An interview with Walter Feldman conducted 1998 Aug. 10, by Robert Brown, for the the Archives of American Art, in Feldman's home, Providence, R.I.
Feldman discusses attending classes as a youth, 1939-1942, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; attending Yale's School of Fine Arts, 1942; service in combat infantry in the U.S. Army, Europe, 1943-1946; completing his BFA at Yale, 1946-1950 and MFA, 1951; working as an instructor in painting at Yale until his appointment at Brown University (1953; professor 1961) where he continues to teach; exhibitions and commissions; working in painting, printmaking, mosaics, and in fine book making.
He discusses working as the sole studio art teacher at Brown University until mid-1960s; hiring of additional artist-teachers and the subsequent split of the art department between studio art and art history; bringing book arts to Brown with his establishment of the Brown/Ziggurat Press, which he directs and which mostly publishes poetry; the many visiting arists at Brown; frequent commissions which have kept him young in spirit; and working in widely divergent media: medals, mosaics, and a huge mural commission in 1976; discussion of leading examples of his handmade books, including James Schevill's poetry, "Lager Lieder" (1991), a book of concentration camp songs, and Michael Harper's "Family Sequences" (1998); broadsides he's designed, sculptural "reliqueries" to memorialize the Jewish Holocaust; the current prospering of his artists books; and his success as a teacher.
Biographical / Historical:
Walter Feldman (1925-2017) was an artist and art educator of Providence, R.I. Established Ziggurat Press in 1984 and, as teaching adjunct at Brown University, the Brown/Ziggurat Press in 1990.
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 audio recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
Art teachers -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- Interviews Search this
Curator, and gallery director Thomas S. Holman's research materials on Reginald Marsh, 1970-1989, measure 1.8 linear feet. Research materials consist of correspondence, notes, printed material, writings, and images accrued during the course of exhibition research that Holman pursued while he was curator of collections at the Minnesota Museum of American Art and director of the Bell Gallery, Brown University. Reginald Marsh research, mainly conducted from 1982-1983, comprises the vast majority of the collection. In addition, there are research files for proposed Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler exhibitions. Grant research compiled in 1989 concerns a mural exhibition.
Scope and Contents:
Curator, and gallery director Thomas S. Holman's research materials on Reginald Marsh, 1970-1989, measure 1.8 linear feet. Research materials consist of correspondence, notes, printed material, writings, and images accrued during the course of exhibition research that Holman pursued while he was curator of collections at the Minnesota Museum of American Art and director of the Bell Gallery, Brown University. Reginald Marsh research, mainly conducted from 1982-1983, comprises the vast majority of the collection. In addition, there are research files for proposed Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler exhibitions. Grant research compiled in 1989 concerns a mural exhibition.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 1 series:
Series 1: Research Files, 1970-1989 (Boxes 1-3; 1.8 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian Thomas S. Holman has been a curator at the Norton Museum of Art and Minnesota Museum of American Art, and served as executive director of The Hudson River Museum and Marietta/Cobb Museum. He is now an art advisor and lives in New York City.
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) was best known for his paintings of life in New York City during the Great Depression. Subjects included crowds on city streets and at Coney Island, women, hobos on the Bowery, vaudeville and other popular entertainments.
Provenance:
Donated by Thomas S. Holman in 2013.
Restrictions:
Use of original material requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Thomas Holman research materials on Reginald Marsh are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Curators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Color in space : pictorialism in contemporary sculpture : April 22 through June 4, 1995, David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island / Jennifer Bartlett ... [et al.]
Elizabeth King, American, b. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1950 Search this
Medium:
Porcelain, glass eyes, carved wood, steel, and brass
Dimensions:
27 1/2 x 7 3/8 x 10 1/4 in. (as posed) (69.8 x 18.5 x 26 cm)
Type:
Sculpture
Date:
(1987-1990)
Credit Line:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Jerome L. Greene, Sydney and Frances Lewis, Robert Lehrman, and Leonard C. Yaseen Purchase Fund and Anonymous Gift, 1993
Joel Shapiro / [text by William H. Jordy ; exhibition] Fall 1980, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence ; Winter 1981, Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta ; Fall 1981, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Jana Sterbak : metamorphosis : August 23 through October 5, 1997, David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University / curated by Jo-Ann Conklin ; essay by Irena Žantovská Murray
The Crawford bequest : Chinese objects in the collection of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design : an exhibition by the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, February 6 through March 14, 1993, at the David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Author:
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art Search this
David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University) Search this
Brown University Department of History of Art and Architecture Search this
Love for antiquity : selections from the Joukowsky collection : an exhibition organized on behalf of the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, with the cooperation of the Department of Art, Brown University and presented at the Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, October 12 through November 8, 1985 / by Rolf Winkes ; catalogue edited by Tony Hackens and Rolf Winkes
Pulled and pressed : contemporary prints and multiples : David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, September 12-October 25, 1987
Author:
David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University) Search this
Subject:
David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University) Search this
