Walker, Hudson D. (Hudson Dean), 1907-1976 -- Photographs Search this
Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965 -- Photographs Search this
Zorach, William, 1887-1966 -- Photographs Search this
Extent:
68 Items ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1953-1980
Scope and Contents:
REEL 1817: Photographs of: Will Barnet, Jose de Creeft (2), Sonia Delaunay, Walker Evans, Joseph Floch, Suzi Gablik (2), Adolph Gottlieb (also filmed on reel 1886, fr. 33-34), Lorrie Goulet, Minna Harkavy, William Hayter (2), Paul Jenkins, Lee Krasner (2), Lilliane Lijn, Jerry Sheerin (2), and Darthea Speyer (2). Also included is a group photo of Jose de Creeft, Jacques Lipchitz, George Biddle, Thomas Benton, and Ben Shahn at the American Academy of Arts & Letters Ceremonial, May 20, 1964.
REEL 1886: Photographs of: Barbara Adrian, Alexander Archipenko, Milton Avery, Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Louis Bosa, Henry C. Botkin, Byron Browne, John Carroll, George Constant, Julio de Diego, Edwin Dickinson, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Floch, Lloyd Goodrich, Adolph Gottlieb, Lorrie Goulet, George Grosz, David Hare, Minna Harkavy, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Josephine Hopper, Morris Kantor, Leon Kroll, Jacob Lawrence, Julian Levi, Jack Levine, Reginald Marsh, A. Hyatt Mayor, Sigmund Menkes, Robert Motherwell, Edwin Root, James Rorimer (a cropped version erroneously microfilmed as Sidney Waintrob appears on reel 1817, fr. 1193), Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Eugene Speicher, Saul Steinberg, James Johnson Sweeney, Hudson Walker, Abraham Walker, and William Zorach.
UNMICROFILMED Two photographs: Ellen K. Levy and McNeil Lowry.
Arrangement:
REEL 1817: Microfilmed with AAA's Photographs of Artists Collection II, and appear on microfilm in alphabetical order under artist with other unrelated photographs.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographic studio; New York, N.Y. Sidney J. and his brother A. L. (Bud) Waintrob specialized in photographing artists, curators and other art world personalities. They worked under the name Budd [Studio] before using Waintrob-Budd.
Provenance:
Photographs on reel 1817 and unmicrofilmed photos donated 1974-1987 by Sidney J. Waintrob; photographs on reel 1886 donated 1979-1980 by Samuel I. Hoffberg, whose relationship to Waintrob-Budd is unclear.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
Authorization to publish quote, or reproduce requires written permission from David Stekert. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Artists -- United States -- Photographs Search this
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) provide researchers with a complete set of documentation focusing on the founding and history of the organization from its inception through the 1960s. The collection measures 79.8 linear feet, and dates from 1895 through 1993, although the bulk of the material falls between 1909 and 1969. Valuable for its coverage of twentieth-century American art history, the collection also provides researchers with fairly comprehensive documentation of the many exhibitions and programs supported and implemented by the AFA to promote and study contemporary American art, both nationally and abroad.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) provide researchers with a complete set of documentation focusing on the founding and history of the organization from its inception through the 1960s. The collection measures 79.8 linear feet, and dates from 1895 through 1993, although the bulk of the material falls between 1909 and 1969. Valuable for its coverage of twentieth-century American art history, the collection also provides researchers with fairly comprehensive documentation of the many exhibitions and programs supported and implemented by the AFA to promote and study contemporary American art, both nationally and abroad.
The earliest documentation from 1895 to 1909 concerns the organization's history and founding and is located in Series 1: Board of Trustees. Also found in this series are meeting minutes, 1909-1963 and 1968. Interfiled with the board meeting minutes are minutes of the executive committee and other special and ad hoc committees, reports to the board, financial statements and reports, and lists of committee appointments and board membership. This series also contains the scattered correspondence and subject files of various officers. Although not a complete set of officers' files, Presidents' Frederick Allen. Whiting (1931-1936), Lawrence M.C. Smith (1948-1952), Thomas Brown Rudd (1952-1954), Daniel Longwell (1954-1956), James S. Schramm (1956-1958), and Roy R. Neuberger (1958-1961) are represented. Leila Mechlin served on AFA's board as secretary from its founding to 1929, and her files are a particularly rich resource for AFA's activities during its early years. Lawrence M.C. Smith's files documenting his years as board treasurer are also arranged in this series. Additional officers' correspondence is interspersed throughout the Alphabetical Files and other series.
General information about the scope of AFA's programs, affiliations, founding, functions, and proceedings are arranged in Series 2: Administrative Records. The first subseries, Alphabetical Files, houses a wide variety of subject files that contain memoranda, correspondence, printed materials, lists, reports, and other papers. These files document the AFA's general history and founding, organizational affiliations, buildings and moves, grants, federal and state government art programs, auctions and other fund-raising efforts, publicity and public relations, publications, and fiftieth anniversary celebration. The subject headings by which these files are arranged are, for the most part, the ones designated by the AFA. The second subseries, Staff Records, houses the scattered files of AFA's director, assistant director, registrar, and special state representative, Robert Luck.
During its most active period, the AFA sponsored or participated in several special programs and Series 3: Special Programs houses the files that document many of them. The first subseries consists of the files for the Artists in Residence program that was funded by the Ford Foundation. Awarded in 1963, the grant sponsored short-term teaching residencies for artists in museums throughout the United States. The host museums were encouraged to hold exhibitions of the artists' works. This subseries contains both the general files of the program, as well as individual files on the participating artists. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the AFA and the Ford Foundation also sponsored additional programs for artists, including Grants in Aid, Purchase Awards, and the Retrospective Exhibitions Program. The files documenting these three programs are also arranged in Series 3, under the subseries Ford Foundation Program for Visual Artists. In the late 1950s, the AFA implemented the Museum Donor Program with benefactors and philanthropists Audrey Bruce Currier and Stephen Richard Currier. Through the administration of the AFA, the Curriers donated funds to selected institutions specifically for the purchase of contemporary American art. The Curriers preferred to remain anonymous throughout the program. Files documenting this program include correspondence, applications from the accepted institutions, rejections, a summary report, and clippings about the untimely deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Currier in 1967.
Also found in Series 3 are the files documenting AFAs working relationship with the first state arts council, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). In 1961, AFA and NYSCA implemented a traveling exhibition program in New York State. Found here are files for possible itineraries, proposals, publicity, loans, budgets, and the actual exhibition files. Additional AFA special programs documented in Series 3 include the Picture of the Month program of the mid-1950s and the Jean Tennyson Foundation Color Slide Lecture Program.
AFA Annual Convention files constitute Series 4. Beginning with the Third Annual Convention in 1912 and continuing through the 1963 Annual Convention, the files contain official proceedings, speeches, programs, clippings, correspondence, and press releases. Files are missing for 1913, 1915, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1936-1949, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1960, and 1962. There are also audio recordings in the form of reel-to-reel tapes for the 1951 Annual Convention.
Series 5: Exhibition Files forms the bulk of the collection at circa 62 linear feet and is arranged into twenty subseries. The first subseries, Exhibitions, General, houses primarily the records of the Board of Trustees Exhibition Committee and documents the AFA's earliest involvement with traveling exhibitions. These files contain reports, budgets, correspondence, memoranda, scattered exhibition catalogs, and photographs. They are primarily the files of the chair of the Exhibition Committee and include the files of Juliana R. Force, Eloise Spaeth, and Mrs. John Pope. Also found in this series is a subseries of Mrs. John Pope's records documenting circulating exhibitions from 1934 to 1955, arranged by state.
The remaining nineteen subseries of the Exhibition Files reflect either specific exhibition programs, many of which have unique numbers assigned by AFA to individual exhibitions, or other exhibition-related files, such rejected, canceled, and suggested exhibitions and miscellaneous installation photographs. The Annual Exhibitions files constitute the largest of the subseries and are numbered according to the system assigned by AFA, following a typical chronological order. Although the documentation for each exhibition varies widely by both type and amount, most of the files contain contracts and legal agreements, correspondence, memoranda, itinerary information, condition reports, publicity materials, catalogs, announcements, price lists, and other such information arranged into one or more files. The files were labeled "documentation files," "dispersal files," "report form files," "loan agreement files," and "publicity files" according to the filing system devised by AFA. Many of the files also house a significant amount of correspondence with museum officials, lenders, and artists.
