The papers of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman measure 4.0 linear feet and date from circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. The collection documents the activities of Chaim Koppelman and his wife, Dorothy Koppelman, as artists and educators, and their affiliation with the Terrain Gallery and the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Materials include biographical material, correspondence, writings and notes, subject files, teaching files, exhibition files, personal business records, scrapbooks, printed material, sketches, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman measure 4.0 linear feet and date from circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. The collection documents the activities of Chaim Koppelman and his wife, Dorothy Koppelman, as artists and educators, and their affiliation with the Terrain Gallery and the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Materials include biographical material, correspondence, writings and notes, subject files, teaching files, exhibition files, personal business records, scrapbooks, printed material, sketches, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scattered biographical material includes resumes, artist's statements, copies of entries in Who's Who directories, and miscellaneous items.
Correspondence includes personal correspondence and general correspondence. Personal correspondence mostly consists of Chaim Koppelman's letters written to Dorothy while he was serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He describes his daily activities, observations on army life, and his travels while stationed in England, France, and Germany. Of interest is Chaim Koppelman's letter to Dorothy describing his meeting Picasso and visiting the artist's studio. Personal correspondence also includes Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman's letters with family and friends. Notable correspondents include Sari Dienes, Nat Herz, Sheldon Kranz, Amédée Ozenfant, Hilla Rebay, and Theodoros Stamos. Hilla Rebay's letters to Chaim Koppelman discuss museum-related activities at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the Guggenheim's memorial exhibition for Wassily Kandinsky. There is also a file of letters from Eli Siegel to Chaim Koppelman. General correspondence includes mostly incoming letters to Chaim Koppelman from collectors, colleagues, students, and arts institutions. Frequent correspondents include: Associated American Artists, American Federation of the Arts, Audubon Artists, DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Pratt Graphics Center and Print Council of America.
Writings and notes contain annotated typescripts and handwritten drafts by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman. Chaim Koppelman's writings include essays and talks on art, artists, and printmaking based on Aesthetic Realism; also found are some poems. Dorothy Koppelman's writings consist of artist's statements and essay-length pieces that were prepared for Aesthetic Realism talks on the work and lives of artists, held at the Terrain Gallery of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation and other venues. Also found is a sound recording of Chaim Koppelman's 1968 conversation with Richard Anuszkiewicz, Roy Lichtenstein, and Clayton Pond; the artists discuss the influence of the Siegel Theory of Opposites on their work.
Subject files document the activities, projects, and professional affiliations of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman. Included are materials on exhibitions, applications for fellowships and grants, awards, drafts of writings, donations and acquisitions of artwork by museums. Teaching files provide an overview of the faculty positions held by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman over the course of their careers. Found are extensive files on Chaim Koppelman's tenure at the School of Visual Arts. Exhibition files chronicle the Koppelmans' solo and group shows at the Terrain and other venues; substantive files contain Chaim Koppelman's correspondence with museums and arts institutions and sales information.
Two scrapbooks contain exhibition-related materials, such as artists' statements, press releases, awards, printed material, and photographs of artwork. Artwork includes sketches and illustrated letters by Chaim Koppelman. There are twenty annotated sketchbooks by Chaim Koppelman and a sketchbook by Dorothy Koppelman.
Photographs and snapshots are of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman; many of the snapshots of Chaim Koppelman and others document his army service while stationed in the United States and Europe. Four photograph albums include black and white photographs of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in their studio; included are snapshots of the Koppelmans with family and friends at exhibition openings, gatherings, and on their travels. There are photographs of Regina Dienes, Gerson Lieber, Bernard Olshan, Joseph Solman, and Theodoros Stamos.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 12 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1940-2001 (Box 1; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1942-2003 (Box 1; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1930s-1989, 2005 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1942-2004 (Boxes 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 5: Teaching Files, 1940s-2006 (Box 2; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1940s-2005 (Boxes 2-3; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1944-1969 (Box 3; 3 folders)
Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1942-2003 (Box 3; 2 folders)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1937-1971, 2004 (Box 3; 0.25 linear feet)
Series 10: Artwork, 1933-1949, 1980-2000 (Box 3; 3 folders)
Series 11: Sketchbooks, 1944-2005 (Boxes 3-4; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 12: Photographs, 1930-circa 2004 (Box 4; 0.25 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009) lived and worked in New York as a printmaker, educator, and Aesthetic Realism consultant. Painter, gallery director, Aesthetic Realism consultant, and educator Dorothy Koppelman (1920-) resides and works in New York City.
