Panel discussion: "Glimpses of some early departments of the history of art in the U.S.A.", 1987 Feb. 13. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- United States Search this
Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Ala.) Search this
Citation:
Southern Rim 2 [videorecording] :the narrative tradition in the arts /Birmingham-Southern College and the Birmingham Museum of Art, sponsors, undated. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and nine scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and scrapbooks.
Correspondence is with colleagues, artists, museums, and galleries concerning a wide variety of topics, including exhibitions and publications. The bulk of the correspondence consists of alphabetical files (two linear feet) that includes correspondence with artists. Notable correspondents include Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gordon Onslow Ford, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Graves, Philip Guston, Dimitri Hadzi, Jacques Lipchitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Jean Tinguely, and others. Eight additional files of chronological correspondence is with curators, arts organizations, and publishers. Additional correspondence is found in the professional files, project files, membership files, artists' research files, and exhibition files.
The bulk of the writings series is comprised of files related to Selz's books and includes typescript drafts and galleys, printed and digital material, correspondence, and publishing contracts. Files are found for Art in Our Times, Art of Engagement, Beyond the Mainstream, and Theories of Modern Art. Other writings consist of drafts of articles, essays, notes, and lectures by Selz. Also included are writings by others, including materials related to Paul Karlstrom's biography of Selz.
Professional files document curatorial and teaching positions at the Chicago Institute of Design, Pomona College, University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art. The series includes contracts, recommendations, syllabi, and correspondence.
Project files document Selz's professional work on specific art projects, panels, and symposiums. There is extensive documentation of Selz's work as project director of Christo's Running Fence, as well as other environmental art work projects by Christo, the Berkeley Art Project, Disney Art Project, "Funk Art" symposium, and the "Art and Politics in the 20th Century" symposium. Project files contain a wide variety of materials, such as correspondence, printed material, financial records, reports, photographs, and other documents. There are 2 tape reels, 1 VHS, and 1 sound cassette.
Membership and association records document Selz's involvement with or membership in various art councils, trustee boards, such as the College Art Association, Art in Chicago Advisory Committee, Bay Area Rapid Transit (B.A.R.T.) Art Council, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum Advisory Board, among others. Materials include meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, and memoranda.
Artists' Research Files consist of a wide variety of research materials Selz compiled about artists for lectures, writings, projects, exhibitions, etc. Files vary and may include original and photocopied correspondence, photographic material, resumes, printed and digital material, and writings. There is also 1 sound cassette. Files are found for Bedri Baykam, Max Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Ciel Bergman, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Bruce Conner, Jean Dubuffet, Lyonel Feininger, Leon Golub, Dimitri Hadzi, Rico Lebrun, Harold Paris, Irving Petlin, among many others.
Exhibition files include catalogs, reviews, clippings, writings, correspondence, and other material documenting exhibitions organized by Selz. Limited materials are found for the MOMA Art Nouveau exhibition. More extensive documentation is found for Seven Decades of Modern Art, 1895-1965, The Joint Show (1967), The American Presidency in Political Cartoons (1976), American Modern Art Between the Two World Wars (1979), German Realism in the Twenties: Artist As Social Critic (1980), Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (1989), a Richard Lindner Retrospective (1996), Spaces of Nature (1999), Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000 (2000), and a Nathan Oliviera Retrospective (2002), among others. Some of the materials are in digital format.
Personal business records are related to the Mark Rothko estate and Kate Rothko's legal case against Marlborough Gallery, Inc. Also included in this series are Peter Selz's school transcripts, bequests, royalty statements, house designs, and other material.
Printed materials include clippings, prints of articles written by Peter Selz, exhibition announcements and invitations, and photocopies of artwork images.
There are nine disbound scrapbooks dating from the 1940s up through 2012 containing clippings, exhibition announcements, and photographs of art events, Selz, and artists. This series also includes materials from the 2018 addition that may have previously been compiled in binders.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 10 series. When possible the original order of Peter Selz was maintained. However, multiple accessions were merged and integrated.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-2013 (2.3 linear feet; Box 1-3, Box 37)
Series 2: Writings, 1942- circa 2014 (8.3 linear feet; Box 3-10, OV 32, Box 37, 0.035 GB; ER01, ER12)
Series 3: Professional Files, 1949-2012 (1 linear feet; Box 11, Box 37)
Series 4: Project Files, 1962-2015 (2.8 linear feet; Box 12-14, OV 33, Box 37)
Series 5: Membership and Association Records, 1958-2014 (1.1 linear feet; Box 14-15, Box 37)
Series 6: Artists' Research Files, 1955-2014 (7.9 linear feet; Box 15-22, OV 34-35, 0.520 GB; ER02-ER08)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1959-2014 (5.2 linear feet; Box 23-27, Box 38, 0.093 GB; ER09-ER11)
Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1929-2014 (1.2 linear feet; Box 28-29, OV 36, Box 38)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1957-2014 (0.3 linear feet; Box 29, Box 38)
Series 10: Scrapbooks, 1947-2018 (1.4 linear feet, Box 29-31, Box 38)
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019) was a pioneering historian of modern art, professor, and writer who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-1988 and founded and directed the Berkeley Art Museum from 1965-1973.
