Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Dennis Adrian

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.adrian15
Creators:
Adrian, Dennis, 1937-
Silverman, Lanny
Dates:
2015 October 8-9
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
4 Items
Sound recording: 4 sound files (4 hr., 18 min.)
digital, wav
173 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview with Dennis Adrian conducted 2015 October 8-9, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Adrian's home in Seaside, Oregon.
Scope and Contents
Adrian speaks of growing up in Astoria; traveling to Chicago and New York; Cannon Beach; aging and getting older; his origins; curators and curating; visual sensibilities; the Portland Public Library; opera; his parents, grandparents, and family; Finnish sensibility and humor; Portland Art Museum and classes for children; curator as voyeur; credit and accomplishments; hands on experiences; Artforum; art history; attending University of Chicago; homosexuality and coming out; looted European masterworks; Botticelli; exposure to real art; connoisseurship; collectors and collecting; a Robert Louis Stevenson letter; violin making; growing into yourself; Chicago; war; New York University; Frumkin Gallery; New York; the art world; Madison Art Center; Akron Art Museum; friendship and role models; Art Institute of Chicago; meeting Mies van der Rohe; meeting idols; education; Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Monster Roster; traveling; Chicago art politics; writing and critics; Eurocentric curators; Chicago as an undervalued city; Dog Day Afternoon; discovering art; New York sightings; and experiences running into artists. Adrian also recalls Roger Brown, Ruth Horwich, Gilda Buchbinder, Don Baum, Sherman Lee, Victor Carlson, Peter Voulkos, Lawrence Alloway, Rhona Hoffman, Allan Frumkin, June Leaf, Leon Golub, Jeremy Anderson, Robert Barnes, Tom Garver, Bruce Conner, Natasha Nicholson, H. C. Westermann, Franz Schulze, Bertha Harris Wiles, Muriel Newman, Aaron James Spire, Lillian Florsheim, John Maxon, Greg Knight, P.B. Maryan, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Sleigh, Nancy Spero, Irving Petlin, John Coplans, Alan Artner, Alice Shaddle, Phyllis Kind, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Tilda Swinton, Leo Castelli, Philip Guston, Dubuffet, Pussy Pepke, Bumpy Rogers, Barbara Rossi, Christina Ramberg, Philip Hanson, Miyoko Ito, Mark Jackson, Rolf Achilles, and Vito Acconci.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Dennis Adrian (1937- ) is an art critic, educator, and curator in Chicago, Illinois. Lanny Silverman (1947- ) is a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Existence and Location of Copies
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
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.

Digital Content


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art, American -- Illinois -- Chicago Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art critics -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- History Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art thefts -- Europe Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Curators -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Acconci, Vito, 1940- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Achilles, Rolf Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Alloway, Lawrence, 1926-1990 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Anderson, Jeremy, 1921-1982 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Artner, Alan G. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Barnes, Robert, 1934- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Baum, Don, 1922- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Botticelli, Sandro, 1444 or 1445-1510 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Brown, Roger, 1941-1997 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Carlson, Victor I. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Castelli, Leo Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Conner, Bruce, 1933-2008 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Coplans, John Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cornell, Joseph Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dubuffet Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Florsheim, Lillian H. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Frumkin, Allan Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Garver, Thomas H. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Golub, Leon, 1922-2004 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Guston, Philip, 1913-1980 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hanson, Philip, 1943- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hoffman, Rhona, 1934- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ito, Miyoko, 1918-1983 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kind, Phyllis, 1933-2018 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Leaf, June, 1929- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lee, Sherman E. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Maxon, John, 1916- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Newman, Muriel Kallis Steinberg Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nicholson, Natasha, 1945- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pearlstein, Philip, 1924- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Petlin, Irving, 1934-2018 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ramberg, Christina Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rossi, Barbara, 1940- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Schulze, Franz, 1927-2019 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sleigh, Sylvia Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Spero, Nancy, 1926-2009 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Swinton, Tilda Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Voulkos, Peter, 1924-2002 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Westermann, H. C. (Horace Clifford), 1922- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wiles, Bertha Harris, 1896- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Akron Art Museum Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art Institute of Chicago Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chicago's Art-Related Archival Materials: A Terra Foundation Resource Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Madison Art Center Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, Ill.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New York University Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Portland Art Museum (Or.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
University of Chicago -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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