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.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
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.
Collection 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.
The papers of artist Michael Mazur measure 22.2 linear feet and 22.83 gigabytes, and date from circa 1936 to 2016, documenting a studio and exhibition practice in addition to teaching and activism activities in both paper and digital formats in the following series: biographical materials, correspondence, studio records, gallery records, project records, affiliations, exhibition records, writings, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist Michael Mazur measure 22.2 linear feet and 22.83 gigabytes, and date from circa 1936 to 2016, documenting a studio and exhibition practice in addition to teaching and activism activities.
Biographical materials include documents related to Mazur's early education, trips to Europe, and development as an artist, as well as biographies, degrees and awards, with some materials in digital formats.
Correspondence is primarily professional in nature with institutions and fellow artists, including letters requesting Mazur's participation in exhibitions and other projects. Also included are extensive correspondence advocating for ecological preservation of the Massachusetts Cape Cod where Mazur had a home in Provincetown. Earlier correspondence includes letters with family members and friends. Some correspondence is digital.
Studio records include artwork inventories and documents regarding donations, appraisal and tax deduction information, as well as the artist's website. Gallery records contain correspondence and business documents with various commercial art galleries, including artwork images, mailing lists, price lists and guest books. Project records document various commissions and collaborations including perhaps Mazur's longest ongoing project, artwork, publications and exhibitions engaging with Dante's Inferno. Many of Mazur's professional records are in digital format.
The Affiliations series includes faculty appointments as well as ongoing board service for Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and other professional advising and project participation, including a Tamarind Lithography Workshop Fellowship in 1968. Many of the Fine Arts Work Center documents are digital.
Exhibition records document select exhibitions including Mazur's traveling print retrospective. In addition to correspondence and documents and agreements, select digital installation images and documents are also included.
The Writings series includes various essays, letters to the editor, and lectures by Mazur including student work, as well as essays and films discussing the artist's career and contributions, many in digital form. Also included are Mazur's journals kept for the entirety of his career.
Printed materials include exhibition announcements, catalogs and press, select published journals (some of which include contributions by Mazur), and publications for which Mazur has provided the cover artwork.
Photographic materials are both print and digital in nature and capture the breadth of Mazur's art production, organized by medium, genre, artwork series, subject and time period. The arrangement of digital photographs reflects the categories represented on the artist's website archive.
Artwork includes drawings, sketchbooks and watercolor pads, as well as artwork by others including a photographic portrait portfolio of Mazur by Brigitte Durer. Computer study images and source material in digital formats, are also included.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1953-2006 (0.5 Linear Feet: Boxes 1, 21; 0.014 Gigabytes: ER001-ER002)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1940-2011 (3.8 Linear Feet: Boxes 1-4, 21, OV23; 0.008 Gigabytes: ER003)
Series 3 : Studio Records, circa 1962-2009 (1 Linear Feet: Box 5; 0.082 Gigabytes: ER004-ER006)
Series 4: Gallery Records, circa 1967-2009 (2 Linear Feet: Boxes 6-7; 0.028 Gigabytes: ER007-ER009)
Series 5: Project Records, circa 1983-2008 (1.3 Linear Feet: Boxes 8-9; 0.3 Gigabytes: ER010-ER015)
Series 6: Affiliations, circa 1966-2008 (0.7 Linear Feet: Box 9; 0.101 Gigabytes: ER016-ER019)
Series 7: Exhibition Records, circa 1958-2008 (0.7 Linear Feet: Box 10; 1.07 Gigabytes: ER020-ER032)
Series 8: Writings, circa 1952-2009 (2.7 Linear Feet: Boxes 10-13; 4.75 Gigabytes: ER033-ER052)
Series 9: Printed Material, circa 1945-2016 (2.1 Linear Feet: Boxes 13-15; 0.114 Gigabytes: ER053-ER054)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1936-2016 (5.9 Linear Feet: Boxes 15-22, OV25-28; 14.26 Gigabytes: ER055-ER114)
Series 11: Artwork, circa 1941-2009 (0.4 Linear Feet: Boxes 20, 22; 2.1 Gigabytes: ER115-ER116)
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Mazur (1935-2009) was a prolific printmaker, painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and educator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who beyond working across media, treated an equally diverse set of subjects in abstract and figurative traditions.
