The papers of painter Andrew Dasburg and his wife and sculptor Grace Mott Johnson date from 1833 to 1980 (bulk 1900 to 1980), and measure 8.8 linear feet. The collection documents each artist's career and personal lives, including their brief marriage and their friendships with many notable artists in the New Mexico and New York art colonies during the early twentieth century. The papers of Dasburg (6 linear feet) and Johnson (2.8 linear feet) include biographical materials; extensive correspondence with family, friends, and fellow artists, such as John F. Carlson, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Marsden Hartley, Henry Lee McFee, and Ward Lockwood; writings by Dasburg, Johnson, and others; scattered legal, financial, and business records; clippings; exhibition materials; numerous photographs of Johnson and Dasburg, friends, family, and artwork; and original artwork, including two sketchbooks by Johnson.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter Andrew Dasburg and sculptor Grace Mott Johnson date from 1833 to 1980, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1900 to 1980, and measure 8.8 linear feet. The collection is divided into the papers of Andrew Dasburg (6 linear feet) and the papers of Grace Mott Johnson (2.8 linear feet), and documents each artist's career and personal lives, including their brief marriage, and friendships with many notable artists in New Mexico and New York art colonies during the early twentieth century. Found are scattered biographical, legal, and financial materials. Extensive correspondence (particularly in Dasburg's papers) is with family, friends, and fellow artists, such as John F. Carlson, Florence Ballin Cramer, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Marsden Hartley, Henry Lee McFee, Vera Spier Kuhn, and Ward Lockwood. Dasburg's papers also include letters to Johnson and his two later wives.
Johnson's correspondence is also with numerous artist friends and others, including John F. and Margaret Carlson, Florence Ballin Cramer, Jo Davidson, Florence Lucius, Walter Frankl, Lila Wheelock Howard, Henry Lee McFee, Mary Riley, Lee Simonson, Lindsey Morris Sterling, Alice Morgan Wright, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and Vera Spier Kuhn. Letters to her son Alfred are quite detailed and revealing. Writings are by Dasburg, Johnson, and others. Johnson's writings include a very brief diary and her poetry. Writings by others are about the Taos and New Mexico art communities. Printed materials about both artists include clippings and exhibition catalogs. There are numerous photographs of Dasburg and Johnson, individually and together, and with friends and family. Of note are a group photograph of Birge Harrison's art class in Woodstock, New York, which includes Johnson and Dasburg, and a photograph of Dasburg with friends Konrad Cramer and John Reed. Dasburg's papers also include snapshots of Florence Lucius, Konrad and Florence Ballin Cramer, Frieda and D. H. Lawrence, and Mabel Dodge Luhan. Original artwork by the two artists include two sketchbooks by Johnson and three prints and two drawings by Dasburg.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 2 series of each artist's papers:
Missing Title
Series 1: Andrew Dasburg Papers, circa 1900-1980 (Box 1-7; 6.0 linear feet)
Series 2: Grace Mott Johnson Papers, 1833-1963 (Box 7-10; 2.8 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Andrew Michael Dasburg (1887-1979) was born in Paris, France, to German parents. After his father died and when he was five, Dasburg and his mother moved to New York City. In 1902 Dasburg started attending classes at the Art Students' League and studied with Kenyon Cox and Frank Du Mond. He also took night classes with Robert Henri. In 1907 he received a scholarship to the Art Students' League summer school in Woodstock, New York and spent three summers studying there in Birge Harrison's painting class. While in school he became friends with many young artists, including Morgan Russell and his future wife, Grace Mott Johnson.
Grace Mott Johnson (1882-1967) was born in New York City. She began drawing when she was four years old, and when the family moved to a farm in 1900 she enjoyed sketching horses and other farm animals. At the age of 22 she left home to study at the Art Students' League with sculptors Gutzon Borglum and James Earle Fraser, and also attended Birge Harrison's painting class in Woodstock. Throughout her career she would sculpt animals from memory, and would often attend circuses and farms for inspiration.
In 1909 Johnson and Dasburg went to Paris and joined the modernist circle of artists living there, including Morgan Russell, Jo Davidson, and Arthur Lee. During a trip to London that same year they were married. Johnson returned to the United States early the next year, but Dasburg stayed in Paris where he met Henri Matisse, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and became influenced by the paintings of Cezanne and Cubism. He returned to Woodstock, New York in August and he and Johnson became active members of the artist community. In 1911 their son Alfred was born. Both Dasburg and Johnson showed several works at the legendary Armory Show in 1913, and Dasburg also showed at the MacDowell Club in New York City, where he met the journalist and activist John Reed who later introduced him to Mabel Dodge (Luhan), a wealthy art patron and lifelong friend. In 1914 Dasburg met Alfred Stieglitz and became part of his avant-garde circle. Using what he had seen in Paris, Dasburg became one of the earliest American cubist artists, and also experimented with abstraction in his paintings.
Dasburg and Johnson lived apart for most of their marriage. By 1917 they had separated and Dasburg began teaching painting in Woodstock and in New York City. In 1918 he was invited to Taos, New Mexico by Mabel Dodge, and returning in 1919, Johnson joined him there for a period of time. Also in 1919, Dasburg was one of the founding members of the Woodstock Artists Association with John F. Carlson, Frank Swift Chase, Carl Eric Lindin, and Henry Lee McFee. In 1922 Dasburg and Johnson divorced, and also at that time he began living most of the year in Santa Fe with Ida Rauh, spending the rest of the year in Woodstock and New York City. Dasburg became an active member of the Santa Fe and the Taos art colonies, befriending many artists and writers living in these communities, and remaining close friends with Mabel Dodge Luhan. Here he moved away from abstraction, and used the southwestern landscape as the inspiration for his paintings.
In 1928 he married Nancy Lane. When that marriage ended in 1932, he moved permanently to Taos, and with his third wife, Marina Wister, built a home and studio there. Dasburg periodically taught art privately and at the University of New Mexico. In 1937 he was diagnosed with Addison's disease, which left him unable to paint again until 1946. In 1945 he and his wife Marina separated. Dasburg was recognized for his career as an artist in a circulating retrospective organized by the American Federation of Arts in 1959. He also had retrospectives in Taos in 1966 and 1978. His artwork influence several generations of artists, especially in the southwest, and he continued creating art until his death in 1979 at the age of 92.
Grace Mott Johnson lived in the Johnson family home in Yonkers, New York during the 1920s and later moved to Pleasantville, New York. In 1924 she went to Egypt to study ancient Egyptian sculpture. During the 1930s she became a civil rights activist. She produced very little art during the last twenty years of her life.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Andrew Dasburg, July 2, 1964 and March 6, 1974. Additional related collections at other repositories include the Andrew and Marina Wister Dasburg Papers at the New Mexico State Archives, the Andrew Dasburg Papers at Syracuse University Library, and the Grace Mott Johnson Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming. Reel 2803 contains photocopies of ten Morgan Russell letters to Dasburg. Reels 4276-4278 include biographical material, subject files, photographs, correspondence, writings, and exhibition material. The photocopies on reel 2803 were discarded after microfilming, and the items on 4276-4278 were returned to the lender. This material is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Andrew Dasburg and Grace Mott Johnson papers were donated by their son, Alfred Dasburg, in 1980. Syracuse Univresity lent materials for microfilming in 1978 and 1989.
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.
Eighty years of Johnson's general correspondence primarily consists of personal letters with friends, family, and fellow artists. There is also a substantial amount of correspondence with her son, Alfred Dasburg. The bulk of the correspondence dates from 1906 to 1919.
Because Alfred spent most of his childhood living in Taos with his father, Andrew Dasburg, or away at school or camp, Johnson's correspondence with her son provides very candid and detailed accounts of her daily activities. The letters discuss her current artwork, news from her friends and relatives, and her travels, including her stay in Taos, New Mexico in 1919. Also included are numerous letters written during her stay in a mental hospital from 1937 to 1938. Many of her later letters to Alfred include reminiscences of her youth and extensive self-analysis.
