Search Results

Creator:

Smithson, Robert  Search this

Names:

Dwan Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art  Search this

Andre, Carl, 1935-  Search this

Atkinson, Terry, 1939-  Search this

Dibbets, Jan, 1941-  Search this

Dwan, Virginia  Search this

Flavin, Dan, 1933-  Search this

Graham, Dan, 1942-  Search this

Haacke, Hans, 1936-  Search this

Heizer, Michael, 1944-  Search this

Holt, Nancy, 1938-  Search this

Insley, Will, 1929-2011  Search this

Jenney, Neil, 1945-  Search this

Johnson, Ray, 1927-  Search this

Kepes, Gyorgy, 1906-2001  Search this

LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007  Search this

Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this

Long, Richard, 1945-  Search this

Oppenheim, Dennis, 1938-2011  Search this

Valledor, Leo, 1936-1989  Search this

Wheeler, Dennis  Search this

Extent:

15.1 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Interviews

Sketches

Scrapbooks

Greeting cards

Photographs

Transcripts

Motion pictures (visual works)

Date:

1905-1987

bulk 1952-1987

Summary:

The papers of sculptor, writer, and earthworks artist Robert Smithson and his wife, sculptor, filmmaker, and earthworks artist Nancy Holt measure 15.1 linear feet and date from 1905 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from 1952 to 1987. The papers consist of Smithson's biographical material; business and personal correspondence, much of it with artists; interview transcripts; extensive writings and project files; financial records; printed material; a scrapbook of clippings; holiday cards with original prints and sketches; photographic material; and artifacts. Also found are project files related to Nancy Holt's motion picture film Pine Barrens and her seminal environmental work of art Sun Tunnels, including a video documentary about Sun Tunnels.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of sculptor, writer, and earthworks artist Robert Smithson and his wife, sculptor, filmmaker, and earthworks artist Nancy Holt measure 15.1 linear feet and date from 1905 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from 1952 to 1987. The papers consist of Smithson's biographical material; business and personal correspondence, much of it with artists; interview transcripts; extensive writings and project files; financial records; printed material; a scrapbook of clippings; holiday cards with original prints and sketches; photographic material; and artifacts. Also found are project files related to Nancy Holt's film Pine Barrens and her seminal environmental work of art Sun Tunnels, including a video documentary about Sun Tunnels.

Biographical material includes Robert Smithson's curriculum vitae, personal identification and medical documents, eight engagement/day planners Smithson and Holt maintained from 1966 to 1973, and Smithson's funeral register.

Correspondence is primarily with Smithson's family, friends, fellow artists, and business associates discussing personal relationships, proposed art projects, and exhibitions. Correspondents of note include Carl Andre, the Dwan Gallery (Virginia Dwan), Dan Graham, Will Insley, Ray Johnson, Gyorgy Kepes, Sol Lewitt, Lucy Lippard, and Dennis Wheeler. There is also substantial correspondence received by Holt upon Smithson's death in 1973, and between Holt and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art regarding Smithson's retrospective exhibition in 1982.

There are nine interview transcripts with Smithson discussing his works and his general philosophy on art, and one transcript of the Andrew Dickson White Museum's Earth Art Symposium (1969) featuring the following artists: Mike Hiezer, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, Neil Jenney, Gunther Uecker, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long, and Hans Haacke.

Writings are substantial and include 73 drafts of published and unpublished essays by Smithson on art, artists, and works in progress. The series also includes poems by Smithson, six notebooks containing notes and sketches by Smithson, and drafts of writings sent to Smithson and Holt by friends and colleagues, including Carl Andre, Terry Atkinson, Dan Flavin, Dan Graham, and Jack Thibeau.

Project files contain correspondence, project instructions, diagrams and sketches, research materials, photographic material, and maps related to over 50 of Smithson's artworks. These include concepts, proposed projects, sculptures, non-sites, and earthwork projects, including Spiral Jetty, Broken Circle, and Spiral Hill.

Personal business records include gallery related loan arrangements and receipts for miscellaneous art supplies. Financial records include tax forms and preparation documents, including cancelled checks, receipts, statements, and related correspondence.

Printed materials include books, clippings, and periodicals related to Smithson, either containing writings or sketches by him, or containing articles reviewing his work. There are also exhibition announcements and catalogs of Smithson's group and solo shows from 1959 to 1985.

The scrapbook contains clippings of Smithson's published articles from 1966 to 1973 with annotated shorthand notes.

Artwork consists of Christmas cards collaged by Smithson, and sketches by Smithson and Leo Valledor.

Photographic materials include prints and negatives of Smithson with friends, promotional Hollywood movie stills, and original prints and copyprints of other artists' artwork.

Artifacts consist of a paper bag silkscreened with a Campbell's soup can (Warhol), promotional buttons (N.E. Thing Co.), various organic materials, and two art kits.

Nancy Holt's papers consist of correspondence, a grant application, printed materials, and project files and audio visual material related to her motion picture film Pine Barrens (1975) and her seminal environmental work of art Sun Tunnels (1975).

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 13 series:

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1905-1974 (Box 1; 14 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1959-1987 (Boxes 1-2, OV 21; 1.7 linear feet)

Series 3: Interview Transcripts, 1966-1973 (Box 2; 11 folders)

Series 4: Writings, 1959-1975 (Boxes 2-3; 1.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Project Files, circa 1950s-1982 (Boxes 4-5, Boxes 17-18, OV 20, OV 22-26, OV 36, RD 28-30, RD 32-35; 6.5 linear feet)

Series 6: Personal Business Records, circa 1967-1970s (Box 5; 4 folders)

Series 7: Financial Records, 1962-1972 (Box 6; 1 linear foot)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1955-1985 (Boxes 7-11, Box 18, RD 31; 5.6 linear feet)

Series 9: Scrapbook, 1966-1973 (Box 11, Box 16; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 10: Artwork, circa 1950s-1970s (Box 11; 4 folders)

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1950s-1970s (Box 11, Box 18; 5 folders)

Series 12: Artifacts, circa 1950s-1970s (Box 11, Box 14, OV 19; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 13: Nancy Holt Papers, circa 1960s-1980s (Box 12-13, 15, OV 27, FC 37-38; 1.9 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Robert Smithson (1938-1973) was the pioneer of land and earthworks art. He was also a noted sculptor, painter, writer, and lecturer working primarily in New York City. Smithson's wife, Nancy Holt (1938-) was a noted sculptor and filmmaker and also worked as an earthworks artist.

Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Smithson expressed an early interest in art, enrolling in classes at the Brooklyn Museum School and the Art Student's League in New York while still attending high school. Smithson's early works were primarily paintings, drawings, and collages. In 1959, he exhibited his first solo show of paintings at the Artists' Gallery in New York and had his first solo international show in Rome with the Galleria George Lester in 1961.

During the early to mid-1960s, Smithson was perhaps better known as a writer and art critic, writing numerous essays and reviews for Arts Magazine and Artforum. He became affiliated with artists who were identified with the minimalist movement, such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Nancy Holt, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris and others. In 1963, Smithson married sculptor and filmmaker Nancy Holt and a year later started to create his first sculptural works. In 1966, Smithson joined the Dwan Gallery, whose owner Virginia Dwan was an enthusiastic supporter of his work.

Smithson's interest in land art began in the late 1960s while exploring industrial and quarry sites and observing the movement of earth and rocks. This resulted in a series of sculptures called "non-sites" consisting of earth and rocks collected from a specific site and installed in gallery space, often combined with photographs, maps, mirrors, or found materials. In September 1968, Smithson published the essay "A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects" in Artforum that promoted the work of the first wave of land art artists. Soon thereafter, he began creating his own large scale land art and earthworks.

From 1967 to 1973, Smithson's productivity was constant as he wrote, lectured, and participated in several solo and group shows a year, both at home and abroad. He explored narrative art as essay in "The Monuments of Passaic" and fully committed to his idea of visiting sites and using them as the basis for creating non-sites, Non-Site, Pine Barrens, (1968); incorporated and documented the use of mirrors at sites in Mirror Displacement, Cayuga Salt Mine Project (1968-1969); and created his first site-specific works through liquid pours of mud, asphalt, and concrete, including Asphalt Rundown (1969). In 1969, he also completed his first earth pour at Kent State University with his project Partially Buried Woodshed. Later that year, he created the sculptural artwork for which he is best known, Spiral Jetty (1969) on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. This was the first of his pieces to require the acquisition of land rights and earthmoving equipment, and would be followed two years later by Broken Circle and Spiral Hill in 1971.

On July 20, 1973, while surveying sites in Texas for the proposed Amarillo Ramp, Smithson died in a plane crash at the age of 35. Despite his early death, Smithson's writings and artwork had a major impact on many contemporary artists.

Nancy Holt began her career as a photographer and video artist. Today, Holt is most widely known for her large-scale environmental works, Sun Tunnels and Dark Star Park. Holt has also made a number of films and videos since the late 1960s, including Mono Lake (1968), East Coast, West Coast (1969), and Swamp (1971) in collaboration with her late husband Robert Smithson. Points of View: Clocktower (1974) features conversations between Lucy Lippard and Richard Serra, Liza Bear and Klaus Kertess, Carl Andre and Ruth Kligman and Bruce Brice and Tina Girouard. In 1978, she produced a film about her seminal work Sun Tunnels.

Related Material:

The Archives also holds several collections related to Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, including an oral history interview with Robert Smithson conducted by Paul Cummings in 1972; an interview with Robert Smithson conducted by Tony Robbin in 1968; Robert Smithson letters to George B. Lester, 1960-1963; and oral history interviews with Nancy Holt conducted by Scott Gutterman in 1992 and Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz in 1993.

Provenance:

The papers of Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt were donated by Nancy Holt in several accretions between 1986 and 2011.

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.

Periodicals, and phonographs from Robert Smithson's personal library are currently stored offsite. 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.

The donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that they may own in the following material: two holiday cards found in box 11, folders 23-24.

Topic:

Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Authors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art -- Philosophy  Search this

Earthworks (Art)  Search this

Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sketches

Scrapbooks

Greeting cards

Photographs

Transcripts

Motion pictures (visual works)

Citation:

Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987, bulk 1952-1987. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.smitrobe

See more items in:

Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-smitrobe

Creator:

Brook, Alexander, 1898-1980  Search this

Subject:

Bacon, Peggy  Search this

Biddle, George  Search this

Brett, Catherine  Search this

Covarrubias, Miguel  Search this

Pollock, Jackson  Search this

Spencer, Niles  Search this

Knee, Gina  Search this

Bouché, Louis  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Watercolors

Sketches

Transcriptions

Scrapbooks

Sketchbooks

Interviews

Etchings

Illustrations

Topic:

Post-impressionism (Art)  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6833

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)208960

AAA_collcode_brooalex

Theme:

Diaries

Lives of American Artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_208960

Creator:

Kienbusch, William, 1914-1980  Search this

Names:

Kraushaar Galleries  Search this

Hamabe, Francis, 1917-2002  Search this

Hamabe, Sydney, 1917-1978  Search this

Extent:

0.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Postcards

Date:

1958-1977

Summary:

The William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1958 to 1977. Found in this collection are 93 letters and postcards in which Kienbusch discusses his work as a landscape painter and art instructor in New York and Maine, family business, activities with the Hamabes, their mutual friends, and other artists. Included as letter attachments are newspaper clippings and three catalogs for Kienbusch exhibitions at Kraushaar Gallery from 1959, 1969, and 1975.

Scope and Content Note:

The William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1958 to 1977. Found in this collection are 93 letters and postcards in which Kienbusch discusses his work as a landscape painter and art instructor in New York and Maine, family business, activities with the Hamabes, their mutual friends, and other artists. Included as letter attachments are newspaper clippings and three catalogs for Kienbusch exhibitions at Kraushaar Gallery from 1959, 1969, and 1975.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as one series:

Series 1: William Kienbusch Letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe, 1958-1977 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

William Kienbusch (1914-1980) was a painter and art instructor in New York, NY, and Cranberry Island, Maine. Kienbusch befriended Rockport, Maine artist Francis Hamabe (1917-2002) and his wife Sydney (1917-1978). Hamabe was the co-founder of the Maine Coast Artists Association.