As a child in New York City's Upper East Side Mazur received an early art education at the Bronx's Horace Mann School. He received a bachelor's degree from Amherst College, as well as a bachelor's and master's degrees at the Yale School of Art. Mazur has held teaching positions at Rhode Island School of Design and Brandeis University, as well as a recurring visiting artist position at Harvard University's Carpenter Center. While attending Yale Mazur met his wife, poet Gail Mazur.
Mazur's work is held in museums and private collections throughout the world and has been exhibited widely at institutions including MoMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2000 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston launched a retrospective of Michael Mazur's prints traveling to various institutions including the the Minneapolis Art Institute and Stanford's Cantor Center. On the occasion of the show Hudson Hills Press published The Prints of Michael Mazur including a catalogue raisonné. A notable collaboration in Mazur's career drew from his career-long fascination with Dante. In 1993, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published
The Inferno of Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky and illustrated with reproductions of monotypes by Michael Mazur. Later Mazur published an editioned suite of forty-one etchings, which was shown in various locations in Italy and throughout the United States.
In addition to their home in Cambridge, Michael and Gail maintained a home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they were deeply involved in the artistic community including the Fine Arts Work Center, as well as environmental issues impacting the region of Cape Cod. He is survived by his wife and his two children Kathe and Dan.
Provenance:
Papers were lent for microfilming 1977 and 1998 by Michael Mazur. Material on microfilm and additional papers donated 2018 by Gail Mazur, Michael Mazur's widow.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Correspondence in this series is primarily between Walt Kuhn and his professional and personal contacts and spans his entire career. Correspondents include family members, fellow artists, students, dealers, museum and gallery staff, collectors, friends, fans, critics and colleagues. Copies of outgoing correspondence are often present and are interfiled chronologically. Also included is scattered correspondence of Vera and Brenda Kuhn, and correspondence written after Kuhn died that documents his family's efforts to exhibit, sell, and donate his work.
The content of the correspondence ranges from personal and candid to purely transactional. Artists, collectors, dealers, and critics involved in the creation of significant works of art and collections in the early 20th century are represented. An alphabetical index of selected correspondents in this series is provided in the appendix. Another resource for accessing correspondence are the card files in Series 4.8: Notes and Writings, where correspondence with various contacts was indexed by the Kuhns and filed alphabetically by name.
In 1938, Walt and Vera Kuhn wrote and self-published the pamphlet, "The Story of the Armory Show" and sent it gratis to hundreds of interested parties. Among the correspondence from that year are many heartfelt reponses from fellow artists and other witnesses to the 1913 event, including Charles Sheeler, William Glackens, Stuart Davis, André Derain, Henri Roché, Walter Pach, and J.H. du Bois to name just a few.
Kuhn regularly instructed students through the mail with lengthy letters about painting techniques and methods. San Francisco painter Otis Oldfield is represented by over 100 lengthy letters in this subseries. Kuhn's letters to Oldfield, returned at Kuhn's request in 1945 for a publication project that was never realized, are interfiled. Other correspondence students include Patsy Santo, Frank di Gioia, Watson Bidwell, John Bernhardt, John Laurent, Goldie Paley, and Eric Lundgren. See the appendix for dates.
Types of material include letters (sometimes illustrated), postcards, invitations, announcements, and Christmas cards, which are sometimes made of original artwork. Enclosures are often found, such as photographs, clippings, tracings of art work, writings, receipts, passes and membership cards. Some letters indicate enclosures that were previously separated and can be found in other series.
Significant writings enclosed with correspondence include an early vaudeville script written by Kuhn and his friend, Archibald Macnab (1923); drafts of articles about Kuhn by the poet Genevieve Taggard (1931), critic Alan Burroughs (1930), and patron Eloise Spaeth (1950); and an unpublished history of the 1913 Armory Show by Paul Bird (1938). Photographs and photographic postcards are also found throughout the series. Included are photo postcards from Spain and France (1925), and from Arizona and California (1928); and photographs related to Kuhn's work for the Union Pacific Railroad Company (1936, 1938).
Additional correspondence can be found throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for details.
See Appendix for a list of selected correspondents in Series 4.3.
