Chronological correspondence documents Mangravite's career as a painter and educator and is with employers, dealers, museums, galleries, collectors, clients, arts and educational organizations, publishers, and other artists. The majority of the letters are written in English, but some are composed in French and Italian as well. Although primarily business correspondence, there is also a significant amount of personal correspondence with friends, colleagues, and former students. The letters often cover both business and personal topics, as Mangravite seemed to form close relationships with many of the people at the galleries and schools with which he was associated. Correspondence dated from 1918 to the 1950s is comprised mostly of incoming letters. Starting in the 1950s, the correspondence includes more outgoing correspondence, usually in the forms of onion skin copies and handwritten drafts. Correspondence is arranged chronologically, except two folders of undated letters, which are arranged alphabetically by last name of writer. A list of major correspondents follows.
A large amount of correspondence is between Mangravite and his dealers, the Dudensing Gallery and the Rehn Galleries, and discusses financial agreements, sales, and accounts. There is also correspondence with other galleries and museums where his paintings were exhibited. Mangravite's mural commissions are also discussed in the correspondence. Also found are invitations to participate in exhibitions, notifications of prize awards and artwork sales, invitations to be on juries for art competitions, or miscellaneous requests from fellow artists, fans, collectors, and clients. Significant events documented here include Mangravite's two Guggenheim Fellowships and his trip to Europe in 1955 to interview famous artists.
Mangravite's long teaching career is also documented in this series. Correspondence is found with Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Avon School, Fieldston School of the Ethical Culture Schools, Potomac School, Dana Hall School, and the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Additionally, Mangravite was also a sought-after speaker and his correspondence includes many lecture invitations and requests as well as arrangements for accepted speaking engagements.
Other topics covered in the correspondence concern Mangravite's published or proposed writings, particularly articles and books reviews, most notably for the Saturday Review of Literature and American Magazine of Art. Also, there is some correspondence with publishers regarding book project ideas and manuscripts. Mangravite's membership activities in a variety of artists' organizations, such as the College Art Association, the American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers; the American Artists' Congress, and the American Federation of Arts are well-represented in the correspondence. Of particular interest is Mangravite's response to an artists' rental policy debate during the 1930s, concerning the payment of rental fees for artworks exhibited in shows and galleries.
Major Correspondents
American Artists Congress
American Federation of Arts
American Society of Painters
Arms, John Taylor
Avon School
Barr, Alfred
Barzun, Jacques (Columbia University)
Bear, Donald J.
Benson, Emanuel
Biddle, George
Burchfield, Charles
Canaday, John
Canby, Courtlandt
Chagall, Marc
Clancy, John (Rehn Galleries)
Cole, Sylvan Jr. (Associated American Artists)
College Art Association
Colorado Springs Fine Art Center
Columbia University
d'Harnoncourt, Rene
Dana Hall School
Davis, Stuart
Dudensing, Richard
Fieldston School of the Ethical Culture Schools
Force, Juliana
Gonzales, Xavier
Harper & Brothers Publishers
Knight, Frederick
Larom, Henry V.
Lockwood, Ward
Magafan, Ethel and Jenne and Edward Chavez
Maldarelli, Oronzio
Manso, Leo
Manzella, David
Moe, Henry Allen
Mumford, Lewis
Pearson, Ralph M. (Design Workshop)
Philips, Duncan
Picken, George
Poor, Henry V.
Potomac School
Preston, Carol (Potomac School)
Rehn, Frank K. M.
Rice, Norman (Art Institute of Chicago)
Rich, Daniel Catton (Art Institute of Chicago)
Robinson, Boardman (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center)
Roosevelt, Willard
Root, Edward W.
Saint-Gaudens, Homer
Sarah Lawrence College
Sculptors and Gravers
Simonson, Lee
Speicher, Gene
Sweet, Frederick A. (Portland Art Museum)
Talbot, William
Thayer, H. Standish
Vander Sluis, George
Watson, Forbes
Watkins, Franklin C.
