An interview of John McCracken conducted 2010 Apr. 19 and Aug. 4, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art, at an undisclosed hotel and residence, in New York, N.Y.
Biographical / Historical:
John McCracken (1934-2011) is a contemporary artist in Santa Fe, N.M. Judith Olch Richards (1947- ) is former director of iCI in New York, N.Y.
General:
A video recording made by the David Zwirner Gallery at the interview sessions is also available researchers.
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.
Topic:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The Barbara Rose papers date from 1962 to circa 1969 and measure 1.4 linear feet. Papers include letters, writings, printed material, interviews with artists, panel discussions, and lectures relating to Barbara Rose's research as an art historian.
Scope and Contents:
The Barbara Rose papers date from 1962 to circa 1969 and measure 1.4 linear feet. Papers include letters, interviews with artists, panel discussions, lectures, writings, and printed material relating to Barbara Rose's work as an art historian and critic.
Letters consist of responses to queries and questionnaires Rose and Irving Sandler sent to contemporary artists as research for writing projects. Questionnaires were sesnt in preparation for an article in Art in America on artists' sensibility of the 1960s, with responses from Robert Motherwell, Robert Craig Kauffman, Len Lye, Robert Morris, George Segal, David Hare, and others. A separate query asked sculptors for their assessment of contemporary sculptor's needs and the potential for patronage, and responses are found from Carl Andre, Charles Frazier, Robert Murray, Anthony Padovano, Ron Bladen, Roy Lichtenstein, Len Lye, Sol LeWitt, Heinz Mack, Otto Peine, Dan Flavin, and Donald Judd.
Interviews conducted by Rose between 1965 and circa 1969 are found with Richard Bellamy, Leo Castelli, James E. Davis, Henry Geldzahler, Ivan Karp, Lee Krasner, John Lefebre, John Myers, Donald Judd with Frank Stella, and Tom Wesselmann. All interviews include original sound recordings, and the Judd and Stella, Krasner, and Myers interviews include transcripts. Panel discussions and lectures include sound recordings and transcripts of seven events on a variety of contemporary art and architecture subjects held between 1962 and 1968. Sound recordings are present for five of the events on 10 sound tape reels, and transcripts are present for all events. Participants in the panel discussions and lectures include Barbara Rose, Ronald Davis, Dan Flavin, Robert Kauffman, John Harvey McCracken, Friedel Dzubas, Ansel Adams, Arthur Bierman, Kenneth Rexroth, Edward Taylor, Ernst Karl Mundt, John Bowles, Roy Dean De Forest, Seymour Locks, Walter Hopps, Mark Di Suvero, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Kynaston McShine, Walter Darby Bannard, Donald Judd, Larry Poons, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Meier, Paul Rudolph, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Murray.
Writings include photocopied typescripts of "Myth, Symbol, or Me," by Emily Wasserman and "Excerpts from a Work Journal on Flying Sculpture," by Charles Frazier. Printed material consists of two copies of the premiere issue of the 57th Street Review, from Nov. 15, 1966.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Letters (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Interviews (0.6 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Panel Discussions and Lectures (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 4: Writings and Printed Material (0.1 linear feet; Box 2)
Biographical / Historical:
Barbara Rose is an American art historian and critic who has published widely in the field of modern American art. Born in 1938 in Washington, DC, Rose studied at the Sorbonne, Smith College, Barnard, and finally, Columbia University under Meyer Shapiro. Rose became immersed in the New York-based circle of modernist artists and curators in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and made her substantial contribution to the discourse on contemporary art with the insider's perspective this afforded her. In 1961, she married the painter Frank Stella and they had two children before their divorce in 1969.
Rose taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence, University of California at Irvine and San Diego, and the American University Art in Italy program, and was senior curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from 1981-1985. A prolific writer, Rose is the author of American Art Since 1900 (1967), The Golden Age of Dutch Painting (1969), American Painting: The 20th Century (Skira, 1969), and monographs on the artists Magdalena Abankawicz, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Alexander Liberman, Larry Rivers, and others, as well as dozens of exhibition catalog essays. She held editorial positions at Art in America, Vogue, Artforum, Partisan Review, and Journal of Art, and her writing has also appeared in Art International, Studio International, Arts Magazine, and ARTnews, among many others.
