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Anton Refregier papers

Creator:
Refregier, Anton, 1905-  Search this
Names:
ACA Galleries  Search this
Bard College -- Faculty  Search this
Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh (Russia)  Search this
National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (U.S.)  Search this
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)  Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration  Search this
Woodstock Artists Association (Woodstock, N.Y.)  Search this
World Peace Council  Search this
De Diego, Julio, 1900-  Search this
Dreyfuss, Henry, 1904-  Search this
Elisofon, Eliot  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Fast, Howard, 1914-2003  Search this
Geddes, Norman Bel, 1893-1958  Search this
Greenwood, Marion, 1909-1970  Search this
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this
Morley, Eugene, 1909-1953  Search this
O'Higgins, Pablo, 1904-  Search this
Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-1998  Search this
Randall, Byron, 1918-1999  Search this
Refregier, Lila  Search this
Siqueiros, David Alfaro  Search this
Yavno, Max  Search this
Extent:
35.9 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Travel diaries
Greeting cards
Interviews
Cartoons (working drawings)
Scrapbooks
Transcripts
Photographs
Diaries
Sketches
Place:
Chile
Soviet Union
Guatemala
Mexico
Date:
circa 1900-circa 1990
Summary:
The papers of Woodstock area painter, muralist, and designer, Anton Refregier (1905-1979) date from circa 1900 to circa 1990 and measure 35.9 linear feet. The collection records Refregier's early commercial work and murals for the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) and documents his career through to the 1970s with records of commissions for many public and private buildings, exhibitions in the United States and abroad, teaching positions, essays and publications, and extensive travel, particularly to the Soviet Union and Mexico. The collection contains scattered biographical material, personal and business correspondence, notes and writings, 15 diaries and journals, mural and tapestry files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed material, 10 scrapbooks, artwork including sketches and cartoons for murals, and photographs of Refregier, his friends, family and travels.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Woodstock area painter, muralist, and designer, Anton Refregier (1905-1979) date from circa 1900 to circa 1990 and measure 35.9 linear feet. The collection records Refregier's early commercial work and murals for the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) and documents his career through to the 1970s with records of commissions for many public and private buildings, exhibitions in the United States and abroad, teaching positions, essays and publications, and extensive travel, particularly to the Soviet Union and Mexico. The collection contains scattered biographical material, personal and business correspondence, notes and writings, diaries and journals, mural and tapestry files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork including sketches and cartoons for murals, and photographs of Refregier, his friends, family and travels.

Biographical material contains legal records such as Refregier's will and marriage and death records, passports, resume material and 2 interview transcripts.

Correspondence, both chronological and alphabetical, constitutes almost a third of the collection and documents all aspects of Refregier's career including his work for the WPA, private commissions, representation by ACA Galleries, his involvement with groups such as the Woodstock Artists Association and his teaching work for institutions such as Bard College. Also documented are his involvement with local political groups and international organizations such as the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and the World Peace Council, and travels including visits to the Soviet Union. Notable correspondents include Henry Dreyfuss, Philip Evergood, Rockwell Kent, Emmy-Lou Packard, and Byron Randall. Correspondence also includes family letters written primarily by Refregier to Lila Refregier, in addition to greeting cards received by the Refregier family, many of which contain original arwork.

Writings are primarily by Refregier and include drafts of many essays and autobiographical writings, in addition to copies of published works including Natural Figure Drawing, An Artists Journey and Sketches of the Soviet Union.

The collection contains diaries and journals from 12 years in various formats including published and handmade day planners and typed and handwritten journal entries. They include sketches and primarily record travel and daily activities including specific projects such as the New York World's Fair mural (1938-1939).

Mural and Tapestry files document individual commissions bid on and/or completed by Refregier. The creation of the Rincon Annex Post Office mural and subsequent controversies over its subject matter are well-documented here, as are many of Refregier's commissions for banks, hospitals, hotels, shopping centers, and schools.

Exhibition files document at least 15 of Refregier's exhibitions, including his first one-man show at ACA Galleries (1942) and his exhibition of paintings at the Hermitage Museum (1967) in what was then Leningrad.

Personal business records contain addresses of contacts. Scattered records referencing market values for Refregier's work can be found throughout the series in records such as bills and receipts, financial notes and tax records.

Printed material provides extensive coverage of Refregier's entire career through announcements, invitations, catalogs, and news clippings. His interests in art, literature, music, theater and politics are also well-represented in these files.

The collection contains 10 scrapbooks, mostly in fragmented condition, which contain a mixture of photographs, sketches and other artwork, notes and fragments of writings, and printed material. The scrapbooks document a variety of subjects including Refregier's family life, travels to Guatemala and the Soviet Union, and the artist at work.

Artwork consists primarily of artwork by Refregier in the form of mural design sketches and cartoons in various media, including pencil, ink and pastel, in addition to 21 sketchbooks, many of which also contain journal entries and notes. Also found here are prints and reproductions of Refregier's "Peace card" block engravings for every year from 1950-1973, with the exception of 1970.

Photographs document all phases of Refregier's career and include family photographs dating from circa 1900, photos of Refregier in the studio including work for the WPA, Refregier and other artists and individuals at events and parties from the 1940s-1970s, travel snapshots probably taken in Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, and photographs of artwork and installations. Individuals pictured include Julio de Diego, Marion Greenwood, Rockwell Kent, Pablo O'Higgins and David Siqueiros; also, a series of press photographs by Albert A. Freeman pictures Refregier with Howard Fast, Norman Bel Geddes, Marion Greenwood, John Kingsbury, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Harry Stockwell. One photograph by Eliot Elisofon, 2 by Eugene Morley and 4 by Max Yavno can also be found here.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1925-1980 (Box 1; 0.25 linear ft.)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1912-circa 1990s (Boxes 1-11, 36, OVs 38, 45; 10.2 linear ft.)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1930s-circa 1970s (Boxes 11-14, OV 45; 3.3 linear ft.)

Series 4: Diaries and Journals, 1923-1979 (Box 15; 0.6 linear ft.)

Series 5: Mural and Tapestry Files, circa 1930s-circa 1970s (Boxes 15-18, 36, OVs 38, 45, 46, RD 42; 3.65 linear ft.)

Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1942-1981 (Boxes 18-19; 0.6 linear ft.)

Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1920s-1980s (Boxes 19-20; 1.8 linear ft.)

Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1920s-1980s (Boxes 21-28, 36; 7.4 linear ft.)

Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1930s-1960s (Boxes 28, 37, BV 47; 1.1 linear ft.)

Series 10: Artwork, circa 1930s-circa 1970s (Boxes 28-30, 36, OVs 40, 41, RDs 42-44; 3.5 linear ft.)

Series 11: Photographic Material, ca. 1900-1980s (Boxes 31-35, 39; 4.5 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Russian-born Woodstock painter Anton Refregier (1905-1979) immigrated to the United States in 1920. Refregier was well-known for his sometimes controversial social realist murals for the WPA.

After an apprenticeship to the sculptor, Vasilief, in Paris, Anton Refregier attended the Rhode Island School of Design from 1920-1925 and studied with Hans Hofmann in Germany in 1927. He had his first one-man show at ACA Galleries in New York City in 1942 and settled in Woodstock, New York, with his wife, Lila, and three children Anton, Jr., Brigit and Aleksandre, where he became a prominent member of the artist community.

Refregier completed several social realist murals for the federal Works Progress Adminstration (WPA) program, including one at the New York Worlds Fair in 1939 and the controversial Rincon Annex Post Office mural in San Francisco begun in 1941. He also completed interior design installations for businesses such as the nightclub, Cafe Society Uptown, and the restaurant, The Cookery, in New York City. In addition to being an easel and mural painter Refregier worked in tapestry, mosaic, ceramic, and collage, and completed many commissions for hotels, banks, hospitals, restaurants, synagogues, supermarkets and deparment stores throughout the country.

Refregier taught at various institutions including Stanford University, the University of Arkansas, and Bard College and his publications inlcude Natural Figure Drawing (1948), An Artist's Journey (1965), and Sketches of the Soviet Union (1978). He traveled regularly to the Soviet Union to explore and exchange ideas about art and culture and as a representative of the World Peace Council.

Anton Refregier died in Moscow in October 1979 while visiting the Soviet Union. His work can be found in many museums including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are an oral history interview with Anton Refregier, 1964, Nov. 5 by Joseph Trovato; and Papers regarding Anton Refregier mural controversy, 1953.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Lila Refregier, widow of Anton Refregier, and in 1992 by Brigit R. Sutton, Refregier's daughter.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from Bridget R. Sutton via Bridget's son, Tim Sutton. 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.
Topic:
Tapestry  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Political clubs  Search this
Muralists -- New York -- Woodstock  Search this
Art -- Commissioning  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- Woodstock  Search this
Mural painting and decoration -- Archival resources -- 20th century  Search this
Designers -- New York (State)  Search this
Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Greeting cards
Interviews
Cartoons (working drawings)
Scrapbooks
Transcripts
Photographs
Diaries
Sketches
Citation:
Anton Refregier papers, circa 1900-circa 1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.refranto
See more items in:
Anton Refregier papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9545f99ed-0a65-4626-904d-8dda5c569fcf
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-refranto

Forgotten Man [painting] / (photographed by Peter A. Juley & Son)

Artist:
Evergood, Philip 1901-1973  Search this
Type:
Photograph
Date:
1949
Topic:
Figure male  Search this
State of Being--Mood--Desolation  Search this
State of Being--Disabled  Search this
Architecture exterior--Building  Search this
Image number:
JUL J0058192
See more items in:
Photograph Study Collection
Data Source:
Photograph Study Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_jul_58193

Forgotten Man [painting] / (photographed by Peter A. Juley & Son)

Artist:
Evergood, Philip 1901-1973  Search this
Type:
Photograph
Date:
1949
Topic:
Figure male  Search this
State of Being--Mood--Desolation  Search this
State of Being--Disabled  Search this
Architecture exterior--Building  Search this
Image number:
JUL J0059695
See more items in:
Photograph Study Collection
Data Source:
Photograph Study Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_jul_59696

Dowager in Wheelchair, (painting)

Painter:
Evergood, Philip 1901-1973  Search this
Medium:
Oil on fiberboard
Type:
Paintings
Owner/Location:
Smithsonian American Art Museum 8th & G Streets, N.W Washington District of Columbia 20560 Accession Number: 1986.6.90
Date:
1952
Topic:
Abstract  Search this
Cityscape--Street  Search this
Figure group  Search this
Figure female--Elderly  Search this
State of Being--Disabled--Physical Disability  Search this
Architecture--Vehicle--Automobile  Search this
Control number:
IAP 08586335
Data Source:
Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_ari_476905

Hugo Gellert papers

Creator:
Gellert, Hugo, 1892-1985  Search this
Names:
American Artists' Congress  Search this
Art of Today Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Artist's Committee of Action (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Artists Coordination Committee (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Artists Council  Search this
Artists for Victory, Inc.  Search this
Committee to Defend V.J. Jerome  Search this
Hungarian Word, Inc.  Search this
National Society of Mural Painters (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Derkovits, Gyula, 1894-1934  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Fast, Howard, 1914-2003  Search this
Fiene, Ernest, 1894-  Search this
Gellert, Ernest  Search this
Gellert, Lawrence, 1898-1979  Search this
Gottlieb, Harry, 1895-  Search this
Gropper, William, 1897-1977  Search this
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this
Lie, Jonas, 1880-1940  Search this
Refregier, Anton, 1905-  Search this
Reisman, Philip, 1904-  Search this
Sequenzia, Sofia  Search this
Extent:
6.9 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Photographs
Date:
1916-1986
Summary:
The papers of graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert measure 6.9 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1986. They document his career as an artist and organizer for the radical political left through an interview, legal papers, financial records, family papers, artifacts, correspondence, writings, organizational records, extensive printed materials (many of them illustrated by Gellert), photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert measure 6.9 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1986. They document his career as an artist and organizer for the radical left through an oral interview conducted by Sofia Sequenzia, legal papers, financial records, family papers, artifacts, correspondence, writings, organizational records, clippings, exhibition catalogs, various printed materials illustrated by Gellert, pamphlets, periodicals, mass mailings, photographs, and artwork.

