Biographical material, photographs, project files, subject files, correspondence, printed material and audio visual material concerning Gerome Kamrowski's career as a Surrealist painter.
Biographical material includes curriculum vitae and an interrview transcript with Kamrowski by Michael Sherker. Photographs, slides and negatives are of Kamrowski, his family, studio, artwork, exhibition installations and exhibitions. The bulk of the project files concern individual works of art and include correspondence, reviews, photographs and miscellany. Subject files pertain to the University of Michigan, exhibitions that involved Kamrowski, organizations and people who worked with Kamrowski, and include correspondence and printed material.
Correspondence includes letters from Andre Breton, Monique Lange, Hilla von Rebay, Mercedes Matter, Irving Sandler, and numerous dealers and institutions including the Guggenheim Foundation, The Whitney Museum of Art, the Andre Emmerich Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Students League.
Audio visual material includes an interview on three cassettes of Kamrowski conducted by Martica Sawin, 1986, and three reels of motion picture film footage of sculptures, one labeled "Celestial Rhythms" and the others untitled, 1971. Printed material includes Kamrowski's portfolios, exhibition reviews, catalogs, and announcements, press releases, and newspaper clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Gerome Kamrowski (1914-2004) was a Surrealist painter in New York, N.Y. and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Provenance:
Donated 2008 by Mary Jane Kamrowski, Kamrowski's widow.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Transcript of an interview with Surrealist painter Enrico Donati conducted by Ann Temkin, 1997 Jan. 7 in preparation for an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Temkin interviewed the nonagenarian Donati, who reminiscences about his involvement with Marcel Duchamp and other artists, including André Breton, David Hare, Julien Levy, Arshile Gorky, Victor Brauner, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, John Ferren, Jeanne Reynal, Hans Richter, Giorgio di Chirico, Maria Martins, Eleanor Ward, Nicholas Carone, and Betty Parsons. The reminiscences are mostly anecdotal.
Biographical / Historical:
Enrico Donati (1909-2008) was an Italian-American surrealist painter and object maker who lived in New York, N.Y.
Ann Temkin (1959-) is a curator of modern and comtemporary art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Provenance:
Donated 2000 by Ann Temkin.
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.
An interview of Harold Rosenberg conducted 1970 December 17-1973 January 28, by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art over nine sessions.
Rosenberg speaks on a wide variety of topics including Marxism and Communism; art criticism; teaching and the philosopy of art; how his interest in art developed over the years; getting his writings published and starting a magazine; what intrigues him about the avant-garde; when and why he started painting; action painting; the inaccuracies in art history about Avant-gardism and Surrealism; working as a mural painter for the College Art Association; moving from the WPA's art project to the writer's project, and becoming an art editor; what happened to the works of art done under the WPA after it ended; and moving to the Hamptons.
He speaks in detail on the New York art scene during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s; The Club; writing about art; politics and art; Shakespeare and literature's influence on art and vice versa; the various economic aspects of art; how the Depression affected him and the people he knew; the projects he worked on in the WPA; and working for the OWI after the WPA disbanded.
He recalls Mark Rothko, Harold Baumbach, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Peter Blume, Helen Lundberg, André Breton, Arshile Gorky, Roberto Matta, Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Lee Krasner, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Jim Leshay, Stuart Davis, Bruce Inverarity, Barney Newman, Mark Tobey, Gregorio Prestopino, and many others.
Biographical / Historical:
Harold Rosenberg (1906-1978) was a writer and educator from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound tapes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 10 hr., 4 min.
Interview transcript is not in chronological order; arrangement designated by the interviewer Paul Cummings.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
REEL 2000: Correspondence with Thomas Gibson Fine Arts, Ltd., Morris J. Pinto, and Jackson Pollock; correspondence, loan agreements, and clippings concerning Pollock's painting "Lavender Mist"; and cancelled checks, bank statements and other financial material.
REEL 3888: Correspondence with Clyfford Still, Gregg and Ann Blasdel, Jean Dubuffet, Andre Breton (re Dubuffet), Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner; a manuscript of a talk delivered by Dubuffet at the Librairie Marcel Evrard, Lille "Honneur aux Valeurs Sauvages"; recipes for painting on cement with oil; a printed article on Dubuffet, "The Hour of the Hourloupe"; writings for Ossorio's publications; 2 of Ossorio's published monographs, FOURTEEN PAINTINGS and PEINTURES INITIATIQUES D' OSSORIO with text by Dubuffet, 1951; photographs of Ossorio and others, of Ossorio's works of art, exhibition photos of "Autour De Jackson Pollock," 1979, and several photos by Gregg Blasdel of unusual buildings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; 2 posters; and clippings.
Addition: Printed material, including catalogs and an article.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, sculptor; New York, N.Y. Died 1990.
Provenance:
Material on reel 2000 lent for microfilming 1980 and material on reel 3888 donated 1980-1981 by Alfonso A. Ossorio.
