Interview of Ellen Lanyon conducted by James Crawford for the Archives of American Art.
Lanyon speaks of family background; interests in art and music and collecting objects and antiques; her early art education; remembrances of 1933 Chicago World's Fair; Art Institute; Oxbow Summer School of Painting; her work and techniques; exhibitions; Institute of Design; marriage and move to University of Iowa; Iowa art department, Iowa print group; Fulbright to England; travel in France and Italy; return to Chicago; founding of graphic workshop; Hairy Who group; The Imagists; Seven and Up exhibitions; Red Grooms in Chicago; and commissions. She recalls George Buehr, Margo Hoff, Dudley Crafts Watson, Vera Berdich, Joseph Hirsch, Carl Schneiwind, Kathleen Blackshear, Mauricio Lasansky, Gertrude Abercrombie, Julius Carleback, Roland Ginzel, and Edgar Rupprecht.
Biographical / Historical:
Ellen Lanyon (1926- ) is a painter and printmaker in New York and Chicago, Ill.
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.
Personal and professional records including correspondence, writings, notes, printed material, subject files, photograph album, and diaries relating to Zigrosser's work as an authority on prints and printmaking and his personal relationships with artists.
Included are: correspondence with family and with over 900 printmakers, painters, sculptors, acquaintances, friends, associates, organizations, museums, publishers, and magazines; general correspondence, notes, clippings, and manuscripts pertaining to The Modern School Magazine; files of correspondence from Zigrosser's work at: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1932-1971; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, 1946-1971, including correspondence with Frank Lloyd Wright concerning the Guggenheim Memorial Museum; Print Council of America, 1954-1971, regarding exhibitions, council meetings and other matters; and the Tamarind Workshop, 1960-1971.
Of particular interest is material relating to the 1913 Armory Show, including Zigrosser's annotated catalog, notes and sketches. Also included are speeches and notes, 1930-1968; manuscripts for lectures and unpublished materials; memorabilia; a photo album of sculpture by John B. Flannagan; art work, including prints and drawings by Karig Nalbandian, prints by Rockwell Kent, and oversized works of art on paper by Mabel Dwight, Wanda Gag and Kent; family photograph album; journals and pamphlets (covers only); and diaries, 1916-1971, discussing personal and professional events such as art openings, conversations and activities with Rockwell Kent, Alfred Stieglitz, and Georgia O'Keeffe, among others.
Among the correspondents are: the American Artists Group, John Taylor Arms, Art in America magazine, Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Barr, E. Boyd, Charles Burchfield, Alexander Calder, Fitz Roy Carrington, Federico Castellon, Ed Colker, Howard N. Cook, Crown Publishers, Adolf Dehn, Caroline Durieux, John Bernard Flannagan, Andre Girard, Stanley William Hayter, Edward Hopper, Victoria Hutson Huntley, Independent Citizens Committee for the Arts, Sciences and Professions, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Frederick Keppel, Rockwell Kent, Fiske Kimball, Misch Kohn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Julius Lankes, Mauricico Lasansky, Merritt Mauzey, Kneeland McNulty, James A. Michener, Marian Mitchell,
Museum of Non-Objective Painting (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Karnig Nalbandian, Dorothy Norman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Walter Pach, Harold Paris, Print Club (Philadelphia), Diego Rivera, Ruth Starr Rose, Arnold Ronnebeck, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Andre Ruellan, Carl Oscar Schniewind, Roderick Seidenberg, William Spratling, Benton Spruance, Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Sternberg, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Kuei Teng, U.S. Office of War Information, Curt Valentin, Heinz Warneke, Edward Weston, Weyhe Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, Harry Wickey, and Adja Yunkers.
Biographical / Historical:
Print curator; Philadelphia, Pa.; d. 1975. Graduated Columbia University in literature. Worked with prints in New York City at Keppel and Co. and Weyhe Gallery; print curator at Philadelphia Museum of Art 1940-1963; author of books on prints and art works.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming, 1991, by the University of Pennsylvania Special Collections Department, Van Pelt Library. Zigrosser donated the papers to the University in 1972. Portions of the papers not microfilmed include research files, manuscript materials for published work, family records, and journals.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from the Curator of Manuscripts, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
The papers of sculptor, painter and printmaker Worden Day (1916-1986) measure 3.5 linear feet and date from circa 1935-1992. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, photographic material, sketchbooks, and audiovisual material.
There is a 1.0 linear foot additon, circa 1951-1992, donated in 2020 containing further papers of Worden Day.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor, painter and printmaker Worden Day (1916-1986) measure 3.5 linear feet and date from circa 1935-1992. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, photographic material, sketchbooks, and audiovisual material.
Included are biographical material consisting of resumes and an address book. Correspondence is with colleagues, curators, and museum directors including Will Barnet, Carl Zigrosser, May Sarton, Dorothy Dehner, Louise Bourgeois, Sue Fuller, among others. Writings by Day are about sculpture and painting, among them four unpublished manuscripts "Pop Art as an American Cultural Phenomenon," "What is a Print," "The Found Dimension- Aspects in the Development of Modern American Sculpture," and "New Expressions of Woodcut," and reviews for exhibitions written by Day for Art News. Also found in the collection are printed materials; scrapbooks; photographs of Day, her works and photograph albums; and three sketchbooks. Audiovisual material is arranged with biographical material and includes a taped interview on audio cassette with Day and one reel of motion picture film (also available as digital files), "Printmakers," presented by United States Information Service, 1961, showing American printmakers Mauricio Lasansky, Day, Karl Schrag, Seong Moy and Gabor Petredi at work and students in the School of Graphic Arts at the State University of Iowa, founded by Lasansky. Also arranged with biographical material is a file relating to an exhibition on the work of painter Vaclav Vytlacil organized by Day in 1975 at the Montclair Art Museum containing correspondence; letter fragments from Alex Minewski; writings by Vytlacil regarding his career and work with Hans Hofmann; an audio cassette; photographs of Vytlacil, Hofmann teaching in Munich, Ed and Isabell Rupprecht, Ernest Thurn, Betty Foster, and Alice Fish at the Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Munich; and the exhibition catalog.
There is a 1.0 linear foot additon, circa 1951-1992, donated in 2020 containing further papers of Worden Day.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eight series
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1960-1986 (Box 1, FC6; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1953-1977 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 3: Writings, 1955-1985 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1949-1983 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1940-1984 (Boxes 1, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographic Material, 1935-1986 (Boxes 2-3; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Sketchbooks, 1960-1986 (Boxes 3, 5; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1951-1992 (Box 7; 1.0 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Worden Day (1916-1986) was a sculptor, painter, printmaker and curator in Montclair, New Jersey. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Day graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1934. She then moved to New York City, and over the next few decades, studied drawing with Maurice Sterne and George Grosz; drawing, painting, and printmaking with William Von Schlegell, Harry Sternberg, Hans Hofmann, Will Barnet, and Vaclav Vytlacil at the Art Students League; and etching with Stanley William Hayter at the New School for Social Research. After earning her M.A. from New York University in 1966, Day taught as an instructor and lecturer in color theory, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, design, collage, American art history, modern art theory, and women artists. Her written reviews and essays were featured in publications such as Art News, Art Voices, and Impressions, and she had solo exhibitions throughout the United States, including at the Smithsonian Institution, Baltimore Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Montclair Art Museum.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art from 1972-1983 by Worden Day. Additional material was donated in 2017 by Constance Duhamel, Day's friend. Additional material was donated in 2020 by the Maier Museum of Art at Randoph College via Constance Duhamel.
