1.8 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1930-1997
Scope and Contents:
Biographical material, correspondence, notes, writings, photographs, business and financial records, works of art, and printed material document the career of painter and educator Michael Loew.
REEL N68-94: Biographical material, 1957-1967, includes 5 biographical sketches, a bibliography of Loew's publications, and an artist's statement. Correspondence, 1935-1968, is with colleagues, galleries, and educational institutions. There are one or two letters each from colleagues Josef Albers, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Johnson, Richard Lahey, George L.K. Morris, and Clifford Odets. Nine letters relate to Loew's work for the U.S. Works Progress Administration and the New York World's Fair. Writings, 1966, consist of several drafts for essay "Is It the Function of the Artist to Communicate with his Audience." A contract, 1938, is between Loew and Willem de Kooning and the New York World's Fair 1939 Inc. Printed material, 1944-1968, consists of exhibition announcements and catalogs. Photographs, 1960-1964, are of Loew and his art works. Notes consist of 2 undated notebooks and a typescript concerning Josef Albers. A scrapbook, 1938-1965, contains 4 photographs of art works, clippings, and exhibition announcements and catalogs.
REEL 5053: Correspondence, 1944-1990, is with galleries, including the Holland-Goldowsky Gallery, educational institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley, and colleagues including Dorothy Dehner, Burt Hasen, and Aaron Siskind. Correspondence, 1956-1957, with Rockwell Kent concerns the rental of Kent's Monhegan Island cabin. One letter, 1959, includes 3 photographs of Loew, Louis Kahn, Allan Kaprow, and George McNeil. Lecture notes are for an Artists Equity symposium, 1956, and a panel discussion on painting, 1968. Writings, 1968-1979, consist of 3 essays by Loew and tributes written to Sarah Freedman McPherson by Loew and others. Printed material, 1932-1992, consists of clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and a book "The Artist's World" by Fred W. McDarrah. Photographs, 1930-1979, are of Loew, his friends, and his art works. One photograph is of Alfred Jensen, Theodore Schempp, Max Schnitzler, and Loew in Tunis, 1930.
UNMICROFILMED Biographical material incudes curriculum vita, obituaries, and birth announcements of Jonathan Loew, Michael Loew's son. Correspondence is with Willem and Elaine de Kooning. Writings include notes and a transcription of Loew's 1966 MoMA talk Must the Artist Communicate with his Audience, drafts of an article by Loew regarding Joseph Albers NEA and Guggenheim grant applications. Photographs are of Loew, his artwork, and his travels in Mexico as well as a color photograph of Loew and Willem de Kooning in de Kooning's studio taken by Rose Slivka. Artwork includes original off-prints for book covers. Business files relate to the 1939 World's Fair mural commission and include information about gifts of artwork to museums. Financial material includes a sales record book and records of sales with the Marilyn Pearl and Landmark galleries. Also included are literature and directories from the Federation of Modern Painters & Sculptors, exhibition announcements,and newspaper clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Born in New York City, Michael Loew (1907-1985) studied at the Art Students League from 1926-1929, Academie Scandinave in Paris from 1929-1930, the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art from 1947-1949, and at the Atelier Fernand Leger from 1949-1950. Loew worked as a stained glass artist from 1926 to 1929, and painted murals with Willem de Kooning for the New York World's Fair of 1939. Between 1956 and 1966, he taught painting at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, and at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Provenance:
Material on reel N68-94 lent for microfilming 1968 by Michael Loew; approximately 50 letters and an artists' statement were later received in subsequent donations. Additional papers were donated in 1981-1982 by Loew, and in 1994 and 2008 by his widow, Mildred C. Loew, a portion of which was microfilmed on reel 5053. The photograph of Loew and de Kooning taken by Rose Slivka was donated by Loew's niece, Jackie Cohen, in 2007.
Restrictions:
Microfilmed portion must be accessed on film. Use of original papers requires an appointment.
