The papers of the artist Gene Davis measure 17.7 linear feet and date from 1920-2000, with the bulk of materials dating from 1942-1990. Papers document Davis's personal life and his career as an artist and educator, as well as his career as a journalist in the 1940s and 1950s, through biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, business records, estate records, writings by and about Gene Davis, printed materials concerning Davis's art career, personal and art-related photographs, and artwork by Davis and others.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of the artist Gene Davis measure 17.7 linear feet and date from 1920-2000, with the bulk of materials dating from 1942-1990. Papers document Davis's personal life and his career as an artist and educator, and to a lesser degree his early career as a journalist in the 1940s and 1950s, through biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, business records, estate records, writings by and about Gene Davis, printed materials concerning Davis's art career, personal and art-related photographs, and artwork by Davis and others.
Biographical materials include birth and death certificates, awards, biographical narratives by Gene Davis and others, CVs, résumés, personal documents from Davis's family and childhood, documents related to his work as a White House correspondent, documentation related to his death and memorial service, and papers for the family pets. A video documentary about Davis by Carl Colby is found on one videocassette.
Correspondence is mainly of a professional nature, and correspondents include gallery and museum curators, private art collectors, publishers, fellow artists, art educators, academics, and students. Letters document exhibitions, sales, book projects, teaching jobs, visits to studios, local art community events in the Washington, D.C. area, and other projects. Significant correspondents include Gene Baro, Douglas Davis, Clement Greenberg, Gerald Nordland, William Seitz, Alma Thomas, and Donald Wall. Interviews and lectures include sound recordings and transcripts. Many of the interviews were broadcast or published. Also found is a single lecture by Davis given in 1969 at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, entitled "Contemporary Painting." Sound recordings are found for three of the interviews and for the lecture, on 4 sound reels and 1 sound cassette.
Business records include artwork documentation, price lists, sales records, contracts, financial and legal records, gallery and museum files documenting sales and exhibitions, records related to the construction of Davis's home studio in 1970, and a few teaching records. Estate records mainly reflect Florence Davis's efforts to document the works of her husband, and to manage their exhibition, promotion, and sale after his death in April 1985. Estate records include an inventory of artworks, documentation of gifts to museums, correspondence, legal, and financial records. Writings include notes, drafts of essays, artist statements, and articles by Davis, and many articles by others about Davis. Several of Davis's articles reflect specifically on the Washington, D.C. art scene. Also found are drafts of monographs on Davis including one by Donald Wall (1975) and one by Steven Naifeh (1982). Records of Naifeh's book also include photographs of all black and white and color plates from the published book. Among the writings are also notes and research files of Percy North, who worked on an update to Naifeh's 1982 bibliography after Davis's death.
Printed materials include annual reports of museums, published arts-related calendars, auction catalogs, brochures from organizations with which Davis had some affiliation, exhibition announcements and invitations, exhibition catalogs, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, newsletters, posters, press releases, and other published material. Photographs include personal photographs of Gene and Florence Davis and their families, portraits of Gene Davis, photographs of Gene Davis with artworks and working in the studio, Davis' art classes and students, installations of site-specific works, conceptual and video works, exhibition openings, and photographs of artwork, both installed in exhibitions and individually photographed. Found among the photographs are also four videocassettes documenting the Gene Davis retrospective as installed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art in 1987.
Artwork includes photographs, drawings, moving images, and documentation of conceptual art. Works by Davis include documentation of the 1969 "Giveaway" with Douglas Davis and Ed McGowin, "The Artist's Fingerprints Except for One which belongs to someone else," documentation of his "Air Displacement" happening, a short film entitled "Patricia," and a video entitled "Video Puzzle." Other moving images include four reels of film of Davis's stripe paintings, and other experiments with motion picture film and photographs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1930-1987 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 1, 17)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-1990 (1.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 3: Interviews and Lectures, 1964-1983 (0.3 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 4: Business and Estate Records, 1942-1990 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 3-5, 17, OV 20)
Series 5: Writings, 1944-1990 (2 linear feet; Boxes 5-6, 17, OV 19)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1942-1990 (5.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-11, 17-18, OV 20, FC 35-37)
Series 7: Photographs, 1920-2000 (3.8 linear feet; Boxes 11-15, 17, OV 19)
Series 8: Artwork, 1930-1985 (2.2 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 18, FC 21-34)
Biographical / Historical:
Gene Davis (1920-1985) was a Washington, D.C.-based artist and educator who worked in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, collage, video, light sculpture, and conceptual art. Davis is best known for his vertical stripe paintings and his association with the Washington Color School.
