Oral history interview with James Krenov
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 14 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 42 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Krenov, James
label: Interviewer
content: Fitzgerald, Oscar P.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: Rochester Institute of Technology -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Woodstock School of Painting
topic: label: Occupation
content: Cabinetmakers -- California -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Woodworkers -- California -- Interviews.
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Woodwork
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: Krenov, James
label: Interviewer
content: Fitzgerald, Oscar P.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: James Krenov (1920-2009) was a woodworker of Fort Bragg, California. Oscar Fitzgerald is a writer and historian from Alexandria, Virginia.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 38 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2004 August 12-13
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.krenov04
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 James Krenov conducted 2004 August 12-13, by Oscar Fitzgerald, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Fort Bragg, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Krenov speaks of immigrating to the United States; making things as a child; learning woodworking from Carl Malmsten; teaching workshops in England, Japan, and New Zealand; working as a cabinetmaker in Sweden; teaching at Rochester Institute of Technology; writing books on woodworking, including, "A Cabinetmaker's Notebook"; helping to found the Program in Artisanry at Boston University; teaching at the College of the Redwoods; using veneers; his teaching method; choosing the appropriate wood; the process of designing his pieces; choosing tools, and his opinion on computerized machinery; his favorite pieces; receiving awards; working for pleasure and working on commission; making joinery; pricing his work; choosing not to work with galleries; and his predictions for the future of woodworking. Krenov also recalls Soetsu Yanagi, Craig McArt, Wendell Castle, John Makepeace, Lois Moran, Yong Chen, and others.