The papers of painter, collector, lecturer, and writer Michael M. Engel Sr. measure 2.7 linear feet and date from circa 1920-1994. They illustrate Engel's career and achievements through correspondence, subject files, personal business records, printed material and scrapbooks, photographic material, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The Michael M. Engel papers measure 2.7 linear feet and date from circa 1920-1994 and describe his career. Correspondence is to and from the Audubon Artists, M. Grumbacher Incorporated, Florida Southern College regarding Engel's time as Chancellor, and with Andrew and N.C. Wyeth and others. Subject files covers various famous artists and their activities and lives including Michael Grumbacher, Engel's wife Mary Black Diller, and camouflage and its usage, creation, and history. Personal business records consist of materials and drafts for Engel's two magazine columns The Bright Palette and Do You Know That? and Engel's collection of autographs from various notable figures. Printed material includes exhibition catalogs for the Audubon Artists exhibitions including a ½" video reel, various articles about Engel and his work, and other exhibition catalogs and announcements. Scrapbooks contain notes and other materials surrounding events attended by Engel including Pennsylvania's National Art Week (1936) a federal art project, and the Florida International Art Exhibition at Grand Central Galleries (1952). Photographic material contains slides of people including Engel and others from his artistic community, photographs of Engel's palette collection, artwork, and demonstration pieces. Artwork includes a folder of sketches by Engel.
Arrangement:
This collection consists of seven series.
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1934-1969 (.5 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 2: Subject Files, circa 1925-1991 (.5 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, circa 1935-1952 (.2 Linear feet: Box 2)
Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1933-1994 (.8 Linear feet: Box 2)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, circa 1920-1942 (.4 Linear feet: Boxes 3-4)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1930-1958 (.2 Linear feet: Boxes 3-4)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1920-1950 (.1 Linear feet: Box 3)
Biographical / Historical:
Michael M. Engel Sr. (1896-1969) was a painter, collector, lecturer, and writer based in New York City. He worked as a public relations director for M. Grumbacher Incorporated, as an artist, and as a contributor to magazines such as Art Digest writing articles including two of his repeat columns titled Do You Know That? and The Bright Palette. Engel also helped to found the Audubon Artists in 1940 alongside such figures as Andrew Wyeth and Frederick Whitaker. Some of Engel's well known hobbies were collecting autographs from notable artists and other figures and collecting painting palettes. Engel died at the age of 75 on April 27, 1969.
Provenance:
The Michael M. Engel papers were donated in 1975 by Mary Black Diller, Engel's widow, and in 1994-1995 by their son Michael.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Autographs -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Michael M. Engel papers, circa 1920-1994, 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.
Japanese Army Air Force camouflage and markings, World War II by Donald W. Thorpe. With translations by Yasuo Oishi. Color and other drawings by the author. Based upon side view drawings by Lloyd S. Jones
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert O. Preusser, 1991 January-October. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
An interview of Robert O. Preusser conducted 1991 January-October, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Preusser discusses the establishment of an art department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his involvement with it first as a visiting lecturer and then as a professor of visual design. He speaks often of Gyorgy Kepes, whom he had known at the Institute of Design, Chicago, in the early 1940s, and who recruited him to M.I.T; he also discusses other faculty members, like Minor White, professor of photography. He gives attention to his courses at M.I.T., 1954-1985; early computer design projects by students; his writings on the importance of visual arts to technology; and his supervision of educational programs at M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, 1974-85. An extensive part of the interview is held in an exhibition of Preusser's work at the M.I.T. Museum (April 4, 1991), discussing in particular his incorporation of various plastic and metallic materials in his works from the 1960s and 1970s. He speaks as well of the importance of his inclusion in group exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery, New York, ("Newcomers," 1951, and "Recent Arrivals, 1952) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston ("Collectors Exhibition," 1954), and of his exhibitions at the Boris Mirski Gallery and the Joan Peterson Gallery, Boston, during the 1950s and 1960s, and at various galleries in Houston during the 1980s. Other topics of discussion are his early art instruction in his native Houston, Texas, by the painter Ola McNeill Davidson, 1930-39; further training in painting and design at the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1930-39, 1941-42; Newcomb School of Art at Tulane University, 1940-41; service with a camouflage unit in the U.S. Army, 1942-45; classes at the Art Center School, Los Angeles, 1946-47; his teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1947-54, and at the University of Houston, 1951-54, and his role as co-director of the Houston Contemporary Arts Association, 1948-50.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Preusser (1919-1992) was a painter and art instructor from Houston, Texas and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Poor sound quality. The first 35 minutes of the interview have been lost.
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 18 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 administrators.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
Camouflage : proceedings of the International Congress on Uniforms organized by the Royal Museum of Armed Forces and of Military History in co-operations with ICOMAM (Brussels, 13-15 October 2010) / ed. by Ilse Bogaerts & Werner Palinckx = Le camouflage : actes du congrès international sur les uniformes organisé par le Musée royal de l'Armée et d'Histoire militaire en collaboration avec l'ICOM...
Title:
Proceedings of the International Symposium "Camouflage takes centre stage," Brussels, October 13-15, 2010
Camouflage takes centre stage
Camouflage : actes du congrès international sur les uniformes organisé par le Musée royal de l'Armée et d'Histoire militaire en collaboration avec l'ICOMAM (Bruxelles, 13-15 octobre 2010)
Camouflage : akten van het internationale congres over uniformen georganiseerd door het Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en de Krijgeschiedenis in samenwerkig met ICOMAM (Brussel, 13-15 oktober 2010)
Author:
International Symposium "Camouflage takes centre stage" (2010 : Brussels, Belgium) Search this
