Oral history interview with Max Spivak
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 32 min.
label: General
content: Interview date changed to circa 1965 because the blackout of November 1965 is discussed in the interview.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Spivak, Max, 1906-1981
label: Interviewer
content: Phillips, Harlan B. (Harlan Buddington), 1920-1979
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Block, Lou, 1895-1969
label: Names
content: Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960
label: Names
content: Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948
label: Names
content: Knight, Harry
label: Names
content: Krasner, Lee, 1908-1984
label: Names
content: McMahon, Audrey, 1900?-1981
label: Names
content: Rosenberg, Harold, 1906-1978
topic: label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Mosaics
label: Topic
content: Mural painting and decoration
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Spivak, Max, 1906-1981
label: Interviewer
content: Phillips, Harlan B. (Harlan Buddington), 1920-1979
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Max Spivak (1906-1981) was a painter and designer in New York, N.Y.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 58 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1965
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.spivak63
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: Transcript available on-line at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/spivak63.htm
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Max Spivak conducted circa 1963, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Spivak speaks of how he went from being an accountant to doing art; moving to Paris for three years, and how this experience changed his life; the difference between painting in Europe and painting in America; moving back to New York; why he decided to leave Paris and move back to New York; the importance of intuitive feeling; his involvement with the Gibson Committee; how he and some members of the Gibson Committee thought of the WPA; his experiences with the PWAP at the Whitney Museum; picketing outside the Mirror; his and the other artists experiences with the Project; the development of the Artist Congress; the nature of art; his work on mosaic murals; how art started losing support from the government by the late thirties; doing murals for big companies; the waning moments of the Project. He recalls Arshile Gorky, Holger Cahill, Audrey McMahon, Lee Krasner, Harold Rosenberg, Harry Knight, Lou Block, and others.