Oral history interview with Mischa Richter
odd: label: General
content: Sound quality is poor.
label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 43 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Richter, Mischa, 1910-2001
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. School
label: Names
content: Yale University. School of Fine Arts
label: Names
content: Barnet, Will, 1911-2012
label: Names
content: Bloom, Hyman, 1913-
label: Names
content: Levine, Jack, 1915-2010
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967
label: Names
content: Steig, William, 1907-
label: Names
content: Zimmerman, Harold K., 1905-1941
title: label: Topic
content: New masses
label: Topic
content: New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925)
topic: label: Occupation
content: Cartoonists -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Caricatures and cartoons
label: Topic
content: Jewish artists
label: Topic
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Magazine illustration
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: Richter, Mischa, 1910-2001
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Mischa Richter (1910-2001) was a painter and cartoonist from New York, N.Y. and Provincetown, Mass. Richter was born in the Ukraine. He came to the United States in 1922, attending special art classes for gifted students at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and subsequently graduating from the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1934. After working on the WPA art project as a mural painter in New York, he turned to cartooning, doing editorial and humorous cartoons for the daily newspaper, PM, and then becoming art editor for the New Masses. In 1941 he began his longtime affiliation with the New Yorker, as well as producing daily panels, "Strictly Richter" and "Bugs Baer" for King Features. In the 1970s and 1980s, Richter did numerous drawings for the OpEd page of the New York Times. Died March 23, 2001, at age 90.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3 Items (sound cassettes 2 hr., 43 min.), analog.)
label: Extent
content: 54 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1994 September 27-28
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.richte94
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 is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Mischa Richter conducted 1994 September 27-28, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Richter tells of his life as the only child of a prosperous Jewish family in Kharkov, Ukraine, where he showed early precocity in drawing. He remembers the Russian Revolution, being taken to Poland in 1921, and then in 1922 to New York and Boston. He discusses his education in Boston, including drawing lessons with Harold Zimmerman at which he got to know Hyman Bloom and Jack Levine; and classes at the Museum School in Boston from 1929 to 1930.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He speaks of his long-time friendship with Will Barnet, attending Yale School of Fine Arts, 1930-1934, and painting a WPA mural for the Boston Boys Club in 1935. He remembers meeting Will Steig, deciding to become a cartoonist, and selling enough drawings to leave the WPA to work as art editor for "The New Masses," where he became close friends with Ad Reinhardt. He discusses becoming a contract cartoonist in 1940 for "The New Yorker;" his avoidance of art dealers, because they demand steady production yet have no known goals, unlike a magazine; his abhorrence of taking himself, or others, too seriously; the perils of early success and the pettiness of many matters in the art community of Provincetown, Mass.; and the nature of his paintings.