The Ankrum Gallery records measure 41.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 1990s, with the bulk of the records dating from 1960 to 1990. The papers include over 395 artists files, general gallery correspondence, project files, administrative records, exhibition files, collector and client files, financial material, printed material, 1 unbound scrapbook, and photographs. Also included are personal papers of gallery founder Joan Ankrum and her nephew, artist Morris Broderson.
Scope and Contents:
The Ankrum Gallery records measure 41.5 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to circa 1990s, with the bulk of the records dating from 1960 to 1990. The papers include over 395 artists files, general gallery correspondence, project files, administrative records, exhibition files, collector and client files, financial material, printed material, 1 unbound scrapbook, and photographs. Also included are personal papers of gallery founder Joan Ankrum and her nephew, artist Morris Broderson.
General correspondence is with artists, museums, collectors, and clients, and generally concerns sales, exhibitions, and consignments. Correspondents include Irving Block, Morris Broderson, Naomi Caryl, Suzanne Jackson, Joseph and Olga Hirshhorn, among many others. Correspondence is also found in the artists files and the collector/client files.
Project files document various events, benefits, and projects undertaken by the gallery, including a UNICEF benefit, "Up Against Hunger," the Exceptional Children's foundation, and the Young Art Patrons.
Administrative files document many activities of the gallery, such as the gallery's and Joan Ankrum's membership in the Black Arts Council, the California Arts Council, and the Art Dealers Association of California of which Joan Ankrum was a primary organizer. Also found are publicity files, a file on the history of the gallery, leases, floor plans, insurance documents, lists of graphics for sale, and other miscellany.
Exhbition files appear to be incomplete, but do include files for Huichol Indian's art, "The Art of African Peoples" (1973), "Five Contemporary Mexican Painters" (1977), Ethiopian Folk Painting (1978), San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild All Media Exhibition (1982), "25th Anniversary Exhibition" (1985), among several others.
Extensive artists' files include correspondence, price lists, photographs and slides,resumes and biographical material, and sales invoices. Files are found for Benny Andrews, Carlos Almaraz, Richard Bauer, Irving Block, Naomi Caryl, Bernie Casey, Frank Duveneck, Lorser Feitelson, Bruno Groth, David Herschler, Jessie Homer, Suzanne Jackson, Buffie Johnson, Samella Lewis, Helen Lundeberg, Arnold Mesches, Henry Miller, Melvin Schuler, Arthur Secunda, Ken Shores, Jean Varda, and Zev, among many others. The Pat Alexander and Andy Nelson files also contain motion picture film.
Collector and client files document the gallery's relationship with over 115 collectors, museums, and art centers. Files may include correspondence and sales records and are found for Edith Halpert, Olga and Joseph Hirshhorn and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Krannert Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, Palm Spring Desert Museum, Paramount Pictures, San Diego Museum of Art, Staempfli Gallery, and Storm King Art Center, among many others.
Financial material documents sales through numbered invoices, consignments, loans, and insurance valuations. Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements, bulletins, periodicals, and newspaper clippings. One unbound scrapbook contains clippings and exhibition materials.
Photographs are of artwork, artists, and gallery openings. Additional photographs are found in the artists' files.
Joan Wheeler Ankrum personal papers document her personal and professional relationship with family, artists, and collectors. They include correspondence, personal writings, personal financial materials, printed material and loose scrapbook materials, family photographs and photographs of her as an actress, and artwork from various artists.
The papers of artist Morris Broderson, nephew of Joan Ankrum, document his professional relationship with the gallery as his primary dealer. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, publicity files, travel files, projects, exhibitions, collector/client files, financial material, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 12 series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1961-1994 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Project Files, 1965-1987 (0.25 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Administrative Records, 1961- circa 1990s (1 linear foot; Boxes 1-2)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1961-1991 (1 linear foot; Boxes 2-3)
Series 5: Artists' Files, 1957-1994 (22.5 linear feet; Boxes 3-25, 41-42, FC 43-45)
Series 6: Collector and Client Files, 1960-1994 (3.2 linear feet; Boxes 25-28)
Series 7: Financial Material, 1962-1990 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 28-30)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1957-1994 (2 linear feet; Boxes 30-32, 41)
Series 9: Scrapbook, 1960-1988 (3 folders; Box 32)
Series 10: Photographs, circa 1960s-circa 1990s (0.35 linear feet; Boxes 32, 42)
Series 11: Joan Ankrum Personal Papers, circa 1900-1993 (2 linear feet; Boxes 32-34, 41)
Series 12: Morris Broderson Papers, 1941-1989 (7.2 linear feet; Boxes 34-42)
Biographical / Historical:
The Ankrum Gallery was established 1960 in Los Angeles by American film actress Joan Wheeler Ankrum and William Chalee. The gallery closed in 1989.
Joan Wheeler Ankrum and William Challee opened Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1960 with a one-man show of Ankrum's nephew Morris Broderson. With a focus on contemporary California artists, Ankrum Gallery represented over 395 artists during its 30 years in operation, including Benny Andrews, Carlos Almaraz, Richard Bauer, Irving Block, Naomi Caryl, Bernie Casey, Frank Duveneck, Lorser Feitelson, Bruno Groth, David Herschler, Jessie Homer, Suzanne Jackson, Buffie Johnson, Samella Lewis, Helen Lundeberg, Arnold Mesches, Henry Miller, Melvin Schuler, Arthur Secunda, Ken Shores, Jean Varda, and Zev. In addition, the gallery was among the earliest to exhibit the work of black artists. The gallery also held exhibitions of world artists, which included "Art of African Peoples" (1973), "Yarn Paintings of the Huichol Indians" (1973), "Five Contemporary Mexican Painters" (1977), and "Ethiopian Folk Painting" (1978). Ankrum Gallery closed in 1989.
Art dealer and gallery owner, Joan Wheeler Ankrum was an actress before establishing the Ankrum Gallery primarily to showcase the work of her deaf nephew, Morris Broderson. Born in 1913 in Palo Alto, California, she began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse where she met her first husband Morris Ankrum with whom she had two sons, David and Cary Ankrum. She married gallery co-owner and partner William Challee in 1984. She helped organize the Los Angeles Art Dealers Association and the Monday Night Art Walks on La Cienega Boulevard. She was a member of the relatively short-lived Black Arts Council. Joan Wheeler Ankrum died in 2001 at the age of 88.
Morris Broderson (1928-2011) was a deaf painter. His first one-man show was at the Stanford Museum in 1957, followed by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. By 1959 he'd won two awards from the Los Angeles County Museum, and appeared in the Whitney Museum's "Young America" show in 1960. His travels influenced his work, including the hand gestures of Kabuki art in Japan. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others. Following Joan Ankrum's death in 2001, Broderson was represented by her son David Ankrum.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Joan Ankrum, one conducted by Betty Hoag, April 28, 1964, and a second by Paul Karlstrom, November 5, 1997-February 4, 1998. Additionally, there is an oral history interview with Morris Broderson conducted by Paul Karlstrom, March 11-13, 1998.
Provenance:
The Ankrum Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Joan Ankrum in 1995.
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 Ankrum Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
The records of the Richard York Gallery, a New York gallery specializing in American art from early 1800s to 1950, measure 79.3 linear feet and date from circa 1865-2005, with the bulk of the material dating from 1981 to 2004. Three-fourths of the records are artists' artwork files, documenting the sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 works of art. The gallery's activities are also recorded through correspondence, client files, gallery invoices, inventories, business and financial records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials of artwork, and estate records for the John Marin estate and Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella). An addition of 10.2 linear feet, dated circa 1865 to 2005, includes artists' files arranged alphabetically containing printed material, clippings, exhibition announcements, and scattered correspondence and financial documents.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the Richard York Gallery, a New York gallery specializing in American art from early 1800s to 1950, measure 79.3 linear feet and date from circa 1865-2005, with the bulk of the material dating from 1981 to 2004. Three-fourths of the records are artists' artwork files, documenting the sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 works of art. The gallery's activities are also recorded through correspondence, client files, gallery invoices, inventories, business and financial records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials of artwork, and estate records for the John Marin estate and Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella). An addition of 10.2 linear feet, dated circa 1865 to 2005, includes artists' files arranged alphabetically containing printed material, clippings, exhibition announcements, and scattered correspondence and financial documents.
Correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence with collectors, clients, galleries and museums, primarily regarding appraisals, consignments, exhibitions, general inquiries, loans, and sales. Also found are scattered transactional records, information sheets for artwork, and photographic materials. Correspondence from the mid-late 1980s is poorly represented.
The sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 pieces of artwork at the Richard York Gallery are documented through transactional records, photographic materials, correspondence, and scattered printed materials found in the Artists' Artwork Files. Artists for which there are significant quantities of materials (over 50 folders) include Joseph Goldyne, Ellen Day Hale, John Henry Hill, John William Hill, Lester George Hornby, Louis Lozowick, Luigi Lucioni, Emma Fordyce MacRae, John Marin, Joseph Stella, William Henry Stevens, and Steve Wheeler. Also included are the files of the Richard York photography collection, which contained works by Robert Mapplethorpe.
Similar to the Artists' Artwork Files, Client Files document the sale and consignment of artwork, but are arranged by artist's and client's name. Materials found are primarily from the early 1990s and include correspondence, notes, photographic materials, photocopied client information cards, and printed materials.
The Richard York Gallery represented the John Marin estate and the Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella). The records of the John Marin estate are primarily artwork in-take sheets from 1998 and inventory lists from 2001. The Sergio Stella Estate records include correspondence, inventories of artwork by Joseph Stella, and some photographic materials.
Sales and inventory records contain a nearly complete set of gallery invoices from 1995-2000, and 2004. Inventories includes gallery inventory lists, and inventory cards of sold artwork from 1981-1997 (bulk 1981-1991).
The business and financial records include accounting records, bank deposit records, corporate records, index cards for contacts, invoices for gallery expenses, materials related to Richard York's involvement in the ADAA, mailing lists, records of payments to consignors, receipts, shipping records, and tax records. The gallery migrated from paper records to Artbase, an artwork management system, around 2000-2002. Included are two CDs of database data and digital images from Artbase, as well as inventories of the digital file names.
Printed materials contain advertising tear sheets from 1998-2002, exhibition catalogs, magazine and newspaper clippings of reviews and announcements, and other miscellaneous printed materials. Printed materials are also found in eight scrapbooks which document the activities of the Richard York Gallery, Richard York, and the gallery's exhibitions from 1981-2002. Materials in the scrapbooks include clippings, correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, announcements, and invitations.
Photographic materials includes color photographs, transparencies, digital prints, and scattered printed materials, as well as over 600 slides of artwork, primarily works of art which were sold or consigned by the gallery. Artists for which there is significant volume of transparencies include Houghton Cranford Smith and Lockwood de Forest, Sr.
Materials with dates prior to 1981 in this collection are primarily research materials for works of art, such as printed materials, correspondence, and transparencies, as well as some artwork artifacts, such as back labels.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series:
Series 1: Correspondence, 1975-2005 (Boxes 1-7; 6.4 linear feet)
Series 2: Artists' Artwork Files, circa 1865-2004 (Boxes 7-64; 56.85 linear feet)
Series 3: Client Files, 1965, circa 1981-circa 2004 (Box 64; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Estate Records, 1983-circa 2004 (Boxes 64-65; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 5: Sales and Inventory Records, 1977-2004 (Boxes 65-70; 5.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Business and Financial Records, 1974-2005 (Boxes 70-77; 6.25 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Materials, 1980-2004 (Boxes 77-78; 1.1 linear feet)
Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1981-2002 (Boxes 78, 80; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographic Materials, 1977-2004 (Boxes 78-79; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 10: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1865-2005 (Boxes 81-91; 10.2 linear feet)
Historical Note:
Richard T. York (circa 1950-2003) opened his eponymous gallery in the spring of 1981 on East 65th Street in New York City. Specializing in American painting and sculpture from early 1800s to 1950, the Richard York Gallery dealt in the artwork of hundreds of artists including Albert Bierstadt, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Lockwood de Forest, John Graham, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Charles Sheeler, and Steve Wheeler. It also represented the estates of artists John Marin and Joseph Stella.
