecticut in 1974; second trip to Japan in 1984 to co-curate Kyoto Metal: An Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Art Metalwork; introduction to Japanese system of artisan apprenticeship; early efforts as a writer and poet; the influence of poet Gary Snyder; summer teaching position at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; teaching job at San Diego [California] State University in the mid-1970s; rattles and pipes series; exploring the Western landscape; the power of the snake image; taking a teaching position at University of North Texas, Denton (1976- ); first trip to Japan in 1980; differences in artisanal/metalworking practices in Japan and the United States; teaching workshops at various craft schools, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina; Haystack School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine; and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, compared with teaching in a university; the pros and cons of the gallery system; work with the Nancy Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan; the challenge of commission work; National Parks Project, Denton Center for the Visual Arts, Denton, Texas; the role of haiku and text in his pieces; series 1,001 Views of Mt. Mu; series Snakes in Heaven; the influence of his wife and children; trip to India and organizing Colour & Light: The Art and Craft of Enamel on Metal, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, 2001; trip to Australia; involvement with the Society of North American Goldsmiths, Enamelist Society, and American Craft Council; subtle issues of environmentalism in his work; his affinity for metalsmithing and enameling. He also recalls [Rudolf] Staffel, Robert Winokur, Italo Scanga, Jan Brooks, Mike Riegel, Rachelle Thiewes, Eleanor Moty, Albert Paley, Shumei Tanaka, Ken Glantz (Ken Chowder), Randy Thelma Coles, Sandy Green, Mickey McCarter, Gene Pijanowski, Hiroko Pijanowski, Toshihiro Yamanaka, Helen Shirk, Ana Lopez, and Sarah Perkins.

Biographical / Historical:

Harlan W. Butt (1950- ) is an artist, metalsmith, and educator in Denton, Texas. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a writer and independent scholar in San Francisco, California.

General:

Originally recorded on 4 sound mini discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 19 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.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

Art teachers -- Interviews  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Buddhism  Search this

Metal-workers -- Texas -- Interviews  Search this

Weaving  Search this

Japanese tea ceremony  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.butt09

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw990c0174f-3e27-4a2f-bccb-8d302a50d30d

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-butt09

Interviewee:

Winokur, Paula, 1935-  Search this

Interviewer:

Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

Beaver College -- Faculty  Search this

Graphic Sketch Club (Philadelphia, Pa.)  Search this

Helen Drutt Gallery  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (U.S.)  Search this

Philadelphia Museum of Art  Search this

Temple University. -- Students  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

Andre, Carl, 1935-  Search this

Blai, Boris, 1893-1985  Search this

Bobrowicz, Yvonne  Search this

Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976  Search this

Cushing, Val M.  Search this

De Staebler, Stephen, 1933-2011  Search this

Ferguson, Ken, 1928-2004  Search this

Heizer, Michael, 1944-  Search this

Higby, Wayne  Search this

Leon, Dennis, 1933-  Search this

Long, Richard, 1945-  Search this

Love, Arlene, 1953-  Search this

Marks, Graham, 1951-  Search this

McKinnell, James  Search this

Mestre, Enrique, 1936-  Search this

Minter, Myrna  Search this

Moran, Lois  Search this

Natzler, Gertrud  Search this

Natzler, Otto  Search this

Nesbitt, Lowell, 1933-1993  Search this

Notkin, Richard  Search this

Randall, Theodore, 1914-1985  Search this

Schulman, Norman, 1924-  Search this

Sedestrom, Carol  Search this

Serra, Richard, 1938-  Search this

Shores, Kenneth, 1928-  Search this

Simon, Sandy  Search this

Slivka, Rose  Search this

Staffel, Rudolf, 1911-2002  Search this

Takaezu, Toshiko  Search this

Vavrek, Ken  Search this

Winokur, Robert, 1933-  Search this

Ólafur Elíasson, 1967-  Search this

Extent:

9 Items (Sound recording: 9 sound files (6 hr., 24 min.))

171 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place:

Alaska

Hungary

Iceland

Mesa Verde (Calif.)

Rocky Mountains

Stonehenge (England)

Date:

2011 July 21-22

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Paula Colton Winokur conducted 2011 July 21-22, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Winokur's home and studio, in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