Davis was born in 1920 in Washington, D.C. and began his career as a writer. In his twenties he wrote pulp stories and worked as a journalist, reporting for United Press International and serving as a White House correspondent for Transradio Press Service during the Truman administration. Later, he worked in public relations for the Automobile Association of America. A self-taught artist, Davis began painting while still working full-time as a writer, influenced by the prevailing abstract expressionist artists of the time, his frequent visits to the Corcoran Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and by his friend and mentor, Jacob Kainen. His first one-man show was held in the lobby of the Dupont Theater in Washington in 1952. He had a drawing accepted in the Corcoran Area Show in 1953, and won several local art prizes in the 1950s. He began showing work regularly in galleries around Washington, such as the Watkins Gallery at American University, the Gres Gallery, and the Henri Gallery, and had solo exhibitions at Jefferson Place Gallery in 1959 and 1961. Many of the painters who made up what became known as the Washington Color School also showed there, including Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, and Sam Gilliam. In 1965, the Washington Gallery of Modern Art held a seminal exhibition entitled Washington Color Painters, which included Davis, Noland, Mehring, Morris Louis, Thomas Downing, and Paul Reed.
Davis began showing outside of Washington regularly in the 1960s, including the Poindexter and Fischbach galleries in New York City, and in several important group shows at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He had three works shown in the 1964 exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction, organized by the influential art critic Clement Greenberg at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the late 1960s, he began teaching art classes at the Corcoran School, and spent the summer of 1969 as artist in residence at Skidmore College's "Summer in Experiment" program.
Davis experimented with form continuously throughout his career, including a period of conceptual work in the late 1960s. In 1969 he participated in the "Giveaway," organized by Douglas Davis and Ed McGowin, in which multiple copies of a Davis painting were given away to invited guests in a gesture intended to subvert the art market. Davis also began experimenting with scale, creating a series of tiny paintings he called "Micro-paintings," which were exhibited at Fischbach Gallery in 1968. Around this time he also began working with film and video, recruiting models from his art classes to enact tightly choreographed movement pieces that played with rhythm and interval. Convinced by a lawyer that his videos were a liability without having obtained releases from the models, Davis destroyed all but one of his video works. The surviving video, "Video Puzzle," shows a foreshortened view of a model on the floor of a gallery spelling out a statement by Clement Greenberg at predetermined intervals.
Davis made several large-scale site-specific works using the stripe motif in public places. The first of these was created in the Bal Harbour, Florida, Neiman Marcus department store in 1970. Later works included Franklin's Footpath, executed in the road leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1972, and Niagara (1979) at ArtPark in Lewistown, NY, promoted at the time as the largest painting in the world. Interior large-scale works were created twice at the Corcoran Gallery, with Magic Circle (1975) and Ferris Wheel (1982), both executed in the museum's rotunda. Black Yo-Yo was created for the Cranbrook Academy in 1980, and Sun Sonata (1983), an illuminated wall of colored liquid-filled tubes, was created as an architectural feature of the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia. Plans for an unexecuted work called "Grass Painting," for a site near the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., were exhibited in the 1974 "Art Now" festival.
In the late 1970s and 1980s Davis consistently exhibited his work in several solo gallery shows a year, and also had numerous solo exhibitions in major museums. A major exhibition, Recent Paintings, was organized by the Walker Art Center in 1978, and traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1979. A drawing retrospective was held at the Brooklyn Museum of art in 1983, and the same year the Washington Project for the Arts organized an exhibition entitled Child and Man: A Collaboration, featuring drawings Davis made in response to childrens' drawings. Davis died suddenly in April 1985 at the age of 65, and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art in 1987.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Gene Davis conducted by Estill Curtis Pennington on April 23, 1981. A transcript is available on the Archives of American Art website.
