Oral history interview with Michael Loew

Object Details

General: Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 16 min.

Provenance: These interviews are 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 others.

Sponsor: 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.

Biographical / Historical: Michael Loew (1907-1985) was a painter or art teacher from New York, N.Y. and Berkeley, Calif.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Sound tape reels; Pages; Sound recordings; Interviews

Existence and Location of Copies: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.

Scope and Contents: Interview of Michael Loew, conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, at Loew's studio in New York, on October 5, 1973.; Loew speaks of his childhood; classmates and instructors at the Art Students League; mentorship at Thurn School of Art; fellowship to study art in Europe; travel to North Africa and Mexico; the social content of his early painting; his work with the WPA; serving in the Navy during World War II; the Artists' Club; teaching at Berkeley; Cubism; and the use of color in his later work. Loew also recalls Richard Lahey, Boardman Robinson; Ernest Thurn, Saidie May, Ernest Jensen, Max Schnitzler, Ted Schempp, Josef Albers, Fernand Léger, Erle Loran, Rose Fried, Eleanor Ward; and others.