Oral history interview with Richard Tuttle
name: label: Creator
content: Tuttle, Richard, 1941-
label: Creator
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
topic: label: Topic
content: Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Installations (Art)
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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.
creator: label: Creator
content: Tuttle, Richard, 1941-
label: Creator
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Richard Tuttle (1941- ) is a postminimalist artist and author in New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator of New York, N.Y.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3 Items (sound files (4 hrs., 4 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 59 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2016 November 14-17
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.tuttle16
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Richard Tuttle conducted 2016 November 14 and 17, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Tuttle's home in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Tuttle recalls early memories at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; his mother's influence; family background from Pennsylvania, and Celtic ancestry; discussion of Calvinism; philosophies of art schools; discussion of Japanese language, literature and philosophy; designing book covers for Graham Greene; joining the air force and being honorably discharged; friendship with Agnes Martin; observations about the landscapes and geology of New Mexico and the Lascaux caves; thoughts on Humboldt and other German philosophers, Husserl, Philipp Otto Runge, and others; Travel in Peru, and his recent exhibitions in Lima, Peru; discussion of religion, art, senses; discussion of philosophy: Epicurus, Lucretius. Tuttle speaks of his childhood; he describes his siblings and his brother serving in the Vietnam War; discussion of creativity, education and difficulty with teachers, and being a creative child; influence of his grandparents; influence of religion and German background; teachers and relationship to his childhood schools; discussion of the 2016 elections and comparison to Republican Rome and Julius Caesar; engagement in theater, and writing at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut; influence of Sam Wagstaff; Interest in Allan Kaprow; comparing Picasso and Matisse; discussion of the cultural history of Hartford; visiting New York City in high school and college and the encouragement of his high school teacher; early artworks and creation of Paper Cubes; briefly attending Cooper Union; working in the library at the Cooper Hewitt Museum; discussion of Beat poetry and Abstract Expressionism; discussion of Betty Parsons and speaking about the "invisible" in art; thoughts about color and eidos in respect to Gaugin; working at Parsons; the importance of Ad Reinhardt's work; discussion of Romanticism. Tuttle also recalls Betty Parsons, Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko, Sam Wagstaff, A. Everett Austin, Herbert Vogel, Allen Ginsberg and others.