Oral history interview with Jack Werner Stauffacher
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr.. 53 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Stauffacher, Jack Werner
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Names
content: Greenwood Press (San Francisco, Calif.)
label: Names
content: Stauffacher, Frank, 1914-1955
topic: label: Topic
content: Book design
label: Topic
content: Publishers and publishing
label: Topic
content: Dynaton (Group of artists)
label: Topic
content: Printing -- Technique
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are 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 the transcription of this interview provided by Pasadena Art Alliance
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Stauffacher, Jack Werner
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Jack Werner Stauffacher (1920- ) is a typographer, designer, and publisher from San Francisco, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 38 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1993 February 8
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.stauff93
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript available on line
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Jack Stauffacher conducted 1993 February 8, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Stauffacher speaks of his childhood in San Mateo, California and his early interest in printing; his collaboration with his older brother, Frank, a filmmaker, and his contacts through him with other experimental filmmakers including Man Ray and Oskar Fischinger; his developing interest in post-war modernism; and his connection with avant-garde group around "Circle Magazine" in Berkeley which included Henry Miller, Kenneth Rexroth, among others.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He recounts his friendships with Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Sam Francis, Hassel Smith, and Gordon Cook; his army experience and meeting Lee Mullican; the founding of the Dynaton with Wolfgang Paalen and Gordon Onslow-Ford; the preparation and printing of the Dynaton Catalog at Greenwood Press; the 1951 film of the exhibition by his brother; the changes and breakup of Dynaton; working on artists' books such as Francis' Lapis Press; and his interest in the history of type and its connections to the classical tradition in Greenwood's printing of Phaedrus, 1976 and Horace, 1992.