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Creator:

Wortz, Melinda, 1940-2002  Search this

Subject:

Eversley, Frederick  Search this

Taylor, Elizabeth  Search this

Livkin, Rena  Search this

Turrell, James  Search this

Tivey, Hap  Search this

Baca, Judith Francisca  Search this

DeLap, Tony  Search this

Antin, Eleanor  Search this

Christo  Search this

Dine, Jim  Search this

McCafferty, Jay David  Search this

Sonneman, Eve  Search this

Ox, Jack  Search this

Todd, Liza  Search this

Marck, Marc van der  Search this

Rinke, Klaus  Search this

Rosler, Martha  Search this

Irwin, Robert  Search this

Johns, Jasper  Search this

Valentine, De Wain  Search this

Kauffman, Craig  Search this

Zaimo, Stephen  Search this

Small, Rena  Search this

Warner, Elsa  Search this

Bell, Larry  Search this

Moses, Ed  Search this

Lodato, Peter  Search this

Wiener, Nina  Search this

Schwartz, Beth Ames  Search this

Barber, Daniel  Search this

Noguchi, Isamu  Search this

Rauschenberg, Robert  Search this

Harding, Bill  Search this

Marchesi, Cork  Search this

Ballatore-Nelson, Sandy  Search this

University of California, Irvine. Fine Arts Gallery  Search this

University of California, Irvine. Department of Studo Art  Search this

University of California, Irvine  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Photographs

Transcripts

Sound recordings

Travel diaries

Place:

Paris (France) -- description and travel

Soviet Union -- description and travel

Citation:

Melinda Wortz papers, 1958-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art, American -- California  Search this

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California  Search this

Women art historians  Search this

Theme:

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6475

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)215662

AAA_collcode_wortmeli

Theme:

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_215662

Creator:

Wortz, Melinda  Search this

Names:

University of California, Irvine -- Faculty  Search this

University of California, Irvine. Department of Studo Art  Search this

University of California, Irvine. Fine Arts Gallery  Search this

Antin, Eleanor  Search this

Baca, Judith Francisca  Search this

Ballatore-Nelson, Sandy  Search this

Barber, Daniel  Search this

Bell, Larry, 1939-  Search this

Christo, 1935-  Search this

DeLap, Tony, 1927-2019  Search this

Dine, Jim, 1935-  Search this

Eversley, Frederick  Search this

Harding, Bill  Search this

Irwin, Robert, 1928-  Search this

Johns, Jasper, 1930-  Search this

Kauffman, Craig, 1932-2010  Search this

Livkin, Rena  Search this

Lodato, Peter  Search this

Marchesi, Cork  Search this

Marck, Marc van der  Search this

McCafferty, Jay David, 1948-  Search this

Moses, Ed, 1926-  Search this

Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988  Search this

Ox, Jack, 1948-  Search this

Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008  Search this

Rinke, Klaus, 1939-  Search this

Rosler, Martha  Search this

Schwartz, Beth Ames  Search this

Small, Rena  Search this

Sonneman, Eve  Search this

Taylor, Elizabeth, 1932-2011  Search this

Tivey, Hap  Search this

Todd, Liza  Search this

Turrell, James  Search this

Valentine, De Wain, 1936-2022  Search this

Warner, Elsa  Search this

Wiener, Nina  Search this

Zaimo, Stephen  Search this

Extent:

17.45 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Interviews

Photographs

Transcripts

Sound recordings

Travel diaries

Place:

Paris (France) -- description and travel

Soviet Union -- description and travel

Date:

1958-1992

Summary:

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.

Missing Title

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

Authors -- California -- Los Angeles  Search this

Educators -- California -- Los Angeles  Search this

Art museum curators -- California -- Los Angeles  Search this

Gallery directors -- California -- Irvine  Search this

Topic:

Art, American -- California  Search this

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California  Search this

Women art historians  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Photographs

Transcripts

Sound recordings

Travel diaries

Citation:

Melinda Wortz papers, 1958-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Support for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian's Collections Care Pool Fund.

Identifier:

AAA.wortmeli

See more items in:

Melinda Wortz papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw905985e8b-dfa4-4162-a8bb-952942187c9f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-wortmeli

Contents:

Folder(s) may include exhibition announcements, newspaper and/or magazine clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, illustrations, resumes, artist's statements, exhibition catalogs.

Topic:

Artists  Search this

Location:

Art & Artist files at the Smithsonian American Art Museum/ National Portrait Gallery Library

Data source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:SILAF_65553

Author:

Marck, Marc van der  Search this

University of California, Irvine Art Gallery  Search this

Subject:

Marck, Marc van der  Search this

Physical description:

[7] leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm

Type:

Books

Exhibitions

Date:

1976

Call number:

NK970.M37 A4 1976

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_720656