The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California "light and space" artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California Light and Space artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Wortz's biographical material includes annotated appointment books and calendars, resumes, and some family, financial, and legal records.
Correspondence files document Wortz's activities beyond her work at UCI, including scattered correspondence with artists such as Eleanor Antin, Daniel Barber, Christo, Craig Kauffman, Cork Marchesi, Martha Rosler, Eve Sonneman, Hap Tivey, and Elsa Warner. Correspondence also relates to arrangements for lectures, juries, panels, symposiums, and other professional activities in which Wortz participated.
Interviews include transcripts of four interviews conducted by Wortz with subjects including Peter Lodato and Dewain Valentine, and a sound recording of an interview with Nina Wiener.
Writings and notes include drafts, and some published copies, of articles and essays written for journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogs; Wortz's dissertation and thesis; notes; student essays and class notes; and scattered writings by others. Included in the published works are copies of Artweek containing articles by Wortz, and drafts and published copies of essays on Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Jasper Johns, Jay McCafferty, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Rauschenberg, Klaus Rinke, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell.
Diaries document five separate overseas trips to locations including Asia in 1977, Paris in 1978, and the U.S.S.R., where Wortz delivered a paper on Robert Irwin, in 1989.
University of California, Irvine, records include Wortz's administrative files documenting her work on various committees, her directorship of the Fine Arts Gallery, including budget and exhibition records, her work as Chair of Studio Art, and her collaborations with other faculty, including Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small. Wortz's dossier files provide a thorough record of her accomplishments from the late 1970s-1990, and her UCI teaching files document the content of core art courses which she taught at UCI in the 1970s and 1980s.
Subject files provide additional documentation of Wortz's interest in particular artists and subjects, and include scattered correspondence with artists, as well as additional correspondence, reports, printed material, index card files, sound cassettes, and photographs, documenting her interests in art and politics, feminism, religion and spirituality, museum management and training, and other subjects.
Printed material includes announcements, catalogs, journals, newsletters, and material specifically documenting Wortz's activities.
Artwork includes a piece of floor covering from a Jim Dine exhibition, a booklet by Daniel Barber, Flams by Rena Livkin, and several pieces of unidentified artwork.
Photographs include photos of Wortz with her family and with UCI faculty including Tony DeLap, Craig Kauffman, and Ed Moses; photos of events with friends and family, including Hap Tivey's wedding to Liza Todd with Elizabeth Taylor in attendance; photos of artists including Frederick Eversley, Bill Harding, Jack Ox, and Stephen Zaimo; and photos of artwork by artists including Tony DeLap, Barbara Smith, Marc Van Der Marck, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as ten series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1966-1988 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 19)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1967-1992 (1.25 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 18)
Series 3: Interviews, 1971-circa 1980s (6 folders; Boxes 2, 18)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1958-circa 1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 2-6, 19)
Series 5: Diaries, 1977-1989 (6 folders; Box 6)
Series 6: University of California, Irvine, 1960-1991 (4.8 linear feet; Boxes 6-11, OV 20)
Series 7: Subject Files, circa 1960-1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 11-15, 18)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1960s-1980s (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 19)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (3 folders; Boxes 17, 19)
Series 10: Photographs, 1960s-1980s (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 17, 19)
Biographical / Historical:
California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002), taught at the University of California, Irvine, from 1975, serving as Director of UCI's Fine Arts Gallery and Chair of the Department of Studio Art. Wortz's special area of interest was the work of the California "light and space" artists emerging in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
After attending Stanford University and graduating from Radcliffe College with a bachelors degree in art history, Wortz received her masters degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her doctorate in theology and the arts from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. Wortz taught at California State University and the University of California Extension in the early 1970s. At UCI her colleagues included Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small.
Wortz married Edward C. Wortz in the early 1970s, following her divorce from her first husband, Thomas G. Terbell, Jr. Edward Wortz's first career was as a research scientist working on NASA contracts in the air research industry in Colorado and California. Later he was involved in the arts and participated in collaborations with artists including Robert Irwin, Coy Howard, and James Turrell. He worked with Melinda Wortz to develop their personal collection of contemporary art.
