Recordings of an interdisciplinary conference co-sponsored by Humanities West and the Archives of American Art, held in San Francisco, California, 1985 March 29-31, at the Asian Art Museum. The participants speak about the environment for the arts in Los Angeles during the 1940s. They include: architectural historian Reyner Banham, actor Claudia Barr, columnist Digby Diehl, art historian Susan Ehrlich, writer William Fadiman, actor Hal Haswell, coordinator Paul Karlstrom, professor Edward Kaufmann, actor Douglas Leach, choreographer Bella Lewitzky, architectural historian Esther McCoy, music historian Michael Meyer, dancer Iris Pell, film critic Robert Rosen, historian Kevin Starr, and music historians Leonard Stein and Michael Steinberg.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes.
Provenance:
Donated 1985 by Humanities West.
Collection Restrictions:
Use requires an appointment.
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
Arts -- California -- Los Angeles -- History Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of these recordings was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
An interview of John Berggruen conducted 2008 January 28-29, by Lynn Robert Matteson, for the Archives of American Art, at the John Berggruen Gallery, in San Francisco, California.
Biographical / Historical:
John Berggruen (1943-) is an art dealer from San Francisco, California. Lynn Robert Matteson (1939-) is an art historian from Santa Barbara, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 50 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:
This interview is access restricted; written permission is required. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
The papers of African American art historian Judith Wilson measure 11.2 linear feet and 27.94 GB and date from 1966 to 2010. Wilson's career is documented through correspondence with friends, colleagues, artists, universities, and art organizations; notebooks; files on writing projects, conferences, lectures, symposia and other professional activities; and a small amount of printed material. Also found is research material on artist Bob Thompson, including photographs, printed material, correspondence, notebooks and a documentary video recording. Additionally, the collection includes sound recordings of 71 interviews of artists and art collectors and six video recordings. Some of the materials are in digital format.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian Judith Wilson measure 11.2 linear feet and 27.94 GB and date from 1966 to 2010. Wilson's career is documented through correspondence with friends, colleagues, artists, universities, and art organizations; notebooks; files on writing projects, conferences, lectures, symposia and other professional activities; and a small amount of printed material. Also found is research material on artist Bob Thompson, including photographs, printed material, correspondence, notebooks and a documentary video recording. Additionally, the collection includes sound recordings of 71 interviews of artists and art collectors and six video recordings. Some of the materials are in digital format.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1975-2009 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 2: Notebooks, 1977-2008 (1.7 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 3: Writing Projects, 1972-2010 (1.7 linear feet; Boxes 4-5)
Series 4: Conferences, Lectures, and Symposia, 1978-2009 (2.0 linear feet; Boxes 5-7, 17.11 GB; ER01-ER05)
Series 5: Professional Records, 1979-2009 (1.0 linear foot; Boxes 7-9)
Series 6: Research Material on Bob Thompson, 1966-2006 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 8-10, 1.70 GB; ER06-ER07)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1981-2010 (0.5 linear feet; Box 10)
Series 8: Interviews, 1978-2008 (1.0 linear foot; Boxes 11-12, 0.697 GB; ER08-ER09)
Series 9: Video Recordings, 1979-2007 (4 folders; Box 12, 8.42 GB; ER10-ER15)
Biographical / Historical:
Judith Wilson (1952- ) is an African American art historian in San Francisco, California. Wilson began her career as an editor for Ms. Magazine in 1975. In 1979 she wrote a profile of Alma Thomas for that magazine, after which she began writing regularly about visual art and cultural politics, reviewing exhibitions, writing feature articles, and serving as guest editor for several publications. Her research interests included African American art and black visual culture. She received her Ph.D. in art history from Yale University with a dissertation on the artist Bob Thompson. Her teaching career included full-time positions in art history at University of Virginia, Yale, and the University of California, Irvine, as well as part-time and visiting professorships at several other schools. In 2006 she retired from the University of California, Irvine after eight years. During her career Wilson served on editorial and advisory boards for art publications and wrote many catalog essays, contributed to anthologies, and presented numerous conference papers, many of which were later published.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2012 by Judith Wilson-Pates.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Office. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
