The papers of Romare Bearden measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1982. The collection includes biographical information, correspondence, writings by and about Bearden, miscellaneous legal and financial material, photographs, drawings, and printed material. Found are numerous letters referring to African-American arts movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including exhibitions, publications, associations, and scattered letters of a more personal nature.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Romare Bearden measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1982. The collection includes biographical information, correspondence, writings by and about Bearden, miscellaneous legal and financial material, photographs, drawings, and printed material.
Correspondence is with family, friends, artists, galleries, museums, publishers, universities, arts associations, and colleagues, primarily concerning gallery space, exhibitions, sales of artwork, publishing, and arts events. Also found are numerous letters referring to African-American art movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including exhibitions, publications, associations, and scattered letters of a more personal nature. Many of the letters are illustrated with Bearden's doodlings and drawings. Although most of the letters are from galleries, museums, publishers, and arts associations, scattered letters from Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence, Ad Reinhardt, Carl Holty, and Sam Middleton are found. In addition, there are letters from the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and letters concerning its founding.
Writings by Bearden include lectures, speeches, talks, essays, and prose. Many are handwritten, annotated, and edited in Bearden's hand and several are illustrated with Bearden's doodlings and sketches. Included are a memorial delivered upon artist Carl Holty's death, a tribute to Zell Ingram, autobiographical essays, essays on art, and African-American art, artists, and cultural life. Also found are several handwritten examples of Bearden's prose and poetry. There are also writings by others and one folder of fragments and notes assumed to be by Bearden.
The collection houses two folders of photographs and snapshots of Bearden, family members, other unidentified artists or friends, classes and/or lectures, and works of art. Also found are several undated ink drawings, sketches in pencil and ink, and a hand-drawn and colored map with overlay of Paris. Printed material includes examples of Bearden's commissioned artwork for publications, press releases, exhibition catalogs and announcements, invitations, newspaper and magazine clippings, and miscellaneous printed materials. Although much of the printed material concerns Bearden's work, a fair portion concerns African-American art, artists, and cultural movements.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into seven series based on type of materials. Documents within each of the seven series have been arranged in chronological order, except for the writings which have been further subdivided by creator and are undated. Printed materials have been arranged primarily according to form of material and are in rough chronological order.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical, 1977, undated (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1944-1981, undated (Box 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings By and About Bearden, circa 1950s-1980s (Box 3; 6 folders)
Series 4: Legal and Financial Material, 1970-1977 (Box 3; 3 folders)
Series 5: Photographs, undated (Box 3; 2 folders)
Series 6: Drawings, undated (Box 3, OV 6; 4 folders)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1937-1982 (Box 3-5; 1 linear foot)
Biographical / Historical:
Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1914, Bearden's family relocated to New York City when Bearden was a toddler. Living in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Bearden was exposed to such luminaries as writer Langston Hughes, painter Aaron Douglas, and musician Duke Ellington. While attending New York University, Bearden became interested in cartooning and became the art editor of the NYU Medley in his senior year. He received his B.S. in mathematics in 1935, initially planning to pursue medical school. Realizing that he had little interest in the other sciences however, Bearden began attending classes at the Art Students League in the evenings, studying under George Grosz.
In the mid-1930s Bearden published numerous political cartoons in journals and newspapers, including the Afro-American, but by the end of the decade, he shifted his emphasis to painting. Bearden's first paintings, on large sheets of brown paper, recalled his early memories of the South. After serving in the Army, Bearden began exhibiting more frequently, particularly in Washington, D.C. at the G Street Gallery and in New York with Samuel Kootz.
During a career lasting almost half a century, Bearden produced approximately two thousand works. Although best known for the collages of urban and southern scenes that he first experimented with in the mid-1960s, Bearden also completed paintings, drawings, monotypes, edition prints, public murals, record album jackets, magazine and book illustrations, and costume and set designs for theater and ballet. His work focused on religious subjects, African-American culture, jazz clubs and brothels, and history and literature. Not confining his abilities to the visual arts, Bearden also devoted attention to writing and song writing. Several of his collaborations were published as sheet music, among the most famous of which is "Seabreeze," recorded by Billy Eckstine. In addition, Bearden coauthored three full-length books: The Painter's Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting (1969) with painter Carl Holty; Six Black Masters of American Art (1972); and A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present (posthumously, 1993), the latter two with journalist Harry Henderson.
Bearden was also active in the African-American arts movement of the period, serving as art director of the Harlem Cultural Council, a founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, and organizer of exhibitions, such as the Metropolitan Museum's "Harlem on My Mind" (1968). Romare Bearden died in 1988.
Related Materials:
Within the Archives holdings are two oral history interviews with Romare Bearden. One was conducted in 1968 by Henri Ghent and another in 1980 by Avis Berman.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel N68-87) including correspondence, a scrapbook, photographs, catalogs, clippings, and writings. Except for the correspondence, loaned materials were returned to the donor and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Romare Bearden lent material for microfilming to the Archives of American Art in 1968, donating the correspondence. Bearden also gave additional papers between 1977 and 1983.
Restrictions:
The bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not digitized 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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collagists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of New York African American figurative painter Bob Thompson measure 2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 2005. The collection includes biographical material, videocassettes, correspondence, writings by Bob Thompson and others, exhibition files, scattered personal business records, printed material, photographs, and photograph albums. The correspondence is mostly between Carol Thompson, the artist's wife, and others concerning Bob Thompson's artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York African American figurative painter Bob Thompson measure 2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 2005. The collection includes biographical material, videocassettes, correspondence, writings by Bob Thompson and others, exhibition files, scattered personal business records, printed material, photographs, and photograph albums. The correspondence is mostly between Carol Thompson, the artist's wife, and others concerning Bob Thompson's artwork.
Biographical material includes certificates, school memorabilia, biographical chronologies, a memorial program and obituaries, and a transcript of "Bob Thompson: His Life and Friendships" panel discussion with several notable artists commenting on Thompson. There is also a video recording copy of a 1965 film by Dorothy Levitt Beskind titled Bob Thompson Happening which was made to accompany a 1999 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art.
Carol Thompson's correspondence is with various galleries, dealers, and friends primarily concerning Bob Thompson's artwork and posthumous exhibitions. There is correspondence with art historian Judith Wilson, the artist's mother Bessie Thompson, David Anderson Gallery, and Donald Morris Gallery.
Writings by Bob Thompson include church speeches, a letter to the editor of Louisville Courier Journal, a poem, and an artist statement. There are also writings about Thompson by others, including his mother Bessie Thompson, wife Carol Thompson, and artists and friends, including Margaret Bridwell, Dario Covi, Carl Crodel, Emilio Cruz, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, Mary H. Martin, Mary Spencer May, Carter Ratcliff, Meyer Schapiro, A. B. Spellman, Ulfert Wilke, and Ken Young. The writings by friends are mostly in the form of recollections by friends that were gathered as a memorial tribute to Thompson.