Chaim Koppelman was born in Brooklyn in 1920. Koppelman studied at the American Artists School with Carl Holty and at the Art Students League with Jose De Creeft and Will Barnet. Simultaneously, he began to study in classes taught by Eli Siegel, critic, poet, and founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism. In 1942, Koppelman was drafted in the U.S. Army. Before going overseas in 1943, he married Dorothy Myers. In the army, Koppelman continued his studies in painting and sculpture, where he attended the Art College in Western England, Bristol, and the Beaux Arts School in Reims, France. Chaim Koppelman took part in the Normandy invasion and was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.
After Koppelman returned to New York in 1944, he studied at the Amédée Ozenfant School, where he eventually became Ozenfant's assistant. Around this time, Koppelman turned from painting and sculpture to printmaking. In 1955, Chaim Koppelman, his wife, Dorothy, and other artists and poets studying Aesthetic Realism established the Terrain Gallery. For many years, Koppelman was the head of the gallery's Print Division and then later became an advisory director.
Chaim Koppelman held a number of teaching positions in universities and arts institutions. He lectured at Brooklyn College, the Art Education Department from 1950-1960. In 1959, Koppelman founded the Printmaking Division at the School of Visual Arts, where he served on the school's faculty until 2007. At the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, he taught artists how to relate their artwork and their everyday lives. He wrote: "After having tested his aesthetic concepts in literally thousands of works of different periods, in different styles, in different media, I say that Eli Siegel's Theory of Opposites is the key to what is good or beautiful in art….When Eli Siegel showed that what makes a work of art beautiful—the oneness of opposites—is the same as what every individual wants, it was one of the mightiest and kindest achievements of man's mind."
Among the awards Chaim Koppelman received were: two Tiffany Grants, 1956, 1959; New York Artists Equity Annual Awards Honoring Will Barnet, Robert Blackburn, Chaim Koppelman, 1992; and the Purchase Prize, Art Students League in 2005. Koppelman was a member of the National Academy and a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA). In 2004, SAGA presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In addition to his solo and group exhibitions at the Terrain Gallery, Chaim Koppelman's work was featured at the Beatrice Conde Gallery, International Print Center (New York), Library of Congress, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. His prints are in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Gallery.
In December 2009, Koppelman died at age 89 in New York City.
Born in 1920, Dorothy Koppelman attended Brooklyn College, the Art Students League, and American Artists School where she trained under Joseph Solman. During this time, she began to study poetry, and the relation of art and the self in classes with Eli Siegel, the founder of Aesthetic Realism.
Dorothy Koppelman has had a number of solo and group exhibitions at the Terrain Gallery. She has also shown her paintings at the Atlantic Gallery, Art Gallery of Binghamton, New York, Beatrice Conde Gallery, the Broome Street Gallery, and at MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, the Whitney Biennial 2006 Peace Tower, the National Academy, and the Butler Art Institute.
Dorothy Koppelman has served on the faculty at several arts institutions: the National Academy, Brooklyn College School of Education, and the School of Visual Arts. She has given presentations on Aesthetic Realism at the Fondazione Piero della Francesa in Italy, and with Carrie Wilson at the 31st World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA). On August 16, 2002, in a talk given on Eli Siegel Day in Baltimore, she said, "Eli Siegel explained the true meaning of art for our lives. No one—no scholar, no artist, no person—in all the centuries ever saw this before: that we can learn about ourselves from the very technique of art!...He showed that far from being in a separate world, art has the answer to the trouble in this one."
She is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society of Contemporary Artists and New York Artists Equity. She has received an Honorable Mention from the Brooklyn Society of Artists, 1957; a Tiffany Grant for painting, 1965; and awards from the American Society of Contemporary Artists, 1996, 1999. Dorothy Koppelman's work has been included in the collections of Hampton University, Virginia; Rosenzweig Museum, Durham, North Carolina; New-York Historical Society; Yale University; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as other institutions.
