The exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art measure 20.9 linear feet and date from 1943 to 1975, with the bulk of records dating from the period its galleries were in operation, from 1964 to 1975. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of exhibition files, which contain a wide range of documentation including artist files, checklists, correspondence, writings, photographs, interviews, numerous films and videos, artist statements, printed materials, and other records. Also found within the collection are administrative records of the museum, artist files, and papers of the Contemporary Wing's director and curator, Elayne Varian, which were produced outside of her work at Finch College.
Scope and Contents:
The exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art measure 20.9 linear feet and date from 1943 to 1975, with the bulk of records dating from the period its galleries were in operation, from 1964 to 1975. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of exhibition files, which contain a wide range of documentation including artist files, checklists, correspondence, writings, photographs, interviews, numerous films and videos, artist statements, printed materials, and other records. Also found within the collection are administrative records of the museum, artist files, and papers of the Contemporary Wing's director and curator, Elayne Varian, which were produced outside of her work at Finch College.
Administrative records include records relating to the general operation of the Contemporary Wing concerning fundraising, professional associations, budget, contact information for artists, donors, and lenders to exhibitions. Also found are records of the permanent collection of artworks acquired by the museum between 1964 and 1975 from contemporary artists and collectors of contemporary art.
Artist files contain basic biographical information on over 150 contemporary artists, with scattered correspondence, photographs, technical information about artworks, artist statements, and other writings. Artist files also include an incomplete run of artist questionnaires gathered by the New York Arts Calendar Annual for 1964.
Elayne Varian's personal papers include curatorial records, a course schedule and syllabus related to her teaching activities, and various writings. Curatorial projects documented in Varian's papers include three programs produced outside of Finch College, including a juried show at the New York State Fair in 1967, a film series at Everson Museum of Syracuse University, and an exhibition at Guild Hall in East Hampton in 1973. Several of Varian's writing projects involved interviews, which are also found in this series in the form of sound recordings and transcripts. Interview-based writing projects include individual profiles on Brian O'Doherty and Babette Newberger, and interviews conducted for an article on the artist-dealer relationship published in Art in America (January 1970). Dealers interviewed for the latter project include Leo Castelli, Virginia Dwan, John Gibson, Richard Feigen, Arnold Glimcher, Fred Mueller, Martha Jackson, Sidney Janis, Betty Parsons, Seth Siegelaub, and Howard Wise. Artists interviewed include Roy Lichtenstein, Adolph Gottlieb, and Charles Ross.
Exhibition files, comprising the bulk of the collection, document exhibitions held in the Contemporary Wing during its existence from 1964 to 1975. Types of records found in the series include exhibition catalogs, correspondence, loan agreements, lists, contact information, insurance valuations of artworks, photographs, biographical information on artists, clippings, posters, press releases, and other publicity materials. In addition to the rich textual and photographic records found for exhibitions, numerous audiovisual recordings are also found, some of which were made in preparation for an exhibition, some document mounted exhibitions, and others are artworks themselves or components of artworks exhibited in the galleries. Interviews with artists, dealers, and others involved in exhibitions include Alan Sonfist, Mel Bochner, Hans Richter, Ruth Richards, James Brooks and Janet Katz, Margaret Benyon, Irwin Hollander (transcript only), David Anderson, Doris Chase, Will Insley, Michael Kirby, Les Levine, Ursula Meyer, Brian O'Doherty, Charles Ross, Tony Smith, Douglas Davis, Jane Davis, Russ Connor, Les Levine, Michael Mazur, Paul Gedeohn, and physicists Lloyd G. Cross, Allyn Z. Lite, and Gerald Thomas Bern Pethick. Video artworks, recordings of performances, or components of multimedia artworks are found by artists Vito Acconci, Kathy Dillon, Douglas Davis, Dan Graham, Les Levine, Bruce Nauman, Michael Netter, Eric Siegel, and Robert Whitman. A film of the Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Structure (1966) exhibition is found, and video recordings of artists Lynda Benglis, Michael Singer, and Sam Wiener form as part of the documentation for the Projected Art: Artists at Work (1971) exhibition.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Administrative Records, 1950-1975 (2 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 22, OV 23)
Series 2: Artist Files, 1958-1975 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 3-4, 22, OV 23, FC 27-28)
Series 3: Elayne Varian Personal Papers, 1965-1970 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 5-6)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1943-1975 (14.9 linear feet; Boxes 6-22, OV 24-25, FC 26)
Biographical / Historical:
The Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, later called simply the "Contemporary Wing," was established in 1964 by the president of Finch College, Roland De Marco, as an extension the Finch College Museum of Art in New York City.
