Interview of I.J. (Isaac) Sanger, conducted 1981 November 17, by Estill Curtis "Buck" Pennington, for the Archives of American Art, in New York, N.Y.
Sanger speaks of his first encounters with art as a child growing up in rural Virginia, and of his first industrial art classes, taken at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville while he was still attending high school in Free Union. After graduating, he received what he describes as his first real training in art while working for the carpentry shop at Columbia University in New York in the early 1920s. While attending Columbia, he found work as a furniture designer for the YMCA [Young Men's Christian Association]. Sanger also worked for his professor Albert Heckman, doing linoleum cuts for "Aesop's Fables," which Heckman was illustrating. He explains that it was Heckman who encouraged him to continue practicing print making. Until then, he had been working in oil and water color while studying "Art Structure" with Arthur Dow.
When the Depression hit in 1929, Sanger lost his position with the YMCA and worked odd jobs until Albert Heckman introduced him to Gustave von Groschwitz, who brought him on to the WPA. During the 1930s, he received widespread recognition for his work; his prints were selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for their "50 Prints of the Year" show in 1928 and 1929. Following his work with the WPA, Sanger served the army in World War II at Camp Kearns in Utah. He explains how he continued expanding his portfolio throughout the War, and once it was over, spent 25 years as a commercial artist. He relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1951 and became a member of the Washington Print Society while Prentiss Taylor was secretary. In D.C., he was a graphic designer for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, but kept up his own private work, which Jacob Pins featured at the Smithsonian Castle. After formally retiring in 1966, Sanger decided to dedicate his time to travel, but adds that he still makes print making, painting, and furniture design a priority.
Biographical / Historical:
I. J. Sanger (1899-1986) was a painter and printmaker of Marlow Heights, Md.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 6 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 others.
Occupation:
Furniture designers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
101 Border Stories / Arturo Carrillo Strong, Ofelia Santos López, Richard M. Bernholz.
102 Mural Art and Community / Alonso Encina Herrera, Romulo FrÃas.
103 Border Imagery in Arts and Crafts / Agustin Castillo, Carlos Callejo.
Local Numbers:
FP-1993-CT-0083
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
United States 1993
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, July 1, 1993.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Introduction:
The Working Americans program explored and celebrated work-related traditions, looking at Americans not as people from a certain area of the country or from a particular culture, but in terms of how they made their living and what they needed to know to do their jobs. Each occupation has its own traditions and its own body of skills. In the Working Americans section, Festival-goers could meet and talk with members of many unions and organizations while they demonstrated the particular know-how essential to their varied tasks and while they shared, in the workshop areas, the particular tales and jokes that grow out of the nature of the work they do.
The Folklife of Transportation Workers Project celebrated the lore, lifestyles, and occupational skills of the American workers who operate, maintain, and regulate the nation's transport system. The airline pilot's complex take-off procedure, the flight attendant's responsibility for safety in the cabin, the railroader's ability to calculate and make complicated box-car switches could be found here; as well as bus and taxi drivers' tales of ways to handle over-demanding passengers, truck driving songs, and seafarers' yarns. Transportation workers keep the nation's economic lifeblood moving. They also harbor a rich lore, replete with heroes, tall tales, and songs, that was demonstrated within this program.
June 16-27, Workers Who Extract and Shape. Presentations included glass bottle blowing, glass engraving and horseshoe making.
July 1-11, Workers Who Build. This program celebrated the skills and folklore of the building and construction trades. Participants demonstrated building crafts such as carpentry, tile and terrazzo skills, and even the casting of plaster masks of visitors' faces.
July 14-25, Workers Who Clothe Us. Participants celebrated the skills and folklore of workers in the garment trades, with demonstrations of clothes design, bonnaz (machine embroidery), leather work, and industrial loom work.
July 28-August 8, Workers in Communications, Arts & Recreation. This theme celebrated the skills and folklore of the print and broadcast media, telephone communications, and performing arts. Members of the Graphic Arts International Union demonstrated newspaper printing, four-color printing, and book binding. Members of the United Paperworkers International Union demonstrated papermaking, and members of various performing arts groups gave workshops.
August 11-22, Workers in Professional & Technical Skills, Transportation. Presentations celebrated the skills and folklore of professionals who work in health and medical fields, the tobacco industry, and the print and copying industry. Demonstrations included hospital workers demonstrating operating room techniques, cigar rolling, pharmacists making compounds, and body repairmen working on cars. The Transportation area presented the occupational culture of the men and women who work in the various modes of transportation, including the railroads, metropolitan and long-distance buses, taxicabs, trucks, ships, and stations of the Coast Guard. In the Transportation area, the skills of railroad men, airline pilots, truck drivers and seamen were featured.
August 25-September 6, Workers Who Feed Us, Transportation. Participants celebrates the skills and folklore of people involved with various aspects of production, preparation, and distribution of food. Hotel and restaurant workers demonstrated decorative ice carving, specialty table settings, wine stewarding, and cold food decoration. The Transportation area presented the occupational culture of those who work in the various modes of transportation, including skills demonstrations by airline, railroad and metropolitan transit workers, as well as by Coast Guardsmen who showed ornamental rope work and knot tying.
Shirley Askew served as Program Coordinator, with Robert McCarl as Folklorist, Robert Porter as Field Research & Presentation Specialist, and Susan Donahue as Assistant Program Coordinator. Peter Seitel was Project Coordinator for the Transportation program, assisted by Jack Santino.
Sponsors included the AFL-CIO and its Affiliates, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Transportation.
Transportation fieldworkers:
John Drake, Elaine Eff, Jan Faul, Archie Green, Alice Lacy, Worth Long, Luis Kemnitzer
Presenters:
Benny Ambush, Karen Byrne, Debbie Dixon, Steve Hagberg, Marta Schley, Barbara Schwartz
Participants:
Workers Who Extract and Shape Products
Members of the following unions:
United Cement, Lime & Gypsum Workers International Union
Thomas F. Miechur, President
Glass Bottle Blowers Association of the United States and Canada
Harry A. Tulley, President
American Flint Glass Workers Union
George M. Parker, President
International Union of Journeymen Horseshoers of the United States and Canada
Duke Bonde, Jr., President
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Floyd E. Smith, President
Molders and Allied Workers Union
Anton J. Trizna, President
American Federation of Musicians
Hal C. Davis, President
The Music Performance Trust Funds
Kenneth E. Raine, Trustee
Saul Broudy
Andy Cohen
Larry Hanks
Fred Holstein
John Kolstad
Lew London
Faith Petrick
Utah Phillips
Mark Ross
Jane Voss
Bodie Wagner
Pop Wagner
Workers Who Build
Members of the following unions:
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen
Thomas F. Murphy, President
United Brick and Clay Workers of America
Roy L. Brown, President
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
William Sidell, President
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Charles H. Pillard, President
International Union of Operating Engineers
J.C. Turner, President
International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers
John H. Lyons, President
Laborers' International Union of North America
Angelo Fosco, President
International Union of Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers
Kenneth M. Edwards, President
Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association of the United States and Canada
Joseph T. Power, President
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada
Martin J. Ward, President
Sheet Metal Workers International Union
Edward J. Carlough, President
Workers Who Clothe Us
Members of the following unions:
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
Murray H. Finley, President
International Ladies' Garment Workers Union
Sol C. Chaikin, President
International Leather Goods, Plastics and Novelty Workers Union
Ben Feldman, President
Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, Furriers Division
Joseph Belsky, President
Workers in Communications, Arts and Recreation
Members of the following unions:
Actors' Equity Association
Theodore Bikel, President
Communications Workers of America
Glenn E. Watts, President
Graphic Arts International Union
Kenneth J. Brown, President
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Kenneth Harvey, President
