Oral history interview with Sidney Gordin
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 1 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Gordin, Sidney, 1918-1996
label: Interviewer
content: Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994
label: Names
content: Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art -- Students
label: Names
content: Pratt Institute -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Harrison, Wallace, 1900-
label: Names
content: Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966
label: Names
content: Jewell, Edward Alden, 1888-1947
label: Names
content: Kantor, Morris, 1896-1974
label: Names
content: Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973
label: Names
content: Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956
label: Names
content: Rosenborg, Ralph M., 1913-1992
label: Names
content: Thomas, Byron, 1902-1978
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- California -- Berkeley -- Interviews
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- California -- Berkeley
label: Topic
content: Art, American
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- California -- Berkeley -- Interviews
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 others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Gordin, Sidney, 1918-1996
label: Interviewer
content: Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Sidney Gordin (1918-1996) was a sculptor and educator from Berkeley, Calif.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 23 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1965 Sept. 2
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.gordin65
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 Sidney Gordin conducted 1965 Sept. 2, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Gordin speaks of immigrating to the United States from Shanghai, China in 1922; being the class artist in grade school; attending Brooklyn Technical High School; studying at the WPA art school at the Brooklyn Museum for a summer; attending the Cooper Union School of Art; encountering Cubism; working as a commercial artist and making cartoons; teaching at the Pratt Institute; and alternating, as inspiration strikes, between painting and sculpture; and Constructivist philosophy. Gordin also mentions Ralph Rosenborg, Tom Eldred, Carol and Wallace Harrison, Edward Alden Jewell, Pablo Picasso, Byron Thomas, Morris Kantor, Hans Hofmann, Paul Clay, Jackson Pollock, and others.