Weston, Harold
Wilder, Mitchell A. (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center)
Wyatt, Stanley
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
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:
Peppino Mangravite papers, 1918-1982. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of George McNeil conducted by Dorothy Seckler for the Archives of American Art. McNeil speaks of his childhood and his family; becoming interested in art during high school; attending Pratt Institute, and not being satisfied there; deciding to drop out of Pratt after attending a lecture from Vaclav Vytlacil; going to the Metropolitan Museum every day drawing and analyzing paintings; meeting Arshile Gorky while at the Metropolitan Museum; attending the Art Students League; studying with Hans Hofmann; the start of the American Abstract Artists; his involvement in the WPA's mural project; attending Teachers College at Columbia before joining the Navy; re-entering the New York art scene during the forties and liking it very much; meeting and being influenced by Pollock; his views on the state of painting; how his work has evolved; the various stages in the way a painting developed for him; how The Club and the Eighth Street Club has influenced him; the ideas discussed at The Club, and how he feels surrealism was not a big influence on them; Jackson Pollock's influence on abstract expressionism; artists he admires or has admired; and his thoughts on the contemporary art scene. He recalls Vaclav Vytlacil, Arshile Gorky, Jan Matulka, David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, Edgar Levy, Leo Manso, Burgoyne Diller, Irene Rice Pereira, Hans Hofmann, Jo Hopper, Giorgio Cavallon, Linda Lindaberg (Cavallon), Mercedes Kahls, George Byron Brown, Albert Swinden, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, and many others.
Biographical / Historical:
George McNeil (1908-1995) was a painter and a printmaker in Brooklyn, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tapes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 49 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:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
An interview of George McNeil conducted 1968 Jan. 9-May 21, by Irving Sandler, for the Archives of American Art. McNeil speaks of why he became interested in art; his early influences; becoming interested in modern art after attending lectures by Vaclav Vytlacil; meeting Arshile Gorky; the leading figures in modern art during the 1930s; his interest in Cézanne; studying with Jan Matulka and Hans Hofmann; his experiences with the WPA; the modern artists within the WPA; the American Abstract Artists (A.A.A.); a group of painters oriented to Paris called The Ten; how there was an anti-surrealism attitude, and a surrealist would not have been permitted in A.A.A; what the A.A.A. constituted as abstract art; a grouping within the A.A.A. called the Concretionists; his memories of Léger; how he assesses the period of the 1930s; the importance of Cubism; what he thinks caused the decline of A.A.A.; how he assesses the period of the 1940s; his stance on form and the plastic values in art; his thoughts on various artists; the importance of The Club; the antipathy to the School of Paris after the war; how Impressionism was considered in the 40s and 50s; slides of his paintings from 1937 to 1962, and shows how he developed as an artist; the problems of abstract expressionism; organic and geometric form; the schisms in different art groups due to politics; his teaching techniques; why he feels modern painting declined after 1912; the quality of A.A.A. works; stretching his canvases, and the sizes he uses; his recent works, and his approaches to painting. He recalls Vaclav Vytlacil, Hans Hofmann; Arshile Gorky, John Graham, Jan Matulka, John Marin, Wassily Kandinsky, Mercedes Carles Matter, Albert Swinden, Fernand Léger, Stuart Davis, Burgoyne Diller, David Smith, Edgar Levy, Leo Manso, Irene Rice Pereira, Willem de Kooning, Ilya Bolotowsky, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Joan Miró, Robert Motherwell, George L.K. Morris, Albert Gallatin, Charles Shaw, John Ferrin, Ralph Rosenborg, Hananiah Harari, Agnes Lyall, Jean Helion, and many others.
Biographical / Historical:
George McNeil (1908-1995) was a painter and printmaker from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hrs., 14 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Letters found here are from Asher's colleagues, including Fritz Bultman, Helen Frankenthaler, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Norman Mailer, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Jack Tworkov, and Kurt Vonnegut. The letters primarily concern their art-related activities.
See Appendix for list of notable correspondents from Series 2
Appendix: Notable Correspondents from Series 2:
Adams, Pat: May 31, 1979
Albert, Calvin: undated Christmas cards (3), one is illustrated
Ashton, Dore: undated postcard?; Jun 12, 1985
Beck, Rosemarie: Jun 1972
Boghosian, Varujan and Marilyn: undated Christmas card
Bourgeois, Louise: Jun 15, 1977
Brooks, Charlotte and Jim: undated letters (2); Apr 3, 1966; Jul 27, 1970; Feb 15, 1971
Brustlein, Daniel: Sep 8, 1955
Bultman, Fritz: undated letters (3); Dec 12, 1964; Jan 2, 1965; Dec 1976
