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Artists Talk on Art records

Archives of American Art

Object Details

Creator
Artists Talk on Art
Names
Barnet, Will, 1911-2012
Bourgeois, Louise, 1911-2010
Christo, 1935-
De Niro, Robert, Sr., 1922-1993
Denes, Agnes
Goldberg, Michael, 1924-2007
Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009
Longo, Robert
Mendieta, Ana, 1948-1985
Morris, Robert, 1931-2018
Murray, Elizabeth, 1940-
Neel, Alice, 1900-1984
Pavia, Philip, 1915-2005
Sleigh, Sylvia
Wilke, Hannah
Wojnarowicz, David
Occupation
Art critics
Art dealers
Art historians
Artists
Topic
Art, American
Historians
Provenance
The Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) records, including digital files of the video and sound recordings, were donated to the Archives in 2016 by Douglas Sheer, Chairman of ATOA.
Creator
Artists Talk on Art
See more items in
Artists Talk on Art records
Summary
The records of Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) measure 65.2 linear feet and 317.43 gigabytes and date from circa 1974-2023. The bulk of the records consist of extensive video and sound recordings of events organized by the group featuring artists, critics, historians, dealers, curators and writers discussing contemporary issues in the American art world in hundreds of panel discussions, open screenings, and dialogues held in New York City. Events began in 1975 and continue to the present; recordings in the collection date from 1977 and 2016. A smaller group of records include administrative files, panel flyers, three scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panel discussions and participants. There is a 0.8 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2023 that includes flyers, board meeting minutes, correspondence, program schedules, panel release forms, financial records 1982-2023; slides, 1980s-1990s; a notebook about the history of ATOA; and one hard drive containing 175 panel discussions and program series, 2016-2023.
Biographical / Historical
Established in 1974 and still active in New York, Artists Talk on Art is the art world's longest running and most prolific aesthetic panel discussion series organized by artists for artists. Founded by Lori Antonacci, Douglas I. Sheer, and Robert Wiegand, the forum has presented 6,000 artists in nearly 1,000 documented panels or dialogues. ATOA held its first panel, "Whatever Happened to Public Art," on January 10, 1975 and it drew a "crowd" of 77 people. In the decades that followed, ATOA presented dozens of panels or dialogues a year, tackling such diverse topics as "What is Happening with Conceptual Art," with Louise Lawler and Lawrence Weiner; "Painting and Photography: Defining the Difference," with Sarah Charlesworth, Jack Goldstein, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, and Robert Mapplethorpe; "Organizing Arts Activism," with Lucy Lippard; "The Artist and the Epidemic—an information panel about AIDS"; "Cross-generational Views of Feminism"; and hundreds more.
Extent
64.4 Linear feet
317.43 Gigabytes
Date
circa 1974-2018
Archival Repository
Archives of American Art
Identifier
AAA.artitalk
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Photographs
Sound recordings
Scrapbooks
Transcripts
Video recordings
Citation
Artists Talk on Art records, circa 1974-2023. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Arrangement
The records are arranged into ten series. Series 1: Adminstrative Files, 1974-2013 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1) Series 2: Director's and Chairman's Correspondence, 1977-2006 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1) Series 3: Grant Files, 1977-2009 (1 linear foot, Boxes 1-2) Series 4: Panel Release Forms, 1978-2012 (1 linear foot, Boxes 2-3) Series 5: Panel Transcripts, 1981, 1986, 1988, 2017-2018 (1 folder, Box 3; 0.002 GB, ER01) Series 6: Printed Materials, 1975-2015 (0.8 linear feet, Boxes 3-4; 0.434 GB, ER02) Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1975-1989 (0.2 linear feet, Box 4) Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1975-circa 2000 (1 linear foot, Boxes 4-5) Series 9: Video and Sound Recordings of Events, 1977-2016 (59 linear feet, Boxes 6-65; 317.43 GB, ER03-ER04) Series 10: Unprocessed Addition, 1982-2023 (0.8 linear feet, 1 hard drive; Boxes 66-67)
Processing Information
Most of the video and sound recordings and panel flyers were digitized by the Artists Talk on Art organization prior to donation. Electronic copies of transcripts for twelve panels were donated in 2017-2018. Video and sound recordings, and their digital surrogates, and electronic records were processed to a preliminary level and an inventory for the finding aid was prepared by Megan McShea in 2017-2018. Individual event recordings were processed and described at the item level in this finding aid in 2019. The paper portion of the collection was processed and described by Barbara Aikens in 2017.
Rights
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Existence and Location of Copies
Most of the video and sound recordings in this collection have been digitized for research access and the digital copies are available in the Archives of American Art research offices. Digital copies of the panel flyers and transcripts are also available in Archives of American Art offices.
Genre/Form
Photographs
Sound recordings
Scrapbooks
Transcripts
Video recordings
Scope and Contents
The records of Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) measure 65.2 linear feet and 317.43 gigabytes and date from circa 1974-2023. The bulk of the records consist of extensive video and sound recordings of events organized by the group featuring artists, critics, historians, dealers, curators and writers discussing contemporary issues in the American art world in hundreds of panel discussions, open screenings, and dialogues held in New York City. Events began in 1975 and continue to the present; recordings in the collection date from 1977 and 2016. A smaller group of records include administrative files, panel flyers, three scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panel discussions and participants. ATOA's recordings chronicle the American art world, covering critical discussions and significant art world issues over five decades. Thousands of artists such as Will Barnet, Louise Bourgeois, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Robert De Niro, Agnes Denes, Michael Goldberg, Robert Longo, Ana Mendieta, Robert Morris, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, Philip Pavia, Howardena Pindell, Larry Rivers, Sylvia Sleigh, Kahinde Wiley, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz, and others speak about their work. The original recordings exist in a variety of formats, including U-Matic and VHS videotape, MiniDVs, sound cassettes and sound tape reels. ATOA digitized most of the video and sound recordings prior to donating the collection. The collection also includes printed histories, board and program committee meeting minutes, financial statements, general correspondence files of the president and chair, attendance statistics, grant files, panel participant release forms, sixteen panel transcripts, a complete set of panel flyers (many are annotated) and other printed materials, three dismantled scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panels and panel participants. There is a 0.8 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2023 that includes flyers, board meeting minutes, correspondence, program schedules, panel release forms, financial records 1982-2023; slides, 1980s-1990s; a notebook about the history of ATOA; and one hard drive containing 175 panel discussions and program series, 2016-2023.
Restrictions
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1521547822997-1521547823026-0
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9c4de66ef-397b-4e6e-9fde-d6deca12fa3a

