Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Josephine Marie Caruso Castano relating to Giovanni (John) Castano, 1991 May 17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard E. Filipowski, 1989 Sept. 25-1990 Mar. 14. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Designers -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Filmmakers -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- United States Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Dimitri Hadzi, 1981 Jan. 2-1990 Mar. 9. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- United States -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Walker Hancock, 1977 July 22-August 15. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Gloucester -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard Stankiewicz, 1963. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Peter Hutchinson, 1967 July 27. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Michael Mazur, 1993 Jan. 12-1995 Feb. 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Prints -- Technique -- Study and teaching Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ralph Rosenthal, 1997 February 10-April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Ceramicists -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Sue M. Thurman, 1993 April 23-1998 March 11. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Arts administrators -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Museum directors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Harold Tovish, 1974 February 7-1977 March 17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Harold Tovish, 1997 November 13-1998 April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
School of Industrial Design (Trenton, N.J.) Search this
University of California, Berkeley. Department of Art Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Merry Renk, 2001 January 18-19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Tommy Simpson, 2004 May 6-July 2. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Tom Patti, 2010 January 18-19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Roy Superior, 2010 June 29-30. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Candice Groot, 2014 November 4-6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with George Condo, 2017 May 5-June 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of John Woodrow Wilson conducted 1993 March-1994 August, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Wilson discusses his childhood as a member of a family of middle class Black people from British Guiana (now Guyana); his father's grave disappointments in the face of racial discrimination; his parents' push for their children to succeed; early urge to read and draw; encouragement by School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston students who taught at the Roxbury Boys Club; his secondary education; and friends.
He talks about his education at the MFA School, Boston, and comments on such teachers as Ture Bengtz and Karl Zerbe and compares their exacting methods with those of Fernand Leger, his teacher in Paris.
His work of the 1940s prior to going to Paris; the importance of early awards and sales received while still a student at the MFA School; the excitement of sharing a studio with fellow students, Francesco Carbone and Leo Prince; and encouragement to stay in school during WW II with the promise of a European study fellowship after the war.
The great impact of his years in Paris (1948-49); the lack of racial prejudice; the liberating effect of Leger's teaching; his awe of the work of Masaccio and Piero della Francesca during a trip to Italy; and the deep impression made on him by seeing tribal art in the Musee de l'Homme, Paris.
Continued discussion of Leger; his teaching methods; and influences on his work.
His first teaching position at the MFA School; his involvement in civil rights in Boston; his gregariousness and the use of his studio as a meeting place for artists and political activists; his involvement with socialism in Boston and New York; and working in a socialist children's camp. He remembers meeting Paul Robeson, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, and Bob Blackburn, who was then setting up his printmaking atelier in New York; marriage to a fellow socialist (June 1950); move to Mexico on a fellowship to study with Jose Orozco on the advice of Leger, only to find that Orozco had died; terrors of travel as an interracial couple through the U.S.; and different racial attitudes in Mexico and the U.S.
Living in Mexico (1950-56) and anecdotes of David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera; his wife's meeting with Frieda Kahlo and seeing her collection of folk art; their free and cosmopolitan, if impoverished, life in Mexico; his work in a printmaking atelier and on the production of frescoes, and a lengthy aside about his brilliant brother, Freddie, who because he was black was not allowed to pursue his first love, geology, for many years.
Continued discussion of his experiences in Mexico; the dreary year (1957) he spent doing commercial art for a meatpackers' union in Chicago, a city he disliked; his move to New York in 1958, taking on commercial work to support his family, and teaching anatomy at the Pratt Institute.
Teaching art at a junior high school in the Bronx, and his gaining respect of students through special projects; teaching drawing at Boston University (1965-86), his approach to teaching including his demanding standards, the seriousness of the students, his opposing rigid attendance and grading rules, and colleagues, such as David Aronson who had created the School, Reed Kay, Jack Kramer, Sidney Hurwitz, and the University president, John Silber.
