The papers of Massachusetts-based designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and educator Richard E. Filipowski measure 4.1 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 1998. The papers document his career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, teaching files, project files, printed material, photographic material, artwork, and a sound recording.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Massachusetts-based designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and educator Richard E. Filipowski measure 4.1 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 1998. The papers document his career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, teaching files, project files, printed material, photographic material, artwork, and a sound recording.
Biographical material consists of a Bauhaus questionnaire, marriage license, various identification documents, Canadian selective service documents, resumes, and other miscellaneous material.
Correspondence mostly relates to Filipowski's teaching and sculpture, including letters from Herbert M. Agoos, Lawrence B. Anderson, Pietro Belluschi, Stuart Davis, Garrett Eckbo, Walter Gropius, Gyorgy Kepes, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and others.
Writings consist of Filipowski's lectures on art, notes, and other material. There is also one sound recording of a lecture.
Teaching files are mostly from the Institute of Design, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The series includes syllabi, faculty meeting minutes, notes and drafts for lectures, school catalogs and schedules, and files on student exhibitions and projects, including two films, Do Not Disturb and Hearts and Arrows.
Project files contain correspondence, business records, printed material, sketches and photographs on commissions in architecture, sculpture and furniture design. There are also files on programs which Filipowski assisted in planning and organizing, including the Boston Art Festival and a few exhibitions.
Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs, announcements, and clippings mostly about Filipowski.
Photographs, slides, and negatives are of Filipowski and others, sculpture, furniture designs, and works of art by his students from Harvard and MIT.
Art work includes sketches, sketchbooks, cardboard studies for sculptures, and Christmas card designs.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as eight series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1941-1974 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1941-1998 (Box 1, OV 6; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1951-1969 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Teaching Files, 1943-1970 (Box 2, OV 6; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Project Files, 1944-1976 (Boxes 2-3, OV 6-7; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1941-1989 (Box 3, OV 7; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1940-1989 (Boxes 3-4, OV 8; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1940-circa 1985 (Boxes 4-5, OV 6, 8; 0.7 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard E. Filipowski (1923-2008) was a designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker and educator mostly based in Massachusetts. Richard Filipowski was born in Poland in 1923 and he and his family moved to Ontario, Canada in 1927. He studied under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Institute of Design (formerly known as the New Bauhaus) from 1942 to 1946 and taught there after graduating, 1946-1950. Filipowski was invited by Walter Gropius to organize and teach Design Fundamentals at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design where he stayed until 1952. He then taught as an Associate Professor of Visual Design in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1953-1989.
Filipowski also took on numerous commissions for sculptures and artwork. One especially noteworthy commission was a sculpture for an Ark created for the Temple B'Rith Kodesh in Rochester, New York. The sculpture was intricately wrought and welded from bronze and silver alloys and it remained a source of inspiration for other later sculptures and commissions which had a similar style of metal-working. Many of his works were also marked by his Bauhaus training. Filipowski passed away in 2008.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Richard E. Filipowski conducted by Roger Brown on September 25, 1989 through March 14, 1990.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Richard E. Filipowski in multiple installments from 1989 to 1998.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Biographical materials, correspondence, files, notes, writings, art works, scrapbooks, photographs, and printed materials relating chiefly to Laurence E. Schmeckebier's academic career and to his publications.
Professional and personal correspondence with artists, publishers, art historians, museum curators, and students including Adolf Dehn, Philip Evergood, Walter Gropius, George Grosz, Rico Lebrun, Ivan Mestrovic, A. Henry Nordhausen, Jose Clemente Orozco, Anton Refregier, John Rood, Hudson Roysher, and Viktor Schreckengost. Extensive research files relating to published and unpublished writings on A. Henry Nordhausen, Ivan Mestrovic, Mexican art, urban art in Minnesota, German medieval art and other topics contain preparatory notes, drafts, correspondence and photographs of art. Additional files relate to Schmeckebier's academic career, and to the Syracuse University mural project. Also included are appraisals, royalty statements, undergraduate writings, a published Ph.D. dissertation, encyclopedia articles, book reviews, lecture notes, speeches, notes on wood sculpture, transcript of a Latin-American Studies Conference (1943), notes for a book on Boris Margo, and travel notebooks. Three scrapbooks, compiled by Mrs. Schmeckebier and Karen L. Bakke, contain correspondence, sketches, clippings and photographs dating back to Schmeckebier's childhood. There are also loose scrapbook pages from the 1930s; personal photographs; photographs of work; art work by students; and printed materials, including exhibition notices.
An addition of 0.2 linear feet donated 2016 includes an unpublished typescript (photocopy) circa 1982, of a new edition of Schmeckebier's book "John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America" (1943) and correspondence between Schmeckebier's daughter Xenia S. Sterling and Joseph S. Czestochowski, regarding the new edition, 1982-1988; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Laurence Eli Schmeckebier (1906-1984) was an art historian, educator, administrator, and sculptor in Syracure, New York and Cleveland, Ohio. Schmeckebier was Director and Professor of Art History at The Cleveland Institute of Art, 1946-1954 and Professor of Fine Arts, Dean of the School of Art, Syracuse University, 1954-1971. His publications include: "Handbook of Italian Renaissance Painting", "Modern Mexican Art", "John Steuart Curry's Pageant of America", "Art in Red Wing", "Ivan Mestrovic"' "Sculptor and Patriot", and "The Art of A. Henry Nordhausen".
Provenance:
Donated 1977 by Laurence Schmeckebier. The bulk of the collection was donated 1985-1986 by his children, Peter Schmeckebier, Nina S. Gardner, Xenia S. Sterling, and Marina S. Steinhouse. Additional material donated 2016 by Xenia Schmeckebier Sterling.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Das Gropius-Zimmer : Geschichte und Rekonstruktion des Direktorenarbeitsraumes am Staatlichen Bauhaus in Weimar 1923/24 / Klaus-Jürgen Winkler, Gerhard Oschmann
Walter Gropius : projectos e construções 1906-1969 : [catálogo do exposição], Porto, Cooperativa Arvore, dezembro 1974; Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, janeiro 1975 / textos de James Marston Fitch, de Viana de Lima e de Frederico George ; catálogo por Ise Gropius
