Oral history interview with James Lechay
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 17 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Lechay, James
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948
label: Names
content: Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943
label: Names
content: Lechay, Myron, 1898-1972
label: Names
content: Margules, De Hirsh, 1899-1965
label: Names
content: Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956
label: Names
content: Siqueiros, David Alfaro, 1896-1974
label: Names
content: Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
label: Names
content: Weber, Max, 1881-1961
topic: label: Topic
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Wellfleet -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- 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: Lechay, James
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: James Lechay (1907-2001) was a painter from Wellfleet, Mass.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 70 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1998 July 9-Aug. 26
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.lechay98
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 Lechay, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution at Lechay's home in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on July 9-Aug. 26, 1998.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Lechay speaks of his early childhood in the Bronx, N.Y.; copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum under the tutelage of his elder brother Myron; discontinuing his study of psychology at the University of Illinois in 1929 to return to NYC to paint; taking odd jobs to counter his extreme poverty in the early 1930s; his first exhibition at Another Place (1936), a gallery run by De Hirsh Margules; praise from David Siqueiros, the Mexican muralist; his first trip to Provincetown (1930); exhibiting several times at the Whitney Museum (and others) but not at MoMA; touring NYC galleries on Fridays; meeting Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz; his friendship with Arshile Gorky; serving as a juror for the 1940s Momentum exhibition with Jackson Pollock and Max Weber; teaching at the University of Iowa in 1945, succeeding Philip Guston; his luck in having, since 1935, a New York dealer; his work as self-referential; being repelled by art fashions and not compromising his work in order to sell; the appearance of simplicity in his work. Lechay also recalls Raphael and Moses Soyer, Abraham Walkowitz, and others.