Oral history interview with Edward Landon
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 39 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Landon, Edward, 1911-1984
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: American Artists' Congress
label: Names
content: Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Federal art project (Mass.)
label: Names
content: National Serigraph Society
label: Names
content: Abbott, Berenice, 1898-1991
label: Names
content: Bridgman, George Brant, 1864-1943
label: Names
content: Dove, Arthur Garfield, 1880-1946
label: Names
content: Gottlieb, Harry, 1895-
label: Names
content: Hartley, Dennis
label: Names
content: Hughes, Marian
label: Names
content: Lozowick, Louis, 1892-1973
label: Names
content: Marin, John, 1870-1953
label: Names
content: Mark, Henry
label: Names
content: Mauer, Alfred
label: Names
content: McCausland, Elizabeth, 1899-1965
label: Names
content: O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986
label: Names
content: Olds, Elizabeth, 1896-1991
label: Names
content: Perry, Marvo
label: Names
content: Rebay, Hilla, 1890-1967
label: Names
content: Rogers, William T.
label: Names
content: Sabbath, Bernie
label: Names
content: Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
label: Names
content: Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
label: Names
content: Strand, Paul, 1890-1976
label: Names
content: Weber, Max, 1881-1961
topic: label: Topic
content: Art, American
label: Topic
content: Printmakers -- Vermont -- Weston -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Printing -- Technique
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are 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 others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Landon, Edward, 1911-1984
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Edward Landon (1911-1984) was a printmaker from Weston, Vt.
function: label: Function
content: Artist colonies
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 39 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1975 Apr. 17-May 28
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.landon75
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Edward Landon conducted 1975 Apr. 17-May 28, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Landon speaks of working with the local theater in high school; leaving Hartford at age 17 or 18 for Greenwich Village in New York and the Art Students League; studying figure drawing with George Bridgman; getting married and moving to Springfield, Mass.; exhibiting with the Springfield Art League; the Artist Union and the Artist Congress in the 1930s; spending a summer with Georgia O'Keeffe and Paul Strand in Taos, N.M.; the cooperation amongst artists that lasted into the 1950s to establish serigraphs as an American fine art print medium; when he received the Solomon Guggenheim Scholarship for Non-objective Art in 1939; when he made furniture and picture frames and the publishing of his book on making picture frames in 1946; when he began working as an easel painter in the Massachusetts Federal Art Project of the WPA in 1933; becoming president of the Western Chapter of the Artists Union in 1934; when he corresponded and visited Arthur Dove; his friendship with Elizabeth McCausland; his introduction to Harry Gottlieb and silk screen printing; the love of color and currently trying for emotional effects in his work; initiating silk screen exhibitions in the Springfield Museum; the beginning of the National Serigraph Society and his work as the exhibition secretary; his teaching approach; the first class held in his garage with fellow artists; more on his relationship with Elizabeth McCausland; Arthur Dove's influence on a recent painting Landon finished; his trip to Taos in 1930 and the importance of artist colonies for him early on; the feeling of not having roots, but being comfortable with the idea; the purpose of the National Serigraph Society; his feelings about printmakers moving away from traditional printing; organized exhibitions for the United States Information Service; his enjoyment in organizing things; the commercialization of creating "prints;" how photo-realism does not translate well in the print medium; the importance of trying to convey an idea in his work; his success in covering small boxes, address books and other items, as well as book binding; his preference for printing small editions of 25 to 35 prints; of a description of his method of printing; his Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 to travel to Norway and lecture; an interest in early Scandinavian art; publishing a silkscreen portfolio of pre-Viking art for the American Scandinavian Foundation; traveling through Europe; his influence as an innovator in France and Scandinavia; meeting with silk screen artists in Oslo; art forms in his work at this time; his inclusion in "Who's Who in American Art;" the avoidance of art movements; how by the 1950s the reason for the National Serigraph Society no longer existed because the medium was popular by that time; his move to Vermont in 1957 or 1958; work as a color mixer, book binder, and returning to framing because of health reasons; his second illness changing what he found important in his life; and how the content of his work became more emotional. Landon also recalls Louie Lozowick, Gertrude Stein, Marian Hughes, Elizabeth Olds, John Marin, Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott, Marvo Perry, Hilla Rebay, Sir William T. Rogers, Max Weber, Dennis Hartley, Alfred Maurer, Bernie Sabbath, and Henry Mark.