Exhibition files consist of material related to posthumous group and solo exhibitions of Bob Thompson's work.
The majority of the personal business records are posthumous and include inventories, loan and consignment forms, sales and appraisal records, and scattered correspondence.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs, magazine and newspaper clippings about Bob Thompson, blank postcards of artwork, posters, and press releases.
There are photographs of Bob Thompson, family, and friends, including many artists, shot in various locations in New York City and Provincetown, as well as in Spain, France, and Italy. There are images of Thompson's Rivington Street studio, the Billiard Palace and the Slugs Jazz Club in New York City, exhibitions, events, street scenes, and artwork. There are four photographs albums, one of the Thompson's wedding, two of exhibitions (one is disbound), and one personal album with many photographs of friends and family, including the artist's mother Bessie Thompson and wife Carol Thompson.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1953-2003 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Carol Thompson's Correspondence, 1971-2000 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, 1949-1998 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1978-2001 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1965-2001 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1960-2005 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 4, OV 5)
Series 7: Photographs, 1951-2000 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 2-4)
Biographical / Historical:
Bob Thompson (1937-1966) was an African American figurative painter who worked primarily in New York City.
Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937. He attended Boston University as a pre-med student, but quit the program and returned to Kentucky to attend the University of Louisville and study painting under German expressionist artist Ulfert Wilke. As a student, he spent a summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts and immersed himself in the art communities there. In 1958, Thompson moved to New York City and reunited with several artists he had met in Provincetown and participated in some of the earliest "happenings," somewhat informal art events or gatherings usually involving performance art and music, in 1960. He became a regular at the jazz clubs The Five Spot and Slugs and became friends with several jazz musicians. Many of Thompson's paintings reflect his interest in jazz. He also formed friendships with writers Allen Ginsberg and LeRoi Jones. In 1960, he had his first solo exhibition at the Delancy Street Museum.
The same year as his first solo exhibition, Thompson married Carol Plenda and the couple lived in Paris from 1961-1962 after he received a Whitney Foundation fellowship. They lived in Ibiza, Spain the following year. Thompson painted prolifically while abroad, and when he returned to New York City in 1963, he brought many paintings with him. He quickly found representation by Martha Jackson Gallery and the gallery featured Thompson's work in solo exhibitions in 1963-1965. His reputation grew and more exhibitions across the country followed.
In late 1965, Thompson and his wife traveled to Rome, Italy, where he continued to study art and paint. Thompson died in Rome in 1966 at the age of 28 from a drug overdose not long after receiving gall bladder surgery.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Elaine Plenda, the artist's sister-in-law, in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of video recording requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
"Bob Thompson Happening" (1965) video: Permission to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Joanne Elkin. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009 -- Photographs Search this
Extent:
4.5 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Photographs
Transcripts
Place:
Massachusetts -- Boston
Date:
1945-1985
Summary:
The papers of New York photographer and filmmaker Hans Namuth measure 4.5 linear feet and date from 1945 to 1985. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs taken by Namuth of New York artists. Also included are papers regarding Namuth's film about Alfred Stieglitz and other professional files.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York photographer and filmmaker Hans Namuth measure 4.5 linear feet and date from 1945 to 1985. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs taken by Namuth of New York artists. Also included are papers regarding Namuth's film about Alfred Stieglitz and other professional files.
The first series contains materials related to the planning and production of Namuth's film Alfred Stieglitz, Photographer. Documentation includes articles, correspondence, exhibition materials, grant program request sheets, magazines and catalogs, photo requests, photographs and photographic materials, notes and research, shot lists, script drafts and fragments, interview transcripts, and correspondence. Interviewees include Ansel Adams, Arnold Newman, Aaron Copland, Dorothy Norman, and others.
The second series contains various writings and papers relating to Namuth's professional activities, including Namuth's exhibition at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, business and financial records, papers on The Construction of Boston by Kennth Koch, correspondence, a notebook, and various printed materials. Namuth's correspondence is with James Boynton, Bernard Karpel, the Museum of Modern Art, Cynthia Navaretta, Elizabeth Shaw, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Yale University School of Art and Architecture.
Photographs taken by Hans Namuth depict prominent American (primarily New York-based) artists, architects, writers, musicians, and art critics. Artists are shown in their studios or homes, either at work or posing for the camera, and include Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Willem de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Lee Krasner, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, and Andrew Wyeth, among many others. Photographs of other individuals include Marcel Breuer, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Buckminster Fuller, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and others. Also found are photographs of exhibitions, openings, and art-related events from the 1950s and 1960s, such as a traveling Picasso exhibit and a Robert Rauschenberg opening at the Jewish Museum. Most photographs are black and white, but a few color prints are included.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 3 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Alfred Stieglitz Film Project, 1945-circa 1981 (Box 1, OV 11; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Professional Files, 1953-1985 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Photographs, 1945-1984 (Box 2-10; 3.4 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Hans Namuth (1915-1990) was a German-American photographer and filmmaker who lived and worked in New York. He was primarily known for his work photographing prominent American artists in the 1950s and 1960s.
Namuth was born in Germany but left for France in 1933 after the rise of the Nazi Party. While in France, he struck up a friendship with fellow German Georg Reisner. From 1935 to 1939, Namuth and Reisner worked together as photographers primarily in Paris. His first works to catch the public's attention came from an assignment in Barcelona that accidentally coincided with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Following a short internment in Nazi-occupied France, Namuth left for the United States.
After taking photography classes with Alexey Brodovitch, art director of Harper's Bazaar, Namuth met Jackson Pollock at an exhibition in 1950 and asked to photograph the artist at work. His subsequent photographs of Pollock raised both artists' profiles. Namuth would spend the next three decades photographing major New York artists, architects, and art-related events for commission and for his own studio. He directed a number of films in collaboration with Paul Falkenberg and published several books of photographs. Namuth died in Long Island in 1990.
Related Materials:
Also at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Hans Namuth, Aug. 12-Sept. 8, 1971. Additional Hans Namuth papers are located at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona.
Provenance:
The collection was donated 1972-1985 by Hans Namuth.
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.
