Oral history interview with Ralph Coburn
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 36 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Coburn, Ralph, 1923-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Boris Mirski Gallery (Boston, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- Students
label: Names
content: Kelly, Ellsworth, 1923-
label: Names
content: Nelson, Carl Gustaf, 1898-1988
label: Names
content: Netsch, Walter
label: Names
content: Plaut, James S. (James Sachs), 1912-1996
label: Names
content: Polonsky, Arthur
label: Names
content: Saltonstall, Nathaniel, 1903-1968
label: Names
content: Swetzoff, Hyman Wulf, 1920-1968
label: Names
content: Wilson, John, 1922-2015
label: Names
content: Zerbe, Karl, 1903-1972
topic: label: Occupation
content: Architects -- Massachusetts
label: Topic
content: Architecture -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Designers -- Massachusetts -- Gloucester -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Gloucester -- Interviews
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: Coburn, Ralph, 1923-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ralph Coburn (1923- ) is an architect, painter, and designer currently living in Gloucester, Massahusetts.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 48 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1995 May 25-June 23
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.coburn95
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Ralph Coburn conducted 1995 May 25 and 1995 June 23, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art, in Coburn's home, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Coburn talks about his parents and his childhood in Miami Beach, Florida; his early schooling; and entering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1941, in its 5-year architecture program. He recalls Walter Netsch, a classmate at MIT, who later became a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who introduced Coburn to modern design and to avant-garde music. He also recalls the painter and head of painting at the Museum of Fine Arts School, Karl Zerbe, his teacher in the course of his work for advanced MIT architecture students. He talks about his return to Florida as a draftsman for an aircraft equipment company in Miami, outfitting planes for the African campaign, and his foreman, a son of Al Capone; then returning to Massachusetts to work with an electrical company making secret military components.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Coburn discusses returning to and dropping out of MIT; working at the Institute of Modern Art in Boston through Hyman Swetzoff; following Swetzoff to the Boris Mirski Gallery; studying at Mirski's art school with Esther Geller and John Wilson and friends made at the school, including Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Polonsky, and Reed Kaye. He recalls Carl Nelson, one of his teachers. He talks about the change in atmosphere at the Institute with the replacement of Thomas Metcalf by James Plaut and Nathaniel Saltonstall who changed the Institute's name to Institute of Contemporary Art and the protest surrounding the name change.