Oral history interview with James Penney
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Penney, James, 1910-1982
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975
label: Names
content: Grosz, George, 1893-1959
label: Names
content: Soyer, Moses, 1899-1974
topic: label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Educators -- New York (State) -- Interviews
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.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Penney, James, 1910-1982
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: James Penney (1910-1982) was a painter and educator.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound tape reels (3 hr., 9 min.))
label: Extent
content: 79 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1981 August 21-December 6
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.penney81
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: Interview of James Penney, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Clinton, New York, on August 21 and December 6, 1981.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Penney speaks of growing up in Missouri and Kansas; taking art classes at the University of Kansas; moving to New York during the Depression to pursue his art career; studying at the Art Students League; meeting his first wife, Frances Avery; exhibiting his paintings in New York; visiting museums; mural painting with the WPA; working for the Jordanoff Aviation Corporation during World War II; teaching at Bennington, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, and Hamilton College; and some of his paintings, including An Epidemic Next Year; Workers in the Snow, Central Park; The Bombed City, 1939; and Rock of Versailles. Penney also recalls Karl Mattern, Raymond Eastwood, Albert Bloch, Randall Brubaker, Chris Ritter, Jackson Pollock, Thomas Hart Benton, George Grosz, Moses Soyer, Stuart Davis, Burgoyne Diller, Bill Palmer, and others.