Richard York passed away in April 2003, and the gallery closed in May 2004.
Provenance:
The Richard York Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2006 by Kevin Scott, the executor of Richard York's estate; and in 2015 by Lisa Bush Hankin, former gallery director.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Richard York Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The records of New York City Kraushaar Galleries measure 91.9 linear feet and 0.181 GB and date from 1877 to 2006. Three-fourths of the collection documents the gallery's handling of contemporary American paintings, drawings, and sculpture through correspondence with artists, private collectors, museums, galleries, and other art institutions, interspersed with scattered exhibition catalogs and other materials. Also included are John F. Kraushaar's estate records; artists' files; financial ledgers documenting sales and gallery transactions; consignment and loan records; photographs of artwork; sketchbooks and drawings by James Penney, Louis Bouché, and others; and two scrapbooks.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of New York City Kraushaar Galleries measure 91.9 linear feet and 0.181 GB and date from 1877 to 2006. Three-fourths of the collection documents the gallery's handling of contemporary American paintings, drawings, and sculpture through correspondence with artists, private collectors, museums, galleries, and other art institutions, interspersed with scattered exhibition catalogs and other materials. Also included are John F. Kraushaar's estate records; artists' files; financial ledgers documenting sales and gallery transactions; consignment and loan records; photographs of artwork; sketchbooks and drawings by James Penney, Louis Bouché, and others; and two scrapbooks.
The collection reflects all activities conducted in the day-to-day administration of the business and relates to the acquisition, consignment, loan, sale, and exhibition of art by twentieth-century American artists and European artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The records document specific arrangements for loans and exhibitions, artist-dealer relations, relationships with public and private collectors, interaction with the art dealer community, and routine requests for information.
Much of the artist correspondence relates to practical arrangements for exhibitions of artwork, but in many cases also documents the development of individual artists and the effect of their relationship with the galleries on their ability to produce marketable work. Many of the artists represented in the collection also wrote lengthy letters, particularly to Antoinette Kraushaar, describing their attitudes to their work and providing insight into how that work was shaped by events in their personal lives.
The bulk of the correspondence with museums and institutions concerns practical arrangements for loans of artwork and provides detailed information about market prices and insurance values. It offers insight into the general climate of opinion toward particular artists and styles at any given time. Correspondence with other galleries and dealers also concerns loans and sales of artwork but, due to the typically cordial and cooperative nature of relations between the Kraushaars and their contemporaries, may also provide a more extensive and personal view of relationships and trends in the art dealer community. Similarly, while a portion of the correspondence with private collectors concerns routine requests for information and loans of art on approval, there is also substantive correspondence documenting the development of the artistic vision of collectors such as Preston Harrison, Elizabeth S. Navas, and Duncan Phillips.
From 1917 to the mid-1930s correspondence was handled mainly by John Kraushaar, and the bulk of that relating to European galleries and European art can be found during these years. Although there are only a handful of materials before 1926, records from the 1920s and 1930s document Kraushaar Galleries' growing commitment to American artists and the climate of the market for their work. The financial hardships of the Depression are vividly depicted in the numerous letters written during the 1930s seeking payment on accounts receivable and requesting extensions on accounts payable.
From the mid-1930s to 1968 correspondence was conducted primarily by Antoinette Kraushaar and, to some degree, by her assistants in later years. As the galleries' focus on American art increased, so did the volume of correspondence with artists, and the collection is particularly rich during the 1940s and early 1960s. In later years to 2006, most of the correspondence was conducted by Carol Pesner and gallery assistants.
The exhibition catalogs included in the collection do not represent a complete set. Those found are working copies used by the galleries in preparation for exhibitions and are often annotated with prices or insurance values. Additional exhibition catalogs can be found on the microfilm described in the Administrative Information section of this finding aid.
The majority of Kraushaar Galleries' insurance records can be found in files relating to the company Wm. E. Goodridge & Son, later known as Wm. E. Goodridge, Inc. Shipping and transportation records are generally filed under the names of the companies used for such transactions and can primarily be found under Davies, Turner & Co., Hudson Forwarding & Shipping Co., Railway Express Agency, Inc., and W. S. Budworth & Son, and to a lesser degree under American Railway Express Company, Arthur Lenars & Cie., C. B. Richard & Co., De La Rancheraye & Co., Hayes Storage, Packing & Removal Service, Inc., and Willis, Faber & Co. Ltd.
The 2008-2009 accretion includes additional correspondence similar in content and with correspondents as described above, as well as some artists' Christmas cards. However, the bulk of the additional correspondence dates from 1965-2006, with a handful of miscellaneous correspondence from 1877 to the mid-twentieth century. Also found are financial and business records including records from the closing of the John F. Kraushaar estate; over 40 ledgers providing nearly complete documentation of the gallery's sales and transactions from its establishment to 1946; incoming consignment records, including account statements and correspondence with artists, from the 1940s to 2006; and outgoing consignment and loan records from 1899-2006. The gallery's representation of its stable of artists is documented through artists' files containing printed and digital materials, exhibition catalogs and announcements, price lists, and biographical information, as well as containers of photographs and negatives of artwork. Also found is a 1933 sketchbook by James Penney, drawings and sketchbooks by Louis Bouché, and two scrapbooks.
See Appendix for a list of Kraushaar Galleries exhibitions
Arrangement:
Kraushaar Galleries generally filed all types of records together with correspondence in a combination of alphabetical and chronological files. Thus financial records, insurance records, receipts, photographs, and exhibition catalogs can be found interfiled with general correspondence in Series 1-3. A group of photographs of artwork maintained separately by Kraushaar Galleries constitutes Series 4. Series 6 was minimally processed separately from Series 1-5, and the arrangement reflects the original order of the addition for the most part.
Records in Series 1-3 were originally filed alphabetically by name of correspondent and then by month, by a span of several months, or by year. The alphabetical arrangement has been retained, but to facilitate access the collection was rearranged so that correspondence was collated by year. From 1901 to 1944 outgoing letters and incoming letters are filed separately; in 1945 some outgoing letters are filed separately, with the bulk of the material filed together as correspondence; from 1946 to 1968 incoming and outgoing letters are filed together as correspondence.
For Series 1-3 organizations or individuals represented by at least 15 letters are filed in separate file folders. All other correspondents are arranged in general files by letters of the alphabet, with selected correspondents and subjects noted in parentheses after the folder title.
Series 2 and several boxes in Series 3 contain a variety of notes and receipts received and created by Kraushaar Galleries that were originally unfoldered. The notes can be found in folders adjacent to the receipts and include handwritten notes of customer names and addresses, financial notes and calculations, catalogs of exhibitions, invitations and announcements to exhibitions frequently used as note paper, and other miscellany. Although most of the miscellaneous notes are undated, they are filed, with the receipts, at the end of the year to which they appear to relate. For the years 1929 and 1930 Kraushaar Galleries created separate alphabetical files for some of the billing statements received from other businesses. These have been filed adjacent to "Miscellaneous Notes" and "Receipts" in the appropriate years.
Kraushaar Galleries tended to file correspondence with businesses alphabetically according to the letter of the last name: for example, Wm. E. Goodridge & Son would be filed under G rather than W.
Series 1: Outgoing Letters, 1920-1945 (boxes 1-9; 9 linear ft.)
Series 2: Incoming Letters (boxes 10-26; 16.25 linear ft.)
Series 3: Correspondence, 1945-1968 (boxes 26-53; 27.75 linear ft.)
Series 4: Photographs, undated (box 54; 0.5 linear ft.)
Series 5: Artwork, [1926, 1938] (box 53; 2 items)
Series 6: Addition to the Kraushaar Galleries Records, 1877-2006 (boxes 55-99, BV100; 38.4 linear feet, ER01-ER02; 0.181 GB)
Historical Note:
Charles W. Kraushaar established Kraushaar Galleries in 1885 as a small store on Broadway near Thirty-first Street in New York City. Initially the store sold artist materials, photogravures, and reproductions. Drawing on his previous experience working with William Schause, a leading dealer in European paintings, Kraushaar soon progressed to selling original watercolors, paintings, and engravings by European artists, primarily landscapes of the Barbizon School.
In 1901 Kraushaar moved the business to 260 Fifth Avenue and with the assistance of his brother, John F. Kraushaar, began adding more modern French and American painters to the inventory. Of particular interest to John Kraushaar was the group of American realists known as "The Eight," who had held a self-selected, self-organized exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. The Eight were Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. Luks, whom John Kraushaar met around 1902, was probably the first major American artist represented at Kraushaar Galleries. In 1917 John Sloan was invited to hold his first one-person show at the galleries despite accusations that his exhibition at the Whitney Studio the previous year had represented a brutal depiction of life that lacked subtlety and sensitivity.
When Charles Kraushaar died suddenly in 1917, John assumed control of the galleries and soon enlisted the assistance of his daughter, Antoinette Kraushaar. Antoinette had suffered a bout of pneumonia during the influenza epidemic of 1918 that cut short her education; grooming her for a career in the galleries was a logical step. Following the end of the First World War, Kraushaar resumed his buying trips to Europe, often accompanied by Antoinette, and exhibited works by European artists such as André Derain, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent Van Gogh. However, it was the increasing commitment to contemporary American artists for which the galleries would become best known. In addition to The Eight, the Kraushaars developed their inventory of American paintings and etchings with exhibitions of work by artists such as Gifford Beal, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène Du Bois, Gaston Lachaise, Jerome Myers, Charles Prendergast, and Henry Schnakenberg.
Returning from a buying trip to Europe in 1929, John Kraushaar wrote to California collector Preston Harrision on July 26 that "the prices over there, especially for modern pictures are astounding." Nevertheless, Kraushaar believed that investing in modern art would yield benefits within the next five years, and he refused to be influenced by museums and critics outside of New York who were reluctant to agree. He exhibited a healthy disrespect for museum directors in general, whom he referred to in his letters to Harrision as "dead heads" who ought to be sent to different art centers of the world in order to "get in touch with what is going on there" (March 11, 1929).
Like most of its contemporaries, Kraushaar Galleries suffered considerably during the Depression of the 1930s and struggled to collect and, in turn, pay accounts due. On October 5, 1931, John Kraushaar confessed to H. S. Southam, "Business is very bad with us, and I know that you will treat it confidentially when I tell you that I have had to sacrifice a good part of my personal holdings to provide cash for my own business." By 1934 the rent on the galleries' current location at 680 Fifth Avenue, where Kraushaar had moved in 1919, was out of all proportion to the amount of business that was being generated. In 1936, a timely move to 730 Fifth Avenue allowed the family to effect substantial economies without a disproportionate loss of business.
During the 1930s, John Kraushaar's health began to fail, and he was frequently absent from the galleries. Consequently, Antoinette Kraushaar took on greater responsibility for the operation of the business with the assistance of her brother Charles. Although Antoinette was one of few women to hold such a prominent position in the art business at that time, there is no evidence in the records to suggest that artists or customers who had been accustomed to dealing with John Kraushaar had any difficulty accepting the transition in management from father to daughter.
Nevertheless, collecting accounts remained difficult, and although business had improved by 1938 it was now stymied by the threat of war in Europe. The warmth of relations between the Kraushaars and the artists they handled, and their colleagues, was crucial to Antoinette during these years. She repeatedly expressed her gratitude for their understanding and assistance in her letters as she struggled to meet financial obligations and operate the business in her father's absence, experimenting with different strategies as she evolved an approach that would sustain the business. In a letter to Gifford Beal dated August 6, 1941, she spoke of "hellish times" and stressed, "I have learned a great many things during the past few years and hope that we are groping our way towards a working solution of our own affairs at least."
