MINNESOTA ARTISTS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT.:

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Minnesota Artists Oral History Project. Oral history interviews of the Minnesota Artists Oral History Project. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: AV1981.112; AV1981.204; AV1991.139-142; AV1991.155; AV1993.130; AV1994.7; AV1994.156-157; AV1996.217; AV1997.41; AV1997.57; AV2000.36; AV2004.26; AV2011.22

Processing Information:

Processed by: J. Huebscher, March 2012.

Catalog ID number: 007488098

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Byron Bradley was born in Anoka, Minnesota. He grew up in Minneapolis and attended public school. He became interested in art as a child and attended classes at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for a year. His life direction took him away from art until 1944 when he began classes at the Minneapolis School of Art. He studied under Gustav Krollman, among others, and graduated in 1949. Awarded the Vanderlip Scholarship, he attended the Skowegan School of Painting in Maine for a summer where he studied with Henry Varnum Poor. He also traveled and studied in Europe with classmates Bob Kilbride, Tom Mickelson, and Dave Ratner. When he returned to Minneapolis, he found it necessary to work at other jobs to support his painting. He established the Kilbride Bradley Gallery with Bob Kilbride in 1951, and did layout and illustrations for The Potboiler, the newsletter which represented the Gallery's public relations. In 1953 he began teaching drawing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He also became involved in teaching at the Grand Marais Art Colony with Birney Quick. He and Quick continued to run the Colony after the Minneapolis College of Art and Design discontinued its association with it. He became involved in the art supply aspect of the Kilbride Bradley Gallery and moved away from teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In 1968, Kilbride and Bradley split off the art supply business from the gallery and he opened his own store, KB Art Supplies, while continuing to teach at the Minnetonka Art Center and the Grand Marais Art Colony. Shortly after Quick's death in 1981, Bradley disengaged from the Colony, putting his energy into the successful running of his store and his own work as an artist.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include Bradley's early education under teachers Syd Fossum, Briggs Dyer, Bill Ryan, and Bernard Arnest, the excitement of the Minneapolis School of Art, the cross-section of students, and people getting drawn to the aspects of art they were best at; his working other jobs to support his painting, the evolution of the Kilbride Bradley gallery, its rental program, and his participation in the State Fair and Biennials art shows; the ways he found most successful in running an enterprise as well as his development as an artist, the effect Grand Marais had on his work, the conflict between technique and feeling in his art, and the changing mix of students at the Colony; his reflection on the transition from teacher to art supply Colony and store owner, and the need to keep generating new ideas in business as well as art; his point of view on visual orientation and observation, and how that translates to art; and he shares how artists were chosen to exhibit for the Gallery shows and sets forth his view of what makes one of his own paintings successful.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Anthony B. Cassius was born in 1907 on a farm in Oklahoma and came to Minnesota in 1922 to join an older brother. He worked as a porter while he finished high school and also attended Macalester College and night school. He was the owner of the Cassius Bar in Minneapolis which he operated for 47 years. In addition to his successful business, Cassius was also active in Democratic and DFL politics, and in the community.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his personal history; interest in sports and black athletes, including his sponsorship of local softball teams and golden gloves boxing; the Cassius Bar and Cafe, it's changing clientele, eventual loss of business, and closing in 1980; the murals in the bar that showed Harry Tobjinski's painting of the 1938 victory of Joe Louis over Max Schmeling, Lawrence Flowers' painting of Jackie Robinson's slide into home plate in the 1955 World Series, and St. Paul resident Mel Brown's paintings of two ringside scenes of the victories of Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali; Cassius' political and athletic acquaintances, including Joe Louis; and details about the black community in Minneapolis.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Eric Austen Erickson is a native of Minneapolis. Prior to World War II, he attended classes at the Works Progress Administration Art Center and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Erickson then studied painting at the Art Students League in New York under Victor Thall and Cameron Booth. He also studied painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum School under Max Beckman and Milton Hebald.