Dorothy Koppelman lives in New York City. She is a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, where she also teaches the Critical Inquiry, a workshop for artists. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, and is President of the Eli Siegel/Martha Baird Foundation. She continues her study in classes with Ellen Reiss, Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the Terrain Gallery records of which Dorothy Koppelman is the director.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in 2006.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival 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.
An interview of V. V. Rankine conducted 1990 Mar. 2-22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Rankine discusses the evolution of her nickname, V.V.; discovering her dyslexia; growing up in Boston; auditioning for a part in, "The Philadelphia Story"; her art studies with Amedee Ozenfant from 1944 to 1946; her studies at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers and Willem De Kooning in 1947; her friendship with Morris Louis and watching him work; living with her brother-in-law Arshile Gorky, in New York City; her first one-woman show at the David Herbert Gallery in New York in 1962; exhibiting at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York and at the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Robert Richman and the Institute of Contemporary Arts; the relationship between her painting and her sculpture; favorite shapes and materials; and her summer home in East Hampton and artist friends there. Rankine also recalls Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Youngerman, Manoucher Yektai, Betty Parsons, Ibram Lassaw, Buckminster Fuller, Elaine De Kooning, Arthur Penn, Richard Leopold, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Ken Noland, Morris Louis, Ray Johnson, Kenneth Snelson, David Hare, Frederick Kiesler, Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, Jean Renault, Agnes Gorky, Esther Magruder, James Johnson Sweeney, Jim Brooks, John Graham, Phillip Guston, Duncan Phillips, Theresa Helburn, Augustine Duncan, Tom Downing, Gene Davis, Alice Denney, Nesta Dorrance, Kevin Merrill, Sam Gilliam, Dylan Thomas, Kay Halle, Kit Kennedy, Naum Gabo, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Anne Truitt, Wretha Nelson, Franz Bader, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Bonnie Newman, Alexander Russo, Walt Sheridan, Gilbert Kinney, Saul Sherman, Steve Pace, Lee Krasner, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
V.V. Rankine (1920-2004) was a painter and sculptor from Washington, D.C. Variable forms of the artist's name are notably E. R. (Elvine Richard) Rankine, Vivian Scott Rankine, and her married name, Mrs. Paul Scott.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 53 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with V. V. Rankine, 1990 Mar. 2-22. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Interview of Ilya Bolotowsky conducted 1968 March 24-April 7, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Bolotowsky, a lively raconteur, recalls a host of episodes from his personal and professional life. He speaks of his childhood in Russia and Azerbaijan; the effects of war and communism; the family's flight as refugees into Georgia and then to present-day Istanbul; and his early education with a private tutor and at a Jesuit school in Istanbul. Bolotowsky recalls his family's emigration to the United States by ship in 1923; his first impressions of New York City; and early visits to the city's museums. He relates numerous anecdotes about faculty and fellow students at the National Academy of Design, including Ivan Olinsky, Raymond Neilson, Charles Hawthorne, Amedee Ozenfant, and William Henry Johnson.
He speaks of various early exhibitions of his work, including those with the Art Students League, G.R.D. Studio, and the J.B. Neumann Gallery. He also describes a stay at Yaddo in 1934.
Bolotowsky recounts his participation in the Public Works of Art Project as a teacher of art to delinquent children; later work on the mural project of the Works Progress Administration; the picketing of WPA offices, providing anecdotes about Max Spivak and Joseph Vogel; military service during World War II, first working on a Russian dictionary of technical terms and then as a liason officer with the Soviet Air Force in Nome, Alaska.
Upon his return from the military, Bolotowsky immediately resumed his painting career, and describes his involvement with artists' organizations such as the American Abstract Artists, the American Artists' Congress, the Concretionists, the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, and the Ten; he mentions in these contexts such personalities as Byron Browne, Burgoyne Diller, Werner Drewes, Arshile Gorky, Clement Greenberg, Balcomb and Gertrude Greene, Harry Holtzman, Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian, and Meyer Schapiro.
Bolotowsky gives an extensive description of his experiences filling in for Joseph Albers for a year at Black Mountain College, and goes on to discuss his subsequent teaching positions at the University of Wyoming (including a discussion of the impact of the Wyoming landscape on his painting), Brooklyn College, Southampton College, and SUNY New Paltz. He devotes great attention to the development of his painting, his understanding of neo-plasticism and abstraction, and his efforts in filmmaking and playwriting.
