Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Linda Nochlin, 2010 Jun. 9-30. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of feminist art historian and educator Linda Nochlin measure 31.2 linear feet and 3.62 gigabytes and date from circa 1876, 1937 to 2017. The collection is comprised of biographical materials; date books and notebooks; correspondence; writing project files that include material on Gustave Courbet and realism, bathers and the body, essays and lectures on 19th century art among other topics, artists, and smaller writing projects; professional files containing material on conferences and fellowships; teaching files detailing courses taught by Nochlin at New York University Institute of Fine Arts and other institutions; printed materials; artwork; and photographic materials that document Nochlin and her relationships with family, colleagues and friends, and artists.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of feminist art historian and educator Linda Nochlin measure 31.2 linear feet and 3.62 gigabytes and date from circa 1876, 1937 to 2017. The collection is comprised of biographical materials; date books and notebooks; correspondence; writing project files that include material on Gustave Courbet and realism, bathers and the body, essays and lectures on 19th century art among other topics, artists, and smaller writing projects; professional files containing material on conferences and fellowships; teaching files detailing courses taught by Nochlin at New York University Institute of Fine Arts and other institutions; printed materials; artwork; and photographic materials that document Nochlin and her relationships with family, colleagues and friends, and artists.
Biographical materials include two address books; awards and prizes; certificates and diplomas; childhood writings and notes, assignments, and school newsletters; course work at Vassar College and NYU's Institute of Fine Arts; honors; and one sound recording and three transcripts of Nochlin interviews with Alain Veinstein, Dan Karlholm, Jon Weiner, and Moira Roth.
Over 150 date books and notebooks spanning nearly 60 years contain appointments, reminders, travel plans, thoughts on art, journal entries, daily activities, to-do lists, contact information, fiction writing, and other small notations. Correspondence is with family; close colleagues and artists Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Zuka Mitelberg, Joan Mitchell, and Philip Pearlstein; and professional contacts regarding speaking engagements, publishing projects, exhibitions, artists' work, conferences, and events.
The bulk of the collection documents Nochlin's prolific writing career that includes her lifelong research and work on Gustave Courbet, realism, bathers and the body, as well as numerous essays and lectures, research and writings on artists, and various other writing projects.
Files for professional activities contain material for conferences and symposiums that include 11 sound and video recordings, grants, fellowships, and travel arrangements and expenses. Teaching files consist of documentation for courses taught by Nochlin at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Vassar College, Yale University, and other academic institutions.
Publications and other printed materials include annotated books, booklets, clippings, exhibition catalogs, journals and magazines, newsletters, offprints, five video recordings of broadcasts and documentary material, flyers, invitations, posters, and postcards. Artwork includes sketches in ink, charcoal, paint, and pencil created during Nochlin's childhood into her early 20s, along with artwork by children, and one video art recording by Zoulikha Bouabdellah.
Photographs and negatives are of Nochlin with artists Nancy Graves, Sebastian Horsley, and Shirley Jaffe; childhood classmates; friends and colleagues; students; and travels to Europe. Also included are photographs of works of art, personal photographs of family members, and portraits and snapshots of Nochlin.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, circa 1940-2012 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1, OV 35 / 0.003 GB; ER01-ER03)
Series 2: Datebooks and Notebooks, 1959-2017 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-5, OV 35 / 0.001 GB; ER004)
Series 3: Correspondence, 1946-2014 (2.0 linear feet; Boxes 5-7, OV 35 / 0.058GB; ER005-ER011; ER120)
Series 4: Writing Project Files, circa 1876, 1953-2016 (17.0 linear feet; Boxes 7-21, 30-31, 33-34, OVs 36-37 / 3.72 GB; ER012-ER102)
Series 5: Professional Files, 1957-2012 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 22-23 / 0.001 GB; ER103)
Series 6: Teaching Files, 1953-2012 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 23-25, OV 36 / 0.016 GB; ER104-ER119)
Series 7: Printed Materials, 1939-2017 (3.0 linear feet; Boxes 26-28, 32, 34, OVs 39-40)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1940-2004 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 28, 34, OV 38)
Series 9: Photographic Materials, circa 1935-circa 2010 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 28-29, 34)
Biographical / Historical:
Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) was a feminist art historian and professor at New York University Institute of Fine Arts in New York, New York. She is widely known for her essay first published in 1971, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?," that explored the institutional systems in place for analyzing art history and their impacts on women artists. In 1976, Nochlin co-curated Women Artists: 1550-1950 alongside Ann Sutherland Harris at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and in 2007 she co-curated with Maura Reilly the Global Feminisms Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Both exhibitions are considered landmark exhibitions of women artists.
Nochlin was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended the Brooklyn Ethical Culture School and Midwood High School before enrolling in Vassar College where she majored in philosophy with minors in Greek and art history. After graduating in 1951, she went on to earn a master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1952. In 1963, she earned her PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts. Nochlin's PhD dissertation, "Gustave Courbet: A Study of Style and Society," marked the beginning of her lifelong study of the 19th-Century French artist Gustave Courbet.
Nochlin taught at Yale University, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, and Vassar College. She was also a visiting professor at Columbia University, Hunter College, Stanford University, Williams College, and Yale University, and later became the Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts.
Nochlin authored numerous art history books including Realism (1971), The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society (1989), Representing Women (1999), The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity (1994), Bathers, Bodies, Beauty: The Visceral Eye (2006), Courbet (2007), and Misère: The Visual Representation of Misery in the 19th Century (2018).
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview of Linda Nochlin conducted on June 9-30, 2010 by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art's Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project at Nochlin's home in New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2018 by Daisy Pommer, Linda Nochlin's daughter.
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 born-digital records or 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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Linda Nochlin papers, circa 1876, 1937-2017. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Collections Care Initiative Fund, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the National Collections Program.
