Oral history interview with Irving Petlin

Funding for this interview was provided by the Lichtenberg Family Foundation.

Archives of American Art 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 Washington, D.C. 20001 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/ Table of Contents

Collection Overview ...... 1 Administrative Information ...... 1 Scope and Contents...... 1 Scope and Contents...... 1 Biographical / Historical...... 1 Names and Subjects ...... 2 Container Listing ...... Oral history interview with Irving Petlin AAA.petlin16

Collection Overview

Repository: Archives of American Art

Title: Oral history interview with Irving Petlin

Identifier: AAA.petlin16

Date: 2016 September 13-15

Creator: Petlin, Irving, 1934-2018 (Interviewer) McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952- (Interviewer)

Extent: 6 Items (sound files (4 hrs., 27 min.); digital, wav) 103 Pages (Transcript)

Language: English .

Digital Digital Content: Oral history interview with Irving Petlin, 2016 Content: September 13-15, Transcript Audio: Oral history interview with Irving Petlin, 2016 September 13-15, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information 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. Available Formats Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.

Biographical / Historical

Interviewee Irving Petlin (1934-2018 ) was a painter in New York, New York. Interviewer James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator of New York, New York.

Scope and Contents

An interview with Irving Petlin conducted 2016 September 13 and 15, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art at Petlin's home in New York, New York.

Scope and Contents

Petlin speaks of his childhood in , where he attended the Art Institute Children's school; his grandparents; his early artistic influences, including Munch, Van Gogh, Redon, Matta, and Gorky; the

Page 1 of 2 Oral history interview with Irving Petlin AAA.petlin16 influence of the Chicago Imagists; studying art at ; his military service in Army Intelligence; his studio on the Monkey Block in San Francisco; the Dilexi Gallery; living and working in Paris; working as a visiting artist at UCLA; his decision to use primarily pastels in his work; his series on Edmond Jabes, Primo Levi, and others; his witnessing of the Paris protests against the Algerian War; his involvement in protests and artworks against the Vietnam War in the U.S.; his involvement in the Art Workers Coalition; and his practice of working in series. Petlin also recalls , Claes Oldenberg, Nancy Spero, Joseph Randall Shapiro, , , William Bailey, , Elmer Bischoff, Jim Newman, Eva Hesse, Robert Birmelin, R.B. Kitaj, Ed Kienholz, John Weber, Virginia Dwan, , Leo Castelli, and others.

Names and Subject Terms

This collection is indexed in the online catalog of the Smithsonian Institution under the following terms:

Subjects: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews

Types of Materials: Interviews Sound recordings

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