Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Fleur Bresler

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.bresle18
Creators:
Bresler, Fleur
Adamson, Glenn
Dates:
2018 April 19
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
4 Items
sound files (3 hr., 26 min.) Audio
digital, wav
74 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview with Fleur Bresler conducted 2018 April 19, by Glenn Adamson, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, at the Bresler's home in Rockville, Maryland.
Scope and Contents
Ms. Bresler discusses being born and growing up in Washington, D.C. in the 1920s and 1930s and their family jewelry store R. Harris and Co.; aspects of being in a Jewish family in D.C. at the time of her childhood; her knitting of doll clothes and collecting of small objects as a child; her education in public schools in the D.C. area and work at the Beauvoir nursery school; her relationship with her husband Charles Bresler; the beginnings of her wooden duck decoy collection with its connections to Maryland; her and her husband's visits to the Easton Waterfowl Festival; her interest in quilts and quilt collecting. Ms. Bresler also describes first becoming interested in wood art after seeing "The Art of Turned Wood Bowls: The Edward Jacobson Collection" at the Renwick Gallery in 1986; the growing of her collection and her associations with fellow wood craft collectors; her affiliations with the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; her philanthropic efforts and her and her family's plans for the legacy of her collections; and the commissioning and installation of a large table by Danny Laine. Ms. Bresler also recalls Jean McLaughlin; Senator Joseph McCarthy; Rude Osolnik; Stella Rubin; Martha Connell; Veena Singh; Albert LeCoff. As well as Irv Lipton; Charles Hummel; Nicholas Bell; Mia Hall; Judy Weisman; and David Sengel, among others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Fleur Bresler (1926- ) is a collector of American craft and decorative arts in Rockville, Maryland. Glenn Adamson (1972- ) is a curator in Brooklyn, New York.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by Barbara Fleischman.
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


Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
System Details
Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII 00327.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art patronage -- Maryland Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Maryland -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Handicraft Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women art collectors Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art Collectors: A Project in Partnership with the Center for the History of Collecting in America at The Frick Collection Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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