Oral history interview with Charles R. Strong
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 49 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Strong, Charles, 1938-
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
topic: label: Topic
content: Artists -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area
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. Funding for this interview is provided by The Martin Foundation.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Strong, Charles, 1938-
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Charles Strong (1938- ) is a curator, painter, and graphic artist of San Francisco, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 58 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1998 March 14-30
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.strong98
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 Charles Strong conducted 1998 March 14 and 30, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Karlstrom's home, San Francisco, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Strong discusses his background and early years growing up in Greeley, Colorado; his interest in California and abstract expressionism leading him to enroll at San Francisco Art Institute; his experience at SFAI, including teachers, students, and the independence to develop his own direction; New York vs. San Francisco styles and the myth of west coast abstraction imitating New York; his reasons for staying in California; main influences in his art; his admiration for the Old Master artists; the resolution of the conflict between control and intuition on his own work; the differences between northern and southern California abstraction, and the central role of Bay Area abstraction in the west; and his early work. The interview concludes with Strong's accounts of his approach and goals, his imagery, and his ongoing desires to get at what he sees as the "essence" of Abstract Expressionism.