Additional subseries document AFA's exhibition venues and partnerships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the New York State Council on the [UNK] Life magazine, and Addison Gallery. A complete list of all of the subseries, including specific exhibition programs, follows in the Series Outline.
The final three series of the collection are small: Printed Material, Miscellaneous Files, and Oversized Material. The printed material was donated much later to the Archives and dates from 1990 to 1993. Found here are scattered press releases, annual reports, and an exhibition program. Miscellaneous Files contain scattered records, 1926-1962, of the Architectural League of New York relating to national award programs. It is not clear why this small group of Architectural League records was found mixed with the AFA records but perhaps the collaboration between the two organizations on several special projects provides an explanation. Also found in Miscellaneous Files is a group of black and white lantern slides from a lecture series, "New Horizons in America." Oversized Material includes a portfolio, a work of art, and posters.
See Appendix for a list of artists exhibiting with the American Federation of Arts
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight primary series based primarily on administrative units or program areas. Several of the series are further subdivided into subseries. While processing, it became clear that the two filing systems were redundant and overlapped in both subject area and type of material. Most of these files were subsequently merged into the now broader Alphabetical Files or into separate series. Oversized material may be found at the end of the collection arranged in a separate series.
In most cases, files related to one another by subseries or subject areas (in the case of the Alphabetical Files) or by individual name (in the case of officers and staff files) are arranged in chronological order. The entire subseries of Alphabetical Files in Series 2 is arranged by subject heading, as assigned by the AFA, or individual name. The Alphabetical Files originally formed two broad filing systems as established by the AFA: one for general correspondence arranged by subject; and one for director's and other staff correspondence, also arranged by subject.
Series 1: Board of Trustees, circa 1895-1968 (Boxes 1-3)
Series 2: Administrative Records, 1910-1966 (Boxes 4-8)
Series 3: Special Programs, 1950-1967 (Boxes 9-13)
Series 4: Annual Conventions, 1912-1963 (Boxes 14-16)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1934-1969 (Boxes 17-78)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1990-1993 (Box 78)
Series 7: Miscellaneous Files, 1926-1962, undated (Box 79)
Series 8: Oversized Materials, 1890, undated (Boxes 80-85)
Historical Note:
Founded in 1909 by Elihu Root, the American Federation of Arts (AFA) exists today as a national nonprofit museum service organization striving to unite American art institutions, collectors, artists, and museums. Elihu Root, then secretary of state in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, spoke of his idea at the first meeting of the AFA held in New York at the National Academy of Arts. He envisioned an organization that would promote American art most often seen only by the elite in the major cities of the East and upper Midwest by sending "exhibitions of original works of art on tour through the hinterlands across the United States."
The American Academy in Rome, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Metropolitan Museum of Art were influential organizing member institutions. Individual members included such notables as William Merritt Chase, Charles L. Freer, Daniel C. French, Charles L. Hutchinson, Henry Cabot Lodge, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Walters. The founding of the AFA provided the American art world with a forum for communication and participation among artists, cultural institutions, patrons of the arts, and the public.
To accomplish its mission, the AFA established volunteer committees for membership, exhibitions, and publications. During its first year, the AFA began publishing Art and Progress (later changed to Magazine of Art) and the American Art Annual (now the American Art Directory). In 1909, the AFA also organized its first traveling exhibition, Paintings by Prominent American Artists, which was shown at museums in Fort Worth, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and New Ulm, Minnesota.
By the end of the first year, the headquarters of the organization moved to Washington, D.C., to facilitate lobbying the federal government for favorable art legislation. In 1913, the AFA lobbied successfully for the removal of the tariff on foreign art entering the United States. In 1916, the Federation met with the Interstate Commerce Commission to protest prohibitively high interstate taxes on traveling art exhibitions.
Throughout the next fifteen years, the AFA continued to grow in membership and influence. By 1919, membership included 438 institutions and 2,900 individuals. The AFA's annual conventions were held in major national art centers and were attended by members, chapter delegates, and the public. At the conventions, scholars, patrons, and curators lectured on and discussed subjects of national interest, thereby fostering an exchange of ideas. The AFA also sponsored periodic regional conferences to promote institutional cooperation and to discuss mutual problems and needs. To facilitate exhibition venues west of the Mississippi River, in 1921 the AFA opened regional offices at the University of Nebraska and at Stanford University. The AFA produced and circulated slide programs and lecture series to museums and educational institutions that fostered art education. By 1929, the Federation had developed forty-six slide-lecture programs that covered American mural painting, European and American contemporary art, and textiles.
During the 1930s, the Federation expanded its services by providing schools with teaching guides, student workbooks, slides, and films about art. In 1935, the AFA began publishing Who's Who in American Art, later publishing The Official Directory of Illustrators and Advertising Artists and Films on Art reference guides. To reach an even larger audience, the AFA began collaborating with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to organize national circulating exhibitions to "bring the museum to the people."
One of AFA's priorities was to make American art more visible abroad. The Federation focused on encouraging the representation of American artists in foreign exhibitions, and in 1924 it lobbied successfully for additional American participation in the Venice Biennale. The AFA's focus on exhibiting American art abroad continued to expand, particularly following World War II. In 1950, recognizing that the AFA could assist in promoting American culture, the State Department awarded the AFA a grant for a German "re-orientation program" consisting of educational exhibitions shown in German museums. Additional government funding further enabled the AFA to organize American participation in exhibitions in India, Japan, Paris, Switzerland, and Rotterdam between 1950 and 1970. Later, the AFA collaborated with the United States Information Agency (USIA) to create the Overseas Museum Donor Program which permitted donations of American art to foreign institutions on a restriction-free, tax-deductible basis. During the 1950s, the AFA was a very active member of the Committee on Government and Art, a national committee with members from across the art and museum world concerned with government sponsorship of and legislation affecting art sales, commissions, and trade.
In 1952, the headquarters of the AFA returned to New York, sparking a period of innovation and expanded of programs. Throughout the 1950s, the AFA distributed films about art and co-sponsored the Films on Art Festival in Woodstock, New York. The AFA also introduced its Picture of the Month Program in 1954, renting original works of art to small American art and educational institutions. In 1956, the AFA organized the Art Collectors Club of America to provide fellowship for art collectors through meetings and activities. The club disbanded in the 1970s.
Throughout its history, the American Federation of Arts has concentrated on its founding principle of broadening the audience for contemporary American art. Through its numerous exhibition and film programs, the AFA has succeeded in "breaking down barriers of distance and language to broaden the knowledge and appreciation of art." Annual exhibitions such as New Talent in the USA and Art Schools USA, organized by the AFA, brought before the public the most contemporary American artists and craftspeople, genres, and artistic forms of experimentation, exposing viewers to new ways of thinking and expression. In 1965, AFA produced The Curriculum in Visual Education, a series of films created to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children.
A vital part of American art history, the AFA was one of the first organizations to develop successfully the concept of traveling art exhibitions on a national and international level. The AFA was instrumental in assisting museums with circulating important juried exhibitions of contemporary art, such as the Whitney Annual and Corcoran Biennial. The AFA also recognized the importance of the exchange of cultural ideas, and it brought exhibitions of the European masters to the American public as well as exhibitions focusing on foreign contempoorary art, photography, and architecture. Many organizations and museums have followed the AFA's precedent, and traveling national and international venues are now commonplace.
Since 1909, women have served as officers and members of the Board of Trustees. Leila Mechlin was a founding participant and served as secretary from 1909 to 1933. Juliana R. Force and Eloise Spaeth both chaired the Exhibition Committee in the late 1940s. Women and artists of diverse backgrounds and nationalities were widely represented in the AFA's exhibition programs, most notably during the 1960s. In 1960, the AFA organized, with financial support from the Ford Foundation, a major Jacob Lawrence retrospective. Additional culturally diverse exhibitions included Contemporary Jewish Ceremonial Art (1961), The Heart of India (1962), 1,000 Years of American Indian Art (1963), and Ten Negro Artists from the United States (1966).
