Minnesota Artists Oral History Project: Interview with Robert Kilbride

Titles: Minnesota Artists Oral History Project: Interview with Robert Kilbride (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Robert Kilbride was born 1924 in Minneapolis. He grew up and attended schools there before serving three years in the United States Navy in the Admiralty Islands. He returned to Minneapolis and attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1946 49, studying under Syd Fossum and Bernard Arnest. Upon completion, he traveled to Europe with classmates Cave Ratner, Byron Bradley and Tom Mickelson. While in Paris, he attended classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumier. Returning to Minneapolis, he and Kilbride established the Kilbride Bradley Gallery in 1951. This partnership later expanded to include artist Eric A. Erickson as well. Kilbride edited and wrote "The Potboiler" as a newsletter to attract customers to the gallery. He also authored the book Trivia, published in 1968 and including illustrations by Erickson. He served as president of the State Arts Society in 1958, taught at the University of Minnesota in 1956 and at Macalester College from 1973 74. The partners dissolved the Gallery in 1962, with Erickson taking on the framing, Bradley the art supplies and Kilbride continuing the actual exhibition aspect until 1968. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Kilbride's education, his time abroad, the beginning of the gallery and the various innovative programs they instituted, some of which gained them national publicity. He relates the origins of "The Potboiler" and describes his involvement in political campaigns, chiefly that of Adlai Stevenson for President. He speaks of his role in the formation of the State Arts Society, and reviews the changing circumstances which led to the closing of the Kilbride Bradley Gallery. He also outlines his way of working and getting ideas.

Dates

• 04/07/1987 (Creation)

Creation

• interviewee: Kilbride, Robert
• interviewer: O'Sullivan, Thomas

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 1.8
• Accession Number: AV1991.140

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Minnesota Artists Oral History Project' <OH 1>

Quantity: 2 hours sound cassette 33 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 01:42:01 running time

Subjects