Artists of Grand Rapids, 1840-1980 : a cooperative exhibition, the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Grand Rapids Public Museum, September 14- November 30, 1981 / by J. Gray Sweeney with contributions by Sylvia Krissoff
Seeing differently the Phillips collects for a new century edited by Elsa Smithgall ; contributions by heather ahtone, Taylor Renee Aldridge, Dominique Baqué, Mary Jane Jacob, Dorothy M. Kosinski [and forty-three others]
California painting: 40 painters, selected by Samuel Heavenrich [director of the exhibition] and Grace L. McCann Morley, with statements by the artists. The Municipal Art Center, Long Beach, in collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Art
Exposiçõe "aspectos mais representativos da pintura americana" : dos serviços culturais da Embaixada dos Estados Unidos da América : Sala de Exposiçoes da Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes
Author:
Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes (Portugal) Search this
United States Embassy (Portugal) Cultural Service Search this
The papers of landscape painter and art instructor William Kienbusch measure 5.0 linear feet and date from 1915 to 2001, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1936 to 1980. The collection documents Kienbusch's life as an artist in New York City and Cranberry Island, Maine. Files include biographical material; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues; writings and notes; scattered printed material; photographs; and artwork, including 17 sketchbooks.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of landscape painter and art instructor William Kienbusch measure 5.0 linear feet and date from 1915 to 2001, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1936 to 1980. The collection documents Kienbusch's life as an artist in New York City and Cranberry Island, Maine. Files include biographical material; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues; writings and notes; scattered printed material; photographs; and artwork, including 17 sketchbooks.
Biographical materials include military records, identification and membership documents, guestbooks, and an album entitled "Book of Friendship" containing short notes written by friends for Kienbusch on the occasion of his 60th Birthday. Also of note is copy of the "In Memoriam" written for Kienbusch by Karl Schrag.
The bulk of the papers consist of family and general correspondence. Family correspondence includes letters from Kienbusch to his parents regarding school, summer camps, travel, and the army. General correspondence includes many letters he sent to his close friend, Stanley Clifford, as well as letters from friends and associates, such as Stuart Davis, Antionette Kraushaar, Walter Maitland, Henry Varnum Poor, Abraham Rattner, Karl Schrag, Reuben Tam, and others.
Writings and notes include scattered notes, lists, and draft writings, as well as three notebooks, including one on casein technique. Printed material includes several armed forces publications and maps from World War II, clippings, and press releases. Photographs are of William Kienbusch, including two snapshots of Kienbusch with friends Dorothy Andrews and Reuben Tam. Also found are numerous travel and nature photographs. Artwork includes drawings created by Kienbusch while on his military tour in Guam and seventeen sketchbooks containting drawings in pencil, ink, and pastel.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1915-1980 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-2001 (Box 1-3; 2.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1940s-1970s (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1937-1980 (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1920-1980s (Box 3-5; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Artwork, circa 1930s-1970s (Box 5; 0.8 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
William Kienbusch (1914-1980) was a painter and art instructor in New York, NY, and Cranberry Island, Maine.
Kienbusch was born in New York City and attended boarding school at Hotchkiss Preparatory school, where he was taught painting by Robert Osborn. During the summers of 1934 and 1935, while attending Princeton University, he studied watercolor with Eliot O'Hara at Goose Rocks Beach, Maine. After graduating from Princeton in 1936, he attended the Art Students League, studied with Henry Varnum Poor at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and spent a year in Paris, studying at the Academie Colarossi. During this time he also had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe before the outbreak of World War II. He returned to New York City in the winter of 1938 and settled in Greenwich Village, at one point living above artist Stuart Davis.
Kienbusch spent the summers of 1940 and 1941 in Stonington, Maine. Here he found his true identity as an abstract expressionist landscape painter. During World War II he served in the Army, teaching camouflage design and making maps in Guam. When he returned to New York in 1946, he began painting in casein rather than oils or watercolor. In 1947 he joined Kraushaar Galleries, which would continue to be his dealer for the remainder of his career. From 1948 to 1969 he taught at the Brooklyn Museum of Art School and spent summers in Maine. Kienbusch lost much of his artwork and personal papers in a 1969 fire at his New York studio apartment. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art among many others. After several years of poor health, Kienbusch died in 1980.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is the Walter Maitland correspondence with and about William Kienbusch, 1969-1981; the William Kienbusch letters to Francis and Sydney Hamabe, 1958-1977; 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.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel N70-22) including a scrapbook of clippings, exhibition catalogs, photographs of Kienbusch, letters, writings, and two journals describing his travels in Europe and Asia. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
William Kienbusch lent materials for microfilming in 1970. Other papers were donated by his sisters, Millicent Kelly and Juliana Little, and his friend Stanley Clifford as co-executives of the Kienbusch estate from 1985-1991. Stanley Clifford donated additional materials in 2008 and 2010.
