The papers of graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert measure 6.9 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1986. They document his career as an artist and organizer for the radical political left through an interview, legal papers, financial records, family papers, artifacts, correspondence, writings, organizational records, extensive printed materials (many of them illustrated by Gellert), photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert measure 6.9 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1986. They document his career as an artist and organizer for the radical left through an oral interview conducted by Sofia Sequenzia, legal papers, financial records, family papers, artifacts, correspondence, writings, organizational records, clippings, exhibition catalogs, various printed materials illustrated by Gellert, pamphlets, periodicals, mass mailings, photographs, and artwork.
Biographical Material includes an audio interview with Gellert; official documents related to memberships, property, and legal matters; financial documents that include bills, receipts, and contracts related to professional activities; papers of Gellert's brothers, Lawrence and Ernest; and artifacts. Correspondence is with other artists, writers, publishers, activists, friends, and family, including Ernest Fiene, Rockwell Kent, Harry Gottlieb, William Gropper, Philip Evergood, Howard Fast, and Jonas Lie. Writings include essays, book projects, notes, and notebooks written by Gellert; and stories and articles by other authors, including typescripts of early twentieth-century Hungarian short stories collected by Gellert.
Organizational Records are related to political and art organizations in which Gellert was an active organizer, officer, and in some cases, a founder. Because of his central role in many of these organizations, records often contain unique documentation of their activities. Records are found for the American Artists Congress, the Art of Today Gallery, the Artists Committee of Action, the Artists Coordination Committee, the Artists Council, Artists for Victory, Inc., the Committee to Defend V.J. Jerome, Hungarian Word, Inc., the National Society of Mural Painters, and other organizations.
Printed materials include a variety of political publications and periodicals with illustrations by Gellert, including New Masses, Art Front, Magyar Szo, and American Dialog; clippings related to his career, exhibition catalogs, political pamphlets, Hungarian literature, and mass mailings received from political organizations. Photographs contain a few personal photographs but are mostly news and publicity photographs, many of which depict prominent Communists and other newsmakers. Artwork includes sketches, drawings, designs, prints, and production elements for Gellert's artwork, as well as prints and drawings by Philip Reisman, Gyula Derkovits, and Anton Refregier.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-1982 (Box 1 and OV 9; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1920-1986 (Boxes 1-2, 8; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1916-1970 (Boxes 2 and 8; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Organizational Records, circa 1920-1977 (Boxes 3, 8, and OV 9; 1 linear foot)
Series 5: Printed Materials, circa 1920-1986 (Boxes 4-6, 8, and OV 9; 3 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1920-1959 (Boxes 6-7; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, 1927-1981 (Box 7, OV 10; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert was born Hugo Grünbaum in Budapest, Hungary in 1892, the oldest of six children. His family immigrated to New York City in 1906, eventually changing their family name to Gellert.
Gellert attended art school at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. As a student, he designed posters for movies and theater, and also worked for Tiffany Studios. A number of student art prizes with cash awards enabled him to travel to Europe in the summer of 1914, where he witnessed the outbreak of World War I, an experience which helped shape his political beliefs. Aesthetically, he was also influenced by a folk revival among Hungarian artists at the time of his trip, and was more impressed, he later said, with the street advertising in Paris than he was with the cubism he saw in the Louvre.
Returning to the United States, Gellert became involved in the Hungarian-American workers' movement, and contributed drawings to its newspaper, Elöre (Forward). He remained involved in Hungarian-American art and activism throughout his life, including membership in the anti-fascist group, the Anti-Horthy League. When members of the fascist Horthy government unveiled a statue of a Hungarian hero in New York in 1928, Gellert hired a pilot and dropped leaflets on the group, a stunt for which he was arrested. In the 1950s, Gellert served as director of Hungarian Word, Inc., a Hungarian-language publisher in New York.
Gellert's political commitment and art remained deeply intertwined throughout his life, as he continually sought to integrate his commitment to Communism, his hatred of fascism, and his dedication to civil liberties. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, he contributed artwork to several magazines of the radical left, including Masses and its successors Liberator and New Masses, both of which featured Gellert's artwork on their inaugural issue. Through Masses, he came to know other radicals such as Mike Gold, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Max Eastman, Floyd Dell, Anton Refregier, William Gropper, Harry Gottlieb, Bob Minor, and Art Young, and with them he followed the events of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia with sympathy and growing political fervor.
His brother, Ernest Gellert, also a socialist and activist, was drafted into the military but refused to serve. He died of a gunshot wound under suspicious circumstances while imprisoned at Fort Hancock, New Jersey, as a conscientious objector. Traumatized by this event, Gellert fled to Mexico to avoid conscription. In 1920 to 1922, he taught art at the Stelton School in New Jersey, a radical, utopian community school. He participated in the cultural scene of Greenwich Village, working on set designs, publications, and graphic art for political productions. He founded the first John Reed Club in 1929 with a group of Communist artists and writers including Anton Refregier, Louis Lozowick, and William Gropper. Initially, the group held classes and exhibitions, and provided services for strikes and other working-class activism. Later, John Reed Clubs formed around the country and became a formal arm of the United States Communist Party (CPUSA).