Biographical Material includes an audio interview with Gellert; official documents related to memberships, property, and legal matters; financial documents that include bills, receipts, and contracts related to professional activities; papers of Gellert's brothers, Lawrence and Ernest; and artifacts. Correspondence is with other artists, writers, publishers, activists, friends, and family, including Ernest Fiene, Rockwell Kent, Harry Gottlieb, William Gropper, Philip Evergood, Howard Fast, and Jonas Lie. Writings include essays, book projects, notes, and notebooks written by Gellert; and stories and articles by other authors, including typescripts of early twentieth-century Hungarian short stories collected by Gellert.

Organizational Records are related to political and art organizations in which Gellert was an active organizer, officer, and in some cases, a founder. Because of his central role in many of these organizations, records often contain unique documentation of their activities. Records are found for the American Artists Congress, the Art of Today Gallery, the Artists Committee of Action, the Artists Coordination Committee, the Artists Council, Artists for Victory, Inc., the Committee to Defend V.J. Jerome, Hungarian Word, Inc., the National Society of Mural Painters, and other organizations.

Printed materials include a variety of political publications and periodicals with illustrations by Gellert, including New Masses, Art Front, Magyar Szo, and American Dialog; clippings related to his career, exhibition catalogs, political pamphlets, Hungarian literature, and mass mailings received from political organizations. Photographs contain a few personal photographs but are mostly news and publicity photographs, many of which depict prominent Communists and other newsmakers. Artwork includes sketches, drawings, designs, prints, and production elements for Gellert's artwork, as well as prints and drawings by Philip Reisman, Gyula Derkovits, and Anton Refregier.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 7 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-1982 (Box 1 and OV 9; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1920-1986 (Boxes 1-2, 8; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1916-1970 (Boxes 2 and 8; 0.7 linear feet)

Series 4: Organizational Records, circa 1920-1977 (Boxes 3, 8, and OV 9; 1 linear foot)

Series 5: Printed Materials, circa 1920-1986 (Boxes 4-6, 8, and OV 9; 3 linear feet)

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1920-1959 (Boxes 6-7; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 7: Artwork, 1927-1981 (Box 7, OV 10; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Graphic artist, muralist, and activist Hugo Gellert was born Hugo Grünbaum in Budapest, Hungary in 1892, the oldest of six children. His family immigrated to New York City in 1906, eventually changing their family name to Gellert.

Gellert attended art school at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. As a student, he designed posters for movies and theater, and also worked for Tiffany Studios. A number of student art prizes with cash awards enabled him to travel to Europe in the summer of 1914, where he witnessed the outbreak of World War I, an experience which helped shape his political beliefs. Aesthetically, he was also influenced by a folk revival among Hungarian artists at the time of his trip, and was more impressed, he later said, with the street advertising in Paris than he was with the cubism he saw in the Louvre.

Returning to the United States, Gellert became involved in the Hungarian-American workers' movement, and contributed drawings to its newspaper, Elöre (Forward). He remained involved in Hungarian-American art and activism throughout his life, including membership in the anti-fascist group, the Anti-Horthy League. When members of the fascist Horthy government unveiled a statue of a Hungarian hero in New York in 1928, Gellert hired a pilot and dropped leaflets on the group, a stunt for which he was arrested. In the 1950s, Gellert served as director of Hungarian Word, Inc., a Hungarian-language publisher in New York.

Gellert's political commitment and art remained deeply intertwined throughout his life, as he continually sought to integrate his commitment to Communism, his hatred of fascism, and his dedication to civil liberties. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, he contributed artwork to several magazines of the radical left, including Masses and its successors Liberator and New Masses, both of which featured Gellert's artwork on their inaugural issue. Through Masses, he came to know other radicals such as Mike Gold, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Max Eastman, Floyd Dell, Anton Refregier, William Gropper, Harry Gottlieb, Bob Minor, and Art Young, and with them he followed the events of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia with sympathy and growing political fervor.

His brother, Ernest Gellert, also a socialist and activist, was drafted into the military but refused to serve. He died of a gunshot wound under suspicious circumstances while imprisoned at Fort Hancock, New Jersey, as a conscientious objector. Traumatized by this event, Gellert fled to Mexico to avoid conscription. In 1920 to 1922, he taught art at the Stelton School in New Jersey, a radical, utopian community school. He participated in the cultural scene of Greenwich Village, working on set designs, publications, and graphic art for political productions. He founded the first John Reed Club in 1929 with a group of Communist artists and writers including Anton Refregier, Louis Lozowick, and William Gropper. Initially, the group held classes and exhibitions, and provided services for strikes and other working-class activism. Later, John Reed Clubs formed around the country and became a formal arm of the United States Communist Party (CPUSA).

In the late 1920s, Gellert became a member of the National Society of Mural Painters (which, partly due to Gellert's activism in the group, became the Mural Artists' Guild local 829 of the United Scenic Artists Union of the AFL-CIO in 1937. Other members included Rockwell Kent, Anton Refregier, Arshile Gorky, and Marion Greenwood). In 1928, he created a mural for the Worker's Cafeteria in Union Square, NY. Later murals include the Center Theater in Rockefeller Center, the National Maritime Union Headquarters, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union Building, NYC, the interior of the Communications Building at the 1939 World's Fair, and the Seward Park Housing Project in 1961.

In 1932, Gellert was invited to participate in a mural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and submitted a political mural about the robber barons of contemporary American politics and industry called Us Fellas Gotta Stick Together - Al Capone. The museum attempted to censor the mural, along with the murals of William Gropper and Ben Shahn. Other artists threatened to boycott the exhibition over the censorship and were successful in restoring them to the show.

The cooperation of artists in this controversy foreshadowed a larger protest in 1934, organized by Gellert, Saul Belman, Stuart Davis, and Zoltan Hecht, when Diego Rivera's pro-labor mural was destroyed at Rockefeller Center. After the incident, the group formed the Artists' Committee of Action and continued to fight censorship and advocate for artists' interests and welfare. They also co-published the magazine Art Front with the Artists' Union, a labor organization. Gellert served for a time as editor of Art Front, and chairman of the Artists' Committee of Action.

Gellert was active in producing both art and strategic policy for the cultural arm of the CPUSA, and he worked to mobilize the non-communist left, often referred to as the Popular Front. In 1933 he illustrated Karl Marx's Capital in Lithographs, and in 1935, he wrote a Marxist, illustrated satire called Comrade Gulliver, An Illustrated Account of Travel into that Strange Country the United States of America. Other published graphic works include Aesop Said So (1936) and a portfolio of silkscreen prints entitled Century of the Common Man (1943).

Other artist groups he helped to found and/or run include the American Artist's Congress, a Communist organization founded with Max Weber, Margaret Bourke-White, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Harry Sternberg, and others, which held symposia and exhibitions between 1936 and 1942; the Artists' Coordination Committee, an umbrella group of national organizations which sought protections for federally-employed and unionized artists; Artists for Victory, Inc., which formed in 1942 to mobilize artists in support of the war effort; and the Artists' Council, formed after the war to advocate for artists' welfare and employment.

Gellert maintained his loyalty to the Communist party throughout the post-war period despite growing disillusionment in the Popular Front over the actions of Josef Stalin, and despite the intense anti-communist crusades in the late 1940s and 1950s. He was investigated by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and was nearly deported. He spent a number of years during this period in his wife's native Australia. Returning to the United States in the early 1950s, he threw his efforts into the defense of others who faced prison, deportation, and the blacklist following the HUAC hearings. He established The Committee to Defend V.J. Jerome in 1951 when Jerome, the cultural commissioner of CPUSA, was convicted under the Smith Act. The writer Dorothy Parker was the group's treasurer.

In 1954, Gellert established the Art of Today Gallery in New York City with Rockwell Kent and Charles White to provide an exhibition venue for blacklisted artists. Exhibitions included Maurice Becker, Henry Glintenkamp, Harry Gottlieb, Kay Harris, and Rockwell Kent. Gellert served as the gallery's secretary until it closed in 1957.

In the 1960s until his death in 1985, Gellert continued his activism through involvement in grassroots political organizations. Unlike many of his radical contemporaries, Gellert lived to see the revival of some of the ideas of the progressive era of the thirties in the countercultural years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were retrospectives of his work in Moscow in 1967 and in his native Budapest in 1968, and he appeared in Warren Beatty's film Reds in 1981.

Sources used for this essay include James Wechsler's 2003 dissertation "The Art and Activism of Hugo Gellert: Embracing the Spectre of Communism," his essay "From World War I to the Popular Front: The Art and Activism of Hugo Gellert," ( Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts number 24, Spring 2002), and Jeff Kisseloff's biographical essay for the 1986 Hugo Gellert exhibition at the Mary Ryan Gallery.
Related Material:
Among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are an oral history with Hugo Gellert from 1984, a recording of a lecture Gellert gave at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1985, and additional records of Artists for Victory, Inc., 1942-1946.

