Oral history interview with Clifford Schorer
name: label: Interviewee
content: Schorer, Clifford, 1966-
label: Interviewer
content: Richards, Judith Olch
label: Names
content: Art Collectors: A Project in Partnership with the Center for the History of Collecting in America at The Frick Collection
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
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: Schorer, Clifford, 1966-
label: Interviewer
content: Richards, Judith Olch
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Clifford Schorer (1966- ) is an art collector in Boston, Massachusetts and London, England. Judith Olch Richards (1947- ) is former executive director of iCI in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5 Items (sound files (3 hr., 57 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 110 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R000326.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2018, June 6-7
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.schore18
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 Clifford Schorer conducted 2018 June 6-7, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, at the offices of the Archives of American Art in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Schorer discusses growing up in Massachusetts and Long Island, New York; his family and his Dutch and German heritage, and his grandparents' collecting endeavors, especially in the field of philately; his reluctance to complete a formal high school education and his subsequent enrollment in the University Professors Program at Boston University; his work as a self-taught computer programmer beginning at the age of 16; his first businesses as an entrepreneur; the beginnings of his collection of Chinese export and Imperial ceramics and his self-study in the field; his experiences at a young age at art auctions in the New England area; his travels to Montreal and Europe, especially to Eastern Europe, Paris, and London, and his interest in world history; his decision to exit the world of collecting Chinese porcelain and his subsequent interest in Old Master paintings, especially Italian Baroque. Schorer also describes his discovery of the Worcester Art Museum and his subsequent work there on the Museum's board and as president; his interest in paleontology and his current house by Walter Gropius in Provincetown, MA; his involvement with the purchase and support of Agnew's Gallery based in London, UK, and his work with its director, Anthony Crichton-Stuart; his thoughts on marketing at art shows and adapting Agnew's to the changing market for the collecting of Old Masters; the differences between galleries and auction houses in the art market today; and his expectations for his collection in the future. Schorer also recalls Anna Cunningham; George Abrams; Sydney Lewis; Chris Apostle; Nancy Ward Neilson; Jim Welu, as well as Rita Albertson; Tanya Paul; Maryan Ainsworth; Thomas Leysen; Johnny Van Haeften; Otto Naumann; and Konrad Bernheimer, among others.