Shows
The WPI Oral HistoriesThe WPI Oral Histories: Donald and Alfred Lippincott on Tom WesselmannLippincott, Inc. was founded by Donald Lippincott in 1966 as a fabrication space specifically for artists producing large-scale sculptures, not industrial design projects. Eventually joined by his brother, Alfred, the Lippincott studio quickly gained renown for its collaborative, salon-like atmosphere; its attention to artists’ aesthetic and technical considerations; and its innovative methods for constructing large-scale sculptures. Lippincott, Inc. also offered artists the option of partnership pieces: a collaboration in which the fabricator covered up front costs and materials in exchange for l an ownership stake in the finished work. The Lippincotts worked with many 20th-century artists of note, including Claes Ol...
2025-03-051h 00
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Jim Dine on Tom WesselmannJim Dine is an American artist active from the mid-1950s onward whose work defies neat categorization. An accomplished painter, printmaker, sculptor, and as of recently, poet, Dine is often closely associated with both the Pop Art and Neo-Expressionist movements. Along with Marcus Ratliff and Wesselmann, with assistance from Judson Church minister Bud Scott, he co-founded the Judson Gallery, an experimental art space that hosted exhibitions from all three co-founders as well as fellow artists like Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow. Dine, like Wesselmann, also hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he first met Wesselmann as a young man. Highlights...
2024-10-091h 03
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Susan Stedman on Romare BeardenSusan Stedman is a curator, arts administrator and manager for artist’s estates. She has held positions at the Museum of Modern Art and the New York State Council of the Arts. She met Romare Bearden in the 1960s and was a friend—and fierce supporter of his work—until his passing. Highlights of her oral history include descriptions of Bearden and the artistic climate in the 1960s and 1970s, memories of meeting her husband, artist William “Bill” Majors, and recollections of the Spiral collective and the Cinque Gallery.
2024-07-021h 14
Previously UnknownCatalog Raisonnés: Why the role of art history is necessary in a Digital world | Previously Unknown | Episode 7On this episode of Previously Unknown, two guest experts discuss the critical importance of digital publishing for art historical scholarship. David Newbury joins us from Getty and Elizabeth Gorayeb from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc., a non-profit that produces online catalog raisonné projects for artists including Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Romare Bearden.
2024-05-3035 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Sheila Rohan on Romare BeardenSheila Rohan is the youngest sister of Nanette Rohan Bearden and the sister-in-law of Romare Bearden. She was a principal dancer of the founding company of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Later, she was a soloist and Ballet Mistress for the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre. Rohan was instrumental in the development of the Romare Bearden Foundation and serves on the board of directors. Highlights of her oral history include memories of her time dancing under Arthur Mitchell at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, recollections of visits to St. Maartens with Romare and Nanette, and a discussion of her...
2024-03-1146 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Myron Schwartzman on Romare BeardenMyron Schwartzman, Professor Emeritus of English at Baruch College, is the author of the biography Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (1990). Having befriended Bearden in 1977, Schwartzman conducted extensive interviews with the artist over the course of several years, deepening their relationship and informing his narrative. Highlights of the interview include depictions of Schwartzman’s visits to Bearden’s family home on St. Maarten and to Bearden’s birthplace of Charlotte, North Carolina; memories of spending time with Bearden and friends in the Long Island City studio; and discussions of the personal, artistic, and historical roots of Bearden’s oeuvre.
2023-11-131h 13
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Myron Schwartzman on Romare BeardenMyron Schwartzman, Professor Emeritus of English at Baruch College, is the author of the biography Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (1990). Having befriended Bearden in 1977, Schwartzman conducted extensive interviews with the artist over the course of several years, deepening their relationship and informing his narrative. Highlights of the interview include depictions of Schwartzman’s visits to Bearden’s family home on St. Maarten and to Bearden’s birthplace of Charlotte, North Carolina; memories of spending time with Bearden and friends in the Long Island City studio; and discussions of the personal, artistic, and historical roots of Bearden’s oeuvre.
