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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Thaw, Eugene Victor, 1927-  Search this
Interviewer:
McElhinney, James, 1952-  Search this
Subject:
Rivera, Diego  Search this
Meiss, Millard  Search this
Marca-Relli, Conrad  Search this
Franka, Gunther  Search this
Ketterer, Norbert  Search this
Landau, Jack  Search this
Mitchell, Joan  Search this
Offner, Richard  Search this
Vavala, Evelyn Sandberg  Search this
Matisse, Pierre  Search this
Castelli, Leo  Search this
Rousseau, Theodore  Search this
Shapiro, Meyer  Search this
Simon, Norton  Search this
Held, Julius Samuel  Search this
Krasner, Lee  Search this
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Columbia University  Search this
St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)  Search this
Cleveland Museum of Art  Search this
E.V. Thaw & Co.  Search this
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Pollock-Krasner Foundation  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
New York (State)
Physical Description:
33 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 26 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Summary:
An interview of Eugene V. Thaw conducted 2007 October 1-2, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art's Art Dealers Association of America Project, at Thaw's residence, in New York, N.Y.
Thaw speaks of his childhood in New York City; Mexican art in his home including watercolors by Diego Rivera; beginning classes at the Art Student's League of New York at age 14; attending St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland; attending Columbia University for graduate courses in art history and studying with Meyer Shapiro and Millard Meiss; an early interest in Old Master, Renaissance, and German Expressionist art; studying in Florence, Italy for four months after World War II; opening The New Bookstore and Gallery with friend Jack Landau above the Algonquin Hotel upon his return to New York City; giving Joan Mitchell and Conrad Marca-Relli their first shows; ending his partnership with Landau, closing the bookstore, and moving the gallery to Madison Avenue; becoming involved in the international art market; the practice of buying and selling works of art in shares with other dealers; showing American and European artists; renaming the gallery E.V. Thaw & Company; operating essentially as a one-man gallery with very limited staff; his relationship with museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art; his personal collections, including extensive ancient Eurasian artifacts and American Indian art; establishing the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the philanthropic vision of his own foundation, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust; his retirement from dealing; the "hand of the artist" in historical context and its lack of significance in contemporary art; and advice for young and emerging art dealers. Thaw also recalls Richard Offner, Evelyn Sandberg-Vavala, Norbert Ketterer, Günther Franka, Pierre Matisse, Leo Castelli, Julius Held, Theodore Rousseau, Lee Krasner, Norton Simon, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Eugene V. Thaw, 2007 October 1-2. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for this interview provided by Art Dealers Association of America. 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:
Eugene Thaw (1927- ) is an art dealer from New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator from New York, N.Y.
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
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)13687
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)274662
AAA_collcode_thaw07
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_274662