Appendix: Selected Correspondents in Series 4.3:
The following is a selective list of correspondents represented in Series 4.3: General Correspondence, with cross-references to correspondence in 4.4: Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files and 4.5: Provenance Files. It is not comprehensive. An effort has been made to index regionally and nationally known artists, Kuhn's patrons and students, models, art historians, writers, museum and gallery staff, dealers, and persons known to be well-represented in other collections at the Archives of American Art. Cross-references to existing letters in other parts of the Kuhn papers and Armory Show records are included selectively. Correspondents who have not been indexed include family members, neighbors, business contacts from his theater and vaudeville work of the early 1920s, and from his railroad car design work from 1936 to 1948.
Barr, Alfred H. Jr. (Museum of Modern Art): 1929, 1934, 1945 (5 letters)
Barrie, Erwin S. (Grand Central Art Galleries): 1927, 1951 (5 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Barrington, Lewis: 1932
Barry, Bobby (see Provenance Files, "Portrait of Bobby Barry")
Bartlett, Frederic Clay, Jr.: 1939-1940, 1942-1943, 1945, 1947 (7 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Bartley, Louise: 1931
Baur, John I.H. (Brooklyn Museum): 1946 (see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Beals, Ralph A. (New York Public Library): 1949
Bear, Donald (Santa Barbara Museum of Art): 1936-1938, 1945, 1948, 1949 (6 items including Christmas cards with original prints; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Beerbohm, Marvin (Detroit School of Art): 1938
Bell, Janet M. (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art): 1952 (4 letters)
Belmont, Eleanor R.: 1935 Benjamin, Ruth: 1940
Bernays, Edward L. (see also Doris E. Fleischman): 1928, 1935-1937 (4 letters)
Bernhardt, John: 1948-1950 (4 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files, 1947)
Frankenstein, Alfred V. ( -- San Francisco Chronicle -- ): 1940 (2 letters)
Frankfurter, Alfred M.: 1938, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1950 (10 letters)
Fraser, Joseph T. (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts): 1947, 1951 (3 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Free, Karl R.: 1935
Freeman, Anna (Whitney Museum of American Art): 1938 (2 letters)
Frey, Erwin F.: 1943, 1945, 1947 (4 letters)
Frueh, Alfred: 1925, 1953 (2 letters)
Freund, Frank E.W.: 1932, 1934-1935, 1938 (7 letters)
Friede, Donald S. (Boni and Liveright Publishers): 1927
Frink, Angelika W.: 1941 (see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Gallagher, Edward J.: 1952
Gallatin, Albert E.: 1927, 1928 (3 letters)
Gardner, Paul (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art): 1936, 1938-1945, 1947-1950 (26 items including Christmas card with original print; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Gardner, Mrs. William (see Owen)
Garrett, Garet: 1928
Garrett, Alice (Mrs. John Work): 1938, 1939 (5 items, including Christmas card with original photograph)
Gates, Margaret (Studio House, Philips Memorial Gallery): 1935
Genauer, Emily (New York World Telegram): 1947
Gest, J.H. (Cincinnati Museum Association): 1928 (3 letters)
Gise, Margaret (Marie Harriman Gallery): 1938 (see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files and Provenance Files, "Girl in Shako" and "Guide")
Glackens, William and Edith: 1938
Glackens, Edith: 1938, 1941, 1943, 1949, 1950 (7 items, including outgoing letters of condolence when William Glackens died, and response from Edith with account of his last day)
Godwin, Black-More (Toledo Museum of Art): 1932 (2 letters)
Goodrich, Lloyd (Whitney Museum of American Art; see Provenance Files, "Man with Ship Model")
Goodyear, A. Conger: 1934, 1938, 1941, 1949 (5 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files, and Provenance Files, "Dryad" and "Man From Eden")
Goodyear, Mary (Mrs. A. Conger, also Mrs. John W. Ames): 1936-1942, 1947, 1949, 1954 (44 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Grace Horne Galleries (see M.E. Brown, Littlefield; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Graham, John D.: 1937
