Dorothy Gees Seckler Collection of Sound Recordings Relating to Art and Artists, 1962-1976

Series contains 17 interviews with artists by Dorothy Seckler, and one interview conducted by John Jones, on 16 sound cassettes and 18 sound tape reels. Seckler seems to have conducted most of the interviews for specific writing projects, although the reason for interviews is not known in every case. Several interviews are with two subjects interviewed together. Many of these interviews were conducted in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and are referenced in her introduction to the catalog for the exhibition held at the Everson Museum and the Provincetown Art Association in 1977. Several interviews were conducted as research for articles Seckler wrote and published in , including the Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell interviews (for "The artist in America: victim of the culture boom?" December 1963) and the Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle interview (for "Audience is his medium," February 1963). The interview with George Segal conducted by John Jones was borrowed by Seckler from the Archives of American Art in advance of her April 1966 interview with Segal.

Several group interviews are found on specific subjects, including an interview with Julio de Diego, Marion Greenwood, Fletcher Martin, and Anton Refregier on the Woodstock art colony, and with Sally Avery, Boris Margo, Jan Gelb, Margit Beck and others on Op Art. A 1965 symposium on pop art, which included Seckler as a speaker, is referenced here in a recording of audio notes Seckler made in preparation for the discussion. Also found is Seckler's recording made during a performance of Andy Warhol's in Provincetown in September 1966, which includes a performance by Nico and the Velvet Underground, as well as an interview with one of the band's members, John Cale.

Arrangement is roughly alphabetical by interview subject. Subjects sometimes appear out of order when multiple interviews occur on the same tape. An interview with Joan Mitchell, which forms part of the Archives of American Art's Oral History Collection, appears on the same tape is the group interview on op art, and is physically filed with that item but described elsewhere in the Archives' catalog.

A transcript of the John Jones interview with George Segal is found in the John Jones interviews with artists collection, 1965 Oct. 5-1965 Nov. 12, available through interlibrary loan on microfilm reel 3949.