Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with James and Beth Arient

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.arient88
Creators:
Arient, James, 1946-
Blum, Betty
Arient, Beth, 1946-
Dates:
1988 April 27-29
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
213 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of James and Beth Arient conducted 1988 April 27-29, by Betty Blum, for the Archives of American Art.
Scope and Contents
The Arients describe their backgrounds and talk about their initial interest in art and early collecting, their philosophy of collecting, their discovery of Eskimo sculpture and their first awareness of folk art. They comment on meeting Howard Finster and their subsequent relationship with him, Finster's relationship with collector Jeff Camp, the marketability of folk art, a 1987 exhibition of part of their collection at Northern Illinois University Art Gallery, and folk art patronage. They recall William Dawson and Derek Webster.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
James Arient (1946-) and Beth Arient (1946-) are folk art collectors from Chicago, Illinois. James Arient is a dentist.

Administration

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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These interviews are part of the Archives' 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.

Digital Content


More Information

General

General
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 29 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Folk art -- Collectors and collecting -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Camp, Jeffrey Thomas, 1944- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dawson, William, 1901-1990 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Finster, Howard, 1916-2001 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Webster, Derek, 1934 - 2009 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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