Related Material:

Also found in the Archives of American Art are the William Kienbusch papers, 1915-2001; the Walter Maitland correspondence with and about William Kienbusch, 1969-1981; the Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso papers relating to William Kienbusch, 1950-1980; and an oral history interview with William Kienbusch conducted by Forrest Selvig, November 1-7, 1968.

Provenance:

The letters were donated in 1984 by Francis Hamabe.

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:

Art teachers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art teachers -- Maine  Search this

Landscape painters -- Maine  Search this

Topic:

Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Postcards

Citation:

William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe, 1958-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.kienwill3

See more items in:

William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-kienwill3

Creator:

Rungius, Carl, 1869-1959  Search this

Extent:

0.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Postcards

Date:

1896-1995

Summary:

The Carl Rungius papers, 1896-1995, measure 0.6 linear feet. A scrapbook and three photograph albums document the work, interests, and family of the wildlife painter and illustrator.

Scope and Contents note:

The Carl Rungius papers, 1896-1995, measure 0.6 linear feet. A scrapbook and three photograph albums work, interests, and family of the wildlife painter and illustrator.

The scrapbook contains mostly printed material and reproductions of Rungius's work. In addition, there is a photograph of a painting and a letter reporting that his ashes had been spread in Banff, Canada.

Three family photograph albums include photographs of Carl Rungius and other family members (mainly Fuldas, since Rungius's mother, his wife, and a sister's husband were Fuldas), along with some travel pictures, views of studios and family houses. Volume 3 also contains a fair amount of printed material such as Rungius's Christmas cards featuring reproductions of his paintings, clippings, an exhibition catalog, and an illustrated brochure announcing the publication of new etchings.

Also found are three illustrated postcards from Lise. Printed material consists of an article about Carl Rungius and periodicals about hiking and trail riding in the Canadian Rockies.

Arrangement note:

The collection is arranged as 4 series:

Series 1: Illustrated Postcards from Lise, 1908 (Box 1; 1 folder)

Series 2: Printed Material, 1935-1938, 1985 (Box 1; 1 folder)

Series 3: Scrapbook, 1921-1986 (Bound volume 2; 0.1 linear ft.)

Series 4: Photographs, 1896-1995 (Box 1; 0.3 linear ft.)

Biographical/Historical note:

Carl Rungius (1869-1959) was a painter and illustrator of wildlife in New York, N.Y., the Western U.S. and Banff, Alberta, Canada.

From an early age Rungius enjoyed hunting and wanted to be an artist. Between 1888 and 1890 he was enrolled at the Berlin Academy of Art in his native city, but the curriculum did not suit his interests. He spent much of his free time at the Berlin Zoo studying and sketching animals, and often visited a glue factory that afforded opportunities to observe animal anatomy.

In 1894 an uncle invited Rungius to visit him in Maine and hunt moose. The following summer Rungius stalked game in Wyoming where the variety and abundance of wildlife and the dramatic western landscape greatly impressed him. Rungius immigrated to the United States in 1896.

Growing concern about native animal populations and a conservation movement aided by the efforts of President Theodore Roosevelt generated many books, magazines, and other publications which Rungius frequently received commissions to illustrate. He ceased illustration work around 1909 to devote himself to easel painting. Rungius first visited the Canadian Rockies in 1910 and so enjoyed painting and hunting there that eventually he built a studio in Banff, where he worked each April through October from 1921 until his death in 1959.

Related Archival Materials note:

Also at the Archives of American Art are the Elisabeth Rungius Fulda papers, 1895-1967, that contain information about her brother Carl Rungius, including: a photograph of Elisabeth Fulda and Carl Rungius, letters from Rungius to his sister concerning her art studies and his own training, his will and letters about his death, and letters from the Glenbow Foundation about an exhibition of Rungius's drawings (microfilm reels 101, 2812, N695, and 3482).

An interview with Carl Rungius conducted by DeWitt McClellan Lockman is part of Interviews of artists and architects associated with the National Academy of Design.

Rungius's estate, including personal papers and the contents of his studios in Banff and New York, were purchased for the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, by its founder, Eric Harvie.

Provenance:

Donated in 2011 by Ruth Fulda Wacker, niece of Carl Rungius, via Robert A. Brady, executor of her estate.

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.

Topic:

Animal painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this

Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Postcards

Citation:

Carl Rungius papers, 1896-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.rungcarl

See more items in:

Carl Rungius papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-rungcarl

Creator:

Barrett, Thomas R., 1927-  Search this

Names:

Kienbusch, William, 1914-1980  Search this

Mancuso, Leni  Search this

Extent:

0.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Postcards

Photographs

Date:

1950-1979, 2002

Summary:

The Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso papers relating to William Kienbusch measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1950 to 1979 and 2002. The 113 letters and postcards from William Kienbusch to Barrett and Mancuso document their long friendship and describe in great detail Kienbusch's life as an artist in New York and Maine. Also found are 15 snapshot photographs of Keinbusch, Barrett, and Mancuso outdoors.

Scope and Content Note:

The Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso papers relating to William Kienbusch measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1950 to 1979 and 2002. The 113 letters and postcards from William Kienbusch to Barrett and Mancuso document their long friendship and describe in great detail Kienbusch's life as an artist in New York and Maine. Also found are 15 snapshot photographs of Keinbusch, Barrett, and Mancuso outdoors.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 2 series:

Series 1: Letters from William Kienbusch, 1950-1979, 2002 (Box 1; 8 folders)

Series 2: Photographs, 1953-1958, 1966, 2002 (Box 1; 3 folders)

Biographical Note:

William Kienbusch (1914-1980) was a painter and art instructor in New York, NY, and Cranberry Island, Maine. Kienbusch enjoyed a long friendship with painters Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso. Mancuso studied painting with Kienbusch at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Barrett and Mancuso spent most of the year in Maine and often went on summer painting trips to the coastal islands with Kienbusch.

Related Material:

Also found in the Archives of American Art are the William Kienbusch papers, 1915-2001; the Walter Maitland correspondence with and about William Kienbusch, 1969-1981; the William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe, 1958-1977; and an oral history interview with William Kienbusch conducted by Forrest Selvig, November 1-7, 1968.

Provenance:

The collection was donated in 2002 by Thomas R. Barrett and Leni Mancuso.

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 -- Maine  Search this

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Postcards

Photographs

Citation:

Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso papers relating to William Kienbusch, 1950-1979, 2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.barrwill

See more items in:

Thomas Barrett and Leni Mancuso papers relating to William Kienbusch

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-barrwill

Creator:

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Names:

Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this

Kleinholz, Frank, 1901-  Search this

Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974  Search this

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this

Miró, Joan, 1893-  Search this

Smith, Charles Edward, 1904-1970  Search this

Extent:

11.61 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Watercolors

Sound recordings

Transcripts

Scrapbooks

Sketches

Oil paintings

Photographs

Interviews

Date:

1890-1971

Summary:

The papers of painter Philip Evergood measure 11.61 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1971. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and business correspondence; writings, including essays, lectures, speeches, and sound recordings of radio appearances; subject files; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork, including oil paintings, sketches, and childhood drawings; and photographs of Evergood, his family and friends, and his work.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of painter Philip Evergood measure 11.61 linear feet and date from 1890 to 1971. Found within the papers are biographical materials; personal and business correspondence; writings, including essays, lectures, speeches, and sound recordings of radio appearances; subject files; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork, including oil paintings, sketches, and childhood drawings; and photographs of Evergood, his family and friends, and his work.

Biographical materials include curriculum vitae, forms, memberships, and the contact information of friends and acquaintances. Correspondence is with business associates and artists, including Charles Edward Smith, Rockwell Kent, Frank Kleinholz, Leon Kroll, Joan Miro, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Writings consist primarily of Evergood's artist statements, essays, lectures and speeches, as well as notes, transcripts, and recordings of broadcast radio shows. Subject files focus on art institutions and organizations, funding opportunities, and political topics of personal interest.

Personal business records include artist lists, contracts with galleries, and banking and estate records. Printed materials include clippings, four clippings scrapbooks, exhibition catalogs, and periodicals with articles featuring Evergood. There are loose sketches and mixed media, including oils and watercolors, of Evergood's artwork. Photographs are of Evergood, his friends and family, and photographs and negatives of his artwork.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 9 series.

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1930-1971 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, 24, OV 13)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1930-1970 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-4, 24)

Series 3: Writings, 1905-1970 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 4-5, 24)

Series 4: Subject Files, 1919-1971 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 5-6)

Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1902-1970 (0.5 linear feet; Box 6)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1914-1970 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-9, 11, 24)

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1924-1954 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 11-12)

Series 8: Artwork, 1905-1970 (1.5 linear feet; Box 9, OV 14-20, 24, OV 25, RD 23)

Series 9: Photographic Materials, 1890-1970 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 9-10, 24, OV 21-22, 26-27)

Biographical / Historical:

Painter and printmaker Philip Evergood (1901-1973) lived and worked in New York City and Bridgewater, Connecticut and was known as an expressionist and social realist who incorporated elements of the fantastic into his works. A native New Yorker, Evergood's father, Miles Blashki, was a Polish-Australian artist, and his mother, Flora Jane Perry, was English. At his mother's insistence, Evergood attended boarding schools in England and graduated from Eton in 1919. He left Cambridge University to pursue art studies at London's Slade School of Fine Arts and returned to America in 1923 to study with George Luks at the Art Students League.

In 1927, Evergood held his first one man show at New York's Dudensing Gallery and continued to travel back and forth between France, Spain, and America throughout the 1920s. In 1931, he married dancer and actress Julia Cross and found work as a muralist and painter for the WPA Federal Arts Project in the early 1930s. From 1937-1938, he served as president of the New York Artists Union and, along with other social realist painters, joined Herman Baron's stable at the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Gallery, where he exhibited several one man shows during the late 1930s and 1940s.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Evergood was a popular lecturer and taught at art schools, including the Skowhegan School, and began producing large scale lithographs and etchings along with his paintings. While working as a picture framer for additional income, he met the art collector Joseph Hirshhorn who would purchase 10 artworks at their first meeting and become a life long patron. He continued to exhibit his work at the ACA Gallery and the annual contemporary shows of major museums, such as the Carnegie Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago. Evergood exhibited in over 35 exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1960, and died in a house fire in Bridgewater in 1973.

Related Materials:

Also found in the Archives of American Art are Letters from Philip Evergood; Gael Hammer letters relating to Miles and Philip Evergood; an oral history interview with Philip Evergood by Forrest Selvig, December 3, 1968; and Philip Evergood interview with John I.H. Baur, June 1959.

Provenance:

Philip Evergood donated his papers to the Archives in 1971. Additional materials were donated in 1974 by Evergood's wife, Julia Cross Evergood. In 1977, two typescripts of essays were donated by Abram Lerner. A small addition was donated in 2018 by Kendall Taylor, who originally received the material from Julia Cross Evergood.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. 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.

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Artists -- Political activity  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Watercolors

Sound recordings

Transcripts

Scrapbooks

Sketches

Oil paintings

Photographs

Interviews

Citation:

Philip Evergood papers, 1890-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this colleciton was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art

Identifier:

AAA.everphil

See more items in:

Philip Evergood papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-everphil

Creator:

Novros, David, 1941-  Search this

Names:

Bui, Phong, 1964-  Search this

Colpitt, Frances  Search this

Graham, Robert, 1938-  Search this

Hope, Charles  Search this

Humblet, Claudine, 1946-  Search this

Judd, Donald, 1928-  Search this

McEwen, Rory, 1932-  Search this

Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956  Search this

Price, Kenneth, 1935-2012  Search this

Extent:

1 Linear foot

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Poems

Transcripts

Interviews

Illustrated letters

Diaries

Date:

1963-2008

Summary:

The papers of abstract painter David Novros are dated 1963 to 2008, and measure 1.0 linear foot. Correspondence, records relating to the Liaunig Boat House commission (Middleburgh, NY), interview transcripts, printed material, and photographs document the painter's professional career.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of abstract painter David Novros are dated 1963 to 2008, and measure 1.0 linear foot. Correspondence, records relating to the Liaunig Boat House commission (Middleburgh, NY), interview transcripts, printed material, and photographs document the painter's professional career.

