Oral Histories

Interview of June Wayne (1976)

Printmaker, tapestry designer, and painter. Founder of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
Subtitle:
Los Angeles Art Community: Group Portrait, June Wayne
Series:
Los Angeles Art Community - Group Portrait
Topic:
Art
Biographical Note:
Printmaker, tapestry designer, and painter. Founder of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
Interviewer:
Smith, Kathryn A.
Interviewee:
Wayne, June
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
17 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Series Statement:
This series includes interviews with prominent Los Angeles-based visual artists and other members of the art establishment whose careers span the period from the 1920s through the 1970s. It documents the art community of the pre-World War II period and the rise of Los Angeles as a nationally recognized art center in the postwar period. Funding for this series was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Abstract:
Growing up in Chicago; influence of mother and grandmother; early artistic experiences; Saturday classes at Chicago Art Institute; first exhibit at Boulevard Gallery, Chicago, 1935; Harold Jacobson; Works Progress Administration artists' projects; position of women during Depression; mother's leftist and feminist political inclinations; artistic and intellectual scene in 1930s Chicago; working in artists union; status of arts and government; move to New York, 1939; marriage to George Wayne; wartime experiences; move to Los Angeles after World War II; meeting Jules Langsner; introduction to Los Angeles artists Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, Peter Krasnow; Rico Lebrun's group; important galleries of 1950s; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; artists and dealers; Huntington Hartford Foundation; Charles Neider; sculptor Cornelia Runyon; beginning lithography work; printer Lynton Kistler; early work, The Messenger and Fables for the Undecided; McCarthyite attack on modern art; Frank Perls; Los Angeles Art Committee and Los Angeles City Council; exhibition at Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1950, given by Donald Bear; exhibition at Pasadena Museum of Art; comparison with Ynez Johnston; Katharine Kuh and Perls; working with lithographer Marcel Durassier in Paris, 1957; American and French printing techniques; proposal to Ford Foundation for restoring art of lithography in United States; founding Tamarind Lithography Workshop, 1960; Garo Antreasian and Clinton Adams; Romas Viesulas and Aubrey Schwartz; artists working in printshop; Bohuslav Horak; Irwin Hollander; Ken Tyler and Gemini Editions, Ltd.; critical shortages of supplies; fellowships at Tamarind: Bruce Conner, Sam Francis, William Brice, Richard Diebenkorn, Ynez Johnston; Tamarind Prize awarded to Jean Dubuffet and printer Serge Lozingot; trials of Connor Everts and David Stuart; Ferus Gallery; Theo Gusten of International Graphic Arts Society; William Lieberman of Museum of Modern Art (MOMA); Tamarind show at MOMA, 1969; Wayne show at FAR Gallery, New York, 1969; Visa series; Tidal Wave series; June Wayne television series; women's movement and art scene; Tamarind Institute at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1970; Burning Helix series; Dorothy series; tapestry film.