The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University holds additional papers of Hugo Gellert.
Provenance:
A portion of the papers were donated in 1970 by Hugo Gellert. Additional papers were donated by Gellert and his wife, Livia Cinquegrana, in 1983 and 1986.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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.
Topic:
Artists' writings  Search this
Politics in art  Search this
Works of art  Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Graphic artists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Photographs
Citation:
Hugo Gellert papers, 1916-1986. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.gellhugo
See more items in:
Hugo Gellert papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9eb96ed42-b751-47f6-a0ca-038014c8800e
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-gellhugo
Online Media:

Whitney Museum of American Art artists' files and records

Creator:
Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this
Names:
Whitney Studio Club  Search this
Whitney Studio Galleries  Search this
Baziotes, William, 1912-1963  Search this
Bellows, George, 1882-1925  Search this
Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this
Bloom, Hyman, 1913-  Search this
Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this
Burlin, Paul, 1886-1969  Search this
Cadmus, Paul, 1904-1999  Search this
Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926  Search this
Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946  Search this
Davis, Stuart, 1892-1964  Search this
De Creeft, José, 1884-1982  Search this
Dickinson, Edwin Walter, 1891-1978  Search this
Eilshemius, Louis M. (Louis Michel), 1864-1941  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956  Search this
Gatch, Lee, 1902-1968  Search this
Glackens, William J., 1870-1938  Search this
Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948  Search this
Graves, Morris, 1910-  Search this
Gross, Chaim, 1904-1991  Search this
Grosz, George, 1893-1959  Search this
Harnett, William Michael, 1848-1892  Search this
Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this
Henri, Robert, 1865-1929  Search this
Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966  Search this
Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this
Inness, George, 1825-1894  Search this
Karfiol, Bernard, 1886-1952  Search this
Kuhn, Walt, 1877-1949  Search this
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this
Lachaise, Gaston, 1882-1935  Search this
Lawson, Ernest, 1873-1939  Search this
MacIver, Loren, 1909-1998  Search this
Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this
Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this
Motherwell, Robert  Search this
Mount, William Sidney, 1807-1868  Search this
Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice), 1902-1971  Search this
Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956  Search this
Prendergast, Maurice Brazil, 1858-1924  Search this
Pène Du Bois, Guy, 1884-1958  Search this
Reder, Bernard, 1897-1963  Search this
Rimmer, William, 1816-1879  Search this
Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002  Search this
Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this
Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847-1917  Search this
Schnakenberg, H. E. (Henry Ernest), 1892-1970  Search this
Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this
Sloan, John, 1871-1951  Search this
Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this
Stella, Joseph, 1877-1946  Search this
Tobey, Mark  Search this
Twachtman, John Henry, 1853-1902  Search this
Tworkov, Jack  Search this
Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this
Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this
Wyant, A. H. (Alexander Helwig), 1836-1892  Search this
Young, Mahonri Mackintosh, 1877-1957  Search this
Zorach, William, 1887-1966  Search this
Extent:
78 Microfilm reels
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Date:
1914-1966
Scope and Contents:
REELS N591-N597: Photographs of the Museum, Juliana Force, Herman Moore; scrapbooks on the Whitney Studio Club, Whitney Studio Galleries and the Museum, 1927-1965.
REELS N599-N604: Notebooks of Edwin W. Dickinson; photographs and provenance information for works by Philip Evergood; a catalog of information and some photographs of Chinese ink drawings and other works by Reginald Marsh; and photographs and information on Bernard Reder, Jack Tworkov, Max Weber (portions also microfilmed on reel NY59-8 (fr. 497-658), reel NY59-9 (fr. 1-51), and William Zorach.
REELS N604-N609: Exhibition catalogs, 1946-1966, for artists and groups shows at the Museum, including Robert Feke, William Rimmer, Ralph Blakelock, Albert Maurer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Thomas Cole, Max Weber, Arshile Gorky, Mark Tobey, John Sloan, Loren MacIver, I. Rice Pereira, George Grosz, Reginald Marsh, Charles Burchfield, Morris Graves, Theodore Roszak, John Marin, Hans Hofmann, Bradley Tomlin, Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, Lee Gatch, Jose De Creeft, Maurice Prendergast, Edward Hopper, Hyman Bloom, Robert E. Jones, Balcomb Greene, Karl Zerbe, Arthur G. Dove, William Zorach, Philip Evergood, Bernard Reder, Herbert Feber, Oliver O'Connor Barrett,Arthur B. Davies, Jose De Rivera, Paul Burlin, Joseph Stella, Jack Tworkov, Ivan Albright, Stuart Davis, Edwin Dickinson, John Quidor, and Niles Spencer.
REELS N646-N694: Artists' files on: Oliver O'Connor Barrett,William Baziotes, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Peter Blume, James Brooks, Patrick Henry Bruce, Charles Burchfield, Paul Burlin, David Burliuk, Paul Cadmus, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Cole, Glenn Coleman, Jon Corbino, John Steuart Curry, Jo Davidson, Arthur B. Davies, Jose DeCreeft, Charles Demuth, Jose De Rivera, Arthur Dove, Guy Pène du Bois, Stuart Davis, Frank Duveneck, Ralph Earl, Eastman Johnson, The Eight, Philip Evergood, Robert Feke, Lyonel Feininger, Ernest Fiene, George Fuller, Lee Gatch, William Glackens, Arshile Gorky, Balcomb Greene, Chaim Gross, George Grosz, William Harnett, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, John Heliker, Robert Henri, Hans Hofmann, George Inness, Leon Kelly, Franz Kline, Karl Knaths, Leon Kroll, Walt Kuhn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Gaston Lachaise, Robert Laurent, Ernest Lawson, Jack Levine, Seymour Lipton, George B. Luks,
Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Loren MacIver, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Alfred Maurer, K. H. Miller, Robert Motherwell, William Mount, Jerome Myers, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O'Keeffe (portions also microfilmed on reels NY59-13 (fr. 98-115, 406-424, 586-685), reel NY59-14 (entire), and reel NY59-15 (fr. 1-140, 145-153), I. Rice Pereira, Bernard Perlin, Joseph Pollett, Jackson Pollock, Reginald Pollack, Henry V. Poor, Richard Pousette-Dart, Maurice Prendergast, Abraham Rattner, Bernard Reder, Ad Reinhardt, William Rimmer, Larry Rivers, Hugo Robus, Theodore Roszak, Mark Rothko, Concetta Scarvaglione, Henry Schnakenberg, Ben Shahn, John Sloan, David Smith, Eugene Speicher, Theodoros Stamos, Joseph Stella, Maurice Sterne, Mark Tobey, Bradley Tomlin,Trajan, Allen Tucker, John Twachtman, Jack Tworkov, Abraham Walkowitz (also on reel NY/59-15) , Max Weber, James M. Whistler, Gertrude Whitney, Grant Wood, Alexander Wyant, Mahonri Young, and William Zorach.
REELS NWH 1-NWH 7: Artist files on Charles Sheeler, Bernard Karfiol, Louis Eilshemius; scatterred records of the Whitney Studio Club and Museum, 1914-1945, including minutes, Oct. 15, 1930, and Whitney Studio ledgers, 1928-1931; catalogs of one-man shows, 1932-1945; catalogs of annual painting exhibitions, 1932-1940, sculpture, watercolor and drawing exhibitions, 1933-1945, and group exhibitions, 1932-1945; and clippings, Oct. 1935-1936.
REELS NY59/8 (fr. 256-end)-NY59/10: Files on Max Weber, including biographical material, lists of work, and miscellany. Also found (NY59/8 frames 354-383) are ca.20 letters from Weber to Abraham Walkowitz, 1907-1924.
Biographical / Historical:
Whitney Museum of American Art is an American art museum in New York, New York. Founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and formally opened in 1931. Previous to its opening as a museum it was known as the Whitney Studio Club (1914-28) and Whitney Studio Galleries (1928-30).
Provenance:
The Weber files on reels NY59/8-10 were lent for microfilming 1959 by the Whitney Museum of American Art; the remainder was lent 1964-1967; additional material from the Museum was lent at the same time, and subsequently donated, including the papers of Lloyd Goodrich, Juliana Force, Thomas B. Clarke, the American Art Research Council, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney; these have each been cataloged separately. Portions of Weber, and O'Keeffe material that was microfilmed in 1959 were refilmed in 1967.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this
Artists -- Exhibitions -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Art, American  Search this
Function:
Art museums -- New York (State)
Identifier:
AAA.whitmuse
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw990da7b91-a3b8-4ace-b8ba-b5c08cfe3284
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-whitmuse

Brooklyn Museum interviews of artists

Creator:
Brooklyn Museum  Search this
Names:
Listening to pictures (1968-1973: Brooklyn Museum)  Search this
Anderson, Lennart, 1928-2015  Search this
Antonakos, Stephen, 1926-2013  Search this
Arisman, Marshall  Search this
Barker, Walter  Search this
Baskin, Leonard, 1922-2000  Search this
Bauermeister, Mary, 1934-  Search this
Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this
Bishop, Isabel, 1902-1988  Search this
Brackman, Robert, 1898-  Search this
Butchkes, Sydney, 1922-  Search this
Casarella, Edmond, 1920-1996  Search this
Constant, George  Search this
Dash, Robert  Search this
De Creeft, José, 1884-1982  Search this
Dombek, Blanche, 1914-  Search this
Doyle, Tom, 1928-  Search this
Ernst, Jimmy, 1920-1984  Search this
Estern, Neil, 1926-  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011  Search this
Freilicher, Jane, 1924-2014  Search this
Goldin, Leon, 1923-  Search this
Goodman, Sidney  Search this
Graziani, Sante, 1920-  Search this
Greene, Balcomb, 1904-1990  Search this
Grillo, John, 1917-  Search this
Gropper, William, 1897-1977  Search this
Gross, Chaim, 1904-1991  Search this
Gussow, Roy, 1918-2011  Search this
Gwathmey, Robert, 1903-1988  Search this
Hartigan, Grace  Search this
Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this
Jaffe, Nora  Search this
Jenkins, Paul, 1923-2012  Search this
Kawabata, Minoru, 1911-  Search this
Kienbusch, William, 1914-1980  Search this
Knaths, Karl, 1891-1971  Search this
Koch, John, 1909-1978  Search this
Kosama, Yayoi  Search this
Lam, Jennett, 1911-  Search this
Lang, Steven, 1944-1971  Search this
Laurent, Robert, 1890-1970  Search this
Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this
Levine, Jack, 1915-2010  Search this
Lipchitz, Jacques, 1891-1973  Search this
Lipton, Seymour, 1903-1986  Search this
Margo, Boris, 1902-1995  Search this
Meyer, Ursula, 1915-  Search this
Moller, Hans, 1905-  Search this
Murch, Walter  Search this
Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this
Odate, Toshio  Search this
Offner, Elliot  Search this
Ohlson, Douglas Dean, 1936-  Search this
Okada, Kenzo, 1902-1982  Search this
Palmer, Amanda, 1931-  Search this
Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice), 1902-1971  Search this
Peterdi, Gabor  Search this
Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967  Search this
Richards, Bill, 1936-  Search this
Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002  Search this
Sanchez, Emilio, 1921-1999  Search this
Schrag, Karl  Search this
Shahn, Ben, 1898-1969  Search this
Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this
Sopher, Aaron, 1905-1972  Search this
Soyer, Moses, 1899-1974  Search this
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this
Thon, William, 1906-2000  Search this
Weinberg, Albert  Search this
Zorach, Marguerite, 1887-1968  Search this
Zorach, William, 1887-1966  Search this
Interviewer:
Jacobowitz, Arlene  Search this
Extent:
7 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Transcripts
Interviews
Sound recordings
Date:
1965-1968
Summary:
Interviews of 72 artists, and transcripts for all but five, conducted by Arlene Jacobowitz, the Associate Curator for the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum, between 1965 and 1968. The artists discuss their work in the museum collection. Also included are 38 edited excerpts of the interviews, approximately 2-3 min. in length, used as "audio-labels" in the 1968 "Listening to Pictures" installation at the museum.
Scope and Content Note:
Interviews of 72 artists, and transcripts for all but five, conducted by Arlene Jacobowitz, the Associate Curator for the Department of Painting and Sculpture, between 1965 and 1968. The artists discuss their work in the museum collection. Also included are 38 edited excerpts of the interviews, approximately 2-3 min. in length, used as "audio-labels" in the 1968 "Listening to Pictures" installation.