Erickson has taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Macalester College, The Studio School, Art Center of Minnesota, Minnesota Museum School, Walker Art Center, and the Grand Marais Art Colony.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his training as an artist; his experiences in New York and his welcome move back to Minnesota; the roles of art galleries in Minneapolis; and his style of painting and sources of inspiration.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Clement Haupers was born in St. Paul in 1900. He served as Secretary of Minnesota State Arts Society in 1921 before studying art in Paris from 1923 to 1929. He was the Director of the Arts Section at the Minnesota State Fair from 1931 to 1942, and Director of the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration in Minnesota from 1935 to 1941, as well as Assistant to the National Director of the Federal Arts Project from 1941 to 1942.

OH 1.4 - Scope and Content: Subjects discussed in this interview relate primarily to the inception and development of the Federal Arts Project (FAP) and to Haupers' own involvement therein. Hauper discusses the concept that the FAP should be used to put as many unemployed artists as possible to work providing art services of long-range value to general community; specific projects and the artists who worked on them; the preservation of a generation of artists; the creation of a substantial body of public art; the development of a greater sense of art and beauty in the broader community; and the opposition to the FAP by some politically conservative patrons of the arts.

OH 1.4 interviewed by: George Reid and Nina M. Archabal.

OH 1.5 - Scope and Content: Subjects discussed in this interview include murals executed under the FAP in several locations in Minnesota; several artists and artisans, many of whom worked in the FAP; his own career as an artists and administrator, including his dealings with other administrators of state and federal arts programs during the 1920s and 1930s.

OH 1.5 interviewed by: George Reid and Mary Harvey.

OH 1.6 - Scope and Content: Subjects discussed in this interview include the artists of WPA prints donated to the Minnesota Historical Society; his work organizing the State Fair Art Show which led to his appointment as FAP director of Minnesota; convincing people to support FAP; his struggle with alcoholism; his inner drive to be an artist; presses and pressmen for printing lithographs for FAP; Syd Fossum's problem with the FAP; details about his support staff; the graduated pay scale for artists; mechanism for producing work; value of schooling and training for artists, including his training in Paris; the destruction of the FAP murals; the State Fair Art Show; and his musings on his exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society.

OH 1.6 interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan and Elizabeth Knight.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Born in 1899, Carl Henrikson grew up in the Lindstrom-Chisago Lakes area. He has since used his memory and talent to preserve a record of a way of life he came to know while growing up. Seeking to earn sufficient money to enroll in the University of Chicago in 1924, he spent time working as a clerk and logger in a logging camp near the Minnesota border with Canada. Graduating with a Ph.D. in 1928, he embarked on his career in business and education, serving as assistant dean of the University of Chicago School of Business until 1937. In that year he took a sabbatical and returned to the Northern Minnesota woods and logging camps, documenting on film and with interviews that way of life. He produced a documentary film on lumber camp life before returning to Chicago. Upon his retirement, Henrikson returned to Lindstrom, Minnesota, and painted a series of watercolors based on the logging photos taken earlier. In 1984 he was inducted into the Lumberjack Hall of Fame in Bemidji, Minnesota.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include the logging procedures depicted in several of his paintings, including the breaking of log jams, log rolling, and the tools used; the significance of the clothing loggers wore; the process of getting logs out of the woods; comments on the layout of camp, sleeping arrangements, diet, and salaries; and his interest in painting both as a child and later as a student at the University of Chicago.