Related Materials:
Barbara Rose papers, 1940-1993 (bulk 1960-1985) are located at The Getty Research Institute Special Collections.
Separated Materials:
Additional papers of Barbara Rose are held by The Getty Research Institute.
Provenance:
Donated 1971-1977 by Barbara Rose.
Restrictions:
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:
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:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
McCracken : heroic stance, the sculpture of John McCracken, 1965-1986 / organized by P.S. 1, the Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc., Edward Leffingwell, curator ; essays by Anne Ayres ... [et al.]
Title:
Heroic stance, the sculpture of John McCracken, 1965-1986
The papers of artist Tony DeLap measure 1.4 linear feet and date from circa 1950 to 2015. The collection includes correspondence, writings, materials related to professional and teaching activities, printed material, a scrapbook, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist Tony DeLap measure 1.4 linear feet and date from circa 1950 to 2015. The collection includes correspondence, writings, materials related to professional and teaching activities, printed material, a scrapbook, and photographic material.
Correspondence includes greeting and holiday cards, postcards, and letters with family, friends, other artists, and museums and other arts institutions. Notable correspondents include Alan Solomon, Melinda Wortz, Marcia Hafif, Bruce Conner, John McCracken, Paul Darrow, Bruce Nauman, Craig Kauffman, Nell Stinton, Felix Landau, Wayne Thiebaud, and John McLaughlin.
Writings include autobiographical notes, DeLap's notes on art and magic, and notes and writings on John McLaughlin. Also included is a paper on DeLap's 1983 exhibition at Janus Gallery by Clare H. Rhinelander.
The professional activities series contains DeLap's resume and bibliography, as well as materials related to his teaching appointments and promotion, including letters of recommendation, course lists, and a graduate trip itinerary.
Printed Material includes exhibition materials including announcements, calendars, and catalogs; newsletters, newspapers, journals, and newspaper clippings. This series makes up the bulk of the collection.
One scrapbook in the collection contains clippings, exhibition announcements, posters, and catalogs, and award ribbons.
Photographic material includes slides of DeLap's work, as well as photographs of DeLap, his studio, exhibitions and installations, snapshots of family, friends, and travel.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in six series.
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1967-2015 (Box 1; 2 folders)
Series 2: Writings, circa 1960-2013 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 3: Professional Activities, circa 1964-1983, circa 2015 (Box 1; 2 folders)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1955-2015 (Boxes 1 and 2, OV 3, 0.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Scrapbook, 1955-1967 (Box 2, 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1950-2012 (Box 1, 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Tony DeLap is an artist and professor emeritus of art in Orange County, California. He is a pioneer of West Coast minimalism with a special interest in visual illusion including performed magic.
DeLap was born in 1927 in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. He studied art, illustration, and graphic design at colleges in the Bay Area and taught at institutions including the California College of Arts and at the University of California, Davis. In 1965 he was offered a position at the newly founded University of California, Irvine, where he taught until 1991.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with John McCracken, 2010 Apr. 19-Aug. 4. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
The records of the Nicholas Wilder Gallery of Los Angeles measure 2.4 linear feet and date from 1944 through 1984, with the bulk of materials dating from 1968-1979. Scattered documentation of the contemporary art gallery's fourteen years of operation include artists' inventory cards, photographic transparencies, letters and correspondence, invitations, notes, business and financial documents, and printed materials.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the Nicholas Wilder Gallery of Los Angeles measure 2.4 linear feet and date from 1944 through 1984, with the bulk of materials dating from 1968 to 1979. Scattered documentation of the contemporary art gallery's fourteen years of operation include artists' inventory cards (the bulk of the collection), photographic transparencies, letters and correspondence, invitations, notes, business and financial documents, and printed materials.
