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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Penney, James, 1910-1982  Search this
Interviewer:
Brown, Robert F  Search this
Subject:
Benton, Thomas Hart  Search this
Grosz, George  Search this
Soyer, Moses  Search this
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
2 sound tape reels (3 hr., 9 min.); 79 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min.
Summary:
Interview of James Penney, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Clinton, New York, on August 21 and December 6, 1981.
Penney speaks of growing up in Missouri and Kansas; taking art classes at the University of Kansas; moving to New York during the Depression to pursue his art career; studying at the Art Students League; meeting his first wife, Frances Avery; exhibiting his paintings in New York; visiting museums; mural painting with the WPA; working for the Jordanoff Aviation Corporation during World War II; teaching at Bennington, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, and Hamilton College; and some of his paintings, including An Epidemic Next Year; Workers in the Snow, Central Park; The Bombed City, 1939; and Rock of Versailles. Penney also recalls Karl Mattern, Raymond Eastwood, Albert Bloch, Randall Brubaker, Chris Ritter, Jackson Pollock, Thomas Hart Benton, George Grosz, Moses Soyer, Stuart Davis, Burgoyne Diller, Bill Palmer, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with James Penney, 1981 August 21-December 6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Funding:
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.
Biography Note:
James Penney (1910-1982) was a painter and educator.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- Interviews  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)12270
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)212110
AAA_collcode_penney81
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_212110