Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 177 p.

Format: Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr.

Summary: An interview of Ida Kohlmeyer conducted 1989 May 17-20, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art.

Kohlmeyer discusses how she became an artist, her training, her marriage, the New Orleans art scene, her teaching and students, her work in sculpture, and the "Clusters and Circus" series. She recalls Pat Trivigno, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Clyfford Still, James Johnson Sweeney, Luba Glade, and Ruth White.

Biographical/Historical Note

Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997) was a painter from New Orleans, La.

Provenance

This interview is part of the Archives' 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 this interview provided by the Lannan Foundation.

Funding

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.

pages i, ii, iii re: George Rickey and audio cassettes ACCESS RESTRICTED Written permission required.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ida Kohlmeyer, 1989 May 17-20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.