Speaking of Art: Selections from the Archives of American Art's Oral History Collection, 1958-2008

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Archives' oral history program, we have selected audio excerpts from some of our most fascinating interviews and paired them with photographs from our collections. Lee Krasner rejects the word 'drip' as an accurate descriptor of Jackson Pollock's paintings; Charles Burchfield reads poems that he penned on the verso of his paintings; and Emmy Lou Packard recounts working with Diego Rivera on the Pan-American Unity mural in 1940.

These samplings, among 3,000 audio recordings in the Archives' collection, chronicle the great diversity of the American scene, augmenting and refining our perception of individual artists, dealers, collectors, and curators and their social worlds. Through the ongoing production of oral history interviews, the Archives of American Art collects and preserves the distinct voices and memories of the American art world.

Choose an item below for links to audio clips and interview transcripts.