The artists interviewed are: Lennart Anderson, Stephen B. Antonakos, Marshall Arisman, Walter Barker, Leonard Baskin, Mary Bauermeister, Thomas Hart Benton, Isabel Bishop, Robert Brackman, Sydney Butchkes, Edmund Casarella, George Constant, Robert Warren Dash, Jose DeCreeft, Blanche Dombek, Tom Doyle, Jimmy Ernst, Neil Estern, Philip Evergood, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Leon Goldin, Sidney Goodman, Sante Graziani, Balcomb Greene, John Grillo, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, Roy Gussow, Robert Gwathmey, Grace Hartigan, Edward Hopper, Nora Jaffe, Paul Jenkins, Minoru Kawabata, William Kienbusch, Karl Knaths, John Koch, Yayoi Kosama, Jennett Lam, Steven Lang, Robert Laurent, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Levine, Jacques Lipchitz, Seymour Lipton, Boris Margo, Ursula Meyer, Hans Moller, Walter Murch, Louise Nevelson, Toshio Odate, Elliot Offner, Douglas Ohlson, Kenzo Okada, Amanda Palmer, Irene Rice Pereira, Gabor Peterdi, Ad Reinhardt, Bill Richards, Larry Rivers, Emilio Sanchez, Karl Schrag, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Aaron Sopher, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, William Thon, Albert Weinberg, and William and Marguerite Zorach.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as a single series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Interviews, 1965-1968 (Box 1-7; 7 lin. ft.)
Historical Note:
The interview program at the Brooklyn Museum was begun by Arlene Jacobowitz in the spring of 1965 with artists whose works were on exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1968, excerpts from the interviews were incorporated into an exhibition entitled "Listening to Pictures," in which visitors could access the sound recordings using headphones while standing before the painting being discussed. The exhibition opened April 28, 1968, and was gradually disassembled, 1971-1973.
Related Material:
The Brooklyn Museum Archives houses the records of the Departments of European Painting and Sculpture, American Painting and Sculpture, Contemporary Art (1897-2005), which contain records relating to the work of Arlene Jacobowitz.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Dierdre Lawrence of the Brooklyn Museum in 1989.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Researchers may view the original reels for the archival notations on them, but original reels are not available for playback due to fragility.
Rights:
Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from the interviewee. Citations must read:"Interview between [artist's name] and [interviewer's name] from the "Listening to Pictures" program of the Brooklyn Museum. Archives of American Art. Gift of the Brooklyn Museum." 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.
Topic:
Artists -- United States -- Interviews  Search this
Art, American -- Exhibitions  Search this
Genre/Form:
Transcripts
Interviews
Sound recordings
Citation:
Interview between [artist's name] and [interviewer's name] from the "Listening to Pictures" program of the Brooklyn Museum. Gift of the Brooklyn Museum. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.broomuse
See more items in:
Brooklyn Museum interviews of artists
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9bdcd26e1-568c-4c81-8ba1-e07f5afbdfad
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-broomuse
Online Media:

Black Maria [painting] / (photographed by Walter Rosenblum)

Artist:
Evergood, Philip 1901-1973  Search this
Photographer:
Rosenblum, Walter 1919-2006  Search this
Type:
Photograph
Topic:
ACA Galleries  Search this
Figure group  Search this
State of Being--Other--Imprisonment  Search this
Occupation--Service--Policeman  Search this
Image number:
ROS R0005845
See more items in:
Photograph Study Collection
Data Source:
Photograph Study Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_jul_135269

Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight papers

Creator:
Knight, Gwendolyn  Search this
Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this
Names:
Bearden, Romare, 1911-1988  Search this
Bocour, Leonard, 1910-1993  Search this
Dintenfass, Terry, 1920-  Search this
Eichenberg, Fritz, 1901-1990  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970  Search this
Extent:
25.35 Linear feet
0.001 Gigabytes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Photographs
Date:
1816
1914-2008
bulk 1973-2001
Summary:
The papers of African American painter and educator Jacob Lawrence and his wife, artist Gwendolyn Knight measure 25.35 linear feet and 0.001 GB date from 1914 to 2008, with one item from 1816 and the bulk of the material dating from 1973 to 2001. The collection includes biographical material; correspondence including condolence letters to Gwendolyn Knight after Jacob Lawrence's death; writings by Jacob Lawrence and others; printed and digital material; photographs; personal business records; artwork; records from the Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project; materials related to the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation; professional files; and material related to awards and honors received by Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of African American painter and educator Jacob Lawrence and his wife, artist Gwendolyn Knight measure 25.35 linear feet and 0.001 GB and date from 1914 to 2008, with one item from 1816 and the bulk of the material dating from 1973 to 2001. The collection includes biographical material; correspondence including condolence letters to Gwendolyn Knight after Jacob Lawrence's death; writings by Jacob Lawrence and others; printed and digital material; photographs; personal business records; artwork; records from the Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project; materials related to the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation; professional files; and material related to awards and honors received by Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.

Biographical material includes appointment and address books; education and personal identification certificates and documents; awards, certificates, curriculum vitae, and chronologies; biographical material related to other individuals, including identification documents and memorial programs; and transcripts of interviews with Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.

The correspondence series includes extensive personal and professional correspondence with family, friends, artists, admirers (including students in a number of elementary and middle schools), university students, government agencies, art schools, galleries, museums, publishing houses, and others. Included in this series are condolence letters received by Gwendolyn Knight after Jacob Lawrence's death in 2000.

Writings include published and unpublished writings by and about Jacob Lawrence, as well as writings by others. These writings include speeches, notes, essays, articles, lists, and short stories. Also included is a visitor comment book from the Los Angeles County Museum exhibition of Jacob Lawrence's Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass series.

Printed material includes books; brochures; business cards; clippings; exhibition and event announcements, invitations, catalogs, and programs; magazines; newsletters; posters; post cards; and press releases. Books in this collection may include illustrations by Jacob Lawrence or have personal inscriptions from the author to Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.

Photographs include photographs of Jacob Lawrence artwork, photographs and reproductions of Gwendolyn Knight artwork, and photographs of Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, and other individuals. Also included in this series are photographs and reproductions of work by others.

Personal business records include a ledger; consignment, financial, and shipping records related to the Terry Dintenfass Gallery; contracts and agreements; and estate documents.

Artwork includes sketches by Jacob Lawrence, a blank sketchbook inscribed by Jacob Lawrence to Gwendolyn Knight, and artwork by other artists.

Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project Records include materials generated by the Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonné Project, a non-profit created with the goal of producing a catalogue raisonné (and later, a digital archive) of Jacob Lawrence's work. These records include address books and phone logs; copies of Jacob Lawrence's CV; founding documents, bylaws, and meeting minutes; correspondence; writings, including draft pages of the catalogue raisonné; business records, including employment files, contracts, invoices, insurance, and tax information; printed and digital material; and photographs and artwork.

The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation and Related Material series includes founding documents and foundation bylaws, correspondence, financial documents, reports, and proposals. Found within this series are materials related to the Lawrence Center for the Visual Arts, a subsidiary foundation of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation.

Professional files include material related to projects and exhibitions, teaching files and inclusion in curricula, files regarding possible fake Jacob Lawrence works, and gallery files.

The honors series is divided into two subseries: awards and certificates, and government honors. Awards and certificates includes honorary degrees, arts prizes, and any other honors awarded to Jacob Lawrence or Gwendolyn Knight. Government honors include resolutions, proclamations, and keys to cities. Also included in this series are correspondence related to awards and honorary degrees, commencement programs, plaques, and medals.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in 11 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1914-2005 (Boxes 1, 11, 26, OV 10; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1943, 1952-2005 (Boxes 1-5, 12-14, 26; 7.7 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, 1954-1959, 1973-2005, undated (Boxes 5-6, 14-15; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1816, 1926, 1937, 1945-2008 (Boxes 6-9, 15-17, 26, OV 30, OV 31; 6.8 linear feet)

Series 5: Photographs, circa 1970-1997, undated (Boxes 9, 17, OV 10; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1962-2005 (Boxes 9, 17; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 7: Artwork, 1984, 1990-1994, undated (Boxes 9, 18, 26; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 8: Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonne Project Records, 1982-2002 (Boxes 18-23, Box 26; 5.1 linear feet, ER01; 0.001 GB)

Series 9: Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation and Related Material, 1997-2005 (Box 23; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 10: Professional Files, 1964-2004 (Boxes 23-24; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 11: Honors, 1948, 1966-2005 (Boxes 24-25, 27-29, OV 30; 2.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Modernist painter and educator Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) was born in 1917 as Jacob Armstead Lawrence in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He began his art studies at the Utopia Children's Center in New York City's Harlem district where he studied under the painter Charles Alston. Lawrence dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen to continue his art instruction with Alston, this time at the Harlem Art Workshop, where he met several artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance including the sculptor Augusta Savage.

Gwendolyn Knight (1913-2005) was born in Barbados and moved to New York City with her adoptive parents when she was seven. She attended New York's Wadleigh High School and later Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she studied fine arts with Lois Mailou Jones and James Porter. Forced to leave her studies at Howard because of the Depression, Knight returned to Harlem and continued her artistic pursuits in Augusta Savage's workshop. In 1935, Knight joined the Harlem Mural Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) working under Selma Day and Charles Alston. Lawrence and Knight met in Savage's workshop and married in the summer of 1941.

During the Depression, Lawrence also joined the WPA Federal Arts Project in Harlem. Finding WPA murals overwhelming, Lawrence concentrated on traditional painting instead. He produced his first major works in the late 1930s, most notably the Toussaint L'Ouverture series, images that document the life of the revolutionary hero and Haiti's struggle for independence. Other significant works include visual narratives of the lives of abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. In 1940, Lawrence received the prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, which made it possible for him to purchase his first art studio on 125th Street in the heart of Harlem. He soon portrayed Harlem street life in paintings that became commentaries on the role of African Americans in United States society with highly developed themes of resistance and social opposition. That same year, Lawrence began his most celebrated series, The Migration of the American Negro, multiple tempera panels depicting the exodus of African American sharecroppers in the south to northern industrial cities in search of better employment and social opportunities. Edith Halpert exhibited the works in their entirety at her Downtown Gallery in 1941, establishing Lawrence as the first African American artist to exhibit in a top New York gallery. The following year, New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC each bought half of the sixty panels in the series, helping to further Lawrence's career within the larger world of American art.

In the summer of 1946, the artist Joseph Albers invited Lawrence to teach at North Carolina's Black Mountain College. It was the first in a series of teaching positions in prestigious art schools including Pratt Institute (1956-1971), Brandeis University (1965), The New School (1966), the Art Students League (1967), and others. During the 1950s and 1960s, Lawrence's work continued to focus on racism and political activism but in the late 1960s shifted to themes of racial harmony.

Both Lawrence and Knight continued independent careers in art. Knight pursued her art studies at the New School in New York and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. In the mid-1960s, she collaborated with other female artists to form the Studio Gallery in New York City. Knight's main body of work consists of portraits and still-lifes that incorporate expressions of African sculpture, Impressionism, dance, and theater. Focusing on gesture, her art is described as light and airy with a minimum of lines allowing empty space to define the work. In 1970, Lawrence traveled to Seattle to teach as a visiting artist at the University of Washington. He was hired on a permanent basis the following year and remained on staff until his retirement in 1986.