Provenance:
Donated 1981 by Gene Davis and 1986 by his wife, Florence. Additional material donated 1991 and 1993 from Smithsonian American Art Museum via a bequest to them from the Gene and Florence Davis estate. Much of the 1993 addition was assembled by art historian Percy North at the request of Florence Davis. An additional folder of photographs of Davis taken in 1969 but printed in 2000 was later added to the collection.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Reporters and reporting -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
An interview of V. V. Rankine conducted 1990 Mar. 2-22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Rankine discusses the evolution of her nickname, V.V.; discovering her dyslexia; growing up in Boston; auditioning for a part in, "The Philadelphia Story"; her art studies with Amedee Ozenfant from 1944 to 1946; her studies at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers and Willem De Kooning in 1947; her friendship with Morris Louis and watching him work; living with her brother-in-law Arshile Gorky, in New York City; her first one-woman show at the David Herbert Gallery in New York in 1962; exhibiting at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York and at the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Robert Richman and the Institute of Contemporary Arts; the relationship between her painting and her sculpture; favorite shapes and materials; and her summer home in East Hampton and artist friends there. Rankine also recalls Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Youngerman, Manoucher Yektai, Betty Parsons, Ibram Lassaw, Buckminster Fuller, Elaine De Kooning, Arthur Penn, Richard Leopold, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Ken Noland, Morris Louis, Ray Johnson, Kenneth Snelson, David Hare, Frederick Kiesler, Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, Jean Renault, Agnes Gorky, Esther Magruder, James Johnson Sweeney, Jim Brooks, John Graham, Phillip Guston, Duncan Phillips, Theresa Helburn, Augustine Duncan, Tom Downing, Gene Davis, Alice Denney, Nesta Dorrance, Kevin Merrill, Sam Gilliam, Dylan Thomas, Kay Halle, Kit Kennedy, Naum Gabo, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Anne Truitt, Wretha Nelson, Franz Bader, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Bonnie Newman, Alexander Russo, Walt Sheridan, Gilbert Kinney, Saul Sherman, Steve Pace, Lee Krasner, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
V.V. Rankine (1920-2004) was a painter and sculptor from Washington, D.C. Variable forms of the artist's name are notably E. R. (Elvine Richard) Rankine, Vivian Scott Rankine, and her married name, Mrs. Paul Scott.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 53 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.
The records of New York City Fischbach Gallery measure 39.5 linear feet and date from 1937 to 2015, with the bulk of materials dating from 1963 to 1977. The majority of the collection consists of artists files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's relationship with its stable of modern and avant garde artists, as well as gallery exhibitions. Files include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. Gallery records also include general business correspondence, access-restricted financial records; and additional printed materials. The 2015 addition of 14 linear feet consists of inventory and client sales records in the form of card indexes. The 2019 addition consists of material related to Marilyn Fischbach's art collection.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of New York City Fischbach Gallery measure 39.5 linear feet and date from 1937 to 2015, with the bulk of materials dating from 1963 to 1977. The majority of the collection consists of artists files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's relationship with its stable of modern and avant garde artists, as well as gallery exhibitions. Files include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. Gallery records also include general business correspondence, access-restricted financial records; and additional printed materials.
Artists and Exhibition Files contain information on over one hundred Fischbach Gallery artists and measure 18 linear feet. The contents of each file varies, but typically may include biographical information; correspondence between the artist, museums, and other galleries; scattered consignment information; printed materials including articles, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and press releases; photographs of the artist, installations, constructions, and works of art; and negatives, slides, and transparencies. Substantial files are found for John Altoon, Stephen Antonakos, Ronald Bladen, Wynn Chamberlain, Allan D'Arcangelo, Gene Davis, Anne Dunn, Piero Gilardi, Eva Hesse, Alex Katz, Nicholas Krushenick, Les Levine, Robert Mangold, Doug Ohlson, Anne Ryan, Robert Ryman, Arlene Slavin, Tony Smith, George Sugarman, and Robert Swain, among others. Also included are files pertaining to group exhibitions including "According to the Letter" (1963), "Hard Center" (1963), "Six Women" (1965), "Game Without Rules" (1966), "Direct Representation" (1969), and "Eccentric Abstraction" (1966) which was organized by Lucy Lippard.
General gallery correspondence is business correspondence between the gallery and companies, individuals, museums, galleries, dealers, new or non-Fischbach artists, and institutions. Additional business records consist of an address book, lists of Fischbach artists, gallery plans, a notebook, as well as guest lists, mailing lists, and press lists.
Financial records are access restricted and require written permission from the donor's representative for use. The files document financial transactions for many of the artists represented in the artists files and includes sales records, invoices, artists' payments, and correspondence about sales and possible sales. The alphabetical financial files document routine gallery business, such as framing, shipping, insurance, messenger, publicity, etc. and are organized by name of business. General financial files consist of accounting ledgers, banking documents, insurance claims, and travel accounts.