The AFA also had an impact on patronage in the arts. AFA exhibitions of contemporary art provided collectors with knowledge of new artists and avant-garde art forms, creating a broader demand and market for this type of work. Museums and collectors began purchasing work by new or obscure American artists whom they learned about through AFA exhibitions and programs.
The historical records of the American Federation of Arts offer the researcher a unique opportunity to study the development of American art and artists in the twentieth century as well as providing insight into trends in American culture.
Missing Title
1909 -- Founded in New York City. Began publishing Art and Progress (later retitled Magazine of Art) and the American Art Annual.
1910 -- Moved headquarters to Washington, D.C.
1913 -- Lobbied successfully for the removal of the tariff on art entering the United States.
1915-1916 -- Lobbied successfully against the Cummins Amendment and the Interstate Commerce Commission's prohibitively high interstate tax on traveling art.
1920 -- Organized a lobbying campaign for the development of a national gallery of art at its national convention.
1921 -- Opened two new offices at the University of Nebraska and at Stanford University.
1924 -- Arranged American participation in the Venice Biennale exhibition.
1927 -- Closed office at Stanford University.
1929 -- Organized American participation in exhibitions in France and Germany.
1933 -- Closed office at the University of Nebraska.
1935 -- Began publishing Who's Who in American Art.
1948 -- Published The Official Directory of Illustrators and Advertising Artists.
1949 -- Collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to circulate exhibitions from its collections.
1950 -- Participated in the U.S. government's German re-orientation program.
1951 -- Joined forces with the United States Information Agency (USIA) to create the Overseas Museum Donor Program. Published the reference guide Films on Art. Co-sponsored the Films on Art Festival in Woodstock, New York, through 1957.
1952 -- Moved headquarters to New York City.
1953 -- Magazine of Art liquidated.
1954 -- Introduced the Picture of the Month Program.
1956 -- Founded the Art Collectors Club of America.
1958 -- Received a Ford Foundation grant to finance a series of one-person shows of contemporary American artists.
1960 -- Created the Museum Donor Program.
1961 -- Received a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to circulate exhibitions to small New York state communities.
1963 -- Received a grant from the Ford Foundation for the Artists in Residence program.
1964 -- Introduced the List Art Poster Program.
1965 -- Produced The Curriculum in Visual Education, a series of films that attempted to heighten the aesthetic awareness of children.
Appendix: List of Artists Exhibiting with American Federation of Arts:
The following is an alphabetical list of artists who exhibited with the American Federation of Arts; many are obscure. The alpha-numeric codes and numbers appearing with the artist's name represent specific AFA exhibition programs and, most often, AFA's exhibition numbering system. In cases where the AFA did not assign an exhibition number, Archives' staff have done so.
The primary reference source for the names and name variants is the American Federation of Arts Records. The names are documented in handwritten notes and lists, typed lists, and exhibition catalogs and announcements. The Archives of American Art name authority file was also consulted in questionable cases. The majority of names, however, were not found in either the AAA name authority file or standard bibliographic resources, and only in the AFA records.
Examples:
55-1: AFA annual exhibitions program
AD-1: Addison Gallery exhibitions
L-1: Life Magazine Exhibitions
ME-1: Misceallaneous exhibitions (numbers assigned by AAA staff)
NMA-1: Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibitions
NE-96: Contemporary Color Lithography
NY-1: New York State Council on the Arts exhibitions
VA-1: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions
Missing Title
A. Quincy Jones, Frederick E. Emmons & Assoc: 62-34
The records of the American Federation of Arts (AFA) were donated to the Archives of American Art (AAA) over a thirteen-year period, with the bulk of the material arriving between 1964 and 1966. In 1979, Preston Bolton donated his letters and those from John de Menil, Ann Drevet, Lee Malone, and others regarding planning for the 1957 AFA annual convention held in Houston, Texas; convention committee minutes from 1956; and AFA newsletters. This material, as well as a 1979 gift from Louise Ferrari of transcripts from a panel discussion from the 1957 AFA convention in Houston, was microfilmed on AAA Reel 1780. All material previously microfilmed on Reel 1780 has been fully integrated into the collection and arranged within proper series and subseries. The provenance of the 1990-1993 printed material is unknown.
Restrictions:
Use 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.
An interview of V. V. Rankine conducted 1990 Mar. 2-22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Rankine discusses the evolution of her nickname, V.V.; discovering her dyslexia; growing up in Boston; auditioning for a part in, "The Philadelphia Story"; her art studies with Amedee Ozenfant from 1944 to 1946; her studies at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers and Willem De Kooning in 1947; her friendship with Morris Louis and watching him work; living with her brother-in-law Arshile Gorky, in New York City; her first one-woman show at the David Herbert Gallery in New York in 1962; exhibiting at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York and at the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Robert Richman and the Institute of Contemporary Arts; the relationship between her painting and her sculpture; favorite shapes and materials; and her summer home in East Hampton and artist friends there. Rankine also recalls Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Youngerman, Manoucher Yektai, Betty Parsons, Ibram Lassaw, Buckminster Fuller, Elaine De Kooning, Arthur Penn, Richard Leopold, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Ken Noland, Morris Louis, Ray Johnson, Kenneth Snelson, David Hare, Frederick Kiesler, Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, Jean Renault, Agnes Gorky, Esther Magruder, James Johnson Sweeney, Jim Brooks, John Graham, Phillip Guston, Duncan Phillips, Theresa Helburn, Augustine Duncan, Tom Downing, Gene Davis, Alice Denney, Nesta Dorrance, Kevin Merrill, Sam Gilliam, Dylan Thomas, Kay Halle, Kit Kennedy, Naum Gabo, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Anne Truitt, Wretha Nelson, Franz Bader, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Bonnie Newman, Alexander Russo, Walt Sheridan, Gilbert Kinney, Saul Sherman, Steve Pace, Lee Krasner, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
V.V. Rankine (1920-2004) was a painter and sculptor from Washington, D.C. Variable forms of the artist's name are notably E. R. (Elvine Richard) Rankine, Vivian Scott Rankine, and her married name, Mrs. Paul Scott.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 53 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
The papers of social realist painter, photographer, printmaker, and teacher Ben Shahn (1898-1969) measure 25.1 linear feet and date from 1879-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1970. The bulk of the collection consists of over 14 linear feet of incoming letters from artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Also found are biographical materials, project and source files, printed material, artwork by Shahn and others, photographs taken of and by Shahn, interview transcripts, sound recordings of interviews and a motion picture film.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of social realist painter, photographer, illustrator, printmaker, and teacher Ben Shahn (1898-1969) measure 25.1 linear feet and date from 1879-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1970. The bulk of the collection consists of over 14 linear feet of incoming letters from artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Also found are biographical materials, project and source files, printed material, artwork by Shahn and others, photographs taken of and by Shahn, interview transcripts, sound recordings of interviews and a motion picture film.
Biographical material and family records include a 1924 passport for Shahn and his first wife, Tillie, biographical sketches of Shahn, and award certificates received by him.
Letters are primarily written to Shahn from family members, artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Notable correspondents include Leonard Baskin, Alexander Calder, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Joseph Hirsch, Leo Lionni, John Bartlow Martin, George and Marian Nakashima, Clifford Odets, Charles Olson, Robert Osborn, Diego Rivera, Jerome Robbins, Selden Rodman, James Thrall Soby, Raphael Soyer, and William Carlos Williams. A small number of scattered letters from Shahn can also be found throughout the series.
Project files document approximately twenty-one of Shahn's commissions, including murals for the community center at Jersey Homesteads, the Bronx Central Annex Post Office, the Social Security Building in Washington D.C. , and the William E. Grady Vocational High School. The files also document his involvement in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Roosevelt, in addition to projects for schools, temples and private homes.
Financial and legal records include consignment records, loan agreements, royalty statements and receipts for artwork sold.
Notes and writings are by Shahn and others including Alan Dugan, W. H. Ferry, Theodore Gusten, and John Bartlow Martin. They include lists of artwork, many of which are annotated.
Artwork includes a sketchbook and several unbound sketches and lettering by Shahn, in addition to drawings and prints by others including Shahn's children, Mario Casetta and Stefan Martin.