While there is no question that Antoinette Kraushaar shared her father's genuine interest in contemporary American artists, the growing commitment to these artists that was forged during these years was driven in large part by necessity. By increasing her stock of American art and adding "younger painters of promise," she was able to sell work in a much broader price range. Consequently she could reach a wider audience and increase the likelihood that the business would remain solvent. This method of business also suited her personality far more than having a very specialized inventory of highly priced work, an approach that she confessed to J. Lionberger Davis on December 3, 1940, "requires a particular kind of temperament, and frankly I neither like it nor believe in it."
Throughout her career Antoinette imbued the business with her personal style. She understood that elitism alienated art buyers of moderate income, who constituted her bread and butter, and believed strongly that the gallery environment should not be intimidating to potential customers. She corresponded at length with old and new clients alike, patiently offering advice when asked and maintaining liberal policies for those who wished to borrow artwork on approval. She also participated in events that promoted efforts to make art available to a wider audience, such as a 1951 exhibition and seminar at the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center that addressed problems of buying and selling art. She was a two-time board member of the Art Dealers Association of America and considered the organization to be an important source of support for the gallery community.
In her dealings with other commercial galleries and art institutions, Antoinette Kraushaar exhibited a strong spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm, consistently lending art to small, locally owned businesses and community organizations as well as to more established galleries and world-class museums. She also developed long and mutually beneficial associations with the art departments of many educational institutions across the country, which proved to be fertile ground for young and upcoming artists.
Antoinette Kraushaar exhibited the same honesty and fairness in dealing with artists as her father had, expressing her opinions of their work in a forthright manner and maintaining a policy of always looking at the work of any artist who came to her. She understood the inherent difficulties of dealing with living artists but relished the excitement of encouraging their work and watching them develop. On November 14, 1947, in reply to a letter from the artist Bernard Arnest, in which Arnest apologized for burdening her with his worries, she reminded him, "One of the functions of a dealer is to act as a safety valve. Didn't you know?"
Although she would not retain artists indefinitely if she felt their work had deteriorated in quality, Antoinette often stressed that she was prepared to accept little or no initial financial return on the work of artists who showed promise or whose work held a particular appeal for her. In a letter of December 30, 1940, she reassured Walt Dehner that the lack of sales from his recent exhibition would not lead her to withdraw his work from the galleries. In typically unassuming style she advised Dehner to "go on painting whatever interests you. We have found that there is no recipe for success, either artistic or material."
In the early 1940s Antoinette Kraushaar implemented two changes to her inventory. Sensing that interest in sculpture was growing, she rearranged the space to give that medium more room and attention. The market for etchings had been declining since the late 1930s, and as she reduced this part of her inventory she also acted on her personal passion for drawings by opening a small gallery devoted to contemporary American drawings that were priced well within the range of most customers.
By the time Kraushaar Galleries moved to 32 East Fifty-seventh Street, late in 1944, American art had become the main focus of the business. While the long-standing interest in The Eight and other artists of that period continued, the galleries also handled contemporaries such as Louis Bouché, Samuel Brecher, John Heliker, Andrée Ruellan, and Karl Schrag. When John Kraushaar died in December 1946, Antoinette and Charles legally assumed control of the business. This partnership continued until 1950, when Antoinette assumed sole ownership of the gallery.
In 1955 the galleries moved uptown to smaller quarters at 1055 Madison Avenue, and Antoinette Kraushaar gave up the greater part of her print business. She was inundated with requests from artists to be allowed a chance to show her their work, and the galleries' exhibition schedule was always full. Contemporary artists she now represented included Bernard Arnest, Peggy Bacon, Russell Cowles, Kenneth Evett, William Dean Fausett, William Kienbusch, Joe Lasker, and George Rickey, and she continued to exhibit artwork by Charles Demuth, William Glackens, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Boardman Robinson, and John Sloan.
By the late 1950s the artists of the generation that her father had promoted in the early part of the century had died, but Antoinette Kraushaar had the pleasure of seeing his faith in them come to fruition. In a letter to Ralph Wilson dated October 20, 1958, she stated with satisfaction, "The Boston Museum is taking (at long last) a deep interest in (Maurice) Prendergast, and they will probably do an important show within the next year." Her correspondence with William Glackens's son Ira in the 1960s reveals the extent to which Glackens's popularity had grown since his death in 1938, and the market for John Sloan's work had been increasing steadily since the late 1920s. In 1962 James Penney summed up Kraushaar Galleries' success in the foreword of a catalog for an exhibition of paintings and sculpture the galleries had organized with the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute at Hamilton College:
1854 -- Charles W. Kraushaar born
1871 -- John F. Kraushaar born
1885 -- Kraushaar Galleries established on Broadway near Thirty-first Street
1901 -- Galleries moved to 260 Fifth Avenue
1902 -- Antoinette Kraushaar born
1917 -- Charles W. Kraushaar died; John Kraushaar assumed control of the business, increasing inventory of modern American and European artists; first John Sloan exhibition
1919 -- Galleries moved to 680 Fifth Avenue
[1920] -- Antoinette Kraushaar began assisting with the business
1924 -- Maurice Prendergast died
1936 -- Galleries moved to the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue
1938 -- William J. Glackens died
1944 -- Galleries moved to the Rolls Royce Building at 32 East Fifty-seventh Street; American art now the main focus of the business
1946 -- John Kraushaar died; Antoinette and Charles Kraushaar assumed control of the business
1948 -- Charles Prendergast died
1950 -- Antoinette Kraushaar assumed sole ownership of Kraushaar Galleries
1951 -- John Sloan died
1955 -- Galleries moved to 1055 Madison Avenue
1959 -- Carole Pesner joined Kraushaar Galleries
1964 -- Galleries extended into adjacent building
1981 -- Galleries moved to 724 Fifth Avenue
1986 -- Katherine Kaplan joined Kraushaar Galleries
1988 -- Antoinette Kraushaar retired from day-to-day management of the business
1992 -- Antoinette Kraushaar died
Appendix: List of Kraushaar Galleries Exhibitions:
The Archives of American Art does not hold a complete collection of catalogs from exhibitions held at Kraushaar Galleries; therefore the dates and titles of exhibitions provided in this appendix are inferred from a variety of sources including correspondence, notes, artists' files, and requests for advertising. Italics indicate that the exact title of an exhibition is known.
Jan., 1912 -- Paintings by Gustave Courbet and Henri Fantin-Latour
Apr., 1912 -- Paintings by Frank Brangwyn and Henri Le Sidaner
Jan., 1913 -- Paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga
May, 1913 -- Etchings by Seymour Haden
June, 1913 -- Paintings and Lithographs by Henri Fantin-Latour
Oct., 1913 -- Etchings by Frank Brangwyn
Jan., 1914 -- Ignacio Zuloaga
Mar., 1914 -- Paintings by Alphonse Legros
Apr., 1914 -- George Luks
May, 1914 -- Seven Modern Masterpieces including Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros, Matthew Maris, and James McNeill Whistler
undated, 1915 -- Paintings by John Lavery
Jan.-Feb., 1917 -- James McNeill Whistler's White Girl
Feb.-Mar., 1917 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar.-Apr., 1917 -- Paintings and Etchings by John Sloan
Summer, 1917 -- Works by French artists including A. L. Bouche, Josef Israels, Gaston La Touche, and Alphonse Legros
Oct., 1917 -- Monoprints by Salvatore Antonio Guarino
Nov., 1917 -- Etchings and Mezzotints by Albany E. Howarth
Jan., 1918 -- Recent Paintings by John Lavery
Jan.-Feb., 1918 -- Paintings and Watercolors by George Luks
Feb.-Mar., 1918 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1918 -- Paintings by John Sloan
Apr.-May, 1918 -- Paintings by A. L. Bouche
May, 1918 -- War Paintings by J. Mortimer Block, Charles S. Chapman, Guy Pène Du Bois, H. B. Fuller, George Luks, W. Ritschell, John Sloan, and Augustus Vincent Tack
Oct., 1918 -- Oil Paintings by William Scott Pyle
Nov., 1918 -- Paintings by Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros, Edouard Manet, Antoine Vollon, James McNeill Whistler, and Ignacio Zuloaga, and bronzes by Antoine Louis Bayre, Emile Antoine Bourdelle, and Mahonri Young
Apr., 1919 -- Paintings and Monoprints by Salvatore Anthonio Guarino
Jan.-Feb., 1919 -- Decorative Panels and Other Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1919 -- Paintings and Drawings by John Sloan
May, 1919 -- Paintings by George Luks, Monticelli, and A. P. Ryder
Sept., 1919 -- Work by Jean Louis Forain
Oct., 1919 -- Etchings and Lithographs by Alphonse Legros
Jan., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by John Sloan
Feb., 1920 -- Paintings by William Scott Pyle
Mar., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Apr., 1920 -- Paintings by Henri Le Sidaner
Apr., 1920 -- Paintings and Drawings by Jean Louis Forain
Apr.-May, 1920 -- Paintings and Drawings by Jerome Myers
May, 1920 -- Paintings by Henrietta M. Shore
Jan., 1921 -- Paintings by French and American Artists
Jan.-Feb., 1921 -- Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1921 -- New Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Apr., 1921 -- John Sloan Retrospective
Summer, 1921 -- French and American Artists
Oct., 1921 -- Paintings of Mountford Coolidge
Oct., 1921 -- Works by Henri Fantin-Latour and Henri Le Sidaner
Nov., 1921 -- Frank Van Vleet Tompkins
Dec., 1921 -- Paintings and Bronzes by Modern Masters of American and European Art
Jan., 1922 -- Exhibition of Recent Paintings and Watercolors by George Luks
Feb., 1922 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1922 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1922 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1922 -- Paintings by Modern Masters of American and European Art
Oct., 1922 -- Recent Paintings of the Maine Coast by George Luks
Jan., 1923 -- Exhibition of Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1923 -- Paintings and Decorative Panels by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1923 -- Landscapes by Will Shuster
Mar., 1923 -- Paintings by Samuel Halpert
Apr., 1923 -- Marine Figures and Landscapes by Gifford Beal
Apr.-May, 1923 -- Paintings by John Sloan
May, 1923 -- Paintings by Frank Van Vleet Tompkins
June, 1923 -- Etchings by Marius A. J. Bauer
Oct., 1923 -- American Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, and William Zorach
Dec., 1923 -- Etchings and Lithographs by Alphonse Legros
Dec., 1923 -- Paintings, Drawings, and Pastels by Charles Adolphe Bischoff
Jan., 1924 -- Paintings by Celebrated American Artists
Mar., 1924 -- Paintings and Drawings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Apr., 1924 -- New Paintings by George Luks
May, 1924 -- Paintings by Marjorie Phillips
Summer, 1924 -- French and American Modern Artists