Jacob Lawrence died June 9, 2000, in Seattle, Washington at the age of 83. Gwendolyn Knight continued to paint and exhibit her work around the country until her death on February 18, 2005 in Seattle, Washington at the age of 92.
Related Material:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are an oral history interview with Jacob Lawrence conducted by Carroll Greene (1968 October 26), interviews conducted by Avis Berman (1982 July 20-August 4), and an oral history interview with Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight conducted by Paul Karlstrom (1998 November 18). The Archives of American Art also holds a collection of Jacob Lawrence papers, available on microfilm only, reels D286 and 4571-4573. Originals reside at Syracuse University Library, Special Collections.
Provenance:
The Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in five accretions between 1979 and 1997. Additional papers were donated in 2012 by the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation via Barbara Earl Thomas, representative.
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:
Painters -- Washington (State) -- Seattle  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Educators -- Washington (State) -- Seattle  Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this
African American artists  Search this
Women artists  Search this
African American art -- African influences  Search this
African American educators  Search this
African American painters  Search this
Women painters  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight papers, 1816, 1914-2008, bulk 1973-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.lawrjaco
See more items in:
Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97b5bfd17-13f8-4cb6-ab12-22124f7d1fee
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-lawrjaco
Online Media:

Alfredo Valente papers

Creator:
Valente, Alfredo  Search this
Names:
Alfredo Valente Gallery  Search this
Aronson, Boris, 1900-1980  Search this
Avery, Milton, 1885-1965  Search this
Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this
Blatas, Arbit  Search this
Burliuk, David, 1882-1967  Search this
Carreño, Mario  Search this
Dalí, Salvador, 1904-1989  Search this
DeMartini, Joseph, 1896-1984  Search this
Dobkin, Alexander, 1908-  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974  Search this
Greenwood, Marion, 1909-1970  Search this
Gropper, William, 1897-1977  Search this
Gross, Chaim, 1904-1991  Search this
Grosz, George, 1893-1959  Search this
Gwathmey, Robert, 1903-1988  Search this
Harmon, Lily, 1912-  Search this
Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this
Haucke, Frederick, 1908-  Search this
Kelekian, Dikran, 1868-1951  Search this
Kleinholz, Frank, 1901-  Search this
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this
Lassen, Ben, d. 1968  Search this
Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this
Lax, David, 1910-  Search this
Lebduska, Lawrence, 1894-1966  Search this
Liberte, Jean, 1896-1965  Search this
Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this
Masson, André, 1896-1987  Search this
Menkes, Sigmund, 1896-1986  Search this
Miller, Henry, 1891-1980  Search this
Ormandy, Eugene, 1899-1985  Search this
Orozco, José Clemente, 1883-1949  Search this
Rome, Harold, 1908-  Search this
Rose, Iver, 1899-1972  Search this
Ryan, Sally, 1916-1968  Search this
Soyer, Moses, 1899-1974  Search this
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this
Stark, Margaret, 1915-1988  Search this
Teichman, Sabina  Search this
Toney, Anthony  Search this
Tschacbasov, Nahum, 1899-  Search this
Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this
Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this
Wilson, Ben, 1913-  Search this
Extent:
1 Linear foot ((partially microfilmed on 3 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Video recordings
Date:
1941-1978
Scope and Contents:
Photographs of artists; letters; printed material; and a motion picture film.
REEL D284: Exhibition catalogs, 1941-1952, from the Valente Gallery, and clippings; a letter and a sketch from Henry Miller; and a scrapbook containing photographs by Valente of 41 artists, their art work and clippings. Photographs of artists include Boris Aronson, Milton Avery, Arbit Blatas, David Burliuk, Mario Carreño, Joseph DeMartini, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Jose Ferrer, Adolph Gottlieb, Marion Greenwood, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, George Grosz, Robert Gwathmey, Lily Harmon, Marsden Hartley, Frederick Haucke, Frank Kleinholz, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ben Lassen,Sigmund Menkes, Jose Clemente Orozco, Abraham Rattner, Iver Rose, Sally Ryan, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Margaret Stark, Sabina Teichman, Anthony Toney, Nahum Tschacbasov, Abraham Walkowitz and Ben Wilson.
REEL 2802: A letter from the National Gallery of Art regarding Valente's film "Art Discovers America"; exhibition catalogs on and written by Valente; clippings; and 30 photographs by Valente of 20 artists.
REEL 3480: Two letters from Henry Miller, dated 1943 and 1945. The letters refer to a "watercolor pad and brushes", and Miller also thanks Valente for a portrait of Abe Rattner.
UNMICROFILMED: Photographs by Valente of artists, each accompanied with the artists' self-portrait. Included are Milton Avery, Arbit Blatas, David Burliuk, Mario Carreño, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Chaim Gross, Lily Harmon, Frank Kleinholz, Ben Lassen, David Lax, Lawrence H. Lebduska, Jean Liberte, Jose Orozco, Harold Rome, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Margaret Stark, Sabina Teichman, Anthony Toney, Nahum Tschacbasov, Abraham Walkowitz, and Ben Wilson and 4 photographs of composer Eugene Ormandy which are on the back of the Blatas portraits.
UNMICROFILMED: "Art Discovers America" (MGM shorts), ca. 1945, a 16mm b&w, 400 ft. film regarding the "new public interest" in American art. The film traces the trend back to the exhibition of The Eight, and shows various artists at work, including John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh, and Abraham Walkowitz. The film was produced by Regency Pictures. Valente was the photographer and co-director along with Hal Frater.
REEL 439-441 AND SCANNED Photos of artists, previously microfilmed under Photos of Artists I, have subsequently been scanned and returned to the Valente papers.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer; New York City.
Provenance:
Material on reel D284 lent for microfilming by Valente, 1966; Mrs. Valente subsequently donated the scrapbook, 1979. Material on reels 2802, and 3480 donated by Mr. & Mrs. Valente, 1966 through 1979. Unmicrofilmed material donated by Harold Rome, 1988. An additional 35 photos of artists were donated by Valente ca. 1966, and microfilmed on reels 439-441 with AAA's Photographs of Artists Collection I; search under Valente for more information. Many of the photographs are duplicates.
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.
Occupation:
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Topic:
Art and photography -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Artists -- United States -- Photographs  Search this
Portrait photography -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Video recordings
Identifier:
AAA.valealfr
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw96dd15bae-a22b-4d09-8845-ff5fe98139a0
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-valealfr

Philip Evergood papers

Creator:
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Names:
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this
Kleinholz, Frank, 1901-  Search this
Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974  Search this
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this
Miró, Joan, 1893-  Search this
Smith, Charles Edward, 1904-1970  Search this
Extent:
11.61 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Watercolors
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Oil paintings
Photographs
Interviews
Date:
1890-1971
Summary:
The papers of painter Philip Evergood measure 11.61 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1971. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and business correspondence; writings, including essays, lectures, speeches, and sound recordings of radio appearances; subject files; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork, including oil paintings, sketches, and childhood drawings; and photographs of Evergood, his family and friends, and his work.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter Philip Evergood measure 11.61 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1971. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and business correspondence; writings, including essays, lectures, speeches, and sound recordings of radio appearances; subject files; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork, including oil paintings, sketches, and childhood drawings; and photographs of Evergood, his family and friends, and his work.

Biographical materials include curriculum vitae, forms, memberships, and the contact information of friends and acquaintances. Correspondence is with business associates and artists, including Charles Edward Smith, Rockwell Kent, Frank Kleinholz, Leon Kroll, Joan Miro, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Writings consist primarily of Evergood's artist statements, essays, lectures and speeches, as well as notes, transcripts, and recordings of broadcast radio shows. Subject files focus on art institutions and organizations, funding opportunities, and political topics of personal interest.

Personal business records include artist lists, contracts with galleries, and banking and estate records. Printed materials include clippings, four clippings scrapbooks, exhibition catalogs, and periodicals with articles featuring Evergood. There are loose sketches and mixed media, including oils and watercolors, of Evergood's artwork. Photographs are of Evergood, his friends and family, and photographs and negatives of his artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1930-1971 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, 24, OV 13)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1930-1970 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-4, 24)

Series 3: Writings, 1905-1970 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 4-5, 24)

Series 4: Subject Files, 1919-1971 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 5-6)

Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1902-1970 (0.5 linear feet; Box 6)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1914-1970 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-9, 11, 24)

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1924-1954 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 11-12)

Series 8: Artwork, 1905-1970 (1.5 linear feet; Box 9, OV 14-20, 24, OV 25, RD 23)

Series 9: Photographic Materials, 1890-1970 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 9-10, 24, OV 21-22, 26-27)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and printmaker Philip Evergood (1901-1973) lived and worked in New York City and Bridgewater, Connecticut and was known as an expressionist and social realist who incorporated elements of the fantastic into his works. A native New Yorker, Evergood's father, Miles Blashki, was a Polish-Australian artist, and his mother, Flora Jane Perry, was English. At his mother's insistence, Evergood attended boarding schools in England and graduated from Eton in 1919. He left Cambridge University to pursue art studies at London's Slade School of Fine Arts and returned to America in 1923 to study with George Luks at the Art Students League.

In 1927, Evergood held his first one man show at New York's Dudensing Gallery and continued to travel back and forth between France, Spain, and America throughout the 1920s. In 1931, he married dancer and actress Julia Cross and found work as a muralist and painter for the WPA Federal Arts Project in the early 1930s. From 1937-1938, he served as president of the New York Artists Union and, along with other social realist painters, joined Herman Baron's stable at the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Gallery, where he exhibited several one man shows during the late 1930s and 1940s.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Evergood was a popular lecturer and taught at art schools, including the Skowhegan School, and began producing large scale lithographs and etchings along with his paintings. While working as a picture framer for additional income, he met the art collector Joseph Hirshhorn who would purchase 10 artworks at their first meeting and become a life long patron. He continued to exhibit his work at the ACA Gallery and the annual contemporary shows of major museums, such as the Carnegie Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. Evergood exhibited in over 35 exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1960, and died in a house fire in Bridgewater in 1973.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are Letters from Philip Evergood; Gael Hammer letters relating to Miles and Philip Evergood; an oral history interview with Philip Evergood by Forrest Selvig, December 3, 1968; and Philip Evergood interview with John I.H. Baur, June 1959.
Provenance:
Philip Evergood donated his papers to the Archives in 1971. Additional materials were donated in 1974 by Evergood's wife, Julia Cross Evergood. In 1977, two typescripts of essays were donated by Abram Lerner. A small addition was donated in 2018 by Kendall Taylor, who originally received the material from Julia Cross Evergood.
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.
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Artists -- Political activity  Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Watercolors
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Oil paintings
Photographs
Interviews
Citation:
Philip Evergood papers, 1890-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.everphil
See more items in:
Philip Evergood papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90fd247d3-1a9d-4af8-a185-38e866a5b436
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-everphil

Harry Sternberg papers

Creator:
Sternberg, Harry, 1904-2001  Search this
Names:
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.) -- Faculty  Search this
Idyllwild School and Museum for the Arts -- Faculty  Search this
Blume, Peter, 1906-1992  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this
Secunda, Arthur  Search this
Siqueiros, David Alfaro  Search this
Walker, Hudson D. (Hudson Dean), 1907-1976  Search this
Warner, Malcolm, 1953-  Search this
Wickey, Harry  Search this
Zigrosser, Carl, 1891-  Search this
Extent:
3.4 Linear feet
0.553 Gigabytes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Video recordings
Notes
Manuscripts
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Drafts (documents)
Sound recordings
Photographs
Sketchbooks
Drawings
Date:
1927-2000
Summary:
The papers of New York City and California painter, printmaker, and teacher Harry Sternberg date from 1927 to 2000 and measure 3.4 linear feet and 0.553 GB. The collection documents Sternberg's career as an artist and art instructor through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, artists, collectors, curators, art organizations, universities, and galleries, writings by Sternberg and others, exhibition catalogs and announcements, news clippings, and other printed and digital material. Also found are photographs of Sternberg and his artwork, two sketchbooks and three loose drawings by Sternberg, audio visual recordings, and one scrapbook.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York City and California painter, printmaker, and teacher Harry Sternberg date from 1927 to 2000 and measure 3.4 linear feet and 0.553 GB. The collection documents Sternberg's career as an artist and art instructor through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, artists, collectors, curators, art organizations, universities, and galleries, writings by Sternberg and others, exhibition catalogs and announcements, news clippings, and other printed and digital material. Also found are photographs of Sternberg and his artwork, two sketchbooks and three loose drawings by Sternberg, audio visual recordings, and one scrapbook.

