An interview of Peter Agostini conducted in 1968, by Colette Roberts, for the Archives of American Art at 151 Avenue B, New York, New York.
Mr. Agostini speaks of his childhood spent living throughout the five boroughs of New York; his interactions with clients of his father's acting employment agency; his early education in Catholic school and the creative freedom allotted by the nuns; his first feelings of isolation as an artist at the age of seven; the development of a sense of communication as the result of the loss of his mother at the age of three and time spent at a school for orphans; his early realization and vision of artistic destiny; his religious interests which lead to mysticism in his earlier work; his time spent working freely in the DaVinci Studio with Spaventa; the discovery by Hess of his works in Gallerie Grimaud; his attainment of the Longview Grant; his working experience throughout the Depression as part of the WPA casting plaster mannequins while working indirectly with Pollack as well as Marca Relli; his subsequent move to designing department store windows (use of Mondrian-like forms and lines); his feelings of his position as an observer; the importance of communication through art (communication without words); his rejection of the Abstract Expressionist group and choice of independence; the influence of the sculpture of Kolbe and Bache in the thirties; Clement Greenberg's distaste for his work; his feelings about the relative failure to sell his work due its unusual edginess and mystery; his role in the introduction of the work of contemporary European artists (Chausserian, Gauthier, Modrian) to the American group; his description of his own work as "traditionless"; his feelings of self-importance as one of the most original sculptors in the art world; his influence on the younger generation, particularly Marisol; the enslavement to originality that the younger generation faces; his attitudes towards American Art forms and their lack of rebellious spirit; the virtues of the American writers, such as Poe, Whitman, and Melville as American "knapsack" writers; his personal technique which places an emphasis on the "skin" or volume of something; his attempt to create quiet art, or art that merely indicates features; his frustration with teaching and the problems of regurgitated knowledge; the role of Meyer Shapiro in his teaching career at Columbia; the formation of the Club and its similarity to the Cubist's café scene; his opinions on the relationship of sex and sensuality in American art; his personal struggles, including the loss of his second wife and two of his brothers, in addition to the estrangement of his only daughter by his first wife; his feelings on the role of psycho analysis and personal history in a work of art; his present works which feature the "swell." For the majority of the second half of the interview Ms. Roberts asks Mr. Agostini to express his opinions on the work of: Kline; DeKooning; Duchamp; Oldenburg; La Tour; DeChirico; Maillol; Pompon; Rothko; Chardin; Cezanne; Giacometti; Reinhardt; Chryssa; Tony Smith; Segal; Lachaise; Zorach; Manship; Flannagan; Kelly; Lassaw; David Smith; Hare; Lipton; Ferber; Lippold; Roszak; Nakian; Noguchi; Hague; Kohn; di Suvero; Chamberlain; Kaprow; Sugarman; Stankiewicz; Bontecou; Scarpitta; Cornell; Keinholz; Rivera; Judd; Robert Morris; O'Keeffe; Samaras; Mark Tobey; Marin; Pollock; Hartley; Dove; Macdonald-Wright; Demuth; Sheeler; Hopper; Mirot; Matisse; DuBuffet.
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Agostini (1913-1993) was a sculptor from New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 28 digital wav files. Duration is 10 hrs., 37 min.
Transferred from 4 3" reels.
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
An interview of Richard Stankiewicz conducted 1979 June 26, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Stankiewicz speaks of his life since the Archives last interviewed him in the mid-sixties; joining the Zabriskie Gallery; the Loft Living Program and his struggles with city officials; the beginning of the respectability of modern art in America; deciding to leave New York City and move to Massachusetts; accepting a teaching position at the University of Albany; his ambivalence about teaching; his comments on photographs being shown to him of his art work over the years; how his ideas develop; how he doesn't mix his politics and art; an exhibition he did in Australia; and what he is working on right now. He recalls Hans Hofmann, Fairfield Porter, Virginia Zabriskie, Sam Kootz, David Smith, Julio Gonzales, Fernand Léger, and many others.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Stankiewicz (1922-1983) was a sculptor and educator from Huntington, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 30 min.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has interviews, video recordings, and the papers of Richard Stankiewicz.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.
22 letters and postcards from Curt Valentin, written from Europe and New York City, regarding buying trips and suggesting purchases; and six letters from Richard Stankiewicz, regarding his sculpture, his studio, working on drawings, and planning a dinner with Orswell.
Biographical / Historical:
Lois Dailey Orswell (1904-1998) was an art collector from Narragansett, R.I.
Provenance:
The donor, Wolfgang Freitag Bafflin of the Fine Arts Library of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, acted as liason between Orswell and the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Artists' letters and documents collected by Zalesch and letters written to him in response to inquiries concnering autographs and biographical information.
