The papers of curator and writer, Cynthia Goodman, date from circa circa 1944-2001, bulk 1975-1996 and measure 33.2 linear feet and .340 Gigabytes. The collection is comprised of artist files, records documenting computer and technological art, and research on Hans Hofmann and the New York School. The papers document Goodman's graduate and professional career including her studies in art history and early career writing and organizing exhibitions around Hans Hofmann and his legacy, and later her research related to the nascent computer art. The papers, organized primarily by project and artist files, include biographical material, interviews with artists, correspondence, writings, printed material, photographs and audio-visual material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of curator and writer, Cynthia Goodman, date from circa circa 1944-2001, bulk 1975-1996 and measure 33.2 linear feet and .340 Gigabytes.
The artist file series is comprised of correspondence and promotional materials in various formats including resumes, invitations, slides, and audio-visual and born-digital portfolio submissions.
The computer and technological art series is comprised of research material, conference materials, writings, and exhibition files relating to two major exhibitions organized by Cynthia Goodman: Digital Visions: Computers and Art, Everson Museum of Art (1987), and the InfoArt Pavilion at Kwangju Biennale (1995), co-curated with artist Nam June Paik. Both shows were accompanied by exhibition catalogs, the latter in CD-ROM format, innovated as one of the first of its kind.
The Hans Hofmann and the New York School Material series consists of Goodman's early academic career studying Hofmann and his contemporaries, culminating in a PhD dissertation from University of Pennsylvania in 1982. This material includes records related to the Chester Dale Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Goodman worked on a catalogue raisonné for the artist. Also included are records related to the 1986 monograph on Hofmann as well as the exhibition file for a Hofmann retrospective staged at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1990, as well as other traveling exhibitions on Hofmann and his students, as well as Fritz Bultman. Research material includes numerous original sound recordings and interviews.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as three series:
Series 1: Artist Files, circa 1964-2000 (13.4 Linear feet: Boxes 1-12, 33-35)
Series 2: Computer and Technological Art, circa 1960s-2001 (14.6 Linear feet: Boxes 13-26, 33-35; 0.34 Gigabytes: ER0001)
Series 3: Hans Hofmann and the New York School, circa 1944-1996 (5.2 Linear feet: Boxes 26-32, 34)
Biographical / Historical:
Cynthia Goodman is an independent curator and writer born in, and currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is particularly well-known for her work with emergent art technologies, particularly those relevant to Computer Art. Cynthia Goodman received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. She curated the traveling exhibition Digital Visions: Computers and Art , Everson Museum of Art in 1987, and the InfoArt Pavilion at Kwangju Biennale (1995), co-curated with artist Nam June Paik. Both shows were accompanied by exhibition catalogs, the latter in CD-ROM format, innovated as one of the first of its kind. Following the success of the Digital Visions Cynthia briefly taught art history and aesthetics in the Master of Fine Arts program in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Goodman's early career was devoted to her investigations into the work and legacy of artist Hans Hofmann and his contemporaries, culminating in a PhD dissertation from University of Pennsylvania in 1982. She was awarded the position of Chester Dale Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Goodman worked on a catalogue raisonné for the artist and towards the end of her time organized Hans Hofmann as Teacher: Drawings by His Students, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. She also authored the monograph and exhibition catalog Hans Hofmann, for Abbeville Press in 1986 and organized a retrospective exhibition for the artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1990.
Goodman has acted as advisor to corporations including IBM, Polaroid, and Time Warner. In addition she acted as Director of the IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, New York from 1987-1990. She was appointed Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was Director of Arttransition '90, an international conference on art, science and technology.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2019 by Cynthia Goodman.
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.
