An interview of Jackie Ferrara conducted 2009 January 16-February 13, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's U.S. General Services Administration, Design Excellence and the Arts oral history project, at the Ferrara's home, in New York, New York.
Ferrara speaks of growing up in Detroit, Michigan; her early interest in mathematics and its ever present role in her work; attending Michigan State University for one year; taking fashion drawing classes at Wayne State University and her supposed lack of drawing skills; an early interest in pottery and leather making; moving to New York City in 1951 on a night train from Detroit; working at the Henry Street Playhouse and its influential role on her art; her relationship with Robert Beauchamp and her friendship with many artists in Provincetown, Massachusetts; early works, including the cotton batting works and the rope works, most of which were destroyed; her dislike of traveling and her use of imagination for inspiration; participating in the performances and happenings of Claes Oldenburg; her friendship with Robert Smithson and his influence on her later works; working with Max Protetch; never teaching art because she herself did not attend art school; her creation process of her wood and stone pieces, including their conception in early drawings; having a positive attitude towards her pieces being rebuilt because of decay; quickly moving into public art in the late 1970s, early 1980s; living and working in the same loft in New York for over 40 years; the helpful role the women's movement played in her successful career though she did not participate; receiving art grants to enable her to work for a year or two without having to find an odd job to support herself; various public art projects around the country, how they came to be, creating the works and their significance to her. Ferrara also recalls Charlotte Tokayer, Don Ferrara, Alvin Nikolai, Richard Bellamy, Mary and Paul Frank, Miles and Barbara Forst, Sally Gross, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Nat Halprin, Lucas Samara, Letty Lou Eisenhauer, James Rosenquist, Marcia Marcus, Charles Addams, Eva Hesse, Frank Gallo, Tony DeLap, Dorothea Rockburne, Time Doyle, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Nancy Graves, Marty Greenbaum, Abe Sachs, Mel Bochner, Jan Groover, Alice Aycock, Alice Adams, Jackie Windsor, Scott Burton, Siah Armajani, Michelle Stuart, Lucy Lippard, Zaha Hadid, Max Hutcinson, Andrea Blum, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jackie Ferrara (1929- ) is a sculptor. Ferrara works with the built environment in her designs for courtyards and architectural structures.
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:
Audio: ACCESS RESTRICTED; Use requires written permission.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Draftsmen (artists) -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Donald Saff papers and Saff Tech Arts records measures 31.8 linear feet, and 9.82 Gigabytes, and dates from circa 1710, 1800-2013, bulk 1965-2010. Donald Saff's papers document his career as an artist, and contain professional records prior to the founding of Saff Tech Arts, including his tenure at University of South Florida and Graphicstudio. Also included are records and correspondence documenting consulting and other collaboration outside of Saff Tech Arts. The series includes biographical material, correspondence, professional records, writings, exhibition files, printed material, and artwork. Saff Tech Arts (later Saff & Co.) records includes correspondence, founding documents including funding, fabrication and supplies information, artist files documenting working relationships ranging from potential collaboration, to long-term fabrication and representation, regular business relationships such as Knoedler & Co., and legal and insurance information including leases and worksite assessments. The series includes correspondence, artist files, business records, and printed material including clippings and subject files. Some materials are in digital formats.
Scope and Contents:
Donald Saff papers and Saff Tech Arts records measures 31.8 linear feet, and 9.82 Gigabytes, and dates from circa 1710, 1800-2013, bulk 1965-2010.
Donald Saff's papers document his career as an artist, and contain professional records prior to the founding of Saff Tech Arts, including his tenure at University of South Florida and Graphicstudio. Also included are records and correspondence documenting consulting and other collaboration outside of Saff Tech Arts. Biographical material includes printed resumes as well as a biographical scrapbook with a hand-written letter in Italian dated 1710 and a biographical listing from "Who's Who in American Art." Correspondence is largely professional with some personal correspondence including letters with other artists. Listed chronologically, followed by an alphabetical run, this correspondence represents Saff's activities while affiliated with the University of Southern Florida and Graphicstudio. Also included are letters of reference for former students, studio assistants, and other colleagues, as well as regarding Saff's own job searches. The professional records subseries encompasses Saff's career as an artist including information on various bodies of artwork particularly in printmaking. This series focuses on Saff's professional career before Saff Tech Arts including Graphicstudio, as well as professional work after the height of Saff Tech Arts including consulting and curatorial work for the Guggenheim Museum and the status of Saff's registered patents. The writings subseries includes correspondence and manuscript material regarding Saff's 1978 book Printmaking co-authored with Deli Sacilotto, as well as follow-up and writings submitted for a possible update and reprint in the mid-1990s. Also included are published articles on the collaboration process. The exhibition subseries includes Saff's solo and group shows as an artist, as well as shows focusing on him as a fabricator and collaborator including the unrealized Joint Venture: Donald Saff and the Art of Collaboration, which was scheduled to open in Fall of 2009 at the Brooklyn Museum. The printed material subseries contains printed material related to Donald Saff's life and career before and following Saff Tech Arts, focusing on him as an educator and artist and founder of Graphicstudio, and the legacy of the art collection Saff assembled. The artwork subseries includes various sketches and notes by Donald Saff, as well as a test print made for wither Saff or another artist.
