Oral history interview with Barbara Novak
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded as 4 sound files. Duration is 4 hr., 26 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Novak, Barbara
label: Interviewer
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
label: Names
content: Art Students League (New York, N.Y.) -- Students
label: Names
content: Barnard College -- Students
label: Names
content: Brooklyn Museum
label: Names
content: Harvard University -- Students
label: Names
content: Aaron, Dan
label: Names
content: Bochner, Mel, 1940-
label: Names
content: Bosa, Louis, 1905-
label: Names
content: Coremans, Paul B., 1908-1965
label: Names
content: Davis, Meredith (Meredith J)
label: Names
content: Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968
label: Names
content: Feldman, Morton, 1926-1987
label: Names
content: Ferber, Linda S.
label: Names
content: Goetzmann, William
label: Names
content: Hayes, Bartlett H., 1904-1988
label: Names
content: Held, Julius Samuel, 1905-
label: Names
content: Hesse, Eva, 1936-1970
label: Names
content: Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967
label: Names
content: Hutchinson, Peter A., 1930-
label: Names
content: Icahn, Belle
label: Names
content: Karolik, Maxim
label: Names
content: Kaufman, William
label: Names
content: Krasner, Lee, 1908-1984
label: Names
content: Lane, Fitz Henry, 1804-1865
label: Names
content: Lawrence, Marion
label: Names
content: LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007
label: Names
content: McCoy, Ann Wyeth
label: Names
content: Melkoff, Edward
label: Names
content: Nevins, Kate Lockwood
label: Names
content: O'Doherty, Brian
label: Names
content: Presser, Josef, 1909-1967
label: Names
content: Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008
label: Names
content: Reff, Theodore
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Rowland, Ben
label: Names
content: Scharf, William, 1927-
label: Names
content: Shapiro, Marge
label: Names
content: Smithson, Robert
label: Names
content: Watts, Marissa
label: Names
content: Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009
place: label: Place
content: Europe -- description and travel
label: Place
content: Utah -- Description and Travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Fulbright scholars
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Art, American
label: Topic
content: Expressionism (Art)
label: Topic
content: Luminism (Art)
label: Topic
content: Pragmatism
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: Novak, Barbara
label: Interviewer
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Barbara Novak (1929- ) is an art historian in New York, New York. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Items (Sound recording: 4 sound files (4 hr., 26 min.), digital)
label: Extent
content: 89 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2013 October 8-17
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.novak13
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 available online.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Barbara Novak conducted 2013 October 8-17, by James McElhinney, for the Archvies of American Art, at Novak's home in Manhattan, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Novak speaks of her early art training; learning to draw at the age of eight with help from her uncle William Kaufman and later taking art classes with Belle Icahn; Edward Melkoff; Joseph Presser; and classes at the Art Students League; becoming Expressionist in her painting; her year in Europe as a Fulbright student from Harvard University; the powerful lectures of Julius Held at Barnard College that launched her career; feeling that she devised a system by which works of art can be understood through looking closely at their physical properties and how she tries to develop the individual in her students; her time as a docent at the Brooklyn Museum in the American art collection; which led her to becoming an Americanist; her book, "Alice's Neck" and the inspiring Utah landscape; the importance of Fitz Henry Lane's work; the embodiment in American art of Pragmatism and Transcendentalism; and being led to Luminism; her books showing how to understand American culture through art, covering formal, contextual, and spiritual elements; hosting the first television show on art, "Vision of Art"; her husband Brian O'Doherty's background in art; the importance of nature for Cole and Durand; that common sense should be used in describing works of art, rather than assuming current events influenced the artist; her education at Harvard; Margaret Fuller and writing "The Margaret-Ghost"; Marcel Duchamp; Andrew Wyeth; Edward Hopper; Robert Rauschenberg; Mark Rothko; and Lee Krasner; and that the most exhilarating time intellectually for her was the 1960s with a group that included Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Peter Hutchinson, Morton Feldman, Mel Bochner, and others. Barbara also recalls Mrs. Nevins, William Scharf, Paul Cormans [ph], Marion Lawrence, Marge Shapiro, Maxim Karolick, William Goetzmann, Ann McCoy, Ben Rowland, Bart Hayes, Ted Reff, Dan Aaron, Louis Bosa, Linda Ferber, Meredith Davis, Marissa Watts, and others.