Selz was born in 1919 in Munich, Germany to Eugene Selz and Edith Drey Selz. In 1936, the family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. Selz attended Columbia University from 1937 to 1938 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. During World War II, Selz served in the U.S. Army in the Office of Strategic Services. He married writer Thalia Cheronis in 1948 but they later divorced in 1965; he married several times afterwards.
After the war, Selz attended and taught at the University of Chicago where he received a Ph. D. in German Expressionism. He spent a year in Paris, 1949-1950, at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre on a Fulbright grant. He received a second Fulbright grant in 1953 to study at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Belgium. From 1953-1955, Selz also taught at the Chicago Institute of Design.
In 1955 Peter Selz accepted a position to chair the art history department at Pomona College in Claremont and relocated to California for a few years. He also became director of the college's art gallery.
In 1958 Selz moved to New York City to become curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and was there through the transformative mid-1960s. While at MOMA, he organized several significant exhibitions of modern art, including the 1960 Jean Tinguely "Homage to New York," a sculpture that destroyed itself (and started a fire) in the sculpture garden of the museum; New Images of Man (1959), the Art Nouveau show (1960), and the Art of Assemblage (1961). He also launched important retrospectives, including the first Rodin retrospective in the United States and a comprehensive exhibition of Alberto Giacometti's work in 1965.
In 1965, Peter Selz returned to California to become the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he held until 1973. He organized exhibitions of Funk, film, and ceramicists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. Peter Selz later became project director for Christo's "Running Fence", the 24.5-mile long fabric fence over the Marin County hills in 1976. He also served concurrently as a professor of art history at UC until retiring in 1988.
Peter Selz was a member of the College Art Association's board of directors for two terms, 1958-1964 and 1966-1971. Selz is a prolific writer, and the author or co-author of numerous books, exhibition catalogs, and articles. Notable books include German Expressionist Painting (1957), Art in a Turbulent Era (1965), Art in Our Times (1981), and Sam Francis (1975).
In 1988 Peter Selz was named emeritus professor at University of California, Berkeley. In 1993 he was on the acquisitions committee of the Museums of Fine Arts, San Francisco. In 2012, Selz curated The Painted Word exhibition. Selz died in 2019 in Albany, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews of Peter Selz conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom on July 28, 1982, October 12, 1982, and November 3, 1999.
Provenance:
The Peter Howard Selz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Peter Selz in multiple installments from 1976 through 2014. Additional papers were donated in 2018 by Gabrielle Selz, Peter Selz's daughter.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
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.
Peter Howard Selz papers, 1929-2018, bulk 1950-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the 2014 processing of this collection was provided by the Frederick Hammersley Foundation. Funding for the processing of the 2018 addition was provided by Gerald and Bente Buck.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
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:
Midtown Galleries records, 1904-1997. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
The papers of ceramist William P. Daley measure 15.2 linear feet and date from 1905-2004 (bulk 1951-2001). The collection documents Daley's career as both artist and teacher through biographical information, correspondence, exhibition files, project files, material on workshops, seminars, and lectures, teaching files, artist files, reference files, printed material, photographs, financial files, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of ceramist William Daley measure 15.2 linear feet and date from 1905-2004 (bulk 1951-2001). The collection documents Daley's career as both artist and teacher through biographical information, correspondence, exhibition files, project files, material on workshops, seminars, and lectures, teaching files, artist files, reference files, printed material, photographs, financial files, and artwork.
Biographical files encompass items from Daley's early life including family, education, and military materials, as well as files on awards he has earned, and interviews he has given during his career. Correspondence includes general correspondence with family, friends, artists, colleagues, and schools, as well as named files on correspondence with galleries, organizations, and individuals. The largest series in the collection, Exhibition Files, spanning a fifty year period, contain materials on group and solo exhibitions in which Daley participated, and also includes Auction Files and Exhibition Juror Files. Project Files contain materials related to public and private commissions.