In the late 1920s, Gellert became a member of the National Society of Mural Painters (which, partly due to Gellert's activism in the group, became the Mural Artists' Guild local 829 of the United Scenic Artists Union of the AFL-CIO in 1937. Other members included Rockwell Kent, Anton Refregier, Arshile Gorky, and Marion Greenwood). In 1928, he created a mural for the Worker's Cafeteria in Union Square, NY. Later murals include the Center Theater in Rockefeller Center, the National Maritime Union Headquarters, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union Building, NYC, the interior of the Communications Building at the 1939 World's Fair, and the Seward Park Housing Project in 1961.
In 1932, Gellert was invited to participate in a mural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and submitted a political mural about the robber barons of contemporary American politics and industry called Us Fellas Gotta Stick Together - Al Capone. The museum attempted to censor the mural, along with the murals of William Gropper and Ben Shahn. Other artists threatened to boycott the exhibition over the censorship and were successful in restoring them to the show.
The cooperation of artists in this controversy foreshadowed a larger protest in 1934, organized by Gellert, Saul Belman, Stuart Davis, and Zoltan Hecht, when Diego Rivera's pro-labor mural was destroyed at Rockefeller Center. After the incident, the group formed the Artists' Committee of Action and continued to fight censorship and advocate for artists' interests and welfare. They also co-published the magazine Art Front with the Artists' Union, a labor organization. Gellert served for a time as editor of Art Front, and chairman of the Artists' Committee of Action.
Gellert was active in producing both art and strategic policy for the cultural arm of the CPUSA, and he worked to mobilize the non-communist left, often referred to as the Popular Front. In 1933 he illustrated Karl Marx's Capital in Lithographs, and in 1935, he wrote a Marxist, illustrated satire called Comrade Gulliver, An Illustrated Account of Travel into that Strange Country the United States of America. Other published graphic works include Aesop Said So (1936) and a portfolio of silkscreen prints entitled Century of the Common Man (1943).
Other artist groups he helped to found and/or run include the American Artist's Congress, a Communist organization founded with Max Weber, Margaret Bourke-White, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Harry Sternberg, and others, which held symposia and exhibitions between 1936 and 1942; the Artists' Coordination Committee, an umbrella group of national organizations which sought protections for federally-employed and unionized artists; Artists for Victory, Inc., which formed in 1942 to mobilize artists in support of the war effort; and the Artists' Council, formed after the war to advocate for artists' welfare and employment.
Gellert maintained his loyalty to the Communist party throughout the post-war period despite growing disillusionment in the Popular Front over the actions of Josef Stalin, and despite the intense anti-communist crusades in the late 1940s and 1950s. He was investigated by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and was nearly deported. He spent a number of years during this period in his wife's native Australia. Returning to the United States in the early 1950s, he threw his efforts into the defense of others who faced prison, deportation, and the blacklist following the HUAC hearings. He established The Committee to Defend V.J. Jerome in 1951 when Jerome, the cultural commissioner of CPUSA, was convicted under the Smith Act. The writer Dorothy Parker was the group's treasurer.
In 1954, Gellert established the Art of Today Gallery in New York City with Rockwell Kent and Charles White to provide an exhibition venue for blacklisted artists. Exhibitions included Maurice Becker, Henry Glintenkamp, Harry Gottlieb, Kay Harris, and Rockwell Kent. Gellert served as the gallery's secretary until it closed in 1957.
In the 1960s until his death in 1985, Gellert continued his activism through involvement in grassroots political organizations. Unlike many of his radical contemporaries, Gellert lived to see the revival of some of the ideas of the progressive era of the thirties in the countercultural years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were retrospectives of his work in Moscow in 1967 and in his native Budapest in 1968, and he appeared in Warren Beatty's film Reds in 1981.
Sources used for this essay include James Wechsler's 2003 dissertation "The Art and Activism of Hugo Gellert: Embracing the Spectre of Communism," his essay "From World War I to the Popular Front: The Art and Activism of Hugo Gellert," ( Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts number 24, Spring 2002), and Jeff Kisseloff's biographical essay for the 1986 Hugo Gellert exhibition at the Mary Ryan Gallery.
Related Material:
Among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are an oral history with Hugo Gellert from 1984, a recording of a lecture Gellert gave at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1985, and additional records of Artists for Victory, Inc., 1942-1946.
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University holds additional papers of Hugo Gellert.
Provenance:
A portion of the papers were donated in 1970 by Hugo Gellert. Additional papers were donated by Gellert and his wife, Livia Cinquegrana, in 1983 and 1986.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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 of New York and New Mexico writer, art critic, and curator, Lucy R. Lippard, measure 70.5 linear feet and 0.454 GB and date from the 1930s to 2007, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. Over half of the collection consists of correspondence files documenting Lippard's professional relationships with artists, writers, galleries, art institutions, and political organizations, and her interest in conceptual and minimalist art, feminism and political activism. Also found are Lippard's notes and writings including sound recordings and interviews, teaching and exhibition files, printed and digital material, several works of art, and photographs of artwork and artists. Scattered throughout the collection are a small number of records concerning Lippard's personal life. An addition of 3.0 linear feet donated 2015 includes subject files on feminist and conceptual art as well as land use, development, and local politics and history in New Mexico.