Printed materials consist of various business cards, clippings concerning the Fischbach Gallery, and a pamphlet by Ron Williams as a guide to New York galleries. The bulk of printed materials are found in the Artists and Exhibition Files.
A small series of photographs include those from the Thiabaut Gallery, and unidentified photos of landscapes. It is likely that Fischbach Gallery occupied the space previously used by the Thiabaut Gallery and some materials were included in the collection for that reason. The bulk of photographic materials are found in the Artists and Exhibition Files.
In 2015, 14 feet of records were added to the collection. The addition consists of inventory and client sales records in the form of card indexes. The addition is access-restricted until 2065.
A 2019 addition of 0.2 linear feet, consisting of material related to Marilyn Fischbach's art collection, was processed in 2020.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Artists and Exhibitions Files, 1937-1977 (Boxes 1-18, 28; 18 linear feet)
Series 2: Gallery Correspondence, 1962-1974 (Boxes 18-19; 1.75 linear feet)
Series 3: Business Records, 1969-1971 (Box 27; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Financial Records, 1963-1975 (Boxes 20-25; 4.5 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1963-1972 (Box 26; 6 folders)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1960s (Box 26; 2 folders)
Series 7: Inventory Card Indexes, circa 1960s-2015 (12.1 linear feet; Box 29-41)
Series 8: Client Sales Card Index, circa 1970s-2000s (1.9 linear feet; Box 41-42)
Series 9: Marilyn Fischbach Collection Records, circa 1975-2000 (0.2 linear feet; Box 43)
Historical Note:
The Fischbach Gallery was founded in 1960 by Marilyn Cole Fischbach at 799 Madison Avenue in New York City. The gallery was noted for its stable of minimalist young artists in the 1960s, and the work of the painterly realists in the 1970s. The gallery remains open today.
During its early years, the gallery was among the first to focus on 1960s avant-garde and minimalist artists. Marilyn possessed a talent for discovering young artists and for helping them advance their careers. Many of these young artists became well-known, including Ronald Bladen, Eva Hesse, and Alex Katz. Other artists represented by the gallery include Allan D'Arcangelo, Les Levine, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, George Sugarman, and Robert Swain.
The gallery also had an active exhibition schedule and organized and hosted group exhibitions of modern art, including "According to the Letter" (1963), "Hard Center" (1963), and "Direct Representation" (1969). Additionally, the Fishbach Gallery hosted "Eccentric Abstraction" in 1966, an exhibition organized by Lucy Lippard.
Later, the gallery moved to W. 57th Street in Manhattan. Fischbach hired A. Aladar Marberger as director of the gallery. Under his direction, the Fischbach Gallery shifted from the avant-garde to contemporary American realism and minimalist sculpture. In the 1980s, Marilyn Fischbach brought three investors into the gallery. She remined a co-owner, but lived in Paris, France for many years prior to her death at the age of seventy-two. The Fischbach Gallery remains open at 210 West 11th Street at 25th Street in New York City.
Provenance:
Gallery founder Marilyn C. Fischbach and director A. Aladar Marberger donated the majority of the Fischbach Gallery records in 1978. Additional records were donated in 2001 by Maureen Dawley on behalf of the Carnegie Mellon University and in 2015 and in 2019 by John Fischbach, Marilyn C. Fischbach's son.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Written permission from the donor is also required to view the series of financial records and the 2015 addition of card indexes. Contact the Reference Services Department 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.
The records of the B. R. Kornblatt Gallery of Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. measure 4.1 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1992. The collection consists primarily of artists' files along with a few exhibition files and sales records.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the B. R. Kornblatt Gallery of Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. measure 4.1 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1992. The collection consists primarily of artists' files along with a few exhibition files and sales records.