Workshops, Seminars, and Lectures, documents the numerous events at which Daley taught or spoke on topics of art, ceramics, and/or education. Many of these topics are also found in Writings, which include drafts of writings by Daley and others. Within this series Daley's personal address lists and calendars are also found. The Teaching Files provide insight into Daley's teaching methods, primarily at the Philadelphia College of Art, from materials such as curriculum plans, lesson notes, and assignments. Also within this series are general teaching notes which contain many hand drawn diagrams. The Artist Files that Daley created house materials concerning artists who were friends, former students, co-workers, and colleagues. Daley also compiled Reference Files containing materials on various topics for use in teaching and projects. Topics include the art of various countries, formulas and tables for ceramics, essays on art and education, and other general subjects. Printed Material provides information, primarily on ceramics, through press clippings, exhibit announcements, catalogs and journals, as well as other miscellaneous materials. Also found are reviews of Daley's work. While photographs are included throughout the collection, the Photographs series contains additional photographs of Daley in the studio or in the classroom, as well as photographs of artwork by others. Also found in the collection are copies of drawings Daley completed throughout his career.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into thirteen series. Each series is arranged either in rough chronological or alphabetical order.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Files, 1905-2003 (Box 1; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1957-2001, undated (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1949-1999, undated (Boxes 3-5; 2.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Project Files, 1956-2000 (Boxes 5-6; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 5: Workshops, Seminars, and Lectures, 1958-1998, undated, (Boxes 6-8; 2.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Writings, 1951-2003, undated (Box 9; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Teaching Files, 1951-1998, undated (Boxes 9-10; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 8: Artist Files, 1938-2001, undated (Boxes 10-12; 2.1 linear feet)
Series 9: Reference Files, 1951-2001, undated (Box 13; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 10: Printed Material, 1936-2004 (Boxes 14-15; 1.9 linear feet)
Series 11: Photographs, 1953-2001, undated (Box 15; 5 folders)
Series 12: Financial Files, 1962-1997, undated (Box 16; 4 folders)
Series 13: Artwork, 1954-2003, undated (Boxes 15-16; 3 folders)
Biographical Note:
Born in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, in 1925, William P. Daley developed an interest in art at an early age, and was encouraged by his parents William and Alice. In 1943 Daley finished high school and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. When the war ended, he returned home, and with the help of the G.I. Bill, completed a B.S. in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art, and a M.A. from the Teachers College at Columbia University. While at the Massachusetts College of Art he met and married fellow student Catherine Stennes. They had three children together, Barbara, Charlotte, and Thomas.
Originally intending to focus on painting, Daley discovered his love for ceramics while in art school. Much of his early work after graduation consisted of architectural and sculptural commissions. From 1961 to 1965 he held teaching positions as a ceramics instructor at the University of Northern Iowa, State University of New York at New Paltz, Philadelphia College of Art and Design, and the State University of New York at Fredonia. In 1965 he settled in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and returned to the Philadelphia College of Art and Design, University of the Arts. There he taught in both the Industrial Design and Craft Department until his retirement from the college in 1990. When not teaching in the classroom, and even after retirement, Daley traveled extensively giving workshops and lectures at art centers, high schools, colleges, and universities. He has won several awards for teaching in the arts, including the College Art Association of America Distinguished Teaching of Art Award in 1991.
Daley became an active member of the crafts movement in Philadelphia, co-founding the Philadelphia Council of Professional Craftsmen. The Helen Drutt Gallery opened in Philadelphia in 1974 and gave Daley his first one man show there. Later, the gallery would become Daley's primary dealer. A self-proclaimed "mud man" and maker of "cosmic pots," Daley has focused throughout his career on the issues of the ceramic vessel, using drawings to explore his ideas. In 1994 the Renwick Gallery held a retrospective entitled, "William Daley: Ceramic Works and Drawings" which featured thirty years of his work. William Daley is still producing new work today.
Provenance:
The William P. Daley papers were donated by Daley in 2003.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with S. Lane Faison, 1981 December 14. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Lia Cook, 2006 August 22-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Lia Cook conducted 2006 August 22-29, by Suzanne Baizerman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in the artist's studio, in Berkeley, California.
Cook speaks of her childhood in California; studying political science at University of California, Berkeley; being strongly influenced by the textiles of Mexican cultures; studying weaving at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design and Handarbetets Vänner in Stockholm, Sweden; attending graduate school at Berkeley under Ed Rossbach; a strong interest in photography; teaching experiences at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts; participating in the Lausanne International Biennial of Tapestry in Switzerland; the impact of the digital Jacquard loom on the development of her work; travels throughout Europe and Japan; commission work; experiences with Allrich Gallery, Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, and Perimeter Gallery; series Fabric Landscape, Material Pleasure, Point of Touch, Presence/Absence, and Anatomy of a Portrait; her involvement with American Craft Council, European Textile Network, and College Art Association; and the importance of teaching in her life. Cook also recalls Gyongy Laky, Nance O'Banion, Deborah Rappaport, Sheila Hicks, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Peter and Ritzi Jacobi, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Lia Cook (1942- ) is a textile painter of Berkeley, California. Suzanne Baizerman (1942- ) is an independent curator of Alameda, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 11 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 23 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:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Fiber artists -- California -- Berkeley Search this
An interview of S. Lane Faison conducted 1981 December 14, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Faison discusses his activities during World War II teaching aircraft and ship recognition, gathering information related to art looted by the Nazis, preparing a report that described how Hitler's art collection was formed, and the distribution of unclaimed furniture; the role of the College Art Association during the 1950s-1960s; and his guide to art museums in New England.
Biographical / Historical:
S. Lane Faison (1907-2006) was an art historian in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel and 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 40 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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
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:
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of the collection was funded by the Getty Grant Program; digitization of the collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