Greason, Donald (Deerfield Academy): 1942 (discussing Harry Whitney)
Grossman, Ted (Edwin Booth): 1938, 1940, 1941, 1945, 1948, 1951, 1952 (13 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Grumman, Paul H. (Joslyn Memorial Art Museum): 1943
Hagen, Oskar: 1938, 1939 (2 letters)
Hagerman, Percy (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center): 1949
Hale, Dorothea: 1928
Hale, Robert B. (Metropolitan Museum of Art): 1950-1951 (2 letters)
Halpert, Edith (Downtown Gallery): 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 (7 letters; New Year card 1928 printed with collage of Walt Kuhn)
Keppel, Frederick P. (Carnegie Corporation): 1938 (2 letters)
Kerr, George F. (Society of Illustrators): 1930 (2 letters)
Kimball, Fiske (The Pennsylvania Museum): 1928, 1939 (2 letters)
Kingman, Eugene (Joslyn Memorial Art Museum): 1951 (4 letters)
Kirsch, Dwight (University of Nebraska Department of Art): 1941, 1943-1944, 1946, 1950, 1953 (9 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Kirstein, Lincoln (Museum of Modern Art): 1932
Kissel, Eleanora: 1928
Kistler, Aline ( -- San Francisco Chronicle -- , -- The San Franciscan -- , M.H. de Young Memorial Museum): 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933 (6 letters)
Klopfer, Donald S. (Random House, Inc.): 1940
Kohl, Dorothy (Philadelphia Art Alliance): 1945 (3 letters)
Komroff, Manuel: 1938
Kravis, Hal: 1936, 1941 (3 letters)
Kunstverein München E.V.: 1930
Kurtzworth, Harry Muir (Los Angeles Art Association, California Academy of the Fine Arts): 1938 (2 letters)
Lahr, Bert: 1948 (see also Provenance Files, "Portrait of Bert Lahr")
Labaudt, Lucien: 1929, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1938 (5 items including Christmas card; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Lamb, James E.: 1928, 1930, 1935, 1937 (4 letters)
Larcada, Dick: 1963
Laurent, John: 1947-1950, undated (12 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Laurent, Mimi (Mrs. Robert): 1952
Laurent, Robert (Indiana University): 1923, 1949, 1953 (8 letters; see also Provenance Files, "Black Butterfly")
Lea, Lida Gorwin; 1935-1938, 1942 (8 letters, including Christmas card with original print; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Mencken, H.L.: 1945, 1946, 1947 (3 letters; see also Series 4.8: Notes and Writings)
Merrick, James Kirk (Philadelphia Art Alliance): 1945
Messer, Thomas M. (American Federation of Arts): 1952-1954 (5 letters)
Metcalf, Thomas N. (Boston Museum of Modern Art, Inc.): 1938, 1940 (2 letters)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1949, 1956 (5 letters; see also Hale, F.H. Taylor, Wehle)
Mellon, Minna (Mrs. Paul): 1946
Millay, Edna St. Vincent (typed copy): 1947 (see also Engen Boissevain in Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Miller, Dorothy C. (Museum of Modern Art): 1943
Miller, Lulu F. (The Hackley Gallery of Fine Arts): 1928
Milliken, William M.: 1936 (2 letters)
Minnigerode, C. Powell (Corcoran Gallery of Art): 1928 (2 letters)
Montclair Art Museum: 1928, 1932 (2 letters)
Montgomery, Gertrude: 1928
More, Hermon (Whitney Museum of American Art): 1933, 1935, 1943, 1948-1950 (8 letters)
Morgan, Agnes: 1938
Morison, David (Hamilton Easter Field Art Foundation): 1930
Morley, Grace: 1936, 1937-1939, 1943 (11 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Morse, John (see Provenance Files, "Man and Sea Beach")
Muguruza Otaño, Pedro: 1928
Museum of Art of Ogonquit: 1953 (see also Strater)
Museum of Modern Art (see Barr, Catlin, Haven, Hawkins, Kirstein, D. Miller, Pelles, A. Porter)
Nadelman, Viola M. (Mrs. Elie): 1947
Nankivell, Frank: 1934-1935 (Christmas cards with signed prints)
National Arts Club: 1932
Newhall, Beaumont (Museum of Modern Art): 1938
Nichols, Hobart (National Academy of Design): 1948
Nichols, J.C. (William Rockhill Nelson Trust): 1948
North, Henry Ringling (Ringling Brothers): 1941 (2 letters)
Norton Gallery and School of Art (see Hunter)
Norton, Ralph H. (Norton Gallery and School of Art): 1948
O'Connor, John Jr. (Carnegie Institute): 1943, 1945-1946, 1948 (8 letters)