Oct., 1924 -- Painting, Watercolors, and Sculpture by William Zorach
Nov., 1924 -- Watercolors by Seven Americans
Dec., 1924 -- French Paintings
Jan., 1925 -- Paintings by John Sloan
Jan.-Feb., 1925 -- Maurice Prendergast Memorial Exhibition
Mar., 1925 -- Plans and Photographs of Work in Landscape Architecture by Charles Downing Lay
Apr., 1925 -- Paintings by William J. Glackens
Dec., 1925 -- Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Richard Lahey Jerome Myers, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Abraham Walkowitz, and William Zorach
undated, 1926 -- Lower Broadway by W. Walcot
Feb., 1926 -- Paintings by Paul Burlin
Feb., 1926 -- Portraits of Duncan Phillips, Esq. Charles B. Rogers, Esq. & The Hon. Elihu Root Painted by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1926 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1926 -- John Sloan
Sept.-Oct., 1926 -- Exhibition of Etchings by C. R. W. Nevinson
Oct., 1926 -- Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by Nineteenth-Century French Artists
Oct., 1926 -- Paintings and Drawings by Mathieu Verdilhan
Dec., 1926 -- Exhibition of Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Guy Pène Du Bois, Ernest Fiene, Samuel Halpert, Henry Keller, Louis Kronberg, Richard Lahey, Charles Lay, Jerome Myers, Maurice Prendergast, Henry
Dec., 1926 -- Schnakenberg, A. Walkowitz, Martha Walters, William Zorach
Jan., 1927 -- French Drawings and Prints
Feb., 1927 -- Paintings, Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by John Sloan
Mar., 1927 -- Gifford Beal
Mar.-Apr., 1927 -- Decorative Panels and Watercolors by Margarett Sargent
Mar.-Apr., 1927 -- Exhibition of Drawings and Lithographs of New York by Adriaan Lubbers
Apr., 1927 -- Paintings and Etchings by Walter Pach
Apr.-May, 1927 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Leopold Survage
Apr.-May, 1927 -- Etchings and Woodcuts by D. Galanis
May, 1927 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1927 -- Paintings by American Artists
Summer, 1927 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Georges Braque, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, André Derain, Henri Fantin-Latour, Jean Louis Forain, Constantin Guys, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Morissot, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Odilon Redon, Segonzac, and Georges Seurat
Oct.-Nov., 1927 -- Exhibition of Etchings in Color by Bernard Boutet de Monvel
Nov., 1927 -- Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, and Watercolors by Ernest Fiene
Dec., 1927 -- Watercolors by American Artists including Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène Du Bois, Ernest Fiene, Henry G. Keller, Richard Lahey, Charles Downing Lay, Howard Ashman Patterson, [Maurice] Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Abraham Walkowitz, Frank Nelson Wilcox, and [William] Zorach
Dec., 1927 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Dec., 1927 -- Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Media by George Biddle
Jan.-Feb., 1928 -- Paintings by S. J. Peploe
Feb., 1928 -- Drawings by Henri Fantin-Latour
Feb., 1928 -- Pastels and Drawings by Margarett Sargent
Feb., 1928 -- Drawings for Balzac's Les Contes Drolatiques by Ralph Barton
Feb.-Mar., 1928 -- Sculpture by William Zorach
Mar., 1928 -- Recent Paintings by Marjorie Phillips
Mar.-Apr., 1928 -- Exhibition of Paintings by William Glackens
Apr., 1928 -- Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs by R. H. Sauter of London, England
Oct., 1928 -- Modern French Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1928 -- Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by Richard Lahey
Nov., 1928 -- Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by J. D. Fergusson
Nov.-Dec., 1928 -- Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by Walter Pach
Dec., 1928 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Abraham Walkowitz
Jan., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Margarett Sargent
Jan., 1929 -- Watercolors by Rodin
Jan.-Feb., 1929 -- Exhibition of Sculpture by Arnold Geissbuhler
Feb., 1929 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Guy Pène Du Bois
Feb.-Mar., 1929 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Adriaan Lubbers
Mar.-Apr., 1929 -- Exhibition of Etchings by Gifford Beal, Frank W. Benson, Childe Hassam, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan
Apr., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Arnold Friedman
Apr., 1929 -- Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
May, 1929 -- Paintings by Howard Ashman Patterson
May, 1929 -- Paintings by William Meyerowitz
Oct., 1929 -- Exhibition of Modern French Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings
Nov., 1929 -- Modern French and American Paintings, Watercolors, Prints, and Sculpture (at Gage Galleries in Cleveland)
Jan., 1930 -- Paintings by Paul Bartlett
Feb., 1930 -- Watercolors by Auguste Rodin
Feb.-Mar., 1930 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1930 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct., 1930 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Maurice Prendergast
Nov., 1930 -- Paintings by Ruth Jonas
Nov., 1930 -- Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
Jan., 1931 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Richard Lahey
Jan.-Feb., 1931 -- Paintings by Erle Loran Johnson
Feb.-Mar., 1931 -- Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1931 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Walter Pach
Mar.-Apr., 1931 -- Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings by Rudolf H. Sauter
May, 1931 -- Exhibition of Watercolors by John La Farge, Gifford Beal, H. E. Schnakenberg, Maurice Prendergast, Guy Pène Du Bois, Richard Lahey
Fall, 1931 -- Modern French Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings
Dec., 1931 -- Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolors by D. Y. Cameron, Joseph Gray, Henry Rushbury, Muirhead Bone, Edmund Blampied, Gwen John
Dec., 1931 -- Lithographs and Posters by H. de Toulouse-Lautrec
Jan., 1932 -- Watercolors by Pierre Brissaud
Feb., 1932 -- Paintings and Drawings by A. S. Baylinson
Mar., 1932 -- Watercolors and Pastels by French and American Artists
Apr., 1932 -- Paintings by Nan Watson
May, 1932 -- Sculpture by Behn, Bourdelle, Geissbuhler, Lachaise, Maillol, Miller, Nadelman, Renoir, Young, Zorach; Decorative Panels by Max Kuehne, and Charles Prendergast
June-Aug., 1932 -- Paintings and Watercolors by American Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1932 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Various Artists
Jan., 1933 -- Paintings by Paul Bartlett
Jan.-Feb., 1933 -- Lithographs by Henri Fantin-Latour
Feb., 1933 -- Etchings of Dogs by Bert Cobb
Feb.-Mar., 1933 -- Paintings by American Artists
Feb.-Apr., 1933 -- Paintings by Contemporary Americans
Apr., 1933 -- Paintings by Maurice Prendergast
Oct., 1933 -- Exhibition of French Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1933 -- Drawings by Emily W. Miles
Oct.-Nov., 1933 -- Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs
Nov., 1933 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Dec., 1933 -- Watercolors by Gifford Beal
Jan., 1934 -- Exhibition of Drawings by Denys Wortman for "Metropolitan Movies"
Summer, 1934 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Isabel Bishop, Ann Brockman, Preston Dickinson, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Richard Lahey, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Harriette Miller, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, and John Sloan
Oct.-Nov., 1934 -- Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs
Nov.-Dec., 1934 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1935 -- Complete Collection of Etchings by Mahonri Young
July-Aug., 1935 -- Paintings by American Artists including Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Ann Brockman, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Max Kuehne, Richard Lahey, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Harriette G. Miller, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, John Sloan, and Abraham Walkowitz
Oct.-Nov., 1935 -- Decorative Panels by Charles Prendergast
Nov., 1935 -- Exhibition of Paintings by H. E. Schnakenberg
Mar., 1936 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
Apr., 1936 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1936 -- Loan Collection of French Paintings
Dec., 1936 -- Monotypes in Color by Maurice Prendergast
Jan., 1937 -- Recent Watercolors by H. E. Schnakenberg
Jan., 1937 -- Paintings of Flowers by William J. Glackens
Feb., 1937 -- Etchings by John Sloan
Feb., 1937 -- A Group of American Paintings
Sept., 1937 -- A Group of Paintings by Gifford Beal, Louis Bouché, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, John Sloan, J. Alden Weir
Oct.-Nov., 1937 -- Decorative Panels by Charles Prendergast
Dec., 1937 -- American Watercolors
Jan.-Feb., 1938 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Feb.-Mar., 1938 -- Drawings by William Glackens, Guy Pène Du Bois, John Sloan, Denys Wortman
Apr., 1938 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
May, 1938 -- Paintings and Pastels by Randall Davey
Oct., 1938 -- Selected Paintings by Modern French and American Artists
Nov., 1938 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois from 1908 to 1938
Nov., 1938 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
Dec., 1938 -- Watercolors by Prendergast, Keller, Demuth, Wilcox and Others
Jan., 1939 -- Paintings by H. H. Newton
Oct., 1939 -- French and American Paintings
Oct.-Nov., 1939 -- Drawings by William Glackens of Spanish-American War Scenes
Nov., 1939 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1940 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
Feb.-Mar., 1940 -- Paintings by Henry Schnakenberg
Mar.-Apr., 1940 -- Paintings by Maurice Prendergast
Apr.-May, 1940 -- Watercolors by Charles Kaeselau
May-June, 1940 -- A Group of Recent Paintings by Gifford Beal, Russell Cowles, John Koch, Henry Schnakenberg, Esther Williams, Louis Bouché, Guy Pène Du Bois, Harriette G. Miller, John Sloan, Edmund Yaghjian
Oct., 1940 -- Drawings by American Artists
Nov., 1940 -- Walt Dehner
Mar., 1941 -- John Koch
May-June, 1941 -- Watercolors and Small Paintings by Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1941 -- Recent Paintings by Russell Cowles
Nov.-Dec., 1941 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Dec., 1941 -- Charles Prendergast
Jan., 1942 -- Paintings by Samuel Brecher
Jan.-Feb., 1942 -- Recent Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Mar.-Apr., 1942 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
Mar.-Apr., 1942 -- Illustrations by Boardman Robinson Commissioned by the Limited Editions Club for Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology"
Dec., 1942 -- Paintings from the Period of the Last War
Feb., 1943 -- Paintings and Watercolors by William Dean Fausett
Mar., 1943 -- Paintings by John Hartell
May-July, 1943 -- Watercolors by Contemporary American Artists
Feb.-Mar., 1944 -- Samuel Brecher
Feb.-Mar., 1944 -- Paintings, Gouaches, and Drawings by Andrée Ruellan
Mar., 1944 -- Vaughn Flannery
Mar.-Apr., 1944 -- Recent Paintings by Russell Cowles
Apr.-May, 1944 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
May-June, 1944 -- Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by Henry G. Keller
Oct., 1944 -- Esther Williams
Nov.-Dec., 1944 -- Paintings and Watercolors of France by Maurice Prendergast
Dec., 1944 -- William J. Glackens Sixth Memorial Exhibition
Dec., 1944 -- Kraushaar Galleries Sixtieth Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings by William J. Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, and John Sloan
Jan.-Feb., 1945 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Feb.-Mar., 1945 -- Paintings by Andrée Ruellan
Apr.-May, 1945 -- Charles Locke
May-June, 1945 -- William Dean Fausett
Oct., 1945 -- Paintings by John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1945 -- Recent Watercolors by Marion Monks Chase
Nov.-Dec., 1945 -- Gouaches by Cecil Bell
Dec., 1945 -- Memorial Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by Ann Brockman
