An interview of Anne Rorimer conducted 2010 November 15-16, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Rorimer's home, in Chicago, Illinois.
Rorimer speaks of her family background; her early life and education in New York City; her father, James Rorimer, and his influence as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; college life at Bryn Mawr; how she became interested in modern art; her internship at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London after college; her master's degree thesis on Tony Smith; her job as a curator at the Albright-Knox Gallery and then at the Art Institute of Chicago; memorable exhibitions at the AIC throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including the annual "American Exhibition," "Europe in the Seventies: Aspects of Recent Art," (1977), and "Idea and Image in Recent Art" (1974); her close relationship with Anne D'Harnoncourt; how she left the AIC in 1984 to write, "New Art in the '60s and 70s: Redefining Reality," (2001); her role in acquisitions of contemporary art at the AIC; her thoughts on art education; her work with collectors; the process of getting her book published and reactions to it; her curatorial projects in the 1980s and early 1990s that focused on conceptual art; her relationship with artists like Michael Asher and Daniel Buren; her extensive book collection; her thoughts on being a freelance curator and writer. She recalls Whitney Stoddard, Robert Beverly Hale, Theodoros Stamos, Leo Castelli, Henry Geldzahler, Anne D'Harnoncourt, Renee Marcuse, Bates Lowry, Tony Smith, Marcia Tucker, A. James Speyer, Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner, Vito Acconci, William Wegman, Robert Morris, Lucy R. Lippard, Katharine Kuh, Sol Lewitt, John Maxon, Eva Hesse, Muriel Newman, Judith Kirschner, Dan Graham, Benjamin Buchloh, and Marcel Broodthaers.
Biographical / Historical:
Anne Rorimer (1944-) is a curator and art historian in Chicago, Illinois. Judith Olch Richards (1947-) is a former executive director of iCI in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 36 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Search this
The records of New York City Fischbach Gallery measure 39.5 linear feet and date from 1937 to 2015, with the bulk of materials dating from 1963 to 1977. The majority of the collection consists of artists files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's relationship with its stable of modern and avant garde artists, as well as gallery exhibitions. Files include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. Gallery records also include general business correspondence, access-restricted financial records; and additional printed materials. The 2015 addition of 14 linear feet consists of inventory and client sales records in the form of card indexes. The 2019 addition consists of material related to Marilyn Fischbach's art collection.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of New York City Fischbach Gallery measure 39.5 linear feet and date from 1937 to 2015, with the bulk of materials dating from 1963 to 1977. The majority of the collection consists of artists files containing a wide variety of materials documenting the gallery's relationship with its stable of modern and avant garde artists, as well as gallery exhibitions. Files include biographical materials, correspondence, printed materials, and photographs. Gallery records also include general business correspondence, access-restricted financial records; and additional printed materials.
Artists and Exhibition Files contain information on over one hundred Fischbach Gallery artists and measure 18 linear feet. The contents of each file varies, but typically may include biographical information; correspondence between the artist, museums, and other galleries; scattered consignment information; printed materials including articles, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and press releases; photographs of the artist, installations, constructions, and works of art; and negatives, slides, and transparencies. Substantial files are found for John Altoon, Stephen Antonakos, Ronald Bladen, Wynn Chamberlain, Allan D'Arcangelo, Gene Davis, Anne Dunn, Piero Gilardi, Eva Hesse, Alex Katz, Nicholas Krushenick, Les Levine, Robert Mangold, Doug Ohlson, Anne Ryan, Robert Ryman, Arlene Slavin, Tony Smith, George Sugarman, and Robert Swain, among others. Also included are files pertaining to group exhibitions including "According to the Letter" (1963), "Hard Center" (1963), "Six Women" (1965), "Game Without Rules" (1966), "Direct Representation" (1969), and "Eccentric Abstraction" (1966) which was organized by Lucy Lippard.
General gallery correspondence is business correspondence between the gallery and companies, individuals, museums, galleries, dealers, new or non-Fischbach artists, and institutions. Additional business records consist of an address book, lists of Fischbach artists, gallery plans, a notebook, as well as guest lists, mailing lists, and press lists.
Financial records are access restricted and require written permission from the donor's representative for use. The files document financial transactions for many of the artists represented in the artists files and includes sales records, invoices, artists' payments, and correspondence about sales and possible sales. The alphabetical financial files document routine gallery business, such as framing, shipping, insurance, messenger, publicity, etc. and are organized by name of business. General financial files consist of accounting ledgers, banking documents, insurance claims, and travel accounts.
Printed materials consist of various business cards, clippings concerning the Fischbach Gallery, and a pamphlet by Ron Williams as a guide to New York galleries. The bulk of printed materials are found in the Artists and Exhibition Files.
A small series of photographs include those from the Thiabaut Gallery, and unidentified photos of landscapes. It is likely that Fischbach Gallery occupied the space previously used by the Thiabaut Gallery and some materials were included in the collection for that reason. The bulk of photographic materials are found in the Artists and Exhibition Files.
In 2015, 14 feet of records were added to the collection. The addition consists of inventory and client sales records in the form of card indexes. The addition is access-restricted until 2065.
A 2019 addition of 0.2 linear feet, consisting of material related to Marilyn Fischbach's art collection, was processed in 2020.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Artists and Exhibitions Files, 1937-1977 (Boxes 1-18, 28; 18 linear feet)
Series 2: Gallery Correspondence, 1962-1974 (Boxes 18-19; 1.75 linear feet)
Series 3: Business Records, 1969-1971 (Box 27; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Financial Records, 1963-1975 (Boxes 20-25; 4.5 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1963-1972 (Box 26; 6 folders)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1960s (Box 26; 2 folders)
Series 7: Inventory Card Indexes, circa 1960s-2015 (12.1 linear feet; Box 29-41)
Series 8: Client Sales Card Index, circa 1970s-2000s (1.9 linear feet; Box 41-42)
Series 9: Marilyn Fischbach Collection Records, circa 1975-2000 (0.2 linear feet; Box 43)
Historical Note:
The Fischbach Gallery was founded in 1960 by Marilyn Cole Fischbach at 799 Madison Avenue in New York City. The gallery was noted for its stable of minimalist young artists in the 1960s, and the work of the painterly realists in the 1970s. The gallery remains open today.
During its early years, the gallery was among the first to focus on 1960s avant-garde and minimalist artists. Marilyn possessed a talent for discovering young artists and for helping them advance their careers. Many of these young artists became well-known, including Ronald Bladen, Eva Hesse, and Alex Katz. Other artists represented by the gallery include Allan D'Arcangelo, Les Levine, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, George Sugarman, and Robert Swain.
The gallery also had an active exhibition schedule and organized and hosted group exhibitions of modern art, including "According to the Letter" (1963), "Hard Center" (1963), and "Direct Representation" (1969). Additionally, the Fishbach Gallery hosted "Eccentric Abstraction" in 1966, an exhibition organized by Lucy Lippard.
Later, the gallery moved to W. 57th Street in Manhattan. Fischbach hired A. Aladar Marberger as director of the gallery. Under his direction, the Fischbach Gallery shifted from the avant-garde to contemporary American realism and minimalist sculpture. In the 1980s, Marilyn Fischbach brought three investors into the gallery. She remined a co-owner, but lived in Paris, France for many years prior to her death at the age of seventy-two. The Fischbach Gallery remains open at 210 West 11th Street at 25th Street in New York City.
Provenance:
Gallery founder Marilyn C. Fischbach and director A. Aladar Marberger donated the majority of the Fischbach Gallery records in 1978. Additional records were donated in 2001 by Maureen Dawley on behalf of the Carnegie Mellon University and in 2015 and in 2019 by John Fischbach, Marilyn C. Fischbach's son.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Written permission from the donor is also required to view the series of financial records and the 2015 addition of card indexes. Contact the Reference Services Department for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
524 letters and postcards; 10 diaries, 1955-1967 describing her work and problems creating it; appointment and address books; interviews of Hesse by Cindy Nemser; Hesse's classroom notes, term papers and teaching notes; papers by Hesse's students, and several essays by Lucy Lippard; personal photographs and photographs of art work; sketchbooks, sketches and drawings; exhibition catalogs, announcements and invitations; 2 scrapbooks of clippings and memorabilia; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor and instructor. Born in Hamburg, Germany, immigrated to the U.S. and later became naturalized. Studied at Pratt Institute, 1952-53, Art Students League, 1953 and Cooper Union, 1954-57, all in New York City. Lecturer at School of Visual Arts, New York City, 1968-70.