Exhibition files are found for the Chicago International Art Exposition (1983-1988), the International Sculpture '90 (1990) exhibition, and exhibitions of African art. Artists' files contain correspondence, photographs and slides, resumes, and financial and printed material for numerous artists associated with the gallery or of interest to the gallery, including Mel Chin, Jerry Clapsaddle, Gene Davis, John Ferguson, Wolf Kahn, Willem de Looper, Helen Frankenthaler, Ronnie Landfield, Manuel Neri, Sol LeWitt, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Karl Rosenberg, Amalie Rothschild, Frank Stella, Michael Todd, John Van Alstine, and others. The collection also contains sales records.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Exhibition Files, 1981-1990 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Artists' Files, 1971-1992 (3.0 linear feet; Box 1-4, OV 5)
Series 3: Sales Records, 1988-1992 (0.5 linear feet; Box 4)
Biographical / Historical:
Barbara R. Kornblatt established the B. R. Kornblatt Gallery in 1975 on 326 North Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland. The gallery specialized in American painting, sculpture, and works on paper. In 1980, Kornblatt moved the gallery to 406 Seventh Street, N.W. in Washington, D. C. where it became the mainstay of downtown commercial art galleries. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gallery began feeling the effects of the economic recession, and then suffered a fire in the building. Kornblatt closed the gallery in 1991.
Provenance:
The B.R. Kornblatt Gallery records were donated by Barbara R. Kornblatt in 1992.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the 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.
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Extent:
2 Sound recordings (open reel, 1/4 inch)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place:
Washington (D.C.)
Atlanta (Ga.)
United States
Date:
1983
Scope and Contents:
Interviews with Dana Cook, Francis Fralin, and David Bronson for Stovall Workshop Inc. Slide Show, which focused on the formation of Workshop by Lou Stovall and Lloyd McNeill from its origins at the Corcoran Gallery of Art to its current location in northwest Washington, D.C. Cook, an illustrator and printmaker, discusses her experience working with and learning from Stovall at Workshop. Fralin speaks of Walter Hopps' outreach program idea leading to a relationship between Stovall and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, development of the Workshop at the Corcoran Gallery Dupont Circle, Stovall's and McNeill's poster collaboration, Stovall's silkscreening and drawing, Di Stovall's art and imagination, and other Workshop and Corcoran artists, including Sam Gilliam, David Bronson and Gene Davis. Bronson, a technician and craftsman, discusses his role at Workshop: helping to set up Workshop at Corcoran, learning silk screen process, working in woodshop, and creating prints for artists, including Ed McGowin for Name Change exhibition at Baltimore Museum of Art. All speak of Stovall's personality as a person, teacher and leader, particularly his perfectionist nature and high standards.
Interviews for slide show about Stovall Workshop Inc. Part of Through Their Eyes: The Art of Lou and Di Stovall Audiovisual Records. Dana Cook interview dated 19830801: AV003309-1. Frances Fralin interview dated 19830809: AV003309-1 and AV003309-2. David Bronson interview dated 19830810: AV003314. All recordings have some distortions or skips in sound recording.
Biographical / Historical:
Stovall Workshop Inc. Slide Show is related to an exhibition featuring the works of Washington, D.C. artists, Lou and Di Stovall, organized by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and held there from September 18, 1983 - March 4, 1984. The exhibition, Through Their Eyes: The Art of Lou and Di Stovall, showcased 84 works - silkscreen prints, drawings, and arcylic paintings - illustrating the artists' progression from posterists to master printmaker and miniaturist, respectively. The art was complemented by audiovisual presentations on the technique of silkscreen printing and a biographical essay on the artists.;Lou Stovall was born Luther McKinley Stovall in Athens, Georgia in 1937. When Stovall was four years old, his family moved north to Springfield, Massachusetts to find work. At age of fifteen, he was an apprentice to Al LaPierre in his silkscreen sign shop at the Growers Outlet Super Market. In 1956, Stovall received a grant and scholarship to attend Rhode Island School of Design. After the first semester, his father became ill so Stovall returned home to support his family for about five or six years. When he returned to school, Stovall attended Howard University, where he received a B.F.A. in 1965. James Lesesne Wells introduced to Stovall to silkscreen as a fine art rather than a commercial medium. Stovall also learned about collaboration in printmaking (artist and printer combining ideas and skills to create a work of art) from Wells. In 1968, Stovall received a grant to buy printmaking equipment. However, he made most of the tools and tables himself creating a full scale printmaking, wood making, and metal workshop in Washington, D.C. Under his direction, Workshop Inc. has grown from a small but active studio primarily concerned with community posters into a professional printmaking outfit. Stovall creates his own original silkscreen prints and is the printmaker of choice for other master artists including Elizabeth Catlett, David C. Driskell, and Sam Gilliam. For each work of art, he finds new and unique ways to replicate as closely as possible a painting supplied by the artist. He has the ability to make the medium do just about anything he and the artist(s) want it to do. Stovall's innovative techniques and distinctive style is credited by artists and critics with helping to transform the concept of silkscreen printmaking from a commercial craft to a true art form. In 1971, Stovall married Di Bagley, a painter who specializes in acrylic on paper and incorporates miniature images into many of her works.;Stovall Workshop Inc. was formed as a result of a poster collaboration between printmaker Lou Stovall and designer Lloyd McNeill in 1966. Printmaking, sculpture, photography, and furniture making were directed by Stovall in Workshop, first located at the Concoran Gallery of Art [Corcoran Gallery Dupont Circle]. By 1973, Stovall moved Workshop to northwest DC.