The vast majority of correspondence consists of incoming letters. The only reciprocal exchanges preserved are with art historian Charles Hope and the Menil Collection. Letters are from artists Rory McEwen, Paul Mogensen, and Ken Price; writers Frances Colpitt and Claudine Humblet; and from other colleagues and friends. The letters David Novros wrote to his family between 1963 and 1979 recount his travels and describe in some detail - many with accompanying illustrations and diagrams - work in progress, exhibitions, and commissions. Also preserved are copies of his letters to the Trustees of the Donald Judd Estate and Ranier Judd concerning the Marfa, Texas properties and projects, his Spring Street studio in New York City, and the Judd Foundation. Novros's letters to editors concern art-related articles that appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Peter Liaunig's commission for a boat house with three fresco paintings in Middleburgh, New York, is documented by correspondence, plans, and designs. The "Boat House Diary, Middleburgh, NY," kept by Novros August 10-15, 2003, describes the process of painting the frescoes with the assistance of Jason, and notes materials and techniques used.

Interview transcripts are of Phong Bui's conversation with David Novros, published June 2008 in The Brooklyn Rail, and an unpublished interview Novros conducted with sculptor Robert Graham in 2008.

Printed material about or mentioning David Novros consists of articles and reviews, exhibition announcements and posters. Items written by Novros are a review of Jackson Pollock and two poems.

Photographs are of David Novros with his family and friends. There are also views of the Novros family's home in Van Nuys, California, and Indian-painted rocks at Sears Point, Arizona that influenced Novros' art.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 5 series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1963-2008 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear ft.)

Series 2: Liaunig Boat House, 1998-2004 (Box 2, OV3; 0.2 linear ft.)

Series 3: Interview Transcripts, 2008 (Box 2; 0.1 linear ft.)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1966-2008 (Box 2, OV 4; 0.2 linear ft.)

Series 5: Photographs, 1976-1999 (Box 2; 0.1 linear ft.)

Biographical Note:

David Novros (1941-) is an abstract painter in New York, NY.

Abstract painter David Novros was born in Los Angeles in 1941 and lived with his family in Van Nuys, California. His father, Lester Novros, was an artist whose interest in movement eventually led him to the Walt Disney Company, where he worked on animation projects. In 1941 he established his own production company, Graphic Films, and began teaching in the Cinema Department of the University of Southern California. Both David and his brother Paul were enamored with film; David turned to painting, but Paul followed in their father's line of work and became an award-winning film producer.

David entered the University of Southern California and studied painting with James Jervaisee. He made a few student films and sometimes worked with his father, but before long he turned to painting. During the summer of 1961, Novros attended courses at Yale and met Chuck Close, Brice Marden, and Vija Celmins.

After earning a B.F.A. in 1963, Novros completed his Army Reserve obligations and travelled in Europe. He moved to New York City in 1964 and met many Minimalist artists. Over the next several years, Novros's rectangular paintings gave way to multi-panel paintings and then to shaped panels. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, Novros developed a reputation as a geometric abstractionist. He showed at Park Place Gallery and had a solo exhibition at Virginia Dwan Gallery (Los Angeles) in 1966; the next year, his work was again presented at Park Place Gallery and at the Virginia Dwan Gallery (New York). Several solo exhibitions followed at Klaus Kertess's influential Bykert Gallery, as well as at other venues.

Novros participated in important exhibitions of abstraction, among them "Systemic Painting" (Guggenheim Museum, 1966), "Color and Structure" (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1971), and "Abstract-Geometry-Painting: Selected Geometric Abstract Painting in America since 1945" (Albright-Knox Gallery, 1989). In 1970, he was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

In the 1970s, Novros turned to fresco painting, and his eventual decision to focus on murals effectively removed him from the commercial gallery scene. One of his earliest commissions was a fresco painted in 1970 for the second floor of Donald Judd's studio/home. Other commissions include: Solar Triptych, a radial triptych that opens and closes throughout the day, for the lobby of Union Station, Newark, NJ (1984); a fresco in the Old Court House, Miami (1984); a painted-glass and copper fresco in the Gross Building, Winslow, Arizona (1994-1996); and the Liaunig Boat House with fresco paintings, Middleburgh, NY (1996-2003). A number of museums in the United States and Europe include Novros's work in their permanent collections, among them: Menil Collection, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum Liaunig (Austria), and Daimler contemporary (Berlin).

Mr. Novros lives and works in New York City.

Related Material:

An oral history interview with David Novros was conducted by Michael Brennan for the Archives of American Art in 2008.

Provenance:

Gift of David Novros, 2009

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.

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painting -- Technique  Search this

Genre/Form:

Poems

Transcripts

Interviews

Illustrated letters

Diaries

Citation:

David Novros papers, 1963-2008. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.novrdavi

See more items in:

David Novros papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-novrdavi

Creator:

Mullican, Matt, 1951-  Search this

Names:

König, Kasper  Search this

Mullican, Lee, 1919-1998  Search this

Weiner, Lawrence, 1942-  Search this

Extent:

27.8 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Interviews

Photographs

Sketchbooks

Notebooks

Diaries

Writings

Date:

circa 1968-2017

Summary:

The papers of New York City and Berlin, Germany based multi-media and conceptual artist Matt Mullican measure 27.8 linear feet and date from circa 1968-2017. The collection consists of biographical material, including a few interview transcripts; correspondence; over 100 notebooks; gallery and exhibition files; project and commission files; personal business records; printed material; and photographs. The notebooks document nearly five decades of Mullican's work process and illustrate his material and conceptual explorations. Large sequences of gallery and exhibition files, as well as project and commission files comprise the remaining bulk of the collection, providing detailed documentation of his professional career, particularly from the 1980s-2000s.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of New York City and Berlin, Germany based multi-media and conceptual artist Matt Mullican measure 27.8 linear feet and date from circa 1968-2017. The collection consists of biographical material, including a few interview transcripts; correspondence; over 100 notebooks; gallery and exhibition files; project and commission files; personal business records; printed material; and photographs. The notebooks document nearly five decades of Mullican's work process and illustrate his material and conceptual explorations. Large sequences of gallery and exhibition files, as well as project and commission files comprise the remaining bulk of the collection, providing detailed documentation of his professional career, particularly from the 1980s-2000s.

Biographical material includes address books, high school and college ephemera, papers and photographs relating to Mullican's family, identification cards, interview transcripts, a resume, and a few writings.

The small amount of correspondence arranged in Series 2 is with friends, artists, colleagues, fans, and museum professionals. Notable correspondents include artist Lawrence Weiner and museum director Kasper König. Additional professional correspondence is located in the Gallery and Exhibition Files, as well as the Project and Commission Files.

Over 100 notebooks document nearly five decades of Mullican's work process and artistic explorations from the time he was a student up to the present.

A large sequence of gallery and exhibition files encompass a variety of material documenting Mullican's extensive solo and group exhibition history throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Extensive project and commission files contain documentation of international public and corporate commissions, academic engagements, performances, publishing projects, print editions, illustrations, grants, residencies, and other project based artwork. Public and corporate commissions include artworks and installations for banks, airports, office complexes, university buildings, public transit stations, and other spaces.

Personal business records relate to bookkeeping and sales, donations, inventories, publication, copyright, supplies, invoicing, recommendations, residences, storage of works, and studio administration.

Printed material includes announcements, posters, articles, reviews, exhibition catalogs, and periodicals related to Mullican's career.

One folder of photographs documents Mullican, his family, and installations of his work at various venues and exhibitions.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as eight series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1968-2002 (0.6 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1986-2000s (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 3: Notebooks, circa 1968-2017 (7.2 linear feet; Box 1-8)

Series 4: Gallery and Exhibition Files, 1985-2000s (6.1 linear feet; Box 9-13, OV and RD 23-25)

Series 5: Project and Commission Files, 1980-2000s (10.3 linear feet; Box 14-19, OV and RD 26-43)

Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1978-2000s (1.7 linear feet; Box 19-21)

Series 7: Printed Material, 1971-2000s (1.5 linear foot; Box 21-22, RD 44)

Series 8: Photographs, 1980s-1990s (1 folder; Box 22)

Biographical / Historical:

Matt Mullican (1951- ) is a multi-media and conceptual artist working in New York City and Berlin, Germany. Born in Santa Monica, he is the son of abstract surrealist painters Lee Mullican and Luchita Hurtado Mullican. Educated at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the early 1970s, and mentored by John Baldessari, Mullican moved to New York City after earning his BFA and became associated with the "Pictures Generation" artists, including friends Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, James Welling, and Robert Longo. His multi-disciplinary practice encompasses drawing, painting, collage, video, installation, and performance under hypnosis as his alter ego, 'That Person.' Through these media, Mullican explores systems of knowledge, the construction of reality, as well as meaning, language, and signs. Throughout his career, Mullican has participated in international solo and group exhibitions, and has undertaken dozens of public and corporate commissions.

Provenance:

Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2014-2017 by Matt Mullican.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of born-digital records 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:

Conceptual artists -- Germany -- Berlin -- Interviews  Search this

Conceptual artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Topic:

Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Multimedia (Art)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Photographs

Sketchbooks

Notebooks

Diaries

Writings

Citation:

Matt Mullican papers, circa 1968-2017. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.mullmatt

See more items in:

Matt Mullican papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-mullmatt

Creator:

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Names:

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Cherry, Herman  Search this

Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011  Search this

Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994  Search this

Motherwell, Robert  Search this

Noland, Kenneth, 1924-2010  Search this

Rickey, George  Search this

Willard, Marian, 1904-  Search this

Extent:

6 Microfilm reels

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Microfilm reels

Date:

1926-1965

Scope and Contents:

Correspondence; sketchbooks; sketches; scrapbooks; exhibition catalogs; photographs; business records; and printed material.

Correspondence, mostly routine business dealing with exhibitions, sales, purchases of equipment, and other business matters, and from family and friends in the art world, including Alexander Calder, Herman Cherry, Robert M. Coates, Helen Frankenthaler, Clement Greenberg, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, George Rickey, Marian Willard and others; sketchbooks, sketches, and notebook, annotated and relating to his sculptural work, 1930s-1940s; lectures, speeches, and writings; an 18 page transcript of an interview of Smith conducted by Thomas Hess, June 1964; photographs, mostly small snapshots of Smith's work, often annotated with descriptive information; scrapbook materials; articles; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and publications.

Biographical / Historical:

David Smith (1906-1965) was a sculptor from Bolton Landing, N.Y. Began his career as a painter. Studied at Art Students League. Married artist Dorothy Dehner. Was one of the first sculptors to develop a uniquely American abstract style. Worked in monumental style, incorporating painted metal and welding techniques into his work. Smith died in an automobile accident in May 1965.

Provenance:

Lent for microfilming by Rebecca and Candida Smith.

Restrictions:

ACCESS RESTRICTED; written permission required.

Patrons must use microfilm copy.

Occupation:

Sculptors -- New York (State) -- Bolton Landing  Search this

Topic:

Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Sculpture, American  Search this

Identifier:

AAA.smitdavp

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-smitdavp

Interviewee:

Brook, Alexander, 1898-1980  Search this

Interviewer:

Cummings, Paul  Search this

Names:

Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Penguin Club (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Whitney Studio Club  Search this

Bacon, Peggy, 1895-1987  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Fisher, William Murrell  Search this

Force, Juliana, 1876-1948  Search this

Goodrich, Lloyd, 1897-1987  Search this

Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this

Miller, Kenneth Hayes, 1876-1952  Search this

Nakian, Reuben, 1897-1986  Search this

Romanowsky, Dimitri  Search this

Extent:

91 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1977 July 7-8

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Alexander Brook conducted 1977 July 7-8, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Brook speaks of his childhood and family; his early interest in painting; studying at the Art Students League with Dmitri Romanowsky and Kenneth Hayes Miller; women at the Art Students League; his first wife, Peggy Bacon; his travels in Europe; the Penguin Club; the Whitney Studio Club; working as a "talent scout" for Juliana Reiser Force; sharing a studio with Alexander Calder and Reuben Nakian; art sales in the 1930s; women as subjects; his portraits of Katharine Hepburn; and his painting technique. He recalls William Murrell Fisher, Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Alexander Brook (1898-1980) was a painter from Sag Harbor, New York.