Biographical / Historical:
Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981) was a Russian-American abstract painter in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 37 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others. Funding for the interview was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Goldwater's correspondence is with academic colleagues, art museums, arts organizations, publishers, and former students. There is also scattered correspondence with artists and with family. Subjects include: requests to write book reviews and employment references, and to critique others' writings and provide research advice; Magazine of Art and Museum of Primitive Art business; awards and memberships; details about publishing texts by Goldwater and others; and congratulatory letters, comments, and questions about his writings. A small number of letters include comments about the personal lives of the correspondents, usually routine news of family and friends; a few letters are of a purely social nature. There are three letters addressed to Louise Bourgeois: two from Erick Hawkins and one from Ronnie Elliott.
Also found here are condolence letters received upon the deaths of Goldwater's mother and father in 1942 and 1958 respectively, and a small number of letters from his parents. Family letters include a few addressed to Clara A. Goldwater (Mrs. S. S. Goldwater).
Small amounts of additional correspondence can be found in Series 2: Subject Files and Series 3: Teaching Records.
See Appendix for a list of correspondents from Series 1.
Appendix: Correspondents from Series 1:
What follows is a complete list of correspondents (and the years of correspondence) in this series.
Abramson, Jerry, 1969
Albright Art Gallery, 1947, 1954-1955
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, 1953
Allen, Harold, 1953
Allert de Lange Verlag, 1952-1954
American Association of University Professors, 1946
American Council of Learned Societies, 1967-1968
American Federation of Arts, 1953
American Studies Association of Metropolitan New York, 1955
Anderson, Wayne V., 1964
Andiron Club of New York City, 1945-1946
Argent Galleries, 1947
Arnason, H. Harvard, 1948
Arnheim, Rudolf, 1945
Art Bulletin, 1940-1945, 1955
Art Forum, 1967
Art Gallery of Ontario, 1970
Art Gallery of Toronto, 1972
Art In America, 1941-1947, 1955
Art Institute of Chicago, 1940
Art News, 1946-1947
Art Students League of New York, 1940, 1943
Arts Magazine, 1964, 1967
Atlantic Transports, 1952
Auchincloss, James C., 1953
Authors Guild, 1947
Baltimore Museum of Art, 1946, 1954
Baltrusaitis, Mr., 1952, 1973
Barnard College, 1954
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1938-1939, 1949, 1951-1952
Becker, Marion R., 1945, 1949
Bellew, Peter, 1951
Bennington College, 1950
Benz, Helen, 1946
Bernheimer, Richard, 1955
Bernier, Rosamond, 1955
Besson, Mr., 1946
Black Mountain College, 1948
Board of Higher Education, City of New York, , 1944
Booth, Cameron, 1942
Boston Art Festival, 1954
British Council, 1951
British Museum, 1934
Brooklyn College, 1946
Brown University, 1964, 1968
Burlington Magazine, 1954
Busa, Peter, 1946
California Arts and Architecture, 1944
California School of Fine Arts, 1949
California State College, 1969
Carnegie Corporation, 1942-1943
Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1942
Chanticleer Press, Inc., 1955
Chapman, Ed, 1946
Choate, Mabel, 1946
Church, Howard, 1947
Cincinnati Modern Art Society, 1946-1946
Cleveland Institute of Art, 1952
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952-1953
Colorado College, 1952
Columbia University Press, 1948
Columbia University, 1940, 1953-1955, 1962, 1965
Comité des Arts du Congres pour la Liberté de la Culture, 1964
Cook, Walter W. S., 1942-1943, 1945-1946, 1949-1950, 1955
Criterion Books, Inc., 1955
Critique, 1946
Crosby, Sumner McK., 1942
Dartmouth College, 1942
Davis, Stuart, 1943, 1945
Dersky, Morris, 1966
Dictionary of the Arts, 1941
Direction Départmentale de la Population de la Giornde, 1948
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1945
Duke University, 1946-1948, 1950
Edman, Irwin, 1942
Elliott, Ronnie, 1950*
