Harold Ambellan memoir

Item Information

Title:
Harold Ambellan memoir
Description:
Autobiographical memoir of the sculptor and American expatriot to France, recorded in conversation with Victoria Diehl. Ambellan discusses his childhood and family in Buffalo and early interest in art; the impact of the Great Depression; studying art and sculpture; hitchiking to Florida and hopping a train back to Cleveland; Chellenor Prize; move to New York (1932) and study at the Art Students League, activities with the New York Artists Union and Sculptors Guild and work in Depression-era New York; tile manufacturing; Ernie Meyer and life in Greenwich Village, Weegee and other photographers; friendship with Woodie Guthrie, Leadbelly, jazz musicians; sailing career; naval service in World War II, making relief maps preparing for the invasion of Normandy, training aboard an LST; service in Europe as quartermaster on board an LST, arrival on Omaha Beach two days after the invasion, discharged from the Navy for (leftist) membership in the Artists Union; membership with Martha Graham in the American Committee to assist the orphans of French Resistance fighters; post-war return to art, tile design, teaching art, marriage to Elizabeth and divorce, visit to France and move to Paris; marriage to Esther Rachel, birth of daughter Zoe, experimentation in small sculptures and small drawings, movement and line in his work; move to Antibes (1962), selling work and gallery and studio at rue Thuret, working in terra cotta and bronze; Herzl Emanuel and bronze casting; friendship with Werner Veith; move to Arles in 1978; thoughts on art and Ambellan's relationship to democracy and patriotism; thoughts on being an Artist.
Creator:
Ambellan, Harold
Translator:
Ambellan, Zoe
Date:
2005
Format:
Documents
Genre:
Autobiographies
Memoirs
Location:
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Collection (local):
Harold Ambellan Memoir
Subjects:
Artists--1900--1999
Sculptors--1900--1999
Democracy
Depressions, 1929
New Deal, 1933-1939
Buffalo (N.Y.)--History
Florida--Description and travel
Antibes (France)--Description and travel
Paris (France)--Description and travel
France--History
World War, 1939-1945
American Committee for Anti-Nazi Literature
New York Artists' Union
Sculptors Guild (New York, N.Y.)
Emanuel, Herzl
Graham, Martha
Guthrie, Woody, 1912-1967
Leadbelly, 1885-1949
Machovsky, Maximilian
Meyer, Ernest
Veith, Werner, 1912-
Weegee, 1899-1968-
Places:
Massachusetts > Berkshire (county) > Florida
France
France > Île-de-France (region) > Paris
Extent:
76 p.
Link to Item:
http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums855-i001
Terms of Use:
Requests to publish, redistribute, or replicate this material should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Contact host institution for more information.
Place of origin:
Arles (France)
Language:
English
Identifier:
mums855-i001