An interview of Linda Nochlin conducted 2010 June 9-30, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art's Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project at Nochlin's home in New York, N.Y.
Nochlin speaks of her family background; growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; her antireligious and intellectual home environment; her childhood as "Eden"; the influence of her uncle, Robert Heller; in high school "hanging out" in museums in New York City; her studies at Vassar, Columbia University, and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; her early interest in and writings about Gustave Courbet; teaching at Vassar; the "homosexual matriarchy" at Vassar; feminism; her identity as a New Yorker; Pierre-Auguste Renoir as a painter of men; teaching the first "women in art" class; her article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists"; pre-women's liberation artists; how she has evolved as a writer; her taste in music, movies, and television; her research on Jean François Millet's, "The Gleaners"; how the discipline of art history has changed; her emphasis on "thinking, looking, explaining, and talking" about art and "new ways of looking at old material"; her students; her preference for the essay form; her current interest in the present moment; how research has changed with the availability of online resources; and other topics. She recalls Meyer Schapiro, Erwin Panofsky, Wendell Jones, Karl Lehmann, Aby Warburg, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Linda Nochlin (1931-) is a professor of art history in New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952-) is an artist, writer and educator in New York, N.Y.
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:
The transcript and audio recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Printed material, biographical material, correspondence, and photographs (ca. 1860-1920) documenting the Volkmar family's involvement in the development of the ceramics industry in northeastern America. The collection focuses on Charles Volkmar but the careers of Carl, Leon (1879-1959), and Charles Volkmar, Sr. (1809-1892) are also documented. Material on Charles Volkmar includes correspondence (1897-1915), notes and writings, clippings (1872-1913), articles, 2 sketchbooks, and prints and drawings. In the original 41-page typed draft of his reminiscences, Charles Volkmar writes of his flight to Europe at the outbreak of the civil war, the life of American artists in Paris, studying landscape painting under Henri Harpignies, the work of Jean-Francois Millet and Charles Emile Jacque, and his work painting pottery and tiles in France, after which he returned to the United States and went into the ceramics business. Leon Volkmar's correspondence (1901-1953) and printed materials discuss the business, artistic and family traditions of the ceramics industry. Photographs depict Leon, his family, the Volkmar Pottery and the tiles and ceramics they produced. Carl Volkmar's family papers, documents (1827-1838) and a notebook are all in German.
Biographical / Historical:
Ceramist, painter. Born in Baltimore, Charles Volkmar received his early art training at the Maryland Institute. He moved to Paris, where he studied landscape painting with Henri Harpignies in the 1860's. His paintings were exhibited in the Paris salons of the 1870's. He studied pottery painting and tile making in France, working as an apprentice at the Haviland factory. Returning to the United States, Charles built a kiln at Greenpoint, Long Island, in 1879 where he produced tiles and vases. He was the first potter to use underglaze slip painting in the United States. His son, Leon, was an accomplished potter and formed a partnership with his father. When the kiln was moved to Metuchen, New Jersey, the name was changed to Charles Volkmar and Son. In 1911 the partnership dissolved and Leon moved to Bedford, New York; established Durant kilns and devoted much time to glaze experimentation.
Provenance:
Papers were lent by Susan Volkmar, the wife of Peter Volkmar, great-grandson of Charles Volkmar.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Researcher may use study prints on file in the Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Advance appointments are required. Original negatives are stored off-site in cold storage and are not accessible to the public.
Collection Rights:
Copyright to photographs from the Walter Rosenblum Collection is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Requests for permission to reproduce photographs from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Photograph Archives. Certain works of art, as well as photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy or publicity rights, or other interests not owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It is the applicant's responsibility to ascertain whether any such rights exist, and to obtain any other permission necessary to reproduce and publish the image.
Collection Citation:
Walter Rosenblum Collection, Photograph Archives, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Sponsor:
Funding for the re-housing, preservation, and digitization of the collection was provided by Smithsonian Research Resource funds, the Smithsonian Womens' Committee and the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Nouveau manuel-pratique de daguerréotypie et de photographie : ou, résumé simplifié des principales méthodes, pour opérer sur papier, verre, toile, cuivre, bois, plaque d'argent. [Microform] / par MM. Millett
Nouveaux éléments de photographie : nouvelle méthode de photographie sur papier, sur verre et sur plaque métallique, ou l'art de l'apprendre soi-même sans maitre. [Microform] / par Millet