Interviewed by: George Reid and Ann Sundberg.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Robert Kilbride was born in 1924 in Minneapolis. He grew up and attended schools there before serving three years in the United States Navy in the Admiralty islands. He returned to Minneapolis and attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1946 to 1949, studying under Syd Fossum and Bernard Arnest. Upon completion, he traveled to Europe and while in Paris, he attended classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumier. Returning to Minneapolis, he and Byron Bradley established the Kilbride Bradley Gallery in 1951. This partnership later expanded to include artist Eric A. Erickson as well. Kilbride wrote and edited The Potboiler, a newsletter to attract customers to the gallery. He also authored the book, Trivia, published in 1968 and included illustrations by Erickson. He served as president of the State Arts Society in 1958, taught at the University of Minnesota in 1956, and at Macalester College from 1973-1974. The partners dissolved the gallery in 1962, with Kilbride continuing the actual exhibition aspect until 1968.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his education; his time abroad; the beginning of the gallery and the innovative programs it instituted, some of which gained national publicity; the origins of The Potboiler; involvement in political campaigns, chiefly that of Adlai Stevenson for President; his role in the formation of the State Arts Society; the changing circumstances which led to the closing of the Kilbride Bradley Gallery; and his way working and getting ideas.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Francis R. Meisch was born in 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he attended public and parochial schools. With support from his family to achieve his early ambition of becoming an architect, he attended the University of Minnesota. He studied art under Elmer Young, Ivan Doseff, and S. Chatwood Burton, and earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree with distinction. He continued his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying under John L. Reid and Samuel Chamberlain, and was awarded at Masters in Architecture. Following graduation, he taught architecture at North Dakota State College in Fargo until called to serve as a designer on National Defense projects during World War II. After the war he returned to Minneapolis as an architect for Northwest Airlines. He was employed as an architect by McEnary and Krafft from 1950 to 1954; the Cerny Association from 1954 to 1964; Haarstick, Lundgren, and Associates from 1964 to 1971; and Peterson, Clark, and Associates from 1974 until his retirement. He was active in the Minnesota Artists Association from 1943 to 1961. He began exhibiting dry points in 1937 and watercolors in 1942, and has been exhibited in more than 170 exhibitions and sixteen one-man shows.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his family's support for his choice of vocation; education and work experience, including relating the broad scope of employment which taught him surveying, hydraulics, and engineering; the influences of cultural offerings such as the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the University of Minnesota galleries, as well as local orchestras; involvement in the Minnesota Artists Association and how it increases opportunities for artists to show their works; the economics of painting; his reputation as an artist; his use of photography to compose his works; his mentors and models; and his retirement.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan and Susan Meehan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Bettye Olson has been part of the Twin Cities artistic circles throughout her career. She earned her Masters Degree in Art Education from the University of Minnesota, and has also studied at the University of New Mexico, Taos, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. She taught at various schools in Minnesota, including the University of Minnesota, Concordia College, and Augsburg College. Olson was also a Summer Artist in Residence at Holden Village in Chelan, Washington. In addition to her educational activities, Olson helped to found the Westlake Gallery in Minneapolis. Her works have been exhibited around the country and she has won awards from the Minnesota Museum of Art, the Minnesota Arts Association, the St. Paul Gallery, and the Minneapolis Art Institute. Olson has also had one-woman shows throughout Minnesota and in Sweden.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include her education and beginnings in art; influences on her work; involvement with the Minnesota Artists Association; the founding of the Westlake Gallery; and her career as an artist.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Jo Lutz Rollins was born in 1896, one of four daughters of a Methodist minister. Her painting career spans some sixty years. Primarily a watercolorist, she preferred to work outdoors, traveling all over the state, the country, and the world for subject matter. She concentrated on landscapes and has produced hundreds of paintings of historic homes and buildings n the metro area and the state of Minnesota. In addition to being an artist, Ms. Rollins was also a teacher. For many years she counseled the Gamma Chapter of Delta Phi Delta, the National Honor Art Fraternity of the University of Minnesota. Ms. Rollins taught at the University from 1927 to 1965, when she retired as Emeritus Professor. Beyond teaching, Ms. Rollins has been active in other significant ways. In 1933 she founded the Stillwater Art Colony where many well-known local artists gathered. In 1964, a year before her retirement, she founded the Westlake Gallery, a co-op managed by a group of women artists. She has not only consistently exhibited there, but has encouraged its members to the point where they have created one of the best small galleries in the Twin Cities.

Ms. Rollins died at the age of 92 on March 29, 1989.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include her beginnings in art; her teaching at the University of Minnesota; the founding and running of the Stillwater Art Colony; and the creation of the Westlake Gallery.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Elaine Scott Borreson, known as "Scottie," was born in Superior, Wisconsin. After graduating from Superior High School and attending one year of college at the University of Wisconsin's teacher's college, she moved to Minneapolis to attend the Minneapolis School of Art. Borreson then worked as a commercial artist in Minneapolis, Duluth, Chicago, Toledo, and Los Angeles.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include her artist friends and teachers, her commercial art career, her alcoholism and recovery, and her life in retirement.

Interviewed by: Pat Kennedy Crump and Bob Crump.