Melinda Wortz was a prolific writer who wrote extensively for national art periodicals, including Arts Magazine, and Art News. She also wrote, and served as editor, for the California periodical Artweek from the 1960s to 1990s. She wrote numerous catalogs for artists including Larry Bell, Cork Marchesi, Doug Moran, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell; and published articles on Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and others. She lectured at Brown University, the Center for Art, Salt Lake City, Contemporary Art Museum, La Jolla, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the San Diego Museum, Wellesley College, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many other institutions. In 1989 she traveled to the U.S.S.R. to deliver a paper on Robert Irwin at the International Art Critics Association annual meeting.
In addition to her curatorial work at the UCI Fine Arts Gallery, where she organized exhibitions for artists including Alice Aycock, Jonathan Borofsky, Audrey Flack, Jack Ox, and Dennis Oppenheim, Wortz curated exhibitions for University of California sister colleges, Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz received UCI and National Endowment for the Arts grants in support of her writing, and served on advisory boards of the Contemporary Arts Forum, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, Robert Rauschenberg's foundation, Advisory Board of Change, Inc., the Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease at the age of 50 and died in 2002.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Edward C. Wortz, Melinda Wortz's husband, in 1994.
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:
Art historians -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Art Foundry and Art Foundry Editions records, circa 1975-circa 2007. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
United States of America -- California -- Los Angeles County -- San Marino
Scope and Contents:
The folders include photocopies of articles and other information.
General:
The garden and house were first designed in 1939 on a flat 3/4 acre property in San Marino, a small suburb of Los Angeles 30 miles from the coast. The area has a Mediterranean-like climate that receives approximately 14 inches of rain per year, in the winter only. Original to the front is a large lawn with Viburnum suspensum hedges on each side. Past the driveway, original concrete blocks surround the courtyard, and continue around both sides of the house and the perimeter of the rear garden. The original rear garden was mostly lawn, edged by a narrow path, hedges of Viburnum suspensum and an assortment of trees, including three large Quercus agrifolia, the coast live oak most common to this area. Still in existence from 1939 are the mature Plantanus ramosa (California sycamore) at the courtyard entrance. The second owners, in the 1960s turned part of the back lawn into lathe houses for their camellia collection, replacing some of the Viburnum suspensum with camellia specimens, which still exist.
After the original owners sold the property in 1960, it was owned by a second family for nearly a decade before being sold a third time to the present owners in 1969. Since the present owners bought the property, the gardens have undergone multiple revisions by four landscape architects, including the notable Robert Fletcher, who worked intermittently with the owners between 1985-1995. In every revision to this estate's gardens, every effort was made to preserve and incorporate the very mature trees and shrubs which provide form, color and shade. While the estate has plantings in the front lawn and flanking the east and west sides of their home, the most impressive landscape features are in the rear of the property, particularly the borders surrounding the central lawn and the plantings along the 'Bouquet Canyon' stone path to the pool. In the 1970s landscape architect Chuck Hoffman designed the rear garden, emphasizing the desire for informal and naturalistic garden spaces for outdoor living around the French colonial-style house. He designed the swimming pool, two terraces, and created curving borders around the lawn, and added four Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip trees). In the 1980s landscape designer Robert Fletcher built on Hoffman's footprint, adding more distinctive plant material, installing six bullet-shaped Syzygium paniculatum to anchor the borders, and turned one terrace into a small stone patio after an addition to the house. Nurseryman Frank Burkard added Phormium tenax (New Zealand flax), roses and other shrubs in the 1990s.
Garden features at the entrance of the courtyard include an espalier Magnolia grandiflora, a four-part sculpture, "Kyoto Protocol" by Ray Meeker, which is surrounded by Ophiopogon (mondo grass), with an overhanging Olea europaea (olive) and Plantanus racemosa and a large collection of potted succulent varieties on the terrace selected by landscape architect John Caitlin in 1970 for their heat tolerance.
