Oral history interview with Peter Howard Selz
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 1 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- California -- Berkeley -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century
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: Interviewee
content: Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019 ) was a curator and art historian from Berkeley, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 25 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1999 November 3
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.selz99
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available on line
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Peter Selz conducted 1999 November 3, by Paul J. Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Selz's home, Berkeley, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: This interview was conducted at Selz's request to provide a narrative conversation for a catalogue to accompany "Cross-Currents in Modern Art: A Tribute to Peter Selz," an exhibition at Achim Moeller Gallery in New York City, February 2 to March 3, 2000.
label: Scope and Contents
content: The interview focused on Selz's career as an art historian, and on the subject of modernism, with particular attention to Selz's writings and the many exhibitions in which less familiar artists (German Expressionists, Klimt, Schiele, Californians, Leon Golub, other figurative painters) and even movements (Art Nouveau, Futurism, Exhibition Momentum, Funk) were introduced. Selz discussed teaching at Moholy-Nagy's New Bauhaus in Chicago; his divergent ideas from more typical mainstream thinking about modernism primarily in formalist terms; his views on and understanding of modern art through his teaching and as a museum curator (Museum of Modern Art, NYC) and director (University Art Museum, Berkeley).