National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of the Academy of Achievement/Wayne and Catherine Reynolds; 2015 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient
The papers of writer and art critic Eleanor Munro measure 36.7 linear feet and 0.001 GB and date from circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011. The collection documents Munro's life, career, and research on women artists, through biographical and family material, correspondence, writing projects, diaries, dream journals and notebooks, subject and research files, printed and digital material, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of writer and art critic Eleanor Munro measure 36.7 linear feet and 0.001 GB and date from circa 1880-2011, bulk 1950-2011. The collection documents Munro's life, career, and research on women artists, through biographical and family material, correspondence, writing projects, diaries, dream journals and notebooks, subject and research files, printed and digital material, and photographic material.
Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature and is with family, friends, colleagues, agents, editors, and others regarding speaking engagements, writings, and other professional projects.
Writing projects make up a significant portion of the collection (10 linear feet) and include non-fiction works as well as fiction and poetry. Files contain drafts, notes, manuscripts, research, correspondence, contracts and agreements, royalty statements, and other business records for articles, books, reviews, talks, lectures, and other writing projects.
Diaries comprise twenty-six volumes of frequent entries that chronicle thoughts and feelings relating to Munro's personal and professional life. Dream journals and notebooks total 210 volumes plus additional loose pages and capture thoughts, reflections, and fragments of remembered dreams.
Subject and research files compiled and organized by Eleanor Munro make up the most substantial portion of the collection (20.6 linear feet) and reflect a wide variety of research interests, work projects, activities, and topics of interest. Types of material in this series are varied and include notes, drafts, printed and digital material, correspondence, proposals, interview transcripts, bibliographies, annotated articles, slides, photographs, original artworks, manuscripts by others, and four sound recordings. Many files relate to Munro's interest in women artists and serve as research for Originals: American Women Artists (1979). Interview transcripts are with women artists Eleanor Antin, Nell Blaine, Lee Bontecou, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Mary Frank, Maya Lin, Joan Mitchell, Beverly Pepper, Sylvia Stone, Alma Thomas, and others.
The remainder of the collection is comprised of biographical and family material, printed material, and photographic material.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical and Family Material, circa 1880s-2008 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1959-circa 2000s (0.7 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Writings Projects, 1921-circa 2000s (10 linear feet; Box 2-12)
Series 4: Diaries, Dream Journals, and Notebooks, circa 1939-2011 (3.8 linear feet; Box 12-15)
Series 5: Subject and Research Files, circa 1950s-2000s (20.6 linear feet; Box 15-36, OV 38-40, 0.001 GB; ER01)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1959-circa 2000s (0.6 linear feet; Box 36)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1980s-1990s (0.6 linear feet; Box 36-37)
Biographical / Historical:
Eleanor Munro (1928- ) is a writer and art critic working in New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. She is best known for her groundbreaking work Originals: American Women Artists (1979), one of the first books to argue for the importance of women artists who were generally ignored by the art world. Munro was active in feminist art circles in New York.
Munro's father, Thomas Munro, was an art educator and modernist intellectual. Her mother, Lucile Nadler, was a pianist. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, after her father accepted a joint appointment at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Western Reserve University. Munro graduated from Smith College majoring in art history and earned a master's degree in comparative literature from Columbia. She was married to Alfred Frankfurter, editor of ArtNews, from 1955 until his death in 1965. Munro remarried to the writer E. J. Kahn until his death in 1994.
While working on Originals, Munro interviewed forty women artists including Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeois, Jennifer Bartlett, Helen Frankenthaler, and Louise Nevelson. Her thesis sought to highlight the relationship between biography and the content of an artist's work. The book serves as an illustration of Munro's idea that the "narrative memory" these artists had constructed for themselves was an important "generative source" of their creativity. Women artists continued to be a prominent interest of Munro's throughout her life.
Munro is also the author of On Glory Roads: a Pilgrim's Book about Pilgrimage (1987), Memoir of a Modernist's Daughter (1988), and other books. In 1988, Munro received the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature.
Provenance:
Donated by Eleanor Munro's son, David T. M. Frankfurter, in 2015.
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.
The Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions records measure 25.7 linear feet and 0.891 GB and date from circa 1975 to circa 2007. Records include administrative files; correspondence with artists, collectors, dealers, galleries, and others; eight gallery appointment books and fourteen notebooks; exhibition files; extensive artists' files; financial and legal materials; sculpture production and inventory files; and photographic and digital materials.