Local Numbers:
ACMA AV003309-2
ACMA AV003314
Series Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
An interview of Gene Davis conducted 1981 April 23, by Estill Curtis Pennington, for the Archives of American Art, at the artist's home.
Davis speaks of his early career as a pulp writer and his subsequent painting activities including outdoor works, installations and micro-paintings.
Biographical / Historical:
Gene Davis (1920-1985) was a painter from Washington, D.C.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 26 min.
Provenance:
This interview is 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.
Occupation:
Painters -- Washington (D.C.) -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Jacob Kainen conducted 1982 Aug. 10-1982 Sept. 22, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and His Times oral history project.
Kainen speaks about his family and educational background; early interest in art; his studies at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute; showing at the ACA Gallery; the community of artists in New York in the late 1930s; writing for ART FRONT; his employment by the graphic arts division of the WPA-FAP in New York; his move to Washington, D.C., in 1942, to work for the Smithsonian Institution; his first marriage to Bertha Friedman and their children; his career in Washinton, D.C. as a curator, painter, printmaker, writer, and teacher; the FBI investigation of his background; and the art scene in Washington, D.C. Kainen also recalls artists he has known including Stuart Davis, Joseph Solman, John Graham, Mark Rothko, Pietro Lazzari, Willem de Kooning, Max Schnitzler, Arshile Gorky, Gene Davis, Alma Thomas, George McNeil, Kenneth Noland, Boris Margo, Stanley Hayter, and Ad Reinhardt. He discusses Mark Rothko's influences, how he "hated the art industry" and was secretive about his art materials. Kainen also recalls encountering Rothko in Provincetown in 1968 and comments on his art and his suicide. Jacob Kainen's wife, Ruth, was also present and contributed her recollections.
Biographical / Historical:
Jacob Kainen (1909-2001) was a painter, printmaker, and curator from Washington, D.C. Studied at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute; died at age 91.
Provenance:
This interview was conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and his Times oral history project, with funding provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.
Others interviewed on the project (by various interviewers) include: Sonia Allen, Sally Avery, Ben-Zion, Bernard Braddon, Ernest Briggs, Rhys Caparn, Elaine de Kooning, Herbert Ferber, Esther Gottlieb, Juliette Hays, Sidney Janis, Buffie Johnson, Louis Kaufman, Jack Kufeld, Katharine Kuh, Stanley Kunitz, Joseph Liss, Dorothy Miller, Betty Parsons, Wallace Putnam, Rebecca Reis, Maurice Roth, Sidney Schectman, Aaron Siskind, Joseph Solman, Hedda Sterne, Jack Tworkov, Esteban Vicente and Ed Weinstein. Each has been cataloged separately.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Painters -- Washington (D.C.) -- Interviews Search this
Series contains biographical documents such as birth and death certificates, awards, biographical narratives by Gene Davis and others, CVs, and résumés. Also found are personal documents from Gene Davis's family and childhood, documentation related to his death and memorial service, and papers for the family pets. Juvenilia includes a childhood essay and drawing, and memorabilia includes performance programs from the 1930s, French currency from 1944, and a clipping annotated by his mother. Papers related to Davis's job as a White House correspondent include schedules, invitations, telephone directories, and documentation of President Truman's travels.
Documentation of Davis's death and memorials include programs and typescript of remarks made at the service, a sound recording of the service on one sound cassette, photocopies of published obituaries, and a photograph album created for the memorial.
Arrangement:
Additional material related to Davis's years as a journalist is found in series 5, Writings and series 7, Photographs. Original copies of many of the published obituaries are found in series 6, Printed Material. Additional photographs from Davis's childhood and early years are found in series 7, Photographs.
Collection 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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
See also Gallery Files in series 4, Business and Estate Records
Collection 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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
See also Gallery Files in series 4, Business and Estate Records
Collection 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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
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 access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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:
Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.
