Oral history interview with Stuyvesant Van Veen, 1981 May 5-14, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 36 min.
An interview of Stuyvesant Van Veen conducted 1981 May 5-14, by Emily Nathan, for the Archives of American Art.
Van Veen speaks of his family background and parental influence; his early training, and studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; his army service; some of his experiences as a young artist; early exhibits of his work; his mural work; anthropological drawings he did under Franz Boas for Columbia University in the 1930s. He recalls Max Beckmann, Thomas Hart Benton, Leon Kroll, Daniel Catton Rich and Hudson Dean Walker.
Stuyvesant Van Veen (1910-1988) was a painter from New York, N.Y.
These interviews are part of the Archives' 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.