Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Peter Shire

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.shire07
Creators:
Shire, Peter
Lauria, Jo
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Dates:
2007 September 18-19
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
77 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Peter Shire conducted 2007 September 18-19, by Jo Lauria, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Shire's studio, in Los Angeles, California.
Scope and Contents
Shire speaks of being a native Californian; his childhood growing up in the Los Angeles community of Echo Park; his parents' socialist political ideas; memories of FBI surveillance of his home and parents; defining the term kitsch as "the substitution of spurious values for real ones," using plastic flowers as an example; the essence of the craft movement as the handmade, the real; attending Saturday classes at Chouinard Art Institute while in high school; clothing fashion in his neighborhood during the late 1960s; the influence of high school teacher Anthony Scaccia; attending Los Angeles City College for one semester; discovering Domus magazine in the school library; receiving his B.F.A. from Chouinard in 1970; teaching at InterPace; being inspired by H.C. Westermann's work; traveling to Milan, Italy and visiting Ettore Sottsass; his interest in a humanistic, personal expression in art; encountering resistance to his "art furniture"; his 2007 show at Frank Lloyd Gallery, "Peter Shire Chairs"; the desire to create a total spatial experience of his work by charging the everyday function of objects with an emotional impact; and his public art commissions. Shire also recalls Gonzalo Duran, Juanita Jiminez, Millard Sheets, Adrian Saxe, Wendy Maruyama, Gary Knox Bennett, Marco Zanini, Matteo Thun, Aldo Cibic, Robert Koshalek, and others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Peter Shire (1947- ) is a sculptor from Los Angeles, California. Jo Lauria is a curator and arts writer also from Los Angeles, California.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. 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
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
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

More Information

General

General
Originally recorded as 13 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 8 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Sculptors -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Decorative arts Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Saxe, Adrian Anthony, 1943- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scaccia, Anthony Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bennett, Garry Knox, 1934- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sheets, Millard, 1907-1989 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Duran, Gonzalo Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jiminez, Juanita Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Maruyama, Wendy, 1952- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kashalek, Robert Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Zanini, Marco Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Thun, Matteo Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cibic, Aldo, 1955- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Westermann, H. C. (Horace Clifford), 1922- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Los Angeles City College -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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