Oral history interview with Kiki Smith
name: label: Interviewee
content: Smith, Kiki, 1954-
label: Interviewer
content: Lyon, Christopher
topic: label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Installations (Art)
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women printmakers
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
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: Smith, Kiki, 1954-
label: Interviewer
content: Lyon, Christopher
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Kiki Smith (1954- ) is a sculptor, installation artist, and printmaker in New York, New York. Christopher Lyon (1949- ) is a writer in Brooklyn, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Items (sound files (3 hrs., 21 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 33 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R00030.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017 July 20 and August 16
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.smith17
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
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: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Kiki Smith conducted 2017 July 20 and August 16, by Christopher Lyon, for the Archives of American Art, at Smith's home and studio in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Smith speaks of her approach to art as a means of investigating form, scale, and technique; her first printmaking experiences; her childhood in South Orange, New Jersey; her fascination with the human body and religious iconography; early exposure to art and artists through her father, Tony Smith; her involvement in Collaborative Projects, Inc.; the effect of her father's death on her artwork; her experimental art-making process; her first exhibitions in her mid-30s and 40s; her work in glass painting; the role of animals and pets in her life and artwork; her experiences with puppet theatre; the influence of illustrated books on her artwork; the influence of other artists such as Eva Hesse, Lee Bontecou, Frida Kahlo, and Nancy Spero on her artwork; the role of her femininity in her representations of bodies; her formative period of living and working in Berlin during the early 1980s; differences she has observed in the American and European art worlds; her experiences making sculptures in foundries; her experiences working with different gallerists; and her experiences working with four "generations" of assistants. Smith also recalls Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Tuttle, Tom Otterness, Charlie Ahearn, Cara Perlman, Walter Robinson, Amy Taubin, Leslie Tonkonow, Joe Fawbush, Raimund Kummer, Geneviève Cadieux, Hermann Pitz, Brooke Alexander, Bill Goldston, Chuck Close, Barbara Krakow, Anthony d'Offay, Susan Dunne, Lorcan O'Neill, and others.