undated, 1946 -- Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1946 -- Richard Lahey
Feb., 1946 -- John Koch
Feb.-Mar., 1946 -- Paintings by Ernst Halberstadt
Mar., 1946 -- Paintings of Mexico and Guatemala by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Mar., 1946 -- Iver Rose
Apr., 1946 -- Louis Bouché
Apr.-May, 1946 -- Russell Cowles
May-June, 1946 -- Paintings by Bernard Arnest, Charles Harsanyi, Irving Katzenstein, Anna Licht, James Penney, Etienne Ret, and Vernon Smith
Sept., 1946 -- Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Boardman Robinson
Nov., 1946 -- Guy Pène Du Bois
Nov.-Dec., 1946 -- William J. Glackens Eighth Memorial Exhibition
Jan., 1947 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Sculpture by Robert Laurent
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Paintings by Iver Rose
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Recent Paintings by Vernon Smith
Apr., 1947 -- Charles Prendergast
Apr., 1947 -- Louis Bouché
Apr.-May, 1947 -- Esther Williams
Oct.-Nov., 1947 -- Anna Licht
Nov., 1947 -- William J. Glackens Ninth Memorial Exhibition, with Works by Lenna Glackens
Mar., 1948 -- Russell Cowles
Apr.-May, 1948 -- Bernard Arnest
Aug.-Sept., 1948 -- New York Paintings and Watercolors
Oct.-Nov., 1948 -- Kenneth Evett
Nov.-Dec., 1948 -- Watercolors and Pastels by Harriette G. Miller
Jan.-Feb., 1949 -- John Hartell
Sept.-Oct., 1949 -- Contemporary American Watercolors and Gouaches
Oct., 1949 -- Contemporary Paintings
Jan., 1950 -- Maurice Prendergast Retrospective of Oils and Watercolors
Jan.-Feb., 1950 -- James Penney
Feb.-Mar., 1950 -- Paintings by Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1950 -- Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1951 -- William Sommer
Feb., 1951 -- Prints and Drawings by Various Artists
Feb., 1951 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
Mar., 1951 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1951 -- Paintings by Gallery Artists
May-July, 1951 -- Contemporary American Watercolors
July-Aug., 1951 -- Paintings on the Summer Theme
Sept.-Oct., 1951 -- Vaughn Flannery
Oct.-Nov., 1951 -- Recent Paintings by Gallery Artists
Nov., 1951 -- Paintings by John Koch
Nov.-Dec., 1951 -- Joe Lasker
Dec., 1951 -- Small Prints and Drawings
Jan., 1952 -- Recent Gouaches by William Kienbusch
Jan., 1952 -- John Sloan: Recent Etchings from 1944-1951, and Etchings and Drawings Selected from All Periods of His Career
Feb.-Mar., 1952 -- Andrée Ruellan
Mar.-Apr., 1952 -- Bernard Arnest
Apr.-May, 1952 -- Recent Sculpture by Robert Laurent
May, 1952 -- Recent Paintings by Contemporary American Artists
May-June, 1952 -- Watercolors by Joseph Barber, Edward Christiana, Walt Dehner, Sidney Eaton, Wray Manning, and Woldemar Neufeld
July-Aug., 1952 -- Color Prints (Woodcuts, Etchings, and Lithographs) by Eleanor Coen, Caroline Durieux, Max Kahn, Tom Lias, Woldemar Neufeld, James Penney, George Remaily, Ann Ryan, and Karl Schrag
Nov., 1952 -- Karl Schrag
Dec., 1952-Jan. 1953 -- Eight Oregon Artists
Jan., 1953 -- Charles Prendergast Memorial Exhibition
Jan.-Feb., 1953 -- John Hartell
May, 1953 -- John Heliker
June, 1953 -- Humbert Alberizio, Vaughn Flannery, William Kienbusch, George Rickey, Andrée Ruellan, and Karl Schrag
Sept., 1953 -- Works by Gifford Beal, Kenneth Evett, Tom Hardy, John Koch, and James Lechay
Sept.-Oct., 1953 -- Paintings by Glackens, Lawson, Prendergast, Sloan
Oct.-Nov., 1953 -- Paintings by E. Powis Jones
Oct.-Nov., 1953 -- Recent Works by John Koch
Nov., 1953 -- Kenneth Evett: Drawings from Greek Mythology
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Recent Metal Sculptures by Tom Hardy
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Pastels, Drawings and Prints by Peggy Bacon
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Recent Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Feb.-Mar., 1954 -- Russell Cowles
Mar.-Apr., 1954 -- James Penney
Nov.-Dec., 1954 -- Tom Hardy: Metal Sculptures
Jan., 1955 -- Mobiles, Machines, and Kinetic Sculpture by George Rickey
Jan.-Feb., 1955 -- James Lechay
Feb., 1955 -- Mobiles by George Rickey
Feb.-Mar., 1955 -- Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by John Sloan (with a selection of prints by artists whose work influenced him in his early years: Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Rops, Daumier, Rowlandson and others, to mark the publication of John Sloan: A Painter's Life by Van Wyck Brooks)
Mar.-Apr., 1955 -- Jane Wasey
Apr., 1955 -- Recent Work by Joe Lasker
May-June, 1955 -- Sculpture and Drawings by Contemporary American Artists
Jan., 1956 -- Carl Morris
Jan.-Feb., 1956 -- John Laurent
Feb.-Mar., 1956 -- William Kienbusch
Mar., 1956 -- Andrée Ruellan
Mar.-Apr., 1956 -- Karl Schrag
Apr.-May, 1956 -- John Heliker
May, 1956 -- Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast
Oct., 1956 -- The Eight
Jan.-Feb., 1957 -- Paintings by John Hartell
Apr., 1957 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1957 -- John Heliker
May-June, 1957 -- Fourteen Painter-Printmakers (American Federation of Arts exhibition)
June-July, 1957 -- 20th Century American Artists
Nov., 1957 -- William Glackens and His Friends (based on the book by Ira Glackens)
Nov., 1957 -- Marguerite Zorach
Jan., 1958 -- Gouches, Drawings and Small Glyphs by Ulfert Wilke
Jan.-Feb., 1958 -- Tom Hardy
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- John Koch
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- Still Life Exhibition with Works by William J. Glackens and Maurice Prendergast
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- Cecil Bell
Mar., 1958 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1958 -- Carl Morris
Mar.-Apr., 1958 -- Louis Bouché
Apr., 1958 -- Paintings and Drawings by Joe Lasker
Apr.-May, 1958 -- Paintings and Drawings by Walter Feldman
Apr.-May, 1958 -- Sculpture by Henry Mitchell
May-June, 1958 -- Works in Casein and Gouache by Bernard Arnest, William Kienbusch, Carl Morris, and Karl Schrag
July, 1958 -- Still Life Paintings and Watercolors by American Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1958 -- Kenneth Evett
Nov., 1958 -- Elsie Manville
Nov.-Dec., 1958 -- John Laurent
Jan., 1959 -- Kinetic Sculpture by George Rickey
Jan.-Feb., 1959 -- Bernard Arnest
Mar., 1959 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1959 -- Paintings by Joe Lasker
Apr.-May, 1959 -- Henry Mitchell
Sept.-Oct., 1959 -- Robert Searle
Oct.-Nov., 1959 -- Russell Cowles
Nov., 1959 -- Caseins and Paintings by William Kienbusch
Dec., 1959 -- Paintings by Vaughn Flannery
Feb., 1960 -- James Lechay
Apr., 1960 -- Landscapes by John Sloan
Apr.-May, 1960 -- John Guerin
May-June, 1960 -- Drawings and Small Sculpture by Gallery Artists
Oct., 1960 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct.-Nov., 1960 -- Leon Goldin
Nov.-Dec., 1960 -- Ulfert Wilke
Jan., 1961 -- Leonard DeLonga
Jan., 1961 -- Kenneth Evett
Jan.-Feb., 1961 -- Walter Feldman
Feb.-Mar., 1961 -- Watercolors and Pastels by Early Twentieth-Century American Artists
Mar., 1961 -- Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Mar.-Apr., 1961 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1961 -- John Koch
June, 1961 -- Works by Humbert Albrizio, Bernard Arnest, Cecil Bell, Louis Bouché, Ralph Dubin, Kenneth Evett, Walter Feldman, John Hartell, John Heliker, William Kienbusch, John Koch, Robert Laurent, James Lechay, Elsie Manville, Henry Mitchell, James Penney, George Rickey, Andrée Ruellan, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Karl Schrag, Jane Wasey, and Marguerite Zorach
Sept., 1961 -- Works by Contemporary Americans
Oct., 1961 -- George Rickey: Kinetic Sculpture
Oct.-Nov., 1961 -- Carl Morris
Nov.-Dec., 1961 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1961 -- Selected Works by Twentieth-Century Americans
Jan., 1962 -- Polymer Resin and Sumi Ink Paintings by Kenneth Evett
Jan.-Feb., 1962 -- Louis Bouché
Feb.-Mar., 1962 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1962 -- Marguerite Zorach
Apr., 1962 -- John Laurent
Apr.-May, 1962 -- Sculpture by Tom Hardy
May-June, 1962 -- Drawings by Contemporary American Artists
July-Aug., 1962 -- Group Exhibitions - Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by 20th Century American Artists
Oct., 1962 -- Bernard Arnest
Feb., 1963 -- William Kienbusch
Feb.-Mar., 1963 -- John Guerin
Mar., 1963 -- John Hartell
Sept.-Oct., 1963 -- Andrée Ruellan
Oct.-Nov., 1963 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov., 1963 -- Walter Feldman
Dec., 1963 -- Drawings by John Koch
Dec., 1963 -- Paintings by Contemporary Americans
Jan., 1964 -- Leonard DeLonga
Jan.-Feb., 1964 -- Joe Lasker
Feb.-Mar., 1964 -- Leon Goldin
Mar., 1964 -- Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Apr., 1964 -- Carl Morris
Apr.-May, 1964 -- Paintings and Drawings by John Heliker
Oct.-Nov., 1964 -- Louis Bouché
Nov.-Dec., 1964 -- Karl Schrag
Dec., 1964 -- Kenneth Evett
Feb., 1965 -- Russell Cowles
Feb.-Mar., 1965 -- James Lechay
Mar.-Apr., 1965 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1965 -- Gifford Beal
Feb., 1966 -- Dennis Leon
Feb.-Mar., 1966 -- Henry Schnakenberg
Mar.-Apr., 1966 -- John Hartell
Apr., 1966 -- Elsie Manville
Oct., 1966 -- Contrasts - Early and Late Works by Selected Contemporaries
Oct.-Nov., 1966 -- Tom Hardy
Nov.-Dec., 1966 -- Francis Chapin
Dec., 1966-Jan., 1967 -- Karl Schrag: Etchings and Lithographs
Jan.-Feb., 1967 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb.-Mar., 1967 -- Carl Morris
Mar.-Apr., 1967 -- Ainslie Burke
Apr.-May, 1967 -- John Heliker: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors
May-June, 1967 -- William Glackens
Oct., 1967 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct.-Nov., 1967 -- John Laurent
Jan.-Feb., 1968 -- Dennis Leon
Feb.-Mar., 1968 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr., 1968 -- John Guerin
Apr.-May, 1968 -- Leon Goldin
Sept.-Oct., 1968 -- Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1968 -- Karl Schrag
Nov.-Dec., 1968 -- James Lechay: Portraits and Landscapes
Dec., 1968-Jan., 1969 -- Group Exhibition
Jan., 1969 -- Elsie Manville
Mar., 1969 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1969 -- James Penney
Sept.-Oct., 1969 -- New Works by Contemporary Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1969 -- John Hartell: Exhibition
Nov., 1969 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1969 -- Selected Examples by American Artists 1900-1930
Jan., 1970 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1970 -- Joe Lasker
Mar., 1970 -- Group Exhibition
Mar.-Apr., 1970 -- Dennis Leon
Apr.-May, 1970 -- Jerome Myers
Oct.-Nov., 1970 -- Tom Hardy
Jan.-Feb., 1971 -- Jane Wasey
Mar.-Apr., 1971 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct., 1971 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov.-Dec., 1971 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1972 -- John Koch
Mar.-Apr., 1972 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr.-May, 1972 -- Leon Goldin
May-June, 1972 -- Selected Works by 20th Century Americans
Sept.-Oct., 1972 -- Gallery Collection: American Watercolors and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1972 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1972 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1972 -- 20th Century Americans
Jan., 1973 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1973 -- Carl Morris
Mar., 1973 -- James Lechay
Mar.-Apr., 1973 -- Russell Cowles: Landscape Paintings
Apr.-May, 1973 -- Jerome Witkin
May-June, 1973 -- Kenneth Evett: Watercolors
Oct.-Nov., 1973 -- Kenneth Callahan
Jan., 1974 -- Joe Lasker
Jan.-Feb., 1974 -- Bernard Arnest
Feb.-Mar., 1974 -- Concetta Scaravaglione
Oct., 1974 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct.-Nov., 1974 -- James Penney
Jan., 1975 -- Tom Hardy
Jan.-Feb., 1975 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1975 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar.-Apr., 1975 -- William Kienbusch
Apr., 1975 -- Elsie Manville
Apr.-May, 1975 -- Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1975 -- John Hartell
Nov., 1975 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Mar., 1976 -- Jerome Witkin