Source files contain printed material and photographs relating to topics depicted by Shahn in his artwork such as children, dams, farming, houses, industry, mines and miners, slums, war and workers. These files also contain scattered photographic prints by FSA and OWI photographers including Shahn, Jack Delano, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, and John Vachon.
Printed material includes news clippings covering Shahn and his career as well as subjects of interest to Shahn. Also found are exhibition catalogs and announcements for exhibitions for Shahn and others, and reproductions of Shahn's artwork including publications illustrated by him.
Photographs are of Shahn, his family and friends and colleagues including Alexander Calder, Jerome Robbins, Charles Sheeler, David Smith and William Zorach. Also included are photographs taken by Shahn of New York City and for the FSA in the 1930s, as well as photographs of artwork by Shahn. Photographs by others include one photo each by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee and Arthur Rothstein.
The collection also contains transcripts of eight radio, television and motion picture interviews of Shahn and a reel of 16mm motion picture film from the BBC-TV program "Monitor," in addition to sound recordings of interviews of Shahn by Tony Schwartz and Arlene Francis. Artifacts include a Christmas greeting in the form of a sock.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged as 12 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical and Family Records, 1879-1984 (Box 1, OV 36; 0.2 linear ft.)
Series 2: Letters, 1929-1990 (Boxes 1-25, 35, 43, OVs 36-38; 14.5 linear ft.)
Series 3: Project Files, 1933-1975 (Boxes 25-26; OVs 36-37; 1.03 linear ft.)
Series 4: Financial and Legal Records, 1934-1988 (Boxes 26-27, 35; 0.81 linear ft.)
Series 5: Notes and Writings, circa 1933-1988 (Boxes 27-28, 43; 1.72 linear ft.)
Series 6: Artwork, circa 1930s-1965 (Boxes 28, 35; 11 folders)
Series 7: Source Files, circa 1900s-1960s (Boxes 28-30, 35; 1.81 linear ft.)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1912-1988 (Boxes 30-33, 35, OV 39; 3.22 linear ft.)
Series 9: Photographs, circa 1900-1969 (Boxes 33-35; 0.86 linear ft.)
Series 10: Interview Transcripts, 1943-1968 (Box 34; 0.25 linear ft.)
Series 11: Audio and Video Recordings, 1959-1968 (Box 34; 0.25 linear ft.)
Series 12: Artifacts, circa 1930s-circa 1960s (Box 34; 2 items)
Biographical/Historical note:
Ben Shahn (1898-1969) was a social realist painter, muralist, printmaker, photographer, illustrator, and educator who worked primarily in Brooklyn, New York and New Jersey. He was most active in the 1930s through the 1950s and worked on several federally funded arts projects, including the Farm Security Administration's photographic documentation project of rural America during the Depression.
Ben Shahn was born in Kovno, Lithuania and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1906 where he settled in Brooklyn, and later Roosevelt, New Jersey, after becoming a naturalized citizen in 1918.
Following an apprenticeship as a lithographer from 1913-1917, Shahn studied at New York University, the City College of New York, and the National Academy of Design from 1919-1922. He married Tillie Goldstein in 1922 and they had two children, Judith and Ezra.
Two years after Shahn's first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in 1930, his Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, a series of 23 gouaches about the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of the 1920s, was exhibited at the Downtown Gallery to critical and public acclaim. The exhibition marked the beginning of Shahn's reputation as one of the most important social realist painters in America. Shahn's commitment to social and political justice found a natural outlet in mural painting when, in 1933, he was hired to assist Diego Rivera on the labor and industry mural Man at the Crossroads, for New York City's Rockefeller Center. The mural was destroyed amid controversy in 1933 before it was completed, but Shahn had learned much about the art of fresco painting during the project and was inspired by the potential of the mural as a unique art form for presenting life's struggles and stories to a large public audience. Between 1933 and 1937 Shahn worked on various murals for other buildings, including New York's Central Park Casino (circa 1934) and Riker's Island Prison (1934), none of which saw completion. In 1937, however, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) commissioned Shahn to execute a mural for the Community Center in the town of Jersey Homesteads, later Roosevelt, New Jersey, which Shahn completed in 1938. Shahn settled in Jersey Homesteads the following year and remained there for the rest of his life. Other important mural commissions followed for the Bronx Central Post office (1939) and the Social Security Building in Washington DC (1942).
One of Shahn's assistants on the Jersey Homesteads mural was Bernarda Bryson, whom he had met in 1933 when she came to New York to interview Rivera about the Rockefeller Center mural controversy for an Ohio newspaper. Shahn and Bryson became lifetime companions and had three children, Susanna, Jonathan and Abigail, although they did not marry until shortly before Shahn's death in 1969. Shahn and Tillie Goldstein were divorced in 1944.
Shahn had enrolled with the federal Public Works of Art Project in 1934, and between 1935 and 1938 he and Bryson travelled across country as Shahn photographed poverty-stricken areas and documented rural life for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Resettlement Agency. Shahn's interest in photography developed in the early 1930s when, encouraged by his friendship with Walker Evans, he began photographing street scenes and people in New York City. He later used the images as the basis for many of his prints and paintings.
In 1942 Shahn began working for the Office of War Information (OWI) and was instructed to produce posters and pamphlets explaining to citizens the necessities of wartime, such as the need for secrecy and food rationing. Ultimately, only two of Shahn's posters were ever used; the rest were rejected as being too harsh for their intended audience. Shahn later worked for the Congress of Industrial Organization Political Action Committee (CIO-PAC), producing posters for the 1944 campaign to re-elect Roosevelt, who he believed in deeply. He was promoted to director of the CIO's Graphic Arts Division for the 1946 congressional campaign following Roosevelt's death, but that job ended when the election went poorly for the Democratic party.
Shahn returned increasingly to painting and a retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947. He also became more active in academia as an accomplished writer, teacher and lecturer. He received honorary doctorates from Princeton University and Harvard University, and become the Charles Eliot Norton professor at Harvard in 1956. Shahn's Norton lectures were collected and published as the influential The Shape of Content in 1957. He also began to work as a commercial artist for a variety of companies and publications including CBS, Time, Harper's, and the Container Corporation of America. Shahn believed, however, that the artist's ideas and integrity must always be reflected in his commercial art. He refused to compromise on this point and was very selective in his choice of commercial commissions. Shahn illustrated many books and articles, designed sets for stage productions such as New York Export: Opus Jazz, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and designed mural mosaics for synagogues, universities and private homes.
Since the 1930s Shahn had been represented by Edith Halpert at the Downtown Gallery, but his relationship with her was always contentious on the subject of payments Shahn received for commercial work, and became increasingly so as his income from such sources increased. Finally, in 1968, Shahn wrote to Halpert telling her that after ten years of "an accumulation of ill-feeling, discomfort and recrimination between us" he felt compelled to end their dealer-artist relationship.
By the time of Shahn's break with Halpert his health had begun to fail. He died of a heart attack following surgery in a New York City hospital on March 14, 1969.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Archives of American Art holds four oral history interviews with Ben Shahn: 1964 Apr. 14 interview conducted by Richard K. Doud for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project in which Shahn speaks of his travels and work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the American image as portrayed by FSA; 1965 Jan. 17 interview; 1965 Oct. 3. interview conducted by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project; and 1968 Sept. 27 interview conducted by Forrest Selvig. Most of these interviews have transcripts available online.
The Archives also holds the Bernarda Bryson Shahn papers, circa 1947-2005, and two oral history interviews with Bernarda Bryson Shahn: 1983 Apr. 29 and 1995 July 3.
Separated Materials note:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel N70-6) including addresses and essays by Shahn, seven royalty statements, and three letters from publishers. Many of the writings found on this reel were included in subsequent donations. All other lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Ben Shahn papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in several installments between 1967-1991 by Shahn's widow, Bernarda Bryson Shahn who also lent materials for microfilming in 1969. Jean Shahn, Ben Shahn's daughter-in-law and estate representative, donated additional material in 2018 and 2021.
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.
