An interview of Boris Bally conducted 2009 May 26-27, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Bally's home and studio, in Providence, Rhode Island.
The artists speaks of his current studio in Providence, Rhode Island; working without a studio assistant; the benefits of working with studio assistants without an art-school background; apprenticing with Swiss metalsmith Alexander Schaffner when Bally was 19; his own de facto apprenticeship program with his studio assistants; his parents as role models; his vision at age 19 for his career plan; his early interest in CAD; growing up with Swiss-born parents, both with art/design backgrounds; visiting Switzerland as a child; his father's studies with Buckminster Fuller in the late 1950s; his mother's class with L. Brent Kington, whom Bally later studied with; growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; his first home metal shop at nine years old; his first formal metal class at about 14 years old; making and selling jewelry throughout his teens; informal apprenticeship with Jeff Whisner; his father's design firm, launched in his last year of high school; summer studying at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts; year-long apprenticeship in Switzerland; watching Schaffner make and sell a wide variety of objects, which later informed Bally's own perspective; his continuing relationship with Schaffner; undergraduate studies at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; studying with Daniella Kerner and Vickie Sedman at Tyler; transferring to Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to study with Carol Kumata; making a "happiness machine"; transition from jewelry to larger sculptures; using found and scavenged materials; meeting Rosemary Gialamas (Roy) and their eventual elopement; moving to the Boston area; work as an industrial design model-maker; the New York art scene of the 1980s; representation with Archetype Gallery, New York, New York; slow but steady artistic recognition and commercial success of his functional objects; Sliding Perfections, flatware; teaching Gialamas metalsmithing and collaborative works by the two; early teaching experience in adult education classes in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; return to Pittsburgh in 1989, where Bally took a teaching position at Carnegie Mellon in the design department; studio on Bigelow Boulevard; difficulties in his marriage; a commission from the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts, and the beginnings of his traffic sign pieces in a collaborative piece with Gialamas; starting his platters series; the dissolution of his marriage to Gialamas in 1993; meeting Lynn, whom he later married; his love of teaching and his teaching philosophy; teaching at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina; move to Providence, Rhode Island, to devote his time to studio work; the pros and cons of craft and arts schools versus university settings; the intersection of art, design, and industry: his Humanufactured line of products; functional work in the late '80s, and the influence of a trip to Haiti in the 1980s; bottle cork pieces; Trirod vessels; "More than One: Contemporary Studio Production" exhibition, American Craft Museum, New York, New York, 1992-94; philosophy of making; working in series form; truss pieces; perforation pieces and Vessel with a Silver Heart (1993); armform series; "Jewelries, Epiphanies" exhibition, Artists Foundation Gallery at Cityplace, Boston, Massachusetts, 1990; inclusion in One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today, by Susan Grant Lewin. (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1994); series Dig Wear and Eat Wear bracelets; Calimbo vessel and the Fortunoff prize; gold Tread Wear brooches in the mid-1990s; creating his first chair; moving from hand-made solo work to furniture and a design and production focus; starting to patent his designs in the mid-1990s; further exploration of design and technique in his chairs; "GlassWear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry," Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York, 2009; Pistol Chalice and work with the Pittsburgh gun buyback program; traveling exhibition for the project; Gun Totem; Brave necklace; BroadWay armchair; Subway chair; new techniques for graphics on the furniture; his relationship with former scrapyard Paul Warhola, brother to Andy Warhol; commission work, and the importance of commerce in his career and worldview; commission for Comedy Central television network; the changing craft market and the boom times of the 1980s; work with galleries, including: Patina, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco, California; Snyderman-Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Nancy Sachs Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri; the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts; seeing one of his pieces used on a set for a daytime television soap opera and in the movie Sex and the City ; the recent "green" (environmentally conscious) trend; blurring boundaries of design and art and craft; growing acceptance of artist-made and -designed multiples; pros and cons of computer technology in art and craft; the pros and cons of the DIY (do-it-yourself) craft movement; influential writers, including Rosanne Raab, Marjorie Simon, Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov, Bruce Metcalf, Toni Greenbaum, Matthew Kangas, Gail Brown; his involvement in the Society of North American Goldsmiths; making metal benches for his children. He also recalls Heather Guidero, Julian Jetten, Pam Moloughney, Dennis Kowal, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, Bob Ebendorf, Jason Spencer, Rob Brandegee and Ava DeMarco, Stefan Gougherty, Flo Delgado, L. Brent Kington, Curtis Aric, Ralph Düby, Steve Korpa, Joe Wood, Joe Ballay, Yves Thomann, Andy Caderas, James Thurman, Nicholas (Nico) Bally, Elena Gialamas, James Gialamas, Elvira Peake, Ronald McNeish, Johanna Dahm, Jerry Bennet, Kathleen Mulcahy, Nelson Maniscalco, Tom Mann, Otto Künzli, Stanley Lechtzin, Christopher Shellhammer, David Tisdale, Dean Powell, Daniel Carner, Donald Brecker, Robert Schroeder Phil Carrizzi, Lucy Stewart, Elisabeth Agro, Rachel Layton, Sarah Nichols, Peter Nassoit, Dan Niebels, Mary Carothers, Ward Wallau, Ivan Barnett and Alison Buchsbaum, Jonathan Bonner, Raymond and Patsy Nasher, Beth Gerstein, George Summers Jr., Pavel Opocensky, Buddy Cianci, David Cicilline.