Elsen, Al, 1969
Engel, Eugene W., 1946-1947
Exhibition Momentum, 1953, 1956
Falkenstein, Claire, 1951
Farwell, Beatrice, 1968-1969
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Inc., 1946, 1950
Fitzsimmon, Jim, 1953
Florida State University, 1953
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1945-1947, 1949, 1954, 1956, 1971
Ford Foundation, 1969
Fox, Milton, 1958
[Frankenthaler?], Helen, 1950-1951
Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1969
Frick Collection, 1941
Fried, Richard N., 1950
Friedensohn, Elias, 1956
Fund for the Republic, Inc., 1956
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1956
Gallatin, A. E., 1944
Goldwater, Barry, 1966
Goodrich, Lloyd, 1945
Goucher College, 1967
Greene, Balcomb, 1942, 1947, 1951-1953
Guggenheim Foundation, 1945-1946, 1953-1955
Hallmark Art Award, 1949
Hammacher, Mr., 1952
Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., 1945
Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., 1952
Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1939-1942
Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, 1953, 1955, 1957
Harvard University, 1949-1951, 1968
Hawkins, Erick, 1950*
Herbert, Robert L., 1954
Hollins College, 1950
Hope, Henry R., 1943-1944, 1947, 1955
Horizon, 1949
Hunter College, 1967
Hunter, Sam, 1955
Indiana University, 1966
Ingram Merrill Foundation, 1966-1967
Institute for Advanced Study, 1964, 1966
Institute for Sex Research, Inc, Indiana University, 1966
Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1951
Institute of Design, 1947
Institute of Fine Arts Alumni Association, 1954
Institute of Fine Arts, 1969
Institute of International Education, 1953-1955
Intercultural Publications, Inc., 1953
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, 1954
Janson, H. W., 1952-1954
Johns Hopkins Press, 1966-1967
Joslin, Andrew, 1972
Kamer, Henri A., 1964
Karl, Aline, 1953
Kenyon Review, 1945-1947, 1954
Kerns Foundation, Theosophical Society in America, 1968
Keyserling, Leon H., 1948
Kimball, Fiske, 1945, 1949
Knowles, Edwin B., Jr., 1945
Koch, Bob, 1954
Komroff, Manuel, 1944, 1946
[Krautheimer], Richard, 1944
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, 1944
Lee, Rensselaer W., 1942, 1944
Levy, Adele R., 1956
Levy, Julien, 1944
Leylan, Robert M., 1941
Library of Congress, 1944-1947, 1952-1953
Loran, Erle, 1941
Loshak, David, 1946
Lougee and Company, 1952
M. I. T. Press, 1967
MacAgy, Douglas, 1948
Magazine of Art, 1944-1945, 1948, 1950-1951
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1967
Masson, Rose, 1944
Mayhew, Edgar deN., 1944
McGraw, Patricia, 1953
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1950, 1965
Mellquist, Jerome, 1951
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1940, 1954
Miller, Peter, 1944
Mitchell, Eleanor, 1945
Moffett, Charles, 1969
Museum of Modern Art, 1942, 1946-1947, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1969
Museum Purchase Fund, 1952
National Arts Club, 1946
Nelson, Kathleen L., 1945
New School Associates, 1953
New School for Social Research, 1949
New School, 1953, 1955
New York Times, 1946
New York University, 1934, 1937-1941, 1945, 1947, 1954, 1956-1959, 1963, 1966, 1970
New York University Press, 1970
Newark Museum, 1944
Okun, Henry, 1967-1968
Old Dominion Foundation, 1969
Ozenfant, [Amédée], 1949
Pantheon Books, Inc., 1944-1946, 1953-1954
Partisan Review, 1946, 1961-1962
Perry, William, 1941
Perspectives U.S.A., 1952
Phillips, Duncan, 1952
Photo Berard, 1951
Pietrantoni, M. L., 1955
Plass, Margo, 1962
Porter, James A., 1942
Prendergast, Charles, 1945
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1950
Princeton University, 1943, 1949
Princeton University Press, 1947-1949, 1954-1955, 1959
Prior, Harris, 1946
Quadrum, 1956
Queens College, 1938-1957, 1972, undated
Rand School of Social Science, 1945
Random House, 1964
[Rattner], Abe, 1945
Redon, Ari, 1951
Rewald, John, 1941-1942, 1946
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, 1946
Rice Institute, 1954
Rice, Philip, 1952
Richter, H., 1952, 1954
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller-Otterlo, 1957
Robb, David M., 1946-1947
Robinson, Cortland A., 1945
