The WPI Oral Histories

I Only Want to Paint [2:46:41], a lengthy cache of documentary footage, was filmed for the documentary of the same title, and captures life in Tom Wesselmann’s studio in 1998. It straddles a fine line between documentary, oral history, and diary. In it, a skeleton filmmaking crew spends days in Wesselmann’s studio, watching attentively as Wesselmann and his studio staff make decisions over color,...

I Only Want to Paint [2:46:41] , a lengthy cache of documentary footage, was filmed for the documentary of the same title, and captures life in Tom Wesselmann’s studio in 1998. It straddles a fine line between documentary, oral history, and diary. In it, a skeleton filmmaking crew spends days in Wesselmann’s studio, watching attentively as Wesselmann and his studio staff make decisions over color,...

Lippincott, Inc. was founded by Donald Lippincott in 1966 as a fabrication space specifically for artists producing large-scale sculptures, not industrial design projects. Eventually joined by his brother, Alfred, the Lippincott studio quickly gained renown for its collaborative, salon-like atmosphere; its attention to artists’ aesthetic and technical considerations; and its innovative methods for...

Jim Dine is an American artist active from the mid-1950s onward whose work defies neat categorization. An accomplished painter, printmaker, sculptor, and as of recently, poet, Dine is often closely associated with both the Pop Art and Neo-Expressionist movements. Along with Marcus Ratliff and Wesselmann, with assistance from Judson Church minister Bud Scott, he co-founded the Judson Gallery, an ex...

Susan Stedman is a curator, arts administrator and manager for artist’s estates. She has held positions at the Museum of Modern Art and the New York State Council of the Arts. She met Romare Bearden in the 1960s and was a friend—and fierce supporter of his work—until his passing. Highlights of her oral history include descriptions of Bearden and the artistic climate in the 1960s and 1970s, memorie...

Sheila Rohan is the youngest sister of Nanette Rohan Bearden and the sister-in-law of Romare Bearden. She was a principal dancer of the founding company of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Later, she was a soloist and Ballet Mistress for the Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theatre. Rohan was instrumental in the development of the Romare Bearden Foundation and serves on the board of directors. Highl...

Myron Schwartzman, Professor Emeritus of English at Baruch College, is the author of the biography Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (1990). Having befriended Bearden in 1977, Schwartzman conducted extensive interviews with the artist over the course of several years, deepening their relationship and informing his narrative. Highlights of the interview include depictions of Schwartzman’s visits to...

Jerald Melberg has owned and operated the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina for the past forty years. Prior to opening the gallery, Melberg was a curator at the Mint Museum where he curated the retrospective,  Romare Bearden, 1970-1980 . Having befriended Bearden while working on the exhibition, Melberg subsequently curated several exhibitions of his work at his gallery. Highligh...

This interview was conducted in French. Visit the Gonzalès Oral History webpage to download a French or English transcript. Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu is a French art historian specializing in late 19th-century and early 20th-century French painting. While working on the catalogue raisonné of Henri Manguin, she met Jacques de Mons, with whom she published a catalogue raisonné of Eva Gonzalès’s wor...

Johanne Bryant-Reid is the current co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation, as well as a serious art collector and dedicated philanthropist. While working as a Human Resources Executive at Merrill Lynch in New York, Bryant-Reid became immersed in New York’s art scene, often using art as a tool for philanthropic fundraising. She joined the Board of the RBF in 2002, and became co-director in 20...

Allan Rubin and Candy Spilner were studio assistants to Tom Wesselmann between the late 1970s and early 2000s. Both accomplished artists in their own careers separate from Wesselmann, the two met at Cooper Union in 1969 and have been a couple ever since. Their interview delves into many different aspects of labor in a studio setting: balancing one’s own creative aspirations with the necessities of...

André Thibault (Teabo) is a North Carolina-based artist who served as Romare Bearden’s studio assistant and collaborator from 1980 until Bearden’s passing in 1988. Highlights of his interview include memories of working hands-on in Bearden’s studio, the development of particular Bearden works, and Thibault’s own journey with his artistic practice. KEYWORDS: Romare Bearden, artists’ studios, experi...

