Oral history interview with Leo Holub
name: label: Interviewee
content: Holub, Leo, 1916-2010
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Creator
content: Art Schools in California Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Art Schools in California Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-1940 : San Francisco, Calif.)
label: Names
content: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)
label: Names
content: Stanford University. Dept. of Art
label: Names
content: University of California, San Francisco. School of Fine Arts -- Faculty
label: Names
content: University of California, San Francisco. School of Fine Arts -- Students
label: Names
content: Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984
label: Names
content: Arnautoff, Victor Mikhail, 1896-1979
label: Names
content: Barnes, Matthew Rackham, 1880-1951
label: Names
content: Corbett, Edward, 1919-
label: Names
content: Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976
label: Names
content: Gaw, William A. (1891-1973)
label: Names
content: Hackett, Dick
label: Names
content: Holub, Florence
label: Names
content: Mackey, Spencer, 1880-1958
label: Names
content: Mondale, Walter F., 1928-
label: Names
content: Oldfield, Otis, 1890-1969
label: Names
content: Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-1998
label: Names
content: Piazzoni, Gottardo, 1872-1945
label: Names
content: Randolph, Lee F., b. 1880
label: Names
content: Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
label: Names
content: Sinel, Joseph Claude, 1889-1975
label: Names
content: Smith, Hassel, 1915-2007
label: Names
content: Sterne, Maurice, 1878-1957
label: Names
content: Weston, Edward, 1886-1958
label: Names
content: White, Minor
label: Names
content: Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009
topic: label: Topic
content: Photographers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- California
label: Topic
content: Photography
label: Topic
content: Photography -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area
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: Holub, Leo, 1916-2010
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Creator
content: Art Schools in California Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Leo Holub (1916-2010) was a photographer, lithographer, and teacher from San Francisco, Calif.
function: label: Function
content: Art Schools -- California
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Sound cassettes (Sound recording (90 min), analog)
label: Extent
content: 34 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1997 July 3
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.holub97
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
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 Leo Holub conducted 1997 July 3, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in San Francisco, Calif.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Holub discusses his background, being born in Arkansas, moving to New Mexico, and then to Oakland, Calif. (1923); early educational experiences in Oakland, and later at the Art Institute of Chicago; seeing Edward Weston's photographic work at an exhibition in Chicago, and admiring Weston's nude studies of Charis Wilson; his return to the Bay Area; his studio on Montgomery St. (Monkey Block); meeting painter Matthew Barnes, who had assisted Diego Rivera with his murals at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA), 1931-1932; his experiences as a student at CSFA- its program and instructors which included Maurice Sterne, Gottardo Piazzoni, Lee Randolph, Dick Hackett, Otis Oldfield, William Gaw, Spencer Mackey, and Victor Arnautoff; fellow students including Hassel Smith, Ed Corbett, and Florence Michelson (his future wife); and his beginning awareness of modernism.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Holub discusses his involvement with the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939); apprenticeship with industrial designer Joe Sinel and the advent of the product design era; his founding of Design Development Associates, and staying only a year before moving to Grass Valley, Calif. for his son's health; his return to the Bay Area, succeeding Emmy Lou Packard at the San Francisco Planning Office graphic arts dept.; working at the housing agency and redevelopment agency and as chief designer for the Bay Area Rapid Transit report.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He recalls his encounter with Ansel Adams at the 1955 Yosemite workshop where Holub produced a pictorial map of Yosemite; Adam's "zone system" of exposing for shadows and developing for highlights; going on to teach at CSFA (1955-1957), where Imogen Cunningham was a guest instructor; Minor White replacing him; his ten years at Stanford University's planning office (1960-1970); his campus views "Stanford Scene" that were used by the university to appeal for more space for the art dept., and his shows at Stanford's art gallery in 1964 and at the Washington, D.C. home of Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980.