Provenance:
Provenance unknown.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview with Tony Ganz conducted 2014 December 6, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, at Ganz's home in Brentwood, California.
Ganz speaks of his parents, siblings, and early childhood; growing up in New York city; his family's collection and interest in art; collecting Picasso; going to museums and galleries as a kid; understanding Picasso; Putney School; his interest in photography and film; attending Harvard; making films; meeting his wife; beginning collecting; collecting drawings; building his collection; equity; Eva Hesse; Amber Whiteread; Gordon Matta-Clark; Moving to Beachwood Canyon; Robert Smithson; Paul Thek; Ted Bonin; Claes Oldenberg; Frank Stella; plan for his collection; following one's intuition; ones that got away; and friends in the art world. Ganz also recalls Victor and Sally Ganz, Paul Ganz, Sol Ganz, D. Lisner Jewelry, Chuck Fries, Gail Mutrux, Matthew Marks, Anthony D'Offay, Jeffrey Deitsch, Lee Bontecou, David Zwirner, Adam Weinberg, and Glenn Lowry.
Biographical / Historical:
Tony Ganz (1947-) is a film producer in Brentwood, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 SD memory cards as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 4 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
An interview with Rosalyn Drexler conducted 2017 May 17 and June 2 by Christopher Lyon, for the Archives of American Art, at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, New York.
Drexler discusses her childhood in the Bronx; her experiences studying dance and music; her higher education at Hunter College; attending films and the Yiddish Theater; meeting her husband Sherman Drexler; her time as a professional wrestler; her memories of traveling to the South and encountering Jim Crow segregation; she describes learning about art from Sherman Drexler and her joint exhibition with Sherman; her early work in sculpture; participating in Happenings with Jim Dine; joining Anita Reuben's gallery; her debut as a playwright; her experience writing "I am the Beautiful Stranger;" the changing public perception of her and being classified as an artist; her decision to become a painter and appropriating images for her work; the influence of S. J. Perelman on her plays; her play about Joseph Cornell and ballerina Allegra Kent, and interviewing Allegra Kent; her recent artwork and preparing for her 2017 show at Garth Greenan Gallery; her artwork from the 1980s and 1990s; her comedy writing and sense of humor. Drexler also recalls Chico Marx, Jack Newfield, Igor Youskevitch, Ivan Karp, Anita Reuben, Lucas Samaras, Richard Gilman, Al Carmines, Amiri Baraka, Barbara Ann Teer, Franz Kline, Elaine De Kooning, Bill de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Jack Kroll, Lawrence Alloway, Tom Hess, Barney Newman, Harold Rosenberg, Susan Sontag, Joe Hirshhorn, Henry Geldzahler, Donald Barthelme, Kornblee Gallery, Eva Hesse, Tom Doyle, William Klein, Marilyn Monroe, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Basquiat, Saturday Night Live, and Lenny Bruce, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Rosalyn Drexler (1926- ) is a sculptor, playwright, and novelist in New York, New York. Christopher Lyon (1949- ) is a writer in Brooklyn, New York.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Playwrights -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Walter Erlebacher conducted 1991 Jan. 19, by Anne Hunter, for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project.
Erlebacher discusses his early years in Frankfurt, immigrating with his family to New York City in 1940; his education and early visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; issues such as the Vietnam War and the resulting changes, multiculturalism; his interest in philosophy, Plato, mathematics and the golden section; his studies at Pratt, Alexander Kostellow and Ivan Rigby and the program they developed at Pratt; military service in Europe; returning to Pratt, his fellow students, and issues of representational art;
Eva Hesse; his shift to representational sculpture; his interest in anatomy which he taught himself and others in a private class; his friendship with other representational artists such as Philip Pearlstein, Alfred Leslie and Jack Beal; his use of mythology; Marcel Duchamp; exhibitions and his dislike of them; and a few major commissions including the Jesus in Philadelphia, the ARA commission, and the Jefferson Hospital commission he lost; Philadelphia as an art community and such controversies as the "Rocky" sculpture.
Biographical / Historical:
Walter Erlebacher (1933-1991) was a sculptor and instructor from Philadelphia, Pa.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Topic:
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
An interview of Lee Bontecou conducted 2009 January 10, by Dore Ashton, for the Archives of American Art, at Knoedler and Company, in New York, New York.
