An interview with Dennis Adrian conducted 2015 October 8-9, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Adrian's home in Seaside, Oregon.
Adrian speaks of growing up in Astoria; traveling to Chicago and New York; Cannon Beach; aging and getting older; his origins; curators and curating; visual sensibilities; the Portland Public Library; opera; his parents, grandparents, and family; Finnish sensibility and humor; Portland Art Museum and classes for children; curator as voyeur; credit and accomplishments; hands on experiences; Artforum; art history; attending University of Chicago; homosexuality and coming out; looted European masterworks; Botticelli; exposure to real art; connoisseurship; collectors and collecting; a Robert Louis Stevenson letter; violin making; growing into yourself; Chicago; war; New York University; Frumkin Gallery; New York; the art world; Madison Art Center; Akron Art Museum; friendship and role models; Art Institute of Chicago; meeting Mies van der Rohe; meeting idols; education; Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Monster Roster; traveling; Chicago art politics; writing and critics; Eurocentric curators; Chicago as an undervalued city; Dog Day Afternoon; discovering art; New York sightings; and experiences running into artists. Adrian also recalls Roger Brown, Ruth Horwich, Gilda Buchbinder, Don Baum, Sherman Lee, Victor Carlson, Peter Voulkos, Lawrence Alloway, Rhona Hoffman, Allan Frumkin, June Leaf, Leon Golub, Jeremy Anderson, Robert Barnes, Tom Garver, Bruce Conner, Natasha Nicholson, H. C. Westermann, Franz Schulze, Bertha Harris Wiles, Muriel Newman, Aaron James Spire, Lillian Florsheim, John Maxon, Greg Knight, P.B. Maryan, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Sleigh, Nancy Spero, Irving Petlin, John Coplans, Alan Artner, Alice Shaddle, Phyllis Kind, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Tilda Swinton, Leo Castelli, Philip Guston, Dubuffet, Pussy Pepke, Bumpy Rogers, Barbara Rossi, Christina Ramberg, Philip Hanson, Miyoko Ito, Mark Jackson, Rolf Achilles, and Vito Acconci.
Biographical / Historical:
Dennis Adrian (1937- ) is an art critic, educator, and curator in Chicago, Illinois. Lanny Silverman (1947- ) is a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Search this
The papers of Wally Goodman and William Stanton Picher measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1940-1982. Included are correspondence, printed material, subject file concerning Christo's "Running Fence" project, business records, art works, notes, and photographs.
Correspondence (1966-1981) concerns Goodman's and Picher's collecting activities and friendships with artists, including letters from Fred Martin, Nathan Oliveira, Joseph Raffael, Mel Ramos, and William T. Wiley and a greeting card decorated with an Oliveira print (1940). The "Running Fence" file contains correspondence, including 2 letters from Christo, summaries of the project, receipts, clippings, and photographs.
Business records include loan requests from museums (1966-1981), bills of sale (1950-1982), insurance and appraisal lists of works and their values (1967-1981), conservation reports (1970-1976), and files concerning the "Mexican Masters Suite", Christo print documentation (1970-1972), and appraisers Butterfield and Butterfield (1979-1981).
Original art work includes rubber stamp designs by Phil Pasquini, a booklet made by Lout Sue, an illustrated booklet by William T. Wiley (1975) and 2 collages by Harold Paris (1976). Among the printed material are reproductions of works collected, clippings (1966-1981), and exhibition catalogs (1967-1981). Photographs are of the wedding of Tom Garver and Natasha Nicholson at Goodman and Picher's home.
Also included are records documenting Goodman's and Picher's Asian Collection, consisting of a few letters (1964-1971), bills of sale (1948-1978), receipts and photographs of works, loan forms (1969-1979), 2 appraisal forms (1971), "non-American" receipts, miscellaneous financial material, and notes (1946-1971), clippings (1969-1979), and photographs and slides of works.
Biographical / Historical:
Wally Goodman (1922-2008) and William Stanton Picher were art collectors in San Francisco, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the papers of Patrick Duffy and Wally Goodman.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Wally Goodman.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