There is a 17.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2015 and 2021 that incudes research files (press clippings, notes, correspondence, ephemera) related to the publications 'Lure of the Local' and 'Undermining' are a significant portion. In addition there are approximetley 50 notebooks ranging from 1965-1996, containing notes and daily tasks. Printed material and ephemera includes promotional materials for talks and public engagements, as well as press clippings of reviews and other news items featuring Lippard. Another significant portion of the addition is labeled "miscellaneous professional correspondence."Materials date from circa 1965-2010.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York and New Mexico writer, art critic, and curator, Lucy R. Lippard, measure 70.5 linear feet and 0.454 GB and date from the 1930s to 2007, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. Over half of the collection consists of correspondence files documenting Lippard's professional relationships with artists, writers, galleries, art institutions, and political organizations, and her interest in conceptual and minimalist art, feminism and political activism. Also found are Lippard's notes and writings including sound recordings and interviews, teaching and exhibition files, printed and digital material, several works of art, and photographs of artwork and artists. Scattered throughout the collection are a small number of records concerning Lippard's personal life. An addition of 3.0 linear feet donated 2015 includes subject files on feminist and conceptual art as well as land use, development, and local politics and history in New Mexico.
A small amount of biographical material comprises resumes and an address book.
Correspondence files document all aspects of Lippard's professional life including her relationships with artists such as Carl Andre, Judy Chicago, Hanne Darboven, Ray Johnson, Sol LeWitt, and Henry Pearson; feminist artists including Mary Beth Edelson, Harmony Hammond, Donna Henes, and May Stevens; political and art-related activist groups such as Alliance for Cultural Democracy, Art Workers Coalition, Political Art Documentation/Distribution, Printed Matter, and Women's Caucus for Art; galleries and museums including Addison Gallery of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, and publishers including Art International and Art Forum. The series also traces the development of Lippard's involvement in activist causes including censorship and the rights of artists, Central America and the impact of U.S. policy on the region, and equality and reproductive rights for women, as well as her interest in conceptual and minimalist art. The series includes scattered artwork and photographs of artists.
Writings are primarily by Lippard and include correspondence, manuscript drafts, extensive notes, and publication records for some of her best-known books such as The Graphic Work of Philip Evergood (1966), Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973), Eva Hesse (1976), Ad Reinhardt (1985), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990), as well as essays for publications such as Art Forum and Studio International and contributions to exhibition catalogs. Also found are edited transcripts from conferences, symposia and interviews conducted by and of Lippard, some audio recordings of interviews and symposia, including an interview with Donald Judd, and notes and typescripts for lectures and speeches.
A small number of files document Lippard's teaching work during the 1970s and 1980s, primarily at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she taught several courses and seminars.
Exhibition files document Lippard's involvement with exhibitions she helped to organize or curate such as A Different War: Vietnam in Art (1989-1991) 557,087 and 955,000 (1969, 1970), 2,972, 453 (1971) c.7,500 (1973-1974) and those for which she wrote catalog contributions.
Printed material includes a collection of articles written by Lippard and a small amount of material concerning events, such as speaking engagements, in which Lippard was involved. Other printed material reflects Lippard's wide range of artistic, political and activist interests and documents exhibitions and performances and the activities of art-related and political groups. Material includes many exhibition catalogs, announcements, invitations, printed posters, news clippings, journal articles, brochures, pamphlets and other publications.
Artwork includes sixteen items by unidentified artists, including two by children. Photographs consist primarily of photographs of works of art in addition to a small number of photos of exhibition installations.
There is a 17.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2015 and 2021 that incudes research files (press clippings, notes, correspondence, ephemera) related to the publications 'Lure of the Local' and 'Undermining' are a significant portion. In addition there are approximetley 50 notebooks ranging from 1965-1996, containing notes and daily tasks. Printed material and ephemera includes promotional materials for talks and public engagements, as well as press clippings of reviews and other news items featuring Lippard. Another significant portion of the addition is labeled "miscellaneous professional correspondence."Materials date from circa 1965-2010.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (Box 1; 2 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1950s-2006 (Boxes 1-28, 51, OVs 54-63; 28.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1930s-1990s (Boxes 28-41, 51-52, OVs 64-66; 13.24 linear feet, ER01; 0.454 GB)
Series 4: Teaching Files, 1966-1993 (Boxes 41, 52; 0.76 linear feet)
Series 5: Exhibitions, 1960s-1990s (Boxes 42-45, 52, OVs 67-68; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1940s-2007 (Boxes 45-49, 52, OVs 69-77; 5.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork and Ephemera, circa 1960s-circa 1990s (Boxes 50, 53; 4 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, 1950s-circa 1990s (Boxes 50, 53, OV 71; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 9: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1965-2010, (Boxes 78-94; 17.0 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
New York and New Mexico writer and art critic, Lucy R. Lippard, is the curator of numerous exhibitions and the author of over twenty-four books and other writings that trace the emergence of minimalist and conceptual art and document Lippard's commitment to feminism and political activism.
