Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 17 pages

Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 41 min.

Summary: An interview of Nicholas Brigante conducted 1964 May 25, by Betty Hoag for the Archives of American Art.

Brigante speaks of his work on the watercolor easel project for the Federal Art Project; his background and the influence of Chinese painting; his association with the Los Angeles Art Students League; other artists involved in the project; the project's effect on the community, and on the careers of artists. He recalls Ben Berlin, Val Costello and Stanton Macdonald-Wright.

Biographical/Historical Note

Nicholas P. Brigante (1895-1989) was a painter in Los Angeles, California.

Provenance

This interview 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 3418 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Nicholas Brigante, 1964 May 25. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.