General:

Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 11 min.

Provenance:

These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.

Topic:

Painting, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- Interviews  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.brook77

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-brook77

Interviewee:

Bruno, Phillip A.  Search this

Creator:

McElhinney, James Lancel, 1952-  Search this

Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation  Search this

Names:

Barnes Foundation  Search this

Columbia University -- Students  Search this

Exposition universelle et internationale (1958 : Brussels, Belgium)  Search this

Grace Borgenicht Gallery  Search this

La Napoule Art Foundation, Henry Clews Memorial  Search this

Marlborough Gallery  Search this

Weyhe Gallery  Search this

Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation  Search this

World House Galleries  Search this

Avery, Milton, 1885-1965  Search this

Bacon, Francis, 1909-1992  Search this

Baskin, Leonard, 1922-2000  Search this

Bertoia, Harry  Search this

Bravo, Claudio, 1936-2011  Search this

Brown, Joan, 1938-1990  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Clews, Henry, 1876-1937  Search this

Crawford, Ralston, 1906-1978  Search this

Cuevas, José Luis, 1934-  Search this

Ernst, Max, 1891-1976  Search this

Estes, Richard, 1932-  Search this

Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966  Search this

Hefner, Hugh M. (Hugh Marston), 1926-  Search this

Hirshhorn, Joseph H.  Search this

Katz, Alex, 1927-  Search this

Koenig, Fritz, 1924-  Search this

Kubach, Wolfgang, 1936-  Search this

Kubach-Wilmsen, Anna Maria, 1937-  Search this

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954  Search this

Morgan, Randall, 1920-  Search this

Nagare, Masayuki, 1923-  Search this

Neuberger, Roy R.  Search this

Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this

Park, David, 1911-1960  Search this

Peterdi, Gabor  Search this

Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this

Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-  Search this

Staempfli, George W.  Search this

Willard, Charlotte  Search this

Extent:

46 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

2009 January 13-21

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Phillip A. Bruno conducted 2009 January 13-21, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at the Archives of American Art, in New York, New York.

Bruno speaks of some his earliest impressions of art while growing up in New York and Paris; attending Columbia University, where he majored in the history of painting and architecture and studied under Meyer Schapiro; his first job at the Weyhe Gallery as a gallery assistant; helping create the Grace Borgenicht Gallery, where he served as director for five years; traveling to Mexico, meeting Jose Cuevas and exhibiting his work at the Edward Loeb Gallery in Paris; traveling to Brazil and meeting a family of naturalist painters who emphasized the importance of painting outdoors, unlike many painters from the New York school; working with Henry Clews and the La Napoule Art Foundation; selling a piece of Salvador Dali jewelry made by Carlos Alamanni to Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Magazine; working as director of The World House Gallery and selling works by Fancis Bacon and Max Ernst to clients such as Joseph Hirshhorn and Roy Neuberger; organizing a exhibition of artists shown at the Brussels World Fair in 1958 at World House and meeting George Staempfli through the artist Joan Brown; moving from World House to the Staempfli Gallery in 1960 to work as co-director; the Staempfli Gallery's role in the international art world; an original drawing by Leonard Baskin inscribed to Phillip in 1954; selling the work of artists such as Harry Bertoia, Fritz Koening, and David Park; meeting Henri Matisse in Paris at the age of 21; visiting the studios of Alexander Calder and Mark Rothko; the difference between galleries that can spot new talent and galleries that sell certain artists well; the art market becoming less idealistic and more commercial; the rising importance of auction houses and the possibility of their taking the place of traditional art galleries; the move of the Staempfli Gallery to the SoHo neighborhood and soon after, leaving Staempfli for Marlborough, where he was one of the New York directors for 18 years; his appreciation for the creativity of others, retirement and current plans to write his memoirs. Bruno also recalls Milton Avery, Gabor Peterdi, Hans Muller, Ralston Crawford, Randall Morgan, Charlotte Willard, Dorthy Satterlee, Masayuki Nagare, Claude Bemardin, Kubach-Wilmsen, Louise Nevelson, Cladio Bravo, Lopez Garcia, Alberto Giacometti, The Barnes Foundation, Richard Estes, Alex Katz, and Neil Wlliver.

Biographical / Historical:

Phillip A. Bruno (1930- ) is an art collector and director of Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York.

General:

Originally recorded on 2 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 45 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 administrators.

Occupation:

Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation.

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.bruno09

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-bruno09

Creator:

Scull, Robert, 1917-1986  Search this

Names:

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976 -- Photographs  Search this

De Maria, Walter, 1935-2013  Search this

Di Suvero, Mark, 1933-  Search this

Heizer, Michael, 1944-  Search this

Johns, Jasper, 1930-  Search this

Kuehn, Gary, 1939- -- Photographs  Search this

Oldenburg, Claes, 1929- -- Photographs  Search this

Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008  Search this

Samaras, Lucas, 1936-  Search this

Tweddle, John  Search this

Warhol, Andy, 1928-  Search this

Extent:

2.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sketches

Date:

1955-circa 1984

bulk 1965-1970

Summary:

The Robert Scull papers measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1950 to circa 1984, with the bulk of the material dating from 1965 to 1970. Throughout the 1960s, Robert Scull was a wealthy and prominent art collector of Abstract, Pop, and Minimalist art whose collection included works by Michael Heizer, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, among others. His papers include fourteen annotated appointment books, correspondence, financial and legal records, printed material, and photographs. There is a 0.2 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2020 that includes black and white photographs (and 1 color photograph), snapshots, negatives and negative strips of family, friends artwork and artists; correspondence; and loan forms for works of art.

Scope and Contents:

The Robert Scull papers measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1950 to circa 1984, with the bulk of the material dating from 1965 to 1970. Throughout the 1960s, Robert Scull was a wealthy and prominent art collector of Abstract, Pop, and Minimalist art whose collection included works by Michael Heizer, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, among others. His papers include fourteen annotated appointment books, correspondence, financial and legal records, printed material, and photographs. There is a 0.2 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2020 that includes black and white photographs (and 1 color photograph), snapshots, negatives and negative strips of family, friends artwork and artists; correspondence; and loan forms for works of art.

Fourteen appointment books include business dates, notes, and occasional sketches. Notes are on various subjects such as prices for paintings, appointments with art dealers, and visits with artists Mark di Suvero, Michael Heizer, Lucas Samaras, and others. There are sometimes items, i.e., business cards and receipts, interleaved between the pages of the books.

The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters to Robert Scull from various artists, such as Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer. There is limited correspondence with museums and galleries.

Financial and legal records mostly consist of invoices from art dealers to Robert Scull for his purchases of John Tweddle's artwork. Also included are art loan forms and charts tracking payments for various paintings and drawings. There are scattered legal papers on a settlement regarding payments for a group of paintings by Tweddle.

There is one exhibition catalog, Street Painters: Feelism (circa 1982), of printed material.

Photographs are of Robert Scull, friends, art dealers, artists, and art. Notable artists depicted include Alexander Calder, Gary Kuehn, Claes Oldenberg, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and many others. There are also images of sculptures, paintings, and other artwork by various artists.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 6 series.

Series 1: Appointment Books, 1955-1973 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-circa 1984 (0.2 linear feet; Box 3)

Series 3: Financial and Legal Records, 1969-1980 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3)

Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1982 (1 folder; Box 3)

Series 5: Photographs, 1960-circa 1980 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)

Series 6: Unprocessed Addition, 1950-1984 (0.2 linear feet); Box 5)

Biographical / Historical:

Robert Scull (1917-1986) was a prominent New York City and Connecticut collector of contemporary American art primarily during the 1960s.

Robert Scull was born in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He dropped out of high school during the Depression and did various jobs while also taking art courses. He later became a freelance illustrator and industrial designer. When his wife Ethel's father died, the couple inherited a successful taxi business which Scull expanded into the Super Operating Corporation with a fleet of 130 cabs.

Throughout the 1960s, Robert and Ethel Scull were avid art collectors who acquired contemporary American art works through dealers Richard Bellamy and Leo Castelli. Robert Scull's patronage also helped fund art dealer Richard Bellamy's Green Gallery in New York City for five years. Initially the Sculls focused on collecting American Abstract Expressionists and owned works by Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and others. In 1965, the couple held their first auction and part of the profits helped establish the Robert and Ethel Scull Foundation, dedicated to financially assisting upcoming artists. The foundation commissioned environmental works from Michael Heizer and Walter de Maria and gave the artists stipends and even bought them food and supplies.

Around the mid-1960s, the Sculls also began collecting Pop Art and acquired the works of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol. In 1973, the couple sold 50 works from their personal collection of Pop Art through a Sotheby's auction that yielded $2.2 million - record-breaking for sales of contemporary American art. The Sculls were criticized of social-climbing and profiteering by various people in the media and art world, including the artist Robert Rauschenberg.

In 1975, Robert Scull divorced Ethel and in 1978 he founded the Robert C. Scull Foundation which again assisted younger artists and arts organizations with a focus on contemporary art. Scull remarried and sold his taxi business sometime in the early 1980s, and moved to Warren, Connecticut. He died in 1986.

In 2010, the exhibition Robert and Ethel Scull: Portrait of a Collection was held at Acquavella Galleries in Manhattan.

Related Materials:

The Archives of American Art also has an oral history interview with Robert Scull conducted by Paul Cummings in 1972.

Provenance:

The 14 appointment books in the collection were donated in 1999 by Amy Newman, a writer, who received them from her friend, artist Chuck Close. Close received them from his brother-in-law, who found them in the trash, turned them over to Close, who, in turn, gave them to Newman. Additional papers were donated in 1993 and 2020 by Robert Scull's widow, Stephanie.

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.

Occupation:

Art dealers  Search this

Collectors -- Connecticut  Search this

Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Connecticut  Search this

Pop art  Search this

Art, Abstract  Search this

Minimal art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sketches

Citation:

Robert Scull papers, 1955-circa 1984, bulk dates 1965-1970. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.sculrobe

See more items in:

Robert Scull papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-sculrobe

Creator:

Perls Galleries  Search this

Names:

Art Institute of Chicago  Search this

Fujikawa Gallery  Search this

Galerie Maeght  Search this

James Corcoran Gallery  Search this

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)  Search this

Pierre Matisse Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Austin, Darrel, 1907-  Search this

Cafritz, Gwendolyn  Search this

Cafritz, Morris, 1886?-1964  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Canaday, John, 1907-1985  Search this

De Menil, Adelaide  Search this

Dudensing, F. Valentine, 1892-1967  Search this

Ford, Henry, 1917-1987  Search this

Garbo, Greta, 1905-1990  Search this

Hitchcock, Alfred, 1899-  Search this

Luce, Claire  Search this

Luce, Henry, III, 1925-2005  Search this

Miró, Joan, 1893-  Search this

Perls, Klaus  Search this

Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973  Search this

Priebe, Karl J., 1914-1976  Search this

Streisand, Barbra  Search this

Extent:

79.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Illustrated letters

Drawings

Photographs

Date:

1937-1997

Summary:

The records of the Perls Galleries measure 79.6 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1997. Founded by Klaus Perls in 1937 and operating until 1997, the gallery dealt primarily in modern French art and the artwork of Alexander Calder. Found within the records are extensive correspondence (circa 44 linear feet) with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and collectors; photographs and negatives of inventory and other artwork; exhibition files, scattered financial records; and exhibition catalogs and clippings.

