Oral history interview with Paul H. Nitze
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 44 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Nitze, Paul H.
label: Interviewer
content: Kirwin, Liza
label: Interviewer
content: Wattenmaker, Richard J.
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art patrons -- 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: Interviewee
content: Nitze, Paul H.
label: Interviewer
content: Kirwin, Liza
label: Interviewer
content: Wattenmaker, Richard J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Paul H. Nitze (1907-2004) is a statesman, author, art patron, and collector from Washington, D.C.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Item (sound cassette (60 min.), analog.)
label: Extent
content: 62 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1996 Apr. 30
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.nitze96
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 is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Paul H. Nitze conducted 1996 Apr. 30, by Liza Kirwin and Richard Wattenmaker, for the Archives of American Art's Oral History Program, at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Nitze mainly recalls his acquaintance with Alexander Calder and Isamu Noguchi. He discusses meeting Calder in Berlin, Germany at the opening of a Calder exhibition in 1929; how Calder moved to Nitze's Berlin pension and they "became pals" that first day; their plans to bicycle to Russia with other friends; sharing an apartment with Calder in New York City; a performance of the Circus there and how "everybody loved him"; and Calder's courtship and marriage to Louisa James. Nitze talks about meeting Noguchi through Sidney Spivak and how Noguchi made a bronze head of Nitze as re-payment for his support; and Noguchi's "instinct for making things acceptable to the modern art world." He also discusses his early desire to be an art dealer and pursuing that career in Paris until he realized that "the whole profession was a bunch of crooks"; his own art collection and how, at age 15, he bought two paintings by Austrian Hans Grüss, and later acquired works by Degas, Van Gogh, and Monet.