Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Donald Saff, 2013
| Creator: | Saff, Donald, 1937- | Project: | Robert Rauschenberg Foundation oral history collection.
(see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | Transcript: 212 pages sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files | | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NoteDonald Saff was born in Brooklyn, NY. He is an artist, art historian, and educator. He is Emeritus Dean and Distinguished Professor at the University of South Florida, where he founded Graphicstudio in 1968. He was director of Saff Tech Arts in Oxford, MD. He collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg, and beginning in 1984, he was the artistic director of the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI)
Scope and ContentsDonald Saff recounts his early life in Brooklyn and Queens, and his path to art school. Saff narrates his early professional life in Florida where he secured a job teaching art history at University of South Florida, and where he founded Graphicstudio, through which he began to work with artists of increasing importance, including Rauschenberg. Saff describes early trips to visit Rauschenberg in Captiva and the struggle to attempt to bring up new project ideas with him. Saff details Rauschenberg's ability to cope after a night of heavy drinking and very little sleep, he speaks about Rauschenberg's dyslexia and how he made up for his lack of reading by being a sponge through any other means. He describes the difficulty many experienced in reconciling Rauschenberg's temper and hurtful outbursts with his generosity and incredible kindness. Saff details many memories from over the years: early trips to China with Gemini G.E.L.; the origins of Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI); on abstract expressionism being used by the United States Information Agency (USIA) as a Cold War propaganda tool; and the methodology of the ROCI tour. He recalls his anxiety about travels with Rauschenberg, and shares observations of Rauschenberg and Fidel Castro in conversation. Saff gives his account of delivering Rauschenberg to the Betty Ford clinic, Rauschenberg's declining health, and how efforts to maintain his sobriety were compromised by some of the people around him. Saff speaks about the amount of Rauschenberg's work held by Ileana Sonnabend, and on how Rauschenberg sometimes kept his favorite works or those he thought important for historic reasons. Saff narrates Rauschenberg's attendance at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, speaks about Eco-Echo as a late example of his interest in technology, details the social environment of Captiva, and Captiva's physical environment and Rauschenberg's use of the materials he found there. Saff gives his impression of how Rauschenberg coped with the ailments he suffered at the very end of his life and on the legacy of his philanthropy
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2013
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