Oral history interview with Allan Sekula
name: label: Interviewee
content: Sekula, Allan
label: Interviewer
content: Panzer, Mary
label: Names
content: Artforum
label: Names
content: California Institute of the Arts
label: Names
content: Rhode Island School of Design
label: Names
content: Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.)
label: Names
content: The Ohio State University -- Faculty
label: Names
content: University of California, San Diego
label: Names
content: Altoon, John, 1925-
label: Names
content: Antin, David
label: Names
content: Antin, Eleanor
label: Names
content: Ascott, Roy
label: Names
content: Baldessari, John, 1931-
label: Names
content: Barthes, Roland
label: Names
content: Becker, Howard
label: Names
content: Bercovitch, Sacvan
label: Names
content: Beveridge, Karl
label: Names
content: Bo Diddley, 1928-2008
label: Names
content: Brach, Paul, 1924-
label: Names
content: Braderman, Joan
label: Names
content: Burch, Noël, 1932-
label: Names
content: Burn, Ian, 1939-1993
label: Names
content: Captain Beefheart
label: Names
content: Charlesworth, Sarah, 1947-2013
label: Names
content: Chayefsky, Paddy, 1923-1981
label: Names
content: Conde, Carol
label: Names
content: Connell, Brian
label: Names
content: Evans, Walker, 1903-1975
label: Names
content: Farber, Manny
label: Names
content: Feldman, Ronald, 1938-
label: Names
content: Folks, Homer, 1867-1963
label: Names
content: Fox, Terry, 1943-
label: Names
content: Fried, Howard, 1946-
label: Names
content: Ginsberg, Allen, 1926-1997
label: Names
content: Graham, Dan, 1942-
label: Names
content: Graves, Michael, 1934-2015
label: Names
content: Halleck, DeeDee
label: Names
content: Hanhardt, John G.
label: Names
content: Hassan, Ihab, 1925-2015
label: Names
content: Hayes, Woody, 1913-1987
label: Names
content: Heinecken, Robert, 1931-
label: Names
content: Higgins, Dick, 1938-1998
label: Names
content: Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940
label: Names
content: Kienholz, Edward, 1927-
label: Names
content: Kirschenbaum, Baruch David, 1931-
label: Names
content: Knowles, Alison, 1933-
label: Names
content: Kosuth, Joseph.
label: Names
content: Kozloff, Max
label: Names
content: Kramer, Hilton
label: Names
content: Krauss, Rosalind E.
label: Names
content: König, Kasper
label: Names
content: Liebling, Jerome
label: Names
content: Lifson, Ben
label: Names
content: Little Richard, 1932-
label: Names
content: Lonidier, Fred
label: Names
content: Lord, Catherine, 1949-
label: Names
content: Lunn, Harry, 1933-1998
label: Names
content: Mac Low, Jackson
label: Names
content: Mandel, Mike
label: Names
content: Matta, 1912-2002
label: Names
content: Mayer, Grace M.
label: Names
content: Michelson, Annette
label: Names
content: O'Doherty, Brian
label: Names
content: Pommer, Richard
label: Names
content: Ramsden, Mel
label: Names
content: Raskin, Jef
label: Names
content: Reagan, Ronald
label: Names
content: Rosler, Martha
label: Names
content: Ross, David A., 1949-
label: Names
content: Ruby, Jay
label: Names
content: Ruscha, Edward
label: Names
content: Salle, David, 1952-
label: Names
content: Salvesen, Britt
label: Names
content: Schimmel, Paul
label: Names
content: Segalove, Ilene, 1950-
label: Names
content: Stein, Sally
label: Names
content: Steinmetz, Philip
label: Names
content: Sultan, Larry
label: Names
content: Van Riper, Peter
label: Names
content: Wakoski, Diane
label: Names
content: Wall, Jeff, 1946-
topic: label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- California
label: Occupation
content: Filmmakers -- California
label: Occupation
content: Authors -- California
label: Topic
content: Activism
label: Topic
content: Antisemitism
label: Topic
content: Architecture
label: Topic
content: Art -- Exhibitions -- Economic aspects
label: Topic
content: Art -- History
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Conceptual art
label: Topic
content: Documentary photography
label: Topic
content: Korean War, 1950-1953
label: Topic
content: Music -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Photography
label: Topic
content: Realism
label: Topic
content: World War, 1914-1918
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: Sekula, Allan
label: Interviewer
content: Panzer, Mary
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Allan Sekula (1951-2013) was a photographer, filmmaker, and writer, based at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.
