The records of the B. C. Holland Gallery measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1942-1991 (bulk dates 1959-1965). Founded in Chicago, Illinois by Bud C. Holland and Noah Goldowsky, the collection documents over 98 artists associated with the gallery. Documentation includes invoices, correspondence between artists and gallery owners, price lists, exhibition catalogs and print materials, magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, and slides, and some business records of the gallery.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the B. C. Holland Gallery measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1942-1991 (bulk dates 1959-1965). Founded in Chicago, Illinois by Bud C. Holland and Noah Goldowsky, the collection documents over 98 artists associated with the gallery. Documentation includes invoices, correspondence between artists and gallery owners, price lists, exhibition catalogues and print materials, magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, and slides, and some business records of the gallery.
Artists of note include: Harry Bouras, Paul Burlin, Mary Callery, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet, Edward Dugmore, Roland Ginzel (including 2 ink drawings), Michael Goldberg, Robert Goodnough, Joseph Goto, Philip Guston, Julius Hatofsky, Richard Hunt (includes 18 files and a landscape plan of John J. Madden Clinic sculpture installation), Lester Johnson, Ellen Lanyon, Alfred Leslie, Jacques Lipchitz, Michael Loew, Knox Martin, Dennis Oppenheim, Stephen Pace, Milton Resnick, Larry Rivers, Aaron Siskind, George Spaventa, Saul Steinberg, Jack Tworkov, and Estaban Vicente.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 2 series.
Series 1: Artist files, 1942-1991 (2.1 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, OV 3)
Series 2: Business records, 1961-1963 (1 folder; Box 2)
Biographical / Historical:
B. C. Holland Gallery (1957-1994) was founded by Bud C. Holland and Noah Goldowsky, and was initially known as the Holland-Goldowsky Gallery. It held exhibitions and sold artwork for Chicago artists and many artists of the New York School. Holland bought out his partner and renamed the gallery the B. C. Holland Gallery in August 1961. The gallery closed upon Holland's death in 1994.
Bud C. Holland entered the jewelry business, after serving in WWII as a bomber pilot, where he began collecting artwork. He opened his first art gallery in 1957. During the 1960s pop trend, Holland was drawn towards abstract expressionism and other art forms, which he focused on in his gallery. He began selling his collection when he was diagnosed with cancer, and died at 72 in Chicago, Illinois, 29 December 1994.
Provenance:
The B. C. Holland Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Bud C. Holland's widow, Claire Y. Holland, in 1995.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The B. C. Holland Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The papers of Burt Chernow measure 21.8 linear feet and consist mainly of research materials gathered and produced in the course of writing Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Biography over an extensive period of close contact with the subjects, from the early 1980s until Chernow's death in 1997. Research materials for the biography include photocopies of personal documents of the Christos, hundreds of recorded interviews with Christo, Jeanne-Claude, their family members, and their associates, transcripts of interviews and research on interview subjects, other collected research material compiled chronologically, drafts of the biography written by Chernow, drafts of the biography and its epilogue produced after Chernow's death, and business records related to the book's production, which include significant correspondence with the Christos. Also found are the published German and U.S. editions of the biography, printed materials and photographs related to the book's subject matter, and fabric samples from five of the Christos' projects undertaken during Chernow's association with them. Chernow's career as an art critic, writer, educator, and arts advocate, primarily in Southern Connecticut, is documented in Chernow's other writings, organizational records, printed materials, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Burt Chernow measure 21.8 linear feet and consist mainly of research materials gathered and produced in the course of writing Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Biography over an extensive period of close contact with the subjects, from the early 1980s until Chernow's death in 1997. Research materials for the biography include photocopies of personal documents of the Christos, hundreds of recorded interviews with Christo, Jeanne-Claude, their family members, and their associates, transcripts of interviews and research on interview subjects, other collected research material compiled chronologically, drafts of the biography written by Chernow, drafts of the biography and its epilogue produced after Chernow's death, and business records related to the book's production, which include significant correspondence with the Christos. Also found are the published German and U.S. editions of the biography, printed materials and photographs related to the book's subject matter, and fabric samples from five of the Christos' projects undertaken during Chernow's association with them.
Chernow's career as an art critic, writer, educator, and arts advocate, primarily in Southern Connecticut, is documented in Chernow's other writings, organizational records, printed materials, and photographs. Other writings include drafts of articles, lectures, exhibition reviews, and catalog essays, some of which include research material gathered on the subjects. Artists written about by Chernow include Arman, Milton Avery, Barkley Hendricks, Francisco Zuñiga, Lester Johnson, Gabor Peterdi, and Jean Woodham, among many others, and including many Connecticut artists. A recorded interview with Arman, as well as transcripts of multiple interviews with Zuñiga, are filed with these writings. Also found are many writings and lectures related to the value of visual art in public life and in elementary and higher education. Numerous lectures by Chernow about several of the Christos' large-scale projects are also found, one of which, on the Wrapped Reichstag, is recorded on video.
Organizational records document Chernow's involvement in various art education organizations, his years of teaching at Housatonic Community College, his development of the Housatonic Museum of Art collection, and his work with several local arts organizations in Westport, Conn., including the Westport Arts Advisory Council, the Westport Arts Center, the Westport Schools Permanent Art Collection Committee, and the Westport Weston Arts Council. Types of documents found include correspondence, clippings, photographs, flyers, and notes.
Printed material includes many of the books written by Chernow, and monographs and magazines which included essays on specific artists by Chernow. A file of clippings about Chernow spanning his career is also found. Photographs include prints, negatives, and contact sheets, and consist mainly of photographs of artists, many of which were taken by Chernow, and many of which are signed by the artists with a personal note to the Chernows. A handful of personal photographs of the Chernows are also found.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged as 5 series.
Series 1: Research Material for -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Biography -- , 1930-2002 (17.1 linear feet; Boxes 1-17, 23, OV 24)
Series 2: Other Writing, 1962-1999 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 17-19)
Series 3: Organizational Records, 1963-2000 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 19-20, 23, OV 24)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1960-2002 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 20-21, 23)
Series 5: Photographs, 1950-1997 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 21-23, OV 24)
Biographical / Historical:
Burt Chernow was an art historian, writer, educator, collector, and dealer who founded the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and who, upon his retirement from Housatonic Community College, became the authorized biographer of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which he researched through close contact with the Christos from 1984 until his death in 1997. Although he had not completed the biography when he died, his wife Ann Chernow saw the manuscript through to publication, and the biography, Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Biography, was first published in Germany in 2000, and then in the United States in 2002.
Born in New York City in 1933, Chernow earned a master's degree in art education at New York University in 1960, and began his career as an art teacher in the Westport, Connecticut public schools, later joining the faculty of the Art Department at the Housatonic Community College, where he eventually became the department's director. He also taught at the Museum of Modern Art, organizing the Children's Art Carnival in Harlem through the museum, and at Silvermine School of the Arts, the A.B.C.D. Arts Center in Bridgeport, Conn., and the Stamford Museum. While on the faculty at Housatonic Community College, he began collecting original artworks, mainly through donations directly from the artists, for what eventually became the Housatonic Museum of Art. Over the course of nearly 30 years he amassed over 4000 works for the collection, the largest of its kind for a community college, and remained the museum's Emeritus Director until his death. He remained active in civic arts organizations in Westport as well, where he was a founding member of the Westport Arts Center, served on the Westport Arts Advisory Council, and helped to establish the annual Westport Arts Awards.
Upon his retirement from the Housatonic faculty in 1984, Chernow approached Christo and Jeanne-Claude about becoming their authorized biographer. He had participated in their project Surrounded Islands in Miami in 1983, and had played a role in exhibitions and artist talks by Christo at the Aldrich Museum (1981) and the Wadsworth Atheneum (1978) as well. He and his wife Ann Chernow attended and helped to document the Wrapped Pont Neuf (1985) in Paris, and then visited Christo's family in Bulgaria in 1986. It was after their Bulgarian trip that Christo and Jeanne-Claude agreed to authorize him to write their biography, and Chernow's research began in earnest. He conducted hundreds of interviews with them, their family, and associates, participated in the major large-scale projects that took place between 1985 and 1995, and completed a draft of the biography up to the year 1982 before he died suddenly in 1997. After his death, his wife Ann Chernow saw the biography through to publication. It was published with an epilogue by Wolfgang Volz, the Christos' official photographer, bringing the Christos' story up to date from where Chernow had left off, first in Germany, and later in the United States and Italy.
Chernow wrote many books, catalogs, and articles about other artists as well, including Milton Avery, Francisco Zuniga, Gabor Peterdi, Will Barnet, Jean Woodham, and Lester Johnson, among others, and published and lectured widely on the subjects of art education and public art.
Provenance:
Donated 2002 by Ann Chernow, the widow of Burt Chernow.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Burt Chernow papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Burt Chernow papers, 1930-2002. 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.
Correspondence; scrapbooks; business records; catalogs; photographs and printed material.
REEL D313: Artists' files, containing correspondence, biographical data, catalogs, and clippings; list of exhibiting artists; photographs of works of art; and printed material on the gallery.
Among the artists represented are: Josef Albers, John Altoon, Eugenie and Saul Baizerman, Gertrude Barrer, Harry Bowden, Sidney Chafetz, Walter Feldman, Sideo Fromboluti, Edward Giobbi, Leon Golub, John Grillo, Lester Johnson, Aristodemos M. Kaldis, Louise Kruger, Allen Leepa, Robert Loberg, Margo Boris, De Hirsh Margules, Joseph Meert, Robert Smithson, Jennings Tofel, Rudolf Weissauer, and others.
REEL 79: File of material relating to a 1939 Byron Browne exhibit; publicity brochures regarding the Gallery's services; a Hans Boehler exhibition catalog; photographs of work exhibited, largely by Werner Drewes; photographs of the gallery's interior; and miscellany.
REEL N737: Six letters (1938-1939) from Louis M. Eilshemius to Beer-Monti.
REEL 1042: Eight log books, 1938-1942, of daily business activities of the Artists' Gallery, including phone calls, visitors to the gallery, works brought into the gallery, and other matters; and 2 exhibition catalogs, 1937-1938.
UNMICROFILMED: Correspondence, largely with Federica Beer-Monti, director of the gallery, scrapbooks, account books, visitor logs, exhibition catalogs and announcements, photographs, and printed materials.
Biographical / Historical:
Art gallery. Founded 1936 by Hugh Stix. Directed by Federica Beer-Monti. Non-profit organization supported by contributions. Exhibited works of artists not represented by a commercial dealer. Some of the notable artists included Josef Albers, Saul Baizerman, Byron Browne, Louis Eilshemius, Aristodemos Kaldis, De Hirsh Margules, and Nicholas Vasilieff. Discontinued operation summer 1962.
Provenance:
Material on reels D313 and 79 were donated 1967-1968 by Federica Beer-Monti; she lent the Eilshemius letters on reel N737 in 1968. The unmicrofilmed portion was donated in 1974 by Beer-Monti's neice, Greta Shapiro, who also lent the logbooks on reel 1042 for microfilming in 1976. In 1998, Shapiro's widower, Aaron, donated the material lent on reel 1042.
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.
An interview of Les Johnson conducted 1976 Nov. 1-18, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Lester Johnson (1919-2010) was a painter and educator from New Haven, Conn.
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.
Statements from artists participating in the "Crosscurrents U.S.A." exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, including Romare Bearden, Leland Bell, Benjamin F. Cunningham, Elaine De Kooning, Balcomb Greene, Joseph Hirsch, Lester F. Johnson, Alex Katz, Robert Kaupelis, John Koch, Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel and John Wilson.
The prints of Lester Johnson, 1939-1991 : a catalogue raisonné / James Balla ; [compiled by Josephine Valenti and Leslie Johnson ; edited by Josephine Valenti, Leslie Johnson, and James Balla]
Lester Johnson : retrospective, the 1940's to the present : an exhibition of selected oils, watercolors and drawings from the artist's personal collection, November 18 through December 1989 / introduction by Jo Valenti ; foreword by David J. Barnett ; edited by David J. Barnett and Michelle L. Johnston
Lester Johnson : the sixties, with an emphasis on the Passing Men series : November 10-December 5, 1998 / with excerpts from Lawrence Cam[p]bell ... [et al.]
Title:
Sixties, with an emphasis on the Passing Men series