Rockefeller Foundation, 1946, 1951, 1954, 1956
Rockefeller, Nelson A., 1957-1958, 1965
Roditi, Edouard, 1951
Rodman, Selden, 1946
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 1967-1968
Ruksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, 1952
Sachs, Mrs. H. F., 1941
Samuel Kress Foundation, 1968
San Francisco Museum of Art, 1953
Sandström, Sven, 1954
Sarah Lawrence College, 1949-1950
Saturday Review, 1951, 1954
Schaefer-Sinnevenm 1945
Scheeffner, Denise Pauline, 1964
Schmalenbach, Fritz, 1951-1952, 1954
Seeman, Hugh, 1953
Seligman, Germain, 1947
Seuphor, Michel, 1951-1953, 1955
[Schapiro?], Meyer, 1941, 1943, 1952, 1960
Sihara, Laxmi P., 1968
Sloane, Joe, 1941
Smyth, Craig Hugh, 1952-1954, 1956
Soby, James Thrall, 1946-1947, 1950, 1955-1956
Société des Africanistes, 1936
Sokol, David M., 1969
Solomon, Alan, undated
State University of New York, Buffalo, 1969
State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1969
Stix, Hugh, 1952
Stokowski, Gloria (Mrs. Leopold), 1952
Sweeney, James Johnson, 1953, 1956
Sypher, Wylie, 1954
Time, 1945
Times Book Club, 1945
Tobé-Coburn School for Fashion Careers, 1947, 1950
[Trilling], Lionel, 1945-1946
Twin Editions, 1944
United States Educational Commission for France, 1951
United States Information Agency, 1959
University Club of Jamaica, New York, 1941
University of Birmingham, 1969
University of Birmingham, 1970
University of California, 1968-1969
University of California, Berkeley, 1948
University of Connecticut, 1950
University of Guelph, 1970-1971
University of Illinois, 1967
University of Iowa, 1968-1969
University of Massachusetts, 1966-1967, 1972
University of New Mexico, 1967
University of North Carolina, 1953
University of Texas, 1947
University of Washington Press, 1967
Valentin, Curt, 1953
Venturi, [illegible], 1941
Viking Press, Inc., 1944, 1968
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1953
Visson, Assia R., 1942-1943, 1947, 1950
Vytlacil, Vaclav, 1942
Walker Art Center, 1954
Walker, Hudson D., 1948
Wardwell, Allen, II, undated
Webster J. Carson, 1945, 1955
Webster, J. Carson, 1955
Weller, Allen S., 1958
Werner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 1970
This material is ACCESS RESTRICTED; permission; written permission is required. Contact Reference Services 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:
Robert John Goldwater papers, 1902-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The scattered papers of French Dada painter Jean Crotti measure 1.7 linear feet and date from 1913-1973, with the bulk of the material dated 1913-1961. Found within the papers are autobiographical notes and essays; correspondence with family and colleagues, among them Jean Cocteau, Andre Crotti, Suzanne Duchamp, Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, Christian a.k.a. Georges Herbiet, Henri Matisse, Francis Picabia, and Jacques Villon; notes and writings by Crotti and others; art work by Crotti and Paul Guillaume; a scrapbook; and additional printed material. Photographs are of Crotti, Suzanne Duchamp, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and other family and friends; and of Crotti's art work. There are audio recordings on phonograph records of three interviews with Crotti and one with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Blancpain.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of French Dada painter Jean Crotti measure 1.7 linear feet and date from 1913 to 1973, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1913-1961. Among the papers are autobiographical essays, correspondence with friends and family, including many letters from Marcel Duchamp, notes and writings by and about Crotti, printed materials, one scrapbook, drawings by Crotti and others, photographs of Crotti and his family and friends, photographs of artwork, and three audio recordings of interviews with Crotti.
Biographical material consists of autobiographical notes and an autobiographical manuscript Ma Vie.
Art work includes seven folders of drawings and an etching plate by Crotti, 83 drawings by Paul Guillaume, and portrait drawings of Crotti by Henri Coudour and Francis Picabia.