2023-11-061h 13
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Jerald Melberg on Romare BeardenJerald Melberg has owned and operated the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina for the past forty years. Prior to opening the gallery, Melberg was a curator at the Mint Museum where he curated the retrospective, Romare Bearden, 1970-1980. Having befriended Bearden while working on the exhibition, Melberg subsequently curated several exhibitions of his work at his gallery. Highlights from Melberg's oral history include anecdotes of his first meetings with Bearden, memories of challenges and triumphs while curating the major retrospective at the Mint, and reflections on Bearden's legacy today.
KEYWORDS: Romare Bearden, Min...
2023-09-051h 17
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu on Eva GonzalèsThis interview was conducted in French. Visit the Gonzalès Oral History webpage to download a French or English transcript.
Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu is a French art historian specializing in late 19th-century and early 20th-century French painting. While working on the catalogue raisonné of Henri Manguin, she met Jacques de Mons, with whom she published a catalogue raisonné of Eva Gonzalès’s works in 1990. Sainsaulieu’s interview gives fascinating insight into her personal background with art and architecture that informs her research, as well as detailed historical context for Gonzalès’ life, works, and contemporar...
2023-05-081h 08
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Johanne Bryant-Reid on Romare BeardenJohanne Bryant-Reid is the current co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, as well as a serious art collector and dedicated philanthropist. While working as a Human Resources Executive at Merrill Lynch in New York, Bryant-Reid became immersed in New York’s art scene, often using art as a tool for philanthropic fundraising. She joined the Board of the RBF in 2002, and became co-director in 2009. Highlights of her oral history include her first meeting with Bearden, memories of the artists’ salons and social circles of the 1980s, and reflections on her own art collection.
KEYWORDS: Romare Bearden Foundation, coll...
2023-04-0553 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Allan Rubin and Candy Spilner on Tom WesselmannAllan Rubin and Candy Spilner were studio assistants to Tom Wesselmann between the late 1970s and early 2000s. Both accomplished artists in their own careers separate from Wesselmann, the two met at Cooper Union in 1969 and have been a couple ever since. Their interview delves into many different aspects of labor in a studio setting: balancing one’s own creative aspirations with the necessities of financing them, fabricating work for another artist, the place of ego within art, and maintaining boundaries between one’s own artistic practice and their employer’s, among others. Highlights include descriptions of daily studio life i...
2023-02-211h 32
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: André Thibault on Romare BeardenAndré Thibault (Teabo) is a North Carolina-based artist who served as Romare Bearden’s studio assistant and collaborator from 1980 until Bearden’s passing in 1988. Highlights of his interview include memories of working hands-on in Bearden’s studio, the development of particular Bearden works, and Thibault’s own journey with his artistic practice.
KEYWORDS: Romare Bearden, artists’ studios, experimental art, collage, African-American art movements, Québec, Arne Ekstrom, Barrie Stavis, Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, ACA Gallery, Canal Street, Myron Schwartzman
2023-02-081h 31
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Sophie Renoir on Pierre-Auguste RenoirSophie Renoir is the great-granddaughter of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a contemporary scholar and advocate for his work. Following in the footsteps of her family’s cinematic traditions—her father, cinematographer Claude Renoir, and uncle, director Jean Renoir—she is an acclaimed French film and television actress. Highlights from her oral history include discussions of childhood memories from the Renoir family home in Essoyes, responsibilities of maintaining a family’s artistic legacy, and ways she connects personally with Renoir’s paintings today.
KEYWORDS: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Impressionism, Impressionist art, Claude Renoir, Jean Renoir, Pierre Renoir, Essoyes, art museums, droit mora...
