Collection Information
Size: 1 Cassette, Sound recording (ca. 30 min.), analog; 17 Pages, Transcript
Summary: An interview of Peter Hutchinson conducted 1967 July 27, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art.
Hutchinson speaks of his childhood and early education in the English countryside; his subsequent time spent in the army; his decision to move to the states and attend college in Illinois; his artistic destiny realized during his first year in college; his seven year experience working his way through college; his time spent in Italy in the early 60's; his early mathematic, Nevelson-like wood works; his relationship to the Jack Daniels Gallery and the "nucleus of thought" consisting of Sol LeWitt , Robert Smithson, Tadaaki Kuwayama; his feelings as to the blurred line between art and writing; the stimulation process involved in all art forms; his creative process consisting primarily of thought; his progression from construction, to painting, to painting on shaped canvas and wood; the requisite direct relationship between art and the artist; his position on the contemporary debate over the supremacy of painting or sculpture; his prediction that Judd and Morris are painting themselves into a corner; the importance of artistic dialogue; the possibility of a redefinition of humanism; his interest in Science Fiction and his recent publication of "Is there Life on Earth;" the importance of "thinking in reverse;" his decision in recent years to replace personal references with personal shapes; his opposition to the term creativity; his similar position to McLuhan with his belief in every man as an artist; his foresight of an eventual "devaluation of monetary attainment;" and his belief that art (self-expression) will always exist in one form or another. Hutchinson discusses his work and its development, and he comments upon the aesthetic climate of the day. He discourses on science fiction.