May, 1976 -- Linda Sokolowski
Sept.-Oct., 1976 -- Joe Lasker, Illustrations from Merry Ever After
Oct., 1976 -- Leonard DeLonga
Nov.-Dec., 1976 -- Kenneth Callahan
Jan., 1977 -- James Lechay
Mar., 1977 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1977 -- David Cantine
Oct.-Nov., 1977 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1977 -- Ainslie Burke
Feb., 1978 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr., 1978 -- Elsie Manville
Oct., 1978 -- Tom Hardy
Oct.-Nov., 1978 -- Jerome Witkin
Jan.-Feb., 1979 -- Joe Lasker
Feb., 1979 -- Kenneth Evett
Feb.-Mar., 1979 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1979 -- Carl Morris
Apr.-May, 1979 -- Linda Sokolowski
Oct.-Nov., 1979 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Feb.-Mar., 1980 -- Kenneth Callahan
Mar., 1980 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct., 1980 -- John Hartell
Jan., 1981 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1981 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1981 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar.-Apr., 1981 -- Jerry Atkins
Apr.-May, 1981 -- Ben Frank Moss
Jan.-Feb., 1982 -- Jerome Witkin
Feb.-Mar., 1982 -- Elsie Manville
Mar.-Apr., 1982 -- Karl Schrag
Apr.-May, 1982 -- Linda Sokolowski
May-June, 1982 -- David Cantine
Sept.-Oct., 1982 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct.-Nov., 1982 -- Joe Lasker
Nov.-Dec., 1982 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Jan.-Feb., 1983 -- William Kienbusch: Memorial Exhibition
Feb.-Mar., 1983 -- Jerry Atkins
Mar.-Apr., 1983 -- John Hartell
Apr.-May, 1983 -- John Heliker
May-June, 1983 -- Kenneth Evett
Oct., 1983 -- Concetta Scaravaglione
Oct.-Nov., 1983 -- Ben Frank Moss
Nov.-Dec., 1983 -- Russell Cowles
Dec., 1983-Jan., 1984 -- 20th Century Americans
Jan.-Feb., 1984 -- Marguerite Zorach: Paintings at Home and Abroad
Feb.-Mar., 1984 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar., 1984 -- David Smalley
Apr., 1984 -- Carl Morris
May, 1984 -- Karl Schrag
July, 1984 -- Drawings by 20th Century Americans
July-Aug., 1984 -- Collages and Drawings by Joseph Heil
Aug.-Sept., 1984 -- Drawings and Prints by Tom Hardy
Sept.-Oct., 1984 -- James Penney: Memorial Exhibition
Oct.-Nov., 1984 -- Paintings and Drawings by Leon Goldin
Nov.-Dec., 1984 -- Isabelle Siegel
Dec., 1984-Jan., 1985 -- Group Exhibition: Contemporary American Paintings and Sculpture
Jan.-Feb., 1985 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1985 -- Ainslie Burke
Mar., 1985 -- Karen Breunig
Apr., 1985 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct., 1985 -- Elsie Manville
Oct.-Nov., 1985 -- William Glackens
Jan.-Feb., 1986 -- Linda Sokolowski
Feb.-Mar., 1986 -- Jerry Atkins
Apr.-May, 1986 -- Jane Wasey
Oct.-Nov., 1986 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1986 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1987 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1987 -- Ben Frank Moss
May-June, 1987 -- David Smalley
Oct.-Nov., 1987 -- Isabelle Siegel
Feb.-Mar., 1988 -- Karen Breunig
Mar.-Apr., 1988 -- Leon Goldin
Sept.-Oct., 1988 -- Elsie Manville
Oct.-Nov., 1988 -- James Lechay
Jan.-Feb., 1989 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1989 -- Linda Sokolowski
Jan.-Feb., 1990 -- Kenneth Callahan: Works of the Fifties
Jan.-Feb., 1990 -- Gifford Beal: Watercolors
Mar., 1990 -- Robert La Hotan: Recent Paintings
Mar.-Apr., 1990 -- Sonia Gechtoff: New Paintings
May-June, 1990 -- David Smalley: Recent Sculpture
May-June, 1990 -- Andrée Ruellan: Sixty Years of Drawing...
Oct., 1990 -- Isabelle Siegel
Nov., 1990 -- Leon Goldin
Jan.-Feb., 1991 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1991 -- Joe Lasker
Apr., 1991 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov.-Dec., 1991 -- Linda Sokolowski: Oils, Collages, Monotypes
Dec., 1991-Jan., 1992 -- Elsie Manville: Small Works on Paper
Mar., 1992 -- Tabitha Vevers
May-June, 1992 -- Sonia Gechtoff
Oct.-Nov., 1992 -- James Lechay
Nov.-Dec., 1992 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1993 -- Leon Goldin: Works on Paper
Apr.-May, 1993 -- Robert La Hotan
Oct., 1993 -- David Smalley: Sculpture Inside and Out
Oct., 1993 -- Andrée Ruellan: Works on Paper 1920-1980
Mar.-Apr., 1994 -- Kenneth Evett: Travels: Themes and Variations (Watercolors of Italy, Greece, Arizona, Maine and California)
Mar.-Apr., 1994 -- Tabitha Vevers
Oct.-Nov., 1994 -- Linda Sokolowski
Nov.-Dec., 1994 -- Karl Schrag
Jan.-Feb., 1995 -- Langdon Quin
Mar.-Apr., 1995 -- Robert La Hotan
Sept.-Oct., 1995 -- Sonia Gechtoff
Jan.-Feb., 1996 -- Elsie Manville: Paintings and Works on Paper
Oct.-Nov., 1996 -- Karl Schrag: A Self Portrait Retrospective, 1940-1995
Jan.-Feb., 1997 -- Joe Lasker: Paintings and Watercolors
Mar.-Apr., 1997 -- Tabitha Vevers
Oct.-Nov., 1997 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1998 -- Linda Sokolowski: Canyon Suite: Works from the Southwest
Mar.-Apr., 1998 -- Leon Goldin: Paintings on Paper
Sept.-Oct., 1998 -- Sonia Gechtoff: Mysteries in the Sphere
Oct.-Nov., 1998 -- Langdon Quin: Recent Paintings
Nov.-Dec., 1998 -- John Gill
Jan.-Feb., 1999 -- Robert La Hotan
Feb.-Mar., 1999 -- Ann Sperry: Where Is Your Heart
Nov.-Dec., 1999 -- Kathryn Wall
Jan.-Feb., 2000 -- Elsie Manville
Sept.-Oct., 2000 -- Joe Lasker
Oct.-Nov., 2000 -- James Lechay
Oct.-Nov., 2000 -- Tabitha Vevers
May-June, 2001 -- Kenneth Callahan: Drawings
Dec., 2001-Jan., 2002 -- Sur La Table: A Selection of Paintings and Works on Paper
Jan.-Feb., 2002 -- Karl Schrag: Theme and Variations II: The Meadow
undated, 2003 -- Ann Sperry
Jan.-Feb., 2003 -- Andrée Ruellan: Works on Paper from the 1920s and 1930s
Oct.-Nov., 2003 -- Joe Lasker: Muses and Amusements
Nov.-Dec., 2003 -- Tabitha Vevers
Mar.-Apr., 2004 -- Leon Goldin: Five Decades of Works on Paper
May-July, 2004 -- Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album
Jan.-Feb., 2005 -- John Gill: Ceramics
Sept.-Oct., 2005 -- Karl Schrag: The Painter of Bright Nights
Related Material:
An untranscribed oral history interview with Antoinette Kraushaar was conducted for the Archives of American Art by Avis Berman in 1982, and is available on five audio cassettes at the Archives' Washington D.C. research facility.
Separated Material:
In addition to the records described in this finding aid, the following materials were lent to the Archives for filming in 1956 and are available on microfilm reels NKR1-NKR3 and for interlibrary loan: a book of clippings from 1907 to 1930, primarily of exhibition reviews; loose clippings and catalogs of exhibitions from 1930 to 1946; and a group of photographs and clippings relating to George Luks and other artists. These materials were returned to Kraushaar Galleries after microfilming.
Provenance:
53.5 linear feet of records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Kraushaar Galleries in three separate accessions in 1959, 1994, and 1996. Katherine Kaplan of Kraushaar Galleries donated an additional 38.4 linear feet in 2008-2009.
Restrictions:
Use of originals requires an appointment. A fragile original scrapbook is closed to researchers.
Rights:
The Kraushaar Galleries records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce from the records requires written permission from: Katherine Kaplan, Kraushaar Galleries, 724 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019.
An interview of James Goodman conducted 2009 Sept. 10-16, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Goodman's home, in New York, N.Y.
Biographical / Historical:
James Goodman (1929- ) is an art dealer in New York, N.Y. Goodman established James Goodman Gallery in 1958 and is a founding member of the Art Dealers Association of America.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 48 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview was provided by the Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
An interview of Angela Westwater conducted 2006 July 18 and August 1, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at the Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York, N.Y.
Westwater speaks of traveling with family as a child; the art environment in Columbus, Ohio; studying art history at Smith College while majoring in government; her first job in the art field at John Weber Gallery in New York; working as an editor at Artforum with John Coplans; differing artistic philosophies of the early staff of Artforum; establishing Sperone Westwater Fischer Gallery with Gian Enzo Sperone in New York in collaboration with Konrad Fischer Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany; the gallery's aspiration to raise the profile of European artists in the United States; the importance of documenting the work of the gallery's artists for future archival reference and posterity; publishing catalogues and monographs; the process of moving the gallery from Greene Street 142 to its current location at 415 West 13th Street; competition between art dealers and auction houses; her involvement in the Art Dealers Association of America; her personal collecting preferences; the evolving role of the art critic in the contemporary art scene; and current and future levels of collaboration between art dealers and galleries. Westwater also recalls Phyllis Lehmann, Oliver Larkin, Mahonri Young, Carl Andre, Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Leo Castelli, Robert Rosenblum, Max Kazloff, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Richard Tuttle, Richard Long, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Angela Westwater (1942- ) is an art dealer from New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 43 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art's website.
An interview of Eugene V. Thaw conducted 2007 October 1-2, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art's Art Dealers Association of America Project, at Thaw's residence, in New York, N.Y.
Thaw speaks of his childhood in New York City; Mexican art in his home including watercolors by Diego Rivera; beginning classes at the Art Student's League of New York at age 14; attending St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland; attending Columbia University for graduate courses in art history and studying with Meyer Shapiro and Millard Meiss; an early interest in Old Master, Renaissance, and German Expressionist art; studying in Florence, Italy for four months after World War II; opening The New Bookstore and Gallery with friend Jack Landau above the Algonquin Hotel upon his return to New York City; giving Joan Mitchell and Conrad Marca-Relli their first shows; ending his partnership with Landau, closing the bookstore, and moving the gallery to Madison Avenue; becoming involved in the international art market; the practice of buying and selling works of art in shares with other dealers; showing American and European artists; renaming the gallery E.V. Thaw & Company; operating essentially as a one-man gallery with very limited staff; his relationship with museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art; his personal collections, including extensive ancient Eurasian artifacts and American Indian art; establishing the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the philanthropic vision of his own foundation, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust; his retirement from dealing; the "hand of the artist" in historical context and its lack of significance in contemporary art; and advice for young and emerging art dealers. Thaw also recalls Richard Offner, Evelyn Sandberg-Vavala, Norbert Ketterer, Günther Franka, Pierre Matisse, Leo Castelli, Julius Held, Theodore Rousseau, Lee Krasner, Norton Simon, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Eugene Thaw (1927- ) is an art dealer from New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 26 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) -- New York
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview provided by Art Dealers Association of America.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
An interview of Richard Gray conducted 2007 Dec. 9, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Carlyle Hotel, in New York, N.Y .