Scope and Contents:
The Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions records measure 25.7 linear feet and 0.891 GB and date from circa 1975 to circa 2007. Records include administrative files; correspondence with artists, collectors, dealers, galleries, and others; eight gallery appointment books and fourteen notebooks; exhibition files; extensive artists' files; financial and legal materials; sculpture production and inventory files; and photographic and digital materials.
Administrative records document the daily operations of the Art Foundry and AFE. Correspondence is with artists, galleries, art collectors and dealers, patrons, and others.
The appointment books and notebooks document daily operations within the Foundry administrative offices, including phone messages and daily appointments, and also include notes and conversations regarding various artists' ongoing sculptural plans and projects. Entries have been made by Dwight Hackett, artists, and other staff members.
The bulk of the collection is comprised of artists' files representing over 132 artists, which may include scattered correspondence and notes; scattered exhibition materials; financial materials; photographic materials; digital materials; and sketches and plans for various sculptural productions and projects. Artists include Terry Allen, Larry Bell, Lynda Benglis, Judy Chicago, Lesley Dill, Una Hanbury, Luis Jimenez, Allan Houser, Maya Lin, Andrew Lord, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Gabriel Orozco, Tom Otterness, Michael Rees, Fritz Scholder, Peter Shelton, Kiki Smith, Valeska Soares, and Richard Tuttle, among many others. Seven CD-Rs contain material related to artists Terry Allen, Charles Arnoldi, Lesley Dill, and Michael Rees.
Financial and legal materials include invoices and financial statements, consignment agreements, and miscellaneous legal documents.
Sculpture production and inventory files document casting guidelines and costs incurred; casting logs and records; sculpture production records for various artists; and inventory cards and photographs and digital documentation for various projects and works.
The collection contains hundreds of snapshots and Polaroids that depict the collaborative atmosphere Hackett was able to create at Art Foundry. There are also slides, negatives and nine photograph albums.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 8 series. Researchers should note that Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions records were merged prior to processing.
Missing Title
Series 1: Administrative Files, circa 1980-circa 2004 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1985-2000 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Gallery Appointment Books and Notebooks, 1985-2000 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1986-1997 (0.2 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 5: Artists' Files, circa 1980-circa 2007 (16.8 linear feet; Boxes 3-19, OV 27-31, 0.891 GB; ER01-ER03)
Series 6: Financial and Legal Materials, 1991-circa 2001 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 19-20)
Series 7: Sculpture Production and Inventory Files, circa 1975-circa 2002 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 20-23, OV 31)
Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1977-circa 2002 (3.0 linear feet; Boxes 23-26)
Biographical / Historical:
Art Foundry (est.1980-closed 2000) and Art Foundry Editions (est. 1992-closed 2000) were organizations founded and operated by Dwight Hackett in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
While working for another foundry in New Mexico, Dwight Hackett met Una Hanbury and began casting her work at his home, using a relatively new technique called cold casting. The process produced work that lighter than bronze and less expensive to produce. Una Hanbury helped Hackett travel to Washington, D. C. to study with Harvey Moore at his foundry. He formally established his studio, Art Foundry, in New Mexico, in 1980 with a loan from Hanbury and subsequent investment from the Apache sculptor Allan Houser. According to Hackett, Art Foundry's mission was to "collaborate with artists, not just work for them, and to challenge the limits of traditional casting technique."
In 1990, Hackett extended the operation by establishing Art Foundry Editions (AFE) through which he invited artists to come to Santa Fe for a residency and produce multiples of their work. AFE would acquire half of each artists' edition, and then market the works to galleries and collectors. One of AFE's first artists was Lynda Benglis, who purportedly came for a two-week residency and stayed for nine months.
Hackett sold Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions in 2000.
(Much of the biographical note was taken from collecting specialist Jason Stieber's acquisition report published in the Archives of American Art Journal, Volume Number 54, 2016.)
Provenance:
The Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions records were donated by Dwight Hackett in 2014.
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.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Maya Ying Lin, 1983 March 6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C.) Search this
An interview of Maya Ying Lin conducted 1983 Mar. 6, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art. Lin speaks of a funerary architecture seminar she took at Yale University; entering her design in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's competition; attempts to add a figured sculpture and a flagpole to her design, and her resistance to this effort.
Biographical / Historical:
Maya Ying Lin (1959- ) is a Chinese American architect based in New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 34 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 others.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the audio is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
Authorization to quote or reproduce for the purposes of publication requires written permission from Maya Ying Lin. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Architects -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C.) Search this
Maya Lin : [American Academy in Rome, 10 dicembre 1998-21 febbraio 1999 / saggi di Michael Brenson ... et al. ; traduzioni, Cynthia De Nardi Ipsen, Scriptum, Roma]