Interviews of 72 artists, and transcripts for all but five, conducted by Arlene Jacobowitz, the Associate Curator for the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum, between 1965 and 1968. The artists discuss their work in the museum collection. Also included are 38 edited excerpts of the interviews, approximately 2-3 min. in length, used as "audio-labels" in the 1968 "Listening to Pictures" installation at the museum.
Scope and Content Note:
Interviews of 72 artists, and transcripts for all but five, conducted by Arlene Jacobowitz, the Associate Curator for the Department of Painting and Sculpture, between 1965 and 1968. The artists discuss their work in the museum collection. Also included are 38 edited excerpts of the interviews, approximately 2-3 min. in length, used as "audio-labels" in the 1968 "Listening to Pictures" installation.
The artists interviewed are: Lennart Anderson, Stephen B. Antonakos, Marshall Arisman, Walter Barker, Leonard Baskin, Mary Bauermeister, Thomas Hart Benton, Isabel Bishop, Robert Brackman, Sydney Butchkes, Edmund Casarella, George Constant, Robert Warren Dash, Jose DeCreeft, Blanche Dombek, Tom Doyle, Jimmy Ernst, Neil Estern, Philip Evergood, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Leon Goldin, Sidney Goodman, Sante Graziani, Balcomb Greene, John Grillo, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, Roy Gussow, Robert Gwathmey, Grace Hartigan, Edward Hopper, Nora Jaffe, Paul Jenkins, Minoru Kawabata, William Kienbusch, Karl Knaths, John Koch, Yayoi Kosama, Jennett Lam, Steven Lang, Robert Laurent, Jacob Lawrence, Jack Levine, Jacques Lipchitz, Seymour Lipton, Boris Margo, Ursula Meyer, Hans Moller, Walter Murch, Louise Nevelson, Toshio Odate, Elliot Offner, Douglas Ohlson, Kenzo Okada, Amanda Palmer, Irene Rice Pereira, Gabor Peterdi, Ad Reinhardt, Bill Richards, Larry Rivers, Emilio Sanchez, Karl Schrag, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Aaron Sopher, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, William Thon, Albert Weinberg, and William and Marguerite Zorach.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as a single series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Interviews, 1965-1968 (Box 1-7; 7 lin. ft.)
Historical Note:
The interview program at the Brooklyn Museum was begun by Arlene Jacobowitz in the spring of 1965 with artists whose works were on exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1968, excerpts from the interviews were incorporated into an exhibition entitled "Listening to Pictures," in which visitors could access the sound recordings using headphones while standing before the painting being discussed. The exhibition opened April 28, 1968, and was gradually disassembled, 1971-1973.
Related Material:
The Brooklyn Museum Archives houses the records of the Departments of European Painting and Sculpture, American Painting and Sculpture, Contemporary Art (1897-2005), which contain records relating to the work of Arlene Jacobowitz.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Dierdre Lawrence of the Brooklyn Museum in 1989.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Researchers may view the original reels for the archival notations on them, but original reels are not available for playback due to fragility.
Rights:
Authorization to quote or reproduce for purposes of publication requires written permission from the interviewee. Citations must read:"Interview between [artist's name] and [interviewer's name] from the "Listening to Pictures" program of the Brooklyn Museum. Archives of American Art. Gift of the Brooklyn Museum." Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Artists -- United States -- Interviews Search this
Interview between [artist's name] and [interviewer's name] from the "Listening to Pictures" program of the Brooklyn Museum. Gift of the Brooklyn Museum. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1 Linear foot ((partially microfilmed on 3 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Video recordings
Date:
1941-1978
Scope and Contents:
Photographs of artists; letters; printed material; and a motion picture film.
REEL D284: Exhibition catalogs, 1941-1952, from the Valente Gallery, and clippings; a letter and a sketch from Henry Miller; and a scrapbook containing photographs by Valente of 41 artists, their art work and clippings. Photographs of artists include Boris Aronson, Milton Avery, Arbit Blatas, David Burliuk, Mario Carreño, Joseph DeMartini, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Jose Ferrer, Adolph Gottlieb, Marion Greenwood, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, George Grosz, Robert Gwathmey, Lily Harmon, Marsden Hartley, Frederick Haucke, Frank Kleinholz, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ben Lassen,Sigmund Menkes, Jose Clemente Orozco, Abraham Rattner, Iver Rose, Sally Ryan, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Margaret Stark, Sabina Teichman, Anthony Toney, Nahum Tschacbasov, Abraham Walkowitz and Ben Wilson.
REEL 2802: A letter from the National Gallery of Art regarding Valente's film "Art Discovers America"; exhibition catalogs on and written by Valente; clippings; and 30 photographs by Valente of 20 artists.
REEL 3480: Two letters from Henry Miller, dated 1943 and 1945. The letters refer to a "watercolor pad and brushes", and Miller also thanks Valente for a portrait of Abe Rattner.
UNMICROFILMED: Photographs by Valente of artists, each accompanied with the artists' self-portrait. Included are Milton Avery, Arbit Blatas, David Burliuk, Mario Carreño, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Chaim Gross, Lily Harmon, Frank Kleinholz, Ben Lassen, David Lax, Lawrence H. Lebduska, Jean Liberte, Jose Orozco, Harold Rome, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Margaret Stark, Sabina Teichman, Anthony Toney, Nahum Tschacbasov, Abraham Walkowitz, and Ben Wilson and 4 photographs of composer Eugene Ormandy which are on the back of the Blatas portraits.
UNMICROFILMED: "Art Discovers America" (MGM shorts), ca. 1945, a 16mm b&w, 400 ft. film regarding the "new public interest" in American art. The film traces the trend back to the exhibition of The Eight, and shows various artists at work, including John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh, and Abraham Walkowitz. The film was produced by Regency Pictures. Valente was the photographer and co-director along with Hal Frater.
REEL 439-441 AND SCANNED Photos of artists, previously microfilmed under Photos of Artists I, have subsequently been scanned and returned to the Valente papers.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer; New York City.
Provenance:
Material on reel D284 lent for microfilming by Valente, 1966; Mrs. Valente subsequently donated the scrapbook, 1979. Material on reels 2802, and 3480 donated by Mr. & Mrs. Valente, 1966 through 1979. Unmicrofilmed material donated by Harold Rome, 1988. An additional 35 photos of artists were donated by Valente ca. 1966, and microfilmed on reels 439-441 with AAA's Photographs of Artists Collection I; search under Valente for more information. Many of the photographs are duplicates.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art and photography -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Artists -- United States -- Photographs Search this
Portrait photography -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Video recordings
Sponsor:
Funding for the preservation of the motion picture film "Art Discovers America" provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Biographical materials include address books, awards, recorded interviews with and about de Creeft, membership materials, naturalization records, resumes, and travel documents.
Correspondence is primarily professional in nature and concerns exhibitions, de Creeft's involvement in arts organizations, and awards. There are also scattered personal letters from family and friends. Correspondents include Alexander Calder, Nina, Alice, Barbara and William de Creeft, Hunt Diederich, Joseph Escudar, and Gil Gomez, Jacques Lipchitz, Edwin Dickinson, James Johnson Sweeney, Costantino Nivola, Abraham Rattner, and Lamar Dodd, among others.
Subject files are varied and include files on de Creeft's teaching positions at the New School for Social Research, Black Mountain College, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Art Students League. There are files for some of his sculpture projects, inlcuding Alice in Wonderland, Poet, and a proposed model for the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia, as well as compiled information about various art related topics of interest.
De Creeft's business records include appraisals, contracts, leases, price lists, and scattered receipts. Also found are art inventories in the form of three sets of index cards, some of which include photographs.
Printed materials include books, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, exhibition labels, postcards, and posters.
There are loose photographs and twenty-seven photograph albums depicting de Creeft, his family, friends, and works of art. There are photos of Alexander Calder; de Creeft and Goulet with Raphael Soyer, posing with Soyer's portrait of them; Gertrude Lawrence; art juries, which also include images of Chaim Gross, Jacques Lipchitz, Theodore Roszak, and William Zorach; students, friends, and faculties of Black Mountain College, the Art Students League, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Norton School of Art, which also includes images of Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Julio De Diego, Walter Gropius, J. B. Neumann, and Abraham Rattner.