Sophie Renoir is the great-granddaughter of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a contemporary scholar and advocate for his work. Following in the footsteps of her family’s cinematic traditions—her father, cinematographer Claude Renoir, and uncle, director Jean Renoir—she is an acclaimed French film and television actress. Highlights from her oral history include discussions of childhood memories fr...

Paul Louis Durand-Ruel is the great-grandson of Paul Durand-Ruel, the art dealer of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and many other Impressionist legends. He has written and lectured on Paul Durand-Ruel’s important influence on the Impressionist movement, and co-edited the memoirs of Paul Durand-Ruel with his niece, Flavie. His oral history sheds light on the creative relationship between Renoir and Durand-R...

Evgenia Kuzmina is a researcher on the team compiling the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné. She began working for the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s Paris office in 2018. Originally from Russia, Kuzmina’s first encounters with the work of Paul Gauguin came in the galleries and archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg, lending her a unique perspective on the artist’s work. H...

Sylvie Crussard is a Gauguin scholar and leading researcher for the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné focused on the artist’s Breton years (1889-1891). Working on the Wildenstein Institute’s Claude Monet catalogue raisonné in the early 1970s was her first job in art history, and she has remained integral to the Institute’s research endeavors ever since. Highlights from her...

Françoise Marnoni is a researcher and Managing Editor for the forthcoming volume of the Paul Gauguin catalogue raisonné. She began working for the Wildenstein Institute’s Paris office in 2000 while researching the Pierre-Auguste Renoir catalogue raisonné, and later on, the catalogue raisonnés of Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees Van Dongen. Highlights of the interview include discussions of her researc...

Roberta Bernstein is the author and project director of Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture , including the catalogue’s comprehensive monograph, Jasper Johns’s Painting and Sculpture, 1954–2014: Redo an Eye.  Bernstein has written and lectured extensively on Johns and other contemporary artists, including Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Marisol Es...

Carroll Janis is the son of acclaimed gallerist Sidney Janis. He helped organize many of the Janis Gallery’s most significant shows of the twentieth century, and took over management of the gallery after his father’s passing in 1989. He maintained close connections with many Pop artists, including Tom Wesselmann, Claes Oldenburg, and James Rosenquist. Highlights of the interview include discussion...

Monica Serra is a painter, multimedia artist, and singer/songwriter. She collaborated with Tom Wesselmann as a model, then joined Wesselmann’s studio as a studio assistant and went on to become the studio manager. Since Wesselmann’s death in 2004, she has been an integral part of the Estate of Tom Wesselmann, continuing to preserve and advocate for the works and legacy of the artist. Monica’s oral...

Jeffrey Sturges is the current Director of Exhibitions for the Estate of Tom Wesselmann. He first worked as a studio assistant for Tom Wesselmann in the 1990s, taking time in between to explore the gallery world and his burgeoning interest in photography, and returned in 2004 just prior to after the artist’s death. Highlights of the interview include discussions of Sturges’ early experiences in We...

Constance “Connie” W. Glenn is an acclaimed art historian, curator, writer, and collector. She is the founding director of the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, where she also established the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies and taught courses in art history and museum studies. Since the 1960s, she has been an avid collector with a particular interest i...

Constance "Connie" W. Glenn is an acclaimed art historian, curator, writer, and collector. She is the founding director of the University Art Museum at California State University Long Beach, where she also established the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies and taught courses in art history and museum studies. Since the 1960s, she has been an avid collector with a particular interest i...

Diedra Harris-Kelley is an artist, educator, and co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation , the nonprofit organization responsible for preserving and perpetuating the legacy of acclaimed artist Romare Bearden. Harris-Kelley is also Bearden’s niece. Highlights of Harris-Kelley’s oral history include memories of her childhood on Staten Island with her extended family, including Romare and his wi...

Peggy Steffans Sarno is an American actress and model known for her collaborations with her husband, Joseph Sarno, the “Ingmar Bergman of porn.” She counted Claire and Tom Wesselmann as close family friends, and participated as a portrait model in Tom’s Smoker series. Highlights of her oral history include memories of New York’s arts and cultural scene in the 1960s, discussions of Wesselmann’s oeu...