Biographical material includes an interview of Sternberg conducted by art curator Malcolm Warner, two ledgers documenting business activities, scattered financial and legal documents, and files regarding a few of his projects, including the film "Many Worlds of Art". Sternberg's personal and professional correspondence is with friends, artists, including Harry Wickey, Rockwell Kent, Philip Evergood, and Peter Blume, collectors and curators such as Hudson Walker and Carl Zigrosser, and art organizations, universities, and galleries.

The small number of writings by Sternberg in this collection includes drafts of articles and lectures, a manuscript for a book on etching, and notes. Writings by others consists of draft writings about Sternberg, draft exhibition catalogs, and writings by the artists Arthur Secunda and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Over one-third of this collection is printed material, including exhibition catalogs and announcements, news clippings, books written by Sternberg, school publications, and material regarding art events.

Also found are photographs of Sternberg in his studio, with students, with his wife Mary, and at the Idyllwild School. Other photographs include group photographs of Art Students League faculty as well as photographs of exhibitions, murals, and artwork. The collection also contains original artwork including two sketchbooks and three loose drawings by Sternberg and one scrapbook of news clippings and exhibition materials. Audio and video materials include several interviews of Sternberg and a video copy of his film "Many Worlds of Art".
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 8 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1927-2000 (Box 1, OV 5; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1928-2000 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1940s-2000 (Box 1, 4; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1933-2000 (Box 1-3; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 5: Photographs, circa 1930s-1998 (Box 3, 4; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Artwork, circa 1928-1980s (Box 3, OV 5; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 7: Audio Visual Material, circa 1980s-2000 (Box 3; 0.5 linear feet, ER01; 0.553 GB)

Series 8: Scrapbook, 1929-1958 (Box 4; 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Harry Sternberg (1904-2001) was a New York painter, muralist, printmaker, etcher, teacher, and political activist who relocated to California in 1957.

Harry Sternberg was born in 1904 in the Lower East Side of New York City and grew up in Brooklyn. As a child he attended his school art club where he met and became lifelong friends with artists Peter Blume and Philip Reisman. He took free Saturday art classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for two years and attended the Art Students League part time from 1922 to 1927 where he studied with George Bridgman. In 1926 he shared a studio with Philip Reisman where they received private instruction in etching from Harry Wickey. Sternberg began exhibiting his etchings and intermittently had drawings published in New Masses, a prominent American Marxist publication. In the late 1920s he became friends with Hudson Walker who also became a major collector of his work. In 1933 Sternberg was hired as instructor of etching, lithography, and composition at the Art Students League and continued teaching there for the next 33 years. Also around this time he became politically active in artist rights organizations, serving on the planning committee to create the American Artists' Congress and later serving as an active member of the Artists Equity Association. In 1935 he became the technical advisor of the Graphic Art Division of the Federal Art Project. From 1937 to 1939 he completed three federal mural commissions. His first mural Carrying the Mail was created for the Sellersville, Pennsylvania post office in 1937. His most famous mural Chicago: Epoch of a Great City was painted for the Lakeview post office in Chicago. It depicts the history of the city and its workers, particularly life for the workers in Chicago's stockyards and steel mills.

During the 1940s Sternberg remained very active in arts organizations, as one of the founders of the National Serigraph Society and a member of the Committee on Art and Education in Society. In 1942 he published the first of five books on printing. Sternberg had his first retrospective in 1953 at ACA Galleries, and in 1957 he taught summer painting courses at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in California. He continued teaching in the summers there from 1960 to 1967 and 1981 to 1989. Suffering from lung disease, Sternberg moved with his wife, Mary, to Escondido, California in 1966 in hopes that the climate would improve his health. In 1972 he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. During the 1970s and 1980s Sternberg traveled extensively throughout the US and Mexico where he found new inspiration for his artwork. He continued teaching, exhibiting, and creating new work until his death in 2001.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are the May Konheim papers concerning Harry Sternberg, 1934-1981, and an oral history interview of Harry Sternberg, conducted March 19, 1999, October 8, 1999, and January 7, 2000, by Sally Yard for the Archives of American Art
Provenance:
The Harry Sternberg papers were donated by Sternberg in several installments from 1967 to 2001.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Painters -- California  Search this
Topic:
Printmakers -- California  Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Educators -- California  Search this
Painting, American  Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Video recordings
Notes
Manuscripts
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Drafts (documents)
Sound recordings
Photographs
Sketchbooks
Drawings
Citation:
Harry Sternberg papers, 1927-2008. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.sterharr
See more items in:
Harry Sternberg papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw904413d6d-fce2-4bc8-9eef-9641dce75f12
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-sterharr

Fairfield Porter papers

Creator:
Porter, Fairfield  Search this
Names:
Hirschl & Adler Galleries  Search this
Tibor de Nagy Gallery  Search this
Brainard, Joe, 1942-  Search this
Burkhardt, Rudy  Search this
Button, John, 1929-1982  Search this
Day, Lucien B., 1916-  Search this
Downes, Rackstraw  Search this
Elmslie, Kenward  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Frielicher, Jane  Search this
Giardelli, Arthur  Search this
Guest, Barbara  Search this
Hartl, Léon, 1889-  Search this
Hess, Thomas B.  Search this
Katz, Alex, 1927-  Search this
Koch, Kenneth, 1925-  Search this
Laning, Edward, 1906-1981  Search this
Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997  Search this
Morse, Carl  Search this
Myers, John Bernard  Search this
O'Hara, Frank, 1926-1966  Search this
Padgett, Ron  Search this
Porter, Ruth W., 1875-1942  Search this
Rivers, Larry, 1925-  Search this
Schloss, Edith, 1919-  Search this
Schuyler, James  Search this
Shapiro, David, 1947-  Search this
Stankiewicz, Richard, 1922-  Search this
Vasilieff, Nicholas  Search this
Extent:
9.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Travel diaries
Sketches
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Date:
1888-2001
bulk 1924-1975
Summary:
The papers of New York-based painter, lithographer, art critic, and poet Fairfield Porter measure 9.3 linear feet and date from 1888 to 2001, with the bulk of material dating from 1924 to 1975. Papers document Porter's life and career through correspondence, writings, business records, printed materials, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York-based painter, lithographer, art critic, and poet Fairfield Porter measure 9.3 linear feet and date from 1888 to 2001, with the bulk of material dating from 1924 to 1975. The collection includes a biographical chronology; certificates, awards, and diplomas; letters to Fairfield and Anne Porter; scattered outgoing correspondence; and reviews, essays, notes, poems, and translations written by Porter and others. Among the writings are poetry manuscripts written by several New York School Poets including Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch. Also found are gallery records, inventories and appraisals, financial records, exhibition catalogs, clippings, posters, and records of Anne Porter's efforts to place his collection and document and publish his work after his death. Photographs of Porter, his homes, and his family are also present, as well as sketchbooks, loose sketches, and drawings spanning his entire career.

Significant correspondence is present from the Porters' many poet friends, including Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, Ron Padgett, Kenward Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Carl Morse, David Shapiro, and others. Among the letters are poetry manuscripts by Koch, Morse, Schuyler, Padgett, and Shapiro. Some letters are actually written in verse, especially those from Kenneth Koch.

Artists with letters in the collection include Joe Brainard, Rudy Burkhardt, John Button, Lucien Day, Rackstraw Downes, Philip Evergood, Jane Frielicher, Arthur Giardelli, Leon Hartl, Alex Katz, Edward Laning, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Richard Stankiewicz, Nicolas Vasilieff, among others. Other art world figures represented include John Bernard Myers, curator at the Tibor de Nagy gallery (New York), and Tom Hess, editor of ArtNews. Artwork found within the correspondence includes an illustrated letter from Ron Padgett and an original print on a holiday card by Edith Schloss.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into the following nine series. See the series descriptions below for more information about the content of each series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1916-1975 (Box 1 and 11; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1918-1996 (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings by Fairfield Porter, 1924-1975 (Box 2; 0.6)

Series 4: Writings by Others, 1888-1992 (Boxes 2-3; 0.7 linear feet)

Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1944-1996 (Boxes 3-4; 1 linear foot)

Series 6: Anne Porter's Posthumous Projects, 1980-1988 (Box 4; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 7: Printed Materials, 1934-2001 (Boxes 4-6 and 11; 1.5 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1880-1990 (Boxes 6 and 11; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 9: Artwork, 1918-1975 (Boxes 7-10 and 12-17; 2.2 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Fairfield Porter was born near Chicago in 1907, the fourth of five children of James and Ruth Furness Porter. His father was an architect, his mother a poet from a literary family, and Porter grew up in an environment where art and literature were highly valued. His father designed the family homes in Winnetka, Illinois and on Great Spruce Head Island, an island in Maine that he purchased for the family in 1912. Fairfield Porter spent summers there from the age of six, and views of the island, its structures, and neighboring towns were the subjects of many paintings.

Porter attended Harvard from 1924 to 1928, studying fine art with Arthur Pope and philosophy with Alfred North Whitehead. After graduating from Harvard, Porter moved to New York City and took studio classes at the Art Students League from 1928 until 1930, studying with Boardman Robinson and Thomas Hart Benton, and immersing himself in the art and radical politics of Greenwich Village. In the 1940s, he studied at Parson's School of Design with art restorer Jacques Maroger, adopting the Maroger recipe for an oil medium in his own painting.

To further his education as an artist, Porter traveled to Europe in 1931, where he spent time with expatriate art theorist Bernard Berenson and his circle. When he returned to New York, he allied himself with progressive, socialist organizations, and like many of his contemporaries, worked at creating socially relevant art. He did artwork for the John Reed Club, a communist group; taught drawing classes for Rebel Arts, a socialist arts organization; wrote for their magazine, Arise!; and created a mural for the Queens branch of the Socialist Party. Living in the Chicago area for several years in the 1930s, he illustrated chapbooks for the socialist poet John Wheelwright's Poems for a Dime and Poems for Two Bits series. Porter's financial contributions to the radical Chicago publication Living Marxism kept it afloat for several years.

In 1932, Porter married Anne Channing, a poet from Boston, and they settled in New York. The Porters had five children, and their first son, born in 1934, suffered from a severe form of autism. In the next decade, they had two more sons, and spent three years in Porter's hometown of Winnetka, where he had his first solo exhibition of paintings. When they returned to New York in 1939, the Porters became friends with Edwin Denby, Rudy Burkhardt, and Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Porter became an earnest admirer of Willem de Kooning's artwork and was among the first to review and purchase it.