National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians
Edward M. Lynch, President
International Association of Fire Fighters
William H. McClennan, President
American Guild of Musical Artists
Cornell MacNeil, President
American Guild of Variety Artists
Penny Singleton, Executive-President
Hebrew Actors' Union
Herman Yablokoff, President
Workers in Professional and Technical Skills and Services
Members of the following unions and organizations:
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union
Murray H. Finley, President
The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
Jerry A. Johnson, Ph.D., President
James J. Garibaldi, Executive Director
Ronald Stone, OTR; President
Virginia Occupational Therapy Association
Silbyl Levine, OTR; President
District of Columbia Occupational Therapy Association
International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO, Local 1650
Bill Hampton
Kenneth Green
Lloyd Mann
Lloyd Crindlebaugh
F.E. Wood
Bill Hoppe
H.L. Norton
G.F. Roady
M.R. McCutchen
L.C. Leeds
Eddie Glaszczak, Platte City, Missouri
Bill Hoffman, Liberty, Missouri
B.J. Wilson
J.J. Kunrod
John McKim
Harry Powell
B.L. Yardley
N.C. Mosley
Gary Mason
S.M. Ballew
Tracy Bales
Wally Hayward
Dick Lincoln
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
B.B. Thomas
B.M. Byrd
O.L. Williams
E.B. Dollar
G.L. Bridgeman
Charles Hughes
Ed Irby
Transport Workers Union, Maintenance, Local 514
R.N. Smythe
P.O. Young
H.V. Highberger
C.R. Burke
J.S. Lowe
B.L. Lamb
S.W. Hathcock
P.E. Corn
A.B. Williams
J. Shade
R.H. Stanley
W.D. Myers
A.D. Sorenson
J.L. Locut
W.C. Popejoy
R.J. Barker
B.M. Maris
S.H. Walden
R.C. Sagar
M.D. Harrell
B.L. Ewing
J.L. Guynn
T.R. Hopper
C.E. Quinn
K.L. Anderson
Truckers
Jim Ringer
Ray Bieri
Jack Hamilton
George Gordon
Edgar Graves
James Marshall
Artie Marshall
William Peoples, III
Margaret Brooks
Bernice McDonald
Doris Miller
Ed Miller
Lee Voorhies
Richard Voorhies
Timmy Voorhies
Dale Setzer
Harry Bavdakian
Sea Chanteys
Louis Killen
Gerret Warner
Jeff Warner
John Benson
Jeff Davis
John Roberts
Maintenance of Way
Simon Shaw
Al Marshall
Bob Dudley
Roy Johnson
Clifton Anderson
Robert Dudley
Henry Hawkins
Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, Locals 1395, 43, 468, 364, 175
C. Lightfoot
G. Butcher
S. Miedzienowski
W. Palmer
J. Palumbo
M. Walston
P. Lawson
W. Hardin
C. Green
S. Siadys
F. Burke
H. Lewin
Coast Guard
BMC C.D. Haywood
QM1 G.H. Hornbeck
BMC D.B. McMichael
ASM T.A. Hallmark
BM1 L.L. Proud
QM2 J.W. White
MK2 B.G. Borato
MK1 S.J. Halloran
Allied Pilots Association
Capt. Jenks
Jim Foringer
Capt. N. Schweitzer
W.J. Rogers
Capt. (Hap) Hazard
Al Voras
Transportation Workers Union Flight Attendants, Local 552
Karen Hill
Marti O'Rourke
Dee Dee Dougherty
Tootie Higgs
Judy Marek
Ed Gold
Ed Pagan
Linda Welker
Gussie Utting
Roy Brayton
Carol Peisinger
Fran Bollero
Carolyn Green
Mary Jo Kerr
Janet Piersan
United Transportation Union
Collection Restrictions:
Access by appointment only. Where a listening copy or viewing copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a processing fee. Older papers are housed at a remote location and may require a minimum of three weeks' advance notice and payment of a retrieval fee. Certain formats such as multi-track audio recordings and EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) may not be accessible. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1976 Festival of American Folklife, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
ERIC AND MARIE MAILLET DISCUSS THEIR CANADIAN HOME AND MIGRATION TO GARDNER, DOLLHOUSE MAKING, GARDENING, SPEAKING FRENCH AT HOME, STITCHER FACTORY WORK, QUILTING, THEIR CHURCH.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Massachusetts, United States, August 23, 1987.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
INTERVIEW WITH FELIX VILLALOBOS AND ANGEL VILLALOBOS. TOPOGRAPHER AND BRICK MASON RESPECTIVELY. INTERVIEWED AT CONSTRUCTION SITE. SEE CADAVAL FW LOGS
Local Numbers:
FP-1988-CT-0805
General:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA;EL SALVADOR;TOPOGRAPHY;GEOGRAPHY;MASONRY;ORAL HISTORY
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, February 12, 1988.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
101 Migration to Washington / Armstead Barnett, Eugene Allen, Samuel Ficklin.
102 Making the White House Work / Bonner Arrington, Howard Arrington, Lillian Rogers Parks.
Local Numbers:
FP-1992-CT-0242
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 25, 1992.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