Burlin, Paul and Peggy: Dec 4, 1960
Busa, Peter: Dec 23, 1964
Castellon, Hilda, Paul, and Fred: undated Christmas card
Cavallon, Giorgio: Nov 15, 1955; Sep 8, 1963; Oct 22, 1963; Jan 6, 1965; Oct 3, 1966; Mar 12, 1974
De Kooning, Lisa: 1979 (incomplete letter)
Dorfman, Elsa: undated letter
Ferber, Ilse and Herbert: undated Christmas card; Oct 24, 1960? (with 5 photographs of works)
Ferren, John: undated Christmas card (illustrated); Feb 11, 1964; Jun 30, 1964
Frankenthaler, Helen: undated letters (2); Aug 2, 1956; Jan 19, 1960; Oct 2_, 1960; Apr 1, 1961; Mar 1, 1969; Aug 18, 1969; also see Robert Motherwell
Friedman, Sanford: undated postcard; Jul 7, 1969; Dec 26, 1981; Apr 19, 1988; Dec 27, 1988
Greene, Stephen and Sigrid: undated Christmas cards (2)
Guston, Philip and Musa: undated Christmas card with illustration; undated letters (3); Jul 29, 1958; Aug 17, 1960; Sep 19, 1963 (illustrated); Jan 10, 1964 (illustrated); Aug 17, 1964 (illustrated); Nov 6, 1964; Sep 22, 1969; Oct 13, 1970; Feb 15, 1971; [1971]; Apr 9, 1971; Aug 2, 1971; Sep 19, 1972; Dec 22, 1972; Jun 12, 1973; Jul 16, 1973 (illustrated); Aug 27, 1974; Dec 1, 1974; Jan 9, 1975; Aug 16, 1979
Hare, David: Mar 7, 1957; Jun 15, 1979; Aug 4, 1980; Jul 14, 1981; Apr 1, 1983
Harmon, Lily: undated Christmas card
Hess, Thomas: undated letters (2); Nov 12, 1974 (envelope only)
Hofmann, Hans and Miz: undated letter; Dec 23, 1952; Dec 1957; Jun 25, 1958; Dec 1, 1958; Jun 3, 1960; Jun 13, 1962; Apr 18, 1963
Kahn, Wolf: Oct 16, 1955
Kootz, Sam and Jane: undated Christmas card
Kuh, Katharine: undated letter; Dec 28, 1974
Mailer, Norman: Apr 11, 1968
Manso?, Leo: Dec 1979 illustrated envelope
Miller, Dorothy: Aug 26, 1953
Morris, Hilda: undated letters (3)
Motherwell, Robert and Renata Ponsold: Mar 3, 1975; Oct 1, 1977; Oct 16, 1978; Feb 25, 1985; Nov 29, 1988; also see Helen Frankenthaler
Reis, Bernard and Becky: undated Christmas cards (2)
Resnick, Milton: Feb 23, 1956
Rosati, James and Carmel: undated Christmas cards (2); also see Art Work
Rothko, Mark: undated letters (2); Jul 20, 1959; Aug 9, 1961; also see Photographs
Stamos, Theodorus: undated letter; Jan 3, 1962; Aug 6, 1964; Jul 14, 1965; Aug 19, 1965; Jul 15, 1966; Jul 19, 1967; Jun 29, 1968; Aug 5, 1968; Jul 23, 1973; Dec 11, 1981
Stevens, May: Jul 14, 1975
Stout, Myron: Mar 25, 1980
Terris, Albert and Virginia: Dec 1953 (illustrated Christmas card)
Tworkov, Jack and family: undated letters (2); Dec 22, 1955 (illustrated Christmas card); Aug 27, 1956; Jul 5, 1960; Dec 11, 1960; Oct 21, 1968; Jan 4, 1983
Varian, Elayne: Oct 6, 1969; Dec 19, 1969
Vonnegut, Kurt: undated letters (2); Jan 29, 1975
Watson, Hildegarde: Feb 24, 1946; Jun 12, 1948; Mar 31, 1951; Jan 27, 1956; Aug 9, 1958
Webb, Nancy: Jan 6, 1986; Dec 15, 1986 (illustrated Christmas card)
Wesley, John: Mar 21, 1987
White, Emil: see Art Work
Williams, William Carlos: Jul 2, 1949 (photocopy); also see Photographs
Wilson, Jane: see John Gruen
Yunkers, Adja: undated cards (2), one illustrated; Feb 3, 1951; Dec 16, 1964
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Use of unmicrofilmed material requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington D.C. research facility.
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:
The Elise Asher papers, 1923-1994. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with George McNeil, 1965 June 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with George McNeil, 1968 Jan. 9-May 21. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Roberts, Colette Jacqueline, 1910-1971 Search this
Type:
Sound Recording
Date:
1970
Citation:
Leo Manso and Colette Jacqueline Roberts. Interview with Leo Manso, 1970. Colette Roberts Papers and Interviews with Artists, 1918-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Roberts, Colette Jacqueline, 1910-1971 Search this
Type:
Sound Recording
Date:
1968 October
Citation:
Leo Manso and Colette Jacqueline Roberts. Interview with Leo Manso, 1968 October. Colette Roberts Papers and Interviews with Artists, 1918-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) provide researchers with a complete set of documentation focusing on the founding and history of the organization from its inception through the 1960s. The collection measures 79.8 linear feet, and dates from 1895 through 1993, although the bulk of the material falls between 1909 and 1969. Valuable for its coverage of twentieth-century American art history, the collection also provides researchers with fairly comprehensive documentation of the many exhibitions and programs supported and implemented by the AFA to promote and study contemporary American art, both nationally and abroad.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) provide researchers with a complete set of documentation focusing on the founding and history of the organization from its inception through the 1960s. The collection measures 79.8 linear feet, and dates from 1895 through 1993, although the bulk of the material falls between 1909 and 1969. Valuable for its coverage of twentieth-century American art history, the collection also provides researchers with fairly comprehensive documentation of the many exhibitions and programs supported and implemented by the AFA to promote and study contemporary American art, both nationally and abroad.
The earliest documentation from 1895 to 1909 concerns the organization's history and founding and is located in Series 1: Board of Trustees. Also found in this series are meeting minutes, 1909-1963 and 1968. Interfiled with the board meeting minutes are minutes of the executive committee and other special and ad hoc committees, reports to the board, financial statements and reports, and lists of committee appointments and board membership. This series also contains the scattered correspondence and subject files of various officers. Although not a complete set of officers' files, Presidents' Frederick Allen. Whiting (1931-1936), Lawrence M.C. Smith (1948-1952), Thomas Brown Rudd (1952-1954), Daniel Longwell (1954-1956), James S. Schramm (1956-1958), and Roy R. Neuberger (1958-1961) are represented. Leila Mechlin served on AFA's board as secretary from its founding to 1929, and her files are a particularly rich resource for AFA's activities during its early years. Lawrence M.C. Smith's files documenting his years as board treasurer are also arranged in this series. Additional officers' correspondence is interspersed throughout the Alphabetical Files and other series.
General information about the scope of AFA's programs, affiliations, founding, functions, and proceedings are arranged in Series 2: Administrative Records. The first subseries, Alphabetical Files, houses a wide variety of subject files that contain memoranda, correspondence, printed materials, lists, reports, and other papers. These files document the AFA's general history and founding, organizational affiliations, buildings and moves, grants, federal and state government art programs, auctions and other fund-raising efforts, publicity and public relations, publications, and fiftieth anniversary celebration. The subject headings by which these files are arranged are, for the most part, the ones designated by the AFA. The second subseries, Staff Records, houses the scattered files of AFA's director, assistant director, registrar, and special state representative, Robert Luck.
During its most active period, the AFA sponsored or participated in several special programs and Series 3: Special Programs houses the files that document many of them. The first subseries consists of the files for the Artists in Residence program that was funded by the Ford Foundation. Awarded in 1963, the grant sponsored short-term teaching residencies for artists in museums throughout the United States. The host museums were encouraged to hold exhibitions of the artists' works. This subseries contains both the general files of the program, as well as individual files on the participating artists. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the AFA and the Ford Foundation also sponsored additional programs for artists, including Grants in Aid, Purchase Awards, and the Retrospective Exhibitions Program. The files documenting these three programs are also arranged in Series 3, under the subseries Ford Foundation Program for Visual Artists. In the late 1950s, the AFA implemented the Museum Donor Program with benefactors and philanthropists Audrey Bruce Currier and Stephen Richard Currier. Through the administration of the AFA, the Curriers donated funds to selected institutions specifically for the purchase of contemporary American art. The Curriers preferred to remain anonymous throughout the program. Files documenting this program include correspondence, applications from the accepted institutions, rejections, a summary report, and clippings about the untimely deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Currier in 1967.
Also found in Series 3 are the files documenting AFAs working relationship with the first state arts council, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). In 1961, AFA and NYSCA implemented a traveling exhibition program in New York State. Found here are files for possible itineraries, proposals, publicity, loans, budgets, and the actual exhibition files. Additional AFA special programs documented in Series 3 include the Picture of the Month program of the mid-1950s and the Jean Tennyson Foundation Color Slide Lecture Program.
AFA Annual Convention files constitute Series 4. Beginning with the Third Annual Convention in 1912 and continuing through the 1963 Annual Convention, the files contain official proceedings, speeches, programs, clippings, correspondence, and press releases. Files are missing for 1913, 1915, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1936-1949, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1960, and 1962. There are also audio recordings in the form of reel-to-reel tapes for the 1951 Annual Convention.
Series 5: Exhibition Files forms the bulk of the collection at circa 62 linear feet and is arranged into twenty subseries. The first subseries, Exhibitions, General, houses primarily the records of the Board of Trustees Exhibition Committee and documents the AFA's earliest involvement with traveling exhibitions. These files contain reports, budgets, correspondence, memoranda, scattered exhibition catalogs, and photographs. They are primarily the files of the chair of the Exhibition Committee and include the files of Juliana R. Force, Eloise Spaeth, and Mrs. John Pope. Also found in this series is a subseries of Mrs. John Pope's records documenting circulating exhibitions from 1934 to 1955, arranged by state.
The remaining nineteen subseries of the Exhibition Files reflect either specific exhibition programs, many of which have unique numbers assigned by AFA to individual exhibitions, or other exhibition-related files, such rejected, canceled, and suggested exhibitions and miscellaneous installation photographs. The Annual Exhibitions files constitute the largest of the subseries and are numbered according to the system assigned by AFA, following a typical chronological order. Although the documentation for each exhibition varies widely by both type and amount, most of the files contain contracts and legal agreements, correspondence, memoranda, itinerary information, condition reports, publicity materials, catalogs, announcements, price lists, and other such information arranged into one or more files. The files were labeled "documentation files," "dispersal files," "report form files," "loan agreement files," and "publicity files" according to the filing system devised by AFA. Many of the files also house a significant amount of correspondence with museum officials, lenders, and artists.
Additional subseries document AFA's exhibition venues and partnerships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the New York State Council on the [UNK] Life magazine, and Addison Gallery. A complete list of all of the subseries, including specific exhibition programs, follows in the Series Outline.
The final three series of the collection are small: Printed Material, Miscellaneous Files, and Oversized Material. The printed material was donated much later to the Archives and dates from 1990 to 1993. Found here are scattered press releases, annual reports, and an exhibition program. Miscellaneous Files contain scattered records, 1926-1962, of the Architectural League of New York relating to national award programs. It is not clear why this small group of Architectural League records was found mixed with the AFA records but perhaps the collaboration between the two organizations on several special projects provides an explanation. Also found in Miscellaneous Files is a group of black and white lantern slides from a lecture series, "New Horizons in America." Oversized Material includes a portfolio, a work of art, and posters.
See Appendix for a list of artists exhibiting with the American Federation of Arts
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight primary series based primarily on administrative units or program areas. Several of the series are further subdivided into subseries. While processing, it became clear that the two filing systems were redundant and overlapped in both subject area and type of material. Most of these files were subsequently merged into the now broader Alphabetical Files or into separate series. Oversized material may be found at the end of the collection arranged in a separate series.
In most cases, files related to one another by subseries or subject areas (in the case of the Alphabetical Files) or by individual name (in the case of officers and staff files) are arranged in chronological order. The entire subseries of Alphabetical Files in Series 2 is arranged by subject heading, as assigned by the AFA, or individual name. The Alphabetical Files originally formed two broad filing systems as established by the AFA: one for general correspondence arranged by subject; and one for director's and other staff correspondence, also arranged by subject.
Missing Title
Series 1: Board of Trustees, circa 1895-1968 (Boxes 1-3)
Series 2: Administrative Records, 1910-1966 (Boxes 4-8)
Series 3: Special Programs, 1950-1967 (Boxes 9-13)
Series 4: Annual Conventions, 1912-1963 (Boxes 14-16)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1934-1969 (Boxes 17-78)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1990-1993 (Box 78)
Series 7: Miscellaneous Files, 1926-1962, undated (Box 79)
Series 8: Oversized Materials, 1890, undated (Boxes 80-85)
Historical Note:
Founded in 1909 by Elihu Root, the American Federation of Arts (AFA) exists today as a national nonprofit museum service organization striving to unite American art institutions, collectors, artists, and museums. Elihu Root, then secretary of state in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, spoke of his idea at the first meeting of the AFA held in New York at the National Academy of Arts. He envisioned an organization that would promote American art most often seen only by the elite in the major cities of the East and upper Midwest by sending "exhibitions of original works of art on tour through the hinterlands across the United States."
The American Academy in Rome, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Metropolitan Museum of Art were influential organizing member institutions. Individual members included such notables as William Merritt Chase, Charles L. Freer, Daniel C. French, Charles L. Hutchinson, Henry Cabot Lodge, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Walters. The founding of the AFA provided the American art world with a forum for communication and participation among artists, cultural institutions, patrons of the arts, and the public.
To accomplish its mission, the AFA established volunteer committees for membership, exhibitions, and publications. During its first year, the AFA began publishing Art and Progress (later changed to Magazine of Art) and the American Art Annual (now the American Art Directory). In 1909, the AFA also organized its first traveling exhibition, Paintings by Prominent American Artists, which was shown at museums in Fort Worth, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and New Ulm, Minnesota.
