The records of Seattle's avant-garde Linda Farris Gallery measure 13.4 linear feet and date from 1969-1995. The bulk of the records consist of artists' and exhibition files. Also found are gallery business correspondence, administrative files, event files, reference files, records of sales, scattered legal files, the personal papers of gallery owner Linda Farris, and printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The records of Seattle's avant-garde Linda Farris Gallery measure 13.4 linear feet and date from 1969-1995. The bulk of the records consist of artists' and exhibition files. Also found are gallery business correspondence, administrative files, event files, reference files, records of sales, scattered legal files, the personal papers of gallery owner Linda Farris, and printed materials.
Business correspondence is with galleries, dealers, publishers, museums, and other businesses. Administrative files are varied and include advertising and promotion materials, exhibition schedules, mailing lists, guest books, a scrapbook, and gallery history.
Artists' files are found for many contemporary American artists that interested Linda Farris or were represented by the gallery. The contents of each file vary but many include photographs and slides, writings, correspondence, and printed materials. Files for Lynda Barry, Grisha Brusking, Charles Clough, Ronnie Landfield, Charles Luce, Michael Lucerno, Sherry Markovitz, Louise Nevelson, Barbara Noah, and Beverly Pepper are particularly rich. Exhibition files are for Linda Farris Gallery exhibitions and include printed materials, correspondence, loan and consignment agreements, and photographs.
Event files cover anniversary celebrations, lectures, panel discussions, and receptions. There are 17 sound cassette recordings of "Art Now" lectures and "Focus" panel discussions. Scattered reference files contain collected materials on subjects of interest to the gallery. There are scattered financial, sales, and legal files. Sales records cover 1970-1979.
Linda Farris' personal papers contain printed materials about her and the gallery and other materials concerning her professional and curatorial work outside of the gallery. There is also a transcript of an oral history with Farris and a news interview.
Printed materials include published books and magazines, clippings and exhibition catalogs and announcements.
Photographs are scattered throughout adminstrative files, exhibition files, event files, and Linda Farris' personal papers.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1975-1991, undated (Box 1; .7 linear feet)
Series 2: Administrative files, 1970-1995, undated (Box 1-2, 14; 1 linear feet)
Series 3: Artists and Exhibition files, 1969-1995, undated (Box 2-9, 15; 6.6 linear feet)
Series 4: Events files, 1971-1990, undated (Box 9, 14; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Reference files, 1969-1994, undated (Box 9-10; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Financial, Sales and Legal files, 1970-1995 (Box 10; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Linda Farris Papers, 1972-1995 (Box 10-11; .9 linear feet)
Series 8: Printed Materials, 1970-1995 (Box 11-14; 2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
The Linda Farris Gallery was Seattle's leading venue for contemporary art during its twenty-five years of operation.
Linda Farris opened Gallery East in Bellevue in 1970, and a year later moved to Pioneer Square in Seattle, changing the name to Linda Farris Gallery in 1973. The gallery continued to present contemporary art there until closing in December 1995. Art dealer Linda Farris began representing a group of promising artists, all graduates of the University of Washington. Greg Kucera of the Greg Kucera Gallery noted in an article for the Seattle Weekly, "Their work could be loosely seen as a movement, complete with aesthetic interrelationships, convenient marriages, an unintelligible manifesto in the form of Dennis Evans' quirky pronouncements…" From the same article he states, "Her avant-garde gallery changed forever the nature of being an art dealer in Seattle." It was among the three or four most influential galleries in the Pacific Northwest.
The gallery held exhibitions of many nationally known contemporary artists, including Sam Francis, Louise Nevelson, and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as Northwest artists Jeffrey Bishop, Dennis Evans, Sherry Markovitz, Nancy Mee, Norie Sato, and Patti Warashina. The latter group started with the gallery and remained loyal at the time of its closing in 1995.