Paula speaks of taking drawing and painting classes at the Graphic Sketch Club (now the Fleischer Art Memorial) in Philadelphia at age 11; her first experience handling clay at 13 or 14 when taking a class at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; when her family agreed to send her to college, providing she became a teacher, and she attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University as a painting major; the influence of her teacher Rudolf Staffel in her sophomore year when she took a ceramics class and fell in love with working in clay; meeting her husband Robert Winokur when they were students at Tyler, getting married in 1958, eventually having two sons; glaze testing to find a palette of glazes to use; moving to Massachusetts and starting Cape Street Pottery for their production pottery; her involvement with NCECA [National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts] and other professional organizations; when she began a 30-year teaching career at Beaver College in 1973 (more recently known as Arcadia University), building their ceramics department; changing from using stoneware to porcelain in 1970; making boxes and architectural forms; how she stopped making functional items when her first child was born and began creating the things she wanted to; the decision in 1982 to make landscapes and how geology, the Artic, and threats to the environment influence her work; the process she uses when creating texture; selling exclusively through the Helen Drutt Gallery beginning in 1973 until the gallery closed in 2011; the important influences in her work of artists such as Michael Heizer, Carl Andre, Richard Long, Richard Serra, Olafur Eliasson, and Steven De Staebler and others; the immense the geologic formations of Mesa Verde, the Rocky Mountains, Stonehenge, Alaska and Iceland are inspiring; various lecturing opportunities and exhibits through the years, as well as a working residency she took advantage of in Hungary in 1994; slowly moving away from glazes and instead using metallic sulfates for color; that her intention is to express the relationship between the internal part of herself and the external world for other people to experience and find something in common; the importance of a liberal arts education for art students; her gelatin and clay prints; the concern over collectors of clay art dying off and no new ones taking their places; that galleries are closing and Internet galleries are the norm; meeting photographer, Imogen Cunningham, and seeing her as a wonderful role model; and the feeling that the high cost of fuel and the invention of newer materials may end ceramic classes. Paula also recalls Lowell Nesbitt, Myrna Minter, Arlene Love, Dennis Leon, Boris Blai, Ted Randall, Val Cushing, Norm Schulman, Jim McKinnel, Gertrud Natzler, Otto Natzler, Ken Ferguson, Rose Slivka, Enrique Mestre, Sandy Simon, Wayne Higby, Richard Notkin, Graham Marks, Toshika Takaezu, Yvonne Bobrowicz, Ken Vavrek, Carol Sedestrom, Lois Moran, and Ken Shores and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Paula Colton Winokur (1935- ) is a ceramist in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a curator and writer from San Francisco, California.

General:

Originally recorded as 9 sound files. Duration is 6 hr., 24 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:

Ceramicists -- Pennsylvania  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Ceramics -- Study and teaching  Search this

Painting -- Study and teaching  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Women ceramicists  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Identifier:

AAA.winoku11

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a7e4adc1-c020-4368-b3ef-02243200b6aa

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-winoku11

Interviewee:

Bally, Boris  Search this

Interviewer:

Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) -- Faculty  Search this

Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) -- Students  Search this

Comedy Central (Firm)  Search this

Massachusetts College of Art -- Faculty  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Penland School of Crafts -- Faculty  Search this

Snyderman Gallery  Search this

Society of Arts and Crafts (Boston, Mass.)  Search this

Society of North American Goldsmiths  Search this

Tyler School of Art -- Students  Search this

Velvet da Vinci Gallery  Search this

Works Gallery  Search this

Agro, Elisabeth R.  Search this

Ballay, Joe, 1938-  Search this

Bonner, Jonathan, 1947-  Search this

Cianci, Vincent Albert, Jr., 1941-2016  Search this

Dahm, Johanna  Search this

Ebendorf, Robert, 1938-  Search this

Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983  Search this

Gialamas, Rosemary, 1962-  Search this

Greenbaum, Toni  Search this

Holt, Steven, 1957-  Search this

Ilse-Neuman, Ursula  Search this

Kangas, Matthew  Search this

Kington, L. Brent (Louis Brent), 1934-2013  Search this

Kowal, Dennis  Search this

Kumata, Carol  Search this

Künzli, Otto, 1948-  Search this

Lechtzin, Stanley, 1936-  Search this

Metcalf, Bruce, 1949-  Search this

Nasher, Patsy  Search this

Nasher, Raymond  Search this

Raab, Rosanne  Search this

Schaffner, Alexander  Search this

Simon, Marjorie  Search this

Skov, Mara Holt  Search this

Warhola, Paul  Search this

Wood, Joe, 1954-  Search this

Extent:

4 Sound discs (Sound recording (5 hr., 55 min.), digital)

109 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound discs

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place:

Haiti -- description and travel

Switzerland -- description and travel

Date:

2009 May 26-27

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Boris Bally conducted 2009 May 26-27, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Bally's home and studio, in Providence, Rhode Island.

