Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Additional Online Media

Catalog Data

Creator:
Hess, Thomas B., 1920-1978  Search this
Subject:
Reinhardt, Ad  Search this
Smith, David  Search this
Noguchi, Isamu  Search this
Still, Clyfford  Search this
Rosenberg, Harold  Search this
Schuyler, James  Search this
Frankenthaler, Helen  Search this
Newman, Barnett  Search this
De Kooning, Willem  Search this
Schapiro, Meyer  Search this
Bess, Forrest  Search this
Rivers, Larry  Search this
Gottlieb, Adolph  Search this
Guston, Philip  Search this
De Kooning, Elaine  Search this
Kline, Franz  Search this
Rothko, Mark  Search this
Milles, Carl  Search this
Campbell, Lawrence  Search this
Mark Rothko Foundation  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Drawings
Greeting cards
Illustrated letters
Paintings
Cartoons (humorous images)
Photographs
Collages
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
10.01 Linear feet
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series. Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1945-1977 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, OV 15) Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1945-1978 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 11) Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1940-1978 (2.5 linear feet; Box 2-5, OV 12) Series 4: Artists and Subject Files, circa 1946-1978 (4.5 linear feet; Box 5-9, OVs 13, 15-16) Series 5: Printed Materials, 1943-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Box 9, OV 11) Series 6: Photographic Materials, 1949-circa 1960s (0.8 linear feet; Box 9-10, OV14) Series 7: Artwork, 1939-1978 (0.4 linear feet; Box 10, OV 11) Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, 1943 and undated (0.01 linear feet; Folder 17)
Access Note / Rights:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Summary:
The papers of New York editor and art critic Thomas Hess measure 10.01 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1978. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, extensive writings and notes, artists and subject files that also include recorded conversations with artists and others, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork. There is a .01 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes a six page typed manuscript, "Think, American Painting," undated, by Thomas Hess and the book American Realists and Magic Realists, The Museum of Modern Art, 1943, signed by Hess.
Citation:
Thomas Hess papers, 1939-1978. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Portions of the collection are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 3685-3697 and 5028 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
All sound recordings in this collection have been copied for research access and digital copies are available in the Archives of American Art offices.
Funding:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
Use Note:
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.
Related Materials:
Materials on legacy microfilm reel 5028 related to Barnett Newman are photocopies. The originals are located at the Barnett New Foundation in New York City.
Biography Note:
Thomas B. Hess (1920-1978) was an editor, art critic, and curator who worked in New York City. He was on the staff at Art News for 26 years (1946-72). Starting as an editorial associate, he was named managing editor in 1948, then executive editor in 1954; he assumed the top editorial post in 1965 upon the death of long-time editor Alfred Frankfurter. In his critical writing from the late 1940s on, he was an influential supporter of the Abstract Expressionists. He wrote widely on other topics as well. In 1972 he left Art News after an ownership change. He then became the art critic for New York magazine (1972-78), a large-circulation weekly reaching a much larger public. (He was also, in the late '60s, a correspondent for the French daily newspaper Le Monde .)
Language Note:
The collection is in English and French
Provenance:
The Thomas Hess papers were donated in multiple increments from 1985 to 1987 by Hess' children, Anne Helen, William, and Philip Hess, except for a file on Barnett Newman donated by Newman's widow, who presumably had borrowed it from Hess. In 2014, additional correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, and cartoons, including some by Ad Reinhardt, were donated by Elizabeth Wolff, Hess' sister. A small addition was donated in 2022 by Anne Hess, Thomas Hess' daughter.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Theme:
Research and writing about art  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)7104
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209238
AAA_collcode_hessthom
Theme:
Research and writing about art
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209238