Born in New York City in 1937, Lippard earned a B.A. from Smith College in 1958 and an M.A. in 1962 from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. In the 1960s she began writing art criticism for the journals Art International and Artforum. In 1966 she curated the landmark exhibition Eccentric Abstraction at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City. Lippard then curated the first of four defining conceptual art exhibitions that became known as her "numbers" shows, each titled after the populations of the cities in which they took place, with catalogs in the form of a set of 10 x 15 cm index cards. Opening at the Seattle Art Museum in 1969, 557,087 was followed by 955,000 in Vancouver, Canada, a few months later. 2,972,453 was held at the Centro de Arte y Comunicacíon in Buenos Aires in 1971 and c.7500 opened in Valencia, California, in 1973-1974 before traveling to several other venues in the United States and Europe.
Lippard's first book, The Graphic Work of Philip Evergood was published in 1966, followed by Pop Art the same year, and a collection of her early essays, Changing, in 1971. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973) and From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art (1976) documented the emergence of conceptual art and the early years of feminist art respectively. In 1976 Lippard published her seminal book on the life and work of Eva Hesse.
Between 1977 and 1978 Lippard lived on a farm in Devon, England, and worked on a novel, The First Stone, about the role of politics in the lives of three generations of women. During her walks across the English countryside she became interested in landscape art and conceived of her book Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory which was subsequently published in 1983. Other books include Get the Message?: A Decade Of Art For Social Change (1984), Ad Reinhardt (1985), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990). Lippard has also written regular columns on art and politics for the Village Voice, In These Times and Z Magazine, and has been a contributing editor of Art in America.
Lippard was radicalized during a trip to Argentina in 1968 when she was invited to be a juror at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. On her return to the United States she became heavily involved in anti-war activities and the Art Workers Coalition. She is a co-founder of several feminist and artist organizations including the feminist collective Heresies, which produced Heresies: A Feminist Journal on Art and Politics from 1977-1992, Ad Hoc Women Artists, Alliance for Cultural Democracy, Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, Women's Action Coalition, and Women's Art Registry. In 1976 she was a founder of Printed Matter, a New York nonprofit dedicated to producing artists' publications. She also worked closely with Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space devoted to the promotion of artists' books, installation art, and video and performance art, and served on the organization's International Committee.
Lippard has been a visiting professor at the School of Visual Arts, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Queensland, Australia, and was Eminent Artist in Residence at the University of Wyoming Department of Art in 2015. She has received honorary doctorates in fine arts from Maine College of Art, the Massachusetts College of Art, Moore College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, and others, and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants in criticism, the Smith College Medal, the ArtTable Award for Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts, and the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Excellence.
Lippard has lived in New Mexico since 1992 and works as a freelance writer and speaker.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Lucy Lippard conducted in 2011 March 15, by Sue Heinemann, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, funded by a grant from the A G Foundation.
Provenance:
Lucy R. Lippard donated her papers in several increments between 1972-1995, 2006, 2015 and 2021.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. 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.
Occupation:
Curators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. 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.
Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.
Collection Citation:
Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. 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.
Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.
Collection Citation:
Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. 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.
Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.
Collection Citation:
Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Postcards sent to and collected by the artist, writings, and other collected material.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Kimowan Metchewais [McLain] Collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
The records of Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) measure 64.4 linear feet and 317.43 gigabytes and date from circa 1974-2018. The bulk of the records consist of extensive video and sound recordings of events organized by the group featuring artists, critics, historians, dealers, curators and writers discussing contemporary issues in the American art world in hundreds of panel discussions, open screenings, and dialogues held in New York City. Events began in 1975 and continue to the present; recordings in the collection date from 1977 and 2016. A smaller group of records include administrative files, panel flyers, three scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panel discussions and participants.
Scope and Contents:
The records of Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) measure 64.4 linear feet and 317.43 gigabytes and date from circa 1974-2018. The bulk of the records consist of extensive video and sound recordings of events organized by the group featuring artists, critics, historians, dealers, curators and writers discussing contemporary issues in the American art world in hundreds of panel discussions, open screenings, and dialogues held in New York City. Events began in 1975 and continue to the present; recordings in the collection date from 1977 and 2016. A smaller group of records include administrative files, panel flyers, three scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panel discussions and participants.
ATOA's recordings chronicle the American art world, covering critical discussions and significant art world issues over five decades. Thousands of artists such as Will Barnet, Louise Bourgeois, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Robert De Niro, Agnes Denes, Michael Goldberg, Robert Longo, Ana Mendieta, Robert Morris, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, Philip Pavia, Howardena Pindell, Larry Rivers, Sylvia Sleigh, Kahinde Wiley, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz, and others speak about their work. The original recordings exist in a variety of formats, including U-Matic and VHS videotape, MiniDVs, sound cassettes and sound tape reels. ATOA digitized most of the video and sound recordings prior to donating the collection.
The collection also includes printed histories, board and program committee meeting minutes, financial statements, general correspondence files of the president and chair, attendance statistics, grant files, panel participant release forms, sixteen panel transcripts, a complete set of panel flyers (many are annotated) and other printed materials, three dismantled scrapbooks, as well as photographs, slides, and negatives of panels and panel participants.
Arrangement:
The records are arranged into nine series.