Working with the black arts entrepreneur, Elma Lewis, in setting up a visual arts program for the Boston black community (late 1960s-1970s), including the selection of a curator, Edmund Barry Gaither, a young art historian, who eventually established a museum of African-American art; his participation in various black art exhibitions, despite his belief that art should be seen regardless of the ethnic origins of artists; his move toward sculpture, beginning in the early 1960s, as a medium most expressive of black persons, culminating in the 1980s in a series of colossal heads and a statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. for the U.S. Capitol (1985-86); and why he makes art and will so long as he is able.
Biographical / Historical:
John Wilson (1922- ) is an African American painter, sculptor, illustrator, printmaker, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. Full name John Woodrow Wilson.
General:
Originally recorded on 11 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 22 digital wav files. Duration is 16 hr., 2 min.
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. Funding for the transcription and microfilming of the interview provided by the Newland Foundation.
The papers of painter Henry Botkin measure 3 linear feet, date from circa 1927-1982, and illustrate his career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed and photographic material, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The Henry Botkin papers measure 3 linear feet and date from circa 1927-1982. Biographical materials include multiple interviews with Botkin, one of which is for the Today Show, membership cards for the Audubon Artists and Artists Equity Association, and Botkin's resume. Correspondence is with George Gershwin, Syracuse University, and others. Writings include autobiographical writings, lectures and speeches by Botkin, artwork reviews of Botkin's art, and miscellaneous writings by others. Personal business records consist of materials regarding various professional organizations, materials on Judy Cimaglia, materials on Botkin's daughter Toinette (Botkin) Laurent, and other business records. Printed material includes exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, and picture postcards. Photographic material consists of photographs of Botkin, his wife Rhoda Lehman, friends and family, and various exhibitions. Artwork includes pieces by Botkin and others.
Arrangement:
This collection consists of seven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1945-1972 (.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1928-1979 (.2 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1936-1977 (.3 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1927-1977 (.6 Linear feet: Boxes 1-2)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1927-1982 (.8 Linear feet: Box 2)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1928-1977 (.9 Linear feet: Boxes 3-5)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1965-1967 (.1 Linear feet: Box 5)
Biographical / Historical:
Henry Botkin (1896-1983) was a painter who worked primarily in New York. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and trained at both the Massachusetts School of Art and the Art Students League before moving to New York City. While in New York, Botkin worked as an illustrator for Harper's, The Saturday Evening Post, and Century magazine. In the early 1920s he moved to Paris to begin exploring Impressionism as a painting style. Botkin is known for painting the theater, still lifes, and landscapes. He is also known for his paintings of Black people in the South Carolina low country which have faced criticism about their lack of social realism. Botkin returned to New York in 1930, married his wife Rhoda Lehman, and in 1934 became an art agent to his cousin art collector George Gershwin and others.
In the late 1930s, Botkin switched to the abstract painting style in oils, and took an active role in bringing the style to public attention. He became part of the Artist's Equity Association, The American Abstract Artists Group 256 in Provincetown, and the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors where he served as president from 1957-1961.
In 1955, Botkin put together the first exhibition of American abstract art at the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Japan and organized the sale of five hundred and forty paintings at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1959. Botkin participated in various public events and programs and taught privately in New York, California, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. In the early 1950s Botkin began working with collages which became his main art form until his death. Botkin died in 1983 at the age of eigthy-seven in New York City.
Related Materials:
Henry Botkin papers also held at Syracuse University.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels D388, N69-67, N69-68, N69-91, N70-25, N70-68, 2895-2897, and 4314) including biographical material, letters, notes, writings, business records, artworks, scrapbook pages, printed material, and photographs, from 1969-1982. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Papers were lent for microfilming from 1969 to 1982 by Henry Botkin, his son Glenn Botkin, and his assistant Rene Barilleaux.
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. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
Genre/Form:
Drawings
Scrapbooks
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Henry Botkin papers, circa 1927-1982, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
