Oral history interview with Peter MacGill, 2015

Biographical Note

Peter MacGill was born in Indiana and is a gallerist and curator. He graduated with a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1974 and was the first graduate of the MFA Photography program at the University of Arizona in 1977. He is president and co-founder of Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City. His gallery, a photography gallery, hosted three shows by Robert Rauschenberg in 1988, 1991, 1997, and a quasi-retrospective in 2011

Scope and Contents

MacGill describes meeting Rauschenberg through his son Christopher Rauschenberg. He describes going to Captiva, viewing his earlier photographic works and commissioning Rauschenberg: New Pictures [1988]. He describes the technical aspects of the 20 x 24 Polaroid camera used to create the Polacolors and the technical process of fading images for The Bleachers. He also philosophizes the influence of a photographic background on Rauschenberg's paintings and combines. He also describes reactions to the subtle differences in Rauschenberg's later works which were made by direction rather than hand work due to his infirmity. He discusses the role of printing technology and Rauschenberg's zeal for technological advancement as the motivation for reprinting early photos with digital technology

Subjects

• Art--Collectors and collecting.
• Art dealers--Interviews.
• Art galleries, Commercial.
• Arts--Marketing.
• Edwards, Brent Hayes interviewer.
• Interviews.
• MacGill, Peter--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Pace/MacGill.
• Photography, Artistic.
• Rauschenberg, Christopher, 1951-
• Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2016