Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Jay DeFeo, 1975 June 3-1976 January 23. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(6 folders; see also: CARA; Garcia, Rupert; Gronk; Box 30; OV 32)
Container:
Box 15, Folder 32-37
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
(exhibition announcements; exhibition brochures; catalogs; resume; sales receipt; book by Lomas Garza, Papel Picado: Paper Cutout Techniques, Xicanindio Arts Coalition, Mesa, Arizona, 1984; TYF's notes on Lomas Garza; clippings; oversize materials; slides; note to TYF from Lomas Garza, undated; note to TYF and Dudley, from Lomas Garza, undated; typescript of essay on Lomas Garza by TYF, from the catalog, Carmen Lomas Garza: Lo Real Maravilloso: the Marvelous/The Real, The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, 1988; catalog, Mano a Mano: Abstraction/Figuration: 16 Mexican-American & Latin-American Painters from the San Francisco Bay Area, The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County and University of California Santa Cruz, 1988; Festival Internaxional de la Raza, "Los Artistas Chicanos del Valle de Tejas: Narradores de Mitos Y Tradiciones," 1991; Handwritten transcript of interview with Lomas Garza by TYF; polaroid photographs of Lomas Garza; memo to Dudley and TYF from Vincente M. Martinez, Acting Chief Curator Millicent Rogers Museum, 04/03/1995, re. invitations to exhibition opening and loan of piece)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Serices for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Charles Campbell Gallery records, 1960-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian's Collection Care and Preservation Fund.
Biographical material, 1953-1981; 15 letters from Hans and Maria Hofmann, and two from Wessels to Hofmann, 1952-1964; correspondence with Ila Limerick and Peace and Pauline Alvarez regarding mostly their planned but uncompleted biography of Wessels, ca. 1959-1968; miscellaneous correspondence; typescripts of lectures by Wessels; photographs of Wessels, including one by Imogen Cunningham, 1956, Wessels with others, one of his work, and one by Wessels (?) of an outdoor scene; newspaper clippings and printed material, undated, 1959-1967 and 1982; and miscellany, 1932-1966.
The Hans Hofmann letters, written from New York and Provincetown, discuss the importance of painting, his and Wessel's work, his plans to come to Berkeley to accept an honorary doctorate, and his feelings toward Wessels, Erle Loran, and others. Three of the letters are written by his wife Maria. Wessels' letters to Hofmann relate to the University's choice of Erle Loran to present Hofmann's honorary doctorate.
The correspondence with Ila Limerick, and Peace and sometimes Pauline Alvarez, contain lengthy, detailed reminiscences by Wessels on personal and professional topics. The later correspondence with Peace Alvarez relates mainly to the deteriorating health of Wessels' wife, Kay.
The miscellaneous correspondence includes a letter from Wessels to Worth Ryder, 1943, relating to Erle Loran and John Haley; a letter from Alfred Frankenstein thanking Wessels for sending his paper "The New Approach to Nature in Painting"; a letter from Worth Ryder congratulating Wessels on his exhibition, 1959; a letter from Ansel Adams praising Wessels' work done at a Polaroid Corp. Workshop, 1965; and letters regarding a controversy surrounding credit for bringing Hofmann to U.C. Berkeley, including a copy of a letter from John Haley to Paul Cummings; from Wessels to Haley, 1978; and from Wessel's brother-in-law Willis Foster to James Elliott, Director, University Art Museum, 1986.
Included in the printed material are an issue of The Fortnightly (Feb. 26, 1932) which Wessels helped found and served as art editor, and The Argonaut (July 16, 1937), containing Wessels' weekly column on art.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, lecturer, critic, and teacher; Berkeley, Calif. Born Captown, South Africa. Studied with Hans Hofmann in Munich. Professor of Art at University of California at Berkeley.
Provenance:
Donated 1991 by Willis Foster, Wessels' brother-in-law.
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.
An interview conducted by Stan and Irene Poon Andersen on July 3-4, 1996, New York City, with Dong Kingman. Accompanying the interview are a few newspaper and magazine articles, and a photograph of Kingman, taken by Irene Poon Andersen, 1996. The material was compiled following the 1995 exhibition "With New Eyes: Toward An Asian American Art History in the West," for which Poon Andersen was a curator and exhibitor.
Kingman discusses his early years and education in Oakland, Calif. and Hong Kong; teaching at Mills College, Oakland, University of Wyoming, Laramie and the San Diego Museum; working on the WPA art project; military service with the US Army OSS art department; leaving the Bay Area when he was drafted, moving first to Washington, D.C. and later to New York City where has remained; and work on movies including "Flower Drum Song," "55 Days to Peking," and "Virgin Soldier."
Biographical / Historical:
Dong Kingman (1911-2000) was a Chinese American painter and illustrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. Kingman taught at Columbia University and Hunter College. He worked for the Works Progress Administration.
Provenance:
Donated 1997 by Stan Andersen and Irene Poon Andersen.
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.
Occupation:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Artists -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area Search this
Photographs of Kingman, his family, and his work; and a New Yorker article about him.
Biographical / Historical:
Dong Kingman (1911-2000) was a Chinese American painter and illustrator based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. Kingman taught at Columbia University and Hunter College. He worked for the Works Progress Administration.
Related Materials:
Dong Kinman papers also at Syracuse University.
Provenance:
The lender, Lewis Ferbrache, collected papers for AAA from artists and administrators of the various government funded art programs of the Depression. It was part of a larger nation-wide, collecting project, "New Deal and the Arts."
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
An interview of Leo Holub conducted 1997 July 3, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in San Francisco, Calif.
Holub discusses his background, being born in Arkansas, moving to New Mexico, and then to Oakland, Calif. (1923); early educational experiences in Oakland, and later at the Art Institute of Chicago; seeing Edward Weston's photographic work at an exhibition in Chicago, and admiring Weston's nude studies of Charis Wilson; his return to the Bay Area; his studio on Montgomery St. (Monkey Block); meeting painter Matthew Barnes, who had assisted Diego Rivera with his murals at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA), 1931-1932; his experiences as a student at CSFA- its program and instructors which included Maurice Sterne, Gottardo Piazzoni, Lee Randolph, Dick Hackett, Otis Oldfield, William Gaw, Spencer Mackey, and Victor Arnautoff; fellow students including Hassel Smith, Ed Corbett, and Florence Michelson (his future wife); and his beginning awareness of modernism.
Holub discusses his involvement with the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939); apprenticeship with industrial designer Joe Sinel and the advent of the product design era; his founding of Design Development Associates, and staying only a year before moving to Grass Valley, Calif. for his son's health; his return to the Bay Area, succeeding Emmy Lou Packard at the San Francisco Planning Office graphic arts dept.; working at the housing agency and redevelopment agency and as chief designer for the Bay Area Rapid Transit report.
He recalls his encounter with Ansel Adams at the 1955 Yosemite workshop where Holub produced a pictorial map of Yosemite; Adam's "zone system" of exposing for shadows and developing for highlights; going on to teach at CSFA (1955-1957), where Imogen Cunningham was a guest instructor; Minor White replacing him; his ten years at Stanford University's planning office (1960-1970); his campus views "Stanford Scene" that were used by the university to appeal for more space for the art dept., and his shows at Stanford's art gallery in 1964 and at the Washington, D.C. home of Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980.
Biographical / Historical:
Leo Holub (1916-2010) was a photographer, lithographer, and teacher from San Francisco, Calif.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics, and administrators.
Topic:
Photographers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- California Search this
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and nine scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and scrapbooks.
Correspondence is with colleagues, artists, museums, and galleries concerning a wide variety of topics, including exhibitions and publications. The bulk of the correspondence consists of alphabetical files (two linear feet) that includes correspondence with artists. Notable correspondents include Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gordon Onslow Ford, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Graves, Philip Guston, Dimitri Hadzi, Jacques Lipchitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Jean Tinguely, and others. Eight additional files of chronological correspondence is with curators, arts organizations, and publishers. Additional correspondence is found in the professional files, project files, membership files, artists' research files, and exhibition files.
The bulk of the writings series is comprised of files related to Selz's books and includes typescript drafts and galleys, printed and digital material, correspondence, and publishing contracts. Files are found for Art in Our Times, Art of Engagement, Beyond the Mainstream, and Theories of Modern Art. Other writings consist of drafts of articles, essays, notes, and lectures by Selz. Also included are writings by others, including materials related to Paul Karlstrom's biography of Selz.
Professional files document curatorial and teaching positions at the Chicago Institute of Design, Pomona College, University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art. The series includes contracts, recommendations, syllabi, and correspondence.
Project files document Selz's professional work on specific art projects, panels, and symposiums. There is extensive documentation of Selz's work as project director of Christo's Running Fence, as well as other environmental art work projects by Christo, the Berkeley Art Project, Disney Art Project, "Funk Art" symposium, and the "Art and Politics in the 20th Century" symposium. Project files contain a wide variety of materials, such as correspondence, printed material, financial records, reports, photographs, and other documents. There are 2 tape reels, 1 VHS, and 1 sound cassette.
Membership and association records document Selz's involvement with or membership in various art councils, trustee boards, such as the College Art Association, Art in Chicago Advisory Committee, Bay Area Rapid Transit (B.A.R.T.) Art Council, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum Advisory Board, among others. Materials include meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, and memoranda.
Artists' Research Files consist of a wide variety of research materials Selz compiled about artists for lectures, writings, projects, exhibitions, etc. Files vary and may include original and photocopied correspondence, photographic material, resumes, printed and digital material, and writings. There is also 1 sound cassette. Files are found for Bedri Baykam, Max Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Ciel Bergman, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Bruce Conner, Jean Dubuffet, Lyonel Feininger, Leon Golub, Dimitri Hadzi, Rico Lebrun, Harold Paris, Irving Petlin, among many others.
Exhibition files include catalogs, reviews, clippings, writings, correspondence, and other material documenting exhibitions organized by Selz. Limited materials are found for the MOMA Art Nouveau exhibition. More extensive documentation is found for Seven Decades of Modern Art, 1895-1965, The Joint Show (1967), The American Presidency in Political Cartoons (1976), American Modern Art Between the Two World Wars (1979), German Realism in the Twenties: Artist As Social Critic (1980), Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (1989), a Richard Lindner Retrospective (1996), Spaces of Nature (1999), Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000 (2000), and a Nathan Oliviera Retrospective (2002), among others. Some of the materials are in digital format.
Personal business records are related to the Mark Rothko estate and Kate Rothko's legal case against Marlborough Gallery, Inc. Also included in this series are Peter Selz's school transcripts, bequests, royalty statements, house designs, and other material.
Printed materials include clippings, prints of articles written by Peter Selz, exhibition announcements and invitations, and photocopies of artwork images.
There are nine disbound scrapbooks dating from the 1940s up through 2012 containing clippings, exhibition announcements, and photographs of art events, Selz, and artists. This series also includes materials from the 2018 addition that may have previously been compiled in binders.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 10 series. When possible the original order of Peter Selz was maintained. However, multiple accessions were merged and integrated.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-2013 (2.3 linear feet; Box 1-3, Box 37)
Series 2: Writings, 1942- circa 2014 (8.3 linear feet; Box 3-10, OV 32, Box 37, 0.035 GB; ER01, ER12)
Series 3: Professional Files, 1949-2012 (1 linear feet; Box 11, Box 37)
Series 4: Project Files, 1962-2015 (2.8 linear feet; Box 12-14, OV 33, Box 37)
Series 5: Membership and Association Records, 1958-2014 (1.1 linear feet; Box 14-15, Box 37)
Series 6: Artists' Research Files, 1955-2014 (7.9 linear feet; Box 15-22, OV 34-35, 0.520 GB; ER02-ER08)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1959-2014 (5.2 linear feet; Box 23-27, Box 38, 0.093 GB; ER09-ER11)
Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1929-2014 (1.2 linear feet; Box 28-29, OV 36, Box 38)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1957-2014 (0.3 linear feet; Box 29, Box 38)
Series 10: Scrapbooks, 1947-2018 (1.4 linear feet, Box 29-31, Box 38)
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019) was a pioneering historian of modern art, professor, and writer who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-1988 and founded and directed the Berkeley Art Museum from 1965-1973.
Selz was born in 1919 in Munich, Germany to Eugene Selz and Edith Drey Selz. In 1936, the family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. Selz attended Columbia University from 1937 to 1938 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. During World War II, Selz served in the U.S. Army in the Office of Strategic Services. He married writer Thalia Cheronis in 1948 but they later divorced in 1965; he married several times afterwards.
After the war, Selz attended and taught at the University of Chicago where he received a Ph. D. in German Expressionism. He spent a year in Paris, 1949-1950, at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre on a Fulbright grant. He received a second Fulbright grant in 1953 to study at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Belgium. From 1953-1955, Selz also taught at the Chicago Institute of Design.
In 1955 Peter Selz accepted a position to chair the art history department at Pomona College in Claremont and relocated to California for a few years. He also became director of the college's art gallery.
In 1958 Selz moved to New York City to become curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and was there through the transformative mid-1960s. While at MOMA, he organized several significant exhibitions of modern art, including the 1960 Jean Tinguely "Homage to New York," a sculpture that destroyed itself (and started a fire) in the sculpture garden of the museum; New Images of Man (1959), the Art Nouveau show (1960), and the Art of Assemblage (1961). He also launched important retrospectives, including the first Rodin retrospective in the United States and a comprehensive exhibition of Alberto Giacometti's work in 1965.
In 1965, Peter Selz returned to California to become the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he held until 1973. He organized exhibitions of Funk, film, and ceramicists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. Peter Selz later became project director for Christo's "Running Fence", the 24.5-mile long fabric fence over the Marin County hills in 1976. He also served concurrently as a professor of art history at UC until retiring in 1988.
Peter Selz was a member of the College Art Association's board of directors for two terms, 1958-1964 and 1966-1971. Selz is a prolific writer, and the author or co-author of numerous books, exhibition catalogs, and articles. Notable books include German Expressionist Painting (1957), Art in a Turbulent Era (1965), Art in Our Times (1981), and Sam Francis (1975).
In 1988 Peter Selz was named emeritus professor at University of California, Berkeley. In 1993 he was on the acquisitions committee of the Museums of Fine Arts, San Francisco. In 2012, Selz curated The Painted Word exhibition. Selz died in 2019 in Albany, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews of Peter Selz conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom on July 28, 1982, October 12, 1982, and November 3, 1999.
Provenance:
The Peter Howard Selz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Peter Selz in multiple installments from 1976 through 2014. Additional papers were donated in 2018 by Gabrielle Selz, Peter Selz's daughter.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
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.
Peter Howard Selz papers, 1929-2018, bulk 1950-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the 2014 processing of this collection was provided by the Frederick Hammersley Foundation. Funding for the processing of the 2018 addition was provided by Gerald and Bente Buck.
The papers of California painter Jay DeFeo measure 1.5 linear feet and date from circa 1940s to 1979. The collection provides scattered documentation of DeFeo's career, and details on her seminal work, The Rose, through biographical material, correspondence with friends and colleagues, personal business records, writings by others, printed material, photographs highlighting DeFeo's prominent role in her community, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of California painter Jay DeFeo measure 1.5 linear feet and date from circa 1940s to 1979. The collection provides scattered documentation of DeFeo's career, and details on her seminal work, The Rose, through biographical material, correspondence with friends and colleagues, personal business records, writings by others, printed material, photographs highlighting DeFeo's prominent role in her community, and artwork.
Correspondence, while scattered, contains some significant and illuminating letters. The series includes documentation of Bruce Conner's assistance in managing the moving and conservation of The Rose, correspondence with the Pasadena Art Museum regarding the first public showing of the work, and correspondence with the San Francisco Museum of Art and Tony Rockwell regarding its conservation. Other correspondents of note include Wallace Berman, Irving Blum and Ferus Gallery, Mark Green, Frank Lobdell, Fred Martin, David Simpson, Ruth Terrill, and Eleanor (Nell) Sinton. Throughout the series letters both to and from DeFeo provide details on her thoughts about her work, personal and professional challenges and decisions at various stages of her career, and her artistic growth as she developed her interest in photography and other media.
Writings are by others and include reflections by Fred Martin on art and travel, and poems from Wallace Berman's self-published journal, Semina. Personal business records contain significant documentation of preservation costs for The Rose, the purchase of DeFeo's work, Incision, and the lease of the flat that was the site of DeFeo's personal and artistic growth and community for over a decade. Printed material includes scattered articles on artwork by DeFeo and others, posters announcing DeFeo's group and solo exhibitions at Ferus Gallery, and announcements and catalogs for others.
Photographs provide important documentation of DeFeo's pivotal role in the San Francisco art community and include some of the most reproduced images of her and others including Wally Hedrick and Joan Brown, taken by photographers such as Jerry Burchard, Wallace Berman, Wally Hedrick, and DeFeo. Many other personal photographs of group trips to the beach and parties at the Fillmore Street flat capture the camaraderie and vitality of the community to which DeFeo belonged.
Also found are several collages made by DeFeo, and artwork by others including Wallace Berman, and sketches by Al Wong.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical material, 1948-1969 (2 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1950-1979 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1, OV 3)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1950s-circa 1960s (0.1 linear feet; Box 1, OV 3)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1955-1974 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1956-1975 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, OV 3)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1940s-circa 1970s (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, OV 3)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1950s-circa 1960s (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Biographical / Historical:
Expressionist and symbolist painter, photographer, and educator Jay DeFeo (1929-1989) was a central figure in the progressive community of artists, poets, and musicians of the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s-1960s. She devoted eight years to producing her most celebrated painting, The Rose, and was known for her endlessly experimental cross-disciplinary work in painting, drawing, photography, and collage.
DeFeo was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and was three years old when her family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended the University of California Berkeley and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in studio art in 1950-1951. She then traveled for eighteen months on a scholarship to France, Spain, North Africa, and Italy and spent six months in Florence producing her first significant body of work.
DeFeo returned to San Francisco in 1953 and married fellow artist Wally Hedrick in 1954. The couple rented a Victorian flat at 2322 Fillmore Street and actively participated in Beat counterculture, throwing large parties for their friends including artists, musicians, painters, poets, and photographers. Joan and Bill Brown were neighbors and the four artists shared ideas and space to such an extent that they cut a door in an adjoining wall so they could come and go between their two apartments with ease.
DeFeo's first solo exhibition was held at the Dilexi Gallery in 1959, and Dorothy Miller selected her work for her landmark Sixteen Americans exhibition the same year. After an exhibition at Ferus Gallery in 1960, DeFeo turned down other gallery affiliations to work almost exclusively on The Rose. Completed in the Fillmore Street flat in 1966, DeFeo's monumental work was first exhibited at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1969, and was later moved to the San Francisco Art Institute to await conservation.
DeFeo and Hedrick divorced in 1969, and DeFeo moved to Larkspur in Marin County to regroup from personal set-backs and the draining experience of working on The Rose. She taught part-time at various art institutions in California, and in 1981 moved to Oakland and joined the art faculty at Mills College, becoming a tenured professor in 1986. She worked prolifically as an artist to the end of her life.
The Rose underwent extensive conservation and in 1995 was purchased by the Whitney Museum of American Art for the museum's permanent collection. DeFeo's work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe and can be found in the collections of major museums throughout the United States and abroad.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art has an oral history interview with DeFeo conducted 1975 June 3-1976 January 23 by Paul Karlstrom for the Archives of America Art. An 83 page transcript is available online. The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley holds some of DeFeo's archival materials.
Provenance:
Donated between 1975-1981 by Jay DeFeo.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Photographers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
The papers of California-based painter and educator Kenjilo Nanao measure 10.9 linear feet and date from circa 1885-1887 and circa 1949-2017, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1970 to 2000. The papers document Nanao's career through biographical material; correspondence with friends, family, artists, universities, and museums; journals; professional files such as teaching files, gallery records and financial records; printed materials, photographs, sketchbooks and drawings.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of California-based painter and educator Kenjilo Nanao measure 10.9 linear feet and date from circa 1885-1887 and circa 1949-2017, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1970 to 2000. The papers document Nanao's career through biographical material; correspondence with friends, family, artists, universities, and museums; journals; professional files such as teaching files, gallery records and financial records; printed materials, photographs, sketchbooks and drawings.
Biographical material includes address books, forms of international identification, travel documents, and interviews in the form of written typescripts and digital audio recordings.
Correspondence is between Kenjilo Nanao and friends, family, and other artists in both English and Japanese. Notable correspondents include John and Kati Casida, William Hyland, Fumiyo and Jun Kaneko, son Max Nanao, Nathan Oliveira, Mel Ramos, and others. There are also several journals of letter drafts by Kenjilo Nanao. This series also includes letters addressed to Nanao's wife Gail from various individuals.