Seven mixed media scrapbooks document de Creeft's career from 1929 to 1982. Also found are scattered pen and pencil sketches and one sketchbook dating from the 1920s.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1914-1979 (Boxes 1, 27; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1910s-1980s (Boxes 1-6; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Diaries, 1926-1981 (Boxes 6-11; 5.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1871-1977 (Boxes 11-13, 28; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 5: Subject Files, 1924-1980 (Boxes 13-16, 27; 2.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1909-1980s (Boxes 16-17, 27; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1921-1980s (Boxes 17-21, 27, 33; 4.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1900-2004 (Boxes 21-25, 29, 31; 5.1 linear feet)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1929-1982 (Box 26, 30, 32; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 10: Artwork, 1920s-1930s (Box 26; 2 folders)
In 1915, de Creeft rejected the traditional technique of reproducing sculpture in stone from clay and plaster models and turned to direct carving in wood and stone. He was also one of the first sculptors who practiced assemblage and incorporated found objects into his work. His notable assemblage sculpture El Picador, a large figure on horseback, received worldwide press coverage and was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Independents in 1926. Between 1919 and 1928, his work was exhibited in various Paris salons. In the late 1920s, he created 200 stone carvings for Roberto Ramonje's Forteleza (fortress) in Mallorca. It was around this time frame when de Creeft met Alexander Calder, who became his student in direct carving. De Creeft encouraged Calder to display his mechanical toys and Calder put his Circus together for the first time in de Creeft's studio.
De Creeft emigrated to the United States in 1929, right after marrying fellow sculptor Alice Robertson Carr. They divorced nine years later.
While in New York, de Creeft began sculpting with lead sheets beaten into three-dimensional forms and established a studio at 1 Washington Square. His first solo exhibition was at the Ferargil Galleries in New York City and included The Portrait of Cesar Vallejo in chased lead and The Silver Fox of found materials.
In 1932, de Creeft accepted a teaching position in sculpture at the New School for Social Research. He also taught courses at Black Mountain College, where he met his second wife, sculptor Lorrie Goulet, the Art Students League, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Norton Gallery and School of Art. In 1946, de Creeft and Goulet purchased a hundred-acre farm in Hoosick Falls, NY where they established a studio and part-time residence.
Perhaps De Creeft's most well-known monumental scuplture is Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, New York City. The 12' x 16' bronze was dedicated during a public event in 1959 and gave de Creeft worldwide recognition. In 1995 a short film about the making of the sculpture was produced by J. D'Alba and narrated by Lorrie Goulet.
De Creeft was as founding member of the American Artist's Congress, the Sculptors Guild, and the Artist's Equity Association. De Creeft was represented by the Georgette Passedoit Gallery from 1936 to 1949. Later, he joined The Contemporaries (gallery) and exhibited there until 1966. Kennedy Galleries represented de Creeft from 1970 until his death in 1982.
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels D150 and 375-378). While most of the items were included in subsequent gifts, material not donated to the Archives remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers of New York painter and sculptor Max Weber measure 11.8 linear feet and date from 1902-2008. The collection documents Weber's career as an artist through scattered biographical material; correspondence with artists, curators, universities, arts organizations, and others; exhibition and gallery files; personal business records; writings by Weber and others; exhibition catalogs, news clippings, and other printed material; photographs of Weber, exhibitions, and works of art; audio recordings and motion picture films. Also included are records maintained by Joy Weber on the exhibition and sale of Weber's work after his death.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York painter and sculptor Max Weber measure 11.8 linear feet and date from 1902-2008. The collection documents Weber's career as an artist through scattered biographical material; correspondence with artists, curators, universities, arts organizations, and others; exhibition and gallery files; personal business records; writings by Weber and others; exhibition catalogs, news clippings, and other printed material; photographs of Weber, exhibitions, and works of art; audio recordings and motion picture films. Also included are records maintained by Joy Weber on the exhibition and sale of Weber's work after his death.
Biographical material includes biographical summaries, obituaries, award certificates, and a small amount of family memorabilia. Weber's personal and professional correspondence includes discussions of exhibitions, sales, and donations of his work, as well was requests to teach, write, or lecture. Also found is correspondence with arts organizations, clubs, and committees in which he participated. A small amount of family correspondence is also included. Artists that Weber corresponded with include George Biddle, Arthur Davies, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, Marsden Hartley, Rockwell Kent, Leon Kroll, Barnett Newman, Raphael Soyer, and William Zorach, among many others. Weber also corresponded with many art historians and critics, gallery owners, and art patrons. Joy Weber's correspondence primarily concerns the exhibition, loan, sale, and authentication of her father's artwork.
Exhibition files document various solo and group exhibitions of Weber's work. Five reels of motion picture film include footage of an exhibition at the Forum Gallery in 1975. Gallery files include correspondence, inventories, sales and loan records, gallery publications, and other documentation. Most files for exhibitions and galleries were created by Joy Weber after Max Weber's death in 1961. Personal business records include documents on sales, loans, and gifts of Max Weber's artwork; scattered financial documents; and mortgage and property records. Also found are files regarding his participation in the American Artists' Congress and art juries. Weber's writings primarily concern art theory, impressions of other artists, and social and political issues. Additionally there are notes, drafts speeches, and writings by others about Weber.
Printed material is extensive and includes exhibition publications, press releases, and two published booklets written by Weber: "Art Consciousness" and "Things." Also found are news clippings, brochures, newsletters, and publications produced by art organizations, schools, and museums. Photographs include portraits and snapshots of Weber, depicting him working in his studio, participating in art juries, at art openings, and with his family. Photographs also depict installation views of exhibitions and numerous photographs of Weber's artwork. Audiovisual materials include one sound recording of a National Gallery program on Max Weber and five reels of motion picture film that include home movies and footage of an exhibition at the Forum Gallery in 1975.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1905-1995 (Box 1; 10 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1902-2007 (Box 1-5; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1919-2003 (Box 5-6; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Gallery Files, 1926-2005 (Box 6-7; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1906-2006 (Box 7; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 6: Writings, circa 1910s-1999 (Box 7-8; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1909-2008 (Box 8-10, 12; 2.6 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1930s-circa 2000 (Box 10-11; 1.1 linear feet)
Series 9: Audiovisual Material, 1954-2000 (Box 11, FC 13-17; 0.7 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Max Weber (1881-1961) was a painter and sculptor in New York City.
Weber returned to New York in 1909, and over the next few years he frequently exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery 291. Initially his work was panned by American critics for being too modern. Despite criticism, Weber exhibited his work extensively in the 1910s and also began creating abstract sculptures. In 1914 he helped his friend Clarence H. White open the White School of Photography and taught art history there for four years. Also in 1914 his Cubist Poems were published in London. His second book of poetry Primitives was published in 1926.
In 1916 Weber married Frances Abrams. He began to explore narrative subjects in his paintings and in 1918 began carving woodblock prints. He also taught at the Art Students League for the 1919-1921 and 1926-1927 sessions. By the early 1920s he was recognized as an important American artist, serving as a leader in art organizations such as the Society of Independent Artists. In 1930 Weber became the first American modernist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
In the 1930s Weber became more active in political and socialist causes, participating in many organizations throughout the Depression and World War II. In 1937 he became the National Chairman of the American Artists' Congress. By the 1940s, his work was widely known and influenced a new generation of American painters. He continued to exhibit extensively, received many awards, such as the Temple Gold Medal at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and often served on art juries. In 1955 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and received an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University. He died in Great Neck, New York, in 1961.
Related Material:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an Allen L. Wetmore letter from Max Weber, April 15, 1946.
Separated Material:
Material lent for microfilming in 1959 and 1969 which was not included in the 2011 donation is available on microfilm reels NY59-6 to NY59-10, N69-82 to N69-88, and N69-112.
