New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.) Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Monty Lewis, 1964 June 25. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Painters -- California -- San Diego -- Interviews Search this
Muralists -- California -- San Diego -- Interviews Search this
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.) Search this
Extent:
1 Sound tape reel (Sound recordings, 5 in.)
15 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound tape reels
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1964 June 25
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Monty Lewis conducted 1964 June 25, by Betty Hoag, for the Archives of American Art.
Interview conducted at Coronado School of Fine Arts in San Diego, Calif. Lewis discusses his art training at the Art Students' League in N.Y., his study of mural and easel painting in Europe, and his freelance mural work before his involvement with the Public Works of Art Project. He describes the developing presence of mural art in New York with Diego Rivera's mural at Rockefeller Center and the 1939 New York World's Fair. Lewis tells of the Artists, Painters, and Sculptors Collaborators, a collaborative group interested in developing community art projects, and discusses the use of murals in the 1939 New York World's Fair and the different techniques used for those and other public projects.
Biographical / Historical:
Monty Lewis (1907-1997) was a painter, designer, muralist in New York and California.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 49 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Painters -- California -- San Diego -- Interviews Search this
Muralists -- California -- San Diego -- Interviews Search this
REEL LA 2: A clipping, August 28, 1955, about Lewis; a book, Murals by American Painters and Photographers, Museum of Modern Art, 1932; a catalog, "The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art", vol. 4, July 1937; a newsletter, "Conferences on Inter-American Relations in the Fields of Art, Music, Education and Publications and Libraries, 1939-1940," March 1940.
UNMICROFILMED: Personal and business letters; Lewis' curriculum vitae; photographs of Lewis' WPA murals projects in New York and New Jersey and a renderings of a design proposal for a New Jersey WPA project; price lists of works; two travel diaries (1930-1931) from a trip to Europe; and a scrapbook, 1928-1947, containing newspaper articles, exhibition catalogs, and announcements.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, muralist, educator; Coronado, Calif. Died 1997. Born in Cardiff, Wales, Lewis studied at the Art Students League in New York and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930, studying architecture and related art forms. His mural commissions include the Museum of Man Building for the 1939 New York World's Fair and for public schools in New Jersey. He moved to Coronado, Calif. in 1942 and founded the Coronado School of Fine Arts in 1945, serving as its director until 1990. At the time of its founding, it was the only school teaching the art of fresco. The school practiced a stylized method of instruction that was highly individualistic and informal, allowing instructors complete freedom in their teaching procedures.
Provenance:
Printed material on reel LA 2 lent by Monty Lewis, 1965. Unmicrofilmed material donated 1998 by Kathryn Lewis Crane, daughter of Monty Lewis.
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.