Saff Tech Arts (later Saff & Co.) records includes correspondence, founding documents including funding, fabrication and supplies information, artist files documenting working relationships ranging from potential collaboration, to long-term fabrication and representation, regular business relationships such as Knoedler & Co., and legal and insurance information including leases and worksite assessments, and printed material including clippings and subject files. Correspondents are usually clients including collectors and galleries. Artist files document a range of interest and working relationships ranging from potential collaboration, to long-term fabrication partnerships including representation. Regular collaborators included Nancy Graves, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, James Turrell, and James Rosenquist. Materials include printed material, fabrication information, sales and consignments, exhibition planning, shipping documents, and damage and restoration documentation. Business records include inventory, sales and consignments including multiple artists, regular business relationships including Knoedler & Co., appointment books, fabrication schedules, employee timesheets, and legal and insurance documents including claims, disputes and leasing information, as well as the pursuit of trademarks on production techniques. Some materials are in digital formats.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as two series:
Series 1: Donald Saff Papers, circa 1710-2010 (9.6 Linear feet: Boxes 1-10, 33)
Series 2: Saff Tech Arts Records, circa 1970-2013 (22.2 Linear feet: Boxes 10-32, 34)
Biographical / Historical:
Donald Jay Saff, born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937, is an artist, art historian, and fabricator in Oxford, Maryland known for close collaboration with leading American artists on the fabrication of technically complex artworks. He was exposed to printmaking while an undergraduate at Queens College in 1959, where he earned a B.F.A., followed by a master's degree in art history from Columbia University in 1960, and a M.F.A from Pratt Institute in 1962, and an Ed.D. in studio art and art history from Columbia University in 1964. In 1964 Saff was awarded a Fulbright grant which allowed him to study and work in Urbino, Italy. As an artist Saff created work and exhibited regularly throughout the 1980s. Donald Saff married Ruth Saff in 1960 and they have two sons, Stephen and Jeffery Saff.
Donald Saff was the founder of Graphicstudio in 1968 at the University of South Florida, where he was also chairman of the visual arts department. The studio became known for innovating new printing processes, including helio relief and waxtype. In 1971, Saff became the founding dean of the College of Fine Arts and was awarded the rank of distinguished professor at the university in 1982. In 1986, the National Gallery in Washington announced it would create an archive for all the work of Graphicstudio, a great tribute to Saff's accomplishment. Saff worked with a number of notable artists at Graphicstudio, creating collaborative bonds that would lay the ground for working together on his next venture. In 1991 Saff established his studio Saff Tech Arts (later Saff and Company) in Oxford, Maryland, partially thanks to a loan from key collaborator Robert Rauschenberg. During the early years of Saff Tech Arts Donald Saff also served as a gallery director to Knoedler and Co., which hosted exhibitions for many Saff Tech Arts collaborations. Other frequent collaborators include Nancy Graves, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and James Turrell.
Saff was later named Dean emeritus by University of South Florida in 1989, and distinguished professor emeritus in 1996. In 1999, Saff was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts. As work at Saff Tech Arts slowed down Donald Saff became open to other opportunities in the arts, including a stint as Director of Capital Projects of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, in 2001, followed by the appointment to Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings in 2002.
Provenance:
Donated in 2022 by Donald Saff.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Nancy Stevenson Graves, 1972 Aug. 18-25. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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:
Authorizatin to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Lenore Seroka. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Photographers -- New York (State) -- Great Neck Search this
An interview of William Morris conducted 2009 July 13-14, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Morris' home, in Stanwood, Washington.
William Morris (1957- ) is a glass artist in Stanwood, Washington.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 5 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.
An interview of Nancy Stevenson Graves conducted 1972 Aug. 18-25, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Nancy Stevenson Graves (1940-1995) was a painter and sculptor from New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' 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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Susan Rothenberg conducted 1987 May 22-1987 June 2, by Cynthia Nadelman, for the Archives of American Art.
Rothenberg speaks of her early life; her art training, starting out as a sculpture student in college; her arrival in New York, the art scene there in the 1960s and the 1970s; experimental painting techniques; the development of her "Horses" and "Mondrian" series. She recalls Joan Jonas, Alan Saret, George Trakas, Nancy Graves, and Miani Johnson.
Biographical / Historical:
Susan Rothenberg (1945-2020) was a figurative painter in New York, N.Y. and Galisteo, N.M.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 10 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' 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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
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.
Woman's Building (Los Angeles, Calif.) Search this
Type:
Artworks
Date:
between 1976 and 1977
Citation:
Nancy Stevenson Graves. Nancy Graves response to "What is Feminist Art?", between 1976 and 1977. Woman's Building records, 1970-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Nancy Stevenson Graves and Joan French Seeman. Interview with Nancy Graves, 1979 June 6. Joan Seeman papers, 1973-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Reconnecting : recent work by Jennifer Bartlett, Mel Bochner, Nancy Graves, Patrick Ireland, Lucio Pozzi : the Detroit Institute of Arts, June 12-September 27, 1987 / [catalog authors, Jan van der Marck and MaryAnn Wilkinson]
