Collection Guide
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Interviews with art historians
940109
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Interviews with art historians
Creator:
Brown, Jean, 1911-1994
Creator:
Getty Research Institute. Research Library
Creator:
Buchthal, Hugo, 1909-1996
Creator:
Coolidge, John, 1913-1995
Creator:
Baxandall, Michael
Creator:
Boardman, John, 1927-
Creator:
Argan, Giulio Carlo
Creator:
Barocchi, Paola
Creator:
Ackerman, James S.
Identifier/Call Number: 940109
Physical Description:
6 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1991-2002
Abstract: Transcripts, audio recordings, and computer disks preserve interviews with contemporary art historians, archaeologists, bibliographers,
and selected key individuals from the J. Paul Getty Trust.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection of interviews with art historians includes bound transcripts and also, for those interviews conducted by the
Getty Research Institute alone, audio cassette tapes of the interviews and computer disks for the transcripts. The project
was begun in 1991, in collaboration with UCLA's Oral History Program, and continued by the Getty Research Institute when the
collaboration ended. This was a multi-year project to document the history of the discipline of art history through the major
contributors to art history and closely related fields.
The purpose of the project was to document the institutions, personalities, philosophical debates, pedagogical and field practice,
the relationship of European and American scholarship, the impact of German émigré scholars, the role of women, post-World
War II collecting and connoisseurship, and the professionalization of the museum field.
Interviews in the field of classical archaeology are meant to explore the contributions of foreign archaeological schools
in the Mediterranean, the changing politics of national archaeological superintendencies, the synthesis of classics, anthropology
and art history, the impact of the "new archaeology" and other theoretical approaches, debates surrounding collecting and
dealing in ancient art, and methods of interpretation.
Interviews document the professional, and sometimes the personal, lives of art and architectural historians (including Agnes
Mongan, Julius Held, Manfredo Tafuri, George Kubler, James Ackerman, Otto von Simson, Otto Wittmann, Craig Smyth, among others)
archaeologists (Phyllis W. Lehmann, Lane Faison, Griselda Pollock, Colin Renfrew, among others), a bibliographer and historian
of the book arts (J. M. Edelstein), and a collector of Fluxus artists' papers and works (Jean Brown). Interviews have been
made with selected individuals at the J. Paul Getty Trust (J. M. Edelstein, Nancy Englander, Harold Williams). The interviews
complement the archives of scholars' papers held by the Getty Research Institute, Research Library.
The repository has numbered the cassette tapes, C1-C45. Some duplicate audio cassettes came with the archive. When available,
these duplicates serve as use copies. The repository has reformatted some sound cassettes, and use copies are available as
indicated in the container list. Some tapes do not yet have use copies; these audio recordings are unavailable until reformatted.
Arranged in 2 series: Series I. Transcripts and sound recordings, 1991-2002; Series II. Computer disks of oral history transcripts,
1991-2002.
Digital Collection and Use Copies
The Getty Research Institute has digitized most of the transcripts and made them available online for research purposes only.
Connect to the digital collection.
UCLA has also digitized transcripts of their oral histories from the collaborative project.
Connect to the UCLA digital collection.
The interview with Sherman E. Lee was digitized in 2017 and is is available only to on-site readers and Getty staff. Connect
to the digitized version:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/940109s1av
Use copies of some of the audio recordings are available, as indicated in the container list.
Biographical / Historical Note
The Oral History Documentation project was begun in collaboration with the Oral History Program at the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1991. Seventeen interviews were completed, most by interviewer and historian Richard Cándida Smith,
in collaboration with UCLA. The Oral History Program owns the tapes and electronic versions and this collection includes only
the transcripts of these interviews. Transcripts of those interviews jointly sponsored by the Getty and UCLA are also located
at UCLA and in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley. UCLA is digitizing transcripts of the seventeen oral histories and making
them available online.
Connect to the digital versions.
The project has been continued by the Getty Research Institute alone, and is an on-going effort to document and contribute
to the history of the discipline of art history and closely related fields, particularly archaeology. Interviews, thus far,
are with art and architectural historians, archaeologists, a bibliographer and historian of the book arts, a collector of
artists' papers, and leaders of art institutions, including the leadership of the Getty Trust. The GRI is digitizing these
transcripts and making them available online.
Connect to the digital versions.
Processed by Jocelyn Gibbs and Beth Ann Guynn. This collection of interviews with art historians was developed from 1991 through
2002. Tapes, discs, and transcripts have been added to the collection from the following acquisitions: 950033, 950067, 950087,
960010, 960041, 960073, 970050, 980051. Gibbs created this finding aid in June 1998. Guynn processed additions and revised
the finding aid. Jan Bender rearranged the finding aid.
The audio tapes that were reformatted by the repository have four generations: originals, archival and copy masters, and use
copies. Use copies are available in the repostory for researchers.
Produced by the repository in collaboration with the Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles.
Interviews with art historians, 1991-2002, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 940109
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa940109
Open for use by qualified researchers with the following exceptions. Sound recordings are unavailable until reformatted. Selected
transcripts and recordings are temporarily sealed and restricted, as indicated in the container list. Computer discs are restricted.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Transcripts
Sound recordings
Oral histories (document genres)
Interviews
Art historians -- United States -- Interviews
Archaeologists -- United States -- Interviews
Art -- Historiography -- Study and teaching
Floppy disks
Ackerman, James S.
Barocchi, Paola
Argan, Giulio Carlo
Boardman, John, 1927-
Baxandall, Michael
Buchthal, Hugo, 1909-1996
Brown, Jean, 1911-1994
Cándida Smith, Richard
Englander, Nancy
Edelstein, J. M. (Jerome Melvin), 1924-1996
Heckscher, William S. (William Sebastian), 1904-1999
Held, Julius S. (Julius Samuel), 1905-2002
Haskell, Francis, 1928-2000
Heckscher, Roxanne
Hamilton, George Heard
Harrison, Evelyn B. (Evelyn Byrd)
Faison, S. Lane (Samson Lane), 1907-2006
Grabar, Oleg
Kubler, George, 1912-1996
Lee, Sherman E.
Kitzinger, Ernst, 1912-2003
Kubler, Elizabeth
Hoffmann, Herbert
Herrmann, Wolfgang, 1899-1995
Himmelmann, Nikolaus, 1929-
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo, 1929-
Renfrew, Colin, 1937-
Proske, Beatrice Gilman, 1899-2002
Pollock, Griselda
Nochlin, Linda
Mongan, Agnes
Lewis, Samella S.
Lehmann, Phyllis Williams, 1912-2004
Vermeule, Cornelius C. (Cornelius Clarkson), 1925-2008
University of California, Los Angeles. Oral History Program
Thompson, Homer A.
Tafuri, Manfredo
Steinberg, Leo, 1920-2011
Smyth, Craig Hugh
Simson, Otto Georg von, 1912-1993
Sekler, Eduard F. (Eduard Franz)
Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001
Von Bothmer, Dietrich, 1918-2009
Weitzmann, Kurt, 1904-1993
Wittkower, Margot
Coolidge, John, 1913-1995
J. Paul Getty Trust
Williams, Harold Marvin, 1928-