Its mission was to educate art history students at the Manhattan women's college who were interested in working with contemporary art. DeMarco, himself an art collector, hired Elayne Varian as director and curator of the contemporary wing. DeMarco met Varian in the New York office of the prominent international art dealership Duveen Brothers, where she had worked since the mid-1940s, most recently as an art dealer. Varian received her art education in Chicago, where she studied art history and education at the University of Chicago, and took classes in film at the Bauhaus and in fine art the Art Institute of Chicago. Sensitive to emerging art movements in galleries and studios around the city of New York, as the contemporary wing's curator, Varian quickly established a reputation for thoughtfully conceived, cutting-edge exhibitions which were consistently well-received by the press.
Under Varian, the Contemporary Wing carried out a dual mission of showing work of living artists and educating students and the public about the artwork and museum work in general. Varian used the galleries to provide practical training to students interested in a gallery or museum career throughout its existence. For several years, she also maintained an assistantship position for post-graduate museum professionals to gain experience in the field, many of whom went on to careers in museums across New York State.
The Contemporary Wing's best-known exhibitions formed a series of six shows called Art in Process, held between 1965 and 1972. Each of the Art in Process shows took a different medium, including painting, sculpture, collage, conceptual art, installation art, and serial art, and brought the process of art-making into the gallery with the artworks in various ways. For example, for Art in Process V (1972), the show about installation art, the galleries were open to the public for the entire process of its installation, allowing visitors to watch the works take shape. Another show entitled Documentation (1968) exhibited artworks with documentation such as artist's notes, sales records, and conservation records, bringing to light the value of record-keeping in the visual arts. Two exhibitions entitled Projected Art were also innovative, with the first (1966-1967) bringing experimental films from the cinema to the galleries, and the second (1971) showing artists' processes via footage and slides of artists working. Another show, Artists' Videotape Performances (1971), involved both screening of and creation of works in the gallery using a range of experiments with recent video technology. The museum also participated in an experimental broadcast of an artwork entitled Talk Out! by Douglas Davis, in which a telephone in the gallery allowed visitors to participate in its creation while it was broadcast live from Syracuse, NY. Other exhibitions that showcased experimentation in art included N-Dimensional Space (1970), on holography in art, Destruction Art(1968), on destructive actions being incorporated into contemporary art-making, and Schemata 7 (1967), a show about the use of environments in contemporary art, whose working title was "Walk-in Sculpture."
Other popular exhibitions at the Contemporary Wing included shows on Art Deco (1970) and Art Nouveau (1969). Several shows mined the private collections of prominent contemporary art collectors including Martha Jackson, Betty Parsons, George Rickey, Paul Magriel, Jacques Kaplan, Josephine and Philip Bruno, and Carlo F. Bilotti. A number of exhibitions featured contemporary art from overseas including Art from Belgium (1965), Art from Finland (1973), Seven Swedish Painters (1965), and Art in Jewelry (1966), which featured mainly international jewelry artists. Retrospective exhibitions of Hans Richter, Hugo Weber, and James Brooks were also held.
Hundreds of contemporary artists were shown at the Contemporary Wing in the eleven years of its existence, including many who came to be leading figures in contemporary art, and some who already were, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Mel Bochner, Eva Hesse, Lynda Benglis, Bruce Nauman, Robert Morris, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Smithson, Sol Le Witt, Dan Flavin, Philip Pearlstein, and Yayoi Kusama, to name just a few.
