Oral history interview with Raimonds Staprans
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 7 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 14 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hr.. 20 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Staprāns, Raimonds, 1926-
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Names
content: Maxwell Galleries
label: Names
content: Diebenkorn, Richard, 1922-1993
label: Names
content: Thiebaud, Wayne
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Washington (State) -- Seattle
label: Topic
content: Painters -- California -- California -- San Francisco -- 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.
label: Provenance
content: Funding for this interview provided by the Jewish Communal Fund.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Staprāns, Raimonds, 1926-
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Raimonds Staprans (1926-) is a painter and playwright from San Francisco, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 107 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1997 August 14-September 15
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.stapra97
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Raimonds Staprans conducted 1997 August 14-1997 September 15, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art. The sessions were held in Karlstrom's San Francisco office.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Staprans discusses his family background; earliest childhood memories of growing up in Latvia; his father's persecution by Germans and Russians which ultimately led to their departure from Austria in 1947; living in Salem, Or.; attending University of Washington at Seattle and his contact there with Morris Graves, Mark Tobey, George Tsutakawa, and Alexander Archipenko; graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley; and artists he admires, including Pierre Matisse, Thomas Eakins, and Edward Hopper.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Staprans discusses at length Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn; and comparisons made to his work. He discusses his sensuality as a basis for his life and art; early gallery experiences; his thoughts on criticism and reviews; his relationship with Fred Maxwell of the Maxwell Galleries in San Francisco and how his loyalty to the gallery held back his career; stresses in his marriage and of raising children; the breakup of his marriage and immersion in painting and sculpture; his decorative works under the nom de plume Carl Ulmanes; developing feelings of dejection and cynicism which nearly ended his art career and recovering from those feelings; his playwriting career; and his views on both careers.