Mark Balma Oral History
Object number2016.001.0074
Date05/31/2016
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject
Mark Balma
Oral history interviewer
Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.wav file)
DimensionsDuration: 56 Minutes
Collections
- All Online Objects
- Oral History Collection
DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Mark Balma. A Minnesota artist who studied in Florence, Italy, Balma has done portrait sittings with several U.S. presidents and British prime ministers. His 2004 painting, Pietà, depicting President and Mrs. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after the assassination, generated some controversy.
Interview conducted by telephone on May 27, 2016 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-six minutes long.
Curatorial CommentaryMark Balma's Pietà (2004) is the subject of its own website, which includes a gallery of detail images, information on the painting and artist, and an archive of news stories about the work. As of winter 2025, it may be found here: Pietá - Pietá. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
In 2012, Twin Cities PBS released a news program highlighting the "Fresco Project," which Mark Balma and local teens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, participated in. The project aimed to teach young students about the process of painting frescos, allowing them to participate in creating a large-scale fresco for the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, featuring scenes of recent social and civil change in the United States. This short spotlight may be watched on the Twin Cities PBS website here: MN Original - Mark Balma - Twin Cities PBS. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger
