Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Collection Creator:
Falkenstein, Claire, 1908-1997  Search this
Extent:
(Box 5-13; 9 linear feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1931-1997
Scope and Contents note:
There is extensive correspondence with friends, family, galleries, clients, museums, collectors, and writers. The files contain original incoming correspondence and duplicate copies of outgoing correspondence, some with several drafts. Correspondence concerns many family, personal, and art-related topics and work, including upcoming exhibitions, commissions, art news, and her life and work in Paris. Correspondence with family members includes her husband Richard McCarthy and sister Helen Bickle. Correspondence with her husband offers details about her life in Paris from 1951 to 1960. Correspondence with her friend Myrtle Wolf is particularly extensive. Some letters contain enclosures, such as photographs, clippings, and nnouncements. Correspondence with clients, for both public and private commissions, may also include contracts, invoices, and expense reports, and should be consulted with the commission files which also contain correspondence. Additional correspondence is also found in the personal and business records series and the exhibitions series. Additional named correspondents include Carla Accardi, Jean Arp, Anne Baxter, Jae Carmichael, Olive Cowell, Zoe Dusanne, Garrett Eckbo, Sam Francis, Ray Green, Peggy Guggenheim, Katharine Kuh, Frank Lobdell, Sybil Moholy-Nagy, Grace Morley, Berto Morucchio, May O'Donnell, Joanna and Gifford Philips, Ken Sawyer, Gertrude Shurr, Darthea Spayer, Clyfford and Pat Still, Michel Tapie, Antonio Tapies, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, June Wayne, Wilhelm Wessel, Frans Wildenhain, among many others. Gallery and museum correspondence is with Anderson Gallery, Bolles Gallery, Coos Art Museum, Galerie Anderson-Mayer (Paris), Galerie Stadler (Paris), Gallery Mayer (Paris), Jack Rutberg Fine Arts (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Museum of Art, Malvina Miller (New York), Martha Jackson Gallery (New York), Otto Seligman Gallery, Polly Friedlander Gallery, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, among many others. This series also contains postcards and Christmas cards.
Arrangement note:
Outgoing letters are arranged first in chronological order, followed by incoming letters arranged alphabetically by name correspondent. Miscellaneous files for each letter of the alphabet contain single letters from each correspondent. Christmas cards and postcards are arranged at the end of the series.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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:
Claire Falkenstein papers, circa 1914-1997, bulk 1940-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.falkclai, Series 2
See more items in:
Claire Falkenstein papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw967f23fbd-f5d9-47a1-92f8-7606b14b9b89
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-aaa-falkclai-ref85