Oldfield, Otis: 1928-1946, 1948-1949, 1951-1952, undated (111 letters; 1931, 1941, undated include Chritmas cards with print; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
O'Neil, John (University of Oklahoma): 1946
Owen, Ronnie (Mrs. William Gardner): 1941-1942, 1944-1946, 1948-1949 (15 letters)
Owens, Virginia B.( -- Christian Science Monitor -- ): 1943 (2 letters)
Roullier, Alice F. (Arts Club of Chicago): 1925, 1927, 1933, 1941 (8 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Rousseau, Théodore: 1935
Rumsey, Mary H. (Mrs. C.C.): 1930, 1934-1936, 1938, 1940, 1945, 1949, undated (11 items including Christmas card and receipts for paintings sold)
Ryan, Beatrice Judd (Beaux Arts Galerie): 1928, 1929 (4 letters)
Saint-Gaudens, Homer (Carnegie Institute): 1931, 1933, 1940, 1946-1949 (18 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Saklatwalla, Ann: 1944-1945 (2 letters; see also Provenance Files, "Bareback Rider")
Saklatwalla, B.D.: 1928, 1930-1936, 1941 (2 letters, 7 Christmas cards containing prints, 1931 print signed Jean Crotti)
Salinger, Jehanne Bietry: 1928-1930, 1933, 1935, 1946-1948 (includes signed print by Harry Wickey; 17 letters)
Salons of America: 1923, 1924
Salpeter, Harry ( -- Esquire -- ): 1936-1938 (6 letters)
Sanborn, Robert Alden: 1945
Sands, Mary (Museum of Modern Art): 1930
Sanger, Helen: 1948-1950, 1953, 1963 (16 letters)
Sanger, Margaret (American Birth Control League, Inc.): 1928
Santa Barbara Museum of Art (see Bear, Steele, Story; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Santo, Patsy: 1937-1946, 1948-1949, 1953 (103 letters, some illustrated)
Sardi Gina, Anne (Marie Harriman Gallery): 1941-1942, 1947, 1949 (6 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files and Provenance Files, "Girl in Shako" and "Guide")
Schulte, Antoinette: 1932-1938 (8 items, including Christmas card with original print)
Seiberling, Frank Jr. (Toledo Museum of Art): 1943, 1946 (3 letters)
Seymour Halpern Associates: 1945
Shapiro, Meyer: 1938
Sharkey, Alice M. (Whitney Museum of American Art): 1944
Shaw, Marjorie: 1930 (Christmas card with woodblock print)
Sheeler, Charles: 1938 (See also Series 4.2: Walt Kuhn Letters to Family)
Shostac, Percy (Labor Division, Greater New York Fund): 1941
Shyrock, Burnett H.: 1938 (4 letters)
Siple, Walter H. (Cincinnati Art Museum): 1938, 1942, 1945 (4 letters)
Skeoch, Mary E.: 1934-1936, 1938 (8 letters)
Skira, Alfred: 1932 (5 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files, 1933)
Smith, Adele (Studio House, Philips Memorial Gallery, Museum of Modern Art Gallery of Washington): 1935, 1938, 1939 (5 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Smith, Cecil: 1937-1938 (3 letters)
Smith, Gordon M. (Currier Gallery of Art): 1950
Smoluchowska, Donia (Arden Gallery, Marie Harriman Gallery): 1929, 1932 (3 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Teigen, Peter (Princeton University School of Architecture): 1928, 1929 (2 letters)
Thayer, Ellen ( -- The Dial -- ): 1927, 1928 (2 letters)
Thompson, Mark B.: 1934, 1935, 1937 (3 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Thorp, George G. (American Federation of Arts): 1947
Toledo Museum of Art (see Godwin, Rivière, Seiberling)
Toler, Sidney: 1941
Todd, Bianca: 1929, 1933, 1934 (3 items including Christmas cards with original prints)
Trovato, Joseph (Munson-Williams-Proctor-Institute): 1946, 1949 (2 letters)
Tucker, Allen: 1938
Turney, Winthrop: 1924
Tyson, Carroll: 1934
Underwood, Gilbert Stanley (architect): 1938, 1948 (5 letters)
Valentiner, Dr. W.R. (Detroit Institute of Arts): 1945
Valez, Dr. Xavier de: 1934
Venendi, Mario: 1949 (3 letters)
Vidar, Frede: 1936
Vreeland, Mr. and Mrs. Francis (Toby and Marion): 1934-1938 (6 letters)
Wadsworth, Alice (Mrs. James W.): 1940, 1941, 1942, 1945 (8 letters)
Waida, Robert: 1928
Waldron, James M. K. (Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery): 1936, 1937, 1961 (3 letters)
Walker, Maynard: 1946, 1948-1949, 1951-1952, 1955, 1961 (10 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files and Provenance Files, "Guide" and "Veteran Acrobat")
Ward, William: 1949
Washburn, Gordon B. (Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art): 1945
