Oral history interview with Josine Ianco-Starrels, 1989 June 15

Collection Information

Size: 2 Sound cassettes, Sound recordings (ca. 3 hrs.); 62 Pages, Transcript

Summary: An interview of Josine Ianco-Starrels conducted 1989 June 15, by Ruth Gurin Bowman for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project. Ianco-Starrels recounts her youth in Bucharest, Romania; WWII and her family's fleeing to Palestine; her father Marcel Janco's affiliation with the Dadaists in Zurich; early associations with Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Roberto Matta; her first marriage that brought her to New York in 1950; studying at the Art Students League; her second marriage to Herbert Kline, a documentary filmmaker; her involvement with the Lytton Center of the Visual Arts and the beginning of her curatorial career; working at California State University, Los Angeles as gallery director; her teaching career; her interest in Los Angeles artists including Jack Zajack, Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, Felix Landau, Joyce Treiman, Betye Saar, Joan Brown, and others; curating and programs at the Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park and later at the Long Beach Museum; her views on community and access to local galleries; and her relationship with artists and the art community.

Biographical/Historical Note

Josine Ianco-Starrels (1926-2019) was a curator and gallery administrator in Los Angeles, California. Born 1926 in Bucharest, Romania, Josine Ianco-Starrels was curator of the Lytton Center of the Visual Arts (1961-1969), Associate Professor, Art Gallery Division at California State University, Los Angeles (1969-1975), Director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park (1975-1984), and Senior Curator at the Long Beach Art Museum (1987-1990). Ianco-Starrels died at the age of 92 at her home in Rogue City, Oregon.

Provenance

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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Margery and Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund of New York.

Language Note

English .

Funding

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service. This interview received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative Pool.