Oral history interview with Salvatore Scarpitta

OralHistoryResource

Oral history interview with Salvatore Scarpitta

1975 January 31.-February 3

Interview of Salvatore Scarpitta conducted 1975 January 31.-February 3, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Scarpitta speaks of his family's background; growing up and going to school in California; moving to Italy and going to art school at 17; attending the American Academy; his experiences in Europe after the war broke out in 1940; being arrested and interned for 18 months in Italy and escaping; joining the United States Navy; getting thrown out of the American Academy after being accused of being a Communist; his abstract paintings; moving back to America after Leo Castelli saw his work; his painting techniques; his thoughts on futurism and cubism; why he shifted from working on a canvas to tearing it apart and using it as materials; his use of color; how his interest in race cars influenced his art work; building race cars; living in New York and the art scene there; his successful art show on the Piazza San Marco in Venice; the reason for using belts in his paintings; how certain paintings led him to building sleds; his feelings about Leo Castelli; and teaching art. He recalls Phil Guston, Jack Levine, Franz Kline, Bill de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and many others.

Sound recordings: 2 sound tape reels ; 5 in.Transcript: 67 p.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7102466

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 10 Entities related to this resource.

Cummings, Paul (Singer)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66m39mt (person)

Littlefield was a painter, writer and art collector; New York, N.Y. Died 1969. Cummings, an art historian, was an expert on drawings and prints. From the description of William Horace Littlefield letters and photographs to Paul Cummings, 1951-1969. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122390381 Art historian and editor; New York, N.Y. From the description of Paul Cummings papers, 1967-1993. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122594609 ...

Kline, Franz, 1910-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w66vz4 (person)

Franz Kline created bold, vigorous, large-scale calligraphic abstract paintings in black and white. His first solo exhibition at the Egan Gallery, New York, in 1950 established him as one of the leading Abstract Expressionists. In the late 1950s he integrated strong colors into some of his works. From the description of Franz Kline papers, 1930-1967. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 518305942 ...

Castelli, Leo

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64t6kw9 (person)

Leo Castelli (1907-1999) was an art dealer in New York, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Leo Castelli, 1969 July [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79081963 b. September 4, 1907; d. August 21, 1999. From the description of Artist file : miscellaneous uncataloged material. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122377727 Art collector and dealer; interviewee b. 1907. From the description of Reminiscences of Leo C...

Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61g0pqn (person)

Russian-born American artist, Mark Rothko, is noted as one of the primary artists of Abstract Expressionism and color field painting. From the description of Mark Rothko manuscripts and sketchbook, circa 1935-1943. (Getty Research Institute). WorldCat record id: 81257215 Mark Rothko was an American painter and draughtsman of Russian birth. Born Sept. 25, 1903, Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia). Died Feb. 25, 1970, New York. From the description of The artis...

American Academy in Rome

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k9740h (corporateBody)

Art school; Rome, Italy. Organized in 1894 as the American School of Architecture in Rome. In 1897, it was dissolved and its assets turned over to the newly established American Adademy in Rome, not a traditional school, but a place where architects, painters, and sculptors could work in close association. After merging with the American School of Classical Studies (f. 1895) on the last day of 1912, the American Academy in Rome consisted of the School of Fine Arts and th...

Guston, Philip, 1913-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md9p24 (person)

xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Painter. From the description of Oral history interview with Philip Guston, 1965 Jan. 29. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78587878 Philip Guston, born Phillip Goldstein (June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a painter and printmaker in the New York School, an art movement that included many abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. In the late 1960s Guston helped to lead a transition from abstract expressionism to neo...

Scarpitta, Salvatore, 1919-2007

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62f8qmq (person)

Sculptor.; d. Apr. 12, 2007, at age 88. From the description of Salvatore Scarpitta interview, 1975 Jan. 31.-Feb. 3 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220189903 Salvatore Scarpitta (1919-2007) was a sculptor. From the description of Oral history interview with Salvatore Scarpitta, 1975 Jan. 31.-Feb. 3 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 233007050 ...

Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk1jrn (person)

Jackson Pollock was born in 1912, in Cody, Wyoming, the youngest of five sons. His family moved several times during his childhood, finally settling in Los Angeles. In 1930 he joined his older brother, Charles, in New York City, and studied with Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League of New York. Pollock worked during the 1930s for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. During 1936 he worked in artist David Alfaro Siqueiros's Experimental Workshop. In...

Levine, Jack, 1915-2010

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6377b6n (person)

Painter; New York, N.Y. From the description of Jack Levine interview, 1968 Sept. 5. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220187653 Artist. From the description of Reminiscences of Jack Levine : oral history, 1956. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309738074 Painter; Boston, Mass. and New York, N.Y. Exponent of Social Realism during the 1930s. He resided in Boston until 1942. Married to painter Ruth Gik...

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xp768t (person)

Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) was an abstract artist from New York, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Willem De Kooning and others, 1979 Sept. (Smithsonian Archives of American Art). WorldCat record id: 688855147 Abstract artist; New York. 1904-1997. From the description of Oral history interview with Willem DeKooning and others, 1979 September [sound recording]. (Smithsonian Archives of American Art). WorldCat record id: 123944643 ...