Oral history interview with Sergei Isupov, 2010 December 21-22, Transcript
Oral history interview with Sergei Isupov, 2010 December 21-22, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)
Originally recorded as 7 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 58 min.
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
An interview of Sergei Isupov conducted 2010 December 21-22, by Mark Shapiro, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Isupov's home, in Cummington, Massachusetts.
Isupov speaks of his parents, both artists; his childhood in Ukraine; his efforts to get accepted to an art school; attending art school in Estonia; having access to factories where he could produce his own work; his early exhibitions and career success in Estonia; marrying an American and moving to Louisville, KY; starting a business, Nine Pines Studio; how being a foreigner in both Estonia and the U.S. affected his work positively; living briefly in Richmond, VA; his early focus on making teapots; incorporating more travel into his career in order to give workshops; moving to Cummington, MA and setting up his new studio; his relationship with his art dealer; starting to incorporate drawing into his work; and how the birth of his daughter has affected his art. Isupov also recalls Martha Connell, Don Reitz, Leslie Ferrin, and others.
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Sergei Isupov (1963- ) is a ceramist in Cummington, Massachusetts. Mark Shapiro (1955- ) is a potter in Worthington, Massachusetts.
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.