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.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Cynthia Goodman papers, circa 1944-2001, bulk 1975-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Correspondence provides a wide range of documentation on all aspects of Kepes's career including his collaborations and friendships with artists, architects, writers, scientists, and fellow educators including Rudolf Arnheim, Alexander Calder, Henry Dreyfuss, Charles and Ray Eames, Clive Entwhistle, R. Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, S. W. Hayter, Jean Hélion, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Lev Nussberg, Robert Osborn, George Rickey, Saul Steinberg, Kenzo Tange, Robert Jay Wolff, and Jekabs Zvilna. Correspondence also documents the evolution of Kepes's vision for the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which he established in 1967, and his subsequent leadership of CAVS at M.I.T. Records document his collaborations with students and fellows including Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Margaret Mead, Otto Piene, Alan Sonfist, Athena Tacha, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, and Wen-Ying Tsai. Correspondents also include people who contributed to Kepes's Vision + Value series, including Michael Blee, Kazuhiko Egawa, Jean Hélion, and others. Correspondence includes three motion picture films, including what appears to be an early version of Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.
Writings include notes and manuscripts for articles and essays in which Kepes explored ideas evident in his books The New Landscape and Language of Vision, and submitted to publications such as Daedalus, Design, Domus, and Leonardo. Writings also include manuscripts for lectures, and draft manuscripts documenting Kepes's collaborative work with fellow M.I.T. professor Kevin Lynch on city planning, which culminated in Lynch's research project "The Perceptual Form of the City."
A small group of "Times Square Project" files documents Kepes's proposal for a lightscape in Times Square that was ultimately not realized.
Teaching files include sound recordings of circa five symposia and discussions held at M.I.T., the Illinois Institute of Technology, and elsewhere, some featuring Kepes and including Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen and others.
Exhibition files include documentation of three exhibitions, including Light as a Creative Medium (1968) and a Kepes exhibition at Saidenberg Gallery (1968). They also record Kepes's involvement in designing the 1968 Triennale di Milano.
Printed material includes a substantial collection of announcements and catalogs for Kepes exhibitions, lectures, and other events, and includes catalogs and announcements for scattered exhibitions of his wife, artist and illustrator, Juliet Kepes. Clippings from newspapers and magazines include articles about Kepes, and contain some copies of published writings and designs by him. The series also includes sound recordings and motion picture films containing original material for a CBS television series "The 21st Century," probably as part of the episode "Art for Tomorrow," which appear to feature M.I.T. fellows Jack Burnham and Vassilakis Takis. Another motion picture film of an Italian documentary "Operazione Cometa" can also be found here.
Two sketchbooks contain pen and ink and painted sketches by Kepes. Artwork by Kepes includes original poster designs, caricatures, and many pencil, and pen and ink sketches and paintings on paper and board, including designs for stained glass. Artwork by others includes ink on mylar sketches by D. Judelson and Konstancija Brazdys, and a sketch by Harold Tovish. Also found are circa seventeen motion picture films and four sound recordings, the majority of which are untitled and by unidentified artists, but include films by M.I.T. fellows Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, Wen-Ying Tsai, and others.
Photographs are of Kepes, Juliet Kepes, and other family members; students, colleagues, and friends, including R. Buckminster Fuller, Serge Chermayeff, Harry Bertoia, Varujan Boghosian, Alexander Calder, Marchall McLuhan, Margaret Mead, Herbert Read, I. A. Richards, Saul Steinberg, and William Wurster; and of Kepes in his studio. There are also photos of exhibition installations in which Kepes's work appeared or which he designed, and photos of his artwork and of images for publications which he wrote or edited. Photos by others include artwork by established artists and work by students, as well as photographs arranged by subjects such as cityscapes, forms found in nature, light patterns, mechanical devices, and photomicrographs. A collection of lantern slides with similar content to the photos of artwork and photos by subject is also found in this series and includes a lantern slide of Picasso creating a design with light.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eleven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1940-circa 1980 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 28)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1936-1984 (5.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-7, 28 OV 33, FCs 39-41)
Series 3: Interviews and Transcripts, 1954-1970 (4 folders; Box 7)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1948-circa 1980s (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 28)
Series 5: Times Square Project Files, 1972-1974 (6 folders; Box 9)
Series 6: Teaching Files Sound Recordings, circa 1953-1972 (0.7 linear feet; Box 9)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1958-1973 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 9-10)
Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1922-1989 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 10-12, 28-29, OVs 35, 37, FCs 42-49)
Series 9: Sketchbooks, circa 1940s-circa 1970s (2 folders; Box 12)
Series 10: Artwork and Moving Images, circa 1924-2003 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 12, 13, OVs 33-36, 38, FCs 50-62)
Series 11: Photographs, 1909-1988 (10.4 linear feet; Boxes 13-32)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, designer, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), was born in Selyp, Hungary, and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest. He worked with Moholy-Nagy in Berlin and London before joining him at the New Bauhaus (later the Chicago Institute of Design) in 1937.
