An interview of Ida Kohlmeyer conducted 1989 May 17-20, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art.
Kohlmeyer discusses how she became an artist, her training, her marriage, the New Orleans art scene, her teaching and students, her work in sculpture, and the "Clusters and Circus" series. She recalls Pat Trivigno, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Clyfford Still, James Johnson Sweeney, Luba Glade, and Ruth White.
Biographical / Historical:
Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997) was a painter from New Orleans, La.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr.
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. Funding for this interview provided by the Lannan Foundation.
Restrictions:
For information on how to access this interview contact Reference Services.
Scrapbooks, an administrative file, and printed material.
Scrapbooks, 1958-1987, contain newspaper clippings, many focusing on the art work of colony members, especially Halcyone D. Barnes, Bess Dawson, Marie Hull and Ruth Atkinson Holmes, photographs of the faculty and students, including one of Fred Mitchell, letters, including one from Ida Kohlmeyer to Bill Broome, Colony President, 1974, and exhibition checklists. A file, 1963-1992, contains brochures, registration lists, board meeting minutes, and newsletters from Spring and Fall workshops. School catalogs, 1954-1964, provide historical information and biographical sketches of faculty members George Beattie, Peter Baruzzi, Andrew Bucci, Fred Conway, Lamar Dodd, Edward S. Faiers, Bob Gelinas, Ralph M. Hudson, Alvin Sella, Pat Trivigno, Karl Wolfe, Karl Zerbe and Richard Zoellner. Also found are magazine articles, 1980, 1988, and a book, Allison's Wells, The Last Mississippi Spa, by Hosford Latimer Fontaine (1981), containing many illustrations by Colony members (only title p. and illustrations were microfilmed).
Biographical / Historical:
Art colony; Utica, Miss. Founded 1948. Originally named Allison Wells Art Colony and located in Allison's Wells, Miss. Moved to Stafford Springs, Miss., 1963 and renamed the Mississippi Art Colony. Moved to Laurel, Miss. in 1970 and to Camp Henry Jacobs in Utica, Miss. in 1973.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1992 by Lallah Perry, member and archivist of the colony.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