Persons associated with the property include: Mr. and Mrs. M.D. Schatzman (former owners, 1939-1960); Carla Barker Hind and William O. Hind (former owners; 1960-1969); H. Roy Kelley (architect, 1939); John Caitlin (landscape architect, 1970); Charles Hoffman (landscape architect, 1972); Robert M. Fletcher (landscape architect and photographer, 1985-1995); Frank Burkard (nurseryman, 1990); Mark Bartos (landscape architect, 1999); Peter Lodato (sculptor, 1991); Ray Meeker (ceramic artist, 2005).
Related Materials:
Kully Garden related holdings consist of 2 folders (34 35mm. slides)
The present owners have Charles Hoffman and Mark Bartos plans.
H. Roy Kelley papers, #3864, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
See others in:
Garden Club of America collection, circa 1920-[on-going].
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Robert M. Fletcher slide collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
Artists' files including biographical information, slides, reviews; exhibition files; a scrapbook (unbound); slides and photographs of works of art and exhibition installations; works of art; printed material including posters; and financial material regarding the Rosamund Felsen Gallery.
The Rosamund Felsen Gallery (established 1978) is an art gallery in Santa Monica, California that focuses on the art community in Los Angeles, California.
Provenance:
Donated 2014- 2016 by the Rosamund Felsen Gallery via Rosamund Felsen, gallery founder and owner.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Fidel Danieli papers, 1962-1987. 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.
An interview of Cindy Kolodziejski conducted 2007 May 5-16, by Frank Lloyd, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the Frank Lloyd Gallery, in Santa Monica, California.
Kolodziejski speaks of moving in her early childhood from Germany to Arizona and finally to California; the divorce of her parents at a young age and her feelings of abandonment; her desire as a young child to be an artist; the early influence of her grandmother, an art teacher; teaching herself how to draw by copying images and creating still-lifes; an influential art teacher in high school who encouraged her to pursue college-level art classes and attend art school after graduation; her decision to enroll at Otis College of Art and Design; her foundation art classes at Otis and increasing interest in ceramics; choosing ceramics as a medium because of its flexibility and of form and potential for imagery; the value of her art education to her career; earning a Master of Fine Arts degree while teaching at California State University, Long Beach; the union of form, function, and imagery in her work, especially seen in a recent exhibition at the Frank Lloyd Gallery titled "Reversal of Fountain"; using the University of California, Los Angeles, libraries to find images at first, and later searching the internet for inspiration; creating pieces which play with and explore gender issues and sexuality; being reviewed and featured in articles which are especially concerned with issues of the body and femininity; the documentation of her art in various periodicals and texts, including a piece she wrote for Ceramics Monthly concerning her own work; gaining exposure through these articles, which helped to advance her career; the painstaking and technical process required to fashion her works of art; showing at the Garth Clark Gallery very quickly after graduation; traveling to Greece, China, Nepal, New York, and Italy, and being influenced by the exposure to the different art and cultures; recent travels with her daughter to Italy and feeling excited and humbled by the beauty of certain works; giving a talk at the Getty Museum about a show entitled "The Royal Menagerie" featuring the Meissen large-scale porcelain animals; participating in group shows in museums, particularly the "Color and Fire" exhibit which showcased important ceramicists from 1950 to 2000; being awarded various grants and feeling that applying for those awards is a very worthwhile experience for many artists; teaching first at the high school level and then in college; her teaching methods; forming friendships with fellow artists and art teachers; integrating the use of technology into her art-making process by finding and manipulating images on the computer; feeling motivated to produce in a positive way for exhibition deadlines; the support and friendships that developed through exhibiting with the Clark Garth and Frank Lloyd galleries; the encouragement and support she has been shown by her family throughout her career; and categorizing herself first and foremost as an artist rather than a craft artist or ceramicist. Kolodziejski recalls, Lita Albuquerque, Jill Giegerich, Peter Lodato, Barbara Thomason, Roy Dowell, Eugene Sturman, Carol Caroompas, Tony Marsh, Ralph Baccera, Adrian Saxe, Ron Nagle, Roseline Delisle, John Mason, Jo Lauria, David Pagel, Garth Clark, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Cindy Kolodziejski (1962- ) is a sculptor and painter from Venice, California. Frank Lloyd (1951- ) is a gallery owner from Santa Monica, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 10 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.