Kepes taught courses at the New Bauhaus from 1937 to 1945, and published Language of Vision in 1944, summarizing the educational ideas and methods he had developed during his time at the institute. In 1946 he accepted a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) where he initiated a program in visual design.
In 1956 Kepes published The New Landscape in Art and Science, in which he presented images from nature that were newly accessible due to developments in science and technology, and explored his ideas for a common language between science and the visual arts.
In 1965, these ideas were apparent in Kepes's proposal of an expanded visual arts program at M.I.T., which would "build new as yet undetermined bridges between art and engineering and science," according to the minutes of an M.I.T. Art Committee meeting in March of that year. Kepes's vision dovetailed with M.I.T.'s vested interest in promoting the arts, and faculty and administrators were open to the argument that "The scientific-technical enterprise needs schooling by the artistic sensibilities." In 1967, they appointed Kepes Director of M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS).
Kepes retired from the regular faculty at M.I.T. in 1967, to focus on his role as director of CAVS, where he worked to provide artists with opportunities for exploring new artistic forms on a civic scale through a working dialogue with scientists and engineers. Early fellows of the center included Maryanne Amacher, Joan Brigham, Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, and Wen-Ying Tsai.
In 1965-1966 Kepes edited a six-volume series entitled Vision + Value, published by George Braziller, Inc. Each volume featured essays that centered around a core theme: The Education of Vision; Structure in Art and Science; The Nature and Art of Motion; Module, Symmetry, Proportion, Rhythm; Sign, Image, Symbol; and Man-Made Object. Contributions came from prominent artists, designers, architects, and scientists of the time including Rudolf Arnheim, Saul Bass, Marcel Breuer, John Cage, R. Buckminster Fuller, Johannes Itten, Marshall McLuhan, and Paul Rand.
Kepes experimented widely with photography, producing abstract images through the application of fluids and objects to photographic paper. He also took commercial work throughout his career, producing designs for all kinds of objects, including books and stained glass windows for churches. He returned to painting in the 1950s, and his development as a painter continued throughout his career at M.I.T., where he remained until his retirement in 1974, and beyond. His paintings, which were abstract and often incorporated organic shapes and hints of landscapes, can be found in museums such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Kepes received many awards during his lifetime, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1958); the Gold Star Award of the Philadelphia College of Art (1958); the National Association of Art Colleges Annual Award (1968); the California College of Art Award (1968); and the Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1968). In 1973 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full academician in 1978. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Related Materials:
Additional papers of Gyorgy Kepes can be found at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 1211) including ninety-eight letters to Kepes from colleagues, 1946-1974. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Gyorgy Kepes lent papers for microfilming in 1974 and donated material to the Archives of American Art in a series of gifts between 1974 and 1993.
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 copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce requires written permission from Juliet Kepes Stone or Imre Kepes. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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 Krzysztof Wodiczko, 2021 June 28-30. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
United States. General Services Administration. Design Excellence and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Athena Tacha, 2009 December 4-6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview with Krzysztof Wodiczko conducted 2021 June 28-30, by Annette C. Leddy for the Archives of American Art, at Wodiczko's studio in New York City.