Bontecou speaks of her interest in art as a young child and her parents' encouragement and influences; her two years at community college before studying painting then sculpture under William Zorach at the Arts Students League in New York City; her time working, living and studying in Rome though the Fulbright Scholarship; her abstracted figural works in Rome influenced by ancient Greek and Roman sculpture; her exploration in Europe of non-American influences and her admiration of the strong design sense in Italy; returning to the United States and working in the New York City art scene and exhibiting her works at Leo Castelli's Gallery; different techniques including welding and vacuum forming; meeting her husband, Bill Giles, and raising her daughter, Vallie, in New York City; leaving New York City and the Castelli Gallery for Pennsylvania and the ability to experiment in her artwork; teaching at Brooklyn College where she worked with Morris Dorsky and enjoyed a wide range of students; her lack of affiliation with art movements, including Pop Art; her illness and her current work; and her strong belief that an M.F.A. is useless and that young artists have to make themselves. Bontecou also recalls Robert Brackman, Julio Gonzales, Alexander Calder, Richard Bellamy, Gabriel Kahn, Richard Stankewiczs, Tom Doyle, Eve Hesse, Sandra and Jack Beale, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Lee Bontecou (1931- ) is a sculptor and printmaker from New York, New York. Bontecou studied at the Art Students League of New York and taught at Brooklyn College.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 42 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Jackie Ferrara conducted 2009 January 16-February 13, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's U.S. General Services Administration, Design Excellence and the Arts oral history project, at the Ferrara's home, in New York, New York.
Ferrara speaks of growing up in Detroit, Michigan; her early interest in mathematics and its ever present role in her work; attending Michigan State University for one year; taking fashion drawing classes at Wayne State University and her supposed lack of drawing skills; an early interest in pottery and leather making; moving to New York City in 1951 on a night train from Detroit; working at the Henry Street Playhouse and its influential role on her art; her relationship with Robert Beauchamp and her friendship with many artists in Provincetown, Massachusetts; early works, including the cotton batting works and the rope works, most of which were destroyed; her dislike of traveling and her use of imagination for inspiration; participating in the performances and happenings of Claes Oldenburg; her friendship with Robert Smithson and his influence on her later works; working with Max Protetch; never teaching art because she herself did not attend art school; her creation process of her wood and stone pieces, including their conception in early drawings; having a positive attitude towards her pieces being rebuilt because of decay; quickly moving into public art in the late 1970s, early 1980s; living and working in the same loft in New York for over 40 years; the helpful role the women's movement played in her successful career though she did not participate; receiving art grants to enable her to work for a year or two without having to find an odd job to support herself; various public art projects around the country, how they came to be, creating the works and their significance to her. Ferrara also recalls Charlotte Tokayer, Don Ferrara, Alvin Nikolai, Richard Bellamy, Mary and Paul Frank, Miles and Barbara Forst, Sally Gross, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Nat Halprin, Lucas Samara, Letty Lou Eisenhauer, James Rosenquist, Marcia Marcus, Charles Addams, Eva Hesse, Frank Gallo, Tony DeLap, Dorothea Rockburne, Time Doyle, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Nancy Graves, Marty Greenbaum, Abe Sachs, Mel Bochner, Jan Groover, Alice Aycock, Alice Adams, Jackie Windsor, Scott Burton, Siah Armajani, Michelle Stuart, Lucy Lippard, Zaha Hadid, Max Hutcinson, Andrea Blum, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jackie Ferrara (1929- ) is a sculptor. Ferrara works with the built environment in her designs for courtyards and architectural structures.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Audio: ACCESS RESTRICTED; Use requires written permission.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Draftsmen (artists) -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview with Barbara Novak conducted 2013 October 8-17, by James McElhinney, for the Archvies of American Art, at Novak's home in Manhattan, New York.