Watkins, C. Law (Studio House, Phillips Memorial Gallery): 1933 (2 letters)
Watson, John (for John Quinn): 1914, 1921 (2 letters), 1938
Whitney, Harry: 1942 (see also Greason and Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Whitney Studio Galleries (see also Force): 1929
Whitney Museum of American Art (see Force, Free, More, Freeman, Sharkey, Goodrich)
Wilder, Mitchell A. (Colorado Springs): 1946-1953 (75 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Wilenski, R.H.: 1938, 1939, 1945-1946 (8 letters)
Williams, Adele (Women's club of Richmond): 1930
Williamson, Ada (Philadelphia Art Alliance): 1927, 1928, 1945, 1949 (19 letters; see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts (see Bissell)
Wilson, Henry J.: 1950
Winser, Beatrice: 1935, 1940 (7 letters)
Woelfle, Arthur M.: 1914 (see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files)
Woelfle, Georgiana: 1936, 1937, 1963 (3 letters)
Wood, Stanley: 1928
Zayas, Marius de: 1934, 1939, 1947, 1948 (10 letters)
Zügel, Heinrich von: 1904
Collection 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.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Walt Kuhn Family papers and Armory Show records, 1859-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Raphael Soyer's correspondence spans over forty years, with the bulk of it dating between 1960 and his death in 1987. Letters are arranged chronologically and the majority are incoming to Soyer, but there are also scattered drafts of outgoing letters. Soyer was friends with many artists and cultural figures, and his personal correspondence includes letters to and from artists such as Lambro Ahlas, Benny Andrews, Rudolf Baranik, Leonard Baskin, George Biddle, Peter Blume, Aaron Bohrod, John Bratby, Alex Brook, David Burliuk, Marc Chagall, Peter De Francia, Otto Dix, Guy Du Bois, Philip Evergood, Josef Herman, Joseph Hirsch, Edward Hopper, Jacob Kainen, R. B. Kitaj, Leon Kroll, Joe Lasker, Jack Levine, Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Varnum Poor, Fairfield Porter, Max Weber, and numerous others. Soyer also corresponded with many writers such as Erskine Caldwell, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Also found here is correspondence with the Forum Gallery which represented him and dealer Bella Fishko. There is also correspondence with numerous galleries, museums, and schools which exhibited his work or requested his work for potential exhibitions. Additionally, there is correspondence with students and publishers, mostly requests for him to lecture or write articles, and business correspondence on the sale, donation, or commission of his work. Soyer corresponded with many art historians and critics, curators, gallery owners, and collectors, such as Andrei Chegodaev, Lloyd Goodrich, Joseph Hirshhorn, Abram Lerner, and Carl Zigrosser, as well as arts and social organizations. The collection includes very little family correspondence. Some of the letters are in Russian.
See Appendix for a list of correspondents in Series 2.
United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York: 1970, 1974
University of California, Berkeley: 1966
University of Maryland: 1968
University of Minnesota: 1985, 1986
University of Texas: 1969
Van der Tweel, L. H.: 1975
Van Devanter, Ann C.: 1973
Vereisky, Oriest: undated
Vincent Price Collection: 1964
Walsh, Alexandria: 1977
Warner, Keith: 1944
Warshaw, Howard: 1953
Washburn, Gordon B.: 1967
Weber, Max: 1954, undated
Wertham, Fredric: 1967
West, Michael: 1967
Wheelock, Susan; 1976
Whitney Museum of American Art: 1950, 1966, 1969, 1977, 1979, 1981-1983, 1985
Wichita Art Museum: 1977
Wigglesworth, Anne Parker: 1983
William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, 1981, 1985-1987, undated
Winer, Arthur: 1976
Wolff, Theodore: 1981
Worcester Art Museum (Francis Henry Taylor): 1957
Yeshiva University: 1967, 1974
Zabriskie, Virginia: 1979
Zigrosser, Carl: 1941, 1969
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the original papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Raphael Soyer papers, 1933-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
