The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of awards, certificates, curriculum vitae, biographical outlines, exhibition lists, passports and other material. There is a partial transcript from a radio interview of Anna Walinska. Also included are limited financial records.
Correspondence includes Anna Walinska's letters to her family from her 1954-1955 trip abroad to multiple countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. There is personal and professional correspondence with friends, artists and art institutions. Notable correspondents include Milton Avery, Louise Nevelson, Beata Welsing, Bracha Hacohen, William Littlefield, and Walinska's brother Louis Walinsky.
Writings consist of Walinska's notes, notebooks, lectures, essays, and a handwritten prospectus for Guild Art Gallery. There is one folder of writings by others about Walinska at the end of the series.
There are four travel diaries that describe Walinska's trip around the world from 1954-1955, during which she traveled to many countries, and later trips to locations such as Israel and Trinidad.
Printed Material include clippings about Anna Walinska, group and solo exhibition catalogs, announcements, event invitations, and course catalogs for the Master Institute of United Art in New York City, where Walinska taught painting and drawing classes.
There are three scrapbooks: one scrapbook is about Guild Art Gallery, the second scrapbook is about the Holocaust exhibition, the third oversized scrapbook documents Walinska's career and activities overall.
Artwork consists of two bound sketchbooks as well as drawings and sketches in a variety of mediums from pencil and ink to watercolors and oils.
Photographs are of Walinska, friends, family, artists, artwork, exhibition installations, and other subjects. One album includes photos of Anna Walinska and her travels, along with images of friends and colleagues. The second album includes photographs of Walinska's solo exhibition at Sunken Meadow Gallery (1959). There is also one folder of photocopies of photos of assorted artwork by Walinska.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1927-2002 (Box 1; 11 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1949-1995 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1935-circa 1983 (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 4: Travel Diaries, 1954-1973 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1942-2002 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1929-1980 (Boxes 2, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1929-1963 (Box 3; 5 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1932-1980 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Anna Walinska (1906-1997) was a New York artist, teacher and gallery director who traveled widely and is most well known for her paintings related to the subject of the Holocaust.
Anna Walinska was born in London, England in 1906 to labor organization leader Ossip Walinsky and poet Rosa Newman Walinska. She had two siblings, Emily and Louis. The family immigrated to New York City in 1914, and Anna Walinska began studying at the Art Students League in 1918. In 1926, she travelled to Paris and studied art at the Academie de Grande Chaumier with Andre L'Hote. France was her primary residence until 1930.
In 1935, Walinska and artist Margaret Lefranc co-founded the Guild Art Gallery at West 57th Street in New York and gave Arshile Gorky his first solo exhibition in the city. The gallery closed its doors in 1937. In 1939, Walinska was the Assistant Creative Director of the Contemporary Art Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During this time, Walinska also pursued her own art and exhibited work in numerous group shows.
From 1954 to 1955, Walinska traveled around the world, visiting the capitals and major cities of many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Places she went included Japan, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. During her four month stay in Burma, she painted a portrait of Prime Minister U Nu and she later became a highly respected portrait artist who painted numerous illustrious subjects such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, artists Louise Nevelson and Mark Rothko, and many others.
In 1957, Walinska became the artist-in-residence at the Riverside Museum where she also taught and exhibited with other artists. That same year, she had her first retrospective at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
Walinska exhibited widely and often. Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings, 1953-1978, which opened at the Museum of Religious Art at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is probably the most well-known of her exhibitions and it traveled across the country to several other sites such as the War Memorial Building in Baltimore and Mercy College of Detroit. Works from this exhibition were acquired by multiple museums to become part of their permanent collections.
Walinkska died on December 19, 1997 at the age of 91 in New York City. In 1999, there was a retrospective of her work titled Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989 held at Clark University's Center for Holocaust Studies. The Onisaburo Gallery at New York's Interfaith Center also held a solo exhibition titled Portraits of Faith (2000). Her art is part of the collections at the Denver Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Rose Art Museum, and other museums.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has the Guild Art Gallery records, which consists of material related to the gallery that was co-founded by Anna Walinska.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Anna Walinska in two installations in 1976 and 1981. Rosina Rubin, Anna Walinska's niece, made a third donation of material in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., research center.
