Oral history interview with Willard Cummings
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 19 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Cummings, Willard Warren, 1915-1975
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
label: Names
content: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
label: Names
content: Hale, Philip Leslie, 1865-1931
label: Names
content: Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970
label: Names
content: Peirce, Waldo, 1884-1970
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Maine -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Cummings, Willard Warren, 1915-1975
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Willard Cummings (1915-1975) was a painter from New York, New York and Maine.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 82 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1973 March 20
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cummin73
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 Willard Cummings conducted 1973 March 20, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Cummings speaks of his family and its interests in art and theater; moving to Boston and his early education there; studying with Anna Ladd and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts; his two years in Paris; going to Skowhegan during the Depression; the Art Students League and the Grand Central School; his interests in portrait painting and sculpture; his Yale art school experience; some early portrait subjects; exhibitions of his work; commercial art jobs he was involved in; his New York studio and friends in the mid-1930s; collecting American primitives; his U.S. Army service; the start of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1946; the organization of the school; his own painting technique and some portrait subjects. He recalls Philip Hale, Waldo Peirce and Edith Halpert.