Novak speaks of her early art training; learning to draw at the age of eight with help from her uncle William Kaufman and later taking art classes with Belle Icahn; Edward Melkoff; Joseph Presser; and classes at the Art Students League; becoming Expressionist in her painting; her year in Europe as a Fulbright student from Harvard University; the powerful lectures of Julius Held at Barnard College that launched her career; feeling that she devised a system by which works of art can be understood through looking closely at their physical properties and how she tries to develop the individual in her students; her time as a docent at the Brooklyn Museum in the American art collection; which led her to becoming an Americanist; her book, "Alice's Neck" and the inspiring Utah landscape; the importance of Fitz Henry Lane's work; the embodiment in American art of Pragmatism and Transcendentalism; and being led to Luminism; her books showing how to understand American culture through art, covering formal, contextual, and spiritual elements; hosting the first television show on art, "Vision of Art"; her husband Brian O'Doherty's background in art; the importance of nature for Cole and Durand; that common sense should be used in describing works of art, rather than assuming current events influenced the artist; her education at Harvard; Margaret Fuller and writing "The Margaret-Ghost"; Marcel Duchamp; Andrew Wyeth; Edward Hopper; Robert Rauschenberg; Mark Rothko; and Lee Krasner; and that the most exhilarating time intellectually for her was the 1960s with a group that included Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Peter Hutchinson, Morton Feldman, Mel Bochner, and others. Barbara also recalls Mrs. Nevins, William Scharf, Paul Cormans [ph], Marion Lawrence, Marge Shapiro, Maxim Karolick, William Goetzmann, Ann McCoy, Ben Rowland, Bart Hayes, Ted Reff, Dan Aaron, Louis Bosa, Linda Ferber, Meredith Davis, Marissa Watts, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Barbara Novak (1929- ) is an art historian in New York, New York. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded as 4 sound files. Duration is 4 hr., 26 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview with Robert Mangold conducted 2017 November 16, by Christopher Lyon, for the Archives of American Art, at Mangold's studio in Washingtonville, New York.
Mangold speaks of his childhood in the North Tonawanda, New York; early experiences of drawing; attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, a summer program at Yale Norfolk, and graduate school at Yale; his first encounter and experiments with Abstract Expressionism in the late 1950s; the influence of Pop art and New York City's built environment on his work; moving to New York in 1962; the art world social scene of the early 1960s; his teaching career at SVA; his investigative approach to art-making; his approach to making series of works; the influence of living in the countryside on his work; his investigations of drawn lines in paintings beginning in the late '60s; his recent decision to hire an assistant; his formative summer of 1974 in Italy; his 2017 retrospective survey at Mnuchin Gallery; and his comments on certain pieces reproduced in the Pace Gallery catalogue of his work. Mangold also recalls Bernard Chaet, Alex Katz, Josef Albers, Brice Marden, Neil Welliver, Lucy Lippard, Robert Ryman, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Don Nice, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Mangold (1937- ) is a minimalist artist in New York, New York. Christopher Lyon (1949- ) is an author and publisher in Brooklyn, New York.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
The papers of art historian, art critic, author, librarian and educator Ellen Hulda Johnson measure 61.5 linear feet and date from 1872-2018, with the bulk of the material dating from 1921-1992. The papers include biographical materials; personal and family files; personal, professional, and business correspondence; extensive research and writing files; teaching files; subject files; professional and curatorial files; and artists' files. Johnson's papers reflect the full range of her career, interests, and close relationships with many artists. There is a 0.2 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2021 that includes letters to Ellen Johnson from others, letters from Johnson to Carl Gerber, and a sketch by Johnson. Materials date from circa 1956-1991.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian, art critic, author, librarian and educator Ellen Hulda Johnson measure 61.5 linear feet and date from 1872-2018, with the bulk of the material dating from 1921-1992. The papers include biographical materials; personal and family files; personal, professional, and business correspondence; extensive research and writing files; teaching files; subject files; professional and curatorial files; and artists' files. Johnson's papers reflect the full range of her career, interests, and close relationships with many artists. There is a 0.2 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2021 that includes letters to Ellen Johnson from others, letters from Johnson to Carl Gerber, and a sketch by Johnson. Materials date from circa 1956-1991.
Personal papers consist of biographical materials and personal and family files, including "memorabilia" files compiled by Johnson. Correspondence is a mix of personal, business, and professional correspondence. Significant correspondents include David Saunders (who painted a portrait of Johnson), Claes Oldenburg, Jack Tworkov, Robert Venturi, the American Scandinavian Foundation. A folder of correspondence compiled for the Archives includes letters from Alfred Stieglitz, Wendell Wilkie, Carl Milles, Jim Dine, and Alexander Archipenko.