Gray speaks of being born in Chicago, Ill. and attending high school in Hyde Park; required coursework in art and music; his father's childhood in Poland; attending the University of Illinois in Chicago before transferring to the main campus in Champaign-Urbana; studying architecture but then becoming more interested in art; the influence of an early mentor; joining the air force and being stationed in France in the early 1950s; traveling throughout France, Spain, and Germany; visiting Barcelona to see Antoni Gaudí's architecture; returning to the United States, meeting his wife on a blind date, and marrying her within a year; being moved by the musical and artistic environment of his in-laws' home; owning a manufacturing business for 10 years; restructuring his father's summer resort in Michigan following his death; hosting music festivals and Harry Boris as artist-in-residence at the resort; following Boris's suggestion to open an art gallery in Chicago; his first art purchases from Allan Stone and André Emmerich in New York; his first gallery space off of Michigan Avenue on East Ontario Street in the same building as B.C. Holland and Noah Goldowsky; his second gallery space on Michigan Avenue; showing Color Field artists including Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, and Jules Olitski; dealers as collectors; seeing himself more as a collector than a dealer at this time in his life; his diverse collection of drawings spanning many time periods; his past practice of buying works of art in shares with other dealers; the competition between art dealers and auction houses; his belief in free-market opportunities; handling the sale of Willem de Kooning's Woman V; the gallery's representation of Jaume Plensa and David Klamen; the future direction of the gallery at both the Chicago and New York City locations; the changing market in international art; recently being designated a Living Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois; and his strong presence and activity in Chicago's cultural community. Gray also recalls André Emmerich, Andrew Fabricant, Paul Gray, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Gray (1928-2018) was an art dealer from Chicago, Ill. Interviewer James McElhinney is a painter and educator from New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Art dealers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Rosa Esman conducted 2009 June 9-16, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Esman's office, in New York, N.Y.
Biographical / Historical:
Rosa Esman (1927- ) is an art dealer and publisher who lives and works in New York, N.Y. She established Tanglewood Press and was the founder of the Rosa Esman Gallery. She currently works as an independent art dealer.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min..
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Publishers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview provided by Art Dealers Association of America.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
An interview of Rachel Adler conducted 2009 June 18-23, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Adler's home, in New York, New York.
Biographical / Historical:
Rachel Adler (1933- ) is an art dealer in New York, New York. Adler founded Rachel Adler Fine Art in 1973, which became Adler & Conkright Fine Art in 2003.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 54 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview was provided by the Art Dealers Association of America.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
An interview of Charles Anthony Byron-Patrikiades conducted February 15 and 25, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Byron-Patrikiades' home, in New York, New York.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Anthony Byron-Patrikiades (1918-2013) is a former art dealer in New York, New York, who founded the Byron Gallery in 1961. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a writer, artist, and educator in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 34 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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 administrators.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview was provided by the Art Dealers Association of America.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
The Bertha Schaefer papers and gallery records measure 4.6 linear feet and date from 1909-1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1940-1965. The collection documents the Bertha Schaefer Gallery as well as Bertha Schaefer, the interior designer, through correspondence with artists and galleries, artist files, client files, exhibition material, printed material, financial material, biographical material, photographs, and six scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The Bertha Schaefer papers and gallery records measure 4.6 linear feet and date from 1909-1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1940-1965. The collection documents the Bertha Schaefer Gallery as well as Bertha Schaefer, the interior designer, through correspondence with artists and galleries, artist files, client files, exhibition material, printed material, financial material, biographical material, photographs, and six scrapbooks. Also found here are oversized blue prints and sketched plans of interior design projects, as well as a number of oversized photographic prints and stereo slides. Correspondence contains handwritten notes by many notable artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Fernando Zobel, with a bulk of the letters from Balcomb Greene.
Separated into three series, the Bertha Schaefer Gallery records document the artists represented by and function of the Bertha Schaefer Gallery. The Bertha Schaefer papers pertain to Bertha Schaefer as an interior designer through a large number of photographic materials and client files. Six scrapbooks document artists Will Barnet, Ben-Zion, Balcomb Greene, and Nicolai Vasilieff, as well as the Bertha Schaefer gallery and the New Bertha Schaefer Gallery.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 3 series. Records are generally arranged by material type and chronologically thereafter.
Series 1: Bertha Schaefer Gallery Records, 1909-1971 (0.8 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Bertha Schaefer Papers, 1914-1971 (2.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-3, 6-7, OV 8-9)
Series 3: Scrapbooks, 1944-1975 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 3-5)
Biographical / Historical:
Bertha Schaefer (1895-1971) was an interior designer and director of the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York, New York. Schaefer was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi to Emil and Julia (Marx) Schaefer. She received her B.A. on June 1, 1914 from Mississippi State College for Women, and received a diploma for interior decorating from the Parsons School of Design in New York City. In 1924, after living in Paris for 5 months, she opened Bertha Schaefer Interiors in New York. In 1944, she opened the Bertha Schaefer Gallery of Contemporary Art, which featured American and European paintings and sculpture. "The Modern House Comes Alive" (1947-1948) is one of the key exhibitions she created. Schaefer designed furniture for Joe Singer of M. Singer and Sons Furniture Company in New York, 1950-1961.
Schaefer won design awards from the Museum of Modern Art (1952) and the Decorators Club of New York (1959). In 1958, she was given an award of recognition from the U.S. Department of State for her gallery's assistance in the American program for the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, and an outstanding achievement in interior design award from the American Institute of Interior Designers. She was a member of several design organizations, including: the American Institute of Decorators, the Home Lighting Forum, the Illuminating Engineers Society, the American Federation of the Arts, and the Art Dealers Association of America. She was the president of the Decorators Club of New York from 1947-1948 and 1955-1957.
Schaefer was one of the first people to use fluorescent lighting in domestic spaces, with Percy Block as her first client, in 1939. In honor of Edison's birthday in 1953, she designed a bathroom for General Electric, applying new developments in lighting. She died on May 24, 1971, after which the gallery was renamed the New Bertha Schaefer Gallery.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Bertha Schaefer conducted by Paul Cummings, April 20-22, 1970.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming. Reel N69-115 is comprised of papers concerning Alfred H. Maurer, including a scrapbook about Maurer from 1946 to 1969. Reel N70-60 contains material concerning Hale Woodruff, including correspondence, sketches and drawings, articles, photographs, catalogs, announcements, clipping, notes kept while a student of Diego Rivera, and a scrapbook. Lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Bertha Schaefer papers and gallery records were donated in several installments from 1969 to 1974 by Bertha Schaefer and Bertha Schaefer Gallery Inc. She also loaned material for microfilming in 1970. Paul Creamer donated three scrapbooks from the Bertha Schaefer Gallery and the New Bertha Schaefer Gallery in 1979. Additional material was donated in 1984 by Syracuse University.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Bertha Schaefer papers and gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The collection comprises 29 linear feet of records that document the day-to-day administration of the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery from 1962 to 1991, with additional items predating the founding of the gallery from 1851 to 1961. The collection records artist and client relations, exhibitions, and daily business transactions through artist files, correspondence, printed matter, and photographic material.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery comprise 29 linear feet of material from 1851 to 1991, with some items predating the founding of the gallery. The bulk of the records date from 1962 to 1991, providing researchers with fairly comprehensive coverage of the gallery's development and operations from its inception in 1962 until its closure in 1991. Items dated prior to 1962 relate principally to the period of transition during which Robert Schoelkopf ended his partnership with the Zabriskie Gallery and established his own business. There are also some items relating to artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The collection consists primarily of artist files documenting relations with contemporary artists, representation of deceased artists, and other works of art handled by the gallery. It also chronicles the gallery's exhibition schedule and the day-to-day administration of the business. The types of material that can be found here include correspondence, exhibition inventories, price lists, accounting and consignment records, shipping and insurance records, printed material, and photographs.
The collection is a valuable source of information on twentieth-century American art history, focusing primarily on early-twentieth-century modernists as well as an important group of American realist painters and sculptors from the latter half of the century. The collection illuminates, in detail, the developing market for these schools and, in the case of the latter group, provides personal insights from artists on the realist perspective.
The records also document the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery's significant contribution to the resurgence of interest in fine art photography during the 1960s and 1970s as reflected in an increase in the value of works by important American photographers such as Walker Evans.
Much of the outgoing correspondence from the gallery consists of copies of letters written by Robert Schoelkopf, with additional business being handled by assistant staff and, from the mid-1970s, Schoelkopf's wife, Laura Jane Schoelkopf. The records offer insight into the personalities of the Schoelkopfs and how their congenial and candid management style influenced their relationships with the contemporary artists they represented.
Arrangement:
Originally the collection was organized as one large file arranged alphabetically by folder title, with titles ranging from names of artists to general subject headings such as "Correspondence." During processing it became clear that the gallery delineated operations into three main functions: artist relations, client-dealer relations, and exhibitions. Consequently the collection is arranged as three main series based on these areas of concern. A small group of miscellaneous photographs of artists constitutes an additional series at the end of the collection.
Originally paper records throughout the collection were generally arranged chronologically, although this order was not strictly adhered to. Frequently, correspondence and memoranda were attached to related records going back several years. To preserve the relationship between such documents, records stapled together in this way have been left together. They are arranged in reverse chronological order and filed in the folder corresponding to the primary date (i.e., the date of the first and most recent paper in the group). Researchers should be aware that date ranges provided on folders refer to the primary dates of documents contained therein and that some items in the folder may predate that range. Otherwise, the general chronological scheme has been retained throughout the collection, with undated material placed at the beginning of the appropriate file.
Printed material is arranged in chronological order, with undated material at the beginning of the folder, and may include press releases, exhibition announcements, exhibition catalogs, posters, clippings from newspapers, magazines, and journals, and other publicity material. Large amounts of printed material are broken down into several discrete folder units.
The most consistent labeling system for photographic material apparent throughout the collection was title of work of art. The majority of images are not dated with a printing date or the date that the work of art was produced, and although many of them have a processing number, these are by no means consistent and there are no master lists that can be used to interpret them. Consequently, images are arranged primarily by media type and then alphabetically by title. Untitled images are placed at the beginning of a media group; "the" in a title is ignored. Exceptions to this method are addressed in the appropriate series descriptions.
Files labeled "Photographs of Works of Art" will typically include any or all of the following: black-and-white copy prints, black-and-white transparencies, color transparencies, slide transparencies, Polaroid prints, color snapshots, contact sheets, and separation sheets. Often the same image will be duplicated in several different formats. Any notes on photographic material found in or on the original folder in which the material was filed have been preserved with the material or transcribed onto a sheet of acid-free paper that either encloses or is placed directly before the item to which the information applies.
The designation "General" indicates that a file may contain any or all of the types of material outlined above.
Series 1: Artist Files, 1851-1991, undated (Boxes 1-23; 23 linear ft.)
Series 2: General Business Files, 1960-1991, undated (Boxes 24-28; 4.74 linear ft.)
Series 3: Group Exhibition Files, 1960-1988, undated (Boxes 28-29; 1 linear ft.)
Series 4: Photographs of Artists, undated (Box 29; 0.25 linear ft.)
Historical Note:
Robert Schoelkopf, Jr., was born in Queens, New York, in 1927. He graduated from Yale College in 1951 with a bachelor of arts degree and then taught briefly at his alma mater while conducting graduate research in art history. Schoelkopf began his career in commercial art in 1957 as an independent dealer of American painting and sculpture and became a member of the Art Dealers Association of America in 1958. In 1959 he formed a partnership with Virginia Zabriskie, of the Zabriskie Gallery in New York, which lasted until 1962. The gallery exhibited late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century American painting, together with contemporary painting of a somewhat conservative style.
In 1962 Schoelkopf signed a three-year lease for the fourth floor of a building at 825 Madison Avenue in New York, where he opened the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery. From the outset, Schoelkopf aimed to specialize in American painting of the nineteenth and twentieth century and sculpture of all schools. He predicted a burgeoning market for the Hudson River School in particular, believing that American painting was increasingly perceived as being worthy of serious attention. In a letter dated January 3, 1963, Schoelkopf congratulated John Spencer for his decision to collect nineteenth-century American paintings for the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, assuring him that "progressive chauvanism [ sic] will operate to elevate prices in American painting. Every year more colleges teach Art History, and soon they shall have reached the level of sophistication and development where they will be obliged (for face) to offer tuition in specifically American art - hitherto neglected of academicians.... I and many other dealers have plans for exhibitions of nineteenth-century American painting, especially the Hudson River School."