The artists speaks of his current studio in Providence, Rhode Island; working without a studio assistant; the benefits of working with studio assistants without an art-school background; apprenticing with Swiss metalsmith Alexander Schaffner when Bally was 19; his own de facto apprenticeship program with his studio assistants; his parents as role models; his vision at age 19 for his career plan; his early interest in CAD; growing up with Swiss-born parents, both with art/design backgrounds; visiting Switzerland as a child; his father's studies with Buckminster Fuller in the late 1950s; his mother's class with L. Brent Kington, whom Bally later studied with; growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; his first home metal shop at nine years old; his first formal metal class at about 14 years old; making and selling jewelry throughout his teens; informal apprenticeship with Jeff Whisner; his father's design firm, launched in his last year of high school; summer studying at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts; year-long apprenticeship in Switzerland; watching Schaffner make and sell a wide variety of objects, which later informed Bally's own perspective; his continuing relationship with Schaffner; undergraduate studies at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; studying with Daniella Kerner and Vickie Sedman at Tyler; transferring to Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to study with Carol Kumata; making a "happiness machine"; transition from jewelry to larger sculptures; using found and scavenged materials; meeting Rosemary Gialamas (Roy) and their eventual elopement; moving to the Boston area; work as an industrial design model-maker; the New York art scene of the 1980s; representation with Archetype Gallery, New York, New York; slow but steady artistic recognition and commercial success of his functional objects; Sliding Perfections, flatware; teaching Gialamas metalsmithing and collaborative works by the two; early teaching experience in adult education classes in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; return to Pittsburgh in 1989, where Bally took a teaching position at Carnegie Mellon in the design department; studio on Bigelow Boulevard; difficulties in his marriage; a commission from the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts, and the beginnings of his traffic sign pieces in a collaborative piece with Gialamas; starting his platters series; the dissolution of his marriage to Gialamas in 1993; meeting Lynn, whom he later married; his love of teaching and his teaching philosophy; teaching at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina; move to Providence, Rhode Island, to devote his time to studio work; the pros and cons of craft and arts schools versus university settings; the intersection of art, design, and industry: his Humanufactured line of products; functional work in the late '80s, and the influence of a trip to Haiti in the 1980s; bottle cork pieces; Trirod vessels; "More than One: Contemporary Studio Production" exhibition, American Craft Museum, New York, New York, 1992-94; philosophy of making; working in series form; truss pieces; perforation pieces and Vessel with a Silver Heart (1993); armform series; "Jewelries, Epiphanies" exhibition, Artists Foundation Gallery at Cityplace, Boston, Massachusetts, 1990; inclusion in One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today, by Susan Grant Lewin. (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1994); series Dig Wear and Eat Wear bracelets; Calimbo vessel and the Fortunoff prize; gold Tread Wear brooches in the mid-1990s; creating his first chair; moving from hand-made solo work to furniture and a design and production focus; starting to patent his designs in the mid-1990s; further exploration of design and technique in his chairs; "GlassWear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry," Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York, 2009; Pistol Chalice and work with the Pittsburgh gun buyback program; traveling exhibition for the project; Gun Totem; Brave necklace; BroadWay armchair; Subway chair; new techniques for graphics on the furniture; his relationship with former scrapyard Paul Warhola, brother to Andy Warhol; commission work, and the importance of commerce in his career and worldview; commission for Comedy Central television network; the changing craft market and the boom times of the 1980s; work with galleries, including: Patina, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco, California; Snyderman-Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Nancy Sachs Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri; the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts; seeing one of his pieces used on a set for a daytime television soap opera and in the movie Sex and the City ; the recent "green" (environmentally conscious) trend; blurring boundaries of design and art and craft; growing acceptance of artist-made and -designed multiples; pros and cons of computer technology in art and craft; the pros and cons of the DIY (do-it-yourself) craft movement; influential writers, including Rosanne Raab, Marjorie Simon, Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov, Bruce Metcalf, Toni Greenbaum, Matthew Kangas, Gail Brown; his involvement in the Society of North American Goldsmiths; making metal benches for his children. He also recalls Heather Guidero, Julian Jetten, Pam Moloughney, Dennis Kowal, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Bob Ebendorf, Jason Spencer, Rob Brandegee and Ava DeMarco, Stefan Gougherty, Flo Delgado, L. Brent Kington, Curtis Aric, Ralph Düby, Steve Korpa, Joe Wood, Joe Ballay, Yves Thomann, Andy Caderas, James Thurman, Nicholas (Nico) Bally, Elena Gialamas, James Gialamas, Elvira Peake, Ronald McNeish, Johanna Dahm, Jerry Bennet, Kathleen Mulcahy, Nelson Maniscalco, Tom Mann, Otto Künzli, Stanley Lechtzin, Christopher Shellhammer, David Tisdale, Dean Powell, Daniel Carner, Donald Brecker, Robert Schroeder Phil Carrizzi, Lucy Stewart, Elisabeth Agro, Rachel Layton, Sarah Nichols, Peter Nassoit, Dan Niebels, Mary Carothers, Ward Wallau, Ivan Barnett and Alison Buchsbaum, Jonathan Bonner, Raymond and Patsy Nasher, Beth Gerstein, George Summers Jr., Pavel Opocensky, Buddy Cianci, David Cicilline.

Biographical / Historical:

Boris Bally (1961- ) is a metalsmith and designer who lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. Bally was educated at Carnegie Mellon University and Tyler School of Art.

General:

Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 11 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 56 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.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

Sculptors  Search this

Topic:

Art and computers  Search this

Decorative arts  Search this

Designers -- Rhode Island -- Interviews  Search this

Jewelry making  Search this

Metal-workers -- Rhode Island -- Interviews  Search this

Models and modelmaking  Search this

Metal-work  Search this

Function:

Artists' studios

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.bally09

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9254c25f1-255e-47a7-b4db-21ae1609db8f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-bally09