Extensive and comprehensive writing and research project files include articles, lectures, presentations, manuscripts, notes and notebooks, including her class notebooks from courses she attended in Paris in 1935, and additional notes and notebooks on a wide variety of subjects. The numerous articles, lectures, papers, and drafts were written primarily by Johnson for the College Art Association, the Allen Memorial Art Museum bulletin, and numerous additional publications and presentations; but there are also writings by others included in the research files. Major writing projects and related research files cover Scandinavian art, the Ossabaw Island artist's colony, Cezanne, Eva Hesse, John Frederick Kensett, Claes Oldenburg, Picasso, David Saunders, Athena Tacha, Pop Art, and many other topics. Johnson's research files, manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs for major exhibitions, including one on Eva Hesse (1982) and for her published books including American Artists on Art from 1940-1980 (1982), Claes Oldenburg (1971), Fragments Recalled at 80: The Art Memoirs of Ellen H. Johnson (1993), and Modern Art and Object (1976) are arranged with the writing project files. Johnson's bibliographic index cards are found here as well.
The collection contains extensive teaching files for courses taught by Johnson at Oberlin and as a visiting professor at other institutions; professional and curatorial files reflecting her curatorial career at Allen Memorial Art Museum, as a consultant, jury member, and continuing education courses she later attended, including the Baldwin Lecture Series; and 18 linear feet of artist's files assembled by Johnson.
Arrangement:
The Ellen Hulda Johnson papers are arranged into seven series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Personal Papers, circa 1905-2009 (5 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 56-59)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1927-2009 (5.5 linear feet; Boxes 3-7, 60)
Series 3: Writing and Research Projects, 1872, 1932-1994 (15.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-20, 56, 61-62)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1930-1993 (5 linear feet; Boxes 21-25, 62)
Series 5: Teaching Files, 1928-1989 (6 linear feet; Boxes 26-31, 62)
Series 6: Professional and Curatorial Files, 1936-1991 (6 linear feet; Boxes 32-37, 56)
Series 7: Artists Files, 1935-1992 (18.3 linear feet; Boxes 37-55, 62)
Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, 1956-1991 (0.2 linear feet; Box 63)
Biographical / Historical:
Ellen Hulda Johnson (1910-1992) was an art historian, critic, and professor who worked and taught at Oberlin College in Ohio for most of her career.
Ellen Hulda Johnson was born in 1910 in Warren, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in art history at Oberlin in 1933 and 1935. She worked briefly at the Toledo Museum of Art before returning to Oberlin as the art librarian. In 1940 she started Oberlin's art rental program, the first of its kind in the country. She was appointed to the faculty in 1948 and taught nineteenth and twentieth century art, American art from colonial times to the present, contemporary art, and Scandinavian art. She was a member of the Allen Memorial Art Museum's acquisition committee and appointed honorary curator of modern art in 1973. She remained at Oberlin her entire career, retiring from teaching in 1977.
Johnson was the author of numerous articles, books, and exhibition catalogs including Cezanne (Penquin, 1967); Claes Oldenburg (Penquin, 1971); American Artists on Art from 1940-1980 (Harper and Row, 1982); and Modern Art and the Object (Thames and Hudson, 1976).
In 1968, Johnson purchased the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Weltzheimer house in Oberlin, and spent a considerable part of her time and money restoring the building where she lived the rest of her life. She bequethed the house and her significant art collection to Oberlin upon her death in 1992.
Related Materials:
Papers of Ellen H. Johnson, 1933-1992, are also located at Oberlin College Archives.
Separated Materials:
Shortly after aquisition, the Archives transferred Ellen Hulda Johnson's vertical file (16 linear feet) of clippings, press releases, and exhibition announcements to the library of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
Provenance:
The Ellen Hulda Johnson papers were donated in 1994, 1998, 2019 and 2021 by the estate of Ellen Hulda Johnson via exectutor Athena Tacha.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington D.C. 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.
Ellen Hulda Johnson papers, 1872-2018, bulk 1921-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Eva Hesse : a retrospective / exhibition and catalogue organized by Helen A. Cooper ; essays by Maurice Berger [and others] ; [edited by Lesley K. Baier]