Rights:
All Photographs by Hans Namuth: All requests for image reproductions are to be sent to: Assistant Registrar for Rights & Reproductions; Center for Creative Photography. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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 critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Musicians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Photographs
Transcripts
Citation:
Hans Namuth photographs and papers, 1945-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of New York City photographer, conceptual artist, and musical composer Cosmos Sarchiapone measure 49.2 linear feet and 0.367 GB and date from circa 1860-2011, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1940-2011. The collection includes biographical material and personal business records; correspondence; extensive writings, including written and recorded music compositions; teaching files; printed material and published sound and video recordings; photographic material; artwork; artifacts; and unpublished sound recordings and born-digital material. Highlights of the collection are more than 40,000 photographic images documenting New York's avant-garde art scene of the 1970s, along with celebrity parties, concerts, exhibition openings and other occasions in the art, music, and theater world. Extensive and somewhat rare printed materials offer users a visual chronical of the downtown art world in the form of posters from the 1970s, including a number of Milton Glaser's, and hundreds of exhibition announcements, theater programs, and playbills.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York City photographer, conceptual artist, and musical composer Cosmos Sarchiapone measure 49.2 linear feet and 0.367 GB and date from circa 1860-2011, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1940-2011. The collection includes biographical material and personal business records; correspondence; extensive writings, including written and recorded music compositions; teaching files; printed material and published sound and video recordings; photographic material; artwork; artifacts; and unpublished sound recordings and born-digital material. Highlights of the collection are more than 40,000 photographic images documenting New York's avant-garde art scene of the 1970s, along with celebrity parties, concerts, exhibition openings and other occasions in the art, music, and theater world. Extensive and somewhat rare printed materials offer users a visual chronical of the downtown art world in the form of posters from the 1970s, including a number of Milton Glaser's, and hundreds of exhibition announcements, theater programs, and playbills.
Biographical material and personal business records include address books, calendars, legal paperwork, life documents, resumes, and other material. Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature. Personal correspondence is between Cosmos and friends, family, and pen pals. Professional correspondence is with curators, publishers, and estates and mostly concerns Cosmos's artwork, photographs, or objects he lent for exhibition or publication.
Writings include general writings and notes, including a book layout for a book never realized; fifteen notebooks containing Cosmos's writings about projects, dreams, and miscellany; music compositions in both written form and on sound recordings; and scattered writings by others, including manuscripts and theater scripts.
Teaching files document photography courses taught by Cosmos at the School of Visual Arts in 1974-1976, and the Parsons School of Design in 1980.
Printed materials and commercially published sound and video recordings in the collection are extensive and reflect Cosmos's unique interests and inspirations, and his tendency to save and collect material discarded or rejected by others. There are books and periodicals featuring Cosmos's work, annotated by Cosmos, or of special significance to Cosmos. There is also a list of books in Cosmos's library. Some of the periodicals concern Push Pin Studios and Milton Glaser. There is a large group of ephemera, such as announcements, catalogs, press releases, programs, playbills, posters, and assorted items covering several decades of New York exhibitions, events, concerts, and performances. There are posters for exhibitions, events, performances, film screenings, and concerts. Some of the clippings and other ephemera may have been removed from scrapbooks or other compilations, and some remain collated and mounted on mat board. Some of the printed materials may have been used by Cosmos as source materials.
Photographic material makes up a significant portion of the collection (14.5 linear feet), and illustrates the breadth of Cosmos's documentation of New York City, capturing the avant-garde art and theater worlds, the people and streets, self-portraits, and numerous other subjects. There are images of named people and people at parties, of exhibitions and performances, of New York City streets and buildings, of a more personal and family nature, of artwork, and of miscellaneous subjects. There are also collected photographs, some of which are vintage. There is a large group of unidentified and unsorted negatives, slides, and contact sheets. Where they existed, labeling and descriptive notes have been preserved with the unidentified materials.
Artwork is also quite extensive (10.5 linear feet) and found in a variety of genre, format, and media. There is also a small subseries of artwork by others. One group of artwork consists of titled or named art projects and series, often executed in the form of series that spanned decades. This group includes Cosmos's Reciprocal project that incorporated his photographic work. For this project, he would photograph notable figures, including John Cage, Robert Scull, and others, and ask them to photograph him. There are also several folders of Cosmos's work focusing on photographer Diane Arbus.
A group of artwork identified as "compilations" consist primarily of photocopies of compiled presentations of documents, photographs, fragments, writings, drawings, printed materials and ephemera, and bits and pieces of Cosmos's titled work. These compilations were prepared by Cosmos for individuals in the art world to whom he was close. The original compilations were then photocopied and presented to the intended receiver. The subseries of compilations contains both originals and photocopied versions that do not always correlate with one another. Also found among the artwork are drawings, illustrations, a few paintings, collages, and sketchbooks by Cosmos. Artwork by others includes an artist book, drawings, a sketchbook, and prints by Milton Glaser, Alex Hay, Douglas Huebler, Marvin Israel, Ray Johnson, Ellsworth Kelly, and Eve Sonneman.
Found within the collection are three dimensional artifacts, including eight cameras and other items Cosmos saved and collected to incorporate into his photographs.
There is a large series of unpublished sound recordings and born-digital material, some of which is clearly identified and labeled, and some of which is unidentified. When known, labeling has been incorporated into the folder titles in the container inventory. Users should note that sound recordings that were clearly identified and associated with other projects were arranged in context with those related materials.
Printed material (series 5), photographic material (series 6), and artwork (series 7), include many photocopies. Cosmos used the photocopy process to make copies of his work to share with others, and as a creative form of art in itself, experimenting with tonality, collage, and the degeneration of images from repeated copying. Photocopies were also made of articles, newspapers, and various source material and ephemera that he collected. Many photocopies have descriptive labeling on the back. For some photographs and projects, photocopies are the only form of documentation located in the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material and Personal Business Records, circa 1949-2011 (1 linear foot; Box 1, 44, OV 49)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1940s-2011 (.7 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1947-2000s (4.2 linear feet; Box 2-6, 44, OV 50-51)
Series 4: Teaching Files, 1970s-1980s (1.9 linear feet; Box 6-8, 44, OV 52)
Series 5: Printed Material, Published Sound, Video Recordings, 1894-2000s (8.3 linear feet; Box 8-13, 44-45, OV 53-73, RD 105)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1860-2000s, bulk 1970-2010 (14.5 linear feet; Box 14-26, 46-47, OV 74-80)
Series 7: Artwork, 1947-2000s (10.5 linear feet; Box 27-34, 47-48, OV 81-104)
Series 8: Artifacts, 1960s-2000s (1.5 linear feet; Box 34-35)
Series 9: Sound Recordings and Born-Digital Material, 1950s-2000s (6.6 linear feet; Box 36-43, 0.367 GB; ER01-ER02)
Biographical / Historical:
Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone (1931-2011) was a documentary photographer, musical composer, and conceptual artist who worked in New York City.
Cosmos Andrew Sarchiapone was named Cosime Sarchiapone at birth, and was also known as Cosmos, Cosmos Savage, and Richard Savage. His parents, Lois and Aldo, had seven children, including twins Cosmos and Damian. Born in Manhattan, Cosmos graduated from the La Guardia High School of Music and Art in New York City in 1948 and from Syracuse University in 1958 with a concentration in music composition and studio art. After college, he studied musical composition with John Cage at the New School in 1961, art history with Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University from 1963-1965, illustration with Marvin Israel from 1966-1971, design with Milton Glaser from 1968-1973, and photography with Diane Arbus from 1970-1971. He taught photography at the School of Visual Arts from 1974-1976, and at Parsons School of Design in 1980. In the early 1970s, he led experimental theater workshops at Columbia-Barnard University.