The Contemporary Wing and the entire Finch College Museum of Art shut its doors in 1975, when Finch College closed due to lack of funds. The permanent collection was sold at that time, and the proceeds were used to pay Finch College employee salaries. Elayne Varian went on to the position of curator of contemporary art at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. She died in 1987.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with curator Elayne Varian conducted by Paul Cummings, May 2, 1975.
Provenance:
The Archives of American Art acquired these records from the Finch College Museum of Art after it closed permanently in June 1975.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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:
Video artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Museum administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, 1943-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program. Funding for the digitization of two motion picture films was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee, and for the remaining sound and video recordings from the Smithsonian's Collection Care Pool Fund. Funding for the digitization of the collection, not including audiovisual materials, was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The scattered papers of abstract painter Lynne Drexler measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1956 to 1980. Found are biographical material including photographs, personal and professional correspondence, personal business records, and printed material.
Scope and Contents:
The scattered papers of abstract painter Lynne Drexler measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1956 to 1980. Found are biographical material including photographs, personal and professional correspondence including with Martha Jackson, Hans Hofmann, and Clay Spohn, personal business records, and printed material.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Lynne Drexler (1928-1999) was an abstract painter active in New York City, New York and Maine.
Drexler studied at Hunter College under Robert Motherwell and Hans Hofmann in the late 1950s and developed an interest in Abstract Expressionism. In 1961 she met painter John Hultberg and the two were married in 1962 and traveled together in Mexico, the West Coast, and Hawaii before living at New York's Chelsea Hotel in the late 1960s.
The couple bought a summer house off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island in 1971, and by 1983 Drexler lived there year-round. The island's people and landscape were the subject of many of her works as Drexler's painting began to combine abstract and representational influences.
Provenance:
Donated 1970-1980 by Lynne Drexler.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to 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 -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
1.4 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 3 reels))
1.8 Linear feet (Addition)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1942-1993
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; biographical and journal notes; writings; photos; catalogs and announcements; a biographical sketch; and typescripts.
REEL N70/5: Correspondence with: Martha Jackson, whose gallery handled his work; various public museums and galleries, several in California and Hawaii, universities and personal friends, including Claire Falkenstein and Louis Calcagno. There are also drafts of his own letters, written from periodic residences in Paris, San Francisco, Hawaii, Monhegan Island, Maine. The remaining material includes class lectures, biographical and journal notes on various literary and art subjects, clippings, photos, catalogs, and announcements.
REEL 295: Correspondence with Martha Jackson, Clay Spohn and others, and a few miscellanous items.
REEL 2346: Letters and postcards from Clay Spohn to Hultberg and his wife Lynne Drexler; photographs of Spohn's work; an electrocardiogram; and a printed cartoon. (Incorrectly microfilmed as: Clay Spohn papers).
Addition Correspondence, 1971-1996, n.d., notes; writings; gallery lists of Hultberg's artwork; and printed material. Professional and personal letters and memos from Elaine Weschler, 1990-1996, n.d. (Manuscripts include "Collected Poems, 1952-1996," "Two Plays for Reading," 1990, "Crying at the Lock," 1991, "Half Truths," 1997, and "Dredgings," 1997.
UNMICROFILMED: A brief biographical sketch; personal and business correspondence; exhibition catalogs and announcements; press releases and clippings; and typescripts by Hultberg including "Stone Farm Journal," 1972, and "Breaking the Picture Plane: A Meditation On Modern Art," 1976. Also included is a xerox copy of a six-page letter from Hultberg to Harry Rand describing Morris Kantor, 1980.
ADDITIONS: Personal and business correspondence, 1942-1997, including letters from his dealer and wife, Elaine Wechsler; clippings; exhibition invitations and announcements; clippings; lists of work; and notes. Much of the addition reflects Hultberg's writing career and includes plays, poems, and other unpublished manuscripts.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, writer; New York, N.Y. Born 1922. Died 2005.
Provenance:
Donated 1969-1997 by John Hultberg. Material on reel 2346 donated 1981 by Hultberg and his wife Lynne Drexler.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of California painter, printmaker, and art instructor Dorr Bothwell date from 1900-2006, and measure 10.6 linear feet and 1.72 GB. Found within the papers are biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, notes and writings, five diaries, art work and 19 sketchbooks, three scrapbooks, printed material, and print and digital photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of California painter, printmaker, and art instructor Dorr Bothwell date from 1900-2006, and measure 10.6 linear feet and 1.72 GB. Found within the papers are biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, notes and writings, five diaries, art work and 19 sketchbooks, three scrapbooks, printed material, and print and digital photographs.
Correspondence consists of letters exchanged between Bothwell and her colleagues and friends discussing their art-related activities, travel, and birthday greetings. There are scattered letters from Ansel and Virginia Adams, Etel Adnan, Benjamin Chinn, Claire Falkenstein, and Emmy Lou Packard.
Personal business records include teaching contracts, contracts and royalty statements for the publication of Bothwell's book Notan, insurance records, income tax records, records concerning a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, estate records, card files, lists of art work, price lists, exhibition entry cards, receipts for the sale of art work, travel receipts, medical receipts, and consignment/sales records.
Notes and writings include three diaries, two travel journals, guest books, miscellaneous lists, schedules of classes for various organizations and art schools including the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, typescripts of lecture notes, and miscellaneous notes. There are also scattered writings by Bothwell and others.
Seventeen sketchbooks, including several completed during Bothwell's travels, and one dated 1942 illustrated with daily drawings of her activities while preparing for World War II, are found within the papers. There are also miscellaneous drawings, collages, a serigraph It's Time for a Change, an etching by Martha Jackson, and a drawing by Charles Howard.
Three scrapbooks contain clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, programs, and photographs of art work. Scrapbook 3 contains materials concerning spiritualism and mysticism. Additional printed material consists of clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, brochures for art classes, the sale of art work, travel, and camera equipment, reproductions of art work, picture postcards, programs, books, and miscellaneous commercial business cards.
Photographs are of Bothwell, her mother and brother, her studio/residences, miscellaneous friends and colleagues including her former husband, sculptor Donal Hord, miscellaneous events, and art classes conducted by Bothwell. There are also photographs of art work by Bothwell and others, as well as numerous photographs and slides of travel various forms in nature that Bothwell would incorporate into her art work.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1939-2001 (Box 1, 11, 13, 15; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1942-2002 (Box 1-3, 13; 2.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, 1925-2006 (Box 3-4; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Notes and Writings, 1949-1998 (Box 4, 11, 14, 15; 0.8 linear feet.)
Series 5: Art Work, 1920-1994 (Box 4-5, 11, 13, 16, 17; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1926-1979 (Box 5, 11, 12; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1923-2000 (Box 5-7, 12, 13; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1900-2001 (Box 7-9, 10; 2.4 linear feet, ER01-ER04; 1.72 GB)
Biographical Note:
Dorr Bothwell (1902-2000) worked primarily in California as a painter, printmaker, and art instructor.
Doris Bothwell was born on May 3, 1902 in San Francisco, and later changed her first name to Dorr in order to more easily enter the art business. Bothwell began her art studies in 1916 with her parents' friend Anna Valentien, a student of Rodin. Between 1921 and 1922, she studied at the California School of Fine Art, and continued her studies at the University of Oregon at Eugene. After attending the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in 1924, she established her own studio in San Francisco from 1924 to 1927. Also during this time Bothwell, with eight other artists opened the Modern Gallery on Montgomery Street, mounting her first solo exhibition there in 1927.
Between 1928 and 1929, Bothwell traveled to American Samoa, where she created paintings and drawings, and documented tapa (barkcloth) drawings for the Bishop Museum of Honolulu. She then spent a year of study in Europe, returning to San Diego, California in 1931 and marrying sculptor Donal Hord. Four years later, they divorced and she moved to Los Angeles where she worked for the pottery manufacturer Gladding McBean, joined the post-surrealist group around Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg and opened the Bothwell-Cooke Gallery.
Between 1936 and 1939, Bothwell worked in the mural division of the Federal Arts Project of Los Angeles, and learned the art of serigraph printing. She designed dioramas and mechanized exhibitions for the Los Angeles County Museum. In 1940 she also created murals in the Manning Coffee Restaurant in San Francisco.
After teaching color and design at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco from 1944 to 1948, Bothwell was awarded the Abraham Rosenberg Traveling Scholarship that financed study in Paris from 1949 to the fall of 1951. In 1952 she taught textile design for mass production at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Returning to San Francisco, Bothwell taught again at the California School of Fine Art from 1953 to 1958, and at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1959 to 1960. From 1960 to 1961 she took a sabbatical in England and France, creating paintings for an exhibition. In 1962 she was asked to teach at the new Mendocino Art Center and she taught there until 1983. She was also asked by Ansel Adams to teach design and composition for photographers at his Yosemite Workshop summer sessions, which she did from 1964 to 1977.
From 1966 to 1967, Bothwell documented indigo dying techniques, strip weaving, and pottery in Western Nigeria and Tunisia. In 1968, she published her book, co-authored with Marlys Frey, NOTAN The Principle of Dark-Light Design. The book was reissued in 1991. Bothwell continued her travels from 1970 to 1971, when she studied 12th century enamels in England, France, and Holland, and conducted a symposium, "Notan Design," for the London Educational Authority. In 1974, she traveled to Bali, Java, and Sumatra, making a slide documentary on batik, woodcarving, and folk design.
In 1977 Bothwell moved to Joshua Tree, California, from Mendocino in Northern California, but moved back and forth between the two studio/residences until 1992 when she moved to her last residence on the desert at Apache Junction, Arizona. From 1979 to 1980, she taught composition at the Victor School of Photography in Colorado and a design course at the Women's Art Guild in Kauai, Hawaii. Following a tour of China with a watercolor artists' group in 1982, Bothwell conducted workshops at the Mendocino Art Center. In 1985, she traveled to Japan.
Dorr Bothwell died on September 24, 2000 in Fort Bragg, California.
Provenance:
The Dorr Bothwell papers were donated in 1978 by the artist, and in 2002, 2009, and 2012 by the Dorr Bothwell Trust.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
An interview of Nathan Oliveira conducted 1978 Aug. 9-1981 Dec. 29, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
Oliveira speaks of his family background and ancestry; his childhood; his education; the development of his interest in art; working as a bookbinder; his inspirations from the old masters; studying with Max Beckmann and Otis Oldfield; his U.S. Army service; working with Richard Diebenkorn; getting established in galleries as a printmaker; teaching printmaking; his European travels; living in Illinois and its effect on his career; moving to California; and meeting and working with Martha Jackson. He recalls Billy Al Bengston, Ivan Albright, and Willem de Kooning, and discusses de Kooning's influence on him.
Oliveira also speaks of subject matter in his paintings, and his departure from and his later return to the human figure; the relationship between artist and model; the importance and persistence of the figurative tradition in American art; artists he admires. He recalls Keith Boyle and Frank Lobdell.
Biographical / Historical:
Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010) was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor from Stanford, Calif.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound tape reels and 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hrs., 39 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
1978-1980 session; transcript: Transcript available on microfilm.
An interview of Martha Jackson conducted 1969 May 23, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Jackson speaks of becoming interested in art while living in Baltimore; buying her first painting, a gouache by Marc Chagall; moving to New York City and getting active in collecting art; going to Hans Hofmann's school; opening her gallery in New York in 1953; art as an investment; early shows at her gallery; struggling financially; books and film and their relationship to art; politics and art and their relationship; the psychology of art buying and collecting; the European art market for American art; and her goals for her gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Martha Kellogg Jackson (1907-1969) was an art dealer in New York, 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
2.4 Linear feet (ca. 4500 items (partially microfilmed on 7 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1934-1980
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; biographical data; photographs; sketches; notes and writings; calendars; teaching materials; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and clippings.
REELS N70-3-N70-4: Biographical data; a photograph of Calcagno; notes and writings; sketches; writings about Calcagno; a list of his paintings; correspondence with galleries, museums, universities, art organizations, friends and colleagues; teaching material; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and clippings.
REELS N70-43-N70-45: Letters to Calcagno's family, written from Madrid, Florence, Rome and Paris; correspondence with galleries, museums, art organizations, friends, artists, and buyers, including Charles Boggs, Richard Brewer, Adele Cohen, Beauford Delaney, Marilyn Einhorn, Rufus Foshee, Calcagno's sister Virginia Gibson, Alberto Gutierrez, Martha Jackson, Nesta Obermer, Mark Rothko (one letter), Clay Spohn, Hyde Solomon, Yaddo and others; an annotated calendar, 1969; and financial material.
REELS N69-120-N69-121: Correspondence with galleries, museums, artists, art organizations and friends, including: The Gallery of Modern Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, Martha Jackson Gallery, Tirca Karlis Gallery, McRoberts and Tunnard, Ltd, London, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogata, Columbia, The New Arts Gallery, Houston, Texas, Zuni Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and others; exhibition catalogs and correspondence regarding their publication.
UNMICROFILMED: Biographical data; correspondence with galleries, universities, museums, friends and others; writings and notes; annotated calendars; teaching notebooks; exhibition catalogs, announcements; press releases and invitations; price lists; photographs of Calcagno, his family, studios, and paintings, some which are now destroyed; and slides of paintings.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; New York, N.Y. Died 1993.
Provenance:
Material on reels N70-43-N70-45 and unfilmed material donated 1970-1980 by Lawrence Calcagno. Material on reels N70-3-N70-4 and N69-120-N69-121 lent 1969 for microfilming by Lawrence Calcagno.
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.
1.2 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 4 reels))
0.6 Linear feet (Addition (D.C.))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketchbooks
Date:
1938-1994
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; writings and lectures; press releases; photographs; sketchbook; exhibition annoucements, invitations and catalogs; and printed material.
REEL 92: Material relating to Hios' Marine Corps service as a combat photographer, 1943-1947, including correspondence, a citation and lists of watercolors done and exhibited by Hios showing war scenes; correspondence, 1957-1963, concerning a U.S. government grant to study Byzantine art, exhibitions and loans; draft of speech to the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, February 1968, on the new aesthetic; miscellaneous journal notes, 1953-1961 on Greek art, the purpose of art, etc,; photographs of Hios, his family and his work; clippings and exhibition announcements. Also included is a sketchbook, ca. 1957, with landscape and flower studies as well as notes from Hios' reading on Byzantine art, on rhythmic forms in art, and comments on his own paintings.
REEL 96: Sketches, notes, and photos.
REELS 1094 & 1116 (photos): Correspondence, mostly about exhibitions and his work, including letters from Elmira Bier, Harold Weston, Fairfield Porter, Martha Jackson, John Canaday, Arthur Osver and others; clippings and magazine articles; writings and lectures by Hios; press releases and writings about Hios; exhibition announcements, invitations, and catalogs, and printed material; and 23 photographs of Hios, his paintings, and exhibitions.
UNMICROFILMED: A letter; exhibition announcements; 22 photos of Hios and his family, 69 photos of his work and its installation; and copies of letters, articles and press releases.