101 Foodways at the White House- A Demonstration / Henry Haller.
102 Maintaining the White House- Carpenters, Plumbers etc / Bonner Arrington, Howard Arrington, Lewis M. Simmons.
Local Numbers:
FP-1992-CT-0248
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 26, 1992.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
101 Restoring the White House: Stone Cutters and Carvers / Patrick Plunkett, Phillip Uhl, Sean Callahan.
102 Generations to Generation: Families in the White House / Bonner Arrington, Howard Arrington, Lewis M. Simmons.
Local Numbers:
FP-1992-CT-0254
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 28, 1992.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
101 Being a Butler- Part Timers / Norwood Williams, Robert Harmon, William Stephenson.
102 Maintaining the White House: All the Things You Do for a Family / Howard Arrington, Lewis M. Simmons, Russell Free.
Local Numbers:
FP-1992-CT-0262
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 29, 1992.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
Illustration: cartoon of Ivory Soap character, hammering a nail to hang a "There's No Place Like Home" sign.
Local Numbers:
Ivorydata4 8
0207910661 (Scan No.)
Publication:
Published Sept.-Oct. 1939
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Reproduction restrictions due to copyright.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Armstrong Manual Training School, built in 1902, was authorized by congress as a vocational high school for African American youth in Washington, DC. The school was named for Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893), a white commander of an African American Civil War regiment and founder of Hampton Institute, now University. Designed by local architect Waddy B. Wood, the Renaissance Revival building provided carpentry, machine, foundry, and blacksmith workshops. In addition, the school taught chemistry and physics. Dr. Wilson Bruce Evans, the father of performing artist Lillian Evans Tibbs, served as founding principal. Duke Ellington, William "Billy"Eckstein, and John Malachi are among a host of Armstrong graduates who became prominent in their profession. In 1996 the school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the District of Columbia.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Genre/Form:
Catalogues
Collection Citation:
Evans-Tibbs collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of the Estate of Thurlow E. Tibbs, Jr.
The papers of painter and sculptor George Sugarman measure 12.22 linear feet and 21.83 GB and date from 1912 to 2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1959 to 1999. The collection documents Sugarman's career as a sculptor primarily through correspondence, project files, exhibition files, writings, and photographs. The collection also includes address and appointment books, business and financial records, and printed material. A partially processed addition consisting of audio (3 sound cassettes) and video recordings (1 video reel, 1/2", 11 videocassettes, 7 U-matic and 4 VHS), and one Super 8 mm motion picture film, as well as digital copies of the film and video recordings, includes lectures by Sugarman, documentaries about Sugarman and his sculptures, and radio and television appearances by Sugarman.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter and sculptor George Sugarman measure 12.22 linear feet and 21.83 GB and date from 1912 to 2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1959 to 1999. The collection documents Sugarman's career as a sculptor primarily through correspondence, project files, exhibition files, writings, and photographs. The collection also includes address and appointment books, business and financial records, and printed material. A partially processed addition consisting of audio (3 sound cassettes) and video recordings (1 video reel, 1/2", 11 videocassettes, 7 U-matic and 4 VHS), and one Super 8 mm motion picture film, as well as digital copies of the film and video recordings, includes lectures by Sugarman, documentaries about Sugarman and his sculptures, and radio and television appearances by Sugarman.
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with family members, friends, artists, and scholars, reflecting Sugarman's diverse influences and interests. The project files and exhibition files illustrate Sugarman's prolific career as an artist and document Sugarman's numerous projects and exhibitions abroad, particularly in Japan.
The writings by Sugarman are noteworthy as they reveal the integral relationship between Sugarman's philosophical theories about art and his actual works of art. The business and financial records mainly document expenses incurred while working on various projects and exhibitions and while traveling. Maps, clippings, and brochures from Sugarman's many travels are included as well as exhibition catalogs and announcements for Sugarman and others. The collection also contains photographs of George Sugarman and his artwork, dating mostly from the 1970s.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series. Series are arranged by type of material; materials within series are arranged alphabetically by name or by type of material and then chronologically. Series 10 is unprocessed.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1912-2000, n.d. (Box 1; 9 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1959-2001, n.d. (Boxes 1-3, OV 8; 2.9 linear feet)
Series 3: Project Files, 1968-1997, n.d. (Boxes 3-4; 1 linear foot)
Series 4: : Exhibition Files, 1965-1993, n.d. (Boxes 4-5, OV 8; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Writings, 1951-1992, n.d. (Box 5; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 6: Address and Appointment Books, 1972-1997, n.d. (Boxes 5-6; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Business and Financial Records, 1962-1998, n.d. (Box 6; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1954-1999, n.d. (Boxes 6-7, OV 8; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs, 1966-1981, n.d. (Box 7; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 10: Sound and Moving Image Material, 1972-1990 (Box 9, FC 10; 1.2 linear feet, ER01-ER13; 21.83 GB)
Biographical Note:
George Sugarman was a painter and sculptor who disliked labels because he believed they oversimplified the complexity of art, and Sugarman's artwork, like the artist himself, resists classification and oversimplification. Although he was influenced by Surrealist imagery, Cubist ideas of space, Baroque sculpture, and Abstract Expressionism, Sugarman's sculptures also display a musical quality, reflecting his interest in jazz music and improvisation. Sugarman was a pioneer in the use of color in sculpture and is probably best known for his large, polychrome aluminum sculptures.