There are numerous journals which contain entries on daily activities, but also include Kenjilo Nanao's thoughts on art, to-do lists, and some sketches in watercolor and charcoal. Later journals are titled and dedicated to specific travels abroad.
Professional files include appointment books, teaching files from California State University at Hayward, studio documents, assorted ledgers, and lithography course materials.
Printed material includes exhibition announcements and catalogs, clippings, magazines, posters, books written in Japanese, and other miscellaneous materials.
Photographs depict Nanao's family and friends, with a few images of artwork and exhibitions, and one small album of photographs of a house and neighborhood in Japan.
The artwork series mostly consists of sketchbooks, as well as some loose drawings and watercolors.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1960-circa 2017 (0.4 Linear Feet, 0.706 GB; Box 1, ER01)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1961-2013 (4.6 Linear Feet; Boxes 1-5, 12, OV 13)
Series 3: Journals, circa 1947-2013 (3.8 Linear Feet; Boxes 5-9, 12)
Series 4: Professional Files, circa 1967-2011 (0.8 Linear Feet; Boxes 9-10, OV 14)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1885-1887, circa 1968-2013 (0.6 Linear Feet; Box 10, OV 14)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1960-2011 (0.1 Linear Feet; Box 10)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1964-2013 (0.6 Linear Feet; Boxes 10-12)
Biographical / Historical:
Kenjilo Nanao (1929-2013) was a painter and printmaker in San Francisco, California.
Nanao was born in Aomori, Japan, and graduated with a degree in economics in 1953 from Nihon University before immigrating to the United States to study art in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received a bachelor's degree from the California School of Fine Arts in 1963 as well as a masters of fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1971, where he studied under Nathan Oliveira and met his wife and fellow artist, Gail Chadell Nanao.
Kenjilo's primary artistic medium was lithography in which he became known for Surrealist minimal figurative compositions. Eventually he immersed himself in painting in an Abstract Expressionist style that became his main form of artistic production from the 1980s on. Nanao taught lithography and painting at California State University at Hayward from 1971-1990, and lectured at various other schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, City of San Francisco, Pasadena Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, Cincinnati Museum of Art, Honolulu Academy of Art, Gruenwald (University of California, Los Angeles), the Achenbach Foundation, and others.
Kenjilo Nanao died in Berkeley, CA in 2013 and is survived by his wife and son Max.
Provenance:
The Kenjilo Nanao papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2016 and 2018 by Gail Nanao, Kenjilo Nanao's widow.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. 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.
Occupation:
Painters -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area Search this
The John Bolles Gallery records measure 22.0 linear feet and date from 1958-1975. Included are financial records, administrative records, collection records, correspondence, photographs, artwork and printed material.
Biographical / Historical:
The John Bolles Gallery was a commercial gallery established in 1958 by John Bolles, Chairman of the Board, San Francisco Art Institute. The gallery's original mission was to provide an outlet for students and alumni of the Art Institute. Directors included Grace McCann Morley, Dick Faralla, Phil Lieder, Jim Monte, Harriet Johns, and Hayward King. The Gallery closed February 1975.
Provenance:
The bulk of the collection was donated in 1975 by John S. Bolles. Additional material donated in 1997 by Bolles' daughter, Jane Bolles Grimm and in 2021 by Tom Bolles, John Bolles' son.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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:
Artists -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Exhibitions Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Indians of North America -- California Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
circa 1870
Scope and Contents note:
Studio portraits of Klamath, Modoc, and Tolowa Indians made by surveyor Alexander W. Chase while working for the US Coast Survey. Also included are photographs of artifacts from his ethnographic and archaeological collection. The photographs are mounted on brown paper with handwritten descriptions; two newspaper articles, including Alexander Chase's own article for the Topeka Daily Capitol, are glued to the back of two of the pages.
Biographical/Historical note:
Alexander W. Chase (1843-1888) worked as a surveyor for the US Coast Survey from 1862-1878, during which time he visited several reservations near the San Francisco Bay area and southern Oregon. As an amateur artist, photographer, and ethnologist, he recorded his observations of the daily life on the reservations in a journal. He published his documentation of a visit to the Alsea Reservation in a newspaper article for the Topeka Daily Capitol, dated Sunday, November 27, 1887. He also published a longer paper on the Siletz Reservation in 1869. Additionally, he contributed ethnographic and archaeological data, photographs, and sketches to Stephen Powers' monograph, Tribes of California.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 2003-10
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Photo Lot 24 contains four cartes des visite by Chase of Maidu individuals "Captain Tom" and his wife, daughter, and son.