"Bob Thompson Happening" (1965) video: Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Joanne Elkin. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- California -- San Francisco Search this
United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Section of Fine Arts Search this
Citation:
A survey of art work in the city and county of San Francisco, / by Martin Snipper for the art commission, city and county of San Francisco, 1950. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Federal aid to the arts -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Art and state -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Mural painting and decoration, American Search this
Public sculpture -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Ain't misbehavin' [videorecording] : the Coit Tower murals / New Pacific Productions ; producers, David Bolt, John Esterle, and Sue Ellen McCann ; director, David Bolt ; writer, John Esterle ; art director, Sue Ellen McCann ; narrator, Bruce Holbert, c1986
Ain't misbehavin' [videorecording] : the Coit Tower murals / New Pacific Productions ; producers, David Bolt, John Esterle, and Sue Ellen McCann ; director, David Bolt ; writer, John Esterle ; art director, Sue Ellen McCann ; narrator, Bruce Holbert, c1986. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Coit Memorial Tower (San Francisco, Calif.) Search this
Mural painting and decoration -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Mural painting and decoration, American -- California -- San Francisco Search this
The papers of artist, collector, librarian, and scholar Kate Steinitz measure 4.3 linear feet and date from circa 1910 to 2002. The collection documents Steinitz's life and career in Germany and the United States through biographical material; correspondence; writings, including manuscripts and travel diaries; exhibition files; personal business records; printed material; travel scrapbooks; artwork; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist, collector, librarian, and scholar Kate Steinitz measure 4.3 linear feet and date from circa 1910 to 2002. The collection documents Steinitz's life and career in Germany and the United States through biographical material; correspondence; writings, including manuscripts and travel diaries; exhibition files; personal business records; printed material; travel scrapbooks; artwork; and photographs.
Biographical material consists of life and travel documents, various membership cards, news clippings, and memorial cards. Also included are letters of recommendation, a resume, and an award from the president of Germany.
Correspondence is with friends, family, colleagues, and various organizations. Artists represented include Carrie van Biema, El Lissitzky, Piet Mondrian, and others. Correspondence with arts organizations include San Francisco Museum of Art, Berlinische Galerie, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, and others.
Published writings by Steinitz include articles, books, and book reviews. Unpublished writings include two travel diaries and an illustrated journal, an autobiographical essay with a sketch of the Traumann family tree, manuscripts, lectures, poems, and notes. Writings by others include a guest register with sketches and comments by visitors, a memorial speech, biographical essays, and miscellaneous notes.
Steinitz's professional activities during her career as a librarian and curator of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana are documented through published articles and books, informal reports, correspondence, scrapbooks, sketches, and photographs.
Files pertaining to exhibitions of Steinitz's artwork and collection are documented through three exhibition catalogs, correspondence, inventories, photographs, and printed ephemera. Materials related to the Schwitters-Steinitz Collection, which was compiled by Steinitz and is available at the National Gallery of Art Library in Washington, D.C., include a finding aid and photocopies documenting the exhibition Collaborative Works by Kate Steinitz and Kurt Schwitters from the Schwitters-Steinitz Collection (1994).
Personal business records include an appraisal of Steinitz's art and book collection. Documents pertaining to Steinitz's publishing activities include sales agreements and legal services rendered for the book Kurt Schwitters: A Portrait from Life (1968) written by Steinitz and contracts with Whitman Publishing Company for a children's book by Tom Seidmann-Freud.
Printed material consists of published illustrations and stationary by Steinitz; clippings about Steinitz, Kurt Schwitters, and others; reproductions of artwork; and miscellaneous invitations and announcements. Also found are three children's books written and illustrated by Tom Seidmann-Freud and a book of poems with an illustrated book jacket by Joachin Ringelnatz.
Steinitz's personal and professional trips to Europe are documented through six travel scrapbooks which include sketches, photographs, notes, and printed ephemera such as postcards, receipts, and maps.
Artwork by Steinitz consists of travel sketches and a mock-up sketch for the book Manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci: Their History, With a Description of the Manuscript Editions in Facsimile (1948). Artwork by others includes miscellaneous sketches, prints, and paintings. Of note are greeting cards with prints by Werner Graeff and a collage by Otto Nebel.