In 1949, the Porters moved to the small, seaside town of Southampton, New York. Their two daughters were born in 1950 and 1956. Like the family home on Great Spruce Head Island, Southampton became the setting of many of Porter's paintings. In fact, almost all of his mature paintings depict family homes, surrounding landscapes, family members, and friends. Porter was an individualistic painter who embraced figurative art in the late 1940s and 1950s, when abstract expressionism was the prevailing aesthetic trend. Porter once made a comment that his commitment to figurative painting was made just to spite art critic Clement Greenberg, a respected critic and ideologue who had championed abstract expressionism and denigrated realism as passé.

Porter established his reputation as a painter and as a writer in the 1950s. John Bernard Myers of the vanguard Tibor de Nagy gallery gave Porter his first New York exhibition in 1951 and represented him for the next twenty years. That same year Tom Hess, editor of ArtNews, hired Porter to write art features and reviews. Porter went on to contribute to ArtNews until 1967 and also became art editor for The Nation beginning in 1959, the same year his article on Willem de Kooning won the Longview Foundation Award in art criticism. As a critic, Porter visited countless galleries and studios, and he gained a reputation for writing about art with the understanding and vested interest of an artist, and with the same independence from fashionable ideas that he demonstrated in his artwork.

The 1950s and 1960s were prolific years for Porter's writing and art, and saw the development of his critical ideas and the maturation of his painting. Porter enjoyed an elder status among a circle of younger artists such as Jane Freilicher, Larry Rivers, and Alex Katz, and their many poet friends, now known as the New York School of Poetry: Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Guest, and others. Porter himself wrote poetry and was published in the 1950s, sometimes alongside poems by his wife, who had been publishing poetry since the 1930s (twice in the vanguard Chicago journal, Poetry). The Porters' correspondence is laced with poems they and their friends sent back and forth, often about and dedicated to each other.

Besides his annual exhibitions at Tibor de Nagy and later Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Porter exhibited regularly at the Whitney, and had one-man exhibitions at many museums including the Rhode Island School of Design (1959), The University of Alabama (1963), Cleveland Museum of Art (his first retrospective, 1966), Trinity College (1967), the Parrish Art Museum (1971), the Maryland Institute of Art (1973), and the 1968 Venice Biennale. He also had residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1964) and Amherst College (1969). Porter died in 1975 at age 68. A full-scale retrospective of his artwork was held at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston in 1983, and a study center and permanent home for his artwork was established at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton through a donation made by Anne Porter. A posthumous collection of his poems was published by Tibor de Nagy Editions in 1985, and a catalogue raisonnée, edited by Joan Ludman, was published in 2001.

This biography relies heavily on information found in Justin Spring's biography of Porter, Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (Yale University Press, 2000).
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art holds an oral history of Fairfield Porter conducted by Paul Cummings in 1968.
Provenance:
The papers of Fairfield Porter were given to the Archives of American Art by the artist's wife, Anne Porter, in five separate accessions between 1977 and 1997.
Restrictions:
The bulk of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not digitized requires an appointment.
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:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- Southampton  Search this
Topic:
Works of art  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- Southampton  Search this
Painting, Modern -- 20th century  Search this
Poets  Search this
Lithographers -- New York (State)  Search this
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Sketches
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Citation:
Fairfield Porter papers, 1888-2001 (bulk 1924-1975). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.portfair
See more items in:
Fairfield Porter papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9c9535998-330e-4c23-9f84-9c4dff3569e5
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-portfair
Online Media:

The ACA Galleries records

Creator:
ACA Galleries  Search this
Names:
American Contemporary Art Gallery  Search this
Abbott, Berenice, 1898-1991  Search this
Baron, Herman, 1892-1961  Search this
Burliuk, David, 1882-1967  Search this
Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960  Search this
Dondero, George A. (George Anthony), 1883-1968  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Gropper, William, 1897-1977  Search this
Gwathmey, Robert, 1903-1988  Search this
Hirsch, Joseph, 1910-1981  Search this
McCausland, Elizabeth, 1899-1965  Search this
Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990  Search this
Olds, Elizabeth, 1896-1991  Search this
Pickens, Alton  Search this
Refregier, Anton, 1905-  Search this
Soyer, Moses, 1899-1974  Search this
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this
Valente, Alfredo  Search this
Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this
Young, Art, 1866-1943  Search this
Photographer:
Newman, Arnold, 1918-2006  Search this
Extent:
1 Linear foot
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Writings
Photographs
Date:
1917-1963
Summary:
The scattered records of the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Galleries date from 1917 through 1963 and include writings by founder Herman Baron, artists Philip Evergood and Anton Refregier, and art critic Elizabeth McCausland; printed materials; and photographs of Baron, ACA artists, art collectors, works of art, and exhibitions. Correspondence is with David Burliuk, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Lewis Mumford, Moses Sawyer, Max Weber, and others. Also found is a small group of Herman Baron's personal papers.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered records of the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Galleries date from 1917 through 1963 and include writings by founder Herman Baron, artists Philip Evergood and Anton Refregier, and art critic Elizabeth McCausland; printed materials; and photographs of Baron, ACA artists, art collectors, works of art, and exhibitions. Correspondence is with David Burliuk, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Lewis Mumford, Moses Sawyer, Max Weber, and others. Also found is a small group of Herman Baron's personal papers.

The records are a rich resource for documenting the Social Realist artists and the militant socialist artists during the great depression and the post-World War II era of "McCarthyism".

Correspondence with ACA artists consists of letters from Philip Evergood, David Burliuk, William Gropper, Robert Gwathmey, Joseph Hirsch, Lewis Mumford, Elizabeth Olds, Alton Pickens, Moses Soyer, Max Weber, and Art Young. Some of the letters concern the socialist and communist views of some of the artists, including responses to Congressional Representive George A. Dondero's public statements and attacks on modern art as a conspiracy to spread communism in the United States. There is a letter written by Holger Cahill to the editor of Time magazine concerning WPA artists. Also found is a letter from Raphael Soyer written to the ACA Galleries concerning the American Artists' Congress.

Writings include Herman Baron's written history of the ACA Galleries and scattered pages of Baron's book on Joe Jones and William Gropper. There are essays and writings by art critic Elizabeth McCausland, and artists Anton Refregier and Philip Evergood. Printed materials consist of ACA publications, newspaper clippings, published articles, printed illustrations by Philip Evergood, and printed materials about Congressman Dondero.

Photographs are of David Burliuk, Bruce Calder, Nicolai Cikovsky, Hy Cohen, Robert Cronbach, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Mike Gold, Chaim Gross, William Gropper, Joe Jones, Mervin Jules, Irene Rice Pereia, Geri Pine, Philip Reisman, Vic Shifreen, Harry Sternberg, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, James Baare Turnbull, Nicky Walker, Abraham Walkowitz, Nat Werner, and Art Young. Photographers include Berenice Abbott, Arnold Newman, and Alfredo Valente. Additional photographs are of unidentified installations or exhibitions.

Herman Baron's personal papers include letters written to his wife and friends during World War I, writings by Baron for various magazines including Glazier's Journal. Personal photographs are of Herman Baron in his army uniform. There is also an obituary for Herman Baron written by art critic Elizabeth McCausland.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 5 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1930s-1960s (Box 1; 0.25 linear feet)

Series 2: Writings and Notes, 1938-circa 1960s (Box 1; 8 folders)

Series 3: Printed Material, 1939-1960 (Box 2; 4 folders)

Series 4: Photographs, circa 1930s-circa 1960s (Box 2; 0.25 linear feet)

Series 5: Herman Baron Personal Papers, circa 1910s, 1940s-1960s (Box 2-3; 0.3 linear feet)
Historical Note:
Herman Baron, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Adolf Dehn founded the American Contemporary Art (ACA) Galleries on August 16, 1932. Located at 1269 Madison Avenue in New York City, the galleries' first show featured watercolorist Hy Cohen. Baron encouraged freedom of expression and did not censor the artworks displayed in his gallery. As a result, the gallery became an outlet for generally unknown and socially conscious artists, including the Social Realists.

Born in Lithuania in 1892, Herman Baron immigrated to the United States as a child. He served in World War I and later attended New York University. Baron founded and edited Glazier's Journal (later Glass Digest) in 1924 as the first journal for the professional glazing trade. Additionally, he wrote short stories and plays for American Hebrew and Young Israel.

In response to economic issues facing the art market during the depresssion of 1930s, ACA Galleries organized relief efforts to financially support their artists. During this period, the gallery became closely allied with militant artists' organizations and some of the more politically radical artists. In 1935, the ACA Galleries and Herman Baron hosted the first meeting of the American Artists' Congress in the gallery space.

The ACA Galleries featured exhibitions of works by artists David Burliuk, Stuart Davis, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Robert Gwathmey, Joe Jones, Rockwell Kent, Lee Krasner, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Lewis Mumford, Louise Nevelson, Alton Pickens, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Max Weber, Art Young, and others. Baron also organized exhibitions of many artists employed by or associated with the Works Progress Administration of the federal arts program. Due to the progressive nature of the works of art found in the ACA Galleries, Herman Baron came under considerable criticism during the McCarthy Era. Baron was condemned by Representative George A. Dondero for supporting "un-American" sympathies and was forced often to defend his gallery and artists.

For years the gallery focused on artists rights and supporting the work of artists, rather than a profit. In the 1950s, a shift occurred when Baron's nephew Sidney Bergen initiated professional business practices and transformed the gallery into a profitable venture. Now located at 529 West 20th Street in New York City, ACA Galleries continues to promote and support various social causes.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art holds the Herman Baron papers, dating from 1937-1967 which were donated by Syracuse University, George Arents Research Library in 1984. Some exhibition catalogs may be found here.
Provenance:
Ella Baron, widow of the ACA Galleries' founder Herman Baron, donated the records to the Archives of American Art in 1965 and 1966.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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.
Topic:
Art, American  Search this
World War, 1914-1918  Search this
Politics in art  Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
Genre/Form:
Writings
Photographs
Citation:
ACA Galleries records, 1917-1963. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.acagall
See more items in:
The ACA Galleries records
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97838f702-80fc-493a-940a-86b9373c8141
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-acagall
Online Media:

Charles Rand Penney papers

Creator:
Penney, Charles Rand, 1923-2010  Search this
Names:
Charles Rand Penney Collection  Search this
Arp, Jean, 1887-1966  Search this
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851  Search this
Avery, Milton, 1885-1965  Search this
Bertoia, Harry  Search this
Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this
Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this
Davis, Stuart, 1892-1964  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Ganso, Emil, 1895-1941  Search this
Goodnough, Robert, 1917-  Search this
Grooms, Red  Search this
Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this
Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this
Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this
Miró, Joan, 1893-  Search this
Moore, Henry, 1898-1986  Search this
Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this
Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988  Search this
Pepper, Beverly  Search this
Segal, George, 1924-2000  Search this
Sloan, John, 1871-1951  Search this
Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997  Search this
Steinberg, Saul  Search this
Wilke, Ulfert, 1907-1987  Search this
Extent:
23.1 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1923-1994
bulk 1945-1994
Summary:
The papers of art collector Charles Rand Penney measure 23.1 linear feet and date from 1923 to 1994 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1945 to 1994. The majority of the collection consists of Penney's art collection files, which include printed materials, correspondence, notes, and photographic materials. Also found within the papers are catalogs from exhibitions that featured artwork from Penney's collection.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art collector Charles Rand Penney measure 23.1 linear feet and date from 1923 to 1994 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1945 to 1994. The collection consists primarily of Penney's art collection files which include printed materials, correspondence, notes, and photographic materials. Also found within the papers are catalogs from exhibitions that featured artwork from Penney's collection.