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. 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:
Landscape painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich, 1933- Search this
Extent:
3.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Student drawings
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Drawings
Date:
1923-1999
Summary:
The papers of New York social realist painter and printmaker Jack Levine date from 1923-1999, and measure 3.2 linear feet. Levine's career is documented through biographical material, scattered letters, notes and a speech, writings, student drawings, three scrapbooks, printed material and nearly one linear foot of photographs of Levine, his family, and his colleagues.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York social realist painter and printmaker Jack Levine date from 1923-1999, and measure 3.2 linear feet. Levine's career is documented through biographical material, scattered letters, notes and a speech, writings, student drawings, three scrapbooks, printed material and nearly one linear foot of photographs of Levine, his family, and his colleagues.
Found within the papers are two driver's licenses and several biographical accounts, and scattered letters from colleagues including one each from John Taylor Arms, Hyman Bloom, Leonard Bocour, René d'Harnoncourt, Lloyd Goodrich, Jacob Lawrence, and Homer Saint-Gaudens discussing various art-related events. There is only one carbon copy of a letter written by Levine. The correspondence includes oversized photographs of the members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Additional photographs of the members are found in the Photograph series.
Notes and writings are primarily typescripts about Jack Levine written by others. There is also a transcript of one speech, "Jack Levine Speaks Regarding the Donation of 108 of his Drawings to the Archives" delivered by Levine at the Fogg Art Museum.
Artwork consists entirely of Levine's student drawings including anatomical studies, neighborhood genre scenes, copies of Old Masters, and a series of images of symphony musicians. Some of the drawings display themes that are reflected in his later paintings.
Three scrapbooks contain clippings that document Levine's career and reflect his political interests. Additional printed material consists of a comprehensive collection of clippings and exhibition announcements and catalogs. There is also an announcement for a lecture by Levine, press releases, calendars of events, reproductions of artwork, programs, brochures including one for Facing East, a portfolio of Levine's prints, and three books.
Photographs include numerous photographs of Levine throughout his artistic career, including images of his wife, painter Ruth Gikow, their daughter Susanna, and colleagues including Hyman Bloom, Leonard Bocour, Alexander Dobkin, Joachim Probst, and Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Especially notable is a series of photographs of Levine printmaking with Emiliano Sorini and Ruth Gikow.
There are photographs of Levine serving on art juries and panels with Eleanor Coen, Joseph Hirsch, Gabor Peterdi, Studs Terkel, and Max Weber, and attending events with Lawrence Fleischman, Betty Friedan, Edith Halpert, Mauricio Lasansky, Gypsy Rose Lee, Pope Paul VI, and Raphael Soyer. A small album contains photographs of Levine and various buildings in Boston. There are also photographs of miscellaneous exhibition installations including Levine's retrospective at the Jewish Museum, and of artwork by Levine and others.
Group photographs of the members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters are found here, and include Will Barnet, Paul Cadmus, Chuck Close, David Levine, George Tooker, and John Updike. Additional group photographs of the members that were originally enclosed with letters are found in the correspondence series.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1953-1955 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Letters, 1946-1996 (Boxes 1, 5; 12 folders)
Series 3: Notes and Writings, 1961-1974 (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 4: Artwork, 1923-1931 (Boxes 1, 5, OV 6; 11 folders)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1936-1962 (Boxes 1, 5; 16 folders)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1938-1999 (Boxes 1-3, 5, OV 6; 1.9 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, 1940-1998 (Boxes 3-5, OV 6; 52 folders)
Biographical / Historical:
Jack Levine (1915-2010) was born in Boston, Massachusetts and worked as painter and printmaker primarily in New York City. Levine was one of the leading painters and advocates of the Social Realism School of the late 1930s.
Jack Levine was the youngest of the eight children of Lithuanian Jewish parents, Mary Grinker and Samuel Levine. After the family moved from the South End of Boston to Roxbury in 1923, Levine began to study drawing under Harold Zimmerman at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. By 1929, Levine was studying painting under Denman Ross of the Fogg Art Museum.