A scrapbook contains clippings, a letter from Paul Guillaume and a letter to Elizabeth Crotti from a friend describing a 1932 Jean Crotti exhibition in the Balzac Galleries in New York City, and a typescript "Una Collezione a Parigi" by Gino Severini.
Photographs are of Crotti, his family, friends, colleagues, and art work by Crotti and by Suzanne Duchamp. Of particular interest are photographs of composer Edgard Var?¨se and his wife Louise with Suzanne Duchamp, Jean Crotti, and art advocate Mary Reynolds in 1924, photographs of Crotti and Georges Braque examining a gemmail art work, and photographs of Crotti and Suzanne Duchamp talking with Pablo Picasso at Cannes and at the home of Bertrande Blancpain in 1957.
Sound recordings include two phonograph records of interviews with Jean Crotti, including topics "Assignment Switzerland" and "Assignment World." A third phonograph record contains an instantatneous disk recording of correspondence between Mr. and Mrs. Paul Blancpain as well as an additional interview with Crotti.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1954-1955 (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1916-1961 (Box 1; 43 folders)
Series 3: Notes and Writings, 1924-1958 (Box 1; 27 folders)
Series 4: Art Work, 1913-1925 (Box 1, 3; 12 folders)
Series 5: Scrapbook, 1931-1935 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1921-1973 (Box 1, 2, 3; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, 1920-1957 (Box 2; 25 folders)
Series 8: Sound Recordings, 1955 (Box 3; 1 folder)
Biographical Note:
Jean Crotti (1870-1958) was a Dadist painter who worked primarily in Paris, France and New York. He was married to Suzanne Duchamp, Marcel Duchamp's sister, and friends with notable avant-garde and Dada European and American painters of the period. He is also known for creating the "Gemmail" technique of layering colored glass that produced unique color combinations when illuminated.
Jean Crotti was born April 24, 1878 in Bulle, near Fribourg, Switzerland, the son of a painting contractor. The family moved to Fribourg in 1887.
To escape from wartime Paris in 1914, Crotti and his first wife, Yvonne Chastel, moved to New York City where Crotti had his first solo exhibition at the Bourgeois Gallery. In 1915, Crotti met Francis Picabia and also shared a studio with Marcel Duchamp who was a major influence. Crotti began his Dada period and was included in an exhibition of French paintings at the Montross Gallery in New York, with Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, and Jean Metzinger.
Crotti separated from his first wife, Yvonne Chastel, in 1916 and returned to Paris alone. By 1917, Crotti's marriage had dissolved and he married Suzanne Duchamp in 1919. Crotti met Suzanne Duchamp, also a painter, through his friendship with her brother Marcel Duchamp. During this time, Crotti completed and exhibited paintings associated with the Dada movement. One of his more notable works was entitled Explacatif, bearing the word "Tabu" that expressed Crotti's concepts of mystery and infinity with spiritual overtones.
In 1935 Crotti began to research a new technique using layers of colored glass, referred to as "gemmail." The term is a contraction of "gem" referring to the colored glass and "enamel" referring to the method of affixing the pieces of glass to each other. After much experimentation, an "enamel" fixative was found that would permanently hold the glass pieces in place while still allowing light to shine through all the layers. Several prominent artists including Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso became interested in using this medium. Crotti had the process patented, but in 1955 ceded the rights to Roger Malherbe who adapted it to commercial uses.
Jean Crotti died on January 30, 1958 in Paris, France.
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 -- France -- Paris -- Interviews Search this
Painters and Sculptors Society of New Jersey, Inc.
Pannaggi, Ivo
Pasaye, Michele
Passedoit, Georgette
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual materials with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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:
Jacques Lipchitz papers and Bruce Bassett papers concerning Jacques Lipchitz, circa 1910-2001, bulk 1941-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by The Jacques and Yulla Lipchitz Foundation, Inc.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ilya Bolotowsky, 1968 March 24-April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This 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:
Reginald R. Isaacs papers, circa 1842-1991, bulk 1928-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Webster, E. Ambrose (Edwin Ambrose), 1869-1935 Search this
Extent:
2.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Postcards
Notebooks
Notes
Sketches
Scrapbooks
Place:
Chile -- description and travel
Paris (France) -- description and travel
Provincetown (Mass.) -- Description and Travel
Date:
1890-1991
Summary:
The papers of painter Houghton Cranford Smith measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1890-1991. They consist of eight scrapbooks compiled by his widow containing correspondence with family and friends, biographical materials, sketches, school work, extensive clippings, exhibition catalogs, travel documents and numerous photographs of family and friends.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter Houghton Cranford Smith measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1890-1991. They consist of eight scrapbooks compiled by his widow containing correspondence with family and friends, biographical materials, sketches, school work, extensive clippings, exhibition catalogs, travel documents and numerous photographs of family and friends.
