Oral history interview with Regina Vater
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound discs and 1 compact disc. Duration is 5 hr., 10 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Vater, Regina
label: Interviewer
content: Cordova, Cary
label: Creator
content: Recuerdos Orales: Interviews of the Latino Art Community in Texas
label: Names
content: Recuerdos Orales: Interviews of the Latino Art Community in Texas
label: Names
content: Ashton, Dore
label: Names
content: Calle, Sophie
label: Names
content: Castelli, Leo
label: Names
content: Clark, Lygia, 1920-
label: Names
content: Diaz, Antonio
label: Names
content: Escobar, Ruth.
label: Names
content: Lippard, Lucy R.
label: Names
content: Lundberg, Bill, 1942-
label: Names
content: Mendieta, Ana, 1948-1985
label: Names
content: Moorman, Charlotte
label: Names
content: Oiticica, Hélio, 1937-1980.
label: Names
content: Orozco, Sylvia, 1954-
label: Names
content: Paik, Nam June, 1932-
label: Names
content: Parra, Catalina
label: Names
content: Pereira dos Santos, Nelson
label: Names
content: Pitanga, Antonio, 1939-
label: Names
content: Porter, Liliana, 1941-
label: Names
content: Schaeffer, Frank
label: Names
content: Schenberg, Mário
label: Names
content: Vergara, Carlos, 1941-
label: Names
content: Viola, Bill, 1951-
label: Names
content: Wilson, Bobby
label: Names
content: Wilson, Martha, 1947-
topic: label: Topic
content: Curators -- Texas
label: Topic
content: Multimedia (Art)
label: Topic
content: Cinéma vérité
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
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: Vater, Regina
label: Interviewer
content: Cordova, Cary
label: Creator
content: Recuerdos Orales: Interviews of the Latino Art Community in Texas
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Regina Vater (1943-) is a Brazilian born multimedia artist from Austin, Texas. Cary Cordova (1970-) is an art historian from Austin, Texas.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 67 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2004 February 23-25
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.vater04
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 Regina Vater conducted 2004 February 23-25, by Cary Cordova, for the Archives of American Art, in her home in Austin, Texas.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Vater speaks of her childhood in Copacabana, Ipanema, south of Rio de Janeiro; her father's career as a physician; her Basque, Portuguese, and Jewish heritage; her early education including early experiences with Greek philosophy; her parents' reaction to her desire to be an artist; her great-grandfather's translation of Virgil and Homer into Portuguese; her study abroad in France in 1972; her move to New York in the mid-1970s; her motivations for various works of art, including the series Gentle Solitude, Three Chinese Monkeys, Luxo Lixo, Electronic Nature, The Knots, Tina America, and "O Que e Arte?"; her Guggenheim fellowship in 1981; the 1976 Whitney Biennial; her marriage to video installation artist Bill Lundberg; her move to Austin, Tex.; her work with the Franklin Furnace Gallery and Flue magazine; her involvement with "cinema verité"; making films with Ruth Escobar; her travels in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lima, Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia; her perception of the emotional differences between Latinos and Americans; her love of Brazilian culture; her own classification of her work and potential reasons for the lack of scholarship on her work; her activities as a curator including the 1984 show "Latin American Visual Thinking," at the Art Awareness Gallery in New York, N.Y.; difficulties with the Brazilian government in attempting to bring her film Green into that country; her love of poetry, especially concrete poetry; and the spirituality of her work. Vater also recalls Helio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Frank Schaeffer, Antonio Diaz, Carlos Vergara, Rubens Gerschman, Mario Schemberg, Lucy Lippard, Augustos de Campos, John Cage, Joseph Beuys, Quentin Fiore, Tomasso Trinino, Bill Lundberg [the artist's husband], Leo Castelli, Dore Ashton, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Sophie Calle, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Ruth Escobar, Antonio Pitanga, Bobby Wilson, Sylvia Orozco, Bill Viola, Ana Mendieta, Martha Wilson, Catalina Parra, Liliana Porter, and others.