Oral history interview with Lee Mullican
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 14 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 4 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Mullican, Lee, 1919-1998
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
label: Names
content: Diebenkorn, Richard, 1922-1993
label: Names
content: Guggenheim, Peggy, 1898-1979
label: Names
content: Hockney, David
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl, 1905-
label: Names
content: Moses, Ed, 1926-
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Names
content: Onslow-Ford, Gordon
label: Names
content: Paalen, Wolfgang, 1907-
label: Names
content: Rosenthal, Rachel, 1926-2015
label: Names
content: Stauffacher, Jack Werner
topic: label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California
label: Topic
content: Painters -- California -- Santa Monica -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Dynaton (Group of artists)
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are 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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Lannan Foundation.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Mullican, Lee, 1919-1998
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Lee Mullican (1919-1998) was a painter from San Francisco and Santa Monica, Calif.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 160 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1992 May 22-1993 Mar. 4
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mullic92
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 Lee Mullican conducted 1992 May 22-1993 Mar. 4, by Paul Karlstrom for the Archives of American Art, at the artist's home/studio in Santa Monica, Calif.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Mullican speaks of his family background, childhood, and his first introductions to art; the influence of abstraction and surrealism in his work; his studies at Abilene College, University of Oklahoma, and the Kansas City Art Institute; his service in WWII; his interest in French painting, theater, opera and ballet; meeting Jack Stauffacher; the influence of Wolfgang Paalen in Mexico; and the connection between modern and primitive, and tribal art, especially in the American Indians of Mexico. He discusses his arrival in San Francisco and the art world and lifestyle there; the Dynaton group; early years in Los Angeles; his trip and exhibition in Rome; UCLA politics; his relationship to modernism and place in American art; regionalism; and the mystical and transcendental expressed in his work. He recalls Gordon Onslow-Ford, Jack Stauffacher, Peggy Guggenheim, Rachel Rosenthal, Richard Diebenkorn, David Hockney, Ed Moses, Isamu Noguchi, Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, and others.