Oral history interview with James and Beth Arient, 1988 April 27-29

Object Details

Place of publication, production, or execution

United States

Physical Description

213 Pages, Transcript

General Note

Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 29 min.

Summary

An interview of James and Beth Arient conducted 1988 April 27-29, by Betty Blum, for the Archives of American Art.

The Arients describe their backgrounds and talk about their initial interest in art and early collecting, their philosophy of collecting, their discovery of Eskimo sculpture and their first awareness of folk art. They comment on meeting Howard Finster and their subsequent relationship with him, Finster's relationship with collector Jeff Camp, the marketability of folk art, a 1987 exhibition of part of their collection at Northern Illinois University Art Gallery, and folk art patronage. They recall William Dawson and Derek Webster.

Citation

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with James and Beth Arient, 1988 April 27-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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.

Biography Note

James Arient (1946-) and Beth Arient (1946-) are folk art collectors from Chicago, Illinois. James Arient is a dentist.

Language Note

English .

Provenance

These interviews are part of the Archives' 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 others.

Location Note

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

Data Source

Archives of American Art

Record number

(DSI-AAA_CollID)12114

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)212161

AAA_collcode_arient88

interviewee

Arient, James, 1946-

interviewer

Blum, Betty

Subject

Arient, Beth, 1946-

Camp, Jeffrey Thomas

Dawson, William

Finster, Howard

Webster, Derek

Type

Sound recordings

Interviews

Theme

Chicago's Art-Related Archival Materials: A Terra Foundation Resource

Topic

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews

Folk art -- Collectors and collecting -- United States

Theme

Chicago's Art-Related Archival Materials: A Terra Foundation Resource

Record ID

AAADCD_oh_212161

Usage

Usage conditions apply