The Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz research files on New Deal art are dated 1931-1999 and measure 5.8 linear feet. The research files document New Deal art projects and artists through some original correspondence with artists, printed material, interview transcripts, and several sound recordings of interviews with artists of the period. Subject files relate to WPA era art and art projects; many contain numerous photocopies of records from the Personnel Records Center and the U. S. Treasury Relief Arts Projects now in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Scope and Content Note:
The Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz research files on New Deal art are dated 1931-1999 and measure 5.8 linear feet. The research files document New Deal art projects and artists through some original correspondence with artists, printed material, interview transcripts, and several sound recordings of interviews with artists of the period. Subject files relate to WPA era art and art projects; many contain numerous photocopies of records from the Personnel Records Center and the U. S. Treasury Relief Arts Projects now in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration.
The collection consists primarily of artists' files documenting the WPA, The National Personnel Records Center, the Public Art Preservation Committee, and the U.S. Treasury Relief Art Project. Also found are lists of artists arranged by category, correspondence, transcripts of interviews, printed material, exhibition catalogs, monographs, photographs, slides, and sound recordings. Among the artists are: Charles Alston, Will Barnet, Ilya Bolotowsky, Louis Bouche, James Brooks, Charles Burchfield, Paul Cadmus, Minna Citron, Robert Cronbach, Hugo Gellert, Adloph Gottlieb, Leo Katz, Roy King, Albert Kotin, Edward Lanning, Ethel Magafan, William Palmer, Anton Refregier, Philip Reisman, Lincoln Rothschild, Joseph Solman, Harry Sternberg, Stuyvesant Van Veen, and Marion Walton.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series:
Series 1: Artists' Files, 1931-1999 (Boxes 1-5, 7, OV 8-10; 4.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Subject Files, 1934-1999 (Boxes 5, 7, OV 10; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1977-1989 (Box 5; 0.2 linear ft.)
Series 4: Sound Recordings, 1974-1976 (Boxes 5-6; 0.3 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Art historians Marlene Park and husband Gerald E. Markowitz conducted research on New Deal art projects. Their work resulted in an exhibition "New Deal for Art: The Government Projects of the 1930's with Examples from New York City and State" (1977) and a catalog with the same title. 7), and a book, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal (1984). Both were on the faculty of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Marlene Park served on the Public Art Preservation Committee from 1979-1982.
Related Materials:
Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz Papers (Federal Arts Projects Research Materials) is located at Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.
Provenance:
The Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz research materials on New Deal Art were donated to the Archives in 1999 by art historians Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz.
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.
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Extent:
8 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1964 Nov. 5
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Ethel Magafan conducted 1964 Nov. 5, by Joseph S. Trovato for the Archives of American Art.
Magafan speaks of her earliest associations with the WPA Federal Art Project; receiving commissions for murals in post offices and government buildings; subject matter of the murals she painted; her life in Woodstock, N.Y.; and her work methods.
Biographical / Historical:
Ethel Magafan (1915 or 6 -1993) was a mural painter in Woodstock, N.Y. Birthdate cited as both Oct. 10, 1916 and Aug. 10, 1915.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 25 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
The scattered papers of federal arts administrator John DeWitt date from 1962-1979, and measure 1.4 linear feet. The collection primarily documents 1970s arts programs sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Found within the papers are correspondence concerning the department's art projects and exhibition files for The American Artist and Water Reclamation, 1972, and America 1976.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered papers of federal arts administrator John DeWitt date from 1962-1979, and measure 1.4 linear feet. The collection primarily documents 1970s arts programs organized by DeWitt while working for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Found within the papers are scattered correspondence concerning the department's art projects, including the Preservation of Endangered Species Art Program and activities of the Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation. There are letters from artists Vija Celmins, Lamar Dodd, and Ethel Magafan.
Files for the two exhibitions organized by DeWitt for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, The American Artist and Water Reclamation and America 1976, include a wide variety of materials. There are correspondence, lists of artwork, printed materials, a scrapbook, financial materials, audio recordings of interviews with DeWitt, audio recordings of a symposium on America 1976, and numerous photographs of exhibited artwork and participating artists. There are also additional photographs of DeWitt and his colleagues and artists Joseph Raffael and Ann Wyeth McCoy.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series; each series is arranged chronologically.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1965-1979 (Box 1; 10 folders)
Series 2: Exhibition Files, 1962-1978 (Box 1, 2; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Photographs, 1970-1974 (Box 2; 1 folder)
Biographical Note:
John DeWitt was born in 1910 and was a wood sculptor and federal arts administrator in Washingon, D.C.