Provenance:
Material was lent for microfilming in 1959 by Max Weber and in 1969 by Mrs. Max Weber and daughter, Joy Weber. The bulk of the microfilmed material and additional papers were donated in 2011 by Joy Weber.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The scattered records of the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Galleries date from 1917 through 1963 and include writings by founder Herman Baron, artists Philip Evergood and Anton Refregier, and art critic Elizabeth McCausland; printed materials; and photographs of Baron, ACA artists, art collectors, works of art, and exhibitions. Correspondence is with David Burliuk, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Lewis Mumford, Moses Sawyer, Max Weber, and others. Also found is a small group of Herman Baron's personal papers.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered records of the ACA (American Contemporary Art) Galleries date from 1917 through 1963 and include writings by founder Herman Baron, artists Philip Evergood and Anton Refregier, and art critic Elizabeth McCausland; printed materials; and photographs of Baron, ACA artists, art collectors, works of art, and exhibitions. Correspondence is with David Burliuk, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Lewis Mumford, Moses Sawyer, Max Weber, and others. Also found is a small group of Herman Baron's personal papers.
The records are a rich resource for documenting the Social Realist artists and the militant socialist artists during the great depression and the post-World War II era of "McCarthyism".
Correspondence with ACA artists consists of letters from Philip Evergood, David Burliuk, William Gropper, Robert Gwathmey, Joseph Hirsch, Lewis Mumford, Elizabeth Olds, Alton Pickens, Moses Soyer, Max Weber, and Art Young. Some of the letters concern the socialist and communist views of some of the artists, including responses to Congressional Representive George A. Dondero's public statements and attacks on modern art as a conspiracy to spread communism in the United States. There is a letter written by Holger Cahill to the editor of Time magazine concerning WPA artists. Also found is a letter from Raphael Soyer written to the ACA Galleries concerning the American Artists' Congress.
Writings include Herman Baron's written history of the ACA Galleries and scattered pages of Baron's book on Joe Jones and William Gropper. There are essays and writings by art critic Elizabeth McCausland, and artists Anton Refregier and Philip Evergood. Printed materials consist of ACA publications, newspaper clippings, published articles, printed illustrations by Philip Evergood, and printed materials about Congressman Dondero.
Photographs are of David Burliuk, Bruce Calder, Nicolai Cikovsky, Hy Cohen, Robert Cronbach, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Mike Gold, Chaim Gross, William Gropper, Joe Jones, Mervin Jules, Irene Rice Pereia, Geri Pine, Philip Reisman, Vic Shifreen, Harry Sternberg, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, James Baare Turnbull, Nicky Walker, Abraham Walkowitz, Nat Werner, and Art Young. Photographers include Berenice Abbott, Arnold Newman, and Alfredo Valente. Additional photographs are of unidentified installations or exhibitions.
Herman Baron's personal papers include letters written to his wife and friends during World War I, writings by Baron for various magazines including Glazier's Journal. Personal photographs are of Herman Baron in his army uniform. There is also an obituary for Herman Baron written by art critic Elizabeth McCausland.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 5 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1930s-1960s (Box 1; 0.25 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings and Notes, 1938-circa 1960s (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1939-1960 (Box 2; 4 folders)
Series 4: Photographs, circa 1930s-circa 1960s (Box 2; 0.25 linear feet)
Series 5: Herman Baron Personal Papers, circa 1910s, 1940s-1960s (Box 2-3; 0.3 linear feet)
Historical Note:
Herman Baron, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Adolf Dehn founded the American Contemporary Art (ACA) Galleries on August 16, 1932. Located at 1269 Madison Avenue in New York City, the galleries' first show featured watercolorist Hy Cohen. Baron encouraged freedom of expression and did not censor the artworks displayed in his gallery. As a result, the gallery became an outlet for generally unknown and socially conscious artists, including the Social Realists.
Born in Lithuania in 1892, Herman Baron immigrated to the United States as a child. He served in World War I and later attended New York University. Baron founded and edited Glazier's Journal (later Glass Digest) in 1924 as the first journal for the professional glazing trade. Additionally, he wrote short stories and plays for American Hebrew and Young Israel.
In response to economic issues facing the art market during the depresssion of 1930s, ACA Galleries organized relief efforts to financially support their artists. During this period, the gallery became closely allied with militant artists' organizations and some of the more politically radical artists. In 1935, the ACA Galleries and Herman Baron hosted the first meeting of the American Artists' Congress in the gallery space.
The ACA Galleries featured exhibitions of works by artists David Burliuk, Stuart Davis, Philip Evergood, William Gropper, Robert Gwathmey, Joe Jones, Rockwell Kent, Lee Krasner, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Lewis Mumford, Louise Nevelson, Alton Pickens, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Max Weber, Art Young, and others. Baron also organized exhibitions of many artists employed by or associated with the Works Progress Administration of the federal arts program. Due to the progressive nature of the works of art found in the ACA Galleries, Herman Baron came under considerable criticism during the McCarthy Era. Baron was condemned by Representative George A. Dondero for supporting "un-American" sympathies and was forced often to defend his gallery and artists.
For years the gallery focused on artists rights and supporting the work of artists, rather than a profit. In the 1950s, a shift occurred when Baron's nephew Sidney Bergen initiated professional business practices and transformed the gallery into a profitable venture. Now located at 529 West 20th Street in New York City, ACA Galleries continues to promote and support various social causes.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art holds the Herman Baron papers, dating from 1937-1967 which were donated by Syracuse University, George Arents Research Library in 1984. Some exhibition catalogs may be found here.
Provenance:
Ella Baron, widow of the ACA Galleries' founder Herman Baron, donated the records to the Archives of American Art in 1965 and 1966.
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.
Correspondence between Sandler and George Grosz, Harry Wickey, Grant Reynard, Aaron Bohrod, Joseph Hirsch, Raphael Soyer, and others; a 62-page manuscript on Grosz, written by Sandler shortly before his death. It recounts Sandler's chance encounter with Grosz in a Berlin cafe in 1932 when Grosz was pondering an invitation to teach at the Art Students League; it also recalls their respective escapes to the U.S. during World War II; and their reunion in New York City in 1946.
Biographical / Historical:
Art collector; Sweden and Pennsylvania. Swedish-born Sandler came to the United States in 1940 as a courier on a confidential mission to the Swedish embassy regarding Hitler. According to his son Ralph, he and his wife had started an art collection in Sweden, but when they were divorced after coming to this country, his wife kept the collection. Marc moved to Pittsburgh, where he started collecting once again, this time focusing on American paintings that were not, in his words, "sucked into the whirlpool of French movements."
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming March 1986 by Ralph Sandler, son of Marc Sandler.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
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:
Authorizatin to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Lenore Seroka. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Photographers -- New York (State) -- Great Neck Search this
Biographical material, letters, financial material, an interview transcript, notes, writings, a scrapbook, printed material, photographs, and an audio tape document Gikow's career as a painter of social commentary.
REEL D230: Exhibition catalogs, 1948-1965; a scrapbook containing a biographical account and clippings, 1937-1965; an undated photograph of Gikow; and 164 photographs of works of art.
REELS 4874-4875: Biographical accounts, 1959-1971; 7 passports, 1947-1972; letters, 1949-1981, from Gikow to critics and galleries, and from colleagues including Karl Fortess and Lee Nordness, and one letter each from Werner Drewes, Jo Hopper, and Raphael Soyer; a file concerning the Kent State Memorial Exhibition, 1971; receipts, 1951-1978; price lists, 1967-1980; a 3 p. interview transcript; an engagement calendar, 1971; miscellaneous notes and writings by Gikow and others; printed material, including clippings, 1947-1979; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1940-1982; a book, History of the Jews in America, 1957, by Deborah Pessin, illustrated by Gikow; a book, Gikow, 1970, by Matthew Josephson, with reproductions of art works used in the book; and brochures; photographs of Gikow, her husband Jack Levine, her studio, artists, including Chaim Gross, Jacob Lawrence, and Raphael Soyer, and works of art; and an untranscribed reel-to-reel tape of an interview of Gikow conducted by Karl Fortess.
UNFILMED: Correspondence; photographs of Gikow and of her art work, including one of her demonstrating mural painting at the 1939 World's Fair; reproductions of her book and magazine illustrations; and a yearbook, 1933, from the Women's Art School at The Cooper-Union, where Gikow studied with John Steuart Curry. Also found are writings by Gikow including reminiscences about her life as an artist and as an artist's wife; address books; and exhibition announcements and catalogs.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, mural painter, illustrator, serigrapher. Died 1982. Gikow was born in the Russian Ukraine, emigrating to New York City with her parents in 1920. She studied under John Steuart Curry at the Cooper Union Art School from 1932-1935. She also studied with Louis Ross, Louis Schanker and Raphael Soyer. After working as an assistant mural painter on the Federal Art Project, Gikow was awarded a commission to paint a mural for the Bronx Hospital. Her book illustrations include Crime and Punishment, and History of the Jews in America. Gikow was married to painter Jack Levine.