General correspondence with other family and friends is extensive and most often discusses social events, news of family and friends, and other daily activities of the writer. Family correspondence includes numerous letters between Johnson and her siblings, especially her brother Van Cleve Johnson. Grace Mott Johnson corresponded with numerous painter and sculptor friends whom she met at the Art Students' League and in Woodstock, New York. Some of these include Marion Bullard, Russell Cowles, John F. and Margaret Carlson, Florence Ballin Cramer, Florence Lucius, Walter Frankl, Lila Wheelock Howard, with whom she shared a studio for a period of time, Thomas Hunt, Henry Lee McFee, Morgan Russell, Mary Riley, Lee Simonson, Lindsey Morris Sterling, and Alice Morgan Wright. Johnson was also close friends with the Davidson family, and found here is her correspondence with the sculptor Jo Davidson and his two sisters Ray and Rose. Other notable correspondence is with friend Vera Spier Kuhn, wife of artist Walt Kuhn, art patron Mable Dodge Luhan, journalist John Reed, gallery owner William Macbeth, and her psychiatrist Abraham Brill. Also found is a small amount of correspondence documenting Johnson's civil rights activities, including letters from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
This subseries also includes the correspondence of Frances H. Johnson, Grace Mott Johnson's aunt, also known as Aunt Fanny, with whom she was very close. Found here are postcards and letters from family and friends as well as numerous letters between Frances and Grace Mott Johnson, including several detailed letters from Grace describing her time in Taos.
See Appendix B for a select list of correspondents from Series 2.2.
Appendix B: Correspondents from Series 2.2: Grace Mott Johnson Papers, General Correspondence:
Barclay, Jessie: 1909
Bercinsky, David: 1911, 1929, undated
Bercinsky, Rachel: 1906, 1908
Bigelow, Poultney: 1910, 1911, undated
Borglum, Gutzon: 1908
Bradenburgh, Margaret Caspar: 1908, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1940
Brill, Abraham A.: 1919, 1921, 1935, 1937-40, 1948
Bullard, Eleanor: 1909
Bullard, Marion: 1911, 1912, undated
Cahen, J. B.: 1907
Carlson, John F. & Margaret: 1907-1913, 1921, 1947
Johnson, Van Cleve: 1904, 1908-1918, 1938, 1942, 1947, undated
Kalish Pharmacy: 1910
Kleinert, H.: 1923
Kuhn, Vera Spier: 1908-1912
Labaree, Mary Fleming: 1931
Lane, Mrs. Franklin: 1933
Law, Ellen M.: 1910, 1912, 1922
Lincoln University: 1931
Lucius, Albert: 1922
Lucius, Florence (Floss): 1908-1915, undated
Luhan, Mabel Dodge: 1919, 1924, 1933
Macbeth, William: 1911
Macomb, Edith: 1920
Macrum, Mrs. George: 1947
Magee, R.: 1909, 1910
Martin, Daniel S.: 1891
McFee, Henry Lee: 1912, 1914, undated
McKenzie, Ilya: 1909-1911
Miles, John E.: 1938
Milner, H. W.: 1910
Morgan, Helen: 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912
Morrell, Edith: 1910, 1911, undated
Morton-Morris, Mrs. John: 1946
Mott, Cora E.: 1908
Mott, Jane: 1910
Mott, Laura: 1894, 1906-1908
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: 1935-1937, 1940, undated
National Association of Woment Painters and Sculptors: 1937
The New York News -- : 1935
Noyes, Minnie A.: 1916
Odok, Effiom: 1938
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts: 1913
Pfeiffer, J.: 1912
Potterat, Mathilda: 1910, 1912
Radcliffe, C. M. R.: 1912
Raub, Ida: 1922
Reed, John: 1916
Reynolds, William E.: 1922
Riley, Mary: 1909-1911, undated
Rogers, Julia J.: 1911
Rosenberg, Elfie Cahen: 1904-1912, 1926
Russell, Morgan: 1908
Schlisinger, Gisela: 1907
Schuyler, Josephine: 1933
Scott, Leon W.: 1935
Sholtz, David: 1935
Simkins, Martha: 1913
Simonson, Lee: 1912, 1914-1917, 1928, undated
Smith, S. Archibald: 1920
Spanish and Indian Trading Co.: 1926
Sterling, Lindsey Morris (Sally): 1908-1912
Sutherland, Arthur: 1936-1939
Teague, Cecil: 1911
Teague, Walter: 1911
Wardwell, James: 1909
Watkins, Mary Jane: 1930
Weeks, Henry de F.: 1910
Weigand, Margarith: 1909-1914
White, Mrs. John K.: 1908
Wright, Alice Morgan: 1907, 1908, 1910, 1930
Yaldo, Margaret: 1917-1919
Collection Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Andrew Dasburg and Grace Mott Johnson papers, 1833-1980 (bulk 1900-1980). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Found here is Andrew Dasburg's extensive correspondence which spans over seventy years, documenting both his personal and professional life. One third of the correspondence is between Dasburg and his first wife, Grace Mott Johnson. most of which was written during their marriage. These candid letters discuss daily activities, social events, travels, including Dasburg's time in Paris in 1910 and trip to Europe in 1914, news of mutual friends, artwork, and problems with their relationship.