Biographical materials include photographs of Smith, of his artwork and of friends and family in Provincetown and New Mexico, school documents from the Foebel Academy, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Art Students' League, autographed menus, correspondence, including postcards and letters to family and friends sent from Bermuda and Jamaica, customs declarations, exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings, a passport to Chile, newsletters, and Smith's teaching contract from the University of Kansas. Additionally, there are significant photographs and letters documenting Smith's art studies with E. Ambrose Webster at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The collection also includes Smith's correspondence from France and South America. A significant portion of the collection includes papers from his time in France from 1913-1914, where he studied at the Parisian art school Academie Julian. These include a log from a tandem bicycle trip with classmate Harold P. Browne, an invitation to the Bal Randolphe, a Browne Art Class brochure and a narrative entitled "A Party of Fugitives from France," which describes Smith's forced fleeing from France after the French mobilization in 1914. There are also papers describing his South American travels which include notes and correspondence about Argentina, Uruguay and his time in Chile, which spans five years.
Materials documenting Smith's return to France and studies at the Academie Ozenfant from 1926 to 1933 include Smith's passport, ship passenger lists and other travel documents, correspondence with family, French identification letters, exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings and his Academie Ozenfant list of classes and student card. Of particular note are correspondence from and a picture of Sir Walter Kitchener, governor of Bermuda, and letters from wife Elena Peralta to her parents-in-law. Topics covered in the correspondence of this scrapbook include sons Houghton Jr. and Gerrit and the birth of daughter Florence, financial difficulties, art teachers Amadee Ozenfant and Andree L'hote and the family's travels to Bermuda, New Mexico and New York City.
Materials from later in Smith's life include correspondence from Smith to second wife Laura Gilbert Williams, exhibition catalogs and registers, photographs of artwork, newspaper clippings of reviews received for Smith's exhibited paintings and congratulatory letters from family and friends on Smith's successful exhibits and feature article in The American Artist. Additionally, there is significant correspondence with the Passedoit Gallery, Homer Saint-Gaudens of the Carnegie Institute regarding the exhibition and purchase of Smith's artwork and Smith's gifted painting to the Butler Institute of American Art. Additionally, there are several biographical newspaper articles and a biographical sketch written by his wife Laura after his death.
Of note is the artist's original handwritten notes and final published version of his reminiscence "The Provincetown I Remember," notes about painting with various colors and color charts, related assignments from Smith's Color Theory Class, a signed copy of the book Color by E. Ambrose Webster, Smith's former art teacher, pencil sketches, a class notebook about lettering and an address book.
Arrangement:
As requested by the donor, the original arrangement has been maintained, but the collection has been rehoused for preservation purposes. The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1890-1991 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings, 1963-1991 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1916-1991 (Box 2, OV 4; 6 folders)
Series 4: Miscellany, circa 1920s-1977 (Box 2, OV 3; 7 folders)
Biographical Note:
Painter Houghton Cranford Smith (1887-1983) traveled extensively and painted throughout his life. He lived and studied art in France, South America, New York City and Provincetown. He had three children, Houghton Jr., Gerrit and Florence with his first wife, Elena Peralta. He held the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas department of Drawing and Painting from 1921-1925.
Smith became widely recognized for his artwork in the 1940s. He married his second wife, Laura Gilbert Williams, in 1941. He has exhibited at many venues including the Passedoit Gallery, Corcoran Gallery, Richmond Museum, Columbia Art Museum, Walker Memorial Gallery, Art Institute of Kansas City and the Provincetown Art Association. For six consecutive years he was represented at Carnegie Institute's annual invitation exhibition.
Provenance:
Florence Cranford Smith Shepard donated her father's papers in 1993-1994.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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 -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services 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:
Marchal Landgren papers, 1881-circa 1982, bulk 1930-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