Scope and Content Note:

The records of the Perls Galleries measure 79.6 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1997. Founded by Klaus Perls in 1937 and operating until 1997, the gallery dealt primarily in modern French art and the artwork of Alexander Calder. Found within the records are extensive correspondence (circa 44 linear feet) with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and collectors; photographs and negatives of inventory and other artwork; exhibition files, scattered financial records; and exhibition catalogs and clippings.

Correspondence primarily discusses sales (and includes invoices), loans, and exhibitions, as well as more routine activities such as gallery maintenance, the printing of exhibition catalogs and letterhead, and the shipment, framing, or restoration of artwork. Many letters enclose photographs, negatives, or slides of artwork, and clippings. A few letters contain oversize architectural or engineering drawings, and a small handful of letters are illustrated.

Correspondents include artists such as Darrell Austin, Joan Mir, Pablo Picasso, and Karl Priebe; galleries such as the Corcoran Gallery, Fujikawa Galleries, Galerie Maeght, and the Pierre Matisse Gallery; museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art; collectors such as Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, Adelaide de Mnil, Valentine Dudensing, and Henry Ford, II; and celebrity clients such as Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, Henry and Clare Booth Luce, and Barbra Streisand.

The records contain nearly thirty-two linear feet of photographs and negatives. Photographs are of artists and the inventory of the gallery's artwork. Additional photographs represent artwork either by artists not represented by the gallery or not included in the gallery's inventory. Most of the photographs are black and white. Over fifteen linear feet of negatives are of gallery stock. Photographs are also found in the exhibition files.

There is a relatively small amount of records relating to exhibitions, loans, and sales. Found are exhibition lists, schedules, invitations and announcements, photographs of exhibition installations, press releases, and records of loans to other institutions and galleries. Sales records include artist lists, inventory lists, invoices, pick up and delivery receipts, and price lists.

Printed materials include a large number of clippings and an incomplete run of catalogs from Perls Galleries exhibitions between 1939 and 1980.

The collection also includes ten original pencil drawings from John Canaday's series entitled My Beautiful Girls and a reproduction of eight drawings from the same series

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 7 series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1937-1995 (Boxes 1-44, OV 81-83; 43.6 linear feet)

Series 2: Negatives, circa 1937-1995 (Boxes 44-59; 15.7 linear feet)

Series 3: Photographs, circa 1937-1995 (Boxes 60-75, OV 84; 16.1 linear feet)

Series 4: Exhibition, Loan, and Sales Records, 1937-1995 (Boxes 76-78; 2.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Clippings Files, 1943-1989 (Box 78; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 6: Exhibition Catalogs, 1939-1980 (Boxes 78-79; 1.4 linear feet)

Series 7: Drawings by John Canaday, circa 1967-1972 (Box 80; 0.3 linear feet)

Historical Note:

Klaus Perls (b. 1912, d. 2008) formally opened Perls Galleries in New York in 1937, and ran it with his wife Amelia until its closing in 1997. The gallery dealt in contemporary French artists of the School of Paris, such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, but also acted as the primary representative of Alexander Calder beginning in 1954. In the 1970s Mr. Perls developed an interest in art from Benin and built an important collection of African sculpture, some of which was later donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amelia Perls died in 2002, and Klaus Perls died in 2008.

Klaus Perls was born in 1912 in Berlin in a house Mies van der Rohe designed for his parents, who owned an art gallery specializing in Impressionists, post-Impressionists, Old Master paintings, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and African sculpture. Perls studied Art History in Hamburg and Munich but completed his PhD in Basel, Switzerland in 1933 after the Nazi government stopped awarding degrees to Jews. His dissertation covered the complete works of 15th-century French painter Jean Fouquet.

Before moving to New York in 1935, Perls worked for his mother, Kaethe Perls, in her Paris gallery that she opened in 1932 after splitting up with Klaus' father Hugo. He spent his first two years in New York selling paintings through other art dealers, primarily paintings shipped or recommended to him by his mother from Paris that were not selling well in the Depression-era French art market. These were primarily the work of Maurice Utrillo, Marie Laurencin, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck. In 1937 he formally established his own gallery, the Perls Galleries, on East 58th Street and continued to specialize in French and European contemporary art. Around the same time, his older brother Frank opened a gallery in Beverly Hills, California.

Klaus Perls was familiar with other New York dealers specializing in modern European art such as Valentine Dudensing and Pierre Matisse, but he tried to distinguish himself by catering to young collectors. When the war restricted the international art trade and his mother was forced to flee France during the Occupation, Perls began dealing in contemporary American artists such as Darrel Austin and Karl Priebe.

Perls married Amelia Blumenthal, fondly known as "Dolly," in 1940, and she became his business partner.

After the war, the international art market exploded, and the Perls made frequent buying trips to Europe. The Perls Galleries continued to sell primarily contemporary French art and gained an early reputation as a staunch defender of modern art by European artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Lger, Soutine and Pascin. Perls prepared catalogues raisonns on Soutine and Pascin.

Klaus Perls was one of the founding members of the Art Dealer's Association, whose initial mission was to clean up the reputation of the art market following a series scandals involving fake antiquities that flourished in the 1960's. Perls was the Association's second president, after Pierre Matisse.

In 1954 Perls Galleries moved to 1016 Madison Avenue, a building that served as both gallery and home for the Perls. The same year Perls became Alexander Calder's dealer after the death of Calder's previous dealer, Curt Valentin. Perls explained his inclusion of Calder, a rare American among his stable of European artists, by saying that Calder's roots lay in France and that Calder bridged Europe and America the way Perls felt he did himself. In 1970, Calder designed the terrazzo sidewalk in front of the gallery and often resided in the Perls' home during long visits to New York City. Perls Galleries later handled Calder's estate and functioned as a quasi-archives of Calder's works, holding more than 7,000 negatives depicting Calder's art and preparing a Calder catalogue raisonn.

Klaus was named as a third-party defendant in the 1969 World War II looted art case Menzel v. List. When Erna Menzel sued Albert List for ownership of a Chagall painting confiscated from Menzel by the Nazis, List in turn sued Perls, who had sold him the painting in 1955, having purchased it himself from a Paris art dealer. The court awarded the Chagall painting to Menzel and ordered Perls to pay List the appreciated value of the painting.

Perls began building an important collection of African artwork and fell in love with art from Benin in the 1970's. In 1991 he donated more than 150 pieces of royal art from Benin to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Perls closed their gallery in 1997; Amelia Perls died in 2002, and Klaus Perls died in 2008.

Related Material:

Among the resources relating to the Perls Galleries in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Klaus Perls done by Mona Hadler on January 19, 1993.

Provenance:

The records were donated in 1997 by Douglas Mayhew, associate and legal representive of Klaus G. and Amelia B. Perls.

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.

Topic:

Art, Modern  Search this

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) -- New York

Genre/Form:

Illustrated letters

Drawings

Photographs

Citation:

Perls Galleries records, 1937-1997. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.perlgall

See more items in:

Perls Galleries records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-perlgall

Creator:

Charlton, Maryette  Search this

Names:

American University of Beirut -- Faculty  Search this

Art Institute of Chicago -- Faculty  Search this

Chicago Public School Art Society  Search this

Container Corporation of America  Search this

University of Iowa, Museum of Art  Search this

Andres, Jo  Search this

Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911-1979  Search this

Cage, Xenia  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Court, Paula  Search this

Elliott, Leone  Search this

Elliott, Owen  Search this

Fujitomi, Yasuo, 1928-  Search this

Habachy, Nimet  Search this

Hadzi, Dimitri, 1921-2006  Search this

Haskins, Sylvia Shaw Judson, 1897-  Search this

Hoff, Margo  Search this

Kiesler, Frederick  Search this

Kiesler, Lillian, 1910?-2001  Search this

Lubar, Cindy  Search this

MacIver, Loren, 1909-  Search this

Matisse, Pierre, 1900-1989  Search this

Miller, Dorothy Canning, 1904-2003  Search this

Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this

Purdy, James  Search this

Reynal, Jeanne, 1903-  Search this

Smith, Kiki, 1954-  Search this

Takaezu, Toshiko  Search this

Tawney, Lenore  Search this

Von Brockdorff, Louise Medbery  Search this

Extent:

80.6 Linear feet

0.34 Gigabytes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Photographs

Diaries

Sketchbooks

Sketches

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Sound recordings

Scripts (documents)

Drawings

Mail art

Motion pictures (visual works)

Video recordings

Date:

circa 1890-2013

Summary:

The papers of filmmaker, photographer, painter, printmaker, teacher, and arts advocate Maryette Charlton measure 81 linear feet and date from circa 1890 to 2013. This particularly rich collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings, 30 diaries, teaching files, professional and project files, major film project files, artist research files, exhibition files, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, 22 sketchbooks, extensive photographic materials, numerous sound and film recordings, a digitized sound recording, and an unintegrated later addition to the papers containing additional biographical materials, journals, correspondence, subject files, printed materials, and scattered photographs.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of filmmaker, photographer, painter, printmaker, teacher, and arts advocate Maryette Charlton measure 81 linear feet and 0.34 gigabytes and date from circa 1890 to 2013. This particularly rich collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings, 30 diaries, teaching files, professional and project files, major film project files, artist research files, exhibition files, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, 22 sketchbooks, extensive photographic materials, numerous sound and video recordings, motion picture film, a digitized sound recording, and an unintegrated later addition to the papers containing additional biographical materials, journals, correspondence, subject files, printed materials, and scattered photographs.

Biographical materials consist of material on Maryette Charlton and her family. The subseries on Maryette Charlton includes a biographical chronology, passports, records of her marriage to Hall Winslow, information on studio spaces, school transcripts, and other material. Family files include genealogical charts and files of family members containing correspondence, writings, printed material, sound and video recordings, and photographs. The bulk of the family files are for Charlton's parents, Etna and Shannon, and her husband and son, Hall and Kirk Winslow.

Extensive correspondence is with family, friends, artists, and colleagues. Family correspondence is with her husband and son, parents, and extended family. Personal correspondence is with friends and colleagues, many of whom were famous artists. Named correspondence files and chonological correspondence files contain exchanges with Jo Andres, Elizabeth Bishop, Xenia Cage, Paula Court, Yasuo Fujitomi, Dimitri Hadzi, Margo Hoff, Sylvia Shaw Judson, Lillian Kiesler, Cindy Lubar, Loren MacIver, Pierre Matisse, Nimet (Saba Habachy), Henri Seyrig, Robert Wilson, and many others. There is also correspondence with colleges, museums, and universities.

Writings include academic papers and college class notes, titled essays, a notebook with sketches, and miscellaneous notes. Thirty diaries cover the period 1943 - 2001 and document a wide variety of topics, from film projects to travels to the art world in New York City. Some diaries are illustrated, including one illustrated by Alexander Calder at a party with Maryette, Ellsworth Kelly, and actress Delphine Seyrig. Journals from 1978-1979 tell of Charlton's experiences while appearing in films made by avant-garde director Richard Foreman. There is also one diary of Maryette's mother Etna Barr Charlton.

Teaching files document Charlton's career as an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and as the founder of and instructor at the American University of Beirut's art department. Files include appointment calendars, schedules, notes, lectures, news releases, printed material, and photographs.

Professional and project files consist of material related to Maryette Charlton's professional work at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, as a lecturer at the Chicago Public School Art Society, color analyst at the Container Corporation of America, executor of the estate of artist Louise Medbery von Brockdorff, fellowships, conferences, organizations, and the filming industry in general. There are files for the screening of Zen in Ryoko-In. The University of Iowa Museum of Art subseries consists of correspondence with fellow co-founders Leone and Owen Elliott, files on art donations, museum administration, annual reports, printed material, photographs, and sound and video recordings.

Artist research files consist of books, articles, and clippings collected by Charlton for research. Notable artists chronicled include Alexander Calder, James Purdy, Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith, and Toshiko Takaezu.

Major film project files document Maryette Charlton's films about or with artists Frederick Kiesler (Trienniale, The Universal Theater and Kiesler on Kieseler), Lenore Tawney, Dorothy Miller, Loren MacIver, and Jeanne Reynal. The files for Frederick Kiesler also contain materials about his wife Lillian Kiesler, with whom Charlton had a long relationship and collaborated with on film projects. Individual film project files contain a wide variety of research and production documentation, including correspondence, writings, printed material, research files, exhibition catalogs, photographic materials, sound recordings of interviews and lectures, and Charlton's documentation about the creation and producation of each film, such as contracts, scripts, and distribution information. The film project files for Kiesler and Dorothy Miller are particularly rich, containing substantial amounts of primary source materials not found elsewhere. Sound and video recordings are found throughout the series, as well as 4 film reels.

Files documenting Maryette Charlton's group and solo exhibitions include catalogs and announcements, publicity, printed material, mailing lists, art inventory, sales lists, correspondence, and other material.

Printed materials include other exhibition catalogs, books, posters, magazines, and clippings. There are many books on color theory from Maryette Charlton's job as a color analyst and substanial printed material on Frederick Kiesler. Scrapbooks document Maryette Charlton's personal life from high school, college, and summer camp, as well as exhibitions of her own work, and miscellaneous subjects.

Artwork includes sketches and drawings by Maryette Charlton, some drawings by Lillian Kiesler and others, and mail art created by various artists. There are also 22 sketchbooks filled with pencil, ink, and crayon drawings and sketches, with occasional annotations.

Photographic materials include photographs, slides, negatives, and photograph albums. There are photographs of Maryette Charlton, her travels, family, friends, and artists. Photographs are also found throughout other series.

Sound and video recordings which could not be merged with other series were arranged in an audiovisual series. There are recordings of radio programs and performances Maryette Charlton attended or participated in as well as miscellaneous recordings of artists and events.

The 2014 addition to the Maryette Charlton papers consists of biographical materials, journals, correspondence, subject files, printed materials, and a small number of photographs.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as 16 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1896-2005 (3.4 linear feet; Boxes 1-4, 80)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1930-2010 (23.3 linear feet; Boxes 4-27, 80)

Series 3: Writings, 1942-1999 (1 linear feet; Boxes 27-28)

Series 4: Diaries, 1943-2001 (2.1 linear feet; Boxes 28-30)

Series 5: Teaching Files, 1946-1997 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 30-33, 80)

Series 6: Professional and Project Files, 1923-1998 (7.6 linear feet; Boxes 34-41, 81, OV 87)

Series 7: Artist Research Files, 1949-circa 2000 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 41-43, FCs 88-89)

Series 8: Major Film Projects, 1904-2007 (18.8 linear feet, 0.34 GB; Boxes 43-61, 81-82, OV 87, FC 90-91, ER01)

Series 9: Exhibition Files, 1950-2000 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 61-62)

Series 10: Printed Material, 1924-2000 (3.2 linear feet; Boxes 62-65, 82, OV 87)

Series 11: Scrapbooks, 1939-2010 (0.8 linear feet; Box 65, 82-83)

Series 12: Artwork, 1950-1998 (0.9 linear feet; Boxes 65-66, 84)

Series 13: Sketchbooks, 1949-1996 (0.5 linear feet; Box 66)

Series 14: Photographic Materials, circa 1890-circa 2010 (7.8 linear feet; Boxes 67-74, 84-86)

Series 15: Sound and Video Recordings, circa 1953-2008 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 74-75, 86)

Series 16: Addition to Maryette Charlton papers, 1951-2013 (3.7 linear feet; Boxes 75-79, 86)

Biographical / Historical:

Maryette Charlton (1924-2013) was a painter, printmaker, photographer, filmmaker and arts advocate based in Chicago, Illinois, and New York, New York.

Maryette Charlton was born in Manchester, Iowa on May 18, 1924. Her parents were Shannon and Etna Charlton and she had 2 siblings. Charlton pursued her undergraduate studies at Monticello College and Northwestern University in Illinois, Antioch College in Ohio, and the University of Colorado before receiving a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1947. She continued her studies in Chicago, Illinois with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Hugo Weber at the Institute of Design and Art Institute of Chicago. From 1948 to 1952, she was a Department of Education lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago museum galleries and also gave talks at schools for the Chicago Public School Art Society.

Between 1942-1951, Maryette Charlton worked as a color analyst for the Container Corporation of America. In 1952, Charlton founded the Art Department of the American University of Beirut and taught there as an assistant professor until 1956. While in Beirut, Charlton married photographer Hall Winslow in 1953 and their only child Kirk Winslow was born in 1955. Winslow and Charlton later divorced in 1973.

Charlton moved to New York City in 1955. She began a master's program at Columbia University and graduated with a M.F.A in film and printmaking in 1958.

Charlton made numerous documentary films, mostly about American artists including Alexander Calder, e. e. cummings, Jeanne Reynal, Dorothy Miller, Pierre Matisse, Lenore Tawney, and Loren MacIver. She also worked tirelessly to promote the work of sculptor, architect, and set designer Frederick Kiesler. She was the camera woman for Kiesler's Kiesler's Universal Theater which aired on CBS in 1962. She became close friends with Kiesler's widow, Lillian, and they collaborated on the film Kiesler on Kiesler and numerous other film and art projects, supporting the work of young artists. Charlton also worked on commissioned films, including The Mosaics of Jeanne Reynal and Zen in Ryoko-in. Charlton befriended many artists in the visual, literary, and film worlds, including Elizabeth Bishop, Dimitri Hadzi, Margo Hoff, James Purdy, and Delphine Seyrig.

A performer in her own right, Charlton appeared in the works of Richard Foreman, Jo Andres, and others. She also played the part of Helen Keller in the film Ghostlight (2003).

An Iowa native, Charlton founded the University of Iowa Museum of Art together with Leone and Owen Elliott. She maintained a close relationship with the Iowa Museum over many years as a donor and chronicler.

Charlton died in New York City on November 25, 2013.

Related Materials:

The Houghton Library at Harvard University and the University of Iowa Museum of Art also hold papers and artwork by Maryette Charlton. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, houses the film Kiesler on Kiesler, created by Maryette Charlton.

The Archives of American Art also has the papers of Frederick and Lillian Kiesler, a portion of which was donated by Charlton.

Provenance:

The Maryette Charlton papers were donated in multiple accretions from 1998-2011 by Maryette Charlton, and in 2013-2014 by the Maryette Charlton estate via Jo Andres, executor.

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 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:

Filmmakers -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Photographers -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Art teachers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art teachers -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Topic:

Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Printmakers -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Museums -- Administration  Search this

Color  Search this

Art -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Diaries

Sketchbooks

Sketches

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Sound recordings

Scripts (documents)

Drawings

Mail art

Motion pictures (visual works)

Video recordings

Citation:

Maryette Charlton papers, circa 1890-2013. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund

Identifier:

AAA.charmary

See more items in:

Maryette Charlton papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-charmary

Creator:

American Abstract Artists  Search this

Names:

Albers, Josef  Search this

Archipenko, Alexander, 1887-1964  Search this

Billings, Henry, 1901-  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956  Search this

Gurin, Ruth  Search this

Hasegawa, Saburō, 1906-1957  Search this

Holtzman, Harry  Search this

Mason, Alice Trumbull, 1904-1971  Search this

Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944  Search this

Rabkin, Leo  Search this

Rousseau, Irene  Search this

Extent:

1.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Date:

1936-1983

Summary:

The records of the American Abstract Artists measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1936 through 1983. The records document the founding of the organization in 1936, membership activities, general administration, and exhibitions via correspondence, member writings, financial and legal records, printed materials, and photographs.

Scope and Contents:

The records of the American Abstract Artists measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1936 through 1983. The records document the founding of the organization in 1936, membership activities, general administration, and exhibitions via correspondence, member writings, financial and legal records, printed materials, and photographs.

Correspondence mainly relates to the exhibitions and member activities of the American Abstract Artists. There are letters from Josef Albers, Alexander Archipenko, Alexander Calder, Lyonel Feininger, Harry Holtzman, Piet Mondrian, and Irene Rousseau, President Emeritus of the American Abstract Artists. Official bulletins sent to members are also found among the correspondence.

Administrative records include founding prospectus, meeting minutes, lists of members, and drafts and amendments to the American Abstract Artists constitution.

Member writings are by Saburo Hasegawa, Henry Billings, Leo Rabkin, and Ruth Gurin. Financial and legal records include ledger books, insurance documents, and other financial material. Printed materials include announcements for the American Abstract Artists' annual exhibitions, as well as exhibition posters. Finally, there are two photographs of collage paintings by members.

Arrangement:

The arrangement and description in this finding aid refer to unmicrofilmed portions of the collection. Legacy microfilm arrangement is not reflected.

The collection is arranged as 6 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1937-1982 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 2: Administrative Records, 1937-1982 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 3: Member Writings, 1938-1954 (Box 1; 4 folders)

Series 4: Financial and Legal Records, 1942-1983 (Box 1-2; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 5: Printed Materials, 1936-1982 (Box 2-3, OV 4; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 6: Photographs, 1963 (Box 3; 1 folder)

Biographical / Historical:

The American Abstract Artists group was established in 1936 in New York, New York by a group of painters and sculptors. The American Abstract Artists contributed to the introduction of abstract art to the American public through exhibitions, publications, and lectures.

During the era of the formation of the American Abstract Artists, abstraction was not critically accepted. In 1937, the American Abstract Artists held their first exhibition at the Squibb Galleries in New York City. It received negative reactions from both the press and the public - the exhibition had a high attendance but poor reviews. The American Abstract Artists addressed the role of the critic through their publications, specifically the 1940 pamphlet "The Art Critics! How Do They Serve the Public? What Do They Say? How Much Do They Know?—Let's Look at the Record!"

The group was most active from 1937 to 1942, and supported the critical success of Abstract Expressionism in later decades.

Related Materials:

Among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are the Ruth Bowman Interviews of American Abstract Art members, 1963-1965, and Susan C. Larsen's Interviews of American Abstract Art members, 1973-1978.

Separated Materials:

The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming available on 35 mm microfilm reels D539, N59-11, N69-72, N69-96, N69-97, N69-137, and N70-48. Much of this material and the papers on reels N70-48 and N59-11 were included in subsequent gifts, and may have been microfilmed again. Loaned materials not donated later are not described in the collection container inventory.

Provenance:

The Archives of American Art acquired the American Abstract Artists records in three installments by Presidents Emeriti of the American Abstract Artists. Alice Trumball Mason first lent papers for microfilming in 1959, and she later gifted the majority of this material in 1969. Following, Leo Rabkin donated records in 1969, and Irene Rousseau gave more papers in 1983.

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:

Painters  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Societies, etc. -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Sculptors  Search this

Art, Abstract -- United States  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Citation:

The American Abstract Artists records, 1936-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.amerabst

See more items in:

American Abstract Artists records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-amerabst

Creator:

Battcock, Gregory, 1937-  Search this

Names:

Bronx Museum of the Arts  Search this

International Association of Art Critics  Search this

Trylon & perisphere  Search this

William Paterson College of New Jersey -- Faculty  Search this

Battcock, Elizabeth  Search this

Beker, Gisela  Search this

Brown, Cee  Search this

Burton, Scott  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976 -- Photographs  Search this

Carsman, Jon, 1944-  Search this

Christo, 1935-  Search this

Dalí, Salvador, 1904-  Search this

Dreva, Jerry  Search this

Frank, Peter, 1950-  Search this

George, John  Search this

Glusberg, Jorge  Search this

Goldstein, Al  Search this

Halbert, Jacques  Search this

Hess, Emil, 1889-1945  Search this

Levine, Les, 1935-  Search this

Livingston, Braniff  Search this

McGeehan, Robert, 1933-  Search this

Morley, Malcolm, 1931-  Search this

Nakagawa, Naoto, 1944-  Search this

Neri, Julio  Search this

Paik, Nam June, 1932-2006  Search this

Partch, Harry, 1901-1974  Search this

Peña, Rolando, 1942-  Search this

Picard, Lil  Search this

Pocock, Philip  Search this

Schult, Ha, 1939-  Search this

Van Baron, Judith  Search this

Varble, Stephen  Search this

Warhol, Andy, 1928-  Search this

Wechter, Vivienne Thaul  Search this

Whyte, Ron  Search this

Extent:

10.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Video recordings

Scrapbooks

Diaries

Photographs

Interviews

Date:

1952-circa 1980

Summary:

The papers of New York art critic, writer, educator, and painter, Gregory Battcock, measure 10.6 linear feet and date from 1952 to circa 1980. The collection includes biographical material, correspondence, published and unpublished writings, artists' files, personal business records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials, and artifacts that detail his involvement in both the mainstream and fringe art scenes of the 1970s.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of New York art critic, writer, educator, and painter, Gregory Battcock, measure 10.6 linear feet and date from 1952 to circa 1980. The collection includes biographical material, correspondence, published and unpublished writings, artists' files, personal business records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials, and artifacts that detail his involvement in both the mainstream and fringe art scenes of the 1970s.