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.
An interview of Gordon Onslow-Ford conducted 1984 Mar. 26, by Ted Lindberg, for the Archives of American Art.
Onslow-Ford speaks of his family background and early years in England; his education; going to Paris and studying art there; his studies with Fernand Leger; his discovery of cubism and futurism; meeting Andre Breton; his work in surrealism; coming to New York and later to San Francisco; the development of his interest in calligraphy and black and white painting; his feelings about ecology. He recalls Roberto Matta Echuarren.
Biographical / Historical:
Gordon Onslow-Ford (1912-2003) was a painter in Inverness, Calif.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 54 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 others.
An interview of Isamu Noguchi conducted 1973 Nov. 7-Dec. 26, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
NOVEMBER 7, 1973 session: Noguchi discusses his family background; growing up in Japan; returning to the United States in 1917; his identity as an artist; Gutzon Borglum; Columbia University and studying pre-med; attending Leonardo da Vinci Art School; apprenticing to Onorio Ruotolo; quitting Columbia to become a sculptor; Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927; J.B. Neumann; Alfred Stieglitz; George Grey Barnard; James Earle Fraser; Brummer and the Brummer Gallery; studying at Chaumiere and Collarosi; working with Brancusi; meeting Sandy Calder in Paris; Stuart Davis; Morris Kantor; Andrée Ruellan; his work, "Sphere"; reacting against Brancusi; Eugene Schoen's; his Carnegie Hall studio; Michio Ito; Martha Graham; Buckminster Fuller; traveling in China and Japan; meeting Chi Pai Shi; John Becker; his works, "Play Mountain," "Monument to the Plow," "Monument to Ben Franklin," and "Orpheus" for Balanchine; designing for the stage; Audrey McMahon; Harry Hopkins; Holger Cahill; Mexico; Diego Rivera; Miguel Covarrubias; and the Artists Union.
DECEMBER 10, 1973 Session: His reaction to the Spanish Civil War- avoided direct involvement; Stuart Davis; Gorky; Andre Breton; David Hare; Marcel Duchamp; John Graham; Julien Levy; his artist friends dying at the peak of their success; Leger; Stirling Calder; associating himself with the laboring class; Buckminster Fuller; being American; expanding the possibilities of sculpture; his Associated Press Building project in Rockefeller Center, it being done in stainless steel instead of bronze; John Collier; Japanese-American Citizens League; organizing Nisei Artists and Writers Mobilization for Democracy; Jeanne Reynal; going to Poston, Ariz. to assist with American Indian Service camp under John Collier and becoming an internee there; returning to New York in 1942; Bollingen Foundation; trip around the world in 1949; and Philip Guston.
DECEMBER 18, 1973 session: Best work in studio; reaction against expressionism; artists protesting against the Establishment; his objection to the WPA, influenced by William Zorach; exhibiting in group show called, "Fourteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art"; show at Egan Gallery in 1949; accepting art in its most aesthetically pure form without reference to social issues; movement in Japan since war to get away from refinement of Japan; Yoshiro Hiro responsible for Gutai and the happenings; his work, "Monument to Heroes," using bones; his work takes years to do; materials used in his work; his work, "Cronos"; doing theater stage sets for the Library of Congress including, "Appalachian Spring" and "Herodiade"; wants a given space which he can call his own and do something with it, has to be a work of art.
DECEMBER 26, 1973 Session: Show with Charles Egan in 1948 arranged by de Kooning; applying to the Bollingen Foundation to write a book on leisure, which was never written; traveling to Italy, Egypt, and India for two years; being removed from the New York scene with Franz Kline and de Kooning; his light objects; sculpture as environment; respect for material; Mondrian and his art deriving from nature; his time in Japan in 1931; visiting Japan in 1951; working in stone; projects in Japan; Taniguchi; Antonin Raymond; designing Japanese gardens; discovery of Zen; Hasegawa Saburo; Skidmore; Hans Knoll; Edison Price; Italy in the 1960s; Peter Gregory; Henry Moore; Louis Kahn; UNESCO; Noguchi Foundation and Plaza Company; Shoji; Eleanor Ward; and his autobiography, "A Sculptor's World."
Biographical / Historical:
Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a Japanese American sculptor based in Long Island City, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hrs., 25 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Dawn of art painting and sculpture of Australian aborigines Karel Kupka, with a foreword by A.P. Elkin and a preface by André Breton. [Translated by John Ross]
Arshile Gorky : œuvres sur papier 1929-1947 = Arbeiten auf Papier 1929-1947 / textes par/texte von Erika Billeter ... [et al.] ; et les réimpressions des textes de/und Wiederabdrucke der Texte von André Breton, Frank O'Hara
Conversations : the autobiography of surrealism / André Breton ; with André Parinaud and others ; translated and with an introduction by Mark Polizzotti