Series 1: Adminstrative Files, 1974-2013 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1)
Series 2: Director's and Chairman's Correspondence, 1977-2006 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1)
Series 3: Grant Files, 1977-2009 (1 linear foot, Boxes 1-2)
Series 4: Panel Release Forms, 1978-2012 (1 linear foot, Boxes 2-3)
Series 6: Printed Materials, 1975-2015 (0.8 linear feet, Boxes 3-4; 0.434 GB, ER02)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1975-1989 (0.2 linear feet, Box 4)
Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1975-circa 2000 (1 linear foot, Boxes 4-5)
Series 9: Video and Sound Recordings of Events, 1977-2016 (59 linear feet, Boxes 6-65; 317.43 GB, ER03-ER04)
Biographical / Historical:
Established in 1974 and still active in New York, Artists Talk on Art is the art world's longest running and most prolific aesthetic panel discussion series organized by artists for artists. Founded by Lori Antonacci, Douglas I. Sheer, and Robert Wiegand, the forum has presented 6,000 artists in nearly 1,000 documented panels or dialogues. ATOA held its first panel, "Whatever Happened to Public Art," on January 10, 1975 and it drew a "crowd" of 77 people. In the decades that followed, ATOA presented dozens of panels or dialogues a year, tackling such diverse topics as "What is Happening with Conceptual Art," with Louise Lawler and Lawrence Weiner; "Painting and Photography: Defining the Difference," with Sarah Charlesworth, Jack Goldstein, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, and Robert Mapplethorpe; "Organizing Arts Activism," with Lucy Lippard; "The Artist and the Epidemic—an information panel about AIDS"; "Cross-generational Views of Feminism"; and hundreds more.
Provenance:
The Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) records, including digital files of the video and sound recordings, were donated to the Archives in 2016 by Douglas Sheer, Chairman of ATOA.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers of painter and illustrator Elihu Vedder measure approximately 9.2 linear feet and date from 1804-1969, with the bulk of the material dating from 1840-1923. The collection documents Vedder's personal life and work. Best known for his illustrations of the 1884 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Vedder's papers include correspondence, writings, diaries, photographs, a limited number of drawings, books and printed material, legal and financial papers, and scattered personal and family papers.
Scope and Content Note:
The Elihu Vedder papers measure approximately 9.2 linear feet and date from 1804 to 1969, with the bulk of the material dating from 1840 to 1923. The collection documents the life and work of the painter and illustrator, who was perhaps best known for his illustrations of the 1884 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Papers include correspondence, writings, diaires, photographs, a limited number of drawings, books and printed material, legal and financial papers, and scattered personal and family papers.
Correspondence consists of incoming and drafts of outgoing letters concerning both personal and professional matters. The majority of the business correspondence was written by Vedder's wife, Caroline R. Vedder, on his behalf and documents the sale and exhibition of Vedder's work, commissions for paintings, and his illustrations for books. Also found is corresondence between and amongst various members of Vedder's immediate and extended family (including early letters between his parents, Elizabeth and Elihu Vedder, Sr.), and between Caroline R. Vedder and her immediate family (including her mother, sisters, and nieces).
Writings consist of drafts, manuscripts, typescripts, and illustrations for various books that Vedder wrote late in his career after he had stopped painting, and for various other poems, essays, and stories, as well as some writings by others. Also found are several diaries belonging to Vedder and Caroline R. Vedder, which record some of the daily activities and travels of Vedder and his wife. Photographs include ones of Vedder, his studio, his friends and family, and his artwork, as well as ones of various residences, from various trips, and of an unidentified exhibition of Vedder's work. Drawings include a study for "The Rubaiyat" and "The Artist's Daughter," along with scattered sketches, plans, and bookplates. Also found are copies of Vedder's published books, and clippings, catalogs, art reproductions, and other printed material.
Also in the collection are scattered legal papers (wills, deeds, and agreements of various family members), finanical papers (such as receipts and statements), notes on family history and other family papers, miscellaney, and numerous annotated envelopes and enclosures that once housed some of Vedder's papers.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as seven series:
Series 1: Miscellaneous Personal Papers, 1811-1938 (Boxes 1, 10; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1804-1951 (Boxes 2-5; 3.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Diaries, 1878-1890 (Box 5; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1848-1923, 1969 (Boxes 5-7, 10; 1.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Books and Printed Material, 1864-1939 (Boxes 7-8; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 6: Drawings, 1888-1912 (Box 8, OV 12; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, 1840s-1920s (Boxes 8-9, 11, OV 13; 1.5 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Elihu Vedder was born in New York in 1836. He grew up in Cuba, where his father worked as a dentist, and on his grandfather's farm in Brooklyn. He was educated in boarding schools and by tutors, and showed an interest in drawing at an early age. He began his formal training with T. H. Matteson in New York, and went on to study with Francois-Edouard Picot in Paris and Raffaello Bonaiuti in Florence.
After studying in Europe for several years, Vedder returned to the U.S. in 1860 and settled in New York, where he worked as a commercial illustrator during the Civil War. In 1864, he was one of the artists who illustrated the first American edition of Tennyson's Enoch Arden, which was published by Ticknor and Fields. During this time, he became associated with a bohemian group of artists and writers that regularly met at Pfaff's coffee shop. Some of the earliest exhibitions of his work took place at the annual spring exhibits at the National Academy of Design from 1863 to 1865. He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1865. After the war he returned to Europe, eventually settling permanently in Italy.
