An interview of Ted Muehling conducted 2007 November 17-18, by Jane Milosch, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Muehling's studio, in New York, New York.
Muehling speaks of visiting New York City as a child; attending Pratt for industrial design; working with molds; working in Germany; winning the Coty fashion award for his jewelry; learning to blow glass; working at Corning; visiting museums as a child and projects in his father's basement workshop; drawing inspiration out of his materials; the rich art history of Europe; working with plastic and wood; working with assistants; the impact of travel on his work; various gallery exhibitions; working with well-known designers; creating functional and inspiring pieces; the American craft market; drawing inspiration from dreams; the humor in his art; the strengths and limitations of various mediums. Muehling also recalls Gerry Gulotta, Eva Zeisel, Ingrid Harding, Kiki Smith, Deborah Czeresko, Gabriella Kiss, Gerda Buxbaum, Jade Hobson, Ingo Mauer, Vija Celmins, Louis Sullivan, Konstantin Grcic, Robert Lee Morris, Helen Drutt, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Ted Muehling (1953- ) is a designer of jewelry and decorative objects in New York, New York. Jane Milosch (1964- ) is a curator from Silver Spring, Maryland.
General:
Originally recorded as 5 digital sound files. Duration is 4 hr., 38 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:
ACCESS RESTRICTED: Use requires written permission.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Vija Celmins, 2009 February 11-October 15. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Vija Celmins conducted 2009 February 11-October 15, by Julia Brown, for the Archives of American Art, at the Celmins' home and studio, in New York, New York.
Celmins speaks of her family's Latvian roots; experiencing World War II as a child; surviving and overcoming the trauma of World War II; the difficulties of being a refugee and moving to the United States; the influence of books on her imagination and art; expressing herself through drawing after moving to Indiana; learning English; studying art at the John Herron School of Art; attending summer school at Yale University; moving to California to obtain her MFA at UCLA; using art to grapple with and understand both her past and her emotions; experimenting with various mediums; discovering the pencil as an art material; the difficulties of printmaking; experimenting with abstraction and Pop art; deciding to drop painting and collage work; finding her own artistic philosophy and practices; her love of nature and its impact on her work; not conforming to the male-dominated, L.A. art scene; her decision to leave L.A. for NYC. Celmins also speaks about Tony Berlant, Chas Garabedian, Ed Ruscha, David Stuart, Philip Guston, Chuck Close, Willem de Kooning, Brice Marden, Joan Mitchell, Robert Irwin, and Jasper Johns.
Biographical / Historical:
Vija Celmins (1938- ) is a multimedia artist in New York, New York. Julia Brown (1951- ) is an independent scholar in San Antonio, Texas.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 33 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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Multimedia artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview with Alexis Smith conducted 2014 January 24 and April 14, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art at Smith's studio, in Venice, California.
Ms. Smith discusses growing up in Southern California and her early years living with her parents on the grounds of Metropolitan State Hospital, a mental institution in Norwalk, California; her mother's death when Ms. Smith was 11; the family's time in Whittier and Palm Springs and being raised as an only child by her father; her early interest in French studies and travel to France as a student; her interest in studying art beginning with a John Coplans class at UC Irvine; her time at at UC Irvine in the early days of the university and her growing attraction to the life of an artist; the origin of her name Alexis Smith; and the encouragement of her fellow artists to continue pursuing her cut-up collages from literature, photos, magazines, and Hollywood ephemera. Ms. Smith also describes her time with her artist women's group in the 70s; her husband Scott Grieger; working for Frank Gehry; her showing with the Nicholas Wilder Gallery; her relationship with Chris Burden and her time with him during his period of performance pieces in the 70s; the Riko Mizuno Gallery; her work with terrazzo and its use for installations at the LA Convention Center, Ohio State University, and other installations; the appropriation of text and the assistance of Jerry Solomon utilizing custom frames in her artwork; the impact of women from history, media and literature on her art; her relationship with Coy Howard; the Holly Solomon Gallery; her Jane series; her On the Road series; her installation Snake Path at UC San Diego; her piece for SITE Santa Fe Red Carpet; teaching at UCLA; her installation of the piece Scarlet Letter at Las Vegas Central Library and its subsequent removal; her associations with Margo Leavin Gallery and Honor Fraser gallery; and the loss of her long-time studio space and the challenges of storing her artwork. Ms. Smith also recalls Judy Chicago, Robert Irwin, Vija Celmins, Larry Bell, Barbara Burden, Richard Sedivy, Avilda Moses, Craig Krull, and Allen Ruppersberg among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexis Smith (1949- ) is a collage, multimedia, and installation artist in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 5 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 11 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.
Photographs of artists, many from the San Francisco Bay Area, taken by Mimi Jacobs.
