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Oral history interview with Robert Cremean

Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Robert Cremean, 1996 September 5, Transcript
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
Finding aid
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

Object Details

sova.aaa.cremea96
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw92a82e8f3-a8e8-48c5-8106-c03c8a86053c
General
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 5 min.
Interviewee
Cremean, Robert, 1932-
Interviewer
Karlstrom, Paul J.
Names
Fresno Arts Center
Occupation
Sculptors -- California
Topic
Art -- Marketing
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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance.
Interviewee
Cremean, Robert, 1932-
Interviewer
Karlstrom, Paul J.
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
Robert Cremean (1932-) was a sculptor from Tomales, California.
Extent
54 Pages (Transcript)
Date
1996 September 5
Archival Repository
Archives of American Art
Identifier
AAA.cremea96
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Genre/Form
Sound recordings
Interviews
Scope and Contents
An interview of Robert Cremean conducted 1996 September 5, by Paul J. Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Cremean's studio, Tomales, California.
The focus of the interview is Cremean's withdrawal from the commercial art market in early 1980 and his subsequent arrangement with the Fresno Arts Center (now Fresno Art Museum) to serve as the main center for his work. Cremean discusses the Fresno project and a related book undertaken by George Blair, the main funder of the museum collaboration; the philosophy behind the arrangement and the desire to take the market out of the relationship between artist and audience; Cremean's commitment to small museums and breaking the pattern of large, wealthy institutions defining culture through limited sampling; Cremean's family background, education, and career; study at Cranbrook; Fullbright to Italy; teaching at UCLA (1956-1959); his move to San Francisco Bay Area (1958); move to Tomales (1963); his relationship to galleries/dealers, mostly in Los Angeles; L.A. "culture wars" of the late 1950s and 1960s; Ferus Gallery against all others; and the victimization of Rico Lebrun's romantic humanism; a series of galleries and several important museum shows including 1976 exhibition of "Vatican Corridor" at the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco; autobiographical quality of work and the description of recent series as "opera"; the importance of place; and "love affair" with his valley home in Tomales.
Restrictions
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
AAA.cremea96
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw92a82e8f3-a8e8-48c5-8106-c03c8a86053c
AAA.cremea96
AAA
Record ID
ebl-1596355229672-1596355229673-0
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