Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Raphael Soyer

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.soyer81
Creators:
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987
Brown, Milton W. (Milton Wolf), 1911-1998
Dates:
1981 May 13-June 1
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
70 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Raphael Soyer conducted 1981 May 13-1981 June 1, by Milton Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Scope and Contents
Soyer speaks of his youth in Czarist Russia; coming to the United States in 1912; his and his brothers' early interest in art; his education at the Cooper-Union School and the National Academy of Design; early exhibitions of his work; artists who influenced him; artists whose portraits he painted; his philosophies of painting; realism in painting; subject matter which interests him; and his feelings about abstract expressionism. He recalls Guy Pène du Bois, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, John Sloan and Joseph Stella.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) was a painter from New York, New York.

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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Wyeth Endowment for American Art.
Existence and Location of Copies
Transcript available online.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These interviews are 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 others.

Digital Content


Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

More Information

General

General
Originally recorded 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 55 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Abstract expressionism Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pène Du Bois, Guy, 1884-1958 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sloan, John, 1871-1951 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stella, Joseph, 1877-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions