Oral history interview with Jack Werner Stauffacher, 1993 February 8

Object Details

interviewee

Stauffacher, Jack Werner, 1920-

interviewer

Karlstrom, Paul J., 1941-

Subject

Stauffacher, Frank

Greenwood Press (San Francisco, Calif.)

Place of publication, production, or execution

California

Physical Description

38 Pages, Transcript

General Note

Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr.. 53 min.

Access Note / Rights

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Summary

An interview of Jack Stauffacher conducted 1993 February 8, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.

Stauffacher speaks of his childhood in San Mateo, California and his early interest in printing; his collaboration with his older brother, Frank, a filmmaker, and his contacts through him with other experimental filmmakers including Man Ray and Oskar Fischinger; his developing interest in post-war modernism; and his connection with avant-garde group around "Circle Magazine" in Berkeley which included Henry Miller, Kenneth Rexroth, among others.

He recounts his friendships with Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Sam Francis, Hassel Smith, and Gordon Cook; his army experience and meeting Lee Mullican; the founding of the Dynaton with Wolfgang Paalen and Gordon Onslow-Ford; the preparation and printing of the Dynaton Catalog at Greenwood Press; the 1951 film of the exhibition by his brother; the changes and breakup of Dynaton; working on artists' books such as Francis' Lapis Press; and his interest in the history of type and its connections to the classical tradition in Greenwood's printing of Phaedrus, 1976 and Horace, 1992.

Citation

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Jack Werner Stauffacher, 1993 February 8. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Additional Forms

Transcript available on line

Funding

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Biography Note

Jack Werner Stauffacher (1920- ) is a typographer, designer, and publisher from San Francisco, California.

Language Note

English .

Provenance

These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding for the transcription of this interview provided by Pasadena Art Alliance

Location Note

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

Record number

(DSI-AAA_CollID)12038

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)215309

AAA_collcode_stauff93

Archives of American Art

Topic

Book design

Publishers and publishing

Dynaton (Group of artists)

Printing -- Technique

Record ID

AAADCD_oh_215309

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply