Oral history interview with Louis Bunce, 1965 October 29

Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 26 pages

Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 1 hr., 4 min.

Summary: An interview of Louis Bunce conducted 1965 October 29, by Dorothy Bestor, for the Archives of American Art.

Bunce speaks of his early art training; WPA mural projects he was involved in; the Northwest art scene in the 1930s; his WPA colleagues; how subject matter was selected for the murals; public perception of the project; the dispersal of the work produced by the Federal Art Project; leaving the Northwest, going to New York and getting on the mural project there; and the project's impact on the careers of artists.

Biographical/Historical Note

Louis Bunce (1907-1983) was a painter, printmaker, educator, and mural painter in Portland, Oregon.

Provenance

Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Transcript: microfilm reel 3949 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Transcript: Use requires an appointment.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Louis Bunce, 1965 October 29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.