Biographical materials contain address lists, six appointment books, a diploma and certificate, family history, identification documents, interviews, resumes, obituaries, a William Paterson College of New Jersey teaching file, and membership files for The Bronx Museum, International Association of Art Critics, and other organizations. Correspondence is with Battcock's mother, Elizabeth; friends and colleagues Peter Frank, John George, Al Goldstein, Braniff Livingston, Robert McGeehan, Julio Neri, Judith Van Baron, Ron Whyte, and others regarding social events, reprint permissions, book projects, travel arrangements, real estate, and freelance work.

Writings and notes include personal journal entries, drafts for articles and essays, manuscripts for published and unpublished works including "The Story of Film" and Breaking the Sound Barrier: A Critical Anthology of the New Music, his dissertation titled "Constructivism and Minimal Art: Some Critical, Theoretical and Aesthetic Correlations," book proposals, lectures, limericks, restaurant reviews, notes and writings by Jorge Glusberg and Vivienne Thaul Wechter.

Files for artists contain mostly printed material on Gisela Beker, Cee Brown, Jon Carsman, Christo, Jerry Dreva, Jacques Halbert, Emil Hess, Les Levine, Naoto Nakagawa, Nam Jun Paik, Harry Partch, Lil Picard, Philip Pocock, HA Schult, Andy Warhol, and others. The file for Salvador Dalí contains one video recording. Battcock's personal business records include contracts and payments for his writing, real estate papers, business agreements, papers regarding his father's estate, a loan agreement for Andy Warhol's "Self Portrait," and files detailing the theft of two painting by Malcom Morley from Battcock's residence.

Found in printed materials are clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, flyers, post cards, magazines, press releases, issues of Trylon & Perisphere and Gay magazines, and other material that features Battcock's writings. Additional clippings of Battcock's writings that appeared in the New York Free Press, New York Review of Sex and Politics, Domus, The Soho Weekly News, New York Arts Journal, Gay, and other publications are contained in ten scrapbooks.

Photographs are of Battcock, colleagues and friends, works of art from his personal collection, travel, and artists Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Nam Jun Paik, Julio Neri, Rolando Peña, Stephen Varble, and Scott Burton. Several keys with a detached keychain labeled 'studio' are in artifacts.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as 9 series.

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1958-1980 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1960s-circa 1980 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-3, 12)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1966-1980 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 4-6)

Series 4: Artists' Files, 1960s-1980 (0.6 linear feet; Box 6)

Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1966-1980 (0.5 linear feet; Box 6-7)

Series 6: Printed Materials, 1952-1980 (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 12-13)

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1959-1980 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 8-9, 12)

Series 8: Photographic Materials, 1960s-1980 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 9-11)

Series 9: Artifacts, circa 1970s (0.1 linear feet; Box 11)

Biographical / Historical:

Gregory Battcock (1937-1980) was an art critic, writer, educator, and painter from New York, N.Y. He attended Michigan State University, the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, and Hunter College for his undergraduate and graduate studies before receiving his Ph.D. from New York University in 1978. His dissertation was titled "Constructivism and Minimal Art: Some Aesthetic, Theoretical and Critical Correlations."

Battcock was a prolific writer and wrote numerous articles as a correspondent for Art & Artists and Domus magazines. His column, "The Last Estate," appeared in Gay magazine as well as other publications. In 1977, Battcock co-founded the short-lived magazine, Trylon & Perisphere, with his close friend, playwright Ron Whyte. Even though only three issues were printed, the magazine exhibited Battcock's predilection for art society gossip, and provocative imagery and prose. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. published several of Battcock's books including Why Art: Casual Notes on the Aesthetics of the Immediate Past, Breaking the Sound Barrier: A Critical Anthology of the New Music, and Idea Art: A Critical Anthology. In addition to his writing career, Battcock taught fine art at William Paterson College of New Jersey, was art critic for New York Free Press from 1967 to 1970, Editor-in-Chief of Arts Magazine from 1973 to 1975, and appeared in the Andy Warhol films The Illiac Passion, Horse, and Batman Dracula.

Battcock was murdered in Puerto Rico on December 25, 1980. At the time of his death he was working on "The Story of Film," which remains unpublished, and The Art of Performance: A Critical Anthology, which was published posthumously in 1984.

Related Materials:

Also found at the Archives of American Art is an audio interview recorded on December 11, 1969 with Gregory Battcock for the University Roundtable radio series. The recording forms part of the WFUV radio interviews relating to art, 1969-1973 collection.

Provenance:

The Gregory Battcock papers were donated in 1992 by Nancy Mahl, an artist who occupied a studio in Jersey City, N.J. that had formerly been leased by a moving and storage company, and who came upon Battcock's papers in the building. The papers had been shipped to the Jersey City building without the knowledge of Ron Whyte (executor of Battcock's estate) and the Rev. Paul William Bradley, who had arranged to have Battcock's papers stored after his death. Additional papers were donated 2003 by Rev. Paul W. Bradley, who inherited the papers after the death of his partner Ron Whyte.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the 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:

Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Constructivism (Art)  Search this

Educators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Minimal art  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Study and teaching  Search this

Art thefts  Search this

Authors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Video recordings

Scrapbooks

Diaries

Photographs

Interviews

Citation:

Gregory Battcock Papers, 1952-circa 1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Identifier:

AAA.battgreg

See more items in:

Gregory Battcock papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-battgreg

Creator:

Trieff, Selina, 1934-  Search this

Names:

Henry, Robert, 1933-  Search this

Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967  Search this

Extent:

0.5 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Drawings

Sound recordings

Interviews

Video recordings

Date:

1951-1981

Summary:

The papers of painter Selina Trieff measure 0.5 linear feet and date from 1951-1981. The collection documents Trieff's career through personal and professional papers including correspondence, postcards from friend and mentor Ad Reinhardt, a 1951 art competition certificate, and audiovisual recordings of an interview with Trieff, a talk given by her husband, artist Robert Henry, and an exhibition lecture. Also found are clippings, articles, exhibition catalogs and announcements; photographs of Trieff, her friends, family, other artists, and paintings; and several drawings.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of painter Selina Trieff measure 0.5 linear feet and date from 1951-1981. The collection documents Trieff's career through personal and professional papers including correspondence, postcards from friend and mentor Ad Reinhardt, a 1951 art competition certificate, and audiovisual recordings of an interview with Trieff, a talk given by her husband, artist Robert Henry, and an exhibition lecture. Also found are clippings, articles, exhibition catalogs and announcements; photographs of Trieff, her friends, family, other artists, and paintings; and several drawings.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as one series.

Series 1: Personal and Professional Papers, 1951-1981 (Box 1, OV 2; 0.5 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Selina Trieff (1934-2015) was a painter in Brooklyn, New York. After high school, she studied with Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt at Brooklyn College; Hans Hofmann in Provincetown; and Morris Kantor at the Art Students League. Trieff was most known for her unique style of expressionist portraits and self portraits, as well as her paintings of animals. Trieff had solo exhibitions at the Broolyn Museum, Riverside Art Museum, California, and the Hudson River Art Museum, New York; and exhibited her work in group shows acrosss the United States and Europe. Her work is found in collections at the Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and many more.

Provenance:

The collection was donated by Selina Trieff in 1981.

Restrictions:

The 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 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.

Occupation:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Women artists  Search this

Portrait painting  Search this

Genre/Form:

Drawings

Sound recordings

Interviews

Video recordings

Citation:

Selina Trieff papers, 1951-1981. 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.

Identifier:

AAA.trieseli

See more items in:

Selina Trieff papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-trieseli

Creator:

Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994  Search this

Names:

Art in America  Search this

Velvet Underground (Musical group)  Search this

Asher, Elise, 1914-  Search this

Avery, Sally  Search this

Beck, Margit, 1915-1997  Search this

Bellow, Saul  Search this

Bultman, Fritz, 1919-1985  Search this

Cale, John  Search this

Cavallon, Giorgio, 1904-1989  Search this

Cohen, Jean  Search this

Cunningham, Merce  Search this

De Diego, Julio, 1900-  Search this

Drexler, Rosalyn  Search this

Flexner, James Thomas, 1908-2003  Search this

Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011  Search this

Freed, William, 1904-  Search this

Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-  Search this

Gelb, Jan, 1906-1978  Search this

Gorelick, Shirley, 1924-2000  Search this

Greenwood, Marion, 1909-1970  Search this

Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966  Search this

Jones, John  Search this

Kahn, Wolf, 1927-  Search this

Karolik, Maxim  Search this

Katz, Alex, 1927-  Search this

Marcus, Marcia, 1928-  Search this

Margo, Boris, 1902-1995  Search this

Martin, Fletcher, 1904-1979  Search this

McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-1980  Search this

Middleman, Raoul F., 1935-  Search this

Motherwell, Robert  Search this

Newman, Barnett, 1905-1970  Search this

Nico, 1938-1988  Search this

Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988  Search this

Orlowsky, Lillian, 1914-2004  Search this

Pearlstein, Philip, 1924-  Search this

Refregier, Anton, 1905-  Search this

Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002  Search this

Ross, Alvin, 1920-1975  Search this

Rothschild, Judith  Search this

Saint-Phalle, Niki de, 1930-  Search this

Segal, George, 1924-2000  Search this

Shahn, Ben, 1898-1969  Search this

Tinguely, Jean, 1925-  Search this

Ustinov, Peter  Search this

Warhol, Andy, 1928-  Search this

Whyte, William Hollingsworth  Search this

Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009  Search this

Extent:

1.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1962-1976

Summary:

The Dorothy Gees Seckler collection of sound recordings relating to art and artists measures 1.6 linear feet and dates from 1962 to 1976. Recordings include 17 interviews conducted by Seckler, one interview by John Jones, and 17 additional recordings of mostly contemporary art-related programs and interviews taped from radio and television broadcasts. Recordings are on 26 sound cassettes and 25 sound tape reels.

Scope and Contents:

The Dorothy Gees Seckler collection of sound recordings relating to art and artists measures 1.6 linear feet and dates from 1962 to 1976. Recordings include 20 interviews conducted by Seckler, one interview by John Jones, and 17 additional recordings of mostly contemporary art-related programs and interviews taped from radio and television broadcasts. Recordings are on 26 sound cassettes and 25 sound tape reels.

Interviews with Artists consist of 17 interviews by Dorothy Seckler with artists including Elise Asher, Fritz Bultman, Judith Rothschild, Giorgio Cavallon, Marcia Marcus, Jean Cohen, William Freed, Lillian Orlowsky, Shirley Gorelick, Hans Hofmann, Wolf Kahn, Raoul Middleman, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Olin Orr, Larry Rivers, Alvin Ross, George Segal, Jean Tinguely, and Niki de Saint Phalle. Several interviews are with two subjects at once. Many of these interviews were conducted in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and are referenced in her introduction to the catalog for the exhibition Provincetown Painters, 1890's – 1970's held at the Everson Museum and the Provincetown Art Association in 1977, and several interviews were conducted as research for articles Seckler wrote and published in Art in America. Also found are group interviews on specific subjects, including an interview with Julio de Diego, Marion Greenwood, Fletcher Martin, and Anton Refregier on the Woodstock art colony, and with Sally Avery, Boris Margo, Jan Gelb, Margit Beck and others on Op Art. In September of 1966, Seckler recorded some of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable in Provincetown, which includes a performance by Nico and the Velvet Underground, as well as an interview with one of the band's members, John Cale. A single interview conducted by John Jones of George Segal appears to have been copied by Seckler to prepare for her April 1966 interview of Segal.

