The papers of cubist painter Karl Knaths measure 8.9 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1973, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1922 to 1971. The collection includes biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, four diaries, 22 notebooks and notes on theoretical color and compositional approaches to painting, published and draft copies of essays on art, miscellaneous printed material, 132 sketchbooks and other artwork.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of cubist painter Karl Knaths measure 8.9 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1973, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1922 to 1971. The collection includes biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, four diaries, 22 notebooks and notes on theoretical color and compositional approaches to painting, published and draft copies of essays on art, miscellaneous printed material, and 132 sketchbooks and additional artwork.
Biographical material consists of a copy of Knaths's curriculum vitae, a press release, and miscellaneous personal financial records.
Correspondence in the collection documents Knaths's relationships with family, friends, and business associates after his move to Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1919. Notable correspondents include Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, artist Joseph Meierhans, and the gallery Paul Rosenberg and Co.
The papers include three of Knaths's personal diaries (1916-1919, 1948) and a diary written by F.A. Mehler in 1890. Additional writings include lecture notes from classes that Knaths both attended and taught; 22 notebooks that explore his interest in articulating a color and compositional theory of painting; loose notes on various artists, projects, and facets of painting; several of his completed essays on art, including "Decorative Material" and "Pictorial Analysis;" and a draft of his unpublished manuscript "Ornament and Glory." Writings by others include 15 lecture transcripts from courses taught by Hans Hofmann during the 1930s, Knaths's translations of essays by Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevitch, and Carl Einstein, and a biographical essay on Karl Knaths by Paul Mocsanyi.
Printed materials in the collection include clippings, exhibition catalogs, and programs related to Knaths's one-man exhibitions and group shows, and the books Syracuse University Centennial Collection of Art (1970) and Karl Knaths: Five Decades of Painting (1973).
The bulk of the collection consists of 132 sketchbooks and additional artwork. Sketchbooks date from the 1920s to the 1970s and document Knaths's early figurative and landscape studies and later explorations of cubist style and compositional experiments with color, line, and form. Additional artwork includes numerous color charts and diagrams that Knaths kept to inform his painting color palette; outlines of compositional works on both graphed and regular paper; loose pencil sketches and pastels of figures, landscapes, and compositional experiments; and finished paintings and prints.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged as 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1950s-1971 (Box 1, 8; 6 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1923-1971 (Box 1; .5 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1890, 1916-1968 (Boxes 1-3, 8, OV 14, OV 19; 2 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1920s-1973 (Box 3, OV 19; 10 folders)
Series 5: Sketchbooks, circa 1920s-1970s (Boxes 3-6, 9-13; 4.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Artwork, circa 1920s-1970s (Box 6, 13, OV 15-18, OV 20-22; 1.8 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
Karl Knaths (1891-1971), born Otto G. Knaths, lived and worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts and was known for his cubist style of painting.
Knaths was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in his early twenties. The 1913 Armory Show provided his first major encounter with modernist art styles and the works of Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh. In 1919, Knaths moved to Provincetown and began to explore cubist perspectives in his own work, which drew much of its inspiration from the fishing culture and landscapes of his Cape Cod environs. Intellectually curious and drawn to art theory, Knaths recorded his thoughts on composition rules, color classifications, and the potential intersections between music, space, and color theory in notebooks, notes, and sketchbooks throughout his career.
The patronage of art collector Duncan Phillips led to Knaths's first one-man show at the Phillips Collection in 1929. The following year, he landed a solo show at New York's Daniel Gallery. Knaths joined the Works Progress Administration in 1934 and painted murals and other works for a year and a half. From 1938 to 1950, he also taught painting and art theory during a six week course held at the Phillips Art School, and was a guest lecturer at Black Mountain College, North Carolina (1944) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine (1948). From 1945 to 1971, he was represented by the art gallery Paul Rosenberg and Co. Knaths died in 1971 in his home in Provincetown, at the age of 80.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Archives of American Art holds one oral history interview with Karl Knaths conducted by Dorothy Seckler in 1962; a transcript of a 1968 lecture delivered by Knaths at the Provincetown Art Association in Provincetown, Massachusetts; and a 1955 video recording documenting Knaths's Cape Cod influenced artwork, directed by Jack Calderwood.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D81) including one sketchbook. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
In 1962, Karl Knaths lent the Archives of American Art a sketchbook and a selection of papers for microfilming. Upon Knath's death in 1972, these papers, excluding the sketchbook, along with additional materials, were willed to the Archives. His executor, Kenneth Desmarais, donated additional material from Knaths's estate in 1977 and 1980.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Journey into non-objectivity : the graphic work of Kazimir Malevich and other members of the Russian avant-garde : [catalogue of an exhibition held at] Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, January 18-February 24, 1980
Monocromos de Malevich al presente ensayos, Barbara Rose [and others] ; obra plástica, Abakanowicz [and others] ; edición de Valeria Varas, Raúl Rispa
Kandinsky, Malewitsch, Mondrian : der weisse Abgrund Unendlichkeit / herausgegeben von der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf ; kuratiert von Marion Ackermann, Isabelle Malz
Kazimir Malevich, 1878-1935 : National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 16 September 1990-4 November 1990, the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles, 28 November 1990-13 January 1991, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 7 February 1991-24 March 1991 / [editor, Jeanne D'Andrea]
Author:
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich 1878-1935 Search this
Kasimir Malewitsch, Werk und Wirkung / herausgegeben von Evelyn Weiss ; mit Beiträgen von Evelyn Weiss ... [et al.] ; sowie unveröffentlichten Manuskripten von Kasimir Malewitsch und einem Interview von Ira Wrubel-Golubkina mit Nikolai Chardschijew
Title:
Malewitsch
Author:
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich 1878-1935 Search this
Kazimir Malevich and the Russian avant-garde : featuring selections from the Khardzhiev and Costakis collections : Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 19 October 2013-2 February 2014 / editors, Sophie Tates, Karen Kelly, Bart Rutten, Geurt Imanse ; texts, Linda S. Boersma, Bart Rutten, Aleksandra Shatskikh, Sophie Tates ; translation, Lisa Holden, Lee Mitzman
Artist:
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich 1878-1935 Search this
Caravaggio, Gaudnek, Malevich, Picasso : Walter Gaudnek, transfiguration - metamorphosis, spirituelle Wandlung : University of Central Florida, November 9, 1993-January 3, 1994
Title:
Walter Gaudnek, view into time
Walter Gaudnek, transfiguration, metamorphosis, spirituelle Wandlung
Kasimir Malewitsch (1878-1935) : Werke aus sowjetischen Sammlungen / [herausgegeben von der Städtischen Kunsthalle Düsseldorf ... in Zusammenarbeit mit der Staatlichen Aussenhandelsorganisation der UdSSR in Moskau, Wneschtorgisdat ; Zusammenstellung des Katalogs, Jewgeni Kowtun, Nina Barabanowa ; Übersetzung der beiden einführenden Texte aus dem Russischen, Renate Horlemann]
Author:
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich 1878-1935 Search this