In the Collection

Pages

  • « first
  • ‹ previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • Aesthetic Realism: The Opposites in Art and Life

  • Landscape Artists Who Deal with the Environment

  • Irving Sandler in Dialog with Vernita N'Cognita

  • Electronic transcripts, Digital Documents

  • The End of Art with Critic Donald Kuspit

  • Photo Start: Using the Photographis Image as an Initial Stimulus in Art

  • Rhino Horn Revisited: Post Modern Revenge

  • ATOA goes to the Brooklyn War Memorial Auditorium to talk about exhibiting in Brooklyn

  • Traditions in Printmaking

  • What Artists want from Critics and What Critics Expect from Criticism and From Artists

  • ATOA Photo and Negative Notebook, Panels

  • The Great Divide - Another Battle in the Culture Wars

  • Cro-Magnon Art Then and Now: Its Applicability for Today

  • Scrapbook 2, Panel Flyers Section

  • Grant Files

  • Unidentified event

  • Women Behind the Camera

  • Figure/Space/Content

  • Art Education: Is It Either?

  • Women Artists Today: The Current Status

  • Slide Portfolio, ATOA History

  • It Ain't Colonial Williamsburg

  • Administrative Records

  • Gloves Off / The Record

  • Artisan Artists: Old Skills Making New Art

  • North of the Border

  • The Book as Art

  • NEA Grant Applications and Documentation

  • ATOA Photo and Negative Notebook, Panels

  • Where Artists Hide Out II

  • Art Colonies: A Look At Utopia

  • The Saga of Arno Rafael Minkkenen: A. D. Coleman in dialog with Doug Sheer

  • Schedules and Lists of Panelists

  • The Artist's Role in Society (undated, 1977-1992), Digital Audio Recordings

  • Anita Shapolsky and Her Artists

  • A Dialog on Digital Art: Bruce Wands and Victor Acevedo

Pages

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Panel Release Forms
View Slideshow
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International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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View Finding aid

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