REEL 3097: Twenty-six letters (1845-1973) written by George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Isabel Bishop, Frederick Stuart Church, Thomas Doughty, Ernest Fenollosa, Ben Foster, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, John La Farge, Homer Dodge Martin, Joseph Pennell, Edward Willis Redfield, John Rogers, John Singer Sargent, Richard Stankiewicz, Thomas Sully, and Elihu Vedder. Also included are a Harvard University bond for William Wetmore Story's tuition signed by Franklin H. Story (1834) and a biographical questionnaire completed by John La Farge for The Cyclopedia of American Biography (1925).
UNMICROFILMED: Letters written by Roy Lichtenstein, William Gropper, Gluyas Williams, Ordway Partridge, Frederick Burr Opper, James Wells Champney, C. Gray Parker, Ben Foster, Louis Betts, Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, Richard Lippold, Romare Bearden, Isabel Bishop, Thomas Hart Benton, Richard Stankiewicz, and others; a brochure for a work of art by Robert Indiana; a certificate from The Brooklyn Art Association for one share of capital stock in the name of William Potter Lage; one page of correspondence documenting a decision made for the Society of American Artists containing a note from Francis D. Millet to J. Alden Weir, followed by a note from Weir to Frederic Church, signed "O.K." by Church.
Vol. XXVI, no. 5, Feb. 1924 periodical, Old Hughes, published by the students of Hughes High school in Cincinnati, Ohio containing a published exchange of letters between principal C. M. Merry and Josephine W. Duveneck, daughter-in-law of painter Frank Duveneck about the Hughes High School purchasing a painting by Duveneck, and a reminiscence of Duveneck by William P. Teal, head of the art department at Hughes High School.
Biographical / Historical:
Saul Zalesch, an art historian, began collecting artists' letters around 1981.
Provenance:
This collection of letters was lent for microfilming by Zalesch in 1984 (reel 3097). Zalesch donated an additional three letters in 1993, twenty-five in 1999, one letter in 2008, and a publication in 2009.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
4 Linear feet ((partially filmed on 5 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1948-1984
Scope and Contents:
Resumes and an autobiographical sketch; correspondence with dealers, curators, collectors, artists, students, friends and family; 2 appointment books, a 10-page journal, describing a 1955 visit to Fairfield Porter in Maine, and other notes and writings; transcripts of interviews with Louise Nevelson, Donald Judd, George Rickey, and George Segal for a documentary, "Four Sculptors"; lists of supply costs and of art sales; 2 accounts ledgers; invoices from the Leo Nash Steel Corporation; legal documents, including a draft of a will, 1967, and divorce documents, 1978; materials relating to the Hansa Gallery, and minutes of meetings of the Artist Tenant's Association; exhibition materials, including loan forms, insurance evaluations, and price lists; exhibition announcements and catalogs; clippings; a menu designed by Larry Rivers; art works, including sketches and diagrams of a sculpture workshop and machines, and 7 sketches of sculpture; and photographs of Stankiewicz and his family.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor and educator; New York, N.Y. Died 1983 In 1952, Stankiewicz and 11 other artists formed the co-operative Hansa Gallery in New York. Some others in the group were: Jane Wilson, Paul Georges, Wolf Kahn, George Segal, Jan Muller, Allen Kaprow, and Jean Follett. Stankiewicz left Hansa in 1957 and became associated with the Stable Gallery. He exhibited there from 1957-ca.1967. In 1967 he became a professor of art at the State University of New York at Albany, and in 1972 he became associated with the Zabriskie Gallery.
Provenance:
Donated 1974 and 1979 by Richard Stankiewicz, in 1984 by his sons Peter and Anthony and in 1990 by Patricia M. Stankiewicz.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Richard Stankiewicz conducted between 1963 February-August 20, by Richard Brown Baker, for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Stankiewicz (1922-1983) was a sculptor and educator from Huntington, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 12 hr., 53 min.
Sound quality is poor.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.
An interview of Lee Bontecou conducted 2009 January 10, by Dore Ashton, for the Archives of American Art, at Knoedler and Company, in New York, New York.
