Oral history interview with Katharine Kuh
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 16 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 31 digital wav files. Duration is 21 hrs., 52 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Kuh, Katharine
label: Interviewer
content: Berman, Avis
label: Creator
content: Mark Rothko and His Times Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Art Institute of Chicago
label: Names
content: Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.)
label: Names
content: First National Bank of Chicago -- Art collections
label: Names
content: Katharine Kuh Gallery (Chicago, Ill.)
label: Names
content: Mark Rothko and His Times Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Vassar College
label: Names
content: Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984
label: Names
content: Albers, Josef
label: Names
content: Albright, Ivan, 1897-1983
label: Names
content: Archipenko, Alexander, 1887-1964
label: Names
content: Arensberg, Louise S. (Louise Stevenson), 1879-1953
label: Names
content: Arensberg, Walter, 1878-1954
label: Names
content: Avery, Milton, 1885-1965
label: Names
content: Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981
label: Names
content: Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959
label: Names
content: Davis, Stuart, 1892-1964
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968
label: Names
content: Ernst, Max, 1891-1976
label: Names
content: Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966
label: Names
content: Kepes, Gyorgy, 1906-2001
label: Names
content: Klee, Paul, 1879-1940
label: Names
content: Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955
label: Names
content: Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 1886-1969
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946
label: Names
content: Mérida, Carlos, 1891-1984
label: Names
content: Newman, Barnett, 1905-1970
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Names
content: Paepcke, Walter Paul, 1896-1960
label: Names
content: Porter, Eliot, 1901-1990
label: Names
content: Ray, Man, 1890-1976
label: Names
content: Rich, Daniel Catton, 1904-1976
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Smith, David, 1906-1965
label: Names
content: Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997
label: Names
content: Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
label: Names
content: Still, Clyfford, 1904-1980
label: Names
content: Tamayo, Rufino, 1899-1991
label: Names
content: Tobey, Mark
label: Names
content: Tworkov, Jack
label: Names
content: Weston, Edward, 1886-1958
title: label: Topic
content: Saturday review
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art critics -- Illinois -- Chicago
label: Occupation
content: Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Art museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Art museum curators -- Illinois -- Chicago
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview was conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and his Times oral history project, with funding provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.
label: Provenance
content: Others interviewed on the project (by various interviewers) include: Sonia Allen, Sally Avery, Ben-Zion, Bernard Braddon, Ernest Briggs, Rhys Caparn, Elaine de Kooning, Herbert Ferber, Esther Gottlieb, Juliette Hays, Sidney Janis, Buffie Johnson, Jacob Kainen, Louis Kaufman, Jack Kufeld, Stanley Kunitz, Joseph Liss, Dorothy Miller, Betty Parsons, Wallace Putnam, Rebecca Reis, Maurice Roth, Sidney Schectman, Aaron Siskind, Joseph Solman, Hedda Sterne, Jack Tworkov, Esteban Vicente and Ed Weinstein. Each has been cataloged separately.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Kuh, Katharine
label: Interviewer
content: Berman, Avis
label: Creator
content: Mark Rothko and His Times Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) was an art consultant, curator, and critic from Chicago and New York City.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 313 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1982 Mar. 18-1983 Mar. 24
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.kuh82
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: 35mm microfilm reel 4937 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Katharine Kuh conducted 1982 Mar. 18-1983 Mar. 24, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and His Times oral history project.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh speaks of her childhood in Chicago, the development of her interest in art, classes in art history at Vassar College, and her career as curator of modern art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She recalls in particular the "Sanity in Art" movement against modern art in Chicago. Kuh describes her relationship with Mark Rothko and Rothko's relationships with Mark Tobey, Clyfford Still, Kate Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Milton Avery, Stanley Kunitz, and Hans Hofmann.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh discusses her parents, the family silk business, travelling in Europe as a child, life in Chicago, the effects of polio and other illnesses on her interests, and her student years at Vassar College. She remembers visiting Bernard Berenson in Italy with her family and again with Daniel Catton Rich, with whom she worked very closely at the Art Institute of Chicago. She speaks of the Katharine Kuh Gallery, which she started in the mid-1930s and its place in the vanguard of the Chicago art scene.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh remembers the effects of the stock market crash on her personal situation, her marriage to businessman George Kuh, distaste for life in the suburbs, and her divorce. She discusses the Katharine Kuh Gallery and the actions taken against her business by members of the reactionary "Sanity in Art" movement (including a very funny anecdote concerning Carlos Merida). She speaks of the classes in modern art that she taught at her gallery and of some of the artists she exhibited there, including the photographers Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh remembers the McCarthy era and the political conservatism in Chicago, including her testimony on behalf of Bill Zimmerman, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs. She criticizes blockbuster exhibitions and the changes in the role of a museum curator. She reminisces about building the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the art education program she ran there, and recalls Stuart Davis, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes, and Ivan Albright.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh remembers Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Duchamp, as well as the collectors Walter Paepcke and Walter and Louise Arensberg (whose collection she surveyed in their home for an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago).
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh focuses on her memories of Mark Rothko, recalling when they met, their friendship, his manner of working, his feelings about his work, and his worries towards the end of his life. She talks about Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, and Mark Tobey. Some parts of this tape repeat what she said earlier.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh continues discussing Rothko, particularly his Houston chapel murals and the retrospective exhibition at MOMA in 1961. She remembers visiting Rothko's studio and describes his working methods. She relates Rothko's views on other artists, including Milton Avery, Clyfford Still, Turner, Robert Motherwell, and Adolf Gottlieb; parts repeat things said before. Kuh also discusses Rothko's wife and daughter.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh recounts building the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and speaks of the museum staff, trustees, and donors. She remembers Alfred Barr at MOMA.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh continues speaking about the Art Institute of Chicago, describing the circumstances of her resignation and subsequent move to New York. She talks of knowing Peggy Guggenheim, Max Ernst, and Fernand Leger.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh describes her work as a consultant to college museums and her writings. She discusses the field of art criticism and her career as art editor at Saturday Review. She recalls Clyfford Still's retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his death.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh describes her work as a collector for the First National Bank of Chicago.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh recounts more about her work at Saturday Review and her resignation. She goes into great detail about her travels in Alaska and British Columbia surveying Northwest Indian art for a government report. She speaks again about the McCarthy era.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh speaks again about the Katharine Kuh Gallery and the artists she exhibited there, including Josef Albers (and his Black Mountain College), Alexander Archipenko, Stuart Davis, Paul Klee, Alexander Calder, and Man Ray.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh continues her discussion of artists she exhibited at the Katharine Kuh Gallery, including Mark Tobey, Paul Klee, and Isamu Noguchi.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Kuh continues talking about artists she exhibited at the Katharine Kuh Gallery, including David Smith, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, Rufino Tamayo, and Jack Tworkov.