Oral history interview with Robert E. Meyerhoff
name: label: Interviewee
content: Meyerhoff, Robert
label: Interviewer
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
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: Occupation
content: Collectors -- Maryland
label: Topic
content: African American art
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: Meyerhoff, Robert
label: Interviewer
content: McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Interviewee Robert E. Meyerhoff (1924-) is a philanthropist and art collector in Phoenix, Md. Interviewer James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15 Items (sound files (3 hrs., 34 min.), digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 71 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2014 December 11-12
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.meyerh14
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 Robert E. Meyerhoff conducted 2014 December 11-12, by James McElhinney, 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 Meyerhoff's Fitzhugh Farm in Phoenix, Maryland.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Meyerhoff speaks of his first experiences with art; his wife Jane; his background as an engineer, his family and philanthropy; the Maryland Institute College of Art; the Baltimore Museum; Professor Bates Lowry; his wife's interest in art; early purchases and the beginning of his collection; Rothko; the art world; collectors; becoming friends with artists; notes and tapes with his wife Jane discussing work and talking with artists; collecting five artists; agreement with the National Gallery; being friends with Robert Rauschenberg; art investment and speculation; displaying artwork; gallery and museum space and displaying art; star architects; spending time in New York; his home in Maryland; Baltimore; living with artwork; the collection; responding to art; touring of his gallery; planning the gallery; Irving Blum; interactions with dealers; Leo Castelli; art world friends; fake Pollock; Baltimore response to the Avant Garde; African Americans and museums; Meyerhoff scholars program; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Freeman Hrabowski; de-accessioning; buying based on eye and heart; record keeping; horses, Phoenix, Maryland; buying a Durer; Candida Hofer; video art; Walter's Art Museum; looking at art; art history; sharing his collection. Meyerhoff also recalls Dave Bergman, Sidney Janis, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Sella, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Bud Leake, Jackson Frost, Cy Twombly, the Duke of Pembroke, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Gehry, Rose Ellen, Brice Marden, Phillip Guston, Roy Sargent, de Kooning, Franz Kline, Agnes Barton, Grace Hartigan, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, Jeff Wall, Hans Hofmann; Vik Muniz, Lawrence Menifee, Jr., Leo Castelli, Ben Heller, Israel Rosen, Betty Parsons, Saul Bellow, Paula Cooper, James Goodman, Matthew Morrison, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Ruth Kuffman, Freeman Hrabowski, Rheda Becker, Thomas Struth, William Kentridge, Nina Sundell, and Allison Berkeley.