Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Michael St. Clair

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.stclai94
Creators:
St. Clair, Michael, 1912-1999
Stavitsky, Gail, 1954-
Driscoll, John Paul
Dates:
1994 March 14 and April 28
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
44 Pages
Transcript
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
An interview of Michael St. Clair conducted 1994 March 14- 1994 April 28, by Gail Stavitsky and John Driscoll, for the Archives of American Art.
Scope and Contents
St. Clair briefly discusses his art training at the Kansas City Institute of Art and at the Art Students League and compares the teaching styles of Thomas Hart Benton and George Grosz. He talks about his work as the director of the Oklahoma (City) Art Center and designing window displays for Macy's and other department stores in New York City. Finally, he reviews his career at Babcock Galleries, focusing his discussion on his acquisition of the work of Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, John Kensett, and Thomas Eakins, among others.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Michael St. Clair (1912-1999) was an art dealer of New York, N.Y.

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.
Existence and Location of Copies
Transcript available online.
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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Art Dealers Association of America.

Digital Content


Using the Collection

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

More Information

General

General
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 42 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art students -- Kansas -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Babcock Galleries Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kansas City Institute of Art Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oklahoma Art Center Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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