Oral history interview with Robert Cottingham
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 8 min.
label: General
content: Tape 2 (Side A) also contains last part of 4/7/98 interview with Harold Tovish.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Cottingham, Robert, 1935-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Brooklyn Technical High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Molly Barnes Gallery
label: Names
content: New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: United States. Army
label: Names
content: Young & Rubicam Incorporated
label: Names
content: Close, Chuck, 1940-
label: Names
content: Close, Leslie
label: Names
content: Irwin, Robert, 1928-
label: Names
content: Rawlings, John, 1912-
label: Names
content: Woelffer, Emerson, 1914-2003
place: label: Place
content: Times Square (New York, N.Y.)
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Interviews
label: Occupation
content: Art directors
label: Occupation
content: Cartographers
label: Topic
content: Printmakers -- 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: Cottingham, Robert, 1935-
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Robert Cottingham (1935- ) is a painter and printmaker from Newtown, Connecticut.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Sound cassettes (Sound recording (2 hr.; 8 min.), analog)
label: Extent
content: 61 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1998 July 27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cottin98
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
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: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Robert Cottingham conducted 1998 July 27, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art, in Cottingham's studio, Newtown, Connecticut.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Cottingham speaks of being raised in Brooklyn; drawing from an early age; the New York World's Fair, 1939-1940, and the tremendous impact it had on him, as did buildings, signs, and great bustle of Times Square; lasting impact of Edward Hopper's "Sunday Morning," which he saw at the Whitney Museum; his love of using a T-square and triangle in industrial design courses at Brooklyn Technical High School and the influence on his work; working in a Manhattan advertising agency for 2 1/2 years; army service in Orleans, France as a mapmaker; working as an art director at Young and Rubicam advertising agency in Manhattan (1959-1964) which exposed him to great variety of print and graphic media; work in Young and Rubicam's Los Angeles office; first painting in NYC in 1963; painting steadily in L.A. which led to first shows (1968-1970) at Molly Barnes Gallery; use of photographs and sketches to produce paintings; avoidance of narrative, just suggestions of places, and incorporation of advertising signs beginning in the mid-1960s; living entirely on his paintings by 1970; breakthrough in 1969 to greater use of color, bolder design, and 3-D illusion; adoption of square format and depiction of fragmentary glimpses of things which led to leap of quality; and sticking with this mode ever since. Cottingham also recalls John Rawlings, Emerson Woelffer, Robert Irwin, Chuck and Leslie Close, and others.