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Biographical Information: Alvin Del Chamblee studied art formally with the late Paul Glemaker and more recently with the well-known Midwestern artist Paul Kramer. Since 1966, when his formal art career began, he has had more than twenty one-man shows and 25 group shows. His work was included in the Atlanta University Black Artists Exhibition; the Carnegie Institute Master Black Artists Series and Lectures; a Northern States Power Company exhibit of Minnesota artists; exhibits at the Minnesota State Fair, University of Minnesota, and Paul Larson Galleries; the Courage Center Images of Minnesota exhibit in 1988; and the Black History Exhibit of Three Artists at Lakewood Community College in 1990. His work is now in public and private collections. Chamblee was a member of the Paul Kramer Studio Group from 1966 until 1973 when the group evolved into Old Town Artists, to which he belonged at the time of this interview.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include the formation of the studio group in the mid 1960s; places where artists worked; development of Old Town Artists in the early 1970s and their early shows; newspaper coverage of work by the group's artists; and photos of the artists.

Interviewed by: Chamblee recorded his own recollections.

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Biographical Information: Charles Morgan was born in Richfield, Minnesota, in 1917. When he was five, his family moved to a farm near Brainerd, Minnesota, but they moved to Minneapolis about seven years later. He went to Edison High School and then the Minneapolis School of Art. He was involved in the WPA art projects in the 1930s, including murals in Two Harbors, Minnesota and at the University of Minnesota. He spent one year designing greeting cards for the Buzza Corporation and in 1942 he went to work for Northwest Airlines as an aircraft finisher and later as a mechanic. He worked there until his retirement in 1979 at which time he took up drawing again.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include the WPA art program; the Two Harbors mural; and other Minnesota artists of the 1930s and their work.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Evelyn Raymond was born in Duluth of French and Canadian parentage. Her father spent sixteen years in the Nopeming Sanitarium for tuberculosis, so her mother raised her and her four siblings alone. She graduated from Duluth Central High School in 1928 and attended the Minneapolis School of Art. She helped found the Minneapolis Art Students League. She returned to Duluth for eight years when her mother became ill and then returned to Minneapolis to be an instructor at the Walker Art School.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include childhood; summers camping with her family; seeing herself being from the pioneer era; watching people build things and its influence on her; art classes offered at her high school; initial interest in being a sculptor; early publicity in the local paper; instructors at the Minneapolis School of Art; found the Minneapolis Art Students League with teachers who hadn't had their contracts renewed; returning to the farm; sculpting for the WPA; teaching in the basement of the Walker Art Center; declaring herself poor to work for the WPA; creating a sculpture for the International Falls stadium and the problems associated with that; starting a school within the Walker; teaching at area schools; the outdoor sculpture shows at the Walker; lecturing with clay in her hands; the "Good Shepherd" model; stone carving by others since women couldn't join the union; getting money for her own school in Minneapolis; lack of travel; the Maria Sanford sculpture in the United States Capitol, and the competition for and dedication of that sculpture; the content of her work being secondary to form; other commissions; religion in her life; portraits of Dmitri Mitropoulos and Bernie Bierman; and her students.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Richard Cooper was born in 1946 in Hiawatha, Kansas. He grew up in suburban Kansas City, graduated from high school in 1964, and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, majoring in sculpture. He spent two years in the Army, including eleven months in Vietnam, married artist Georgiana Kettler, and received a master of fine arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1973. After teaching in the St. Louis area, he came to Minnesota to teach at Southwest State University in Marshall. In the late 1970s and 1980s he also taught at St. Cloud State University and at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and served as a visiting lecturer at several colleges in Minnesota and surrounding states. In the 1980s and 1990s he was involved with numerous art galleries in the area and worked as a curator for several private and corporate art collections. In 1979 Cooper and his wife separated and in the early 1980s he formed a relationship with artist Mark O'Leary. Around 1985 he and O'Leary discovered they were HIV-positive and O'Leary died in 1993. At the time of this interview, Cooper was a public relations manager at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, and a consultant and writer for a variety of art organizations and publications.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his art training; early sculptures; Kettler's work; art organizations in the Twin Cities; O'Leary's illness and death; and work with corporate art collections.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Douglas Argue was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and went to college at Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota. He has exhibited around the state of Minnesota an across the country.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed in the video include Argue describing his buffalo painting, and hit motivations and methods for painting as he is alongside it. He also describes briefly his current work.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Dan Bruggeman was born in Nebraska and received his BFA from the University of Nebraska. He obtained his MFA from Hunter College in New York. He has been awarded numerous grants, including the Minnesota State Arts Board Grants in 1993 and 1996, an Arts Midwest Visual Art Grant in 1994, and a McKnight Foundation Grant in 1997. He has exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Nebraska Art.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include growing up in Nebraska; becoming an artist; arts education; living in New York; the Hunter College MFA program; becoming a painter; influences; environment and art; advantages to living in the Midwest; acclimating to the Minnesota arts scene; individual and series work; dioramas; art-making process; being an artist in Minnesota; and teaching.

