Correspondence, photographs, writings, sketches, drawings, paintings, and printed material.
REELS 1880-1882: Extensive correspondence with Bowden's wife, Lois; letters from Paul Bransom, Imogen Cunningham, Hi Hirsch, Hans Hofmann, Robert Johnson, George McNeil, George Post, James Schevill, Hassel Smith, Brett Weston, and Edward Weston; notes and writings on photography and art; sketches, drawings, and paintings; business papers and business correspondence from museum and gallery directors including Edward Steichen, Fred Hobbs, Charles Campbell, Minor White, and others; catalogs, clippings, and other printed materials.
REEL 1885: Ca. 500 photographs, mostly by Bowden, including photos of George Abend, Al and Frances Bernstein, Richard and Pat Bowman, M. Carles, Walter Chabrow, Imogen Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Vic and Jeanne Di Suvero, Loyola and Ed Fourtane, Mrs. Gibson, Grabhorn, Robinson Jeffers, Aristodemos Kaldis, Lee Krasner, Darius Milhaud, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Phylis and Bob Pauey, Jackson Pollock's studio, Otis Oldfield, George Post, Kenneth Price, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Rexroth, Serge Trubach, Edward and Brett Weston, Yvor Winters, Wilfred Zogbaum, and Aldous Huxley. Also included are photographs Bowden, Bowden's family, his wife, Lois, nudes, his works, and exhibits.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and photographer; San Francisco, California. Studied with Hans Hofmann; founding member of the American Abstract Artists and was associated with the Artists' Gallery; photography influenced by Edward Weston.
Provenance:
Lois Bowden, Harry Bowden's widow, donated the greater part of this collection to the Archives of American Art via Charles Campbell of the Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, Calif. Mr. Campbell subsequently donated 28 additional photographs.
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 -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Photographers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Topic:
Photography, Artistic -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Painting, Abstract -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographs of works of art and of friends; scrapbooks; clippings; exhibition materials; typescripts; greeting cards; and correspondence.
REEL 682: 29 photographs of Fruhauf, her "Making Faces" exhibition, 1968, and her caricature drawings; photographs of a painting by Louis Eilshemius, photographs of caricatures of Fruhauf by William Zorach, Alexander Calder, and Raphael Soyer; a photograph of a Christmas card from Maurice Ravel; 12 rough caricature drawings including one of Yasuo Kuniyoshi by Fruhauf; typescripts of conversations with Lord David Cecil and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and notes on Aldous Huxley.
REEL 1119: Nine scrapbooks containing published caricatures of theatrical and musical personalities from newspapers and magazines; Christmas cards designed by Fruhauf; and clippings, exhibition announcements, and miscellaneous printed materials.
REEL 1816: A typescript of Fruhauf's 307 page autobiography "MAKING FACES: MEMOIRS OF A CARICATURIST," 1966; a press release regarding an exhibition of her works at the Smithsonian Institution in 1966, and a list of her work in the exhibition; and 62 reproductions of caricatures.
REEL 2803: a printed musical score "Six Musical Moods for the Piano" by Louis Michel Eilshemius (1897), autographed "Wedding Bells for Aline Vollmer, best wishes Louis M. Eilshemius 1934."
REEL 2812: Two undated letters to Fruhauf from Louis Eilshemius. In one he affirms that he hates to see nudes "in kitchen chairs," and remarks that a reproduction of his "Nymphs" would clarify this statement for her. A sketch, "Idyllness" is drawn on this letter. In the other letter he mentions Fruhauf's caricature of him, talks about his health and about their mutual friend [Harry] Salpeter.
Biographical / Historical:
Caricaturist and lithographer. Date of birth also given as 1907.
Other Title:
Louis Michel Eilshemius (microfilm title reel 2803)
Provenance:
Material on reels 682, 1119 and 1816 lent for microfilming 1970-1976; and material on reels 2803 and 2812 donated 1970 and 1980 all by Aline Fruhauf.
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.
The records of the Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts, measure 36 linear feet and date from 1927-circa 1985, with the bulk of the material spanning the organization's active years, 1947-1967. The collection documents the arts and cultural programming organized by the ICA through correspondence, artists' files, program and exhibition files, administrative and financial records, printed materials and photographs. Also found are administrative, student, and teacher records of the ICA school; records of the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project; and some personal papers of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts, measure 36 linear feet and date from 1927-circa 1985, with the bulk of the material spanning the organization's active years, 1947-1967. The collection documents the arts and cultural programming organized by the ICA through correspondence, artists' files, program and exhibition files, administrative and financial records, printed materials and photographs. Also found are administrative, student, and teacher records of the ICA school; records of the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project; and some personal papers of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman.
Robert Richman's professional and personal relationships with numerous artists and writers which the ICA hosted in D.C. are documented in Correspondence and Artists' Files. Correspondence files include letters from Joseph and Anni Albers, Alfred Barr, e.e. cummings, Alexander Giampietro, Naum Gabo, Walter Gropius, Erick Hawkins, Duncan Phillips, Hans Richter, Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy, and William Carlos Williams. Also found is correspondence with benefactors, board members, and arts organizations regarding exhibitions and administrative details; and with teachers and the Veteran's Administration regarding school issues.
