Oral history interview with Ben Cunningham
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 8 min.
label: General
content: Sound quality is poor.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Cunningham, Ben, 1904-1975
label: Interviewer
content: Phillips, Harlan B. (Harlan Buddington), 1920-1979
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Artists' Congress
label: Names
content: Federal Art Project (Calif.)
label: Names
content: Federal Theater Project
label: Names
content: Index of American Design
label: Names
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Danysh, Joseph A., 1906-1982
label: Names
content: Gaskin, William, 1892-1968
label: Names
content: Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966
topic: label: Topic
content: Art and state
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: Muralists -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
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: Cunningham, Ben, 1904-1975
label: Interviewer
content: Phillips, Harlan B. (Harlan Buddington), 1920-1979
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ben Cunningham (1904-1975) was a painter, educator, and mural painter in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 52 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1964 October 24
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cunnin64
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The original transcript was edited. In 2021 the Archives retranscribed the original audio and attempted to create a verbatim transcript. Additional information from the original transcript that seemed relevant was added in brackets and given an –Ed. attribution. This interview was audited and edited by Ellen Brooks in 2025.
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 interview of Ben Cunningham conducted 1964 October 24, by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Cunningham speaks of his early career in San Francisco during the Depression; the art market there; working as a muralist in the Federal Art Project; political and media problems encountered by the project, including strikes by workers; the work of the Index of American Design in California; working on naval architecture during Work War II; and his philosophies about painting. He recalls Joseph Danysh, William Gaskin, and Hilaire Hiler.