label: Biographical / Historical
content: Mary Panzer (1955- ) is a historian from New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 12 Items (Sound recording: 12 sound files (6 hr.,14 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 143 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2011 August 20-2012 February 14
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.sekula11
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Allan Sekula conducted 2011 August 20-2012 February 14, by Mary Panzer, for the Archives of American Art at Sekula's studio and home in Los Angeles, California and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Sekula speaks of his career and some of the mediums he works in; language and contemporary art; Roland Barthes; his relation to contemporary art; west coast conceptualism; genre switches; realism; documentary photography; Belgium and the industrial revolution; Meunier; minor figures; art history and marginalism; Roberto Matta; World War I; Homer Folks; Fish Story; historic cinema; economic factors of art shows and publication; galleries and the art world; growing up and his family; his father and moving; Ohio; his brothers and sisters; San Pedro; demographics of students at school; sports at school; Vietnam; protests; cross country and swimming; California; fishing; college; U.C. system; declaring a major; John Altoon; Ed Kienholz; exposure to art; visiting museums; Marcuse's classes; Baldessari's classes; course work and student life; student demonstrations; working in a library and exposure to books; father losing his job; science and working as a chemical technician; politics; his uncle committing suicide; moving away from his father; the draft; John Birch; Students for a Democratic Society; his mother; politics of his parents; Aerospace Folk Tales, autodidacts and scholarship; San Diego and Mexico; obtaining a camera and starting to use it; art school; CalArts; UCSD; Meditations on a Triptych; David Salle; Fred Lonidier; Phel Steinmetz; MFA and art training; poets; story of Allen Ginsberg and one of Sekula's sculptures; production and the audience; A Photograph is Worth a Thousand Questions, photography and the burden of tradition; pictorialism; moving to New York; Artforum; October; New York music scene; Captain Beefheart; Bo Diddley; Little Richard; Steichen and aerial photography; origins of October; New Criterion; Art Critic's Grant; teaching at Ohio State; television; technological historians; New York subway and getting a ticket for using French money; RISD lectures; Long Beach; photography; collages; Metro Pictures; New Topographics; School as a Factory; moral choice and the viewer; work method and the audience; Social Criticism and Art Practice; east and west coasts; Ed Ruscha; documentary; film, Los Angeles; cinema and social history; Ohio State Department of Photography and Cinema; Los Angeles Plays Itself; Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador; Ohio State campus, anti-Semitism; Ronald Reagan and protest; influences and colleagues; intellectual genealogy; Michael Graves and Ohio State architecture; Bad Ohio; tenure; University Exposed; AIDS issue of October; The Body and the Archive; making film; Korean War; collectors and images. Sekula also recalls Eleanor Antin, Jeff Wall, Terry Fox, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, Paul Saltman, Marcuse, Baldessari, Sacvan Bercovitch, Stanley Miller, Jef Raskin, Paul Brach, David Antin, Howard Fried, Peter Van Riper, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Manny Farber, Ihab Hassan, Diane Wakoski, Jackson Mac Low, Martha Rosler, Lenny Neufeld, Joshua Neufeld, David Wing, Brian Connell, Max Kozloff, Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden, Carole Conde, Karl Beveridge, Barry Rosens, Tom Crow, John Copeland, Harry Lunn, Hilton Kramer, Grace Mayer, Carol Duncan, Eva Cockroft, Richard Pommer, Rosalind Krauss, Sally Stein, Paddy Chayefsky, John Hanhardt, Mel Ramsden, Sarah Charlesworth, Jospeh Kosuth, Baruch Kirschenbaum, Robert Heinecken, Brian O'Doherty, Howard Becker, Jay Ruby, Jerry Liebling, Anna Wilkie, Ronald Feldman, John Gibson, David Ross, Britt Salvesen, Larry Sultan, Mike Mandel, Roy Ascott, Ilene Segalove, Paul Schimmel, DeeDee Halleck, Noel Burch, Joan Braderman, Woody Hayes, Thom Andersen, John Quigley, Ron Green, Kasper Koenig, Dan Graham, Jonathan Green, Christa Wolf, Catherine Lord, Ben Lifson, and Annette Michelson.