Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 114 pages

Format: Originally recorded on 6 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 17 min.

Summary: An interview of Bill Viola conducted 2003 October 30-2004 January 14, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art, in Viola's home/office.

Viola discusses his earliest childhood memories of growing up in Queens, N.Y.; his education and work. He recalls Jack Nelson, composer David Tudor, David Ross at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY, Nam June Paik, Mario Merz and Vito Acconci, and Kira Perov and other artists.

Biographical/Historical Note

Bill Viola (1951- ) is a video artist of Long Beach, California. Interviewer Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.

Provenance

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

Funding for this interview provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance. 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.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Bill Viola, 2003 October 30-2004 January 14. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.