The scattered records of the Provincetown, Massachusetts cooperative art gallery Gallery 256 measure 0.2 linear feet and date from its founding in 1953 to its closing in 1955. Included are: a list of addresses of members Will Barnet, Henry A. Botkin, Byron Browne, Peter Busa, Kenneth Campbell, Victor Candell, Eve Clendenin, Lawrence Kupferman, Leo Manso, Seong Moy, Louise Nevelson, Therese Schwartz, Myron S. Stout, John Von Wicht and Hale Woodruff; a statement regarding the legal status of "group 256" as a voluntary association and its relationship to "gallery 256"; an account book of members' expenses, dues and commissions, 1954; a ledger of sales and attendance; a bank checkbook and deposit slip, 1954-1955; 4 cancelled checks; 2 invoices, 1955; 2 financial statements of receipts and disbursements, 1954; an attendance book containing names and addresses; and a file on Louise Nevelson containing a magazine clipping, and an exhibition announcement, both of 1954, and 1 photograph of each of the following sculptures: "The Figure that Walked on the Mt. Tops," "Figure from the Great Beyond," "Portrait of a Friend," and "Ancient Cat Form."
Biographical / Historical:
Gallery 256 (est. 1953-closed 1955) was a cooperative art gallery in Provincetown, Mass.
Provenance:
The donor, Myron Stout, was the secretary of Gallery 256.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Correspondence; exhibition catalogs; clippings; writings; photographs; and interviews with David Smith and with Ad Reinhart. Among the correspondents are Anne Arnold, Paul Burlin, Peter Busa, Franz J. Kline, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Abstract painter, educator; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1969 by Pat Passloff.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Biographical information, correspondence, photographs, writings, works of art, scrapbooks, artists' and organization files, and inventories documenting William Littlefield's career and a painter, writer, and art collector.
Biographical material includes resumes and awards. Correspondence is with family, friends, galleries, and others, including letters from Littlefirld written while studying in Paris and other European cities. Correspondents include Jean Paul Slusser, Vincent Grimaldi, Stanley William Hayter, Monroe Wheeler, Paul Sachs, Mary Rockwell, Lincoln Kirstein, Duncan Phillips, Muriel Draper, A. Hyatt Mayor, Peter Busa, Archibald MacLeish, among others. Photographs are of Littlefield, his work, friends, and works of art by others. Writings include poetry, articles, essays, notes, a draft for "The Son," a ballet by Littlefield, 1934, and a transcript of a speech by Hans Hofmann given at the Riverside Museum, New York City, Feb. 16, 1941. Works of art include sketches by Littlefield and Stanley Hayter.
Scrapbooks and artists' files contain printed material, correspondence and photographs pertaining to Frank and Isabel Moser, and Mary Peixotto, Herman Heilborn and Alexis Arapoff and others. Organization files include the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, the New School for Social Research, and The Club, of which he was a member. Inventories include works of art by Littlfield and in his estate.
Biographical / Historical:
William Horace Littlefield (1902-1969) was a painter, writer, and art collector in New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1971 by Nancy Stiner, an antique dealer who bought the papers, in 1992, by Fred J. Stone who purchased the estate, in 2007 by Peggy Stone, Fred Stone's daughter, and in 2011 by Arthur Hughes, who purchased the additional material from Nancy Stiner.
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:
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Peter Busa conducted 1965 September 5, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art. Busa speaks of family background; influences on his work; and his work on the WPA. He recalls Arshile Gorky, Stuart Davis, Jackson Pollock, William Baziotes, Kamrowski, and discusses his work being purchased by art patron Walter Chrysler in the late 1950's.
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Busa (1914-1985) was a painter and sculptor from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
General:
Originally recorded as 2 sound tapes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 37 min.
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.
