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Oral history interview with Willard Cummings, 1973 March 20

Online Media

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Cummings, Willard Warren, 1915-1975  Search this
Interviewer:
Cummings, Paul  Search this
Subject:
Hale, Philip Leslie  Search this
Halpert, Edith Gregor  Search this
Peirce, Waldo  Search this
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
New York (State)
Physical Description:
82 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 19 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of Willard Cummings conducted 1973 March 20, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Cummings speaks of his family and its interests in art and theater; moving to Boston and his early education there; studying with Anna Ladd and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts; his two years in Paris; going to Skowhegan during the Depression; the Art Students League and the Grand Central School; his interests in portrait painting and sculpture; his Yale art school experience; some early portrait subjects; exhibitions of his work; commercial art jobs he was involved in; his New York studio and friends in the mid-1930s; collecting American primitives; his U.S. Army service; the start of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1946; the organization of the school; his own painting technique and some portrait subjects. He recalls Philip Hale, Waldo Peirce and Edith Halpert.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Willard Cummings, 1973 March 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Biography Note:
Willard Cummings (1915-1975) was a painter from New York, New York and Maine.
Language Note:
English .
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.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)12296
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)212049
AAA_collcode_cummin73
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_212049