Biographical / Historical:
Boris Bally (1961- ) is a metalsmith and designer who lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. Bally was educated at Carnegie Mellon University and Tyler School of Art.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 11 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 56 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.
Glen Luken letters to Roy Walker measure 0.4 linear feet and date from circa 1930- 1945. Included are approximately 150 letters from ceramic artist Glen Lukens to Roy Walker. The letters were written during the time that Lukens became head of the art department at University of Southern California in 1936. They also document Lukens' travels to Mexico and to Haiti, where he established a ceramics center, and his ideas on teaching, materials, exhibitions, sales, race relations, and other topics.
Biographical / Historical:
Roy Walker (1910-2006) was a ceramic artist in California and a student of Glen Lukens.
Provenance:
Donated in 2016 and 2020 by Diane Gunter, Roy Walker's niece.
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.
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.
The papers of painter Richard W. Dempsey measure 2.9 linear feet and date from 1929 to 1989, with the bulk of the papers dating from the 1960s to the 1980s. The papers contain biographcial material, correspondence, writings, project and exhibition files, printed material, photographs, and artwork and notes related to planning artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter Richard W. Dempsey measure 2.9 linear feet and date from 1929 to 1989, with the bulk of the papers dating from the 1960s to the 1980s. The papers contain biographical material, correspondence, writings, project and exhibition files, printed material, photographs, and artwork and notes related to planning artwork.
Biographical material consists of employment records; resumes, chronologies, and biographies; and compiled personal papers that may have once been part of scrapbooks. These materials are not bound, but have remained together and in the order in which they were received. This series also includes a folder of material related to Dempsey's wife, Vonja Kirkland Brooks.
Correspondence includes letters both sent, and received by the artist, primarily concerning the exhibition of Dempsey's paintings at the Franz Bader Gallery, the Atlanta University Gallery, Howard University, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the U.S. Embassies in Colombia and Jamaica, and with the Art in Embassies Program. Notable correspondents include Jack Perlmutter, Ethel Waters, and Jacob Lawrence. Personal and professional correspondence are intermingled throughout.
Writings include notes and drafts of lectures and other course materials, as well as excerpts and quotes from reviews of exhibitions of Dempsey's work. These excerpts, usually titled "comments," are frequently copied out by hand. Also included in this series are two folders of poetry.
Project and exhibition files include photographs; correspondence; lists; sketches and other plans; and printed material including clippings and exhibition announcements. Materials related to his Rosenwald Fellowship, his participation in the Art in Embassies program, his many exhibitions at Franz Bader Gallery, and his international exhibitions in Colombia and Jamaica are featured. Some files in this series may only include photographs or sketches.
Photographs are primarily of Dempsey's work and of exhibitions. There are some of the artist and of his Takoma Park, MD home and studio (designed by Harry Ormston of McLean, VA and occasionally featured in architecture articles).
