Scope and Contents
An interview of Gerald Nordland conducted 2004 May 25-26, by Susan C. Larsen, for the Archives of American Art, in Chicago, Ill.
Scope and Contents
Nordland speaks about his birthplace and childhood home; parent's occupations; interests as a child; beginning interest in art history; first visits to the Los Angeles County Museum; relationship with Lincoln Kirstein; move to Yale; his book on Gaston Lachaise; attending the University of Southern California; meeting Man Ray; German sculpture; being drafted; first meeting with Richard Diebenkorn and working with Diebenkorn on a book; getting out of the Army; first paintings purchased; writing for "Frontier" magazine; the invitation to work at the Chouinard Art Institute; Institute teachers such as Richard Ruben, Robert Irwin, Don Graham; the founding of the California Institute of Arts (CalArts); classes and professors at CalArts; move to San Francisco in 1966; shows curated by Nordland on Gaston Lachaise, Fred Sommer, Peter Voulkos, Richard Diebenkorn, Burri, Caro, "African Art in Motion," Fritz Gardner, Jack Jefferson, Ed Moses, Controversial Public Art; meeting and marrying Paula Prokopoff; and other job offerings from Florida, Georgia, and California. Nordland also recalls Gifford Phillips, Mitchell Wilder, Josef Albers, Grace Moreley, Emerson Woelffer, Robert Motherwell, Arshile Gorky, Peter Voulkos, E. E. Cummings, Paul and Josephine Kantor, Adolph Gottlieb, Ynez Johnston, Richard Nickel, Clifford Still, A. E. Gallatin, Richard Diebenkorn and others. Nordland also comments on galleries including the Royer Gallery, Paul Kantor Gallery, Ferus Gallery, Landau Gallery, and others.