Art dealer, collector and free-lance curator Linda B. Farris (1944-2005), a native of San Francisco and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (1966), was an active participant in and style setter for the Seattle art world for the twenty-five years she was in business. As a member of the art community she actively supported the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, Pilchuck Glass School, and Seattle Art Museum's Contemporary Art Council, and served on the boards of directors of Henry Art Gallery and Factory Visual Arts. Farris curated "Eight Seattle Artists" in 1981 for the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art and "Self Portraits" in 1983 for the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. She also led the movement to keep Henry Moore's "Vertebrae" from leaving Seattle, and instituted a series of talks, panel discussions, performances, and tours in her gallery, and in and around Seattle.
This note draws heavily on the Archives of American Art's West Coast Regional Collector Paul Karlstrom's collection description written upon acquisition of the papers.
Related Materials:
An oral history interview with Linda Farris conducted in 1975 by Sally Swenson, is located in the University of Washington University Libraries Digital Collections.
Provenance:
The Linda Farris Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art by owner Linda Farris in 1995 at the time she closed the gallery.
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.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Margaret Tomkins, 1984 June 6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Davies, Arthur B. (Arthur Bowen), 1862-1928 Search this
Extent:
4 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1946-1975
Scope and Contents:
Research material on American Artists of the Pacific Northwest, and on Arthur B. Davies.
Files, 1946-1975, concerning artists of the Pacific Northwest, including: research correspondence; typescripts of published and unpublished writings; notes; photographs, negatives, and transparencies of works of art; card files; and exhibition catalogs, clippings, and other printed material. Also included is research material, 1955-1975, relating to Arthur B. Davies and a 1962 centennial exhibition on Davies organized by Prior. Papers include: correspondence with Davies's relatives, museums, and others; printed material; slides of the paintings exhibited; 3 installation photos; a photo file and a card file on Davies's paintings, arranged by location; and a dissertation, THE GRAPHIC ART OF ARTHUR BOWEN DAVIES AND JOHN SLOAN, by Merrill Clement Rueppel, 1955.
Biographical / Historical:
Art administrator, educator; Rochester, N.Y.; b. 1911; d. 1975 Prior was director of Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, N.Y., 1962-1975.
Provenance:
Donated 1981 by Mrs. Nathaniel Whitcomb, Prior's widow.
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.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- Rochester Search this
Art teachers -- New York (State) -- Rochester Search this
Museum directors -- New York(State) -- Rochester Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Rudy Autio, 1983 October 10-1984 January 28. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Rudy Autio conducted 1983 October 10-1984 January 28, by LaMar Harrington, for the Archives of American Art's Northwest Oral History Project. Autio speaks of growing up in Butte, Montana; his first art experiences; his education at Montana State College; his Navy service; working for Archie Bray, a brickmaker; working in carved brick and chimney pots; his interest in Indian customs; working with Peter Voulkos, and Voulkos' style; abstract expressionism; the importance of universities, organizations, and publications to ceramic art; going to Helsinki and learning about Finnish crafts; his thoughts on architectural art; his work methods; and his work in porcelain.
Biographical / Historical:
Rudy Autio (1926-2007) was a sculptor and ceramicist from Missoula, Montana.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 27 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' Northwest Oral History Project, begun in 1982 to document the Northwest artistic community through interviews with painters, sculptors, craftsmen, educators, curators, and others, in Oregon, Washington and Montana.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Joanna Eckstein, 1983 April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art patronage -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Edith Feldenheimer, 1982 Nov. 23-Dec. 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Kenneth Callahan, 1982 October 27-December 19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists -- Northwestern States -- Interviews Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Rachael Griffin, 1983 Feb. 19-20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Curators -- Oregon -- Portland -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Anne Gerber, 1983 Feb. 24-Apr. 21. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Interviews Search this
Art patronage -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Alden Mason, 1984 Jan. 13-Feb. 21. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists -- Northwestern States -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Viola Patterson, 1982 Oct. 22-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists -- Northwestern States -- Interviews Search this
Contemporary Crafts Gallery (Portland, Or.) Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Maurine Hiatt Roberts, 1984 August 29-31. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Tom Robbins, 1984 March 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert Sperry, 1983 August 11. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Michele Russo, 1983 August 29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists -- Northwestern States -- Interviews Search this