In 1869 Vedder married Elizabeth Caroline Beach Rosekrans (Carrie). They lived in Rome, where Vedder earned his living by undertaking commissioned work (what he termed "duty painting") while also producing paintings on original themes and subjects, such as The Cumaean Sibyl (1875-1878) which became one of his most celebrated paintings. Vedder's wife aided him in his work by cultivating patrons and carrying out all the business correspondence. Over the years he exhibited his work in London, Paris, New York and Boston (where it was especially well-received). While achieving a certain degree of success, he struggled throughout his career to make a living as an artist.
Vedder also carried out work on commission, designing covers for Century Magazine in 1881 and illustrations for various other publications such as Harper's. He experimented in other decorative arts also, designing glass ringwork, firebacks, and tiles; apart from some commissions for glass work from Tiffany's, these other projects never really got off the ground.
Vedder made his biggest contribution to American commercial art in 1884 with his illustrations of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Exhibitions of the original drawings followed, which were well-attended by the public; he also painted and sold several pictures from the Rubaiyat drawings. In the 1890s he undertook several mural projects, including ones for the Walker Art Building at Bowdoin College and the Library of Congress.
In the early 1900s, Vedder built a villa on the island of Capri, where he spent the summers and falls while continuing to live the rest of the year in Rome. From this point on, he didn't undertake any new major paintings, but instead turned to writing and illustrating books of autobiography and verse. His books include The Digressions of V (1910), Miscellaneous Moods (1915), and Doubt and Other Things (1922).
Vedder died on January 29, 1923, at the age of 87.
This biographical note draws from Regina Soria's biography, Elihu Vedder: American Visionary Artist in Rome (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1970).
Related Material:
Related material found in the Archives of American Art includes 3 letters written by Elihu Vedder that comprise a small collection donated by Charles E. Feinberg.
Separated Material:
Four originals drawings (filmed on Reel 671: 608-610 and 612) were returned to the donor and are not described in the Container Listing.
Provenance:
The bulk of the collection was donated in 1962-1964 by Lawrence Fleischman and Harold Love (who bought the papers in 1926 from Mrs. Nadia Tomassi, a Vedder family friend who had held the papers since Vedder's death in 1923). Several books were donated by Irving Burton in 1964 and 1977. Some correspondence, writings, notes, and printed material were donated in 1981 by Mrs. John Breck.
Restrictions:
The bulk of this collection has been digitized. Use of material not digitized requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Access of diaries and appointment books required written permission.
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:
André Emmerich Gallery records and André Emmerich papers, circa 1929-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Leon Levy Foundation.
Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK). WlAbNL
Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force. WlAbNL
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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:
James Melchert papers, circa 1949-2021. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
2.4 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1917-1979
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; photographs; a biographical sketch; writings; minutes and reports of various art organizations; material relating to Thomas Casilear Cole; exhibition catalogs; clippings; and printed material.
REEL D176: Correspondence; photographs; writings; exhibition notices; clippings; and miscellaneous documents. Among the photographs are 3 of Paris' studio (2 in Hydra, Greece), one of Sabro Hasegawa outside his studio in Japan, and 2 of Paris with Nobuya Abe.
REEL 294: Correspondents include Miss Paris' daughter, grandchildren and her sister Robel; personal friends and colleagues Faith and Harold Weston, Mary Ascher, Ann Mittleman and Nathaniel Dirk; museums and art departments; and members of the American Society of Contemporary Artists, writing during Paris' presidency. Also included are photographs of Paris and her work, clippings and miscellaneous printed material.
UNMICROFILMED: A biographical sketch; 360 letters; photographs of Paris, of her friends, of her work; writings by Paris and others; exhibition catalogs and clippings; minutes and reports of the U.S. Committee of the International Association of Art and the International Association of Plastic Arts, UNESCO, 1955-1970; printed materials and clippings on other artists including: Mark Freeman, Kazimieras Zoromskis, Helen Gerardia, Bernard Kassoy, F.M. Zlowe, Robert Vickers, Alfred D. Crimi, Vera Chopak de Champlain, Victo Cassanelli, Bert Diener, Thomas Eakins, and Frances Gershwin Godowsky. In addition there are papers relating to Thomas Casilear Cole, including 50 letters; photographs of Cole, his work, and his family; 68 poems by Cole; a 1940 pocket diary; receipts; catalogs and clippings; and biographical material about Cole's grandfather.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, gallery director (8th St. Gallery (1930's); New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1970-1980 by Dorothy Paris.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
200 Items (Ca. 200 items (on 3 partial microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1893-1954
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence, sketches and sketchbooks, printed material, writings and photographs.
REEL 3257: Norton's passport; 2 photographs of him and his work; a bibliography; letters to Norton's wife (some illustrated), his mother, ca. 1898, when he was with the Rough Riders, and correspondence concerning mural commissions; subject files on the Jefferson County Court House murals in Birmingham, Ala. and at the Logan Museum, Beliot College; his memorial exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, and obituaries and condolence letters received by his wife; cancelled checks; a typescript of writings by his children regarding a trip to Mexico City; a contract for a mural; an award; clippings; his memorial biography, JOHN W. NORTON: AMERICAN PAINTER; a sketchbook and sketches; and a scrapbook containing illustrated letters, photographs and sketches.
