Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 43 p.

Format: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 2 min.

Summary: An interview of Jane Piper conducted 1988 Jan. 16-17, by Barbara Wolanin, for the Archives of American Art. Piper speaks of her training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, her studies with Arthur B. Carles and Hans Hofmann and of Carles' influence on her. Piper describes Carles' classes, his teaching methods, as well as Carles' stroke and his final unsuccessful attempt to exhibit at Princeton before his death. Piper speaks about her career as a teacher and as an artist, her exhibition history, her working methods and the development of her painting, particularly the importance of color and the move between abstraction and representational painting.

Biographical/Historical Note

Jane Piper (1916-1991) was a painter from Philadelphia, Pa.

Provenance

These interviews are 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

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 Jane Piper, 1988 Jan. 16-17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.