Oral history interview with Ilya Bolotowsky
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 37 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Bolotowsky, Ilya, 1907-1981
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
label: Creator
content: Diller, Burgoyne, 1906-1965
label: Names
content: American Abstract Artists
label: Names
content: American Artists' Congress
label: Names
content: Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.)
label: Names
content: Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors
label: Names
content: G.R.D. Studio (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: National Academy of Design (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Public Works of Art Project
label: Names
content: United States. Works Progress Administration
label: Names
content: Yaddo (Artist's colony)
label: Names
content: Albers, Josef
label: Names
content: Browne, Byron, 1907-1961
label: Names
content: Dlugoszewski, Lucia, 1931-2000
label: Names
content: Drewes, Werner, 1899-1985
label: Names
content: Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948
label: Names
content: Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994
label: Names
content: Greene, Balcomb, 1904-1990
label: Names
content: Greene, Gertrude, 1904-1956
label: Names
content: Hawthorne, Charles Webster, 1872-1930
label: Names
content: Holtzman, Harry
label: Names
content: Johnson, William H. (1901-1970)
label: Names
content: Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955
label: Names
content: Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944
label: Names
content: Neilson, Raymond P. R. (Raymond Perry Rodgers), 1881-1964
label: Names
content: Neumann, J. B. (Jsrael Ber)
label: Names
content: Olinsky, Ivan G. (Ivan Gregorewitch), 1878-1962
label: Names
content: Ozenfant, Amédée, 1886-1966
label: Names
content: Spivak, Max, 1906-1981
label: Names
content: Vogel, Joseph, 1911-1995
place: label: Place
content: Wyoming
topic: label: Occupation
content: Filmmakers
label: Occupation
content: Playwrights
label: Topic
content: Art and state
label: Topic
content: Concretionists (Group of artists)
label: Topic
content: Emigration and immigration
label: Topic
content: Experimental films
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts -- United States
label: Topic
content: Painting, Abstract -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Playwriting
label: Topic
content: Philadelphia Ten (Group of artists)
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: World War, 1939-1945
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 others. Funding for the interview was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Bolotowsky, Ilya, 1907-1981
label: Interviewer
content: Cummings, Paul
label: Creator
content: Diller, Burgoyne, 1906-1965
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981) was a Russian-American abstract painter in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 197 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1968 March 24-April 7
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.boloto68
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Interview of Ilya Bolotowsky conducted 1968 March 24-April 7, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Bolotowsky, a lively raconteur, recalls a host of episodes from his personal and professional life. He speaks of his childhood in Russia and Azerbaijan; the effects of war and communism; the family's flight as refugees into Georgia and then to present-day Istanbul; and his early education with a private tutor and at a Jesuit school in Istanbul. Bolotowsky recalls his family's emigration to the United States by ship in 1923; his first impressions of New York City; and early visits to the city's museums. He relates numerous anecdotes about faculty and fellow students at the National Academy of Design, including Ivan Olinsky, Raymond Neilson, Charles Hawthorne, Amedee Ozenfant, and William Henry Johnson.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He speaks of various early exhibitions of his work, including those with the Art Students League, G.R.D. Studio, and the J.B. Neumann Gallery. He also describes a stay at Yaddo in 1934.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Bolotowsky recounts his participation in the Public Works of Art Project as a teacher of art to delinquent children; later work on the mural project of the Works Progress Administration; the picketing of WPA offices, providing anecdotes about Max Spivak and Joseph Vogel; military service during World War II, first working on a Russian dictionary of technical terms and then as a liason officer with the Soviet Air Force in Nome, Alaska.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Upon his return from the military, Bolotowsky immediately resumed his painting career, and describes his involvement with artists' organizations such as the American Abstract Artists, the American Artists' Congress, the Concretionists, the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, and the Ten; he mentions in these contexts such personalities as Byron Browne, Burgoyne Diller, Werner Drewes, Arshile Gorky, Clement Greenberg, Balcomb and Gertrude Greene, Harry Holtzman, Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian, and Meyer Schapiro.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Bolotowsky gives an extensive description of his experiences filling in for Joseph Albers for a year at Black Mountain College, and goes on to discuss his subsequent teaching positions at the University of Wyoming (including a discussion of the impact of the Wyoming landscape on his painting), Brooklyn College, Southampton College, and SUNY New Paltz. He devotes great attention to the development of his painting, his understanding of neo-plasticism and abstraction, and his efforts in filmmaking and playwriting.