The majority of records date from the period after the gallery moved to La Cienega Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Very few records pertaining to specific exhibitions or openings are included in this collection. However, there is one exhibition catalog and scattered gallery invitations which were used as scrap paper. Other materials include business records that contain financial materials and notes. Printed Materials contain popular newspapers and magazines that reflect Wilder's interests, invitations to other galleries, auction catalogs, and business cards. Correspondence includes scattered gallery correspondence, Wilder's personal correspondence and documents, and holiday cards.
The bulk of the collection consists of artist files which include inventory cards and transparencies of works of art. Information on the inventory cards and transparencies may specify: date of creation, date of accession, potential collectors, purchase records, and titles. Notable artists include: Joe Goode, Tom Holland, Robert Graham, Billy Al Bengston, Cy Twombly, Ken Price, Ed Moses, Ron Davis, John McCracken, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Agnes Martin, Edward Avedisian, John Altoon, Richard Yokomi, Sam Francis, Bruce Nauman, Hans Hofmann, and David Hockney. The majority of inventory cards reflect business at the gallery in the mid-late 1970s.
Financial records originating from the James Corcoran Gallery are included in this collection. The relationship between the two establishments is unclear although it seems that the James Corcoran Gallery moved into the space previously occupied by the Nicholas Wilder Gallery.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Records, 1968-1978, 1980-1984, circa 1970s (Box 1; 5 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1974-1981, circa 1970s (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1976-1980, circa 1970s (Box 1; 9 folders)
Series 4: Artist Files, 1944-1984, circa 1960s-1970s (Box 1-3; 2 linear feet)
Historical Note:
In April 1965, Nicholas Wilder (1937-1989) founded his contemporary art gallery at 814 North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. His interest in art started at Amherst College where he worked for the art department as a slide technician. While in graduate school at Stanford University, he worked at the Lanyon Gallery in Palo Alto, California. An initial offer of financial backing to open a gallery inspired a move to Los Angeles. Although that offer fell through, Wilder remained determined. In late 1964, Wilder sold shares of his future gallery to friends in order to secure funds. He bought the shares back shortly after opening.
The Nicholas Wilder Gallery's first show featured Edward Avedisian. The gallery expanded and featured artists from New York and California, including: Joe Goode, John McCracken, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Cy Twombly, Ed Moses, Ken Price, Agnes Martin, John Altoon, Sam Francis, Billy Al Bengston, and Hans Hofmann. The gallery helped start the careers of American artists such as Robert Graham, Tom Holland, Ron Davis, and Bruce Nauman. In 1970, the gallery moved to 8225 ½ Santa Monica Boulevard. Through its fourteen years of operation, the gallery held a new show every month. Wilder's openings represented a large source of pride and he ensured that every opening reception included a stocked bar for his clients.
Initially, the gallery succeeded through Wilder's talents and passion for art. At its peak, the Nicholas Wilder Gallery sold two million dollars worth of art per year. However, in the mid-1970s a change in attitude within the art world affected sales. According to Wilder, many artists no longer painted for expression but as a viable business venture. Furthermore, he claimed that buyers would not risk collecting works from a younger or less well-known artist. In addition to these factors, Wilder attributed the decline of his gallery to his extravagance and lack of business sensibilities. Eventually, the gallery faced financial problems and Wilder recognized the need to leave the business.
The Nicholas Wilder Gallery closed on December 31, 1979. Wilder informed his employees that he would close a year in advance and ensured that all of his artists found a new gallery for representation. He moved to New York after leaving his gallery and became an artist. Nicholas Wilder passed away in 1989 from AIDS-related causes.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Nicholas Wilder conducted by Ruth Bowman on July 18, 1988.
Nicholas Wilder Gallery records, 1927-1980, are also located at the Getty Research Institute.
Provenance:
The Nicholas Wilder Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1998 by Matthew Curtis Klebaum, a friend of Wilder's and a former employee of the James Corcoran Gallery.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use 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.
Topic:
Art dealers -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