Artwork is primarily composed of sketches, often with detailed planning notes for the completion of paintings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as seven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1930-1987 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1938-1985, undated (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1981, undated (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 4: Project and Exhibition Files, 1929-1986 (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1930s-1989, undated (Boxes 2-3; 0.4 linear feet, OV 5)
Series 6: Photographic Material, 1932-1981, undated (Boxes 3-4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, 1965-1981, undated, (Box 4; 5 folders, OV 5)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard W. Dempsey (1909-1987) was a painter known primarily for his abstract works and his portraits of prominent African American individuals including Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, and Adam Clayton Powell. He was born in Ogden, Utah, but spent the majority of his youth in Oakland, California. He studied art at Sacramento Junior College, the California School of Arts and Crafts, and the Student Arts Center. Dempsey had four exhibitions in California before moving to Washington, D.C. to begin work as an engineering draftsman with the Federal Power Commission in 1941. He later transferred to a position as an illustrator with the General Services Administration (GSA), where he would spend the rest of his nearly 30-year government career.
In addition to his work with the GSA, Dempsey participated in the Art in Embassies program for decades, and his work was chosen by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell to hang in the Education Labor Committee rooms.
Dempsey was awarded a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1946 to paint 100 portriats of "Outstanding American Negros." He taught art courses at the Corcoran School of Art and at Glen Echo and received invitations to exhibit around the world in places like Haiti, Colombia, and Jamaica. He exhibited frequently in the U.S., most often with Franz Bader Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 4368) including a photograph album chronicling Dempsey's 1951 trip to Haiti and other photographic material. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Richard Dempsey papers were initially lent for microfilming in 1990 by Vonja Kirkland Dempsey, Richard Dempsey's widow. After the collection was microfilmed, Vonja Kirkland Dempsey donated the bulk of the collection, excluding some photographic material, in 1990.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
5 Microfilm reels (27 volumes on 5 microfilm reels)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Scrapbooks
Place:
Africa, French-speaking West -- Description and Travel
Date:
1922-1992
Scope and Contents:
This microfilm collection contains Lois Mailou Jones' scrapbooks documenting her career as an African American artist and educator. Scrapbooks contain correspondence (1928-1992) primarily regarding Jones' exhibitions, Howard University, and her art education in Paris, and include a letter and photograph from Emile Bernard; photographs of Jones in her Washington, D.C. and Paris studios, her work, and her extensive travels through Africa and Haiti; and printed material including exhibition announcements, catalogs, and clippings (1922-1992) of reviews, interviews, and articles on the European and African influences in her work. Also included are her resume, materials submitted for the Rosenwald Fellowship, and notes related to her coordination of the 1974 exhibition Paintings by Women Artists of the Caribbean and Afro-American Women Artists.
Biographical / Historical:
Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) was an African American painter, designer, and educator in Washington, DC. Jones studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and at the Academie Julian in Paris. She was professor of design and watercolor at Howard University from 1930-1977. She married Haitian graphic designer Vergniaud Pierre-Noel in 1953 and the couple frequently returned to Haiti. In 1970 she served as cultural ambassador to Africa for the United States Information Agency.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by Lois Mailou Jones, 1990 and 1992.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of painter and printmaker Eldzier Cortor measure 3.1 linear feet and date from circa 1930s to 2015, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1972 to 2015. The papers contain biographical material, correspondence, professional files, exhibition and gallery files, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter and printmaker Eldzier Cortor measure 3.1 linear feet and date from circa 1930s to 2015, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1972 to 2015. The papers contain biographical material, correspondence, professional files, exhibition and gallery files, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of awards certificates; Cortor's artist biography; an obituary and prayer cards for his father in law; an address book; and a Christmas list.
Correspondence includes letters from Cortor's family; correspondence with or about individuals or organizations; and general correspondence. Individuals included in the general correspondence are Acklyn Lynch, Leontine Collier, Violetta Harrigan, Halima Taha, David C. Driskell, Carol Anderson, and Betye Saar. Art institutions represented in this series include Sylvan Cole Gallery, Anderson Gallery, and Kenkeleba House.
Professional files include materials related to the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts; publishing; materials related to fake Cortor works; the Public School Mural Project; teaching files; lists of possible titles for paintings; financial documents; materials related to painting and etching plates for storage; and notes of museum and gallery contacts.
Exhibition and gallery files include correspondence; contracts and agreements; exhibition announcements; inventories; other exhibition materials; clippings; press releases; photographs and photocopied images of artwork; and photographs of exhibitions.
Writings consist primarily of essays and articles about Eldzier Cortor. Also included are his answers to a questionnaire about art, a diary, and notes, as well as hand-copied excerpts of reviews.
Printed material includes exhibition announcements, exhibition catalogs, newsletters, clippings, research and source material, and books.