United States of America -- California -- Los Angeles County -- San Marino
Scope and Contents:
The folders include photocopies of articles and other information.
General:
The garden and house were first designed in 1939 on a flat ¾ acre property in San Marino, a small suburb of Los Angeles 30 miles from the coast. The area has a Mediterranean-like climate that receives approximately 14 inches of rain per year, in the winter only. Original to the front is a large lawn with Viburnum suspensum hedges on each side. Past the driveway, original concrete blocks surround the courtyard, and continue around both sides of the house and the perimeter of the rear garden. The original rear garden was mostly lawn, edged by a narrow path, hedges of Viburnum suspensum and an assortment of trees, including three large Quercus agrifolia, the coast live oak most common to this area. Still in existence from 1939 are the mature Plantanus ramosa (California sycamore) at the courtyard entrance. The second owners, in the 1960s turned part of the back lawn into lathe houses for their camellia collection, replacing some of the Viburnum suspensum with camellia specimens, which still exist.
After the original owners sold the property in 1960, it was owned by a second family for nearly a decade before being sold a third time to the present owners in 1969. Since the present owners bought the property, the gardens have undergone multiple revisions by four landscape architects, including the notable Robert Fletcher, who worked intermittently with the owners between 1985-1995. In every revision to this estate's gardens, every effort was made to preserve and incorporate the very mature trees and shrubs which provide form, color and shade. While the estate has plantings in the front lawn and flanking the east and west sides of their home, the most impressive landscape features are in the rear of the property, particularly the borders surrounding the central lawn and the plantings along the 'Bouquet Canyon' stone path to the pool. In the 1970s landscape architect Chuck Hoffman designed the rear garden, emphasizing the desire for informal and naturalistic garden spaces for outdoor living around the French colonial-style house. He designed the swimming pool, two terraces, and created curving borders around the lawn, and added four Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip trees). In the 1980s landscape designer Robert Fletcher built on Hoffman's footprint, adding more distinctive plant material, installing six bullet-shaped Syzygium paniculatum to anchor the borders, and turned one terrace into a small stone patio after an addition to the house. Nurseryman Frank Burkard added Phormium tenax (New Zealand flax), roses and other shrubs in the 1990s.
Garden features at the entrance of the courtyard include an espalier Magnolia grandiflora, a four-part sculpture, "Kyoto Protocol" by Ray Meeker, which is surrounded by Ophiopogon (mondo grass), with an overhanging Olea europaea (olive) and Plantanus racemosa and a large collection of potted succulent varieties on the terrace selected by landscape architect John Caitlin in 1970 for their heat tolerance.
Persons associated with the property include: Mr. and Mrs. M.D. Schatzman (former owners, 1939-1960); Carla Barker Hind and William O. Hind (former owners; 1960-1969); H. Roy Kelley (architect, 1939); John Caitlin (landscape architect, 1970); Charles Hoffman (landscape architect, 1972); Robert M. Fletcher (landscape architect and photographer, 1985-1995); Frank Burkard (nurseryman, 1990); Mark Bartos (landscape architect, 1999); Peter Lodato (sculptor, 1991); Ray Meeker (ceramic artist, 2005).
Related Materials:
Kully Garden related holdings consist of 2 folders (34 35mm. slides)
The present owners have Charles Hoffman and Mark Bartos plans.
H. Roy Kelley papers, #3864, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
See others in:
Robert M. Fletcher Collection ca. 1979-1995.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens.