By the end of the first year, the headquarters of the organization moved to Washington, D.C., to facilitate lobbying the federal government for favorable art legislation. In 1913, the AFA lobbied successfully for the removal of the tariff on foreign art entering the United States. In 1916, the Federation met with the Interstate Commerce Commission to protest prohibitively high interstate taxes on traveling art exhibitions.
Throughout the next fifteen years, the AFA continued to grow in membership and influence. By 1919, membership included 438 institutions and 2,900 individuals. The AFA's annual conventions were held in major national art centers and were attended by members, chapter delegates, and the public. At the conventions, scholars, patrons, and curators lectured on and discussed subjects of national interest, thereby fostering an exchange of ideas. The AFA also sponsored periodic regional conferences to promote institutional cooperation and to discuss mutual problems and needs. To facilitate exhibition venues west of the Mississippi River, in 1921 the AFA opened regional offices at the University of Nebraska and at Stanford University. The AFA produced and circulated slide programs and lecture series to museums and educational institutions that fostered art education. By 1929, the Federation had developed forty-six slide-lecture programs that covered American mural painting, European and American contemporary art, and textiles.
During the 1930s, the Federation expanded its services by providing schools with teaching guides, student workbooks, slides, and films about art. In 1935, the AFA began publishing Who's Who in American Art, later publishing The Official Directory of Illustrators and Advertising Artists and Films on Art reference guides. To reach an even larger audience, the AFA began collaborating with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to organize national circulating exhibitions to "bring the museum to the people."
One of AFA's priorities was to make American art more visible abroad. The Federation focused on encouraging the representation of American artists in foreign exhibitions, and in 1924 it lobbied successfully for additional American participation in the Venice Biennale. The AFA's focus on exhibiting American art abroad continued to expand, particularly following World War II. In 1950, recognizing that the AFA could assist in promoting American culture, the State Department awarded the AFA a grant for a German "re-orientation program" consisting of educational exhibitions shown in German museums. Additional government funding further enabled the AFA to organize American participation in exhibitions in India, Japan, Paris, Switzerland, and Rotterdam between 1950 and 1970. Later, the AFA collaborated with the United States Information Agency (USIA) to create the Overseas Museum Donor Program which permitted donations of American art to foreign institutions on a restriction-free, tax-deductible basis. During the 1950s, the AFA was a very active member of the Committee on Government and Art, a national committee with members from across the art and museum world concerned with government sponsorship of and legislation affecting art sales, commissions, and trade.
In 1952, the headquarters of the AFA returned to New York, sparking a period of innovation and expanded of programs. Throughout the 1950s, the AFA distributed films about art and co-sponsored the Films on Art Festival in Woodstock, New York. The AFA also introduced its Picture of the Month Program in 1954, renting original works of art to small American art and educational institutions. In 1956, the AFA organized the Art Collectors Club of America to provide fellowship for art collectors through meetings and activities. The club disbanded in the 1970s.
The Federation's exhibition programs continued to flourish during the 1950s and 1960s. Private and public financial support allowed the AFA to achieve many of its goals. In 1958, the Ford Foundation awarded an important grant to organize a series of traveling one-person shows and a series of monographs devoted to contemporary American artists. Milton Avery, Andrew Dasburg, José DeCreeft, Lee Gatch, Walter Quirt, Abraham Rattner, and others were among the artists who participated. Private foundation support for the AFA's Museum Donor Program provided an annual allowance that was distributed to regional museums for the pourchase of contemporary American art. Cooperative programs and joint venues also became popular during this period. For example, public support from the New York State Council on the Arts allowed the AFA to circulate exhibitions to small New York State communities, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts provided the AFA with five exhibitions for national tours.
Throughout its history, the American Federation of Arts has concentrated on its founding principle of broadening the audience for contemporary American art. Through its numerous exhibition and film programs, the AFA has succeeded in "breaking down barriers of distance and language to broaden the knowledge and appreciation of art." Annual exhibitions such as New Talent in the USA and Art Schools USA, organized by the AFA, brought before the public the most contemporary American artists and craftspeople, genres, and artistic forms of experimentation, exposing viewers to new ways of thinking and expression. In 1965, AFA produced The Curriculum in Visual Education, a series of films created to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children.
A vital part of American art history, the AFA was one of the first organizations to develop successfully the concept of traveling art exhibitions on a national and international level. The AFA was instrumental in assisting museums with circulating important juried exhibitions of contemporary art, such as the Whitney Annual and Corcoran Biennial. The AFA also recognized the importance of the exchange of cultural ideas, and it brought exhibitions of the European masters to the American public as well as exhibitions focusing on foreign contempoorary art, photography, and architecture. Many organizations and museums have followed the AFA's precedent, and traveling national and international venues are now commonplace.