Biographical / Historical:
Krzysztof Wodiczko (1943- ) is a Polish-born artist working in New York, New York, who creates large-scale videos and slides that are projected onto monuments and buildings. Wodiczo has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology.
Related Materials:
The Archives Also holds an interview with Krzysztof Wodiczko conducted 2020 July 23, by Benjamin Gillespie for the Archives of American Art.
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.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its Oral History Program interviews available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. Quotation, reproduction and publication of the recording is governed by restrictions. If an interview has been transcribed, researchers must quote from the transcript. If an interview has not been transcribed, researchers must quote from the recording. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
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 copies requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce requires written permission from Juliet Kepes Stone or Imre Kepes. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Collection Citation:
Gyorgy Kepes papers, 1909-2003, bulk 1935-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Otto Piene, 1988 Aug. 4-1990 Feb. 22. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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
Folder 14 Explorations (booklets published by NCFA, 1970, for an exhibition planned by the Fellows of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and organized by the International Art Program, NCFA, and held at NCFA,...
Container:
Box 9 of 21
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 333, National Collection of Fine Arts/National Portrait Gallery Library, Exhibition Records
An interview of Athena Tacha conducted 2009 December 4-6, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's U.S. General Services Administration, Design Excellence and the Arts oral history project, at Tacha's studio, in Washington, D.C.
Tacha speaks of her family and her childhood in rural Greece; of growing up during World War II and the Greek Civil War; her early interests in art; traveling to France on a Greek government sponsored scholarship; her education at the School of Fine Arts; obtaining a Master's at Oberlin College on a Fulbright scholarship; obtaining a Ph.D. in aesthetics and art history from the Sorbonne in Paris; her decision to move to the United States; her first job as a museum curator at Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum; her early shows in Ohio museums and galleries; her marriage to art historian Richard Spear; her decision to teach sculpture courses at Oberlin; her fellowship at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, a turning point in her career; her use of sculpture, light, and the environment to develop site-specific public art pieces and installations, thoroughly discussing all recent projects; her retirement from Oberlin College and move to Washington, DC; her creative process; the influences of her travels around the world on her environmentally-conscious art works; her thoughts on the American aesthetics, change, and temporary versus permanent sculpture; recent shows at Marsha Mateyka Gallery and Katzen Art Center and her recent public art installations in the Washington, DC area. Tacha also recalls her close friendship with Oberlin professor Ellen Johnson, André Chastel, and various art dealers and former students from Oberlin College.
Biographical / Historical:
Athena Tacha (1936- ) is an conceptual artist and photographer in Washington, D.C.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 compact disc. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 47 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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact reference Services for more information.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings and born-digital records with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Collection Citation:
Luis Cancel papers, circa 1900-1998, bulk 1970-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Biographical material; correspondence, including letters from artists, galleries, museum officials, universities and others, and copies of letters from Tovish to his family, editors, students, and others; manuscripts for lectures; art school course assignments; project files; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1942-1993 and price lists and checklists for exhibitions, 1974-1986; clippings of reviews, interviews and editorials, 1942-1991; 5 photographs of Tovish and his sculpture; and a small amount of material compiled by Tovish on other artists, such as Rodin; and terms of agreement for commission of a sculpted portrait of Washington University professor, Carl Cori.
REEL 5281: Fourteen photographs and eleven notes and letters between Tovish his wife, Mariana Pineda. Photographs show Tovish at ages 16, 20, 24; Tovish in Paris; Pineda in Paris, Utah and Hawaii, with Nina Tovish, with Harold Tovish, and Pineda immediately after her death. Letters and note cards are mostly personal, reflecting their family life, birthdays, and anniversaries.