REEL 3367: A typed draft of Norton's story "White Man's Luck"; Norton's United Scenic Artists' union card; 9 sketches and a sketchbook of drawings, notes and a draft of Norton's last letter to Tom Lea, 1933.
REEL 4074: Twelve letters, many illustrated, from John to his family including his son "Bud" (John Francis Norton); a magazine article on Norton from Northwest Architect; an address and a poem by Norton; and 19 photographs and a 5 page manuscript written by Madge Norton, John's wife, describing their trip to Arizona in 1904.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, muralist; Chicago, Ill. Taught at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Provenance:
Passport and photographs donated 1984 by Mr. and Mrs. John Norton Garrett, Norton's grandson. Material on reels 3257 & 3367 lent for microfilming by Mr. & Mrs. Garrett, 1984, as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas Project. Material on reel 4074 lent for microfilming, 1987, by John C. Norton, John Norton Garrett and Katherine Norton Smalley, grandsons and granddaughter of John W. Norton as part of AAA's Chicago project.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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 Lippold papers, 1940s-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
0.6 Linear feet (ca. 1400 items (on 5 microfilm reels))
2 Linear feet (Addition)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Video recordings
Sketchbooks
Date:
1923-1990
Scope and Contents:
Printed material, guestbooks, writings, scrapbooks, photographs, video tapes, and cartoons and sketches.
REEL 2812: Printed material, 1969-1975, including exhibition catalogs, announcements, clippings and articles; a resume; note cards with reproductions of Freed's paintings; and photocopies of Frank's cartoons for the RICE OWL.
REELS 3432-3433: Guestbooks, 1957-1985, with thanks and drawings by visitors, including sketches by artists; writings by Frank regarding his experiences in World War II and a 3-part travel article, "Art of Provence"; 3 scrapbooks containing clippings regarding a trial on which Frank was a juror and "Mexican Painting and Drawing," a show curated by Frank; source material for paintings; a guestbook from an exhibition at Instituto Mexicanos Norteamerico de Relaciones Culturales; and sketches.
REEL 3448: Biographical material; writings by Frank, some done under his pen name Caliph McFloe; photocopies of his cartoons for the RICE OWL, 1923-1924; reproductions of paintings; exhibition catalogs, announcements, press releases and clippings; ca. 100 photographs of paintings; and transcripts of speeches given at his memorial service.
REEL 3538: Articles written by Eleanor as art critic for the Houston Post, 1965-1973; and an article written for Texas Humanist, 1984, "Dominique de Menil: Rare Visions in the Arts," outlining the collecting philosophy of Menil and the establishment of a private museum to exhibit the collection.
UNMICROFILMED: A video tape of a 1975 television program on Frank and 2 tapes from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, panel discussion "The Fine Arts from Various Points of View"; and 3 lithographs by Frank.
ADDITION: Exhibition catalogs and announcements; greeting cards with reproductions of Freed's paintings; guestbooks, 1985-1990; four sketchbooks; a videotape of his 80th birthday celebration; an audio cassette; photographs of Freed and his works of art, including color photographs of 71 paintings; slides of paintings; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Freed was a painter, cartoonist and writer. His wife, Eleanor was an art critic. They lived in Houston, Texas.
Provenance:
Material on reels 3432-3433 lent for microfilming 1985, by Frank and Eleanor Freed as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project. The remainder was donated by the Freeds, 1978-1985, and by Eleanor Freed Stern's estate, 1993. The estate bequest included the guestbooks which were part of the 1985 loan.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
University of California, Berkeley. Department of Art Search this
Extent:
1.4 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1971 - 1994
Summary:
The Sylvia Lark papers measure 1.4 linear feet and date from 1971- 1994, documenting Lark's career as an abstract artist and college professor, particularly her tenure at the University of California, Berkeley. Included are biographical materials; correspondence with museums, galleries, universities, colleagues and other artists; writings by and about Lark's work; professional files such as gallery represented sale records, grant applications and inventory lists; exhibition files; teaching files; printed and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The Sylvia Lark papers measure 1.4 linear feet and date from 1971-1994, documenting Lark's career as an abstract artist and college professor, particularly her tenure at the University of California, Berkeley. Included are biographic material, such as resumes, an interview transcript and an award certificate from the College Art Association of America; correspondence between Lark and galleries, city art departments, Native American organizations and other artists, and colleagues regarding various exhibitions and teaching employment opportunities. Also found are writings by and about Lark's work, exhibition files which document select solo and group exhibitions that Lark participated in, as well as tribute exhibition. Professional files include materials documenting Lark's involvement serving as a juror for various exhibitions, her membership and participation in professional organizations and financial records related to the selling and loaning of her artwork. Teaching files include student evaluations, course schedules, U.C. Berkley employment documents, correspondence and reports regarding Lark's tenure case, U.C. Berkley personel informational paperwork, Faculty grant and fellowship documents and sabbatical leave applications and awards. Printed material primarily consists of newspaper and magazine clippings reviewing Lark's exhibitions along with exhibition announcements, flyers and catalogs. Photographs are of Lark's artwork as well as her Fulbright travels in Korea and Japan.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eight series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1977-1991 (3 Folders: Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1976-1991 (0.3 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, 1975-1987 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1978-1994 (0.2 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 5: Professional Files, 1976-1994 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 6: Teaching Files, 1977-1990 (0.4 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1973-1992 (0.3 Linear feet: Box 2)
Series 8: Photographic Material, 1971-1987 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 2)
Biographical / Historical:
Sylvia Lark (1947-1990) was a Seneca abstract expressionist painter, printmaker and educator from Buffalo, New York. Lark received her M.F.A from University of Wisconsin, Madision in 1972 before moving to California where she began teaching printmaking at California State University, Sacramento. In 1977 she received a Fulbright grant to travel and study in Korea and Japan. She also began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley that same year where she remained a professor for the rest of her life. She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for teaching art by the College Art Association posthumously in 1991.
