The Clay Spohn papers measure 20.4 linear feet and date from circa 1862 to 1985 with the bulk of the material dating from 1890 to 1985. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, business records, notes and writings, art work, printed material, and photographs which reflect the life and career of painter and educator Clay Spohn.
Scope and Content Note:
The Clay Spohn papers measure 20.4 linear feet and date from circa 1862 to 1985 with the bulk of the material dating from 1890 to 1985. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, business records, notes and writings, artwork, printed material, and photographs reflecting the life and career of painter and educator Clay Spohn.
Part 1 includes sketchbooks with annotated drawings by Spohn, writings including reminiscensces by Spohn, letters, clippings, and photographs of Spohn's artwork.
Part 2 includes biographical material; correspondence between Spohn and his colleagues; business records such as Spohn's general accounting records; Spohn's notes and writings on a variety of subjects; drawings and sketchbooks; printed material such as exhibition announcements and catalogs; and photographs of subjects such as Spohn, his family and colleagues, his house, and his artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three parts. Part 1 was lent to the Archives of American Art in 1964 by Clay Spohn, and was microfilmed and returned to Spohn. Part 2 was donated to the Archives of American Art by Urban Neininger in 1978 and was partially microfilmed. Because material from part 2 was not processed until over three decades after filming Part 1, the overall organization is inconsistent. In general, material within folders is arranged chronologically.
Missing Title
Part 1: Clay Spohn Papers, 1926-1963
Part 2: Clay Spohn Papers, circa 1862-1985 (boxes 1-22, OV 23, 19.9 linear ft.)
Part 3: Addition to the Clay Spohn Papers, 1958-1977 (box 24; 0.4 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Clay Edgar Spohn was born November 24, 1898, in San Francisco, to Lena (Schaefer) and John Henry Spohn. From 1919 to 1921, Spohn studied at the University of California at Berkeley, and from 1922 to 1924, he studied at the Art Students League in New York under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Boardman Robinson, George Luks and Guy Pene Du Bois. He also became acquainted with Alexander Calder at the Art Students League. In 1924, Spohn was employed as an assitant designer to muralist Ezra Winter. From 1926 to 1927 he studied in Paris at the Academie Modern, a school run by Fernand Leger and Orthon Fireze.
Returning to San Francisco in 1927, Spohn became an active member in the Bay Area art scene. The Treasury Department commissioned him, in 1938, to execute a mural for the Montebello, California post office, and in 1939, he completed another mural under the sponsorship of the WPA for Los Gatos Union High School in Los Gatos, California.
In 1942, the San Francisco Museum of Art mounted Spohn's solo exhibition "Fantastic War Machines and Guerragraphs", consisting of a series of drawings inspired by dreams of World War II. From 1945 until his resignation in 1950, Spohn was employed as instructor of drawing and painting at the California School of Fine Arts, where he befriended Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. In 1949, at the California School, he organized a group exhibition entitled "The Museum of Unknown and Little Known Objects", in which Spohn's extraordinarily-constructed objects were a focal point.
Spohn moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1952, and participated in several national exhibitions. He was Visiting Lecturer at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, in 1958, after which he moved to New York City where he executed a series of paintings under the sponsorship of the collector J. Patrick Lannan. From 1964 to 1969, he taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
After a two year move to Taos, Spohn returned to New York in 1971. In 1974, the Oakland Museum sponsored a retrospective of Spohn's work.
Clay Spohn died in New York City on December 19, 1977.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (D169) including sketchbooks, writings, correspondence, and related material. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are described in the first series of the finding aid.
Provenance:
The material on reel D169 was lent for filming by Clay Spohn in 1964. The material on reel 5461-5474 was donated by Spohn's friend and the executor of his estate, Urban Neininger, in 1978. An additional 0.4 linear feet of papers were donated by Spohn's biographer, David Beasley, in 2008.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use of unfilmed material requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
7 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 7 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketchbooks
Date:
1932-1978
Scope and Contents:
Biographical information, correspondence, scrapbooks, writings, artwork and art-related information, photographic materials, school records, financial materials, miscellaneous items, and printed materials. Also included are papers of Rosamond Corbett's husband, economist Rifat Tirana (3 ft.).
REELS 4376-4382: Biographical information includes personal documents, photographs, clippings, yearbooks, letters and other items. Correspondence, ca. 1940-1978, is with Clay Spohn (1960s), Ad Reinhardt (1940s, 1950s, and 1960s), Clyfford Still (1950s and 1960s), Mary Fuller and Robert McChesney, Grace Borgenicht, Andrew Dasburg, Richard Diebenkorn, Ira Glackens, Gyorgy Kepes, Katharine Kuh, David Leonard, Richard Merkin, Dorothy Miller, Seong Moy, Jerry Nordland, Hassel W. Smith, Earl Stoh, Alan Temko, Tirana Family members, Jack Tworkov, Anna Strunsky Walling (Rosamond's mother), and Adja Yunkers. Scrapbooks, 1948-1978, on Edward, contain photographs, clippings, correspondence (much of it from the Grace Borgenicht Gallery), exhibition catalogs, and printed materials; one is on on Rosamond and her family, 1932-1952 (during her marriage to economist Rifat Tirana).
Other material includes notes and poetry written by the Corbetts; artwork and art-related information primarily of Edward Corbett, including a sketchbook, loan agreements and receipts, information about the sale of his paintings, and exhibition catalogs and reviews; photographs, negatives and slides of the Corbetts and others, and of works of art; teaching files from Mount Holyoke College and the University of California at Santa Barbara; financial records, including statements, contracts, and receipts; exhibition catalogs; clippings; and an engagement calendar (1958) for Edward Corbett. Also included are materials on drug abuse.
UNMICROFILMED: Papers of Rifat Tirana, including resumes; correspondence, 1942-1952; notes, writings, lectures, and printed material on international trade; reports on pre-World War II Albania written while serving in the League of Nations, 1932-1939; manuscript of Tirana's SPOIL OF EUROPE, 1941, published under the pseudonym Thomas Reveille; and clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Edward Corbett (1919-1971) and his wife Rosamond Walling Tirana Corbett (1910-1999) were painters from Calif., N.M., Mass., and Washington, D.C. Edward Corbett was an early Abstract Expressionist. Married Rosamond Tirana in 1962. Rosamund Tirana was married to Rifat Tirana (d. 1952). Died June 27, 1999.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Mrs. Rosamond Tirana Corbett.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