DeWitt began his career as a professional writer and was a wood sculptor connected with the Veerhoff Gallery in Washington, D.C. His wife, Miriam Hapgood DeWitt, was a painter. In the late 1960s, DeWitt was the Director of Art Programs for the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Department of Interior responsible for water conservation in arid regions of the United States. At this time, the Bureau initiated a program to present its accomplishments to the public through arts commissions and exhibitions. Under the direction of DeWitt and Lloyd Goodrich of the Whitney Museum of American Art, some 40 artists including Ralston Crawford, Peter Hurd, and Norman Rockwell, were invited to depict the scope of reclamation projects in the American West. The artists were given a free hand to depict any scene in any medium as long as the subject matter pertained to the Bureau of Reclamation's program. The resulting artwork was displayed in an exhibition, The American Artist and Water Reclamation, that opened at the National Gallery of Art in April 1972, and then toured the country in a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.
As the Director of the Visual Arts Program for the Department of the Interior, DeWitt celebrated the Bicentennial by organizing the exhibition America 1976, for which he hired over forty realist painters including Vija Celmins, Ralston Crawford, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, and Wayne Thiebaud, to depict a diverse range of Americana. DeWitt was employed by the Department of the Interior until 1977.
John DeWitt died in 1984.
Provenance:
The John DeWitt papers were donated in 1987 by DeWitt's widow, Miriam Hapgood DeWitt.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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:
Arts administrators -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Citation:
John DeWitt papers, 1962-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Photographs and printed materials relating to Magafan's painting career.
Reel 3134: Photograph, ca. 1950, of Ethel and Jenne Magafan taken by Konrad Cramer; and printed material, 1952-1982, including exhibition catalogs, announcements, a poster, and a newsletter.
Reel NDA 14: Invitations and notifications of various competitions for the Section of Fine Arts, included are photographs, specifications of areas to be decorated, and correspondence particularly from Edward Rowan.
Biographical / Historical:
Ethel Magafan (1915 or 6-1993) was a mural and landscape painter from Colorado. Painted murals for the WPA. Jenne Magafan was her twin sister.
Provenance:
Material on reel NDA 14 lent for microfilming 1964, material on reel 3134 donated 1982 all by Ethel Magafan.
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. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Biographical data; citations and awards; correspondence with Louis Bouche, Eliot Clark, Ralph Fabri, Leon Kroll, Ethel Magafan, Meyer Schapiro, dealers and others; a tape recording of an interview of Laufman conducted by Karl Fortess, 1967; and a transcript of an interview of Laufman conducted by Joseph Trovato, 1965. Photographs of Laufman and his paintings.
Typescripts of lectures and writings; 5 notebooks relating to his techniques, materials, and style, lists of works, and business notes, 1942 to 1952; a journal and a typescript of the journal kept by his wife Beatrice, ca. 1938-1955 and 3 of her oil paintings, 1926; business records; exhibition announcements and catalogs; printed material on the Third Woodstock Art Conference sponsored by the Woodstock Artists Association and others, 1950; clippings and approximately 100 photographs of Laufman and his paintings.
Biographical / Historical:
Landscape painter; born in Cleveland, Ohio; d. 1985. He studied at the Cleveland School of Art, the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and under Robert Henri at the Art Students League of New York. After World War I, he and his wife settled in Paris where he worked for thirteen years before returning to the United States. He was active in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in Florida and the WPA in New York. He also taught at the Art Students League in 1938.
Related Materials:
Sidney Laufman papers also at Syracuse University.
Provenance:
Donated 1983-1984 by Sidney Laufman.
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.
Interviews are untranscribed; use requires an appointment and is limited to AAA's Washington, D.C. and New York, N.Y Research Centers. Interviews without a duplicate copy requires advance notice
The donor has specified as a condition of the gift that the tapes may not be transcribed or edited
