Adams, Clinton, b. 1918 d. 2002

Oral history interview with Clinton Adams, 1995 Aug. 2-3

Sound recordings: 4 sound cassettes (60 min. each) : analog.
Transcript: 149 p.

An interview of Clinton Adams conducted at his home in Albuquerque, N.M. by Paul Karlstrom for the Archives of American Art.

Adams discusses his family background; involvement in Hollywood "industry"; teaching at University of California, Los Angeles; service during WWII; first contact with New York's Museum of Modern Art; his decision to return to California; teaching painting at UCLA from 1946-1954, and friends and colleagues at that time including Lorser Feitelson, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Lynton R. Kistler and Annita Delano; the difficult political situation at UCLA and the "modernist" conflicts; his views on modernist and conservative groups; Stanton Macdonald-Wright; Adams' own work; his relationship to the ideas and nature of modernism; the Sanity in Art group and other art groups in Los Angeles; his opinion on which artists should have been included in the exhibition/catalogue "Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists"; his observations on art historical constructs; the history of New Mexican art; the idea of regionalism; the mythology of Santa Fe, N.M.; Southwestern art; the Tamarind Lithography Workshop during its New Mexico phase, its background and changes after the move from Los Angeles to the University of New Mexico, his fifteen years as director, major artists involved, and his desire to publish overlooked artists. Adams recalls Fritz Scholder, John Altoon, Leonard Edmondson, Ynez Johnston, Vincent Price, Jules Langsner, and Rico Lebrun.

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 others. Funding for the transcription provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance.

How to Use this Interview

• Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
• Transcript available on line at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/adams95.htm
• A transcript of this interview is available online.
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Also in the Archives:

• Clinton Adams papers, 1934-2002
• Oral history interview with Clinton Adams, 1974 Mar. 29