The papers of Miami art critic Helen Kohen date from 1978 through 1996 and contain letters, postcards, exhibition announcements and invitations, and seventy-four untranscribed interviews of artists, dealers, and collectors in the Miami area.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of art historian and critic Helen L. Kohen measure one linear foot and date from 1976 through 1996. They consist primarily of letters, postcards, exhibition announcements and invitations from artists in the Miami area. Also found are eighty-two mini cassette tapes of seventy-four interviews Kohen conducted with art dealers, collectors, contemporary artists, and others in the Miami area as research and background for her newspaper column and other articles
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into five series:
Series 1: Correspondence, 1954, 1984-1993, undated (Box 1, 10 folders)
Series 2: Printed Material, 1979-1996, undated (Box 1, 3 folders)
Series 3: Photographs, 1969, 1974, 1980-1994 (Box 1, 1 folder)
Series 4: Miscellany, 1983-1992, undated (Box 1 , 1 folder)
Series 5: Taped Interviews, 1986-1996, undated (Box 1, 1 folder and 82 micro-cassettes)
Biographical Note:
Art historian and critic Helen L. Kohen has authored numerous articles on contemporary art focusing on the formation of the art culture in Miami since the early 1980s. Helen L. Kohen is art critic emeritus for the The Miami Herald newspaper in Miami, Florida.
Provenance:
Helen L. Kohen donated her papers to the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in 1997.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers or curator and writer John Caldwell measure 1.7 linear feet and date circa 1909 to 1996. The collection documents Caldwell's life and career through a variety of materials, such as biographical material including legal papers relating to the Caldwell Estate, letters from friends and colleagues, writings by Caldwell such as a draft version of a speech and draft essays, printed material including articles written by Caldwell for the New York Times, photographs of Caldwell, family members, dealers, donors, and artists, as well as a video recording documenting the 1985 Carnegie International.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers or curator and writer John Caldwell measure 1.7 linear feet and date circa 1909 to 1996. The collection documents Caldwell's life and career through a variety of materials, such as biographical material including legal papers relating to the Caldwell Estate, letters from friends and colleagues, writings by Caldwell such as a draft version of a speech and draft essays, printed material including articles written by Caldwell for the New York Times, photographs of Caldwell, family members, dealers, donors, and artists, as well as a video recording documenting the 1985 Carnegie International.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1909-1996, undated (Box 1, OV 4; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Letters, 1970-1994, undated (Box 1, OV 4; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1983-1992, undated (Box 2; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1977-1996, undated (Box 2, OV 4; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1941-1993, undated (Box 3; 2 folders)
Series 6: Video Recording, 1985 (Box 3; 1 folder)
Biographical Note:
John Caldwell (1941-1993) was a curator and art critic in New York, NY, Pittsburg, PA, and San Francisco, CA. He was born on November 16, 1941 in Nashville, Tennessee. He received a bachelor's degree in modern French history from Harvard University in 1963 and his master's degree in art history from Hunter College, New York, NY, in 1973. While studying at Hunter, Caldwell also served as associate editor at the New-York Historical Society (1967-1973). From 1973 to 1976, Caldwell pursued a doctorate in eighteenth and nineteenth century American art history at Yale University and worked as an assistant to the curator of American art at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT.
In 1975, Caldwell won an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art; in 1977, he was appointed assistant curator of American art at the museum. From 1980 to 1984, Caldwell served as art critic for the suburban weekly sections of the New York Times. During this period, Caldwell's interest in contemporary art grew. In 1984, Caldwell accepted a position as adjunct curator of contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. A year later he was promoted to curator of contemporary art at the museum, a position that he held until 1989. Both Caldwell and John R. Lane, the director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, infused new energy into the 1985 Carnegie International, a triennial exhibition, that brought together many contemporary American and European works of art. Caldwell also spearheaded the 1988 Carnegie International and was the only curator in the history of the museum to have organized two consecutive Internationals. During his tenure at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Caldwell organized solo exhibitions on artists that included Susan Rothenberg (1984), Sean Scully (1985), and Richard Deacon (1988).
In 1989, two years after John R. Lane was appointed director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Caldwell joined his former colleague and served as the first curator of painting and sculpture for the museum. At SFMoMA, Caldwell organized retrospective exhibitions on artists that included Sigmar Polke (1990-91), Luciano Fabro (1992), and Jeff Koons (1992-1993). He also curated one person shows of new works by artists that included Matthew Barney (1991), Sherrie Levine (1991), and Susana Solana (1991).
Caldwell died in 1993 at the age of 51 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Provenance:
The papers were donated in 2002 by Joan Witek, executrix of the John Caldwell estate.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requres advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Curators -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Authors -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Recorded talks and lectures include those held at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Museum of Modern Art, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Florida. Included is a panel discussion that was held in conjunction with a group exhibition featuring Richard Artschwager's work at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, Netherlands; also included are the museum's interviews with the artists, including Artschwager, Steve Ginakos, Peter Saul, and John Tweedle.
Talks by others consists of a panel discussion moderated by Judy Dobrzynski between art critics Michael Kimmelman and Peter Schjeldahl and artists Alex Katz and Elizabeth Murray.
Arrangement:
Talks and lectures are arranged in chronological order.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original material requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Richard Artschwager papers, 1959-2013. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