From 1935-1940, Levine received U.S. government support from the federal Works Progress Administration. His first exhibition of paintings in New York City was at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1937, he painted The Feast of Pure Reason, a satire of Boston political power. Together with Ben Shahn, Levine became a leading exponent of the Social Realism School of the late 1930s. His first one-man show was held at the Downtown Gallery in New York City in 1938.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Levine was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1945, and a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the following year. Also in 1946, Levine married painter Ruth Gikow and moved to New York City. Between 1950 and 1951, he was a Fulbright Fellow working in Rome where he was inspired by Old Master paintings. In the 1960s Levine's interest in printmaking intensified and he was instructed in creating intaglio prints by Emiliano Sorini, and was introduced to Abe Lublin who was associated with the New York Graphic Society.
Levine taught at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the American Art School in New York, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Fogg Art Museum. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1956 on.
The D.C. Moore Gallery in New York City currently represents the Estate of Jack Levine.
Provenance:
Jack Levine donated his papers to the Archives in 1962, 1978, and 1999.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and limited to the Washington, D.C. Reference 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.
Interview transcript of Argentina bon printmaker, Mauricio Lasansky, conducted June 28 and July 6, 1976 by Jan Muhlert.
Biographical / Historical:
Mauricio Lasansky (1914-2012) was an Argentina born printmaker and draftsman in Iowa City, Iowa.
Provenance:
Donor unspecified.
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.
Correspondence, class lecture notes; manuscripts for published books, "History of American Art" (1960, 1969), "Drawing" (1967), "Drawing: A Work Book and A Guide to Drawing;" financial material; minutes from faculty meetings and plans for a new art building at Stanford University; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and clippings.
Correspondents include: Carrie Abramowitz, Gerald Ackerman, Mark Adams, Judith Adler, Donald R. Allen, Robert Baxter, Dennis Beall, John Berggruen, Keith Boyle, Theresa C. Brakeley, Robert C. Breer, E. Howard Brooks, Philip Brown, Robert Bush, Richard Casey, Hilda Castellons, Ruth Chapman, Mrs. (Bebe) William Cooney, Lloyd Chiswick, Kenneth L. Culver, Joan Curtis, Frederic S. Cushing, Charles Deaton, Lena Young De Grummond, Helen De Vries, Richard Dinahanian, Lamar Dodd, Elliot W. Eisner, Lorenz Eitner, Hans Elias, Albert Elsen, Jonathan Fairbanks, Ray Faulkner, Philipp Fehl, Lorser Feitelson, Jean Finch, Francoise Forster, Ruth Gannett, Neilma Gantner, Rita Gilbert, Lewis Gray, John Gruenberger, Richard L. Gunn, Edith Hamlin, Betty Hoag, James Hoekema, Dan F. Howard, Andrew W. Imbrie, Matt Kahn, Patricia Kearney, Martin and Carolyn Knesse, Joseph E. Knowles, Mauricio Lasansky, Thomas Leek, Lawrence Levine, Raymond E. Lewis, W. McNeil Lowry, Charles A. Madison, Jan Marfyak, Karla Martell, David McIntosh, Susan E. Meyer, William Meyer, Dwight Miller, Bob Moore, Maureen McManus, Nathan Oliveira, Herbert Palmer, Anthony Paterson, Harry Powers, John Powell, Stephen S. Prokopoff, Hugh Renwick, John A. Richardson, Elizabeth E. Roth, John Russell, Robert R. Sears, Marion Clark Stewart, Jan Studebaker, George P. Tomko, Beth Van Hoesen, Duane Wakeham, Robert A. Walker, Robert R. Wark, Dan W. Wheeler, and John Wilmerding.
Biographical / Historical:
Daniel Marcus Mendelowitz (1905-1980) was an art historian, educator, and author from Stanford, Calif.
Provenance:
Donated 1982 by Mildred Mendelowitz, Mendelowitz's wife.
A new direction in intaglio ; the work of Mauricio Lasansky and his students. / An exhibition in duplicate assembled and designed for circulation by the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis, 1949. January 30-March 13, Walker Art Center and January 30-March 13, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
Mauricio Lasansky : a retrospective exhibition of his prints and drawings. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, September 24 - November 28, 1976. Traveling exhibition: Jan. 1977-May 1978
