Oral history interview with Gene Crain
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 13 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 38 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Crain, E. Gene, 1934-
label: Interviewer
content: Anderson, Susan
label: Names
content: Walt Disney Productions
label: Names
content: Brandt, Rex, 1914-2000
label: Names
content: Dike, Phil, 1906-1990
label: Names
content: Sheets, Millard, 1907-1989
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting
label: Topic
content: Art -- Economic aspects
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
label: Topic
content: Pop art
label: Topic
content: Depressions -- 1929 -- California
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: Crain, E. Gene, 1934-
label: Interviewer
content: Anderson, Susan
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: E. Gene Crain (1934- ) is a lawyer and art collector from Newport Beach, California. Full name Ernst Gene Crain. Crain's art collection includes extensive holdings of prominent artists of the California School, a West Coast watercolor movement that arose during the Depression era.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 107 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1999 March 7-May 22
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.crain99
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 available on line.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Gene Crain, conducted 1999 March 7-May 22, by Susan Anderson, for the Archives of American Art, in the law offices of Gene Crain, Newport Beach, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Crain describes the focus of his collection of some 1000 works of art, and how it grew out of his longstanding relationships with artists Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Rex Brandt, and others. He recalls his relationships with Sheets, Dike, and Brandt at some length, including their feelings for the land as well as their personalities and work. He discusses urban growth, disappearance of the locale and nostalgia in the context of art collecting, and his collection as an important record of a certain time and place. He discusses convenience, climate, and topography as contributing factors to the emergence of the watercolor school as well as other important influences: Pacific rim culture and Far Eastern Art and philosophy; Mexican art and culture; the film industry, especially the Disney Studios; and the federal art projects as a catalyst and support system. Crain discusses the impact of social and economic factors in Southern California during the Depression, contrasting them with harsher conditions in other parts of the country; the development of his eye an aesthetic taste and his patronage of the artists beginning in the early 1960s; the artists' critical standing in the post-World War II period and the "crowding out" of the school by other movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop; and the viability of the school in the post-war period, its legacy, and comments on the present market value of the art.