A panel discussion sponsored by the Archives of American Art at the Founders Luncheon and Museum Panel, held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, 1986 February 13. The participants were Richard Koshalek, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art; Earl A. Powell, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Robert Middlekauff, Director of the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Paul Karlstrom is moderator.
Moderator Paul Karlstrom introduces the topic and panelists; identifies differences between the three institutions, the appeal of blockbuster shows, and with references to an article by Mortibello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, questions whether a museum can successfully balance scholarship and interpretation; the high cost of research and programming; and the shift to temporary exhibitions.
Koshalek discusses how MOCA continues to look for a balance as a new organization and their decision to start with temporary exhibits to build an audience and collection. Middlekauff discusses the Huntington as a research institution and its policy to not loan books and papers and the impact then on hosting only temporary exhibits, and the parallel to problems universities face in funding programming. Powell discusses the benefits of blockbuster exhibits, the need to integrate scholarship, and the problems in corporate sponsorships.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hrs., 3 min.
Funding note:
Funding for the digital preservation of this recording was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Funding for the digital preservation of these recordings was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
The papers of New York painter and sculptor Richard Artschwager measure 5.6 linear feet and 9.33 GB and date from 1959-2013. The papers include extensive correspondence, recorded talks and a lecture, exhibition files, printed and digital material, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York painter and sculptor Richard Artschwager measure 5.6 linear feet and 9.33 GB and date from 1959-2013. The papers include extensive correspondence, recorded talks and a lecture, exhibition files, printed and digital material, and photographs.
Artschwager's correspondence is with museums, galleries, artists, art historians, academic institutions, and publishers and concerns exhibitions, speaking engagements, and teaching. Frequent correspondents include Lawrence Alloway, Leo Castelli Gallery, Gagosian Gallery, Galerie Franck + Schulte, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ivan Karp, Museum Ludwig, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Ingrid Schaffner, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Also found are letters from fellow artists, including William Copley, Eric Fischl, Ray Johnson, Louise Lawler, Sol Lewitt, Ed Ruscha, John Waters, and Betty Woodman. Some letters are annotated or illustrated with sketches by Artschwager.
The collection includes a lecture and recorded talks by Richard Artschwager held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and the Carpenter Center of the Visual Arts, Harvard University, and other venues. One of the recordings is from the "Conversations with Contemporary Artists" series of the Museum of Modern Art. Also included in this series is a recorded discussion with artists Alex Katz and Elizabeth Murray and art critics Michael Kimmelman and Peter Schjeldahl.
Exhibition files are found for exhibitions held at Adair Margo Gallery, Lorence Monk Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cornell University, and numerous others, including many in Europe. Files typically contain correspondence, price lists, announcements, printed material, photographs, and a few sound and video recordings.
Printed material includes invitations and announcements as well as posters, reproductions, and brochures, mostly related to Richard Artschwager's exhibitions. Newspaper and magazine clippings document exhibition openings and the critical reception of his work.
There are also a few photographs including images of Leo Castelli by Hans Namuth used by Artschwager in preparing for his portrait of Castelli.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1970-2013 (Boxes 1-3; 3.0 linear feet, ER01-ER02; 0.555 GB)
Series 2: Talks and Lecture, 1985-2009 (Box 4; 0.8 linear feet, ER03-ER10; 8.77 GB)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1973-2007 (Boxes 4-5; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1959-2012 (Boxes 5-6, OV 7; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1973, 2007 (Box 6, OV 8; 0.1 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Artschwager (1923-2013) lived and worked in New York City and Hudson, New York and was known primarily for his paintings and sculptures. Artschwager was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in New Mexico. As a youth, Artschwager showed a talent for drawing. He studied chemistry and mathematics at Cornell University. In 1944, Artschwager interrupted his studies to enlist in the U.S. Army. After the war, he returned to Cornell to complete his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. Encouraged by his first wife, Elfriede Wejmelka to develop his interest in art, Artschwager moved to New York to study at the Studio School of Amédée Ozenfant. His paintings and drawings from this period were featured in two group shows at the Terrain Gallery in 1957 and at the Art Directions Gallery on Madison Avenue in 1959, where they were recognized by Donald Judd.
In the 1950s, in order to support his family, Artschwager turned to designing and manufacturing modern furniture. His woodworking skills inspired him to create sculptures from utilitarian objects such as tables, chairs, and mirrors. He is best known for the use of building materials Celotex and Formica in his work and for inventing an abstract form he called "blps" reliefs, stencils or decals that were installed randomly in museum, gallery and public spaces. From the mid-1980s to late 1990s, Artschwager designed large scale projects, though he continued to incorporate everyday domestic objects in his sculptures and paintings.
In 1965, Artschwager was given his first one-man exhibition at the Castelli Gallery and he remained with the Gallery for thirty years. He was also represented by Mary Boone, David Nolan, and the Gagosian Gallery. In the 1980s, Artschwager served on the Visual Arts Policy Committee at the National Endowment of the Arts. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts in 1992. He was a visiting artist at New Mexico State University, Soka University, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the University of Arizona. Artschwager's work was the subject of a major surveys, including the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Neues Museum, and Serpentine Gallery. He participated in numerous international group shows including the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, Germany. The Whitney Museum of American Art honored Artschwager with two travelling retrospective exhibitions in 1988 and 2012. In late 2012, Artschwager had one-man shows at the Gagosian Gallery and David Nolan Gallery.
Richard Artschwager died at the age of 89 years in 2013. He is survived by his wife, Ann Sebring Artschwager and three children from previous marriages.
Related Materials:
Also found among the resources at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Artschwager, March 3-28, 1972, conducted by Paul Cummings.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Richard Artschwager and his wife Ann Artschwager in 2013.
Restrictions:
Use of original material requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.) Search this
Type:
Sound Recording
Date:
2008 March 4
Citation:
Michael Govan and Dodie Kazanjian. Interview with Michael Govan and Katherine Ross, 2008 March 4. Dodie Kazanjian papers, 1949-2017. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.) Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Giuseppe Panza, 1985 Apr. 2-4. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Giuseppe Panza conducted 1985 Apr. 2-4, by Christopher Knight, for the Archives of American Art, in Los Angeles, Calif.
Panza speaks of his background and education; the development of his collecting interest; his shift of interest from European to American art; his appreciation of conceptual art; the collecting of environmental artwork; philosophical ideals and goals which influenced his collecting; and the acquisition of the Panza collection by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Biographical / Historical:
Giuseppe Panza (1904-1988) was an art collector from Milan, Italy.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 40 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
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:
Leo Castelli Gallery records, circa 1880-2000, bulk 1957-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the partial digitization of this collection was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.). Actions by sculptors for the home audience exhibition announcement, 1974 Feb. 15. Lucy R. Lippard papers, 1930s-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Jean Milant, 2015 July 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Robert Smithson / organized by Eugenie Tsai with Cornelia Butler ; additional essay by Thomas Crow ; texts by Alexander Alberro ... [et al.] ; interview with Robert Smithson by Moira Roth