ADDITION: A resume; awards from Parrish Art Museum, 1971, Grumbacher Award, 1979, Audubon Artists, 1979 and 1983, and letter awarding a grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, 1981; correspondence, 1939-1994, including letters from museums and university art galleries, letters from author Lawrence Campbell, and a card from photographer Hans Namuth; a sketchbook, 1947-1958; 9 loose drawings; photographs of Hios, friends, and his paintings; printed material including THEO HIOS, 52 YEARS OF PAINTING, by Lawrence Campbell, 1987, clippings documenting Hios's career, 1948-1991, exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1944-1993, press releases, reviews, and transcript of a 1981 television film about Hios.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, graphic artist; New York, N.Y. Died Jan. 10, 1999. Combat photagrapher during WWII.
Provenance:
Material on reels 92, 96, 1094 and 1116 lent for microfilming 1971-1976 by Theo Hios. Unmicrofilmed material donated by Hios, 1981-1995.
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:
Graphic artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The Martha Jackson Gallery records consists of 2 microfilm reels and one letter, measuring 0.01 linear feet, and date from 1954 to 1964. Materials on microfilm are mostly artists' files containing mainly correspondence with Jackson and her son David Anderson concerning exhibitions, resumes, price lists, exhibition catalogs, checklists, and receipts. The one item in the collection that is an original document is a letter dated March 29, 1963, from John Hultberg in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Hultberg writes of the artist colony there, the difficulty of acquiring artist supplies in Mexico, studio arrangements, his sense "of serenity," his plans, and arrangements for an upcoming exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery. The letter was also microfilmed with the rest of the collection.
Scope and Contents:
The Martha Jackson Gallery records consists of 2 microfilm reels and one letter, measuring 0.01 linear feet, and date from 1954 to 1964. Materials on microfilm are mostly artists' files containing mainly correspondence with Jackson and her son David Anderson concerning exhibitions, resumes, price lists, exhibition catalogs, checklists, and receipts.
The one item that is an original document is a letter dated March 29, 1963, from John Hultberg in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Hultberg writes of the artist colony there, the difficulty of acquiring artist supplies in Mexico, studio arrangements, his sense "of serenity," his plans, and arrangements for an upcoming exhibition at the Martha Jackson Gallery. The letter was also microfilmed with the rest of the collection.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Series 1: Martha Jackson Gallery Records, 1954-1964
Biographical / Historical:
The Martha Jackson Gallery (established 1953) was a gallery in New York City. Martha Jackson opened her Gallery in New York City at 22 E. 66th St., moving three years later to 32 E. 69th St. The gallery specialized in modern American and European painting and sculpture, particularly Abstract Expressionists. Her son, David Anderson, worked with Jackson and took over the gallery after her death in 1969.
Related Materials:
Additional Martha Jackson Gallery records are available at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries.
Provenance:
Material on reel D246 was lent for microfilming by the Martha Jackson Gallery in September, 1965. One letter from John Hultberg (reel 2814) was donated.
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.
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 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:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
Citation:
Martha Jackson Gallery records, 1954-1964. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
3 Sound cassettes (Sound recording (60 min. each), analog)
51 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound cassettes
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1995 Mar. 2-21
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Claire Falkenstein conducted 1995 Mar.2-21, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project, in Falkenstein's studio, Venice, Calif.
Falkenstein discusses the evolution of her work; the benefit of being alone to her personal and artistic growth; her "vocabulary of art" which she created while at the University of California at Berkeley; her largest commission at St. Basil's Cathedral in Los Angeles and her views on religion and art; the influence on her of George Lusk, a visiting artist and philosopher from Paris; studying the nude figure and how it taught her personal expression; her family background and introduction to art; teaching in the Bay Area at the California School of Fine Arts; her friendships with other artists there such as Clyfford Still; her reasons for leaving the Bay Area to go to Paris; and meeting Michel Tapie and the Stadler Gallery group. She recalls Karl Appel, Martha Jackson, Clyfford Still, Sam Francis, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) was a sculptor of Venice, Calif.
