Oral history interview with Peter Agostini
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 28 digital wav files. Duration is 10 hrs., 37 min.
label: General
content: Transferred from 4 3" reels.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Agostini, Peter
label: Interviewer
content: Roberts, Colette, 1910-
label: Names
content: Columbia University -- Faculty
label: Names
content: United States. Works Progress Administration
label: Names
content: Bontecou, Lee, 1931-
label: Names
content: Chamberlain, John, 1927-2011
label: Names
content: Chryssa, 1933-2013
label: Names
content: Cornell, Joseph
label: Names
content: Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906
label: Names
content: De Chirico, Giorgio, 1888-
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Demuth, Charles, 1883-1935
label: Names
content: Di Suvero, Mark, 1933-
label: Names
content: Dove, Arthur Garfield, 1880-1946
label: Names
content: Dubuffet, Jean, 1901-1985
label: Names
content: Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968
label: Names
content: Ferber, Herbert, 1906-1991
label: Names
content: Flannagan, John Bernard, 1895?-1942
label: Names
content: Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966
label: Names
content: Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994
label: Names
content: Hague, Raoul, 1905-1993
label: Names
content: Hare, David, 1917-1992
label: Names
content: Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943
label: Names
content: Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967
label: Names
content: Judd, Donald, 1928-1994
label: Names
content: Kaprow, Allan
label: Names
content: Kienholz, Edward, 1927-
label: Names
content: Kline, Franz, 1910-1962
label: Names
content: Kohn, Gabriel, 1910-1975
label: Names
content: Kolbe, Georg, 1877-1947
label: Names
content: La Tour, Onya, 1896-1976
label: Names
content: Lachaise, Gaston, 1882-1935
label: Names
content: Lassaw, Ibram, 1913-2003
label: Names
content: Lippold, Richard, 1915-2002
label: Names
content: Lipton, Seymour, 1903-1986
label: Names
content: Macdonald-Wright, Stanton, 1890-1973
label: Names
content: Maillol, Aristide, 1861-1944
label: Names
content: Manship, Paul, 1885-1966
label: Names
content: Marca-Relli, Conrad, 1913-2000
label: Names
content: Marin, John, 1870-1953
label: Names
content: Marisol, 1930-2016
label: Names
content: Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954
label: Names
content: Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
label: Names
content: Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944
label: Names
content: Morris, Robert, 1931-2018
label: Names
content: Nakian, Reuben, 1897-1986
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Names
content: O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986
label: Names
content: Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-
label: Names
content: Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
label: Names
content: Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956
label: Names
content: Pompon, François, 1855-1933
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967
label: Names
content: Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
label: Names
content: Roszak, Theodore, 1907-1981
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Samaras, Lucas, 1936-
label: Names
content: Scarpitta, Salvatore, 1919-2007
label: Names
content: Segal, George, 1924-2000
label: Names
content: Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965
label: Names
content: Smith, David, 1906-1965
label: Names
content: Smith, Tony, 1912-1980
label: Names
content: Spaventa, George, 1918-
label: Names
content: Stankiewicz, Richard, 1922-1983
label: Names
content: Sugarman, George, 1912-1999
label: Names
content: Tobey, Mark
label: Names
content: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
label: Names
content: Zorach, William, 1887-1966
topic: label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
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: Agostini, Peter
label: Interviewer
content: Roberts, Colette, 1910-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Peter Agostini (1913-1993) was a sculptor from New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 99 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1968
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.agosti68
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Peter Agostini conducted in 1968, by Colette Roberts, for the Archives of American Art at 151 Avenue B, New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Mr. Agostini speaks of his childhood spent living throughout the five boroughs of New York; his interactions with clients of his father's acting employment agency; his early education in Catholic school and the creative freedom allotted by the nuns; his first feelings of isolation as an artist at the age of seven; the development of a sense of communication as the result of the loss of his mother at the age of three and time spent at a school for orphans; his early realization and vision of artistic destiny; his religious interests which lead to mysticism in his earlier work; his time spent working freely in the DaVinci Studio with Spaventa; the discovery by Hess of his works in Gallerie Grimaud; his attainment of the Longview Grant; his working experience throughout the Depression as part of the WPA casting plaster mannequins while working indirectly with Pollack as well as Marca Relli; his subsequent move to designing department store windows (use of Mondrian-like forms and lines); his feelings of his position as an observer; the importance of communication through art (communication without words); his rejection of the Abstract Expressionist group and choice of independence; the influence of the sculpture of Kolbe and Bache in the thirties; Clement Greenberg's distaste for his work; his feelings about the relative failure to sell his work due its unusual edginess and mystery; his role in the introduction of the work of contemporary European artists (Chausserian, Gauthier, Modrian) to the American group; his description of his own work as "traditionless"; his feelings of self-importance as one of the most original sculptors in the art world; his influence on the younger generation, particularly Marisol; the enslavement to originality that the younger generation faces; his attitudes towards American Art forms and their lack of rebellious spirit; the virtues of the American writers, such as Poe, Whitman, and Melville as American "knapsack" writers; his personal technique which places an emphasis on the "skin" or volume of something; his attempt to create quiet art, or art that merely indicates features; his frustration with teaching and the problems of regurgitated knowledge; the role of Meyer Shapiro in his teaching career at Columbia; the formation of the Club and its similarity to the Cubist's café scene; his opinions on the relationship of sex and sensuality in American art; his personal struggles, including the loss of his second wife and two of his brothers, in addition to the estrangement of his only daughter by his first wife; his feelings on the role of psycho analysis and personal history in a work of art; his present works which feature the "swell." For the majority of the second half of the interview Ms. Roberts asks Mr. Agostini to express his opinions on the work of: Kline; DeKooning; Duchamp; Oldenburg; La Tour; DeChirico; Maillol; Pompon; Rothko; Chardin; Cezanne; Giacometti; Reinhardt; Chryssa; Tony Smith; Segal; Lachaise; Zorach; Manship; Flannagan; Kelly; Lassaw; David Smith; Hare; Lipton; Ferber; Lippold; Roszak; Nakian; Noguchi; Hague; Kohn; di Suvero; Chamberlain; Kaprow; Sugarman; Stankiewicz; Bontecou; Scarpitta; Cornell; Keinholz; Rivera; Judd; Robert Morris; O'Keeffe; Samaras; Mark Tobey; Marin; Pollock; Hartley; Dove; Macdonald-Wright; Demuth; Sheeler; Hopper; Mirot; Matisse; DuBuffet.