Artists photographed: Ansel Adams, Robert Arneson, Ruth Asawa, Billy Al Bengston, Fletcher Benton, Robert Bechtle, J. B. Blunk, William Brice, Joan Brown, Imogen Cunningham, Jay De Feo, Eleanor Dickinson, Richard Diebenkorn, Laddie John Dill, Archeliat Esherick, Sam Francis, David Gilhooly, Joseph Goldyne, Robert Graham, Henry Hopkins, Robert B. Howard, John Ihle, Robert Irwin, Allen Jones, Alvin Light, Lee Mullican, Isamu Noguchi, Howard Paris, Joseph Raffael, Fred Reichman, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, Richard Shaw, Louis Siegriest, Nell Sinton, Wayne Thiebaud, DeWain Valentine, Leo Valledor, Carlos Villa, Peter Voulkos, William T. Wiley, Emerson Woelffer.
Photographs of Mark Adams, William Allan, Jeremy Anderson, Ruth Armer, Charles Arnoldi, Dennis Beall, Bruce Beasley, Tony Berlant, Elmer Bischoff, Vija Celmins, Judy Chicago, Bruce Conner, Roy de Forest, Tony DeLap, Guy Dill, Claire Falkenstein, Gerald Gooch, Russell Gordon, Wally Hedrick, Tom Holland, Robert Hudson, Robert Emory Johnson, Frank Lobdell, Robert Craig Kaufman, Richard McLean, Bill Martin, Manuel Neri, Bruce Nauman, Nathan Oliveira, Mel Ramos, Sam Richardson, Michael Todd, Julius Wasserstein, Paul Wonner and Norman Zammitt.
In 1999, additional photographs were donated including many duplicates of the previous donations. These include 50 mounted photographs of West Coast artists, twenty-four of which were exhibited in 1980 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and published in 50 West Coast Artists: A Critical Selection of Painters and Sculptors (1981, Chronicle Books). Photographs are of Ansel Adams, Robert Arneson, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Bechtle, Fletcher Benton, J. B. Blunk, William Brice, Joan Brown, Imogen Cunningham, Jay De Feo, Eleanor Dickinson, Richard Diebenkorn, Laddie John Dill, Archeliat Esherick, Sam Francis, David Gilhooly, Joseph Goldyne, Robert Graham, Henry Hopkins, Robert Howard, John Ihle, Robert Irwin, Allen Jones, Alvin Light, Lee Mullican, Isamu Noguchi, Howard Paris, Joseph Raffael, Fred Reichman, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Richard Shaw, Louis Siegrist, Nell Sinton, Wayne Thiebaud, De Wain Valentine, Leo Valledor, Carlos Villa, Peter Voulkos, William Wiley, and Emerson Woeffer.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer; Kentfield, Calif.; b. 1911; d. April 1, 1999. Known in the San Francisco Bay Area for her portraits of prominent local figures, many of whom were artists. She eventually expanded her scope beyond Northern California to included artists in the Los Angeles region as well. These images were widely reproduced in books and in exhibitions and in many cases became the portraits by which the individuals were best known. Among her subjects were Ed Ruscha, Robert Graham, Peter Voulkos, Joan Brown, Isamu Noguchi, Jay DeFeo, Wayne Thiebaud, Imogen Cunningham, and Richard Diebenkorn. Several exhibitions were devoted to the photographs as independent works of art, an acknowledgement of their pictorial qualities as well as their value as documents.
Provenance:
Donated 1976-1992 by Mimi Jacobs. Additional photos, many of them duplicates of previous donations, were donated in 1999 by Leslie Fleming, Jacobs' daughter, for the Estate.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Vija Celmins and Jan Butterfield. Interview with Vija Celmins, 1980 February 10. Jan Butterfield papers, 1950-1997. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The scattered papers of federal arts administrator John DeWitt date from 1962-1979, and measure 1.4 linear feet. The collection primarily documents 1970s arts programs sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Found within the papers are correspondence concerning the department's art projects and exhibition files for The American Artist and Water Reclamation, 1972, and America 1976.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered papers of federal arts administrator John DeWitt date from 1962-1979, and measure 1.4 linear feet. The collection primarily documents 1970s arts programs organized by DeWitt while working for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Found within the papers are scattered correspondence concerning the department's art projects, including the Preservation of Endangered Species Art Program and activities of the Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation. There are letters from artists Vija Celmins, Lamar Dodd, and Ethel Magafan.