Schoelkopf's instincts regarding the Hudson River School were undoubtedly correct, and consequently nineteenth-century American painters formed a permanent mainstay of his inventory. He is perhaps remembered more, however, for his dedication to reviving interest in lesser-known American painters from the turn-of-the-century who were impressionist or modernist in style. Schoelkopf developed something of a reputation for unearthing forgotten talent that, while sometimes mediocre or inconsistent, was occasionally exceptional and certainly worthy of note. He was committed to reinstalling Joseph Stella in the pantheon of major American artists, representing Stella's estate from 1963 to 1971 and holding regular exhibitions of the artist's work from 1962 on. In 1969 the gallery held the first New York exhibition of the paintings of Manierre Dawson, who was subsequently acclaimed by the critics for his important and innovative contributions to modernism. In 1970 Schoelkopf began showing the work of Jan Matulka, an artist whose work had been neglected since the 1930s, and his enthusiastic representation of the Matulka estate paved the way for a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1979.
Schoelkopf's interest in turn-of-the-century artists also extended to sculptors such as John Flannagan, Ethel Myers, Elie Nadelman, and John Henry Bradley Storrs, and he directed considerable energy to furthering Gaston Lachaise's reputation as an artist of major stature. When Lachaise died at the peak of his career in 1935, his estate was left to his wife, Isabel, and in 1957 to Isabel's son, Edward. When Edward died shortly thereafter, John B. Pierce, Jr., a nephew of Isabel Lachaise, was appointed trustee of the estate and formed the Lachaise Foundation. In 1962 Pierce entered an agreement with Robert Schoelkopf and Felix Landau to represent Lachaise's sculpture on the East and West Coasts, respectively. In this capacity Schoelkopf helped to launch a major retrospective of the artist's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1964 and a traveling exhibition that began circulating in 1967.
The gallery's other major commitment was to painting and sculpture by contemporary American realists, many of whom worked in a figurative style and explored elements of allegory and classical mythology in their work, presenting landscapes, still lifes, and portraits from a realist perspective. The bulk of the gallery's exhibitions were, in fact, of work by contemporary artists, including metaphysical still-life painter William Bailey, colorist Leland Bell, figurative painter Martha Mayer Erlebacher, landscape and narrative painter Gabriel Laderman, and Icelandic artist Louisa Matthiasdottir. William Bailey was one of the gallery's most commercially successful artists, and his first one-person exhibition in New York was held there in 1968. Demand for Bailey's paintings often far exceeded his output, and by the late 1970s Schoelkopf invariably sold out his exhibitions and had compiled a lengthy waiting list for his work.
In its early years the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery contributed considerably to the development of interest in fine art photography that fostered an increasingly lucrative market for photographic prints during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1965 Schoelkopf began incorporating photography into the gallery's exhibition schedule and, in the spring of 1974, opened a gallery dedicated to photography on the second floor at 825 Madison Avenue. Between 1965 and 1979 Schoelkopf's was the only serious New York gallery dealing in painting and sculpture that also regularly exhibited photography as fine art. His interests lay primarily in antiquarian photography and the work of nineteenth-century and twentieth-century masters including Eugéne Atget, Mathew Brady, James Robertson, and Carleton Watkins. Schoelkopf organized shows examining specific photographic processes, the photogravure and the cyanotype, and presented surveys of genres such as portrait and landscape photography. In 1967 he held the first exhibition in many years of the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, an important figure in the history of Victorian photography, timing it to coincide with a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that focused on Cameron as one of four Victorian photographers.
Schoelkopf also handled the work of several influential contemporaries, most notably Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Gisèle Freund. The gallery held Freund's first exhibition in the United States in 1975 and was, for a time, the only place in New York where one could see and purchase prints by Cartier-Bresson. Schoelkopf began exhibiting Evans's work in 1966 and regularly thereafter, including a 1971 exhibition that coincided with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.
In the fall of 1976 the second-floor gallery space was turned over to Marcuse (Cusie) Pfeifer, then the gallery's director, who planned to use it to show the work of young photographers in a gallery under her own name. Schoelkopf continued to hold several photography exhibitions a year in the fourth-floor gallery but decided to concentrate primarily on nineteenth-century masters.
In March 1971 a fire in the building at Madison Avenue resulted in substantial water damage to the gallery space. Although very little of the inventory was destroyed, the incident forced Schoelkopf to close until September. This temporary loss of revenue compounded with a nationwide recession cut into Schoelkopf's financial resources and left him questioning his commission policy and his level of commitment to contemporary work in all media. A letter to artist Adolph Rosenblatt dated May 3, 1971, records how Schoelkopf had become increasingly disenchanted with "all contemporary work" and would begin taking 40 percent commission on sales, instead of 33.3 percent. "Beside the matter of enthusiasm is the matter of economics," Schoelkopf remarked, "and the last year and a half have been really dreadful for the art business."
This difficult period was followed immediately by more prosperous times. January 1973 proved to be the gallery's most successful month to date, encouraging Schoelkopf to purchase a house in Chappaqua, New York, later that year. In November 1974 Schoelkopf wrote to Anthony D'Offay that business "is as slow as it has ever been, but what sales we make are big ones" and revealed that auctions had, at that point, become his primary avenue for trade.
Around 1975 Schoelkopf's wife of eleven years, Laura Jane Schoelkopf, began working in the gallery. Although seemingly dubious of the work at first, she became a considerable asset to the business and reputedly complemented her husband's relationship with the gallery's contemporary artists through her warmth and hospitality, qualities often noted by artists who corresponded regularly with the couple.
The financial instability that characterized the 1970s undoubtedly influenced Schoelkopf's decision to cease exhibiting photography in 1979. By 1978 however, his investment in early-twentieth-century art appeared to be paying off. Jan Matulka, Joseph Stella, and John Henry Bradley Storrs had all been represented in exhibitions at major museums, and sales of their work had increased considerably. Gaston Lachaise's reputation continued to grow, and the traveling exhibition still circulated, garnering far more interest than had originally been anticipated.
Although contemporary artists continued to take up the largest portion of the gallery's changing exhibitions, Schoelkopf's interest in contemporary work was growing more conservative, tending toward a narrower focus on the narrative and allegorical. By 1979 he no longer exhibited contemporary sculpture, admitting to a lack of enthusiasm for the work of any of the current figurative sculptors and a dislike of all contemporary abstract work. In a letter to Lillian Delevoryas, dated March 17, 1982, he confessed, "With age has come a hardening of the aesthetic arteries perhaps. What we have been showing is realism, but getting tighter all the time."
In April 1984 the gallery was moved to 50 West Fifty-seventh Street, and, during the years that followed, the Schoelkopfs pared down the number of contemporary artists they represented, handling only those to whom they felt most strongly committed while continuing to specialize in nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century American painting and sculpture. As the gallery approached its thirtieth anniversary, Schoelkopf's achievements were considerable. He had operated a successful New York gallery for almost three decades, rejuvenated the reputations of several important American artists, and was respected by artists and clients alike for the integrity, intelligence, and humor with which he conducted his business affairs. In 1987 he had been appointed to the board of trustees of the Williamstown Regional Art Conservation Laboratory. By this time he was also a member of the advisory board to the National Academy of Design, and in 1988 he became a co-trustee of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.
In March 1990, Robert Schoelkopf was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent a regimen of cancer treatment that resulted in a brief remission by the summer. Schoelkopf returned to work temporarily, but by 1991 his condition had worsened and he died in April of that year. Having known for some time that her husband's prognosis was poor, Laura Jane Schoelkopf had apparently decided that she would not continue the gallery in the event of his death. With the help of the youngest of their two sons, Andrew, she settled final accounts and assisted the gallery's contemporary artists in finding representation elsewhere before closing the business in August 1991.
Provenance:
Twenty-seven linear feet of records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Laura Jane Schoelkopf, Robert Schoelkopf's widow, and the Coe Kerr Gallery in 1991 and 1992. An additional gift of 3.4 linear feet was donated by Laura Jane Schoelkopf in 1996. The collection was reduced slightly during processing.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Robert Schoelkopf Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The papers of art historian, writer, and educator Millard Meiss measure 11.4 linear feet and date from circa 1918 to circa 1977, with the bulk of the material dating from 1950 to 1975. The papers are comprised of biographical material, correspondence, writing projects and lectures, and professional files that document his post World War II work as chairman of the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, among other work.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian, writer, and educator Millard Meiss measure 11.4 linear feet and date from circa 1918 to circa 1977, with the bulk of the material dating from 1950 to 1975. The papers are comprised of biographical material, correspondence, writing projects and lectures, and professional files that document his post World War II work as chairman of the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, among other work.
Biographical material includes various awards and honorary degrees received; a bibliography of published and unpublished books, articles, essays, and editing projects by Meiss; memorial materials and obituaries for Meiss as well as for Dora and Erwin Panofsky (to whom he was close); and resumes and education materials among other files.
Correspondence is predominantly professional in nature and is with colleagues, peers, museums, and institutions. Some correspondents include Ernst Gombrich, Irving Lavin, Carl Nordenfalk, and Erwin Panofsky, among many others.
Writing project and lecture files document Meiss's work on numerous published and unpublished articles and book projects, and lectures. Books include The Boucicaut Hours, De Artibud Opscula XL: Essays on Erwin Panofsky, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry, and Painting in Florence and Siena, among many other works. Files contain manuscripts, notes, book proposals, reviews, correspondence, and clippings.
Professional files document the many committees, institutions, and organizations in which Meiss was involved, including the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, Committee to Rescue Italian Art, and International Committee of the History of Art. Also included are general files on The Art Bulletin, College Art Association, Institute for Advanced Study, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Princeton University, among others.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 4 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1918-circa 1977 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1936-circa 1977 (4.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-5)
Series 3: Writings Projects and Lectures, circa 1934-circa 1975 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 5-8)
Series 4: Professional Files, circa 1933-circa 1975 (4.4 linear feet; Boxes 8-12)
Biographical / Historical:
Millard Meiss (1904-1975) was an art historian and educator whose expertise was medieval and Renaissance art. He taught at Columbia University and Princeton, and was a curator at the Fogg Museum for four years. Following World War II, Meiss served as chairman of the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments until 1951.
Millard Meiss received a B. A. from Princeton University in 1926, and a Ph. D. from New York University in 1933. He was a professor of fine arts and archaeology at Columbia University from 1934-1953. In 1954, Meiss accepted the position of professor of fine arts and curator of paintings at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In 1958, he returned to Princeton, New Jersey to become professor of art history at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he remained for the rest of his career.
While at Columbia University, Meiss acted as editor-in-chief of The Art Bulletin, and also stayed on the editorial board for the next thirty-three years until his death in 1975. Throughout his career, Meiss edited several leading art journals, and wrote numerous articles and books on medieval and Renaissance painting, including Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (1951), and his multi-volume French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry (1967-1974), as well as many others.
In addition to serving as chairman of the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments after World War II, Meiss organized the Committee to Rescue Italian Art in 1966 after the flood of the Arno River in Italy. He worked to help organize the first meeting in the United States of the International Congress of the History of Art and served as president and vice-president. He was actively involved in the College Art Association of America.
Meiss was a member of many arts and scholarly organizations in Europe and the United States including the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Accademia Senese degli Intronati, Accademia Clementina, Accademia Toscana Colombaria, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, American Philosophical Society, British Academy, and the Société des Antiquaires de France. In addition, he was a Fellow of the Mediaeval Academy of America and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Meiss was also the recipient of many awards, including the Wanamaker English Prize, 1925; Haskins Medal from the Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953; Lewis Prize from the American Philosophical Society, 1967; Morey Award from the College Art Association of America, 1969, and posthumously in 1976; and the Art Dealers Association of America Award, 1974.
Provenance:
The Millard Meiss papers were donated to the archives in 1976 and 1986 by Meiss's widow Margaret L. Meiss.
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 Millard Meiss papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New Jersey -- Princeton Search this