Since 1909, women have served as officers and members of the Board of Trustees. Leila Mechlin was a founding participant and served as secretary from 1909 to 1933. Juliana R. Force and Eloise Spaeth both chaired the Exhibition Committee in the late 1940s. Women and artists of diverse backgrounds and nationalities were widely represented in the AFA's exhibition programs, most notably during the 1960s. In 1960, the AFA organized, with financial support from the Ford Foundation, a major Jacob Lawrence retrospective. Additional culturally diverse exhibitions included Contemporary Jewish Ceremonial Art (1961), The Heart of India (1962), 1,000 Years of American Indian Art (1963), and Ten Negro Artists from the United States (1966).
The AFA also had an impact on patronage in the arts. AFA exhibitions of contemporary art provided collectors with knowledge of new artists and avant-garde art forms, creating a broader demand and market for this type of work. Museums and collectors began purchasing work by new or obscure American artists whom they learned about through AFA exhibitions and programs.
The historical records of the American Federation of Arts offer the researcher a unique opportunity to study the development of American art and artists in the twentieth century as well as providing insight into trends in American culture.
Missing Title
1909 -- Founded in New York City. Began publishing Art and Progress (later retitled Magazine of Art) and the American Art Annual.
1910 -- Moved headquarters to Washington, D.C.
1913 -- Lobbied successfully for the removal of the tariff on art entering the United States.
1915-1916 -- Lobbied successfully against the Cummins Amendment and the Interstate Commerce Commission's prohibitively high interstate tax on traveling art.
1920 -- Organized a lobbying campaign for the development of a national gallery of art at its national convention.
1921 -- Opened two new offices at the University of Nebraska and at Stanford University.
1924 -- Arranged American participation in the Venice Biennale exhibition.
1927 -- Closed office at Stanford University.
1929 -- Organized American participation in exhibitions in France and Germany.
1933 -- Closed office at the University of Nebraska.
1935 -- Began publishing Who's Who in American Art.
1948 -- Published The Official Directory of Illustrators and Advertising Artists.
1949 -- Collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to circulate exhibitions from its collections.
1950 -- Participated in the U.S. government's German re-orientation program.
1951 -- Joined forces with the United States Information Agency (USIA) to create the Overseas Museum Donor Program. Published the reference guide Films on Art. Co-sponsored the Films on Art Festival in Woodstock, New York, through 1957.
1952 -- Moved headquarters to New York City.
1953 -- Magazine of Art liquidated.
1954 -- Introduced the Picture of the Month Program.
1956 -- Founded the Art Collectors Club of America.
1958 -- Received a Ford Foundation grant to finance a series of one-person shows of contemporary American artists.
1960 -- Created the Museum Donor Program.
1961 -- Received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to circulate exhibitions to small New York state communities.
1963 -- Received a grant from the Ford Foundation for the Artists in Residence program.
1964 -- Introduced the List Art Poster Program.
1965 -- Produced The Curriculum in Visual Education, a series of films that attempted to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children.
Appendix: List of Artists Exhibiting with American Federation of Arts:
The following is an alphabetical list of artists who exhibited with the American Federation of Arts; many are obscure. The alpha-numeric codes and numbers appearing with the artist's name represent specific AFA exhibition programs and, most often, AFA's exhibition numbering system. In cases where the AFA did not assign an exhibition number, Archives' staff have done so.
The primary reference source for the names and name variants is the American Federation of Arts Records. The names are documented in handwritten notes and lists, typed lists, and exhibition catalogs and announcements. The Archives of American Art name authority file was also consulted in questionable cases. The majority of names, however, were not found in either the AAA name authority file or standard bibliographic resources, and only in the AFA records.
Examples:
55-1: AFA annual exhibitions program
AD-1: Addison Gallery exhibitions
L-1: Life Magazine Exhibitions
ME-1: Misceallaneous exhibitions (numbers assigned by AAA staff)
NMA-1: Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibitions
NE-96: Contemporary Color Lithography
NY-1: New York State Council on the Arts exhibitions
VA-1: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions
Missing Title
A. Quincy Jones, Frederick E. Emmons & Assoc: 62-34
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) were donated to the Archives of American Art (AAA) over a thirteen-year period, with the bulk of the material arriving between 1964 and 1966. In 1979, Preston Bolton donated his letters and those from John de Menil, Ann Drevet, Lee Malone, and others regarding planning for the 1957 AFA annual convention held in Houston, Texas; convention committee minutes from 1956; and AFA newsletters. This material, as well as a 1979 gift from Louise Ferrari of transcripts from a panel discussion from the 1957 AFA convention in Houston, was microfilmed on AAA Reel 1780. All material previously microfilmed on Reel 1780 has been fully integrated into the collection and arranged within proper series and subseries. The provenance of the 1990-1993 printed material is unknown.