Artists of significance represented in Penney's art collection files include Jean Arp, John James Audubon, Milton Avery, Harry Beroia, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Philip Evergood, Emil Ganso, Robert Goodnough, Red Grooms, Edward Hopper, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Joan Miro, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Beverly Pepper, George Segal, John Sloan, Theodoros Stamos, Saul Steinberg, and Ulfert Wilke, among many others. Also included are files for artists that participated in theToronto 20 portfolio project in 1965. The files do not include Penney's files relating to Charles Burchfield, Wester New York state artists, or objects from the Arts and Craft movement.

A few notable exhibition catalogs found in the series of catalogs of the Charles Rand Penney art collection are Charles Burchfield: The Charles Rand Penney Collection, The Graphic Art of Emil Ganso, Drawings from the Collection of Charles Rand Penney, Quilts Coverlets Hooked Rugs from the Collection of Charles Rand Penney, The Charles Rand Penney Collection: Twentieth Century Art, and An American Visionary: Watercolors and Drawings of Charles E. Burchfield.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 2 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Art Collection Files, 1923-1994 (Box 1-23, OV 24; 22.7 linear feet)

Series 2: Catalogs of the Charles Rand Penney Art Collection, 1966-1991 (Box 23, 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Rand Penney (1923-2010) was an art collector from Buffalo, New York. He was well known for his collection of art by Western New York artists, but also collected art from Europe, Africa, Oceania, and other regions of the United States. His travels contributed to the eclectic mix of paintings, drawings, sculptures, hooked rugs, quilts, and tribal art found within his art collection.

Penney cited receiving the watercolor Warrior in 1933 from Western New York artist Bob Blair as the beginning of his life as an art collector. Years later, Penney served in World War II, attended law school, and began practicing law in the 1950s. His collections grew quickly during the late 1950s through 1970s. Penney collected over 100,000 works of art during his lifetime, much of it guided by dealers James and Merle Goodman.

In 1963, Penney began donating artwork to the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York. In total, approximately 400 works of art were donated to the gallery including Big Diamond by David Smith and Beverly Pepper's Vertical Ventaglio (1967-1968). Penney also donated over 1000 works of art to the Burchfield Art Center in Buffalo, New York.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Charles Rand Penney conducted by Robert F. Brown on August 14-16, 1981. Additional files relating to the Charles Rand Penney Foundation (1963-1976) are located at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. Files relating to Western New York state artists, Charles Burchfield, and American Arts and Crafts are located at the Burchfield-Penney Center at Buffalo State College, Buffalo, New York.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1993-1994 by Charles Rand Penney.
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.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Citation:
Charles Rand Penney Papers, 1923-1994, bulk 1945-1994. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.pennchar
See more items in:
Charles Rand Penney papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw972c049ec-5929-47d4-a5d2-e8041e6394e0
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-pennchar
Online Media:

Hy Cohen papers

Creator:
Cohen, Hy, 1901-  Search this
Names:
Artists Equity Association  Search this
Block, Irving  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this
Newman, Elias, 1903-  Search this
Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice), 1902-1971  Search this
Extent:
220 Items
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1927-1972
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence, including letters from Irving Block, Phillip Evergood, Louise Nevelson, Elias Newman and Irene Rice Pereira; a photograph of Cohen and photographs of art work and Artists Equity Association of New York banquets, 1967 and 1968; exhibition catalogs and announcements; lecture notes; Artists Equity newsletters; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, president of Artists Equity Association, 1963-1970; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1979 by Hy Cohen.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Topic:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Identifier:
AAA.cohehy
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9e7f84afe-7f90-4206-8130-b89ee8dbbb31
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-cohehy

Abbo Ostrowsky papers

Creator:
Ostrowsky, Abbo, 1889-1975  Search this
Names:
Bezalel Art Society of America  Search this
Educational Alliance Art School (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Anderson, Maxwell, 1888-1959  Search this
Blume, Peter, 1906-1992  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Grossman, Elias  Search this
Jackinson, Leo  Search this
Lozowick, Louis, 1892-1973  Search this
Soyer, Moses, 1899-1974  Search this
Extent:
0.9 Linear feet ((on 1 microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1905-1976
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; an unpublished autobiography; miscellaneous writings; clippings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; printed matter relating to the Educational Alliance Art School and Bezalel Art Society of America; and a scrapbook of clippings. Correspondents include Peter Blume, Elias Grossman, Louis Lozowick, Philip Evergood, Moses Soyer, Maxwell Anderson and Leo Jackinson.
Biographical / Historical:
Etcher and painter; Forest Hills, N.Y.
Provenance:
The donor, Abraham Ostrow, is related to Abbo Ostrowsky.
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.
Identifier:
AAA.ostrabbo
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9f34536b1-8a87-48a6-8619-f14ece4f11a6
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-ostrabbo

Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records

Creator:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc.  Search this
Names:
Art Dealers Association of America  Search this
Grace Borgenicht Gallery  Search this
Bloom, Hyman, 1913-  Search this
Cober, Alan E.  Search this
Dintenfass, Terry, 1920-  Search this
Dove, Arthur Garfield, 1880-1946  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Fleischner, Richard, 1944-  Search this
Frasconi, Antonio  Search this
Goodman, Sidney  Search this
King, William, 1925-2015  Search this
Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this
Merkin, Richard  Search this
Pippin, Horace, 1888-1946  Search this
Suttman, Paul, 1933-1993  Search this
Tovish, Harold, 1921-2008  Search this
Extent:
22.1 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Visitors' books
Date:
1947-1987
bulk 1961-1983
Summary:
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records are comprised of administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.
Scope and Contents:
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records include administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.

Administrative files include advertising and membership records, insurance documents, a guest book, resumes, and agreements with other corporations. Correspondence is with artists, galleries, museums, and arts organizations. There is a significant amount of correspondence regarding the Art Dealers Association of America. Exhibition files are found for numerous exhibitions to which Dintenfass either loaned art or helped to organize. There is extensive documentation of the 20 Galleries/20 Years exhibition held at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery and the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in 1982 and the "Machine Themed Shows" in 1974-1975.

Artists' files comprise the largest group of materials within the collection. Files for Hyman Bloom, Alan Cober, Arthur Dove, Philip Evergood, Richard Fleischner, Antonio Frasconi, Sidney Goodman, William King, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Merkin, Horace Pippin, Paul Suttman, and Harold Tovish bulk the largest.

Financial records contain artist expense and sales ledgers, consignment papers, invoices and receipts, as well as records for D Contemporary Paintings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 5 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Administrative Files, 1961-1983 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1961-1981 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)

Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1962-1983 (4.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-7, OV 23)

Series 4: Artists' Files, 1947-1987 (8.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-15, OV 23)

Series 5: Financial Records, 1959-1981 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-22, OV 23)
Biographical / Historical:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. is a New York City art gallery founded in 1959 by Terry Dintenfass (1920-2004).

In 1954, Theresa "Terry" Dintenfass opened D Contemporary Paintings in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With financial backing from Armand Erpf, she moved the gallery to New York City in 1959 and changed the name to Terry Dintenfass Gallery. There, she became a protégé of Downtown Gallery owner Edith Halpert. Dintenfass was one of several notable female art dealers in the city during the 1940s-1980s among Edith Halpert, Betty Parsons, Grace Borgenicht, Antoinette Kraushaar, and others. She showed work on consignment from other dealers, and when Edith Halpert retired, Terry Dintenfass, Inc. began to represent the estate of Arthur Dove. Other notable artists represented by the gallery included social realists Philip Evergood and Robert Gwathmey, and African American painters Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence, whom she represented for 25 years. The gallery's stable also included William King, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom, Antonio Frasconi, and others.

After Dintenfass retired in 1999, her son Andrew took over the business and continues to run the gallery today. Terry Dintenfass died in 2004 in Manhattan.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Terry Dintenfass conducted by Paul Cummings on December 2, 1974-January 13, 1975 for the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1995 by Terry Dintenfass.
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.
Topic:
Art, American  Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
Genre/Form:
Visitors' books
Citation:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records, 1947-1987, bulk 1961-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.terrdint
See more items in:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9e485640b-ef7f-49bb-8964-fed4c50e6438
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-terrdint
Online Media:

Letters from Philip Evergood

Creator:
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Names:
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Stroll, Florence  Search this
Extent:
5 Items ((on partial microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1953-1955
Scope and Contents:
Four letters and a postcard to collectors Florence and Alex Stroll. Evergood discusses his exhibits and plans and thanks the Strolls for purchasing his painting "Rural Scene." Also included is an announcement from the Terry Dintenfass Gallery signed by Evergood.
Biographical / Historical:
Evergood was a painter, NYC and Conn; the Strolls, art collectors; Detroit, Mich.
Provenance:
Originals lent for photocopying by Florence Stroll, 1966.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- United States  Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Identifier:
AAA.everphil2
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw967c6f4a8-2c80-46a7-9eb9-5ffe1fa2d4f2
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-everphil2

Oral history interview with George Biddle

Interviewee:
Biddle, George, 1885-1973  Search this
Interviewer:
Phillips, Harlan B. (Harlan Buddington), 1920-  Search this
Creator:
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project  Search this
Names:
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project  Search this
Public Works of Art Project  Search this
Bacon, Peggy, 1895-1987  Search this
Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this
Billings, Henry, 1901-  Search this
Bouché, Louis, 1896-1969  Search this
Bruce, Edward, 1879-1943  Search this
Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960  Search this
Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926  Search this
Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946  Search this
Demuth, Charles, 1883-1935  Search this
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this
Grosz, George, 1893-1959  Search this
Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970  Search this
Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this
Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974  Search this
Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this
Miller, Kenneth Hayes, 1876-1952  Search this
Orozco, José Clemente, 1883-1949  Search this
Pascin, Jules, 1885-1930  Search this
Poor, Henry Varnum, 1887-1970  Search this
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this
Robinson, Boardman, 1876-1952  Search this
Siqueiros, David Alfaro  Search this
Sterne, Maurice, 1878-1957  Search this
Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946  Search this
Tamayo, Rufino, 1899-  Search this
Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this
Zorach, William, 1887-1966  Search this
Zorach, William, 1887-1966  Search this
Extent:
239 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1963
Scope and Contents:
An interview of George Biddle conducted in 1963, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.
Biddle speaks of his background in Philadelphia; his Harvard education in preparation for a law career; literary acquaintances; travel; the beginning of his art career; his preoccupation with portraiture; his tragic and pleasant works; the importance of mood; his drawing techniques; drawing from nature; color experimentation; Stieglitz's circle; the susceptibility of artists to change during the 1930s; his involvement with the Public Works of Art Project; government censorship of his murals; his involvement with artists overseas during World War II; and his aesthetic philosophy. He recalls Max Weber, Maurice Sterne, George Grosz, William Zorach, Kenneth Hayes Miller, Peggy Bacon, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Edith Halpert, Boardman Robinson, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Henry Billings, Ned Bruce, Holger Cahill, Philip Evergood, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo.
Biographical / Historical:
George Biddle (1885-1973) was a painter and sculptor, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.
General:
Originally recorded 3 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 13 hr., 56 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
Art -- Censorship  Search this
Federal aid to the arts  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- Interviews  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.biddle63
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9bb4fdb2d-29ab-4c56-bcef-655c27a0afb8
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-biddle63
Online Media:

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