Oral history interview with Mary Fuller McChesney
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 58 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: McChesney, Mary Fuller
label: Interviewer
content: Landauer, Susan
label: Creator
content: Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Corbett, Edward, 1919-
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Diebenkorn, Richard, 1922-1993
label: Names
content: Kees, Weldon, 1914-1955
label: Names
content: MacAgy, Douglas, 1913-
label: Names
content: Mandelman, Beatrice
label: Names
content: Marca-Relli, Conrad, 1913-2000
label: Names
content: Martin, Agnes, 1912-2004
label: Names
content: McChesney, Robert, 1913-2008
label: Names
content: Park, David, 1911-1960
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967
label: Names
content: Ribak, Louis, 1902-1979
label: Names
content: Smith, Hassel, 1915-2007
label: Names
content: Spohn, Clay Edgar, 1898-1977
label: Names
content: Still, Clyfford, 1904-1980
label: Names
content: Vicente, Esteban, 1903-2001
topic: label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- California -- San Francisco
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- California -- San Francisco
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
label: Topic
content: Women art historians
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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Margery and Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund of New York.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: McChesney, Mary Fuller
label: Interviewer
content: Landauer, Susan
label: Creator
content: Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Mary Fuller McChesney (1922-2022) was a sculptor and art historian in San Francisco and Petaluma, Calif.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 145 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1994 Sept. 28
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mcches94
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: Available online.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Mary Fuller McChesney conducted 1994 Sept. 28, by Susan Landauer, for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project, at the artist's home, on Sonoma Mountain, Calif.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Fuller McChesney discusses her childhood and growing up during the Depression; her student days at the University of California, Berkeley; the political response on the campus to WWII and the Japanese interment; her experience working as a welder in the shipyards which she considers her introduction to sculpture; her introduction to the art community in San Francisco through the cooperative Artists' Guild Gallery; her association with the Abstract Expressionists at the California School of Fine Arts in the 1940s; her foray into writing fiction and her success as a mystery writer; her work on the Archives of American Art's oral history project documenting the WPA art project in California; her first significant publication on the San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, Period of Exploration, and the interviews she conducted in the mid-late 1960s for the project.
label: Scope and Contents
content: She describes her attitudes and philosphies about art; living at Point Richmond with her husband Robert McChesney, Edward Corbett, Hassel Smith, and poet Weldon Kees during the late 1940s; her impressions of the Cedar Bar and New York artists during the mid-late 1960s; her own artistic evolution and career as a sculptor; the intellectual and artistic sources of her work; her subjects and techniques; her public commissions; her audience and market; and her experiences and perspectives as a woman artist and feminist. She recalls Edward Corbett, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Weldon Kees, Douglas MacAgy, Bea Mandelman, Conrad Marca-Relli, Agnes Martin, Robert McChesney, David Park, Ad Reinhardt, Louis Ribak, Hassel Smith, Clay Spohn, Clyfford Still, and Esteban Vicente.