Artwork includes ink and watercolor sketches from Cortor's time as a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. This series also includes additional sketches, sketchbooks, and a collage by K. Carracio.
Photographs depict Cortor, other individuals, his artwork, and exhibitions. There are also photographs from his time in Cuba and Haiti (circa 1950s).
Arrangement:
The Eldzier Cortor papers are organized into 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1947-2012 (Box 1; 5 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1970-2015 (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 3: Professional Files, 1960, 1972-2015 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet, OV 4)
Series 4: Exhibition and Gallery Files, 1972-2015 (Boxes 1-2; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Writings, circa 1970s-2006 (Box 2; 8 folders)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1940-1976, 1996-2015 (Boxes 2-3; 0.8 linear feet, OV 4)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1930s, circa 1970s-circa 1990s (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1939-2002, 2014 (Box 3; 0.5 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Eldzier Cortor (1916-2015) spent his professional career as a painter and printmaker in Chicago and New York. He was born in Richmond Virginia to John and Ophelia Cortor. In 1917, the family moved to Chicago along with countless other African Americans as part of the Great Migration.
In 1936, Cortor began taking evening classes at the Art Institute of Chicago prior to enrolling full time. Kathleen Blackshear, an instructor at the Institute, recommended Cortor for employment at the Works Projects Administration in 1940. It was under Blackshear's guidance that Cortor was introduced to African Art. The depiction of African Americans became the defining subject of Cortor's career, specifically the portrayal of the African American woman, which he commonly represented nude in paintings and prints.
In 1941, with funding by the Works Projects Administration, Cortor helped found the South Side Community Arts Center in Chicago. Over the next few years he would receive two Rosenwald Fellowships, which allowed him to travel to the Sea Islands of Georgia. Afterward, Cortor moved to New York, and in 1946 Life magazine published his work Southern Gate. In 1949 he received a Guggenheim fellowship, which provided the opportunity to travel to Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti. He settled in Port-au-Prince, where he taught for two years.
Cortor married Sophia Schmidt on August 20, 1951, and they subsequently had four children: Michael, Mercedes, Stephen, and Miriam. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Studio Museum of Harlem, and the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston. Notable exhibitions include Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, and Archibald John Motley, Jr. at Kenkeleba House in 1988; Southern Gate: African American Paintings from the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution at Duke University Museum of Art, 1999; Eldzier Cortor: Master Printmaker at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, 2002; and Black Spirit: Works on Paper by Eldzier Cortor at the Indiana Art Museum, 2006.
Eldzier Cortor died in November of 2015, at the age of 99.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of materials lent for microfilming on reel N70-47, including biographical material, correspondence, printed material, papers related to exhibitions, photographs, and sketchbooks. Except for three photographs that appear in this collection (Box 3, Folder 19), loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Eldzier Cortor loaned materials to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1970 and donated papers in 2009. His son, Michael Cortor, gave additional materials in 2016.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
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.
Photographs made by Hamilton Wright Jr. in Egypt, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Hong Kong, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, Canada, Alaska, Colorado, and New Hampshire. They include images of modern and ancient structures and monuments, artifacts, industries, cities, markets, caves, festivals, beaches, scenery, and sporting events. Most appear to have been made for the Hamilton Wright Organization, an international agency that made films and photographs to support public relations campaigns of foreign governments. Also included are some lantern slides depicting historical sites in Egypt, directed by Hamilton Wright, Sr., and one-sheets for motion picture films produced by the Hamilton Wright Organization. Additional material includes slide narration for a lecture and short news stories relating to the images in the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
In 1908, Hamilton Wright Sr. founded the Hamilton Wright Organization, a public relations firm that specialized in making travelog and newsreel film and distributing it to motion picture houses around the world, often on behalf of domestic and foreign governments. Wright's son, Hamilton Wright Jr., managed the company after his father and expanded it's work. In 1963, a Senate committee criticized the Hamilton Wright Organization for hosting press junkets and distributing its photographs, newsreels, and stories in American news media without reporting its sources. The Hamilton Wright Organization was closed by Hamilton Wright Jr.'s son in the late 1960s.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 76-35
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Films by the Hamilton Wright Organization can be found in the Human Studies Film Archive in HSFA 94.19.
The Film and Television Archive at the University of California at Los Angeles holds the motion picture film and related material of the Hamilton Wright Organization.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Boris Bally, 2009 May 26-27. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