Restrictions:
Use 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.
Levi, Julian E. (Julian Edwin), 1900-1982 Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1914-1981
Scope and Contents note:
Julian E. Levi's correspondence concerns professional and personal matters. It consists primarily of incoming letters (a few of which are addressed to his wife, Jean Laurent Levi) with a small number of drafts and carbon copies of letters written by Levi. There are a number of illustrated letters and greeting cards (primarily Christmas cards) with original artwork by Levi and others. Among his correspondents are museums and galleries including: Alan Gallery, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Downtown Gallery and Edith Halpert, Guild Hall, National Academy of Design, Lee Nordness Gallery, Frank K. M. Rehn Inc., Whitney Museum of American Art and Juliana Force; the art schools where he taught: Art Students' League, New School for Social Research, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; art organizations such as: the American Academy in Rome, American Artists' Congress, An American Group, Inc., National Institute of Arts and Letters, and United American Artists; and friends and colleagues including: Leonard Baskin, George Biddle, Marc Blitzstein, Peter and Ebie Blume, Louis Bouché, Robert Coates, Ralston Crawford, Stuart and Roselle Davis, Marcel Duchamp, Philip Evergood, Alfred Frankenstein, C. Hartley Grattan, Hilaire Hiler, Joseph Hirsch, Leon Kelly, Patricia Kelly, Yasuo and Sara Kuniyoshi, Anthony Lauck, Jacob Lawrence, Dolores Milmoe, Arthur Moss, Gregorio Prestopino, Walter Quirt , Abraham Rattner, Man Ray, Ione Robinson, Francis Speight, Hervé Télémaque, Franklin C. and Ida Watkins, Max Weber, and Russell Wright.
Approximately 60 letters Levi wrote to his family from Paris circa 1927, survive. They comment on the activities of Franklin Watkins, Marc Blitzstein, and Hilaire Hiler; his own paintings and commissions, particularly for the nightclub, Chez Mister Finney; and his associations with other artists and writers including Ludwig Lewisohn, Roy Sheldon, Maruice Speiser, collector Otto Kahn, and Ford Madox Ford.
Additional correspondence, 1938-1939, concerning the Estate of Rosa Gomprecht (Julian Levi was a beneficiary) is filed with Financial Records (Series 5).
See Appendix for a list of selected correspondents from Series 2.1.
Appendix: Selected Correspondents from Series 2.1:
Included among Julian Levi's correspondence with museums and galleries, art schools, art organizations, artists, and friends and colleagues are the following correspondents.
Abbott, Berenice (1929-1930)
Alan Gallery (1955)
American Academy in Rome (1948-1949, 1958-1960, 1962-1963, 1967-1971)
American Artists' Congress (1937, 1940-1941, undated)
American Federation of Arts (1940, 1942-1944, 1953)
An American Group, Inc. (1933-1934, 1937, 1939-1941, 1947, 1950-1951, undated)
Arms, John Taylor (1946, 1949)
Art Institute of Chicago (1934, 1937-1938, 1940-1941, 1943)
Art Students' League (1948-1949, 1954, 1957-1958, 1960, 1962, 1964-1966, 1968-1970, 1972, 1977-1978, 1981, undated)
Associated American Artists (1941, 1943-1945, 1966, 1972)
Baskin, Leonard (1952, 1962)
Bearden, Romare (1974)
Biddle, George (1969, undated)
Blitzstein, Marc (1928, 1930, 1934)
Blume, Peter and Ebie (1935-1938, 1940, 1949, 1958-1960, 1962, 1967, 1971, undated)
Borie, Adolphe (1927)
Boulevard (see: Moss, Arthur)
Calder, Alexander (1941, 1943, 1945, 1962)
Carnegie Institute (1940-1941, 1943-1950)
Century Association (1963-1967, 1970-1973, 1978-1981)
Speight, Francis (1936, 1966, 1969, 1976, undated)
Telemaque, Herve (1960-1961, 1966, 1971, undated)
Treasury Department, Section of Fine Arts (1943)
United American Artists (1940-1941)
Watkins, Franklin C. and Ida (1926, 1937, 1941, 1964-1965, 1969, undated)
Weber, Max (1939, 1942, 1949)
Whitney Museum of American Art/Juliana Force (1935, 1937-1938, 1940-1942, 1944-1945, 1953, 1974)
Works Progress Administration (1936-1937, 1939-1940)
Wright, Russell (1940-1941)
Zorach, William (1943)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. office.
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:
Julian E. Levi papers, 1846-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.