Artists' Files contains mostly incoming and outgoing correspondence, but also found are biographies, exhibition printed materials, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings and scattered portrait photographs. Of interest are files on Aaron Copland, e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, Wojciech Fangor, Nadine Gordimer, Robert Graves, Aldous Huxley, Janheinz Jahn, Kathleen Raine, and Sir Herbert Read.
In addition to Correspondence and Artists' Files, materials regarding ICA's programming, such as correspondence with artists and galleries, press releases, shipping records, financial records, printed materials, photographs, inventory and price lists, are found in ICA Program Files.
The ICA and Robert Richman collaborated with numerous arts and international exchange organizations to organize exhibitions, performances, symposium, and to host visiting artists. Materials regarding such collaborations are found in Organizations and includes correspondence, scattered financial records, notes, and printed materials such as bulletins, brochures, schedules, reports, and press releases. This series also includes substantial material related to the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Program, an international exchange initiative of President Dwight D. Eisenhower begun in 1956.
The school's records include correspondence, notebooks (attendance books), teacher files documenting classes and grades, extensive student files and student enrollment cards, mailing lists, class cards, and notes for classes taught by Robert Richman.
Administrative and Financial Files include accounting and banking records, budgets, founding documents, fundraising records, grants records, mailing lists, membership lists, and Meridian House Foundation records.
ICA's programs are also documented by comprehensive printed materials arranged by ICA seasons, 1947-1967. Printed materials include program calendars, exhibition announcements, invitations, membership forms, and press releases. Also found are newspaper clippings and three oversized clippings scrapbooks.
Photographs include black and white photographs and negatives of people, most of whom are unidentified. Robert Richman's personal papers includes personal correspondence, correspondence related to "New Republic," handwritten and typed writings, some bills, and his curriculum vitae.
Unrepresented in this collection are records of ICA's ICONART Collection (Contemporary Arts Archives), an archive of films and tapes of artists' performances, lectures and events held by ICA.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1937, 1944-1980 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 2: Artists' Files, 1943-1967, 1970-1979 (4.9 linear feet; Boxes 3-8)
Series 3: ICA Program Files, circa 1947-1968 (5.2 linear feet; Boxes 8-13, 27)
Series 4: Organizations, 1927, 1940s-1967 (7.3 linear feet; Boxes 13-20, OV 39)
Series 5: ICA School Files, 1945-1953 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 21-27)
Series 6: Administrative and Financial Files, 1945-1979, 1983 (5.2 linear feet; Boxes 28-33, 38)
Series 7: Printed Materials, 1945-1970 (2.9 linear feet; Boxes 33-35, 38)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1930s-1960s, circa 1985 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 35-36)
Series 9: Personal Papers of Robert Richman, 1940s-1980 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 36-37)
Biographical / Historical:
The Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), was founded by poet Robert Richman in 1947 to bring arts and culture to the nation's capital. The school, originally named the King-Smith School of Creative Arts, was redesigned and renamed Institute of Contemporary Arts by Richman in 1948. The school's philosophy was based on Sir Herbert Read's Education Through Art, and provided professional training in painting, sculpture, literature, music, and theater. In addition, the ICA operated an evening school and brought prominent artists and literary figures to the nation's capital for exhibitions, concerts, workshops, lectures, readings, and performances. Teachers at the school included potter Alexander Giampietro, sculptor David Aaron, designers Beatrice Takeuchi and Hubert Leckie, and painter Kenneth Noland.
The school closed in August 1951, but the ICA continued to provide an impressive roster of programs and performances held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and other D.C. institutions, such as exhibitions by Naum Gabo, Bernard Leach, Isamu Noguchi, and Hans Richter; readings by W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Katherine Anne Porter, and Dylan Thomas; lectures by Charles Eames, Aldous Huxley, Octavio Paz, and Frank Lloyd Wright; and performances by Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, José Limón Dance Company, and Ravi Shankar. The organization also sponsored visiting professorships for international artists and writers, such as Nadine Gordimer, and hosted an annual Congress of Artists and Writers from 1959-1964.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the ICA was successful in securing some large grants to continue and expand its programming and to secure permanent space at the Meridian House Foundation. However, by the late 1960s the organization's programming declined.
ICA founder Robert Richman was a poet and literary editor at New Republic magazine in the early 1950s. He was active in the arts community in D.C. and in international exchange organizations, including the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project, an initiative started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s. Robert Richman passed away in 1987.
Provenance:
The Institute of Contemporary Arts records were donated by Maida Richman, the wife of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman, in 1986.
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.
Function:
Arts organizations -- Washington (D.C.)
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Photographs
School records
Citation:
Institute of Contemporary Arts records, 1927-circa 1985, bulk 1947-1967. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collection Care Preservation Fund.