Tovish was born in the Bronx to a poor Jewish immigrant family. As a result of his family becoming destitute after Tovish's father's death ca. 1929, he spent most of his childhood at the Hebrew Orphan asylum in Manhattan, where he studied sculpture under Andrew Berger. He worked on various WPA projects in the 1920s, studied sculpture with Oronzio Mandarelli at Columbia University (1940-1943), fought in Europe during WWII, and studied art in Paris under the GI Bill. Tovish married fellow student Marianna Packard Pineda in the late 1940s. After his noted teaching career began at the University of Minnesota (1951-1954), he again studied in Europe, and moved to Boston to teach at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1957. He served as one of the first Fellows at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, and later taught at Boston University (1971-1983). He exhibited widely, became active in anti-Vietnam War activities, and in the Boston Visual Artists Union.
Provenance:
Donated in 1997 and 1998 by Harold Tovish, except for 14 photographs and 11 items of correspondence between Tovish and Pineda which he lent for microfilming in 1997.
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.
The Robert Dell papers measure 0.5 linear feet and date from circa 1977 to 2013. The collection documents Dell's early career as an artist including key fellowships, residencies, and exhibitions. Correspondence is both professional and personal and relates to Robert Dell's public art projects in Iceland and the United States, grant applications, and personal matters. Noteworthy correspondents include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the sculptor William King, among others. Printed material includes broadsides, exhibition announcements, maps, posters, and clippings related to Dell's work, installations, and exhibitions. Also included is a drawing of Dell's sculpture Hitavaettur from April 1991.
Scope and Contents:
The Robert Dell papers measure 0.5 linear feet and date from circa 1977 to 2013. The collection documents Dell's early career as an artist including key fellowships, residencies, and exhibitions. Correspondence is both professional and personal and relates to Robert Dell's public art projects in Iceland and the United States, grant applications, and personal matters. Noteworthy correspondents include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the sculptor William King, among others. Printed material includes broadsides, exhibition announcements, maps, posters, and clippings related to Dell's work, installations, and exhibitions. Also included is a drawing of Dell's sculpture Hitavaettur from April 1991.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Dell (born 1950) is a sculptor and engineer living in New York City. As a visual artist Dell completed a formative residency at the MacDowell Colony in 1977 where he befriended the sculptor William King. In 1988 he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship to Iceland where he created his best-known sculpture Hitavaettur, which means "guardian of geothermal hot water" in Icelandic. This work epitomized Dell's combined engagement with earth sciences and sculpture and laid the foundation for his work as an engineer and inventor. In 1991 Dell completed a Research Artist Fellowship at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies after exhibiting Hitavaettur at the MIT Museum the previous year. Robert Dell is the founding director of the Center for Innovation and Applied Technology and the Laboratory for Energy Reclamation and Innovation at the Cooper Union, where he is also Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is the primary author of ten patents as well as many peer-reviewed scientific articles.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Robert Dell in 2013 and 2019.
Restrictions:
Use of 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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Otto Piene conducted 1988 Aug. 4-1990 Feb. 22, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Cambridge, MA.
Piene speaks of his childhood in Westphalia, Germany; his World War II military service; the decision to become an artist; training in Dusseldorf, 1949-1952; the founding of Group Zero with Heinz Mack in Dusseldorf, 1957-1966; visits to the United States in the 1960s and some of his early work and exhibitions; his work as director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, beginning in 1974; some of his light and Sky Art projects, including Sky Art Conferences; and support for art and technology projects and education in the US and in Europe. Piene also recalls Heinz Mack, Günter Meisner, György Kepes, Howard Wise, Stan VanDerBeek, Charlotte Moorman and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Otto Piene (1928- ) is a painter and art administrator from Cambridge, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 13 digital wav files. Duration is 9 hr., 52 min.
First cassette begins with some distortion, lasting approximately one minute. Side B of cassette 2 was recorded in three parts due to tape defect in original, with no loss of content. Cassette 6 only recorded on side A.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge -- Interviews Search this
Arts administrators -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge -- Interviews Search this
