Oral history interview with Emerson Woelffer
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 50 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Woelffer, Emerson, 1914-2003
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Names
content: Art Schools in California Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles, Calif.)
label: Names
content: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
label: Names
content: Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.)
label: Names
content: Otis Art Institute
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- California
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: Woelffer, Emerson, 1914-2003
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Emerson Woelffer (1914-2003) was a painter and educator from Los Angeles, California. One of the leading senior modernists working in Los Angeles, Woelffer was invited in 1960, by Mitch Wilder, to head the fine arts department at Chouinard Art Institute where he taught until it was moved to Valencia and transformed into California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
function: label: Function
content: Art Schools -- California -- Los Angeles
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 55 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1999 March 26
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.woelff99
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 Emerson Woelffer conducted 1999 March 26, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art's Art Schools in California Project, in Woelffer's studio/home, Los Angeles, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Woelffer briefly discusses his own student experience at the Art Institute of Chicago (1933-1937), and focuses more on his teaching at Moholy Nagy's Institute of Design in Chicago, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (1954-1960) where he was head of the fine arts department, and the many years in Los Angeles as an educator at Chouinard Art School (now California Art Institute) and Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design). Woelffer recalls Chouinard students who were the most "far out," among them Larry Bell, Joe Goode, and Ed Ruscha. He credited the free-wheeling stimulation of Los Angeles itself as the source for these experimental artists who were different from those in Chicago. In his final remarks, Woelffer emphasized the importance of drawing to the training of an artist.