Interview of Tony Vevers, conducted on August 25, 1998, by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Vevers speaks of being sent by his parents to the United States in 1940; secondary schooling in Madison, Connecticut and at the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut (1944); serving in the U.S. Army infantry in Europe, 1944-1946; attending Yale University on the GI Bill and graduating with a BA in painting and drawing, 1950; further art training in Florence, Italy and at the Hans Hofmann School, NYC (1950-1953); his marriage to Elspeth Halvorsen, fellow artist, 1953; his studies in Italy; the unexciting nature of contemporary Italian art; contemporary art in Paris, where Picasso impressed him but work of Hans Hartung and (Marie Elena) Vieira da Silva did not; studying with Hans Hofmann; working at the non-profit City Center Gallery, which was designed to give younger artists exposure through juried exhibitions; and living in poverty in NYC and Provincetown until 1963. Vevers also recalls Tom Blagden, Alfred Stieglitz, Deane Keller, Rudolph Zallinger, Claes Oldenburg, Stephen Pace, Lawrence Calcagno, Hans Hofmann, Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Levine, Franz Kline, Louise Nevelson, Max Weber, Richard Lippold, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Tony Vevers (1926-2008) was a painter from Provincetown, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 49 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.
The papers of painter and art historian Tony Vevers measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1947 to 2008, with the bulk of materials dating from 1960 to 1999. The collection concerns his career as a painter and teacher and his research and writings about the history of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Found within the papers are correspondence, writings, subject files, printed material, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and art historian Tony Vevers measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1947 to 2008, with the bulk of materials dating from 1960 to 1999. The collection concerns his career as a painter and teacher and his research and writings about the history of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Found within the papers are correspondence, writings, subject files, printed material, and photographs.
Among the biographical materials are résumés, a personal statement, the transcript of Tabitha Vevers's 1986 "Conversation with My Father," and applications for grants to study Provincetown artists and the history of the Provincetown art community from the 1920s to the 1950s. Personal and professional includes some letters to his wife Elspeth.
The collection as a whole—and especially Vevers's writings and subject files–focuses on the Provincetown art community, its history and significance. Vevers's writings include many lectures prepared for classes he taught at Purdue University and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, catalog essays, and notes. There are notes and research materials about artists Houghton Cranford Smith, E. Ambrose Webster, Edwin Dickinson, and Lucy and William L'Engle, and subject files about the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Long Point Gallery, and other galleries in the area, as well as a file of Provincetown-related obituaries and eulogies for Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, and Jack Tworkov, with Vevers's eulogies for Tworkov and Myron Stout.
Printed materials consist mainly of clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements relating to Vevers and his art interests. Artwork consists of a small print and watercolor, probably by Vevers, as well as a pen-and-ink portrait by an unidentified artist.
Photographs are mainly of artwork by Vevers. The two images of Vevers show him as a young boy and in 1984 at work in his studio. There are several photographs of exhibition installations at the Sun Gallery in Provincetown, 1958-1959, identified artists are: Yvonne Andersen, Dominic Falcone, Red Grooms, Taro and Gwen Yamamoto.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1962-2000 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1950s-2006 (Box 1; 0.1 linear foot)
Series 3: Writings, 1947-2008 (Boxes 1-2; 1.9 linear feet)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1954-2006 (Boxes 2-3; 0.7 linear foot)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1960s-2008 (Boxes 3-4; 0.7 linear foot)
Series 6: Artwork, circa 1950s-circa 2005 (Box 4; 2 folders)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1950s-1984 (Box 4; 0.1 linear foot)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and art historian, Tony Vevers (1926-2008) and his artist wife Elspeth Halvorsen (b. 1929) lived and worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts, as year-round or summer residents from 1955 to 2006. From 1964 to 1988, Vevers taught art and art history at Purdue University in Indiana. An active participant in the Provincetown art community, he was also an historian of the Provincetown art scene.
Vevers was born in London, England and immigrated to the United States in 1940, graduating from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut and Yale University. Following college he studied in Florence, Italy, and with Hans Hofmann in New York City, where he met his wife Elspeth Halvorsen. The couple had two daughters, one of whom, Tabitha is also an artist.
Vevers, active in the Abstract Expressionist movement, had several one-man exhibitions and participated in over one hundred group exhibitions. His works are in the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, the Delgardo Museum in New Orleans and many universities, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Tony Vevers died in Chatham, Massachusetts on March 2, 2008 following complications from pneumonia.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Arts are two oral history interviews with Tony Vevers, one conducted by Dorothy Seckler 1965 September 9, the second conducted by Robert F. Brown in 1998 July 9 and August 25.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2013 by Elspeth Halvorsen-Vevers the widow of Vevers.
Restrictions:
Use of original materials 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:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Tony Vevers, 1998 July 9-August 25. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