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
Topic:
Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of painter Frank Harmon Myers measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1891 to 1976, with the bulk of the records dating from 1908 to 1963. The records shed light on the artist's career in Ohio and California through biographical materials, personal and professional correspondence, artwork, printed materials, and photographic materials.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter Frank Harmon Myers measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1891 to 1976, with the bulk of the records dating from 1908 to 1963. The records shed light on the artist's career in Ohio and California through biographical materials, personal and professional correspondence, artwork, printed materials, and photographic materials.
Biographical materials include Myers' resume, letters that confirm some of the courses he studied and taught, one membership list and meeting minutes of the Carmel Art Association, notes from a Myers art lecture on Sante Fe, one sales ledger, and drafts and notes of "And The Glory," a biography on Myers written by his wife, Ella Price Myers. Correspondence is a mixture of personal and professional letters, shedding light on Myers' freidnships, personal and professional relationship with his wife, and his travels. Correspondents include artists Sheldon Dixie and Albert Berne, poet and advertiser John Bunker, Myers' nephew Sheldon, and his son Frank. The series also includes a map that of the United States on which Myers traced his sketching trips, 1926 to 1950, a cartoon by Herman Wessel, and clippings related to John Weis. Printed materials include newspaper and magazine clippings concerning Myers' artwork, career, and exhibitions, a series of advertisements illustrated by Myers, two lithographs of his artwork, and some exhibition ephemera. Artwork consists of childhood drawings by Myers of Native Americans, holiday themes, and portraits; later sketches, mostly in charcoal and pencil, include figure and portrait studies, city scenes, and several still lifes; one 1916 landscape painting by Myers, cloth with a linoleum block design, paint samples from Myers' studio, and small sketches and doodles drawn on scraps of paper. Photographic materials depict Myers' artwork, portraits of the artist, his family and friends, and his home in Pacific Grove.
A fair amount of the collection's files include notes with contextual information written by Ella Price Myers.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as five series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1891-1976 (Box 1; .2 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1921-1973 (Box 1-2; 1 linear feet)
Series 3: Printed Materials, 1924-1963 (Box 2, OV 3; .5 linear feet)
Series 4: Artwork, circa 1908-1956 (Box 2, OV 4; .6 linear feet)
Series 5: Photographical Materials, 1910-1962 (Box 2; 4 folders)
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Harmon Myers (1899-1956) was an impressionist painter and art educator who lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pacific Grove, California. Myers was born in Cleves, Ohio, and moved to Cincinnati around 1907. His interest in art took off prior to his teenage years, illustrating a series of body-length portraits of Native Americans, several landscapes, and art with holiday themes. Myers studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati under Frank Duveneck, H. H. Wessel, and John Ellsworth Weiss; took a summer course at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Daniel Garber, Hugh Henry Breckenridge, and Joseph Thurman Pearson Jr.; and the School of Fine Arts at Fontainebleau, France, under Jean Despujols and Gourguet. Myers began showing his art at the Closson Galleries circa 1920 and taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1921 to circa 1941. In 1932, Myers spent a year on sabbatical in Sante Fe, New Mexico, painting animals, people, ranches and farms, villages, and landscapes. He and his wife, Ella Price Myers, moved to Pacific Grove, California, in 1940 so that Myers could pursue painting full-time. His work was frequently exhibited at the Carmel Art Association from this point onwards, with additional solo shows at Pebble Beach Galleries, San Jose State College, M. H. De Young Museum, Crocker Art Gallery, and others. Myers paintings were featured in group exhibitions at The Salon, Paris, Harlow Galleries, New York, St. Louis City Museum, Missouri, Alright Museum, New York, and more. Myers served as president of the Carmel Art Association in 1953.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds one scrapbook of Frank Myers publicity, circa 1925-1945, lent for microfilming on reel D42. Loaned materials were returned to Ella Price Myers and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Ella Price Myers, Myers' widow, from 1960 to 1974. An addition was donated in 1994 by Myers' daughter-in-law Patricia Clarke Myers, ex-wife of Myers' only son Frank P. Myers.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Frank Harmon Myers papers, 1891-1976. 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.
An interview of William Kienbusch conducted 1968 Nov. 1-7, by Forrest Selvig, for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
William Kienbusch (1914-1980) was a painter from New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Contents consist of 4 small notebooks and numerous loose sheets and slips. September 1954: Partly sorted and arranged in folders under the following headings: Botany. Cherokee. Fights. Paintings. Southern Algonquian ethnology (D.C, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina). Southeast ethnology (Catawba and Creek). Southwest. Shields. Tipis. Remainder to be arranged. Principally Kiowa, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche. Many small slips, probably unclassifiable.
Louisiana landscape and genre paintings of the 19th century : a loan exhibition, April 12-May 24, 1981, the R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana
