Oral history interview with William Conger
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded as 2 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 44 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Conger, William
label: Interviewer
content: Silverman, Lanny
label: Names
content: Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Chicago's Art-Related Archival Materials: A Terra Foundation Resource
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 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: Conger, William
label: Interviewer
content: Silverman, Lanny
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Interviewee William Conger (1937- ) is a painter in Chicago, Illinois.
label: Biographical / Historical
content: Interviewer Lanny Silverman (1947-2025) was a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound files (3 hr., 44 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 79 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2015 May 18-20
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.conger15
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 with William Conger, conducted 2015 May 18-20, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Conger's home and studio in Chicago, Illinois.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Conger speaks of Dixon, IL; his family history; moving around as a kid; his parents; Chicago; going to the Art Institute as a child; his mother and her painting; deciding to be an artist; Encyclopedia Britannica; realism and technique; regionalism; highs school; Lane Tech; drafting and architecture; getting into college; excellence and doing your best; University of New Mexico; Art Institute of Chicago; Grand Jatte; abstraction, New York; color and regionalism; philosophy; Montgomery Ward; Hyde Park Art Center; monster roster; pop and high art; Lion Act; To the East Were Flowing Waters; Chicago architecture; open works; Flossy's Night ; pictorial space; music; poetry; synesthesia; Abstract Expressionism; literature; Proust; Battle of Hastings; history; color; circus; improvisation; changes in the art world; education; technology; painting; gatekeepers; Chicago vs. New York; traveling; the Grand Canyon; studio practice; and impulse and final works. Conger also recalls William Boynton, William Nichols, Walter Yust, Briggs Dyer, Robert Lewis, Raymond Jonson, Elaine de Kooning, Bob Lewis, Archie Bahm, Robert Mallory, Virginio Ferrari, Ruth Duckworth, Seymour Rosofsky, Don Baum, Karl Wirsum, Ivan Albright, Larry Poon, Emil Bisttram, and Kathy Onderak.