Between 1968-1969, Cosmos worked with Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast at their Push Pin Studios, a graphic design and illustration studio.
Sometime between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Cosmos began photographing New York City, capturing the art and theater worlds, the people and streets, self-portraits, and numerous other subjects. As a freelance photographer for New York magazine (founded by Milton Glaser) and other mass-market publications, Cosmos photographed Andy Warhol and his circle, Halloween parties at the Waldorf, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon convention, the Jesus Joy Jubilee at Carnegie Hall, the Beat Poets' reunion and private parties attended by Hollywood actors and directors, often capturing the overlapping worlds of art, movies and music. Cosmos's photographs have been published in numerous books and publications. His work was featured in several exhibitions in the 1970s, including shows at the Jamie Gallery, the Fine Arts Building, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. But he created the bulk of his work for himself and much of it remains unpublished.
Throughout the 1970s, Cosmos documented the avant-garde art scene in New York City. He captured performances at The Kitchen and La Mama, the offices of New York magazine and Push Pin Studios, Tom O'Horgan's Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and much more. He photographed performances and installations at 112 Greene Street in SoHo, an interdisciplinary art space that nurtured the experiments of a number of now significant American artists, dancers and musicians, including Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, Suzanne Harris and Phillip Glass, all of whom were photographed by Cosmos. He also photographed numerous images of 112 Greene Street's sister space, Matta-Clark's FOOD, an artist-run eatery at the corner of Prince and Wooster Streets where exotic meals were offered up as both performance art and nourishment. Cosmos used his camera as a way to get close to artists he admired, including Diane Arbus, Milton Glaser, and Marvin Israel.
According to Milton Glaser, "Cosmos was a brilliant photographer who was never without a camera….He was always everywhere. In terms of documentation of that period, there was no one like him."
Cosmos often incorporated aspects of his photography into conceptual art pieces, including two serial works that Cosmos made from fragments of Diane Arbus' discarded photographs, transforming her iconic work. Many of Cosmos's conceptual art pieces often took the form of a series, and were continuously revisited. In Reciprocal, Cosmos photographed figures—including those he admired like John Cage, Meyer Schapiro, Robert Scull, and others—then asked each to photograph him. Many of Cosmos's art projects were based in photographic documentation of his "performances", as in Sheet Music, where he is seen tearing a white sheet outside Bloomingdale's during the 'white sale.' Cosmos's convictions about smoking, its hazards, and the nefarious actions of tobacco companies led to several related projects, among them, Photo Arrest, where Cosmos captured on camera people smoking illegally in hospitals, classrooms, grocery stores, and elevators.
Cosmos created scores for plays and dance performances, including Churchyard by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1970, and numerous Off-Off Broadway theater productions in the 1960s. He wrote an opera, Vox Humana #3. The opera is about three heroines of history: Antigone, Joan of Arc, and Patty Hearst, and synthesizes a variety of media, including music composition, stage direction, and video (Patty Hearst in Chains), into a four hour performance that was staged at La Mama in 1976 and The Kitchen in 1977.
Cosmos lived at Westbeth Artists' Community from 1970-2011, but had largely withdrawn from the world by the 2000s. Cosmos Sarchiapone died in 2011.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2015 by Tom Sarchiapone, Cosmos Sarchiapone's brother, via Catherine Morris, curator and friend of Cosmos.
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.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate 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:
Composers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Conceptual artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
0.8 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 1 reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1892-1937
Scope and Contents:
Printed material; art works; and portrait sketches.
REEL 4386: 226 portrait sketches and caricatures, 1919-1937, of members of the Dutch Treat Club, Walker's friends, notable artists, musicians, actors, politicians, and writers of the day. Sketches are signed by the sitters.
UNMICROFILMED: Proofs, offprints, clippings of cartoons, and illustrations made primarily for LIFE magazine; and two pen and ink drawings, 1892.
Biographical / Historical:
Cartoonist, illustrator; New York, N.Y. His professional career was as a hospital administrator. Contributed political and satirical cartoons to LIFE, HARPER'S, NEW YORK EVENING POST, and NEW YORK HERALD. He was the first to use the lithographer's crayon for cartoons.
Provenance:
Material on reel 4386 lent for microfilming and unmicrofilmed materials donated, 1989 by Walker's daughter-in-law, Alice Smith (Mrs. Robert Miller) Walker. Her husband had collected and annotated his father's papers.
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.
Occupation:
Caricaturists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Cartoonists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Graphic artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Nell Blaine conducted 1967 June 15, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art.
Blaine speaks of her family background; her competitive spirit; commercial art; becoming a "disciple" of Hans Hofmann; Hofmann as a teacher; the influence of Arp, Helion, Leger and Mondrian; the American Abstract Artists group; the Jane Street Gallery; jazz musicians; painting in Paris, Italy, Mexico, Greece, England, and elsewhere; her paralysis caused by polio; design work with Alvin H. Ross; her interest in color and light; landscape and figurative paintings; and the contemporary art scene. She recalls Leland Bell, Worden Day, Jane and Jack Freilicher, Wolf Kahn, Albert Kresch, Larry Rivers, Hyde Solomon, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Nell Blaine (1922-1996) was a painter in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr.
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.
Occupation:
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The records of the New York City gallery Thread Waxing Space measure 36.7 linear feet and 3.86 GB and date from 1980s-2001 (bulk 1991-2001). Exhibitions and events held at the gallery are documented through correspondence, artists' bios, printed and digital materials, shipping records, photographic materials, audiovisual materials, and other administrative records. Also found are a handful of artist research files, clippings, and press books.
Scope and Contents note:
The records of the New York City gallery Thread Waxing Space measure 36.7 linear feet and 3.86 GB and date from 1980s-2001 (bulk 1991-2001). Exhibitions and events held at the gallery are documented through correspondence, artists' bios, printed and digital materials, shipping records, photographic materials, audiovisual materials, and other administrative records. Also found are a handful of artist research files, clippings, and press books.
Program Files provide a nearly comprehensive documentation of the exhibitions, performances, lectures and other programs held at Thread Waxing Space. Materials include correspondence, contracts, administrative records, printed materials, photographic materials, audiovisual materials, and scattered electronic records.
Research Files include a handful of folders containing materials related to artists, such as resumes, biographies, printed and digital materials, clippings, and scattered correspondence. Press books containing photocopied newspaper and magazine articles, scattered clippings and scattered printed materials are found in Press Files. Audiovisual Materials contain sound and video recordings presumably of artists found in the Program Files series.
Exhibitions and performances for which there is considerable documentation in the collection include Post-IZUM Moods Music Series (1993), "Don't Look Now" (1994) curated by Joshua Decter, "Garbage!" (1995), "Beyond Ars Medica: Treasures from the Mutter Museum" (1995-1996), "European Comics: Another Image" (1997), "Celluloid Cave" (1997), "Ascent of Western Civilization: American Independent Rock, 1976-1991" (1997), "Jump Cut (Faust)" (1997), "Sanctuary: A Spiritual Music Festival" (1998), "Conceptual Art as Neurobiological Praxis" (1999), "Foul Play" (1999), and "Mr. Fascination" (1999-2000); and traveling exhibitions "Archigram: Experimental Architecture 1961-1974" (1998-1999), "Spectacular Optical" (1998-1999), "After the Gold Rush" (1999), and "Achieving Failure: Gym Culture 2000" (2000).
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged as 4 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Files, 1980s-2001 (Boxes 1-38; 35.7 linear feet, ER01-ER16; 3.86 GB)
Series 2: Research Files, 1993-2000 (Box 35; 8 folders)
Series 3: Press Files, 1991-circa 2001 (Boxes 35, 38; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Audiovisual Materials, 1989-1993, undated (Boxes 35-36; 0.6 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
Founded by Tim Nye, Thread Waxing Space opened in September 1991 on the second floor of 476 Broadway in New York City. Named after the building's previous occupants -- a factory which produced waxed thread -- the non-profit gallery and performance space explored the interdisciplinary nature of the arts and expanded the boundaries of a traditional gallery through diverse programming.
Thread Waxing Space had multiple exhibition spaces, including the main gallery where the gallery's curators and independent curators organized solo and group exhibitions of contemporary artists working in all types of mediums; the Project Room, a space typically showing works of emerging or under-represented artists; and the Kitchenette, showing works by video artists. In addition to solo and group exhibitions, dance performances, readings, musical events, film screening, lectures, discussion panels, benefits, and arts education programs for students were all frequently held at Thread Waxing Space.
Exhibitions in the main gallery and the Project Room typically ran concurrently for 4-6 weeks. One of the more prominent exhibits held at Thread Waxing Space was "Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches," an exhibit of artworks by musician and songwriter Beck and his grandfather, Fluxus artist Al Hansen. Other artists with solo exhibitions at Thread Waxing Space include Leonardo Drew and Virgil Marti. Thread Waxing Space closed in 2001.
Provenance:
The Thread Waxing Space records were donated in 2008 by Thread Waxing Space founder Tim Nye.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings and electronic records 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.
An interview with Doug Aitken conducted 2017 July 22 and 24, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art, at Aitken's home in Venice Beach, California.
Mr. Aitken discusses growing up and his early schooling in Palos Verdes, California, and his first introductions to making art at a young age; his parents intellectual curiosity and his early visits with them to museums in the Los Angeles area; the family's many travels to the Southwest, Latin America and Europe, as well as his subsequent travels hitchhiking alone as a teenager; the impact of his high school art teacher Chizuko de Queiroz; his time as a young teenager exploring the new wave and punk rock scenes in the Los Angeles area; his time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and the mentorship there of the illustrator and artist Phil Hays; his focus on photography and illustration and his work for the magazine Ray Gun in the '90s; his decision to move to New York City after graduating from Art Center and his first artist studio residence there with Lawrence Carroll; his almost monastic life at first in New York City working on art with very little social interaction; his first ideas for an artwork using moving image and his first use of film and video; the impact of the concept of "timecode" from video editing and its application as a construct with which to perceive time and consciousness; and his early art exhibitions in non-commercial spaces with the AC Project Room group in New York. Mr. Aitken also describes his multimedia work Diamond Sea and the filming for it in Namibia; his first commercial art gallery shows at 303 Gallery in New York City; his current MOCA retrospective Electric Earth; his piece Song 1 and the inspiration for it; the ideas behind the performance and exhibition series Station to Station that was realized on trains and train stations with the help of many fellow artists and his studio assistants; his mirrored architectural work Mirage in Palm Springs; the mirrored ocean environmental works Underwater Pavilions; the appeal of the ocean and the story of his drowning and near-death experience; the ideas behind his work Migration using animals and anonymous American hotel rooms; his multiscreen film Eraser shot on the island of Montserrat after the volcanic devastation there; the impact of the work of the musician Terry Riley on his art and their subsequent friendship and collaboration; his romantic relationships; the work done building his current house in Venice, California, and his incorporation of sonic elements and visual interplay in the house's construction; his many conversations with artist friends and colleagues and the subsequent use of them in his book Broken Screen; and the recent work Twilight using abandoned telephone booths as inspiration. Mr. Aitken also recalls Jorge Prado, Mike Kelley, Stephen Prina, Keith Edmier, Matthew Barney, Paul Bloodgood, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Spike Jonze, Philippe Vergne, Harald Szeemann, Francesco Bonami, Okwui Enwezor, as well as Tilda Swinton, John Doe, Donald Sutherland, Werner Herzog, Bruce Conner, Lisa Spellman, Ed Ruscha, Werner Herzog, Eva Presenhuber, Victoria Miro, Robert Altman, and Lars von Trier, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Interviewee Doug Aitken (1968- ) is a multimedia artist based in Venice, California and New York, New York. Interviewer Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a writer in Los Angeles, California.
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.
Restrictions:
Audio: ACCESS RESTRICTED; use requires an appointment.
The papers of painter and educator Esther Rolick measure 3.7 linear feet and date from 1940 to 1985. The papers document Rolick's career through correspondence with friends and colleagues; writings, including unpublished illustrated books for children; business records; printed material and scrapbooks of clippings and exhibition catalogs; artwork including a sketchbook; photographs of artwork, travels around the world, and personal photographs; and sound recordings of interviews with prominent African American artists.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and educator Esther Rolick measure 3.7 linear feet and date from 1940 to 1985. The papers document Rolick's career through correspondence with friends and colleagues; writings, including unpublished illustrated books for children; business records; printed material and scrapbooks of clippings and exhibition catalogs; artwork including a sketchbook; photographs of artwork, travels around the world, and personal photographs; and sound recordings of interviews with prominent African American artists.
Correspondence includes personal letters from friends and letters related to Rolick's exhibitions. Some of the letters are in Spanish. Writings include poems by Rolick and two unpublished books for children, primarily of illustrations.
Personal business records and professional activity files include financial materials related to Rolick's travels around the world, statements, promissory notes, certificates, and exhibition guestbooks.
Printed material consists mainly of exhibition announcements and catalogs, with some newspaper clippings. Additional printed material can be found in Series 6: Scrapbooks.
Photographs consist primarily of personal photographs, photographs of travels to Bogota, Colombia and Palermo, Italy, and photographs of artwork. Artwork includes oversized sketches by classmates and one small sketchbook of drawings.
