The papers of painter and educator William Conger measure 7.3 linear feet and 3.51 gigabytes, and date from the 1940s to 2018. The collection documents Conger's career as a painter and details his business dealings and involvement with Chicago's art community through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, writings including artmaking journals and notes, and personal business records documenting commissions and sales. Also found are exhibition and gallery records including video recordings, printed material on Conger's career and Chicago art history, photographic material picturing Conger and his artwork, and artwork including a sketchbook and preparatory sketches for paintings.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and educator William Conger measure 7.3 linear feet and 3.51 gigabytes, and date from the 1940s to 2018. The collection documents Conger's career as a painter and details his business dealings and involvement with Chicago's art community through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, writings including artmaking journals and notes, and personal business records documenting commissions and sales. Also found are exhibition and gallery records including video recordings, printed material on Conger's career and Chicago art history, photographic material picturing Conger and his artwork, and artwork including a sketchbook and preparatory sketches for paintings.
Biographical material includes biographies and résumés, student awards, and student records. Correspondence is professional and personal in nature and includes letters from Elaine de Kooning, Robert Mallary, June Leaf, Miyoko Ito, James Valerio, Ed Paschke, Richard Loving, Vera Klement, and others. The writings series includes artmaking journals with extensive notes and sketches, as well as numerous articles and reviews by Conger, artists statements and comments on paintings, contributions to art criticism listservs and message boards, lectures, and writings on Conger by others. Personal business records include artwork commissions and grants, artwork inventories and sales and consignment records, as well as information about an art supply company once part owned by Conger, Puresol, Inc..
Exhibition and gallery records include sales and consignment records organized by gallery, as well as exhibition files for select group and solo exhibitions at galleries and museums, as well as a sound recording regarding a 1967 group exhibition, and miscellaneous exhibition documents. Some of the exhibition files include digital video recordings, digital images, and documents. Printed materials include press and exhibition announcements as well as exhibition catalogs, printed material on the subject of Chicago art history, and a CD-ROM showcase of contemporary art featuring Congers' paintings. The photographic material series includes photographs of artwork, installations, and the artist in black and white and color prints, Polaroids, snapshots, slides, transparencies, negatives, and inkjet prints. The artwork series includes a sketchbook and signed mixed media works on paper, as well as loose drawings and preparatory sketches for paintings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1948-1999 (0.2 linear feet: Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1940s-2018 (2.5 linear feet: Boxes 1-3)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1970s-2014 (0.9 linear feet: Boxes 3-4)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1960s-2016 (0.8 linear feet: Boxes 4-5)
Series 5: Exhibition and Gallery Records, circa 1967-2017 (0.5 linear feet: Box 5; 2.54 gigabytes: ER01-ER03)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1950s-2017 (0.9 linear feet: Boxes 5-6; 0.97 gigabytes: ER04)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1947-2012 (0.9 linear feet: Boxes 6-8)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1940s-2010 (0.7 linear feet: Boxes 7-8)
Biographical / Historical:
William Conger, born 1937 in Dixon, Illinois, is an abstract painter and art educator living in Chicago.
From a young age Conger's interest in art making and a fascination with the masters was encouraged by his mother, an amateur painter who brought him on regular visits to exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago from their home in Evanston, Illinois. Conger received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico where he studied with renowned abstract painters Elaine de Kooning and Raymond Johnson, and later received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Chicago. Conger taught painting throughout the 1970s at DePaul University, then became Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University from 1985 until he retired as Professor Emeritus in 2006. At Northwestern he taught alongside friend and colleague Ed Paschke. Conger has published writings on art on topics such as psychoanalysis and the masters, the Chicago art scene, and abstract art of the region.
Conger's mature style is an abstract style of painting largely informed by color and form, reminiscent of Wassily Kandinsky, often titled with musical and metaphorical references. He began exhibiting as early as his undergraduate years in the New Mexico Biennial and was included by professor Elaine de Kooning in a 1960 group exhibition at the Great Jones Gallery in New York City. In addition to showing at commercial art galleries Conger has completed a number of public artworks primarily in the Chicago area, including murals and painted sculptures. His work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Wichita Art Museum, as well as numerous university museums and corporate collections internationally.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with William Conger in 2015, May 18-20.
William Conger papers relating to his years as a faculty member at Northwestern University are located at Northwestern University Archives.
Provenance:
The William Conger papers were donated in 2007, 2015 and 2019 by William Conger.
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. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
Journals and Restricted Correspondence: Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from William Conger. 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.
An interview with Dennis Adrian conducted 2015 October 8-9, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Adrian's home in Seaside, Oregon.
