Oral history interview with Walter Feldman
name: label: Interviewee
content: Feldman, Walter, 1925-2017
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Brown University -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Yale University. School of Fine Arts -- Students
label: Names
content: Ziggurat Press
label: Names
content: Harper, Michael S., 1938-
label: Names
content: Schevill, James Erwin, 1920-
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Artists as teachers
label: Topic
content: Artists -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Artists' books
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: Feldman, Walter, 1925-2017
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Walter Feldman (1925-2017) was an artist and art educator of Providence, R.I. Established Ziggurat Press in 1984 and, as teaching adjunct at Brown University, the Brown/Ziggurat Press in 1990.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Sound cassette (Sound recording (90 min.), analog)
label: Extent
content: 30 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1998 Aug. 10
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.feldma98
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
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 Walter Feldman conducted 1998 Aug. 10, by Robert Brown, for the the Archives of American Art, in Feldman's home, Providence, R.I.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Feldman discusses attending classes as a youth, 1939-1942, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; attending Yale's School of Fine Arts, 1942; service in combat infantry in the U.S. Army, Europe, 1943-1946; completing his BFA at Yale, 1946-1950 and MFA, 1951; working as an instructor in painting at Yale until his appointment at Brown University (1953; professor 1961) where he continues to teach; exhibitions and commissions; working in painting, printmaking, mosaics, and in fine book making.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He discusses working as the sole studio art teacher at Brown University until mid-1960s; hiring of additional artist-teachers and the subsequent split of the art department between studio art and art history; bringing book arts to Brown with his establishment of the Brown/Ziggurat Press, which he directs and which mostly publishes poetry; the many visiting arists at Brown; frequent commissions which have kept him young in spirit; and working in widely divergent media: medals, mosaics, and a huge mural commission in 1976; discussion of leading examples of his handmade books, including James Schevill's poetry, "Lager Lieder" (1991), a book of concentration camp songs, and Michael Harper's "Family Sequences" (1998); broadsides he's designed, sculptural "reliqueries" to memorialize the Jewish Holocaust; the current prospering of his artists books; and his success as a teacher.