Sugarman made the decision to become an artist relatively late in life. Born in New York on May 11, 1912, he studied at City College in New York and graduated with a B.A. in 1934. After serving in the United States Navy from 1941 until 1945, he attended evening classes at Museum of Modern Art. At the age of 39, George Sugarman traveled to Paris to study painting under the GI Bill of Rights. While in Paris, he decided to study sculpture with Ossip Zadkine and began creating wood carvings and terra-cotta sculptures. Over the next few years, Sugarman traveled to Italy and Spain, studying Baroque sculpture and architecture. He was particularly attracted to the work of Bernini and to Bernini's use of space.
Sugarman returned to New York in 1955 and began working with laminated wood. In order to support himself, he accepted a job teaching carpentry at a private school. He joined the Brata Gallery in 1957 and helped found the New Sculpture Group. A few years later, Sugarman received major recognition of his work by winning second prize in sculpture at the Pittsburgh International Exhibition. Sugarman went on to win a Longview Foundation Grant, a Ford Foundation Grant for his work at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
In the 1960s, Sugarman began working on large painted-aluminum sculptures and completed his first outdoor sculpture at the Xerox Building in El Segundo, Calif. in 1969. Many of Sugarman's outdoor sculptures generated intense controversy, particularly his sculpture for the Edward A. Garmatz Federal Building and Courthouse in Baltimore, but he was devoted to his belief in the social as well as aesthetic importance of public art. Sugarman saw public sculpture as a "metaphor for the human condition" and as a way to transcend what he called the "indoor eye," the eye which views art in isolation from its physical and social environment.
Sugarman taught at the Graduate School of Hunter College in New York City from 1960 until 1970 and served as visiting Associate Professor at the Yale University Graduate School of Art from 1967 to 1968. Sugarman was a prolific artist, participating in numerous one-man shows, group exhibitions, and competitions all over the world, yet recognition of his talent came almost a decade later in the United States than in Europe. His works are in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. George Sugarman died on August 25, 1999.
Related Material:
The transcript and audiotapes of an interview with George Sugarman conducted by Paul Cummings in 1974 for the Archives of American Art's Oral History Program is available at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds materials lent for microfilming. Reel N70-50 and N70-51 includes biographical material, an essay about George Sugarman, exhibition catalogs and announcements dating from 1954 to 1960, a certificate, writings by Sugarman, and correspondence dating 1953-1970. The originals of most of these materials were included in later donations. Reel N70-50 also contains a substantial number of photographs of Sugarman's natural wood sculptures from the late 1950s, his early works in wood, clay, and plaster dating from 1951 to 1958, his drawings and paintings from the late 1960s, installations and works in progress from 1960 to 1970, and photographs of Sugarman working in the studio in the 1960s. There are also twelve sketchbooks and loose pages dating from 1943 to 1958, which document Sugarman's travels to the South Pacific, New York City, France, Spain, and North Africa. Lent material not included in later gifts remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
In 1970, George Sugarman lent material to the Archives of American Art for microfilming. In 1980 and 1983, George Sugarman donated portions of the material previously lent, along with additional materials. Additional materials were donated by Sugarman's niece, Arden Sugarman Eilopolous, in 1999 and 2000. In 2006, the Sugarman Foundation via Arden Sugarman donated the audio and video recordings.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Use of unmicrofilmed portion requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
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.
Topic:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Drawings
Interviews
Photographs
Sound recordings
Citation:
George Sugarman papers, 1912-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
