Oral history interview with Dore Ashton
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 memory cards. Duration is 2 hr., 57 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Ashton, Dore
label: Interviewee
content: Sampson, George E., 1951-
label: Creator
content: Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project
label: Names
content: Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project
label: Names
content: Harvard University -- Students
label: Names
content: New School for Social Research  (New York, N.Y.) -- Students
label: Names
content: New York Times Company
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Devree, Howard, 1891-1966
label: Names
content: Guston, Philip, 1913-1980
label: Names
content: Kline, Franz, 1910-1962
label: Names
content: Klüver, Billy, 1927-2004
label: Names
content: Motherwell, Robert
label: Names
content: Orlovsky, Peter, 1933-2010
label: Names
content: Paz, Octavio, 1914-
label: Names
content: Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008
label: Names
content: Reynal, Jeanne, 1903-
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019
label: Names
content: Smith, David, 1906-1965
label: Names
content: Yunkers, Adja, 1900-1983
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Authors -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Women art critics
label: Topic
content: Women art historians
label: Topic
content: Women authors
label: Topic
content: Women educators
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: Ashton, Dore
label: Interviewee
content: Sampson, George E., 1951-
label: Creator
content: Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Dore Ashton (1928-2017) was an art historian in New York, New York. George W. Sampson (1951-) is an arts administrator in Charlottesville, Virginia.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 67 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2010 November 21 - 2011 March 9
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.ashton10
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
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 Dore Ashton conducted 2010 November 21 and 2011 March 9, by George W. Sampson, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Ashton's home, in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Ashton talks about growing up politically active; protesting the internment of the Japanese Americans during WWII; attending The New School and then Harvard University; briefly working as a gallery receptionist; writing her first reviews for Art Digest; Howard Devree hiring her as a writer for The New York Times; travels and living in Europe; writing feature pieces about individual artists for The New York Times; writing for Cahiers d'art; her relationships Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Billy Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Octavio Paz, and others; marriage to Adja Yunkers; teaching at Cooper Union; interest in Latin American Art; flirting; being a "dedicated reader of Nietzsche"; visits to the Cedar Tavern; being a peacenik; and other topics. She recalls Jeanne Reynal, Mario Pedrosa, Alger Hiss, Peter Selz, Peter Orlovsky, David Smith, and others.