Occupation:
Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Six published primers on drawing owned by Jay P Kinney, including "Syllabus for Secondary Scools: Academic Drawing and Advanced Drawing", Albany: New York State Education Department, 1906; State of New York, Department of Public Instruction, "Drawing for use in Teachers' Institutes and Training Classes", Albany: Weed-Parsons Printing Company, 1896; State of New York, Department of Public Instruction, "Outline Course of Art Instruction", prepared by Gratia L. Rice, State Director of Drawing, Albany: The Argus Company, 1894; [John Warren] "Ball's Form Study and Drawing Book, no. 3, 1000 Questions and Answers", Syracuse: C.W. Bardeen, 1891; Grace Hooper, "How to Teach Drawing" (New York: Teacher's Publishing Company, 1890); D.R. Augsburg [Director of Drawing in the public schools of Oakland, California], "Augsburg's Drawing Book I" (New York: Educational Publishing Company, 1901).
Biographical / Historical:
Educator; Copperstown, N.Y. Jay P Kinney (no period after the "P") was Jean Quinette's grandfather. b. 1875; d. 1975. Also wrote books on forestry.
Provenance:
Donated 2003 by Jean Quinette.
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.
Topic:
Drawing -- Study and teaching -- United States Search this
The papers of painter and teacher, Bernard Chaet (1924-2012), measure 8.1 linear feet and date from circa 1944-2012. Included is biographical material, correspondence, writings, photographs, works of art and printed material.
Biographical material includes resumes and awards. Correspondence is with students, friends and other artists and art related professional and letters from various galleries and schools that represented Chaet or employed him. Also included are a significant number of condolence letters and cards to Chaet's wife, Ninon, upon Chaet's death. Writings include manuscripts for Chaet's books, "The Art of Drawing," and "An Artist's Notebook: Techniques and Materials," and assorted lecture notes.
Photographs are of Chaet in studio and the classroom and with family, friends, and students and a DVD of images of Chaet's work. Artwork includes sketchbooks and loose sketches by Chaet. Printed material consists of press clippings, catalogs, and gallery announcements.
Biographical / Historical:
Bernard Chaet (1924-2012) was a painter and teacher in Boston, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut. Chaet was born March 7, 1924 in Boston, and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, studying with Karl Zerbe and graduating in 1949 with a B.S. from Tufts University which had an affiliated program with the MFA. On Zerbe's recommendation, he began teaching painting at Yale University in 1951, retiring in 1990. He exhibited often in Boston at the Boris Mirski Gallery and the Alpha Gallery. Chaet is the author of "Artists at Work" (1961), the "Art of Drawing" (1971 and 1977), and "An Artists's Notebook: Techniques and Materials" (1979).
Provenance:
Donated 1995 by Bernard Chaet and 2014 and 2020 by Leah Vogel, Bernard Chaet's daughter. One drawing of Chaet donated 1998 by Chaet's wife, Ninon Chaet.
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 in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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:
Art teachers -- Connecticut -- New Haven Search this
Correspondence, class lecture notes; manuscripts for published books, "History of American Art" (1960, 1969), "Drawing" (1967), "Drawing: A Work Book and A Guide to Drawing;" financial material; minutes from faculty meetings and plans for a new art building at Stanford University; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and clippings.
Correspondents include: Carrie Abramowitz, Gerald Ackerman, Mark Adams, Judith Adler, Donald R. Allen, Robert Baxter, Dennis Beall, John Berggruen, Keith Boyle, Theresa C. Brakeley, Robert C. Breer, E. Howard Brooks, Philip Brown, Robert Bush, Richard Casey, Hilda Castellons, Ruth Chapman, Mrs. (Bebe) William Cooney, Lloyd Chiswick, Kenneth L. Culver, Joan Curtis, Frederic S. Cushing, Charles Deaton, Lena Young De Grummond, Helen De Vries, Richard Dinahanian, Lamar Dodd, Elliot W. Eisner, Lorenz Eitner, Hans Elias, Albert Elsen, Jonathan Fairbanks, Ray Faulkner, Philipp Fehl, Lorser Feitelson, Jean Finch, Francoise Forster, Ruth Gannett, Neilma Gantner, Rita Gilbert, Lewis Gray, John Gruenberger, Richard L. Gunn, Edith Hamlin, Betty Hoag, James Hoekema, Dan F. Howard, Andrew W. Imbrie, Matt Kahn, Patricia Kearney, Martin and Carolyn Knesse, Joseph E. Knowles, Mauricio Lasansky, Thomas Leek, Lawrence Levine, Raymond E. Lewis, W. McNeil Lowry, Charles A. Madison, Jan Marfyak, Karla Martell, David McIntosh, Susan E. Meyer, William Meyer, Dwight Miller, Bob Moore, Maureen McManus, Nathan Oliveira, Herbert Palmer, Anthony Paterson, Harry Powers, John Powell, Stephen S. Prokopoff, Hugh Renwick, John A. Richardson, Elizabeth E. Roth, John Russell, Robert R. Sears, Marion Clark Stewart, Jan Studebaker, George P. Tomko, Beth Van Hoesen, Duane Wakeham, Robert A. Walker, Robert R. Wark, Dan W. Wheeler, and John Wilmerding.