Bontecou speaks of her interest in art as a young child and her parents' encouragement and influences; her two years at community college before studying painting then sculpture under William Zorach at the Arts Students League in New York City; her time working, living and studying in Rome though the Fulbright Scholarship; her abstracted figural works in Rome influenced by ancient Greek and Roman sculpture; her exploration in Europe of non-American influences and her admiration of the strong design sense in Italy; returning to the United States and working in the New York City art scene and exhibiting her works at Leo Castelli's Gallery; different techniques including welding and vacuum forming; meeting her husband, Bill Giles, and raising her daughter, Vallie, in New York City; leaving New York City and the Castelli Gallery for Pennsylvania and the ability to experiment in her artwork; teaching at Brooklyn College where she worked with Morris Dorsky and enjoyed a wide range of students; her lack of affiliation with art movements, including Pop Art; her illness and her current work; and her strong belief that an M.F.A. is useless and that young artists have to make themselves. Bontecou also recalls Robert Brackman, Julio Gonzales, Alexander Calder, Richard Bellamy, Gabriel Kahn, Richard Stankewiczs, Tom Doyle, Eve Hesse, Sandra and Jack Beale, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Lee Bontecou (1931- ) is a sculptor and printmaker from New York, New York. Bontecou studied at the Art Students League of New York and taught at Brooklyn College.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 42 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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Two U-matic videos produced by the State University of New York at Albany, Educational Community Center. Included are: Four Sculptors, Part 1 and II, with interviews of the sculptors Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson, George Rickey and George Segal, conducted by sculptor and SUNY at Albany Art Dept. professor Richard Stankiewicz and directed by Carl Howard and Stankiewicz (56 min.); and Richard Stankiewicz - Sculptor, 1979 (18 min), narrated by Stankiewicz, including scenes of Stankiewicz's studio; Stankiewicz at work, and in his home. He discusses his work methods, choice of materials, family relationships, and his philosophy about sculpture.
Restrictions:
Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Rights:
The donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that they may own.
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.
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Jack Finch, SUNY Albany. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Records of four of Nathan Halper's Provincetown galleries measure 4.2 linear feet and date from 1952-1979. The records relate to Kootz Gallery, H-C Gallery, HCE Gallery, and Sun Gallery - all based in Provincetown. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with artists, estate executors, collectors, galleries, and museums. There are also scattered business and financial records documenting operations and sales, photographs and slides, printed materials, and one poem. Correspondents include Milton Avery, Anthony Caro, John Murray Cuddihy, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Samuel Kootz, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Richard Stankeiwicz, and many others.
Scope and Contents note:
Records of four of Nathan Halper's Provincetown galleries measure 4.2 linear feet and date from 1952-1979. The records relate to Kootz Gallery, H-C Gallery, HCE Gallery, and Sun Gallery - all based in Provincetown. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with artists, estate executors, collectors, galleries, and museums. There are also scattered business and financial records documenting operations and sales, photographs and slides, printed materials, and one poem. Correspondents include Milton Avery, Anthony Caro, John Murray Cuddihy, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Samuel Kootz, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Richard Stankeiwicz, and many others.
Biographical material consists of one literary poem.
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with many artists, estate executors, gallery partners, collectors, galleries, and museums regarding works of art, sales, account balances, requests for information, and general updates.
Scattered business records are found for all four galleries and include a Kootz Gallery guest register, address books, corporation and partnership agreements for the Kootz, H-C, HCE, and Sun galleries, insurance policies, and a Kootz Gallery employee file. Both the guest register and address books were also used as general business related notebooks.
Financial material consists of inventory stock books, price lists and sales, checkbook registers, and general expense invoices/receipts for the four galleries. The undated stock books list artists' names, general artwork identification information, and prices. Additional sales information is found in price lists, correspondence, sales notebooks, and checkbook registers. Invoices and receipts also document general operating expenses.
Printed material includes newspaper clippings on the Provincetown art scene and major artists represented by Halper, three exhibition catalogs, and an event calendar from the National Association of Women Artists.
Photographic material consists of prints and slides of the Kootz, H-C, and HCE galleries; black and white and color prints of exhibitions by Harry Botkin, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, and Hans Hofmann; and black and white prints, color slides, and transparencies of select works of art shown at the galleries.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged as 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1953-1970 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1952-1979 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Business Records, 1953-1970 (Box 2; .7 linear feet)
Series 4: Financial Material, 1953-1970 (Boxes 3-4; 2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1952-1976 (Box 5; 3 folders)
Series 6: Photographic Material, 1953-1969 (Box 5; 11 folders)
Biographical/Historical note:
Nathan Halper (1907-1983) worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts as a contemporary American art dealer, writer, and James Joyce scholar.
Nathan Halper first moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1936 where he met and eventually married his wife, Helen Marjorie Windust Halper. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, their circle of friends included artists, writers, and academics drawn to the Provincetown art colony. Through friendships with Adolph Gottlieb and Fritz Bultman, Halper was introduced to Hans Hofmann, his students, and other abstract expressionist artists.
In 1949, Halper was invited to give a talk on James Joyce at Forum 49, a Provincetown summer lecture series on the future of art organized by Weldon Kees and held in a gallery at 200 Commercial Street. Speakers ranged from Jackson Pollock to poet laureate Howard Nemerov, and the series also presented one of the first major exhibitions of abstract expressionism in America. In 1952, Halper became the treasurer of the Provincetown Art Association (est. 1914), an influential social nexus that connected artists, galleries, patrons, and the public through memberships and annual events.