Adrian speaks of growing up in Astoria; traveling to Chicago and New York; Cannon Beach; aging and getting older; his origins; curators and curating; visual sensibilities; the Portland Public Library; opera; his parents, grandparents, and family; Finnish sensibility and humor; Portland Art Museum and classes for children; curator as voyeur; credit and accomplishments; hands on experiences; Artforum; art history; attending University of Chicago; homosexuality and coming out; looted European masterworks; Botticelli; exposure to real art; connoisseurship; collectors and collecting; a Robert Louis Stevenson letter; violin making; growing into yourself; Chicago; war; New York University; Frumkin Gallery; New York; the art world; Madison Art Center; Akron Art Museum; friendship and role models; Art Institute of Chicago; meeting Mies van der Rohe; meeting idols; education; Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Monster Roster; traveling; Chicago art politics; writing and critics; Eurocentric curators; Chicago as an undervalued city; Dog Day Afternoon; discovering art; New York sightings; and experiences running into artists. Adrian also recalls Roger Brown, Ruth Horwich, Gilda Buchbinder, Don Baum, Sherman Lee, Victor Carlson, Peter Voulkos, Lawrence Alloway, Rhona Hoffman, Allan Frumkin, June Leaf, Leon Golub, Jeremy Anderson, Robert Barnes, Tom Garver, Bruce Conner, Natasha Nicholson, H. C. Westermann, Franz Schulze, Bertha Harris Wiles, Muriel Newman, Aaron James Spire, Lillian Florsheim, John Maxon, Greg Knight, P.B. Maryan, Philip Pearlstein, Sylvia Sleigh, Nancy Spero, Irving Petlin, John Coplans, Alan Artner, Alice Shaddle, Phyllis Kind, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Tilda Swinton, Leo Castelli, Philip Guston, Dubuffet, Pussy Pepke, Bumpy Rogers, Barbara Rossi, Christina Ramberg, Philip Hanson, Miyoko Ito, Mark Jackson, Rolf Achilles, and Vito Acconci.
Biographical / Historical:
Dennis Adrian (1937- ) is an art critic, educator, and curator in Chicago, Illinois. Lanny Silverman (1947- ) is a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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 critics -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Don Baum conducted 1986 January 31 and May 13, by Sue Ann Kendall, for the Archives of American Art, in Chicago, Illinois.
Baum speaks about his childhood in Michigan; interests during his college years at Michigan State; classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; friendship with artists such as Miyoko Ito and Ethel Spears; the Institute of Design and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; faculty and classes at the University of Chicago; jam sessions at Gertrude Abercrombie's home; teaching at Roosevelt University; the influence of travel; June Leaf; Leon Golub; psychoanalysis and its influence on his work; collage; The Hyde Park Art Center; objects with a magical aura; writing and writers; dolls; the relationship of self to art; outsider art; transformation; Joseph Cornell; the Hairy Who artists; collectors; the Museum of Contemporary Art; the Illinois Arts Council; Chicago art and artists; and travel in Indonesia.
Biographical / Historical:
Don Baum (1922-2008) was a sculptor, assemblage artist, curator, and educator from Chicago, Illinois.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 23 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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:
Patrons must use transcript.
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with June Leaf, 2009 Nov. 16-2010 May 17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Files on artwork by Baum, exhibition and loan files, photographs of artwork by others, personal correspondence, and an audio recording.
Files on Baum's artwork, organized chronologically, include photographs and slides of works, as well as titles, dates, locations if known, and occasional printed material and correspondence regarding loans or purchases. Exhibition and loan files are organized chronologically and include printed material and correspondence with the Betsy Rosenfeld Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago and various Chicago Imagist group shows, among others. Other files include photographs and slides of artwork by other artists.
Personal correspondence includes letters and postcards from Baum's children, and his friends, most of them Chicago artists, including Miriam Brofsky, Glen Davies, Gabrielle Edgecomb, Hans Gallas, Phil Hanson, Miyoko Ito, Jin Soo Kim, June Leaf, Jim Nutt, Barbara Rossi, Darthea Speyer, Sue Taylor, Ken Warneke, Karl Wirsum and others. Many of the letters are illustrated or contain objects. Also included is a radio program about Baum's assemblage houses produced by Wisconsin Public Radio, 1988.
Biographical / Historical:
Don Baum (1922-2008) was a sculptor, assemblage artist, and curator in Chicago, Ill. Baum was considered part of the Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists.
Provenance:
Donated 1995 by Don Baum and in 2009 by Maria Baum, Don Baum's daughter.
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.
An interview of June Leaf conducted 2009 Nov. 16 and 2010 May 17, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art, at the Leaf's studio, in New York, N.Y.
Biographical / Historical:
June Leaf (1929- ) is a painter and sculptor in New York, N.Y. and Nova Scotia, Canada. Interviewer Judith Olch Richards (1947- ) is the former executive director of iCI in New York, N.Y.
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.
Restrictions:
ACCESS RESTRICTED; Written permission required.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