The papers of photographer, filmmaker, and painter Rudy Burckhardt measure 5.6 linear feet and date from 1934 to 2015. A bulk of the collection consists of black and white negatives which document over 260 mid-to-late twentieth century modern artists, their work, studios, and/or exhibitions. Notable artists include Willem de Kooning, Dan Flavin, Joseph Cornell, Helen Frankenthaler, Donald Judd, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Frank Stella, and many others. Burckhardt was hired to photograph for a number of New York art galleries such as the Leo Castelli Gallery and Green Gallery; art collectors including Chaim Gross and David Rockefeller; and art magazines such as ARTnews. Personal papers include announcements and an exhibition catalog; clippings; photographs on postcards; and a book, entitled Conversations with Rudy Burckhardt About Everything, by Simon Pettet, 1987. A small but rich addition to the collection dates from 1941-2015 and contains a curriculum vitae; letters from Joe Brainard, Harold Schimmel, and others; writings; one scrapbook dating from World War II containing letters Burckhardt wrote to Edwin Denby; printed announcements and clippings; and one photograph of Burckhardt taken by Yvonne Jacquette.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of photographer, filmmaker, and painter Rudy Burckhardt measure 5.6 linear feet and date from 1934 to 2015. A bulk of the collection consists of black and white negatives which document over 260 mid-to-late twentieth century modern artists, their work, studios, and/or exhibitions. Notable artists include Willem de Kooning, Dan Flavin, Joseph Cornell, Helen Frankenthaler, Donald Judd, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Frank Stella, and many others. Burckhardt was hired to photograph for a number of New York art galleries such as the Leo Castelli Gallery and Green Gallery; art collectors including Chaim Gross and David Rockefeller; and art magazines such as ARTnews. Personal papers include announcements and an exhibition catalog; clippings; photographs on postcards; and a book, entitled Conversations with Rudy Burckhardt About Everything, by Simon Pettet, 1987. A small but rich addition to the collection dates from 1941-2015 and contains a curriculum vitae; letters from Joe Brainard, Harold Schimmel, and others; writings; one scrapbook dating from World War II containing letters Burckhardt wrote to Edwin Denby; printed announcements and clippings; and one photograph of Burckhardt taken by Yvonne Jacquette.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1934-1990 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Photographic Materials, circa 1950-1975 (Boxes 2-13; 4.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Addition to the Rudy Burckhardt Papers, 1941-2015 (Box 14-15; 0.6 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Rudy Burckhardt (1914-1999) was a Swiss-American photographer, filmmaker, and painter based in New York, N.Y. during the post-World War II era. Originally from Basel, Switzerland, Burckhardt relocated to New York in 1935 at the age of 21. Burckhardt shared a loft in Chelsea with American dance critic and poet, Edwin Denby, next-door to Willem and Elaine de Kooning.
After completing his service in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1944, Burckhardt pursued an education in painting. He studied with French painter and writer, Amédéé Ozenfant in New York, circa 1948-1949; Italian painter and professor Giuseppe (Beppe) Guzzi in Rome; and the Academy of Naples, circa 1950-1951.
Burckhardt married painter and collagist, Edith Schloss in 1947 and in 1949 their son Jacob, a filmmaker, was born. The two separated and in 1964, Burckhardt married American painter, Yvonne Jacquette and the same year the couple's son Thomas (Tom), a painter, was born.
Throughout his career, Burckhardt collaborated with a number of notable post-war visual artists such as Joseph Cornell, Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher, Alex Katz, Nell Blaine, Lois Dodd, and Red Grooms as well as writers and poets including Edwin Denby, John Ashbery, Phillip Lopate, and Kenneth Kock.
Burckhardt was hired to photograph New York-based visual artists, their work, studios, and exhibitions. A bulk of the black and white negatives that make up the collection were produced circa 1950 to 1975. Burckhardt photographed for the Leo Castelli Gallery for approximately 20 years. He also frequently photographed for Thomas B. Hess, editor of ARTnews.
Early exhibitions of Burckhardt's street photography include Photo League, 1948; Limelight Gallery, 1954; and Gotham Bookmart, 1972 and 1980. Painting exhibitions include the Tanager Gallery, 1959; Green Mountain Gallery, 1971, 1974, and 1978; and Blue Mountain Gallery, 1981; Brooke Alexander Gallery 1976 and 1978. A number of his films have been collected by and shown at the Museum of Modern Art, 1987 and circa 1993.
Related Materials:
Available in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Rudy Burckhardt conducted by Martica Sawin on January 14, 1993.
Provenance:
The first accession of biographical material was donated to the Archives of American Art by Rudy Burckhardt in 1993. A second installment of photographic material was donated by Yvonne Jacquette Burckhardt, Burckhardt's widow, in 2011. A third addition was donated by Yvonne Jacquette Burckhardt in 2016.
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 donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that she may own in the following material: photographs taken by Rudy Burckhardt.
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.