In 1953, he entered into a partnership with New York art dealer Sam Kootz and helped establish the Kootz Gallery in Provincetown. Their stable initially consisted of abstract expressionists Kootz represented in New York: Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, Adolph Gottlieb, Fritz Bultman, and William Baziotes. Halper and Kootz mutually agreed to dissolve their partnership in 1954 and Halper opened the H-C Gallery with John Murray Cuddihy in 1955. After Cuddihy's departure at the end of the 1956 season, Halper opened the HCE Gallery (1957-1967), a name inspired by Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. In 1962, Halper entered into a one year partnership with Noah Goldowsky to help finance and run the Sun Gallery.
After the dissolution of the Kootz Gallery, Halper continued to represent Motherwell and, for a short time, Gottlieb in the Provincetown area, but quickly added other artists to the HCE stable. Through its relationship with New York dealers, such as Martha Jackson Gallery, Andre Emmerich Gallery, and Waddington Galleries, HCE was able to exhibit and sell works by Milton Avery, Gandy Brodie, Anthony Caro, Edwin Dickinson, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hoffman, Wolf Kahn, William King, Jan Muller, Elie Nadelman, David Smith, Richard Stankiewicz, Tal Streeter, and Anthony Vevers, among others.
Related Archival Materials note:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are the Kootz Gallery records and oral history interviews with Nathan Halper conducted by Dorothy Seckler, July 17, 1963 and by Robert Brown, July 8-August 14, 1980. Columbia University also holds Nathan Halper's papers concerning his literary scholarly work.
Provenance:
The Nathan Halper business records were donated by Nathan Halper in 1979. Additional materials were donated in 1983 and 1984 by his wife Helen Marjorie Windust Halper.
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.
An interview of Ivan C. Karp conducted 1963 October 18, by Richard Brown Baker, for the Archives of American Art.
The interview focuses on Karp's time as co-director of the Hansa Gallery from 1956 to 1958. Karp talks about the general character and co-operative structure of the gallery; its mailing list and operation practices; how it located new talent; its sales; its location; critics and collectors who visited the gallery; coverage of the gallery in the art and general press; the make-up of its membership and his co-director Richard Bellamy. He discusses artists who were affiliated with the gallery: Richard Stankiewicz; Jane Wilson; Jan Müller; George Segal; Jean Follett; Myron Stout; Lilly Brody: Allan Kaprow; Miles Force; and Fay Lansner. He also mentions unaffiliated artists who exhibited in group shows at Hansa: Alfred Lesie, Robert Richenburg, Walasse Ting and the New Sculpture Group. Collectors mentioned are Horace Richter, Charles Carpenter, and Liz Parkinson [ph].
Biographical / Historical:
Ivan C. Karp (1926-) is an art dealer from New York, New York. Worked at the Hansa Gallery two seasons under Richard Bellamy. Later became director of the OK Harris Gallery.
General:
Part of this interview was inadvertently recorded over by the interviewer.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Artist-run galleries -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Richard Bellamy, concerning the Hansa Gallery, conducted 1963, by Richard Brown Baker, for the Archives of American Art.
Bellamy speaks of the Hansa Gallery's original organization by a group of Hans Hofmann's students; Hansa's location, purpose and program; and the definition of a cooperative gallery. Bellamy reminisces about his early life in Cincinnati, the influence of the Provincetown exhibition in 1949, becoming manager and director of Hansa Gallery and the gallery's move uptown. He discusses financial arrangements with artists, guest exhibitions, collectors, the gallery's location and its disadvantages in regard to visitors and critics, an Allan Kaprow exhibition, and the inclusion of Hansa artists in the Whitney Museum of American Art's annuals and other exhibitions.
He comments on Hansa's reputation, ART NEWS notices, comparisons of the Hansa and Green galleries, the weaknesses of a cooperative gallery, the search for new artists, financial problems, reasons for closing the gallery, galleries where original Hansa artists now exhibit and the gallery's importance in the art life of the times. He recalls John Gruen, Richard Stankiewicz, Miles Forst, Jan Muller, Myron Stout, and Thomas Hess.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Bellamy (1927-1998) was an art dealer from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 34 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art's 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Cooperative societies -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard Stankiewicz, 1979 June 26. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard Stankiewicz, 1963. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Richard Stankiewicz conducted by Richard Brown Baker in 1963 for the Archives of American Art, regarding the Hansa Gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Stankiewicz (1922-1983) was a sculptor and educator and Huntington, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 5 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Huntington Search this
Carl Howard and Richard Stankiewicz. Four sculptors: Judd, Nevelson, Rickey, Segal, 1973. Video recordings on Richard Stankiewicz and other sculptors, 1973-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard Stankiewicz, 1963 February-August 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
