The Artists' Gallery records measure 6.6 linear feet and date from 1929 to 1967. The collection sheds light on the gallery's operations through adminstrative records, artist files, exhibition files, and printed material.
Scope and Contents:
The Artists' Gallery records measure 6.6 linear feet and date from 1929 to 1967. The collection sheds light on the gallery's operations through adminstrative records, artist files, exhibition files, and printed material.
Administrative records include correspondence, gallery daybooks, inventories, meeting minutes of the gallery's board of directors, and two essay drafts; financial records consist of accounting books, sales records, receipts, invoices, payments, and a ledger; and museum and gallery files include papers and correspondence related to exhibitions, loans of artwork, and shipments of artwork. Several photographs of staff, artists, and the gallery interior are found here as well.
Artist files include biographical information and correspondence between artists, Federica Beer-Monti, and Hugh Stix concerning exhibitions, artwork shipments, prices, and some personal matters. Some files also include photographs, exhibition catalogs and announcements, newspaper clippings, artist books, and price lists.
Exhibition files include price lists, correspondence, drafts of publicity material, visitor guestbooks, and lists of exhibitions and exhibiting artists. Printed material includes Artists' Gallery's brochures, flyers, and other mailings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, as well as gallery scrapbooks comprised of exhibition ephemera, newspaper clippings, and some photographs; an essay published by gallery founder Hugh Stix; exhibition material, newsletters, and miscellaneous publications from other museums and galleries; and books on artists Henri Gaudier and Beauford Delaney.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as four series.
Series 1: Administrative Records, 1936-1965 (Box 1-2, 7; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Artist Files, 1929-1967, bulk 1936-1962 (Box 2-4, 7-8; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1936-1962 (Box 4, 7, OV 9; 1.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1931-1967 (Box 5-7; 2.1 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
The Artists' Gallery was established by Hugh Stix in 1936 in New York City. The goal of this non-profit gallery was to provide unknown or little-known artists a space to exhibit their work to gain public notoriety or be taken up by a commercial gallery. Stix hired Federica Beer-Monti, an Austrian socialite who was friends and acquaintances with many European artists, as director of the gallery. The painters and sculptors exhibited by the Artists' Gallery were voted on and selected by a rotating committee. Exhibitions were given without charge to the artist, and artists received the entire sale price of their work if sold. Some notable artists who exhibited at the Artists' Gallery included Josef Albers, Saul and Eugenie Baizerman, Byron Browne, Louis Eilshemius, Ben-Zion, Aristodemos Kaldis, De Hirsh Margules, and Hans Boehler. The gallery discontinued operations in the summer of 1962.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reel N737. Included are six letters, 1938-1939, from artist Louis M. Eilshemius to gallery director Federica Beer-Monti. Loaned materials were returned to the donor and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Artists' Gallery records were donated and lent for microfilming in several installments from 1967 to 1998. Material on reels D313 and 79 were donated from 1967 to 1968 by Federica Beer-Monti; and she lent the Louis M. Eilshemius letters on reel N737 in 1968. The unmicrofilmed portion was donated in 1974 by Beer-Monti's niece, Greta Shapiro, who also lent the logbooks on reel 1042 for microfilming in 1976. In 1998, Shapiro's widower, Aaron, donated the material lent on reel 1042.
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.
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.
Artists' Gallery Records, 1929-1967. 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 with Leonard Baskin, Saul Baizerman and J. Paul Getty; biographical information; photographs of the artists and their work; printed matter; and a sketch of Baizerman by Held. Also included are writings and photographs by Held about a Florentine painting.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, educator, Bennington, Vt. Eminent scholar of Rubens. Worked as an advisor to art collectors, including J. Paul Getty.
Related Materials:
Julius S. Held papers, ca. 1918-1999, are located at The Getty Research Institution Special Collections.
Provenance:
Held wrote an catalog introduction on Baizerman for a 1953 exhibition at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
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.
Correspondence between Mendelson and sculptor Saul Baizerman, 1948-1952, and few letters from others in Baizerman's circle, 1946-1957. Also included are two photographs of Saul Baizerman and one of his wife, painter Eugenie Baizerman (1899-1949). The correspondence stems largely from Saul Baizerman's move from New York to Arizona in late 1948 (in the hope that the climate might relieve Eugenie Bazerman's severe asthma attacks; they then moved in July 1949 to Los Angeles, where Saul taught at the University of California in Los Angeles). Along with over 60 letters from Baizerman, are Mendelson's letters about movies, books, and exhibitions. [Baizerman kept this side of the correspondence and later returned the letters to Mendelson.] Baizerman's letters show his conflicts with his fatally ill wife and the diminution of his creative strength. Mentioned in the correspondence are Louise Mendelson, Mr. Mendelson's first wife, Sylvia Norman, and the poet, May Swenson, who took classes from Baizerman.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; New York, N.Y. b. 1923
Provenance:
Donated 2000 by Haim Mendelson.
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.
3 Linear feet (ca. 3000 items (on 6 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
[ca. 1921-1963]
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence between Baizerman and his first wife Eugenie, a painter, while he was working in England and Russia, 1924-1925; correspondence with his second wife, Joan; writings, including poetry, plays, and stories that contain autobiographical references; notebooks; sketches; photos of Baizerman and his works of art; exhibition catalogues and announcements; published articles, clippings, and other printed material.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor (New York City)
Provenance:
Joan Hay Baizerman is Saul Baizerman's second wife. She lent these papers to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1964, and they were returned to her. Later, in 1971 she gave the collection to the AAA on a permanent basis, except that she withheld in her possession ca. 300 sketches and ca. 50 photographs from the original 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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculpture: hammered copper with bronze and green patina; Base: wood
Type:
Sculptures-Outdoor Sculpture
Sculptures-Relief
Sculptures-Architectural component
Sculptures
Owner/Location:
University of North Carolina at Greensboro Weatherspoon Art Gallery Spring Garden & Tate Street Greensboro North Carolina 27412 Accession Number: 1991.4290