Biographical / Historical:
Daniel Marcus Mendelowitz (1905-1980) was an art historian, educator, and author from Stanford, Calif.
Provenance:
Donated 1982 by Mildred Mendelowitz, Mendelowitz's wife.
Research material on William Rimmer compiled by Lincoln Kirstein, 1944-1955, and added to from 1958 on by Richard Sherman Nutt. Included are correspondence, notes and writings, scrapbooks, photographs, and printed materials.
Included are Rimmer family documents and genealogy; Kirstein's (1944-1955) and Nutt's (1958-1971) correspondence regarding Rimmer, mainly responses to Kirstein's requests for information from libraries, museums, relatives, and owners of Rimmer's work; subject files containing correspondence, photographs, writings, notes and printed material on people, places and topics relating to Rimmer, among them the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Whitney Museum, Margaret French Cresson, Henry W. Kent, Cooper Union, Marion MacLean, and others;
writings and notes by Kirstein on Rimmer, including a typescript of his catalog essay for the 1946 exhibition at the Whitney and notes on other artists; a typescript of a poem by Rimmer "The Love Chant"; Rimmer's annotated diagram of a wheel in motion, 1860; a book by Rimmer's daughter, ANIMAL DRAWING: A SERIES OF THIRTEEN PLATES WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS BY CAROLINE HUNT RIMMER (Houghton, Mifflin, 1895), and ART ANATOMY (Houghton, Mifflin, 1884, c1887?) by William Rimmer, containing eighty one plates from the original drawings; a scrapbook compiled by Kirstein containing reproductions of catalogs, clippings, printed material, and photographs; photographs of Rimmer's family, including 2 on glass and a tintype; cartes de visites of French royalty; and printed material, 1864-1945, including material kept by Rimmer, articles and booklets about him, 2 clippings, 1898 and 1900 on Rimmer's daughter Caroline, a booklet "Rapport sur une Mission dans l'Amerique du Nord by M. Armand Dumaresq" reporting
on American drawing instruction and including a section on Rimmer and his work at the Cooper Institute and inscribed by Rimmer to his daughter Caroline, 1972; and other printed material compiled by Kirstein.
Biographical / Historical:
Lincoln Kirstein: writer, art historian; Richard S. Nutt: art historian. Dr. William Rimmer: noted 19th century painter, sculptor, and anatomy instructor.
Provenance:
Donated 1985 by Richard Nutt. The materials were mainly compiled by Lincoln Kirstein, who had hoped to write a book on Rimmer. In 1946 he wrote the catalog essay to the exhibit "William Rimmer, 1816-1979" at the Whitney, and in 1955 turned the materials over to Nutt for a catalog raisonne (never published). Both Kirstein and Nutt believe Mrs. Rimmer discarded her husband's papers.
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.
Anyone can draw! By Arthur Zaidenberg ... text in collaboration with Jerome Darwin Engel; a complete, practical course in art instruction. With an introduction by Joseph Tchakin ... and critical commentary by George Gombarts ..
Calcographia: or, The art of multiplying, with perfection, drawings, after the manner of chalk, black lead pencil, and pen and ink; exemplified by ... specimens ... from drawings by ... Morland, Ibbertson ... and Hassell. To which are added practical illustrations of the art of rebiting ..
The art of drawing in perspective : wherein the doctrine of perspective is clearly and concisely treated of, upon geometrical principles ... : to which are annexed, the art of painting upon glass, and drawing in crayons, with directions for making them after the French and Italian manner : also the art of etching, and that of japanning upon wood ... : to which is added, a method for casting amber ...