Of note are untranscribed interviews conducted by Rolick for her class "Black Music and Art," at Mercy College, circa 1970-1971. Interviewees include Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Jean Hutson, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff, and artists affiliated with the Cinque Gallery, Weusi Gallery, and SPIRAL artist's group.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged chronologically into eight series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1946-1985 (1.3 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 2: Writings, 1947-1971 (0.1 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 3: Personal Business Records and Professional Activity, 1968-1974 (0.2 linear feet: Box 2)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1944-1980 (0.3 linear feet: Box 2)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1940-1985 (0.6 linear feet: Box 2-3, 5)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1944-1972 (0.7 linear feet; Box 3, 5)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1944-1985 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3, 5, OV)
Series 8: Interviews 1970-1971 (0.4 linear feet; Box 3-4)
Biographical / Historical:
New York realist painter and educator Esther G. Rolick (1922-2008) taught art for two decades at Mercy College, where she helped to develop programs including a class, "Black Music and Art," for which she interviewed prominent Harlem artists and musicians.
Rolick studied at the Art Students League and had her first solo exhibition of drawings at Jacques Seligmann & Co. in 1947. She subsequently participated in exhibitions around the country and internationally in Haiti. In the 1960s she began teaching at Mercy College and helped to develop several innovative programs there. Rolick also traveled extensively and painted in places such as Bogota, Colombia and Palermo, Italy.
Provenance:
The Esther G. Rolick papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Esther Rolick in a series of installments between 1970 and 1985.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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.
Esther G. Rolick papers, 1940-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
The Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux date from 1897 to 1920 and include correspondence between Beaux and Gilder, scattered printed materials, and two photographs of Beaux with Gilder and other friends. The papers are comprised primarily of correspondence between Cecilia Beaux and her close, life-long friend and intimate companion Dorothea Gilder between 1897 and 1920. The letters recount daily activities, travels, work, social life, attitudes, and aspects of their intimate relationship.
Scope and Content Note:
The Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux date from 1897 to 1920 and include correspondence between Beaux and Gilder, scattered printed materials, a photograph of Beaux with Gilder, and a photograph of the two with other friends. The papers are comprised primarily of correspondence between Cecilia Beaux and her close, life-long friend and intimate companion Dorothea Gilder between 1897 and 1920. The letters recount daily activities, travels, work, social life, attitudes, and aspects of their intimate relationship. Also found is scattered third party correspondence. Two folders of printed materials include newspaper reviews of Beaux's 1903 exhibition, and four exhibition catalogs, several of which are not found in the papers of Cecilia Beaux. The photograph is a single snapshot of Beaux with Gilder. One additional photograph of Beaux, Gilder, and friends is found attached to a 1906 letter.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1897-1920 (Boxes 1-2; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Printed Material, 1897-1910 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Series 3: Photograph, undated (Box 2; 1 item)
Biographical Note:
Dorothea Gilder was born in 1882 to socially prominent parents Richard Watson Gilder, a poet and publisher of Century Magazine, and Helena De Kay Gilder, an artist who had studied with Albert Pinkham Ryder and John La Farge, and who helped to found the Art Students League and the Society of American Artists. Painter Cecilia Beaux enjoyed a close friendship with the New York family from the mid 1890s until the end of her life. They travelled together in France in 1896, where Beaux had gone to see her paintings hung at the Paris salon. In her memoir, Background with Figures, Beaux describes extended visits at the Gilder's summer farm in Tyringham, Massachusetts, where the Gilders set up a studio for her in a tobacco barn, in which she painted Dorothea and Francesca, a.k.a. The Dancing Lesson (1899). She also attended the Gilders' private salon in New York, frequented by prominent artists, writers, musicians, and actors including Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.
Dorothea Gilder was a favorite portrait subject of Beaux's, sitting for numerous sketches and several major paintings, including Dorothea and Francesca, Dorothea in the Woods (1897), and After the Meeting (1914). Letters between Beaux and Dorothea Gilder contain constant references to their intimite, often physical affection for one another, and suggest a romantic relationship between them. In 1911, Gilder began what was to be a brief stage career under the name of Dorothea Coleman. In 1916, she married Dallas D.L. McGrew, a New York architect who had designed Beaux's summer home in Gloucester, Massachusetts and who had recently returned from the ambulance service in France. She had a child, Helena Gilder McGrew in 1917, and died in 1920 at the age of 38.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art holds the papers of Cecilia Beaux, as well as an oral history with Rosamund Gilder, Dorothea Gilder's sister and a prominent theater critic.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Helena Newman, Dorothea Gilder's daughter, in two separate accessions in 1971 and 1978.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Biographical material, correspondence, photographs, works of art, writings, project files, a scrapbook, and printed material relating to painter, illustrator, and cartoonist, Stuyvesant Van Veen.
Biographical information includes resumes, curriculum vitae, artist statements and profiles, membership cards, certificates, and awards. Correspondence is both professional and personal, and is with art galleries, artists and the U.S. Information Agency about exhibition exchanges with the U.S.S.R. Photographs are of Van Veen, his works of art, and works of art by Frances Avery. Artwork (portions filmed on microfilm reel 2026) includes numerous sketchbooks and sketches of artists, writers, musicians, scientists, and celebrities, caricatures and finished works by Van Veen, cartoons, illustrations, posters, Christmas cards, and book jackets. Writings include diaries,1928-1955, recording Van Veen's daily activities and notes and fragments of writings by Van Veen, including "My diary in sketches for 1942" with seven entries for January 1942.
Project files include the 1939 New York World's Fair mural for Hall of Pharmacy, the mural series Memorial to Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field Apartment Houses, New York, 1963, and the New York City public school murals at PS 8, The Bronx, New York. A scrapbook contains letters, photographs, and clippings. Printed material includes 72 photographic postcards featuring murals and sculptures of the 1939 World's Fair, catalogs, exhibition announcements, clippings, and off-prints. Also included are four comic books which contain illustrations by Van Veen under the pseudonymns Joe Lozen, Jack Camden, and Lester Raye.
Biographical / Historical:
Stuyvesant Van Veen (1910-1988) was a painter, illustrator, cartoonist, and printmaker in New York, New York. Van Veen was the illustrator for "The Fairy Fleet"; literary satires, Nation and New Masses magazine, and a WPA muralist.
Related Materials:
Also in the Archives are papers that were lent for microfilming on reels 621, 922-924 that include biographical information, correspondence, sketchbooks, photographs, a scrapbook, 1927-1941, designs for book jacket, exhibition catalogs and announcements, magazine articles and comic strips, press clippings, 1926-1966, miscellaneous, and sketches (some may be completed works).
Provenance:
Donated 1964 through 1986 by Van Veen and in 2010 by the New York Artists Equity Association via Regina Stewart, who found the material in Van Veen's apartment after his death. Among the donation are papers Van Veen lent for microfilming in 1969 and 1973. "My diary in sketches for 1942" donated 2016 by art historian Christine I. Oaklander who purchased the material at auction.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Occupation:
Cartoonists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Annotated typescript of Schillinger's article "Art Continuum Classification and Definition"; an annotated typescript of excerpts from his published book, THE MATHEMATICAL BASIS OF THE ARTS, and duplicates of excerpts from the book form; notes, formulae, and designs using the formulae; magazines and newspaper clippings about Schillinger; photographs of designs and of Schillinger; notes about his theorem for composing music; unidentified photographs from a scrapbook; and a description for a course he taught at Columbia University, "A Method of Evolving Rhythmic Design."
Biographical / Historical:
Mathematician, scientist, theorist, composer, musician, teacher, and author; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
The donor, Frances Schillinger, is the widow of Joseph Schillinger.
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.
Occupation:
Mathematicians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Musicians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The scattered papers of New York sculptor Irma Rothstein measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1965. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The scattered papers of sculptor Irma Rothstein measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1965. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, and photographs.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Russian-born sculptor Irma Rothstein (1906-1971) came to the United States in 1938 after studying in Vienna, Austria, and was thereafter active in New York City, New York. Rothstein produced a wide range of busts of well-known authors, musicians, and other artists and was known for her works featuring expressive faces of women.
Provenance:
Donated 1966 by Irma Rothstein.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of arts administrator Mildred Baker measure 2.7 linear feet and date from 1882 to 1997, with the bulk of the material dating from 1923 to 1997. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and professional correspondence; writings; files related to her work on the WPA Federal Art Project and other institutional art projects; printed material; photographs of Baker; and photographs and papers related to the work of her husband, Jacob Baker, who also administered programs for the WPA.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of arts administrator Mildred Baker measure 2.7 linear feet and date from 1882 to 1997, with the bulk of the material dating from 1923 to 1997. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and professional correspondence; writings; files related to her work on the WPA Federal Art Project and other institutional art projects; printed material; photographs of Baker; and photographs and papers related to the work of her husband, Jacob Baker, who also administered programs for the WPA.
Biographical materials include birth and award certificates, curriculum vitae, divorce documents, an oral history transcript, and genealogical research and information on Baker's family, including her brother, the composer and bassoonist Adolph Weiss.
Correspondence is primarily with Baker's friends, business associates, researchers, and art institutions discussing personal relationships, research inquiries into the administration of the Federal Art Project, and loans and gifts of artwork to various institutions. The series includes Baker's responses to researcher requests regarding FAP exhibitions, programs, artists, and recollections of her fellow administrators.
Writings by Baker consist of reminiscences, 8 travel diaries, 3 essays, an exhibition catalog introduction, 4 lectures, and miscellaneous notes. Writings by others consist of 4 essays on contemporary art and art administration.
Federal Art Project files include correspondence; artist and exhibition lists; memoranda and general information; reports; speeches; information and photographs related to regional art centers and black artists; printed material; and miscellaneous material related to the Index of American Design, Southern California Art Project, and the Technical Services Laboratory.
General project files include information for 4 exhibitions, including the 1934 First Municipal Art and Salon of America Exhibitions; reports and speeches for the Newark Museum; information on the commissioning of the New Jersey Council on the Arts; and member information from the Woman Pays Club.
Printed material includes clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, newsletters, press releases, and a commercial recording of Alice Tully Hall.
Photographs are of Mildred Baker, including photos during her tenure at the Federal Art Project and Newark Museum. There is also a photograph of fellow FAP administrator Audrey McMahon.
Materials related to Jacob Baker include interview recordings and transcripts; personal correspondence with friends and business associates; writings and speeches; information related to Baker's work for the United Federal Workers of America; printed materials; and photographs of Baker.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1882, 1934-1990 (7 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1937-1997 (0.4 linear feet, Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1940-1985 (17 folders; Box 1)
Series 4: Federal Art Project, WPA, circa 1934-1953 (0.8 linear feet, Box 1-2)
Series 5: Project Files, 1934-1991 (0.4 linear feet, Box 2)
Series 6: General Printed Material, 1923-1996 (11 folders; Box 2-4)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1934-1992 (2 folders; Box 3)
Series 8: Jacob Baker, 1930-1975 (0.3 linear feet; Box 3-4)
Biographical / Historical:
Mildred Baker (1905-1998) was an arts administrator who worked in New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C.
Baker was born in Brooklyn, New York to composer and musician George Weiss and his wife Sophia Soennichsen, whose family were also musicians and writers. In 1925, while enrolled at the University of Rochester, she married the artist Ernest Holzhauer and together they moved to Europe for study and travel. In 1927, they returned to New York where Baker began working in administrative positions for the Van Diemen Galleries and the College Art Association. In 1934, she was hired by Holger Cahill to assist him in organizing Rockefeller Center's Salons of America Exhibition and First Municipal Art Exhibition. After the success of these shows, in 1935, Baker was hired as Cahill's assistant after he was selected to run the Federal Art Project for the Work Projects Administration in Washington, D.C.
While working for the Federal Art Project, Baker was appointed director of exhibitions and surveyed the work of over 100 art centers, organized over 500 traveling exhibitions, and managed the final allocation of artworks created for the FAP. In 1940, Baker divorced Mr. Holzhauer and married Jacob Baker, an economist and WPA administrator, union organizer, and a founder of the left-wing Vanguard Press, in 1947. After overseeing the closing of the Federal Art Project offices in Washington, Baker and her husband moved back to New York and became longtime residents of the Chelsea Hotel. Baker joined the staff of the Newark Museum in 1944, was promoted to assistant director in 1949, and to associate director in charge of exhibitions and programs from 1953 until her retirement in 1971.
In 1963, Baker was appointed by Governor Richard Hughes to the Commission to Study the Arts in New Jersey, and while serving as vice chairman, she oversaw the establishment of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club, Women's City Club, Woman Pays Club, and American Association of Museums. Baker died on December 9, 1998.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds several collections related to Mildred Baker and the WPA Federal Art Project. There are two oral histories with Mildred Baker, one conducted by Harlan Phillips, September 21, 1963 and another by William Agee, July 22, 1965. There is also an oral history with Jacob Baker conducted by Harlan Phillips, September 25, 1963. Transcripts of the interviews conducted by Harlan Phillips are found within the collection. Collections related to the Federal Art Project include the Federal Art Project of the Work Projects Administration records and the Holger Cahill papers.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reel D110 including exhibition catalogs and clippings. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Mildred Baker donated her papers in several increments between 1971 and 1993. In 1999, the bulk of her papers were donated to the archives by Baker's estate executor, Patricia Haskell, some of which included materials that had been loaned for microfilming in 1963.
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:
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Wright, Louis T. (Louis Tompkins), 1891-1952 Search this
Extent:
0.9 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1924-1980
Summary:
The scattered papers of African American and Harlem Renaissance painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and educator Charles Henry Alston measure 0.9 linear feet and date from 1924-1980. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, commission and teaching files, writings and notes, printed materials, and photographs. Notable correspondents include Romare Bearden, Byron Browne, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered papers of African American and Harlem Renaissance painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and educator Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) measure 0.9 linear feet and date from 1924-1980. The bulk of the collection documents his personal and professional relationships with figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Researchers should note that this collection contains very little documentation on Alston's actual federal WPA work with the Harlem Art Workshop, the Harlem Artists Guild, or his Harlem Hospital murals completed in 1940. A photograph of Alston in 1937 is likely the only reference to the actual WPA murals in this collection.
Scattered correspondence includes general correspondence; letters concerning Alston's artistic endeavors; and personal letters from friends and family. Found is a copy of a thank you note from Eudora Welty to John Woodburn for a jacket design presumably by Alston; letters from Harlem Renaissance figures and personal friends Romare Bearden, Byron Brown, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.
Commission files are for Alston's murals including those in the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building in Los Angeles, California (1947); and the addition to the Harlem Hospital (1965); and the Family and Criminal Courts Building in the Bronx, New York (1976). There is one file concerning teaching at City College New York (CUNY).
Writings and notes includes scattered notes and three short stories probably by Alston entitled "Bitsy O'Wire," "Body and Soul," and "Gigi."
Printed materials include illustrations by Alston in the Columbia University literary magazine, The Morningside, and medical illustrations done for Dr. Louis T. Wright. Also found are scattered clippings, exhibition announcements, press releases, and materials from the First Conference on Aesthetic Responsibility.
Photographs are of Alston, Alston with his wife, Myra Logan, his mother Anna Alston Bearden, Romare Bearden, and Hale Woodruff. Photographs of note include one of Alston holding a self-portrait, and one of the artist in 1937 with works that are most likely preliminary sketches of his WPA murals at Harlem Hospital. There are also photographs of Alston's works of art.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Information, 1924-1977 (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1931-1977(Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 3: Commission and Teaching Files, 1947-1976 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, circa 1940s-1970s (Box 2-3; 4 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1928, 1946-1980(Box 2-3; 5 folders)
Series 6: Photographs, 1925-1968 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Biographical Note:
Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) worked primarily in New York city as a painter, muralist, illustrator, and educator. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance movement in the 1930s and helped form the Harlem Art Workshop and the Harlem Artists Guild.
Charles Henry "Spinky" Alston was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 28th, 1907. His parents were the Reverend Primus Priss and Anna Miller. After the death of his father, Alston's mother married Henry Pierce Bearden (Romare Bearden's uncle) in 1913 and the family moved to New York City.
At DeWitt Clinton High School in New York, Alston served as art editor of the school's literary magazine. Alston majored in fine arts and history at Columbia University, graduating in 1929. He became active in the Harlem community and accepted a position as director of Utopia House, a boy's camp, where he started an art program. He returned to Columbia and recieved a Masters degree in art education from Columbia's Teachers College. While still a student, he illustrated album covers for jazz musician Duke Ellington and book covers for poet Langston Hughes.
Alston played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance Movement of the period. During the Great Depression, he and sculptor Henry Bannarn directed the Harlem Art Workshop which was funded by the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. There he taught and mentored African American painter Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, among others.
In the 1950s, Alston embarked on a series of portraits of African American figures. He also taught at the Art Students League and later with the City College of New York (CUNY). Along with his wife, Myra Logan, a surgeon at Harlem Hospital, Alston lived in Harlem and remained an active member of the community until the end of his life. Charles Alston died in 1977.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Charles Henry Alston, one conducted by Harlan Phillips on September 28, 1965 and another by Al Murray on October 19, 1968.
Additional Charles Henry Alston papers are located at the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.
Separated Material:
In 1970, Charles Alston loaned materials for microfilming, including correspondence with Henry Epstein, Langston Hughes, Robert Riggs, Harry Sternberg, J. Johnson Sweeney, Hale Woodruff and others. Also loaned for microfilming were sketchbooks, printed materials, and photographs. Subsequently, some of the photographs were later donated by Alston's sisters. The loaned materials are available only on microfilm reel N70-23 at Archives of American Art offices, and through interlibrary loan. These materials are not included in the container listing of this finding aid.
Provenance:
Charles Alston lent portions of the collection for microfilming in 1970. Aida Winters and Rousmaniere Alston Wilson, Charles Alston's sisters, donated additional materials to the Archives of American Art in 1982 and 1984.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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:
Mel Casas papers, 1963-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing and digitization of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Additional funding for the digitization of the papers was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
The letters of Paul Cadmus to Webster Aitken measure 0.02 linear feet and date from 1945-1979. Found within the collection are letters, notes, and postcards from Cadmus to Aitken regarding music, composers, musicians, mutual friends, Cadmus's sister and brother-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Kirstein, travels, and Cadmus's work, art processes, and personal reflections on life events.
Scope and Contents:
The letters of Paul Cadmus to Webster Aitken measure 0.02 linear feet and date from 1945-1979. Found within the collection are 49 letters, notes, and postcards from Cadmus to Aitken regarding classical music, composers, musicians, mutual friends, Cadmus's sister and brother-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Kirstein, travels, and Cadmus's work, art processes, and personal reflections on life events.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 1 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Paul Cadmus Letters to Webster Aitken, 1945-1979 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) lived and worked in New York, N.Y. and Weston, Connecticut and was known for realist works of New York public life and the social lives of men. Cadmus was born in New York City to lithographer and watercolorist Egbert Cadmus and his wife, Maria Latasa, a fellow artist and book illustrator. With the support of his family, Cadmus entered the National Academy of Design at the age of 15 where he excelled in life drawing and printmaking classes. After graduating from the Academy in 1926, he continued his studies at the Art Students League where he met fellow artists Jared French and George Tooker. Throughout the 1920s, Cadmus found work as a commercial illustrator and layout artist for various agencies, including the New York Herald-Tribune.
In 1933, after two years of travel through France and Spain with Jared French, Cadmus returned to New York and was one of the first artists to be accepted into the federal Public Works of Art Project. Throughout the 1930s, his depictions of sailors and New Yorkers in public life were seen as controversial, beginning with the 1934 ejection of his painting The Fleet's In! from the Corcoran Gallery and continuing into 1940 with objections to the showing of Sailors and Floozies at the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition. Cadmus met his partner Jon Anderson in 1964 and featured him as a model for many of his subsequent works. Cadmus was a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and died in his home in 1999.
Pianist and educator Webster Aitken (1908-1981) lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A student of Emil Sauer and Artur Schnabel, Aitken studied at the Curtis Institute and had his recital debut in Vienna in 1929 and his American debut in New York's Town Hall in 1935. He is known for his 1938 London and New York performances of Schubert's sonatas, and a series of programs on the late works of Beethoven performed at American universities. Aitken taught at the Carnegie Institute, the University of Illinois, and the University of Texas. He died in his home in 1981.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are the Paul Cadmus letters to Edgar Munhall and an oral history interview with Paul Cadmus conducted by Judd Tully, March 22, 1988. The University of Texas at Austin holds the Webster Aitken Collection, 1899-1985.
Provenance:
The letters were donated in 1981 by Cadmus' long-time friend and Aitken's wife, Lilian Gilbert Aitken.
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.
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.
