Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Additional Online Media

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Cole, Sylvan, 1918-2005  Search this
Interviewer:
Berman, Avis  Search this
Subject:
Barnet, Will  Search this
Drewes, Werner  Search this
Florsheim, Richard A.  Search this
Frankenthaler, Helen  Search this
Hockney, David  Search this
Hofmann, Hans  Search this
Hopper, Edward  Search this
Johnson, Una E.  Search this
Kainen, Jacob  Search this
Levine, Jack  Search this
Lewenthal, Reeves  Search this
Lieberman, William Slattery  Search this
Motherwell, Robert  Search this
Soyer, Raphael  Search this
Associated American Artists  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
New York (State)
Physical Description:
83 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hr., 6 min. Sound quality is fair; beginning and endings of tapes tend to be garbled and low.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of Sylvan Cole conducted 2000 June-October, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art.
The interviews took place over five sessions in New York, New York. Cole discusses the history of Associated American Artists, the gallery for whom he began working in 1946, and its marketing techniques, customer base, and personalities, such as its founder, Reeves Lewenthal. He also traces his own development as a dealer in prints after he left AAA and recalls many artists and other figures in the art world, including Will Barnet, Werner Drewes, Richard Florsheim, Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Una Johnson, Jacob Kainen, Jack Levine, William S. Lieberman, Robert Motherwell, and Raphael Soyer.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Sylvan Cole, 2000 June-October. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript available on-line.
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:
Sylvan Cole (1918-2005) was an art dealer and writer of New York, New York.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Prints -- Marketing  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)11629
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)224056
AAA_collcode_cole00
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_224056