2023-02-0140 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Paul Louis Durand-Ruel on Pierre-Auguste RenoirPaul Louis Durand-Ruel is the great-grandson of Paul Durand-Ruel, the art dealer of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and many other Impressionist legends. He has written and lectured on Paul Durand-Ruel’s important influence on the Impressionist movement, and co-edited the memoirs of Paul Durand-Ruel with his niece, Flavie. His oral history sheds light on the creative relationship between Renoir and Durand-Ruel and how an artist—and their dealer—might find ways to actively shape their future legacy during their living years.
KEYWORDS: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealers, artistic legacies, Impressionist art, Impressionism, archives, art restoration, provenance, catalogue raisonnés, art...
2023-02-0144 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Evgenia Kuzmina on Paul GauguinEvgenia Kuzmina is a researcher on the team compiling the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné. She began working for the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s Paris office in 2018. Originally from Russia, Kuzmina’s first encounters with the work of Paul Gauguin came in the galleries and archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg, lending her a unique perspective on the artist’s work. Highlights of the interview include discussions of various European art institutions and archives, the benefits and difficulties of conducting research with digital archival collections, and establishing a comprehensive chronology of Gauguin’s works.
KEYWORDS...
2023-02-0125 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Sylvie Crussard on Paul GauguinSylvie Crussard is a Gauguin scholar and leading researcher for the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné focused on the artist’s Breton years (1889-1891). Working on the Wildenstein Institute’s Claude Monet catalogue raisonné in the early 1970s was her first job in art history, and she has remained integral to the Institute’s research endeavors ever since. Highlights from her interview with WPI’s Executive Director Elizabeth Gorayeb include her memories of working on the Monet catalogue with researcher Rodolphe Walter, collaborating with Daniel Wildenstein and Douglas Cooper on the early volumes of the Gauguin catalogue...
2023-02-011h 09
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Françoise Marnoni on Paul GauguinFrançoise Marnoni is a researcher and Managing Editor for the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné. She began working for the Wildenstein Institute’s Paris office in 2000 while researching the Pierre-Auguste Renoir catalogue raisonné, and later on, the catalogue raisonnés of Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees Van Dongen. Highlights of the interview include discussions of her research methods, the use of correspondence and digital archival collections as research tools, provenance in Gauguin’s Tahitian period, and the particular advantages of a digital catalogue raisonné.
KEYWORDS: Paul Gauguin, Tahitian period, provenance research, correspondence, Ambroise Vollard...
2023-02-0124 min
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Roberta Bernstein on Jasper JohnsRoberta Bernstein is the author and project director of Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture, including the catalogue’s comprehensive monograph, Jasper Johns’s Painting and Sculpture, 1954–2014: Redo an Eye. Bernstein has written and lectured extensively on Johns and other contemporary artists, including Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Marisol Escobar. Bernstein is professor emeritus of art history at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Highlights of the interview include discussions of Bernstein’s dissertation—the first art history dissertation on a living artist at Columbia Univ...
2023-02-011h 06
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Carroll Janis on Tom WesselmannCarroll Janis is the son of acclaimed gallerist Sidney Janis. He helped organize many of the Janis Gallery’s most significant shows of the twentieth century, and took over management of the gallery after his father’s passing in 1989. He maintained close connections with many Pop artists, including Tom Wesselmann, Claes Oldenburg, and James Rosenquist. Highlights of the interview include discussions of the gallery’s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop, detailed descriptions of the Janis Gallery’s operations, and thoughts on the art historical legacy of Wesselmann.
KEYWORDS: modernism, Tom Wesselmann, Abstract Expressionism, art market, Pablo Picasso...
2023-02-011h 44
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Monica Serra on Tom WesselmannMonica Serra is a painter, multimedia artist, and singer/songwriter. She collaborated with Tom Wesselmann as a model, then joined Wesselmann’s studio as a studio assistant and went on to become the studio manager. Since Wesselmann’s death in 2004, she has been an integral part of the Estate of Tom Wesselmann, continuing to preserve and advocate for the works and legacy of the artist. Monica’s oral history examines her close working relationship with Wesselmann, the experience of viewing herself in his works, and themes of gender and representation.
