Jack Cowart is the current head of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. He reflects on his personal experience with his friend Robert Rauschenberg as it intersects with his own career trajectory. He discusses how his initial encounters with Rauschenberg influenced his notions of the living artist and the artist's studio, prompting a shift to a contemporary-focused career at the Wadsworth Atheneum in th e early 1970s, and then at the St. Louis Art Museum from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. He talks about his involvement with Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) and it's importance in allowing the space for contemporary artists to be shown in the same context as classical artists at the institution. Cowart reflects on his experiences with Rauschenberg at the Captiva estate. He talks about the initiation of a creative space as the premise of Rauschenberg's ROCI project and argues against the notion of an imperialistic motivation
Museum directors; Art museums--United States; Art; Captiva Island (Fla.); Cowart, Jack; Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008; Roy Lichtenstein Foundation; Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art (U.S.); St. Louis Art Museum
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2015
Physical Description
62 pages
Note (Biographical)
Jack Cowart was born in Fort Riley, Kansas, and grew up outside of Philadelphia. An art historian with a particular expertise in Henri Matisse and Roy Lichtenstein, he has held leadership positions at a number of American art institutions, including t he Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Gallery of Art, and is the current Executive Director of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
Note
Interviewed by Sara Sinclair on May 6, 2015
Note (Provenance)
Sara Sinclair, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2019