Ardita Zanzaretta Resta di dormi noia Ecco moriror dunque Hai giar mi discoloro Sparge la morte Arde il mio cor Giar piansi nel dolor Motet XIV: O crux Benedicta Non t'amo, o voce ingrata Ardo per te Io taceror Invan dunque, o crudele Moro lasso Ancide sol la morte O dolorosa gioia Dolcissima mia vita / Carlo Gesualdo.
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-LP-2162
Sunset.600
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
Sunset 1956
General:
Robert Craft (ChDir.) ; Singers of Ferrara.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
This collection documents Kauffer's work as a theater designer, and graphic designer from 1915-1954.The collection includes allusions to correspondences between Kauffer in America to T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) in London, between 1930 and 1955. (There are no letters between the two men in the collection.) Although Kauffer and Eliot were to become friends after 24 July 1930, they were professionally related before that time. Kauffer illustrated the Ariel edition of Eliot's "Marina." Kauffer and Eliot met in London. In the collection are also posters of Kauffer's works, biographical pieces, and obituaries as well as photographs of the artist.
Arrangement note:
Unprocessed; The archive material consists of sketches, posters, manuscript leaves, photographs, clippings, and other related items that document Mr. Kauffer's career from 1915-1954.
Biographical/Historical note:
Edward McKnight Kauffer (1891-1954) was born at Great Falls, Montana. He grew up in the small town of Evansville on the Ohio River in Indiana, where the Kauffer grandparents had settled. After the divorce of his parents, he spent two years in an orphanage. By the age of four or five he had begun to draw. His mother remarried in 1899. Kauffer left school at the age of 12 or 13 to be helper to the scene painter in the City Directory.
In the Elder Bookshop and Art Rooms in San Francisco Kauffer acquired not only a speaking voice of marked attractiveness and distinction but also a life-long passion for books. He continued his studies as a painter by receiving his first formal training at evening sessions at the Mark Hopkins Institute. He met Professor McKnight, who became his patron; in homage to him Kauffer adopted the name of McKnight. A small exhibition of Kauffer's paintings was held at the Elder Art Rooms. He also studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and in Munich and Paris, and started his career as a theatrical scene painter. He was returning from Germany to this country in 1914 and was in London when World War I broke out.
In 1914 Kauffer would marry American Pianist, Grace Ehrlich and they would have a daughter. In 1921 Kauffer would move to New York City leaving his wife and daughter. In the spring of 1922 Kauffer returned to London with Marion Dorn, American textile designer. They would stay in London just prior to the beginning of World War II when they would return once again to New York. They would eventually marry in 1950.
In the Twenties in London, he went to work in a soldiers' canteen and began designing posters for the London Underground Railway in his spare time. His posters were so strikingly successful that he soon got further orders, and built up a reputation in his field. The posters would indicate to the war-weary British the normal resumption of public transportation. The posters made history in art circles and have been regarded ever since as revolutionary concepts of art-cum industry. A 1926 exhibition given at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford furthered Kauffers notoriety.
His recognition in America began in 1937, when the Museum of Modern Art presented his work in its first one-man show ever given to an American poster designer. He returned to this country to live in 1940. While Kauffer was widely recognized abroad and the MOMA show brought attention, very few Americans knew of him and fewer advertisers were willing to accept the poster as an art form. His clients, since his return to America have included the National Red Cross, American Airlines, the New York Subways, Ringling Brothers Circus, the Container Corporation of America, the American Silk Mills and many others.
Kauffer was among the first in the early Twenties to respond to the impact of modern art, particularly the work of the cubist painters Picasso and Braque. The influence of cubism can be seen in his posters and was the basis of his dynamic geometrical style. The emphatic angular forms of Kauffer's posters shocked the public into attention. His artistry, and in particular his color sense, held that attention and, in a few short years just after the First World War, laid the foundations of his reputation as a designer, not only among the leading business men of the time, but particularly among critics and art students. T.S. Eliot, a friend of Kauffer's, describes his marriage of the public and modern art, "He did something for modern art with the public as well as doing something for the public with modern art."
In addition to his involvement in advertising, Kauffer was a book illustrator as well illustrating editions of many classics, including Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," Cervantes' "Don Quixote," Carl Van Vechten's "Nigger Heaven," and works by Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot, Arnold Bennett, Lord Birkenhead and others.
His work is represented in the South Kensington Museum in London and in the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, and there are examples of it also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in Milan. He edited a survey, The Art of the Poster, in 1934. He was a Fellow of the British Institute of Industrial Art and a member of the Council for Art and Industry. When the Royal Society of Arts established its high diploma of R.D.I. (Designer for Industry) in 1937 he was ineligible as a foreigner, but was granted honorary status. He was asked to be Honorary Advisor to the Department of Public Information for the United Nations. He was Advisory Council for the Victoria and Albert Museum. His biography appears in the English "Who's Who" and in the American "Who's Who", as well as in the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Kauffer began to lose interest in the New York advertising scene. A friend of his said that he chose to kill himself with drink. He continued to work to the end, almost obsessively. Kauffer died on 22 October 1954.
Provenance:
All materials were donated to the museum by Grace Schulman in 1997.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited; Permission of Library Director required; Policy.