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. Funding for this interview was provided by the Margery and Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund of New York.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Research material for an exhibition THE MARTHA JACKSON MEMORIAL COLLECTION held at the National Museum of American Art, June 21-September 15, 1985, and a catalog (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985). Included are clippings and press releases, 1953-1975, and letters, 1979-1984, from artists and Jackson's colleagues and employees including Herb Aach, Garo Antreasian, Amy Baker, Dorothy Beskind, Dennis Bing, Norman Bluhm, Naomi Blum, Grace Borgegenicht, Mrs. Toni Borgzinner, Keith Boyle, Charles Brady, Adelyn Breeskin, James Brooks, Fritz Bultman, Lawrence Calcagno, Christo Capralos, Vardea Chryssa, Christopher Colt, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Hisao Domoto, Seymour Drumlevitch, Frank Duncan, Claire Falkenstein, David Gilhooly, Ives Goucher, Clement Greenberg, Grace Hartigan, Gottfried Honegger, John Hultberg,
Harry Jackson, Paul Jenkins, Alfred Jenson, Lester Johnson, Alex Katz, Lillian Kiesler, Kenneth Koch, Lee Krasner, Elaine Kurtz, Bruce Lowney, Alexandra Luke, Ed McGowin, Carlos Merida, Sadamasa Motonaga,Louise Nevelson, Tom Parish, Jackson Pollock (Betty Parsons Gallery concerning Pollock),Israel Rosen, John Salt, Peter Spinelli, Julian Stanczak, Francisco Toledo, June Wayne, and Edward Weiss. Several of the correspondents wrote brief memoirs of their relationships with Jackson.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, curator; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Jackson (1907-1969) was an art collector, dealer, and painter. She operated the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York City. Her collection was given to the National Museum of American Art in 1981 by her estate.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1988 by Harry Rand. The Martha Jackson memorial collection was donated to the National Museum of American Art in 1981 by Jackson's estate.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
6.6 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1920-1979
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; scrapbooks; photographs; clippings; and catalogs, much of it relating to Marsden Hartley.
REEL 1708: 3 letters from Mardsen Hartley; Chidsey's correspondence with Elizabeth McCausland, Martha Jackson, E. Weyhe, Inc., Frank Noyes, Sanford Schwartz, and others regarding the Marsden Hartley Estate; appraisals and price lists of paintings; clippings; a photograph of Marsden Hartley by Alfred Steiglitz, and another of Hartley in France.
REEL N69-115: Photographs of Hartley paintings, 1908-1943, identified by their 1944 location (Rosenberg, Knoedler, or Lincoln warehouse) and, in some cases, their subsequent date of sale, purchaser, price, and estate number, going as late as 1969. A note by Alan Chidsey indicates that many of the paintings were sold before Hartley's estate was inventoried in 1951.
UNMICROFILMED: 5,800 clippings concerning twentieth century American artists; 18 Parke-Bernet auction catalogs; and 3 scrapbooks, entitled "Artists and Models," containing cartoon clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Book dealer and lawyer; Plandom, N.Y. Chidsey served as trustee to the Marsden Hartley estate.
Provenance:
Donated 1979 by Alan G. Chidsey.
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.
An interview of Joan Ankrum conducted 1997 November 5-1998 February 4, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Pasadena, California.
Ankrum discusses her status as a role model for women due to her independence in leaving a difficult marriage and establishing a new career; her theater and film career and association with the Pasadena Playhouse; her discovery of Morris Broderson, the hearing-impaired nephew of her husband Morris Ankrum; encouraging Broderson's artistic talent and efforts to help him learn to speak and interact socially; her career as director of the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles and the artists, collectors and dealers she became involved with, among them Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg, Joseph Hirshhorn, Martha Jackson and Jake Zeitlin.
Biographical / Historical:
Joan Ankrum (1913-2001) was a gallery owner from Los Angeles, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 6 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 24 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hrs., 50 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 dealers -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, 1943-1975, bulk 1964-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