Interviewed by: Brian Szott.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Darwin Follrath was born in Arlington, Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and at the time of this interview worked as a painter.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include his early life; arts education; University of Minnesota arts program in the 1920s and 1930s; Twin Cities Council of Camera Club; exhibiting work in Minnesota; Minnesota arts scene; awards; living and working in Anoka; traveling in Europe and its influence on him; and photography.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan and Susan Meehan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Keith Havens is a Minnesota artist. He has also worked as a designer, an art director, and teacher at the Minneapolis School of Art, as well as a writer and illustrator.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include growing up in Minneapolis; Minneapolis School of Art and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design; inventing games; illustrating books; living in Grand Marais; the WPA and Federal Art Projects; teaching art and arts education; the Minnetonka Center of Art and Education and the Art Center of Minnesota; Minnesota Artists Association; Minnesota artists' styles and approaches to art; School of Associated Arts; and exhibiting artwork in the Twin Cities between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan and Susan Meehan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Francis Kerr was born in Montreal, Canada, and grew up in Scotland and Norway. He studied art and architecture at George Washington University.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include early life and education; moving to Minnesota; designing residences; working as a cost engineer with the Federal Housing Administration; judging art shows; impressions of the Minnesota arts scene in the 1950s and 1960s; local artists; the Rainbow Cafe and the Minnesota Artists Association; Kerr's own work; teaching art; and local art galleries and exhibitions.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan.

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Use Restrictions: None.

Biographical Information: Eugene newstrom was born in Richfield, Minnesota. He studied at the Minneapolis Art Center. He served in World War II as a topographer with the Army and trained as an artist while serving in Italy.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include early life; WPA art centers; being in the Army and studying art; Italy; freelance work; informal teaching; wildlife artists; Minnesota art scene in the 1950s; pattern-making and sculpture; local artist community; and local exhibits, shows, and galleries.

Interviewed by: Thomas O'Sullivan and Susan Meehan.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Artists -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Archabal, Nina Marchetti, 1940-, interviewer.

Argue, Douglas, 1962-, interviewee.

Borreson, Elaine Scott, interviewee.

Bradley, Byron, interviewee.

Bruggeman, Dan, interviewee.

Cassius, Anthony Brutus, interviewee.

Chamblee, Del, interviewee.

Cooper, Richard R., 1946- , interviewee.

Crump, Patricia Kennedy, d. 2008, interviewer.

Crump, Robert, interviewer.

Erickson, Eric Austen, interviewee.

Follrath, Darwin, interviewee.

Follrath, Lorraine, interviewee.

Harvey, Mary, interviewer.

Haupers, Clement, 1900-, interviewee.

Havens, Keith

Henrikson, Carl H., interviewee.

Kerr, Francis,

Kerr, Mary, interviewee.

Kilbride, Robert, interviewee.

Knight, Elizabeth, interviewer.

Meehan, Susan, interviewer.

Meisch, F. R. (Francis R.) interviewee.

Morgan, Charles L., 1917- , interviewee.

Newstrom, Eugene, interviewee.

O'Sullivan, Thomas, 1951-, interviewer.

Olson, Bettye, interviewee.

Raymond, Evelyn, 1908-, interviewee.

Reid, George, interviewer.

Rollins, Jo Lutz, interviewee.

Szott, Brian, interviewer.

Document Types:

Interviews.

Oral histories (document genres)

Video recordings

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