Broadcast materials include sound recordings of television and radio broadcast programs taped off the air presumably by Seckler. Most programs are interviews, with subjects including Maxim Karolik, James Thomas Flexner, R. Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, Alex Katz, Phillip Pearlstein, Roslyn Drexler, Barnet Newman, Saul Bellow, Ben Shahn, Marshall McLuhan, Isamu Noguchi, Andrew Wyeth, and William H Whyte. Other recordings include documentary programs related to contemporary art, book reviews, and a comedy performance with actor Peter Ustinov.

Photographs include 12 color slides from October of 1967 that appear to have been shot in Provincetown, Mass. Subjects include Dorothy Seckler and two other unidentified women.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in 3 series.

Series 1: Interviews with Artists, 1962-1976 (1 linear foot; Box 1)

Series 2: Broadcast Materials, 1962-1972 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)

Series 3: Photographs, 1967 (1 folder; Box 3)

Biographical / Historical:

Dorothy Gees Seckler was an art historian, critic, journalist, and artist active in New York City and Provincetown, Mass. Born Dorothy Elizabeth Gees in Baltimore, MD in 1910, she completed the program in Advertising Design at Maryland Institute College of Art in 1931 and was awarded a traveling scholarship upon graduation, which she used to study in Europe. She later received a masters degree from Columbia University in Art History and Art Education, and worked during World War II as head of an illustration unit in the Army's Judge Advocate General's office.

After the war, she worked at the Museum of Modern Art as an art historian in the education office until 1950, when she began writing for ARTnews magazine, reviewing New York gallery shows for its "Gallery Notes" section, and exploring painters' processes in the "Paints a Picture" series. She later served as contributing editor for Art in America from the late 1950s through the late 1960s, where her published work included features on Robert Rauschenberg and Louise Nevelson, as well as broad surveys of contemporary art such as "A Folklore of the Banal" (Winter 1962) and "Audience is His Medium" (February 1963). She taught at New York University and City College of New York, and wrote a long essay on the history of the Provincetown's art colony, published in Art in America in 1959, and later updated for the catalog for the 1977 exhibition Provincetown Painters, 1890's - 1970's. Between 1962 and 1968, she conducted thirty oral history interviews for the Archives of American Art and served as one of its manuscript collectors.

Throughout her career as a writer and critic, Seckler painted and worked in collage, and her work was shown in several Provincetown galleries, and in the Provincetown Art Center and Museum. She married Jerome Seckler in 1937 and they had one son. Seckler received the American Federation of Arts Award for outstanding writing in the field of American Art in 1952. She died in 1994.

Related Materials:

Other related materials in the Archives' collections include several additional interviews conducted by Seckler for its oral history program, a full recording and transcript of the August 28, 1963 symposium on pop art, for which brief sound notes are found in this collection, and a transcript of the John Jones interview with George Segal in the John Jones interviews with artists collection, 1965 Oct. 5-1965 Nov. 12.

Separated Materials:

In 2012, several duplicates of recordings Seckler made for the Archives of American Art's oral history program were removed from the collection including: Peter and Riva Dechar (1965 and 1967), David von Schlegell (1967), Joan Mitchell (1965), Theresa Schwartz (1965), Paul Burlin (1962), Ibram Lassaw (1964), Jack Tworkov (1962), Allan Kaprow (1968), Edwin Dickinson (1962), Nathan Halper (1963), Louise Nevelson (1964-1965), Karl Knaths (1962), and Stephen Greene (1968). Joan Mitchell's 1965 oral history interview remains with the Seckler collection because reel 2 of this recording also contains a discussion of optical art that belongs in the Seckler collection. The oral history interview has been digitized and is available through the Archives' oral history program.

Provenance:

The bulk of the collection, including the interviews with the Provincetown artists, was donated 1995 by Don Seckler, son of Dorothy Seckler. The source of acquisition for the Seckler interviews with the Woodstock artists is unknown.

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.

Occupation:

Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Optical art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Citation:

Dorothy Gees Seckler collection of sound recordings relating to art and artists, 1962-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the transcription of Seckler's interviews with Provincetown artists was provided by the Shirley Gorelick Foundation in 2014.

Identifier:

AAA.seckdoro

See more items in:

Dorothy Gees Seckler Collection of Sound Recordings Relating to Art and Artists

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-seckdoro

Creator:

Greenwood, Marion, 1909-1970  Search this

Names:

Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988 -- Photographs  Search this

Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this

Extent:

0.5 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Date:

1883, circa 1933-circa 1960

Summary:

The papers of painter and muralist Marion Greenwood (1909-1970) measure 0.5 linear feet and date from circa 1933 to circa 1960. The collection is comprised of biographical materials, printed materials, photographs and negatives.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of painter and muralist Marion Greenwood (1909-1970) measure 0.5 linear feet and date from circa 1933 to circa 1960. The collection is comprised of biographical materials, printed materials, photographs and negatives.

Biographical materials consist of a resume. Printed materials include exhibition announcements and catalogs; clippings of Greenwood's art in commercial publications; a profile of Greenwood written for American Artist magazine; and other miscellaneous material. Photographs in the collection include black and white originals, negatives, copies, and snapshots, primarily depicting Greenwood's work as a muralist and painter. Also present are photographs of the artist, including images of Greenwood with Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera, sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi, friends, and family.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as three series.

Series 1: Biographical material, circa 1960 (1 folder; Box 1)

Series 2: Printed Material, 1883, 1937-1960 (4 folders; Box 1)

Series 3: Photographic material, circa 1933-circa 1960 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 3)

Biographical / Historical:

Marion Greenwood (1909-1970) was an American social realist painter and muralist who worked in both the United States and Mexico.

Greenwood was born in Brooklyn, and educated at the Art Students League of New York and the Academie Colarossi in Paris. She travelled extensively throughout Mexico, China, and the United States, and her travels were often reflected in her paintings. She was the first female American painter to receive a mural commission from the Mexican government, and painted a series of commissioned murals from 1932-1936. Greenwood also worked for the U. S. Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project from 1936-1940, painting murals and frescoes in housing projects in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Camden, NJ, as well as in the post office of Crossville, TN. After 1940, Greenwood primarily focused on easel painting. In 1944, she was commissioned as a war artist by the Army Medical Corps and by the pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories to document soldiers returned from war and their medical care. Greenwood served as a visiting professor at the University of Tennessee from 1954-1955, and was commissioned to paint a mural for the university in 1955.

Marion Greenwood died in Woodstock, NY in 1970.

Related Materials:

Within the collections of the Archives is the Oral history interview with Marion Greenwood, 1964 Jan. 31, by Dorothy Seckler.

Provenance:

The collection was donated by Marion Greenwood in 1964, and at an earlier, unknown date.

Restrictions:

Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. 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.

Occupation:

Painters -- Mexico  Search this

Topic:

Women artists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Social realism  Search this

Women artists -- Mexico  Search this

Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Muralists -- Mexico  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Citation:

Marion Greenwood papers, 1883, circa 1933-circa 1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.greemari

See more items in:

Marion Greenwood papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-greemari

Creator:

Greenstone, Marion  Search this

Names:

Pratt Institute -- Faculty  Search this

Johnson, Ray, 1927-1995  Search this

Kitaj, R. B.  Search this

Raffael, Joseph, 1933-  Search this

Extent:

4.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sketchbooks

Scrapbooks

Motion pictures

Date:

1929-2014

Summary:

The papers of painter and educator Marion Greenstone measure 4.6 linear feet, and date from 1929-2014. The collection documents Greenstone's career through biographical materials, mixed professional and personal correspondence, writings and notebooks, exhibition and gallery files, teaching files, personal business records, printed material, sketches and sketchbooks, and photographs. The papers also include three motion picture films comprised of homemade footage created by Greenstone.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of painter and educator Marion Greenstone measure 4.6 linear feet, and date from 1929-2014. The collection documents Greenstone's career through biographical materials, mixed professional and personal correspondence, writings and notebooks, exhibition and gallery files, teaching files, personal business records, printed material, sketches and sketchbooks, and photographs. The papers also include three motion picture films comprised of homemade footage created by Greenstone.

Biographical materials include records from Greenstone's education, a birth certificate, organization membership papers, an interview transcript, and a transcript from a talk she gave in Bari, Italy, circa 1955. This grouping also includes three motion picture films. Correspondence is comprised of mixed professional and personal letters with friends, other artists, museums, and galleries. Of particular note is her communications with several fellow Cooper Union art department graduates including Ronnie (R. B.) Kitaj, Joseph Raffael, and Paul Thek. Writings and notebooks include artist statements, drafts of articles and reviews by Greenstone, course notebooks from her studies, daily notebooks, and travel diaries. Exhibition and gallery files consist of correspondence, loan agreements, shipping documents, as well as some price lists, photographs, and publicity material. Teaching files primarily pertain to her tenure at the Pratt Institute, consisting of lecture and classroom notes, student correspondence, administrative papers, and identification cards. Personal business records contain sales records, inventories, communications with art services and consultants, papers pertaining to grant and fellowship applications, and some commission files. Printed materials consist of exhibition material, press releases, some of Greenstone's reference material, articles and clippings both about Greenstone and written by the artist, and newsletters. Artwork includes several sketchbooks and loose sketches; some small paintings are included as well. Photographs are primarily snapshots and slides of the artist, friends, family, travel, and artwork.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as 9 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1931-2006 (Box 1, FC 7; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1954-2000 (Box 1; 10 folders)

Series 3: Writings and Notebooks, 1947-2003 (Box 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 4: Exhibition and Gallery Files, 1959-1992 (Box 2; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 5: Teaching Files, 1969-1992 (Box 2-3; 12 folders)

Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1951-1999 (Box 3; 12 folders)

Series 7: Printed Material, 1929-2014 (Box 3-4; 1 linear foot)

Series 8: Artwork, 1945-1992 (Box 4, OV 6; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 9: Photographs, 1954-1990s (Box 5; 0.4 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Marion Isaacson Greenstone (1925-2005) was a painter and educator in New York, New York.

Greenstone received her B.A. from Brooklyn College, completed an M.A. at Columbia University, and earned a diploma from Cooper Union. In addition to living in New York, Greenstone also took residences in Italy and Canada, exhibiting frequently in both countries well into the 2000s. Her initial time in Italy was under a Fulbright grant in 1954. While there, Greenstone studied painting and lectured on art. By the end of the decade she had moved with her husband to London, Ontario and gained noteriety there for her artwork. By the late 1960s Greenstone was back in New York working as a teacher for the Pratt Institute. Her activities were then divided between teaching, creating art, and exhibiting her work. During her career, Greenstone's work was included in museum and gallery group shows in the United States, Canada, and Italy, including ones held at the Schneider Gallery in Rome, Brooklyn Museum, and Royal Canadian Academy. She held solo exhibitions in Canada at the Park Gallery, Dorothy Cameron Gallery, and University of Western Ontario; and in the United States at the Bridge Gallery, Sixth Estate Gallery, and Long Island University. Her work can be found in various private and public collections including the Ontario Gallery of Art, Continental Telephone Crop., and the Art Gallery of London. After retiring in 1992 she traveled extensively throughout Europe with her husband, Myron, and others, and continued exhibiting and creating artwork until her death in 2005.

Provenance:

The collection was donated in 2007 by Cora Hahn, Marion Greenstone's sister.

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.

Occupation:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Abstract expressionism  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sketchbooks

Scrapbooks

Motion pictures

Citation:

Marion Greenstone Papers, 1929-2014. 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.

Identifier:

AAA.greemario

See more items in:

Marion Greenstone papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-greemario