Oral history interview with Luchita Hurtado
name: label: Interviewee
content: Hurtado, Luchita, 1920-2020
label: Interviewer
content: Winter, Amy H. (Amy Harriet)
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Names
content: Bloch, Lucienne, 1909-1999
label: Names
content: D'Harnoncourt, Rene, 1901-1968
label: Names
content: Kozloff, Joyce
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl, 1905-
label: Names
content: Mullican, Lee, 1919-1998
label: Names
content: Mullican, Matt, 1951-
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Names
content: Paalen, Wolfgang, 1907-
label: Names
content: Varda, Jean
label: Names
content: Wescher, Mary
label: Names
content: Wescher, Paul, 1894-
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- California
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New Mexico
label: Topic
content: Surrealism
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Margery and Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund of New York.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Hurtado, Luchita, 1920-2020
label: Interviewer
content: Winter, Amy H. (Amy Harriet)
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Luchita Hurtado (1920-2020) was a painter from Santa Monica, Calif. and Arroyo Seco, N.M. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Sound cassettes (Sound recording (4 hrs., 15 min.), analog)
label: Extent
content: 120 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1994 May 1-1995 Apr. 13
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.hurtad94
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
label: Type
content: Pages
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Venezuelan born American paitner, Luchita Hurtado, conducted 1994 May 1-1995 Apr. 13, by Amy Winter and Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project.
label: Scope and Contents
content: 1994 May 1 session: The interview focuses on Hurtado's family background; years with her second husband, artist and collector Wolfgang Paalen; the surrealist artist group, Dynaton, living and traveling in Mexico with Paalen, moving to San Francisco and her relationships with artists, collectors; influences on her painting; and Surrealism. Among those mentioned are Rufino and Olga Tamayo, Isamu Noguchi, Gordon Onslow Ford, Jacqueline Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varos, Leonora Carrington, Edward James, Lucienne Bloch, Stephen Dimitroff, Grace McCann Morley, Sybil Moholy-Nagy, Jack and Frank Stauffacher, James Broughton, Rene d'Harnoncourt, Julius Karlebach, Herbert (Joe) Spinden, and Robert Motherwell.
label: Scope and Contents
content: April 13, 1995 session: Hurtado continues with a focus on the California years, discussing her reasons for settling there, the Dynaton group and her circle of friends; her third husband, Lee Mullican; the birth of her son Matthew Mullican; her work; California and Mexican imagery; importance of experience and senses, particularly smell, to her creativity and work; importance of her family; and difficulties of pursuing art as a career for a woman, wife and mother; and life in Taos, N.M. She recalls Jean Varda, Shiela and Giles Healey, Mary and Paul Wescher, and Joyce Kozloff.