Oral history interview with Avram Finkelstein

Summary

Collection ID:: AAA.finkel16
Creators:: Finkelstein, Avram, 1952-
Carr, C.
Dates:: 2016 April 25-May 23
Languages:: English
Physical Description:: 23 Items
sound files (7 hrs.)
digital, wav
148 Pages
Transcript
Repository:: Archives of American Art

Scope and Contents

An interview with Avram Finkelstein conducted 2016 April 25-May 23, by Cynthia Carr, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Finkelstein's home and studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Scope and Contents

Finkelstein speaks of his childhood on Long Island; attending the School of the Museum of fine Arts in Boston; moving to New York in the late 1970s; losing his first partner, Don Yowell, to AIDS; the genesis and distribution of his many AIDS activist posters; the beginnings and actions of ACT UP and Gran Fury; the context of the 1990s culture wars; the mishandling of HIV/AIDS as a public health issue in the 1980s and 1990s; his personal transformation as a result of living through the AIDS crisis; and his work on Flash Collective. Finkelstein also recalls Nan Goldin, David Armstrong, P.L. DiCorcia, Jorge Socarras, Lou Molette, Richard Goldstein, Larry Kramer, Chris Lione, Simon Doonan, Mark Simpson, Don Moffett, Todd Haynes, Robert Vasquez, Loring McAlpin, Michael Nesline, Tom Kalin, Amy Heard, Mark Harrington, Richard Deagle, Julie Tolentino, Lola Flash, Davod Meieran, Patrick Moore, Maria Maggenti, Sean Strub, Eric Sawyer, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Avram Finkelstein (1952- ) is an artist, writer, and activist in New York, New York. Cynthia Carr (1950- ) is a writer in New York, New York.

Administration

Existence and Location of Copies

Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.

Author

Sponsor

Funded by the Keith Haring Foundation.

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.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms	Keyword Types
AIDS (Disease) and the arts	Topic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews	Topic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Gay activists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews	Topic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Gay artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews	Topic	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings	Type	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews	Type	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid
Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project	Corporate Name	Search Smithsonian Collections	Search ArchiveGrid

Repository Contact

Archives of American Art

750 9th Street, NW

Victor Building, Suite 2200

Washington, D.C. 20001

https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions

https://www.aaa.si.edu/