Oral History Collection From The Archives Of American Art

Looking back on the 1950s, artist Dennis Oppenheim talks about Abstract Expressionism as a sort of "scientific pursuit" that was solitary and esoteric. It was pure fine art, created in a studio, as opposed to sculptors making public art in the real world. In this excerpt from an interview conducted in 2009 for the Archives of American Art, Oppenheim talks about the tensions between what he calls "pure studio art" and public art. This interview was funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.