In addition to her professorial career, Lark was a widely exhibited artist who collaborated on a number of Native American exhibitions, and served as a member of a different women in the arts organizations. Her work can be found in numerous collections including that of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Provenance:
Donated 1998 by Christine Carter.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. 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.
Sylvia Lark Papers, 1971-1994. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Correspondence, printed material, writings, and other personal papers collected by Carl Zigrosser and Leila Mechlin and later added to by others, all relating to American art.
REELS P10-P11 and P14: Letters to Leila Mechlin, Henry Schnakenberg and Hudson Walker. Correspondents include Robert Abbe, John Taylor Arms, Cecelia Beaux, Paul Bartlett, Gifford Beal, Paul Cadmus, Charles Curran, Royal Cortissoz, Kenyon Cox, Philip Evergood, John David Graham, Reginald Marsh, Joseph Pennell, John Sloan and many others. Some letters include printed material and photographs. Mechlin material includes writings, photographs and letters from Mary Augusta Mullikin describing her life and travels in China, 1933. Also included are letters from Adolph Dehn and Jose de Creeft to Juliana Force; from Ernest Haskell and Kenneth Hayes Miller to Carl Zigrosser; miscellaneous letters from Marc Chagall, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Louis Eilshemius and Childe Hassam; an autobiography of William Sartain; and material on Thomas Eakins, including letters, a list of expenses, 1867, and motion study material,including writings, sketches and photographs taken with a camera invented by Eakins.
REEL 4547: Charles Burchfield letters; Susan and Thomas Eakins material; Jacques Lipchitz correspondence; Henry McCarter letters; and Carl Zigrosser correspondence. The Burchfield letters consist of 41 items, 1929-1947, from Burchfield regarding exhibitions, sales, and his paintings. The Eakins material includes letters from Susan Eakins to the Milch Galleries, 1933-1935, regarding the sale of Thomas Eakins' work, receipts from the Milch Galleries, Thomas' expense book, ca. 1866, for daily living in Paris and Switzerland and an autographed account of expenses while at school in Paris, April 12, 1867, a photograph of Susan Eakins by Carl van Vechten, a photograph of Eakins, and 71 engraved portraits from the collection of Thomas Eakins.
The Lipchitz correspondence is with R. Sturgis Ingersoll regarding Lipchitz's commission for the sculpture "Prometheus." Also included are 8 letters from Curt Valentin to Ingersoll regarding Lipchitz. The McCarter material includes 66 letters, 1933-1942, some containing sketches, from McCarter to Mrs. George B. Roberts regarding paintings, frames, exhibitions, and offering painting advice. The Zigrosser correspondence is regarding the purchase of prints from the regional projects of the WPA for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and later included in the exhibition "Between Two Wars" at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Included are invoices and inventories of the prints from the various offices.
Provenance:
Material on reels P10-P11 and P14 lent for microfilming, 1954, by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Additional material on reel 4547 was microfilmed in 1991 as part of AAA's Philadelphia Arts Documentation Project. The idea for the archives originated with Carl Zigrosser, who donated material, solicited it from others (mainly Henry Schnakenberg, Leila Mechlin and Hudson Walker), or pulled it from the files of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Museum continues to add to the collection. It is not connected to the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives. 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.
Notes on exhibitions and workshops, including Impressions Workshop, Brockton Art Center Fuller Memorial, The Art Gallery (Kingston, Plymouth), Exhibition notices regarding Grover Cronin (department store) and Cronin Gallery and artists; writings on Du Buron's work and letters.
Biographical / Historical:
Artist; Massachusetts.
Provenance:
Donated 1998 by Frederic Du Buron, son of Edourd.
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:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Frederic Du Buron. 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.
Correspondence, ca. 1914-1981, including comments about Richter's films from Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and others; exhibition catalogs, ca. 1946-1974; index to his films compiled by H.G. Weinberg, 1946 and revision; catalogs for films Dreams Money Can Buy, and 8 X 8; articles by and about Richter and his films; exhibition catalogs of other artists; writings; and newspaper clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Filmmaker; New York, N.Y. First one-man show in 1916, the same year he joined the Dadaists. His interest in the movement of forms led him first to scroll painting and then to film. He produced his first movie in 1921 and then went on to create Dreams That Money Can Buy, with Duchamp, Ernst, Calder and Man Ray, and 8 X 8, among others.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1984 by Ursula Lawder, Richter's step-daughter.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