Also found is Dasburg's correspondence with his second wife, Nancy Lane around the time of their marriage in 1928, and correspondence with his third wife, Marina Wister Dasburg during the periods that she visited her family in Pennsylvania; most of these letters are written by Marina. Dasburg's correspondence with his son, Alfred, consists of brief letters sharing news of their travels, family, and personal matters.
General correspondence primarily consists of Dasburg's correspondence with other family members, friends, colleagues, scholars, universities, and galleries. Where they exist, Dasburg's outgoing letters are interfiled with letters he received in a chronological arrangement. Dasburg was friends with many artists who, like him, were part of regional art colonies in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Woodstock, New York. He also maintained friendships with artists he met in Europe and other travels and at the Art Students' League. Correspondents includes Kenneth Adams, Thomas Hart Benton, George Biddle, Dorothy Brett, Alexander Brook, Lucienne Chinard Clemens, Howard Cook, Russell Cowles, Vida Hunt Francis, Lewis Garrison, Marsden Hartley, Norbert Heerman, Richard Hollander, Lila Wheelock Howard, Charles Kassler, Mary Aubrey Keating, Carl Eric Lindin, Ward Lockwood, Erle Loran, Hayes Lyon, Henry Lee McFee, John Gaw Meem, Loren Mozley, Dickson Reeder, Louis Ribak, Paul Rohland, Alfred Stieglitz, Earl Stroh, Carl Van Vechten, Alice Morgan Wright, and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, among many others. Dasburg also corresponded with many former students including Edwin Gamble, Willard Nash, Alice Naylor, and Earl Stroh. Also found are letters from writers John Howard Griffin, Witter Bynner and Miriam Hapgood De Witt as well as art critics and historians such as Robert M. Coates, Oliver Larkin, and Stanley Lothrop. Dasburg maintained extensive correspondence with close friend, art patron and Taos resident, Mabel Dodge Luhan.
A small amount of correspondence with galleries, universities, museums, curators, and scholars concerns exhibitions, sales, or research. Additional topics found within his correspondence are American Indian rights in New Mexico and his medical treatment for Addison's disease.
See Appendix A for a list of correspondents from Series 1.2.
Appendix A: Correspondents from Series 1.2: Andrew Dasburg Papers, General Correspondence:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Andrew Dasburg and Grace Mott Johnson papers, 1833-1980 (bulk 1900-1980). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment, and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Laurie Lisle research material on Georgia O'Keeffe and Louise Nevelson, 1902-1990. 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.
Art: [videorecording] theme and variations / produced by Bonnie Behar; camera and editing by Victor Cromwell; interviewer, Lisa Lindsay Daugherty, 1984
Interviews of five artists living and working in the Fairfield, Conn. area, including Paul Cadmus, Reuben Nakian, Lila Howard, Ann Chernow and Jean Woodham. The interviews were conducted in the artists' studios; some show their exhibitions.
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
Westport, Conn. : Westport-Weston Arts Council TV Committee, 1984.
Provenance:
Donated 1985 by the Westport-Weston Arts Council via Lisa Daugherty. Art: Theme and Variations was a monthly series of interviews of artists conceived and conducted by Daugherty, a sculptor, for the Council. The tapes aired aired on Cablevision Channel 27.
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.
![view Art: [videorecording] theme and variations / produced by Bonnie Behar; camera and editing by Victor Cromwell; interviewer, Lisa Lindsay Daugherty digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")