Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Additional Online Media

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Spivak, Max, 1906-1981  Search this
Interviewer:
Phillips, Harlan B., 1920-1979,  Search this
Subject:
Knight, Harry  Search this
McMahon, Audrey  Search this
Gorky, Arshile  Search this
Rosenberg, Harold  Search this
Cahill, Holger  Search this
Block, Lou  Search this
Krasner, Lee  Search this
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
58 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 32 min. Interview date changed to circa 1965 because the blackout of November 1965 is discussed in the interview.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Summary:
An interview of Max Spivak conducted circa 1963, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.
Spivak speaks of how he went from being an accountant to doing art; moving to Paris for three years, and how this experience changed his life; the difference between painting in Europe and painting in America; moving back to New York; why he decided to leave Paris and move back to New York; the importance of intuitive feeling; his involvement with the Gibson Committee; how he and some members of the Gibson Committee thought of the WPA; his experiences with the PWAP at the Whitney Museum; picketing outside the Mirror; his and the other artists experiences with the Project; the development of the Artist Congress; the nature of art; his work on mosaic murals; how art started losing support from the government by the late thirties; doing murals for big companies; the waning moments of the Project. He recalls Arshile Gorky, Holger Cahill, Audrey McMahon, Lee Krasner, Harold Rosenberg, Harry Knight, Lou Block, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Max Spivak, circa 1965. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript available on-line at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/spivak63.htm
Biography Note:
Max Spivak (1906-1981) was a painter and designer in New York, N.Y.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Federal aid to the arts  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews  Search this
Mosaics  Search this
Mural painting and decoration  Search this
Theme:
New Deal  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)12105
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)213927
AAA_collcode_spivak63
Theme:
New Deal
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_213927