Photographs and negatives consist of portraits and snapshots of Steinitz as well as family, friends, and artists. Photographs by Steinitz include a self-portrait and images of artists, artwork, and Bauhaus architecture. Photographs of Steinitz's apartments in Los Angeles include images of a Man Ray table that was given to Jake Zeitlin. Artists represented include Piet Mondrian, Naum Gabo, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Höch, El Lissitzky, Marc Chagall, George Grosz, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1915-1976 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1922-1998 (Boxes 1-2; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1921-2002 (Box 2; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 4: Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana, 1948-1989 (Boxes 2-3; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1939-2001 (Box 3; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1938-1993 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1913-2002 (Boxes 3-5; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 8: Travel Scrapbooks, 1966-1974 (Box 4; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1928-1974 ( Boxes 4-5; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1910-1979 (Boxes 4-5; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Kate Steinitz (1889-1975) was an artist, collector, librarian, and scholar who worked in Berlin and Hanover, Germany and Los Angeles, California. Steinitz was born in Beuthen, Silesia, Germany, (now Poland) to Arnold and Magdelena Traumann; the family relocated to Berlin in 1899. From 1908 to 1911, Steinitz studied drawing and painting under Käthe Kollwitz and Lovis Corinth and attended lectures by art historian, Heinrich Wölfflin. While visiting Paris with her mother in 1912, Steinitz continued her studies at the Sorbonne and Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
Steinitz married physician, Ernst Steinitz in 1913. The couple had three daughters including Ilse, Lotti, and Beate. In 1917, the family moved to Hanover, Germany. Over the next 17 years, the Steinitz household served as a salon for visiting artists including Naum Gabo, Hannah Höch, El Lissitzky, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Visitors' notes and drawings from this era are documented in Steinitz's guestbook, Zu Gast bei Kate Steinitz, published by Galerie Gmurzynska in 1977.
Steinitz was most active as a fine artist while living in Hanover. Her paintings under glass were first exhibited in 1921 at Herbert von Garvens' gallery. Steinitz had her first solo exhibition in 1922 at the Gurlitt Gallery in Berlin. In 1926, her work was included in the International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
Steinitz also collected art and her collection included artworks by El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Auguste Rodin, Otto Nebel, Franz Marc, and others. In 1925, she collaborated with German artist Kurt Schwitters and Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg on Die Scheuche Märchen, a typographic children's book published by Aposs and Merz Verlag. Steinitz and Schwitters also collaborated on Der Zusammenstoss, an opera libretto. Steinitz compiled an archival collection documenting Schwitters' life and career which was later acquired by the National Gallery of Art Library in Washington, D.C. in 1976.
As a journalist, Steinitz wrote about art and lifestyle topics for newspapers and magazines in Hanover and Berlin. Growing Nazi influences caused the family to leave Germany for New York City in 1936. As Chairman of the Art Committee of Friendship House, a cultural organization for refugees, Steinitz organized the New Americans (1939-1940) exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculpture by European refugees at the World's Fair in New York.
After finalizing her U.S. citizenship in 1944, Steinitz relocated to Los Angeles where she resided for the remainder of her life. From 1945 to 1961, she served as a librarian for Elmer Belt's Leonardo da Vinci library. When Belt donated the library to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1961, Steinitz was named honorary curator of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana. In 1969, Steinitz's literary contributions on Leonardo da Vinci earned her an invitation to deliver the lecture for the IX Lettura Vinciana in Venice, Italy.
The biographical information included here draws upon the following sources: Wilson Library Bulletin, Vol. 45 (1970) and Kate Steinitz: Art into Life into Art, exhibition catalog, Severin Wunderman Museum (1994).
Related Materials:
Kate Steinitz compiled a collection of archival materials about German artist and writer Kurt Schwitters and donated the materials to the National Gallery of Art Library located in Washington, D.C.
Kate Traumann Steinitz papers are also located at UCLA Library Special Collections.
Provenance:
The Kate Steinitz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1999 by Ilse Berg, daughter of Kate Steinitz.
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 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.