KEYWORDS: modeling, drawing, gender, studio practice, nude portra...
2023-02-011h 27
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Jeffrey Sturges on Tom WesselmannJeffrey Sturges is the current Director of Exhibitions for the Estate of Tom Wesselmann. He first worked as a studio assistant for Tom Wesselmann in the 1990s, taking time in between to explore the gallery world and his burgeoning interest in photography, and returned in 2004 just prior to after the artist’s death. Highlights of the interview include discussions of Sturges’ early experiences in Wesselmann’s studio and his first encounters with Wesselmann’s art, the transition from a working studio to an estate, stylistic and symbolic interpretations of Wesselmann’s work, and the unique nature of Wesselmann’s record keepi...
2023-02-011h 28
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Connie Glenn on Tom Wesselmann (Session 2)Constance “Connie” W. Glenn is an acclaimed art historian, curator, writer, and collector. She is the founding director of the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, where she also established the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies and taught courses in art history and museum studies. Since the 1960s, she has been an avid collector with a particular interest in Pop Art and the works of Tom Wesselmann. In her second oral history session with WPI, Glenn discusses her philosophy as a collector, her correspondence with Wesselmann on the difficulties of classifying works, and her observations of s...
2023-02-011h 48
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Connie Glenn on Tom Wesselmann (Session 1)Constance "Connie" W. Glenn is an acclaimed art historian, curator, writer, and collector. She is the founding director of the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, where she also established the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies and taught courses in art history and museum studies. Since the 1960s, she has been an avid collector with a particular interest in Pop Art and the works of Tom Wesselmann. Highlights of the interview include descriptions of the burgeoning Kansas City art scene in the 1960s, trends in Glenn’s history as an art collector, memories of her re...
2023-02-011h 30
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Diedra Harris-Kelley on Romare BeardenDiedra Harris-Kelley is an artist, educator, and co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, the nonprofit organization responsible for preserving and perpetuating the legacy of acclaimed artist Romare Bearden. Harris-Kelley is also Bearden’s niece. Highlights of Harris-Kelley’s oral history include memories of her childhood on Staten Island with her extended family, including Romare and his wife Nanette; discussions of her education and influences as a formally trained artist; and thought-provoking reflections on how to shape an artist’s public legacy after their passing.
KEYWORDS: Romare Bearden, Nanette Rohan, Romare Bearden Foundation, Johanne Bryant-Reid, Grace Stanislaus, Cinque Galler...
2023-01-172h 14
The WPI Oral HistoriesWPI Oral History: Peggy Steffans Sarno on Tom WesselmannPeggy Steffans Sarno is an American actress and model known for her collaborations with her husband, Joseph Sarno, the “Ingmar Bergman of porn.” She counted Claire and Tom Wesselmann as close family friends, and participated as a portrait model in Tom’s Smoker series. Highlights of her oral history include memories of New York’s arts and cultural scene in the 1960s, discussions of Wesselmann’s oeuvre in the context of American social and sexual norms, and reflections on her personal connection to Wesselmann’s body of work today.
KEYWORDS: Pop Art, Cooper Union, nude portraiture, pornography, Claire Wesse...
2023-01-051h 25
LETTERS READLETTERS READ: The Letters of Edgar DegasThis reading is of personal letters from Edgar Degas surrounding his 4-month stay in Reconstruction-era New Orleans.
Christopher Kamenstein reads as Degas; audio production is by Steve Chyzyk and Sonic Canvas studio. The event is emceed by stationer and Letters Read director Nancy Sharon Collins.
Join us here for an intimate listen to thoughts and emotions experienced by Edgar Degas as he visits his mother’s family in the Crescent City as it strives to heal post-antebellum wounds after the American Civil War. Business, money, family, property ownership, class, race, and privilege, all play important ro...
2021-03-2630 min