The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66
Edited with text by Matthew Simms. Interviews by Alan Solomon.
Previously unpublished interviews with some of America’s leading postwar artists—including Frankenthaler, Johns, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Stella and Warhol—originally conducted for TV in the mid-’60s by famed curator Alan Solomon
This substantial volume publishes for the first time a series of interviews conducted with seminal East Coast artists and their associates, including Kenneth Noland, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Marcella Brenner, Helen Jacobson, Clement Greenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Poons, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Barnett Newman, Leo Castelli, Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick. These were produced in late 1965 and early 1966 for the documentary television series USA: Artists by famed curator Alan Solomon, who was a regular fixture in the New York art world of the time. This was a logical extension of Solomon's recent curatorial involvements, including most importantly his organization of the United States exhibition at the 1964 Venice Biennale. The half-hour format of the episodes meant that a vast amount of Solomon’s original interviews, some of which lasted an hour or more, wound up on the cutting-room floor. At some point after the series was completed the original filmed and tape-recorded interviews were lost. A single set of typed transcripts, preserved in the Alan R. Solomon papers at the Archives of American Art, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution (copublisher of this volume), is the sole complete record of the original interviews. The New York Tapes gathers these interview transcripts and publishes them as a group for the first time, extensively illustrated with numerous stills from the television programs and related documentation. The transcripts make available material that was not included in the final programs, while also revealing how what was included became subtly manipulated to fit the format of documentary television. An informative introduction by editor Matthew Simms sets the project in context and highlights the differences between the interviews and the films, shedding new light on a germinal moment in postwar American art and how it was presented to the public.
Featured image is reproduced from 'The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66'.
in stock $39.95
Free Shipping
UPS GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S. FOR CONSUMER ONLINE ORDERS
FROM THE BOOK
"The stars are just around. Everybody is a star." —Andy Warhol
"All of our environment seems to be made up partially of a desire to sell products. This is the landscape that I’m interested in portraying." —Roy Lichtenstein
"I don’t know if you [will] put this on the camera but...three-quarters of those people that so-called want the paintings, I don’t think they would know a good painting it if hit them." —Larry Poons
Tuesday, February 27 at 7 PM, 192 Books and Paula Cooper Gallery present art historian and author Robert Slifkin and Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Executive Director Elizabeth Smith discussing The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66, moderated by Jacob Proctor, Gilbert and Ann Kinney New York Collector and interviewer for the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. This free event will take place at 192 Books, with no reserved seating. Seating is extremely limited and will be first come, first served. Books will be available for purchase at the store. The event will also be available virtually and will be streamed directly on PCG Studio at 7 PM ET. There is no login or RSVP required. A recording will be archived. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66. Years in the making, this whopping new collaboration between Circle Books and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art weighs in at 672 pages and measures almost two inches thick at the spine. Collecting previously unpublished interviews conducted by the renowned Jewish Museum curator Alan Solomon for the 1966 documentary tv series USA: Artists, it features conversations with many of the key players of the day, including Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, among others. Fresh off his turn curating the legendary American pavilion for the 1964 Venice Biennale, Solomon spoke with each of his subjects for more than an hour, though the program lasted only thirty minutes. What was lost on the cutting room floor has never been published until now. Editor Matthew Simms writes: “In contrast with the compressed, carefully crafted television presentations, the interviews are shaggy and spontaneous, and do not cohere to a narrative thread, no matter how much the interviewer sought to guide the discussion. Chronologically, the interviews precede the editorial wizardry of shifting camera angles, conventions that shape the visual impact of the episodes. The transcripts follow the discursive cadences of spoken language that emerge in the back-and-forth rhythm of unfurling dialogue. As a group, the television programs sought to pull the artists together into a coherent, if bifurcated, advanced guard of contemporary art in the United States.… Instead of an art scene, the transcripts present an aggregate of now diverging, now coinciding points of view—a group portrait of individual artists at grips with unique aesthetic concerns.” continue to blog
Featured spreads are from The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66. Years in the making, this whopping new collaboration between Circle Books and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art weighs in at 672 pages and measures almost two inches thick at the spine. Collecting previously unpublished interviews conducted by the renowned Jewish Museum curator Alan Solomon for the 1966 documentary tv series USA: Artists, it features conversations with many of the key players of the day, including Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, among others. Fresh off his turn curating the legendary American pavilion for the 1964 Venice Biennale, Solomon spoke with each of his subjects for more than an hour, though the program lasted only thirty minutes. What was lost on the cutting room floor has never been published until now. Editor Matthew Simms writes: “In contrast with the compressed, carefully crafted television presentations, the interviews are shaggy and spontaneous, and do not cohere to a narrative thread, no matter how much the interviewer sought to guide the discussion. Chronologically, the interviews precede the editorial wizardry of shifting camera angles, conventions that shape the visual impact of the episodes. The transcripts follow the discursive cadences of spoken language that emerge in the back-and-forth rhythm of unfurling dialogue. As a group, the television programs sought to pull the artists together into a coherent, if bifurcated, advanced guard of contemporary art in the United States.… Instead of an art scene, the transcripts present an aggregate of now diverging, now coinciding points of view—a group portrait of individual artists at grips with unique aesthetic concerns.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 5 x 7.5 in. / 672 pgs / 399 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $53.95 GBP £35.00 ISBN: 9780578635286 PUBLISHER: Circle Books/Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution AVAILABLE: 10/31/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
The New York Tapes: Alan Solomon’s Interviews for Television, 1965–66
Published by Circle Books/Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Edited with text by Matthew Simms. Interviews by Alan Solomon.
Previously unpublished interviews with some of America’s leading postwar artists—including Frankenthaler, Johns, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Stella and Warhol—originally conducted for TV in the mid-’60s by famed curator Alan Solomon
This substantial volume publishes for the first time a series of interviews conducted with seminal East Coast artists and their associates, including Kenneth Noland, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Marcella Brenner, Helen Jacobson, Clement Greenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Poons, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Barnett Newman, Leo Castelli, Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick. These were produced in late 1965 and early 1966 for the documentary television series USA: Artists by famed curator Alan Solomon, who was a regular fixture in the New York art world of the time. This was a logical extension of Solomon's recent curatorial involvements, including most importantly his organization of the United States exhibition at the 1964 Venice Biennale.
The half-hour format of the episodes meant that a vast amount of Solomon’s original interviews, some of which lasted an hour or more, wound up on the cutting-room floor. At some point after the series was completed the original filmed and tape-recorded interviews were lost. A single set of typed transcripts, preserved in the Alan R. Solomon papers at the Archives of American Art, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution (copublisher of this volume), is the sole complete record of the original interviews.
The New York Tapes gathers these interview transcripts and publishes them as a group for the first time, extensively illustrated with numerous stills from the television programs and related documentation. The transcripts make available material that was not included in the final programs, while also revealing how what was included became subtly manipulated to fit the format of documentary television. An informative introduction by editor Matthew Simms sets the project in context and highlights the differences between the interviews and the films, shedding new light on a germinal moment in postwar American art and how it was presented to the public.
