Oral history interview with A. Alfred Taubman
name: label: Interviewee
content: Taubman, A. Alfred
label: Interviewer
content: Berman, Avis
label: Names
content: Art Collectors: A Project in Partnership with the Center for the History of Collecting in America at The Frick Collection
label: Names
content: Acquavella, William R.
label: Names
content: Hoffmann, Josef Franz Maria, 1870-1956
label: Names
content: Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997
label: Names
content: Meier, Richard, 1934-
label: Names
content: Pei, I. M., 1917-
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Michigan
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: Taubman, A. Alfred
label: Interviewer
content: Berman, Avis
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Interviewee A. Alfred Taubman (1924-2015) was an art collector, entrepreneur, and philanthropist in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Interviewer Avis Berman (1949- ) is an art historian and author in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (Sound recording: 2 sound files (2 hr., 28 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 53 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on an Olympus WS-300M.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2013 June 6 - July 13
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.taubma13
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 oral history interview with A. Alfred Taubman 2013 June 6-July 13, conducted by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Taubman speaks of growing up in Pontiac; Michigan, his love of drawing; attending the University of Michigan; his early interest in architecture; collecting stamps; his father's involvement with farming; importance of learning drawing; his experiences with dyslexia; moving to Detroit and having kids; collecting artwork; meeting artists and dealers; his involvement with the Detroit Institute of Arts; financial troubles in Detroit; Detroit history; Josef Hoffmann furniture; his time in jail; Sotheby's financial trouble and selling works of art; his children and grandchildren; his houses; displaying artwork; his interest in sculpture; the competition of collecting; sculptures in shopping malls; his friendship with Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein; collecting artwork and working with William R. Acquavella; his time owning Sotheby's and its impact on collecting; missing out on purchasing a blue period Picasso; collecting in depth and types of work he doesn't often collect; Russian artwork; Ms. Taubman's collecting interests; his time on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art; working with I.M. Pei; commissioning Richard Meier to build a house; and changes that he brought to Sotheby's. Taubman also recalls Carlos Lopez, Reva Kolodney, Barbara Fleischman, Bill Poplack, Richard Bellamy, Leo Castelli, Green Gallery, Henry Geldzahler, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark di Suvero, James Rosenquist, OK Harris Gallery, Antoine Poncét, Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Detroit Institute of Arts, Coleman Young, Richard Gerstl, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Michael Graves, Jean Arp, John Chamberlain, College for Creative Studies, Sam Sachs, Arman, Crutchfield, Paul von Ringelheim, Roy Lichtenstein, Seymour Evans, Richard Feigen, Illeana Sonnabend, Larry Gagosian, Pablo Picasso, Niarchos, Balthus, Edward Hopper, Marsha Miro, Tom Armstrong, I.M. Pei, Vincent Ponte, and Richard Meier.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds the papers of A. Alfred Taubman.