Harold Ambellan memoir

Ambellan, Harold · 2005

Autobiographical memoir of the sculptor and American expatriot to France, recorded in conversation with Victoria Diehl. Ambellan discusses his childhood and family in Buffalo and early interest in art; the impact of the Great Depression; studying art and sculpture; hitchiking to Florida and hopping a train back to Cleveland; Chellenor Prize; move to New York (1932) and study at the Art Students League, activities with the New York Artists Union and Sculptors Guild and work in Depression-era New York; tile manufacturing; Ernie Meyer and life in Greenwich Village, Weegee and other photographers; friendship with Woodie Guthrie, Leadbelly, jazz musicians; sailing career; naval service in World War II, making relief maps preparing for the invasion of Normandy, training aboard an LST; service in Europe as quartermaster on board an LST, arrival on Omaha Beach two days after the invasion, discharged from the Navy for (leftist) membership in the Artists Union; membership with Martha Graham in the American Committee to assist the orphans of French Resistance fighters; post-war return to art, tile design, teaching art, marriage to Elizabeth and divorce, visit to France and move to Paris; marriage to Esther Rachel, birth of daughter Zoe, experimentation in small sculptures and small drawings, movement and line in his work; move to Antibes (1962), selling work and gallery and studio at rue Thuret, working in terra cotta and bronze; Herzl Emanuel and bronze casting; friendship with Werner Veith; move to Arles in 1978; thoughts on art and Ambellan's relationship to democracy and patriotism; thoughts on being an Artist.