Nitze, Paul H.
(Show Bio)Oral history interview with Paule H. Nitze, 1996 Apr. 30
1 sound cassette (60 min.) : analog.
An interview of Paul H. Nitze conducted by Liza Kirwin and Richard Wattenmaker at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 1996. Nitze mainly recalls his acquaintance with Alexander Calder and Isamu Noguchi.
He discusses meeting Calder in Berlin, Germany at the opening of a Calder exhibition in 1929; how Calder moved to Nitze's Berlin pension and they "became pals" that first day; their plans to bicycle to Russia with other friends; sharing an apartment with Calder in New York City; a performance of the Circus there and how "everybody loved him"; and Calder's courtship and marriage to Louisa James.
He talks about meeting Noguchi through Sidney Spivak and how Noguchi made a bronze head of Nitze as re-payment for his support; and Noguchi's "instinct for making things acceptable to the modern art world."
Nitze also discusses his early desire to be an art dealer and pursuing that career in Paris until he realized that "the whole profession was a bunch of crooks"; his own art collection and how, at age 15, he bought two paintings by Austrian Hans Grüss, and later acquired works by Degas, Van Gogh, and Monet.
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.
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