The records of the NMNH Department of Anthropology contain some of Chase's original sketches for Tribes of California.
Additionally, the NAA also holds MS 3230, a manuscript by Chase on the shell mounds of oregon, and the records of the Bureau of American Ethnology contain correspondence between Chase and BAE anthropologists.
Publication Note:
The photographs in this collection are published in
Thomas Blackburn, "Some Additional Alexander W. Chase Materials," Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 25, no. 1 (2005): 39-54.
Provenance:
Donated by Jean Prentiss through Thomas Blackburn in 2002.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo Lot 2003-10, Alexander W. Chase Photographs of Klamath, Modoc, and Tolowa people and material culture, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The Wallace Berman papers date from 1907 to 1979 (bulk 1955-1979). The collection measures 5 linear feet and presents a cursory overview of Berman's career as an assemblage artist and poet. The collection contains business correspondence, letters from other artists and writers of the Beat movement, writings by others, scattered artwork by Berman, photographs by Robert F. Heinecken, and sound recordings of poetry readings.
Scope and Content Note:
The Wallace Berman papers, 1907-1979 (bulk 1955-1979), measure 5 linear feet and present a cursory overview of Berman's career as an assemblage artist and poet. The collection is valuable not only for its documentation of the work of Wallace Berman, but for its documentation of the California beat movement of the late 1950s through the early 1970s.
Found are numerous letters, writings, poems, and other published material which portray the thoughts, attitudes, and trends popular in a prominent underground culture which eventually led to radical changes in America and American art. The collection contains business correspondence, letters from other artists and writers of the beat movement, writings by others, scattered artwork by Berman, and photographs by Robert F. Heinecken. In addition, the collection contains files for Berman's mail art publications Semina and S.M.S. Also of note is the large volume of printed material (2.7 feet), much of it in the form of books and other published material. Sound recordings include poets Michael McClure, Kenneth Patchen, David Melzer, and another unidentified writer performing their work.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into nine series which generally reflect material type.
With the exception of the letters in Series 1, each series is arranged chronologically. The original arrangement of the letters has been maintained, with a chronological arrangement of miscellaneous business letters and an alphabetical arrangement of the letters from Berman's more prominent colleagues.
Missing Title
Series 1: Letters, 1957-1979, undated (box 1, 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Notes from Interview, 1967 (box 1, 1 folder)
Series 3: Writings by Others, 1972, undated (box 1, 6 folders)
Series 4: Artwork, 1956-1976 (box 1, 4 folders)
Series 5: Semina, 1955-1967 (boxes 1-2, 26 folders)
Series 6: S. M. S., 1968 (box 2, 1 folders)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1907-1976 (boxes 2-5, 2.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1956-1976 (box 5, 6 folders)
Series 9: Sound Recordings, 1962-1965 (box 5, 6 folders)
Biographical Note:
Wallace Berman was born in 1926 in Staten Island, New York. In the 1930s, his family moved to the Jewish district in Los Angeles. After being expelled from high school for gambling in the early 1940s, Berman immersed himself in the growing West Coast jazz scene. During this period, he briefly attended the Jepson Art School and Chouinard Art School, but departed when he found the training too academic for his needs.
In 1949, while working in a factory finishing antique furniture, he began to make sculptures from unused scraps and reject materials. By the early 1950s, Berman had become a full-time artist and an active figure in the beat community in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Many art historians consider him to be the "father" of the California assemblage movement. Moving between the two cities, Berman devoted himself to his mail art publication Semina, which contained a sampling of beat poetry and images selected by Berman.
In 1963, permanently settled in Topanga Canyon in the Los Angeles area, Berman began work on verifax collages (printed images, often from magazines and newspapers, mounted in collage fashion onto a flat surface, sometimes with solid bright areas of acrylic paint). He continued creating these works, as well as rock assemblages, until his death in 1976.
Provenance:
The Wallace Berman papers were donated by Tosh Berman, Wallace Berman's son, in 1992.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy. Use of audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