Files for the two exhibitions organized by DeWitt for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, The American Artist and Water Reclamation and America 1976, include a wide variety of materials. There are correspondence, lists of artwork, printed materials, a scrapbook, financial materials, audio recordings of interviews with DeWitt, audio recordings of a symposium on America 1976, and numerous photographs of exhibited artwork and participating artists. There are also additional photographs of DeWitt and his colleagues and artists Joseph Raffael and Ann Wyeth McCoy.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series; each series is arranged chronologically.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1965-1979 (Box 1; 10 folders)
Series 2: Exhibition Files, 1962-1978 (Box 1, 2; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Photographs, 1970-1974 (Box 2; 1 folder)
Biographical Note:
John DeWitt was born in 1910 and was a wood sculptor and federal arts administrator in Washingon, D.C.
DeWitt began his career as a professional writer and was a wood sculptor connected with the Veerhoff Gallery in Washington, D.C. His wife, Miriam Hapgood DeWitt, was a painter. In the late 1960s, DeWitt was the Director of Art Programs for the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of Interior responsible for water conservation in arid regions of the United States. At this time, the Bureau initiated a program to present its accomplishments to the public through arts commissions and exhibitions. Under the direction of DeWitt and Lloyd Goodrich of the Whitney Museum of American Art, some 40 artists including Ralston Crawford, Peter Hurd, and Norman Rockwell, were invited to depict the scope of reclamation projects in the American West. The artists were given a free hand to depict any scene in any medium as long as the subject matter pertained to the Bureau of Reclamation's program. The resulting artwork was displayed in an exhibition, The American Artist and Water Reclamation, that opened at the National Gallery of Art in April 1972, and then toured the country in a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.
As the Director of the Visual Arts Program for the Department of the Interior, DeWitt celebrated the Bicentennial by organizing the exhibition America 1976, for which he hired over forty realist painters including Vija Celmins, Ralston Crawford, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, and Wayne Thiebaud, to depict a diverse range of Americana. DeWitt was employed by the Department of the Interior until 1977.
John DeWitt died in 1984.
Provenance:
The John DeWitt papers were donated in 1987 by DeWitt's widow, Miriam Hapgood DeWitt.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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:
Arts administrators -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Citation:
John DeWitt papers, 1962-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Recent drawings : William Allan, James Bishop, Vija Celmins, Brice Marden, Jim Nutt, Alan Saret, Pat Steir, Richard Tuttle : an exhibition / organized by the American Federation of Arts ; guest director, Elke M. Solomon
The papers of painter and educator Robin Tewes measure 8.4 linear feet and date from 1950-2016. The collection documents the life of a veteran New York artist, active in artist run galleries, such as Fifth Street Gallery, and in artists' organizations. Among the papers are biographical material, correspondence, nine notebooks, project files, teaching files, personal business records, printed material, photographic material, artwork, nine sketchbooks, and a few artifacts.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and educator Robin Tewes measure 8.4 linear feet and date from 1950-2016. The collection documents the life of a veteran New York artist, active in artist run galleries, such as Fifth Street Gallery, and in artists' organizations. Among the papers are biographical material, correspondence, nine notebooks, project files, teaching files, personal business records, printed material, photographic material, artwork, nine sketchbooks, and a few artifacts.
Notable correspondents include Tewes' longtime friend and writer Beverly Donofrio, as well as Andrea Belag, Vija Celmins, Petah Coyne, Ilona Granet, Mark Innerst, Joyce Kozloff, Ruth Marten, Mark Tansey, Marcia Tucker, Martha Wilson, and Nina Yankowitz.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1950-2012 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1970-2016 (0.9 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Notebooks, 2007-2015 (0.4 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 4: Project Files, circa 1975-2015 (1.6 linear feet; Box 2-3, OV 10-11)
Series 5: Teaching Files, 1997-2015 (0.4 linear feet; Box 3-4)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, circa 1975-2010 (0.2 linear feet; Box 4)
Series 7: Printed Material, circa 1970-2015 (2.5 linear feet; Box 4-6, OV 12)
Series 8: Photographic Material, circa 1958-2015 (0.6 linear feet; Box 7, OV 13; 332 Megabytes; ER01)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1950-2015 (0.7 linear feet; Box 7, OV 14-15)
Series 10: Sketchbooks, circa 1984-2010 (0.6 linear feet; Box 8-9)
Series 11: Artifacts, circa 2000, circa 2009 (0.2 linear feet; Box 9)
Biographical / Historical:
Robin Tewes (1950- ) is a New York painter and educator. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Tewes graduated from the High School of Art and Design in 1968 and received her BFA from Hunter College in 1978. Tewes was an original member of P.S. 122 Painting Association and founded the Fifth Street Gallery which operated on the Lower East Side in the late 1970s. Tewes has taught at several colleges and universities around New York City including Bard College, Hunter College, Pace University, Parsons the New School for Design, and the School of Visual Arts. She has been included in numerous exhibitions, both domestically and internationally.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2016 by Robin Tewes.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