Provenance:
Material on D230 was lent by Gikow, 1965. Gikow and her husband Jack Levine donated the remainder in 1978 and 1983, which was microfilmed in 1994 with grants from the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, and the Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation. After microfilming, an addition to the collection was donated by Levine in May 1999. Papers of Jack Levine donated at the same time have been cataloged separately.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Serigraphers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Sylvan Cole conducted 2000 June-October, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art.
The interviews took place over five sessions in New York, New York. Cole discusses the history of Associated American Artists, the gallery for whom he began working in 1946, and its marketing techniques, customer base, and personalities, such as its founder, Reeves Lewenthal. He also traces his own development as a dealer in prints after he left AAA and recalls many artists and other figures in the art world, including Will Barnet, Werner Drewes, Richard Florsheim, Helen Frankenthaler, David Hockney, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Una Johnson, Jacob Kainen, Jack Levine, William S. Lieberman, Robert Motherwell, and Raphael Soyer.
Biographical / Historical:
Sylvan Cole (1918-2005) was an art dealer and writer of New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hr., 6 min.
Sound quality is fair; beginning and endings of tapes tend to be garbled and low.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
9 Items (photographic prints, b&w, 44 x 34 cm. and smaller.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
[1964-1975]
Scope and Contents:
Included are photographs of: Dorothy Dehner, Willem De Kooning, Edwin Dickinson, Red Grooms,Chaim Gross, Rafael Montanez Ortiz, George Segal, Moses Soyer, Raphael and Rebecca Soyer.
Biographical / Historical:
Dena (1910-1987) was a photographer from New York, N.Y. Full name Dinah Rubinstein.
Provenance:
Donated by Dena. It is unclear if the photographs were used in a publication or exhibition. The photographs were initially placed in AAA's Photographs of Artists Collection I and II, separated by artist depicted, and microfilmed on reels 439-441 and 1817-1818. They have been subsequently scanned and compiled together under Dena
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:
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
A typed letter from Raphael Soyer to "Dear Fellow Artist," enclosing a statement from a "group of artists" regarding the "status of our profession today." The statement, approved by 31 artists, deplores the growing dominance of art theorists and museum officials who were causing art, particularly abstract art, to become esoteric and exclusive. Among the artists whose names appear on the statement are Jacob Lawrence, William Gropper, Chaim Gross, Edward Hopper, Xavier Gonzalez, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Soyer and his brother Moses, Isabel Bishop, and Abraham Rattner.
Biographical / Historical:
Soyer was a painter; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Provenance uncertain.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Soyer estimates value of a watercolor. Included with the letter is a snapshot of the work.
Biographical / Historical:
Soyer was a painter; New York City.
Provenance:
Donated 1981 by Esther Reier.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Biographical information, including a resume, clippings, notes by Levine, awards, certificates, and professional memberships, 1960-1984; 14 files of correspondence containing mainly business letters, including caricature assignments from THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, commission and purchase inquiries, loan requests, and letters of appreciation including letters from Raphael Soyer, Norman Mailer, and Jack Rosen; three undated interviews and a transcript of a taped interview about Maurice Prendergast, including a book A SKETCHBOOK OF MAURICE PRENDERGAST with the appreciation written by Levine; miscellaneous writings; business, legal and financial records, 1956-1981; a scrapbook, 1954-1970; printed material, 1952-1984; photographs, undated and 1960-1981.
Biographical / Historical:
Cartoonist and painter; Brooklyn, New York. Studied at Tyler School of Fine Arts and the Hans Hofmann School. He is noted for his satires of political, literary, and art figures. Work is mainly in pen and ink and watercolors.
Provenance:
Donated 1984 by David Levine.
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.
The Sylvan Cole Gallery records and Sylvan Cole papers measure 29.4 linear feet and date from 1935 to 2004, with the bulk of the records dating from 1959 to 2003. The records shed light on the gallery's operations through administrative records, artist files, exhibition and event files, institution and museum files, gallery and dealer files, client and collector files, financial records, and appraisal and legal records. The collection also includes papers of Sylvan Cole, including material generated during his career as president and director of Associated American Artists Gallery; an appraiser of fine-art prints; and an authority on twentieth-century American prints. Some personal material is present as well.
Scope and Contents:
The Sylvan Cole Gallery records and Sylvan Cole papers measure 29.4 linear feeet and date from 1959 to 2004, with one item, A Modern Pilgrim's Print Book, from 1935. The records shed light on the gallery's operations through administrative records, artist files, exhibition and event files, institution and museum files, gallery and dealer files, client and collector files, financial records, and appraisal and legal records. The collection also includes papers of Sylvan Cole, including material generated during his career as president and director of Associated American Artists Gallery; an appraiser of fine-art prints; and an authority on twentieth-century American prints. Some personal material is present as well.
Gallery administrative records consist of correspondence files, organization and membership records, daily planners, files on art conservation and restoration, and an essay by Sylvan Cole titled "Some Observations" about buyers in the commercial print industry. Artist files shed light on the gallery's dealings with artists Raphael Soyer, Martha Bloom, Stuart Davis, Clare Leighton, Ben Shahn, and others through correspondence, biographical summaries and resumes, clippings, price lists, exhibition catalogs and announcements, financial papers, and scattered photos.
Exhibition and event files consist of price lists, announcements, catalogs, press releases, newspaper clippings, and more related to solo and group exhibitions held at Sylvan Cole Gallery and elsewhere that involved either artwork from the Cole Gallery or Sylvan Cole himself. The series also includes materials from art auctions and fairs.
Both institution and museum files as well as gallery and dealer files contain correspondence, printed material, shipping records, exhibition announcements and catalogs, consignment records, invoices, inventories, price lists, and some appraisal records. Galleries and dealer files shed light on the book companies, galleries, and print-dealers that Sylvan Cole and his gallery conducted business with. Client and collector files consist of correspondence, sales records, receipts and invoices, inventories, price lists, and some appraisal records.
Financial records are comprised of sales and consignment records, remittances, paid bills, receipts, and invoices. The collection's appraisal and legal records consist of material documenting laws in New York and at the federal level relevant to fine-art prints and multiples; one file containing the Sylvan Cole Gallery's incorporation records; and records of appraisals performed by Sylvan Cole.
The papers of Sylvan Cole shed light on his career as president and director of Associated American Artists Gallery, a well-known appraiser and authority of fine-art prints, and art lecturer. The papers include correspondence, memos, price lists, and other administrative records from AAAG. Of particular note in this series are letters between Sylvan Cole and lithographer, painter, and sculptor Richard Florsheim as well as material related to the Richard Florsheim Art Fund. Some family and biographical material, membership records, photographs, and clippings are also present.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series.
Series 1: Sylvan Cole Gallery Administrative Records, 1970-2003 (Box 1-3; 2.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Artist Files, 1965-2003 (Box 3-8; 4.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Exhibition and Event Files, 1964-2003 (Box 8-11 ; 3.8 linear feet)
Series 4: Institution and Museum Files, 1976-2004 (Box 12-14; 2.8 linear feet)
Series 5: Gallery and Dealer Files, 1973-2004 (Box 14-18; 3.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Client and Collector Files, 1966-2003 (Box 18-20; 2.8 linear feet)
Series 7: Financial Records,1982-2003 (Box 21-24; 3.6 linear feet)
Series 8: Legal and Appraisal Records, 1967-2003 (Box 24-26, 30-32; 3.2 linear feet)
Series 9: Sylvan Cole Jr. Papers, 1935, 1959-2003 (Box 26-29; 2.4 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
The Sylvan Cole Gallery was founded in 1984 in New York City by Sylvan Cole (1918-2005). The gallery specialized in twentieth-century fine art prints, including lithographs, etchings, screenprints, and woodcuts by European and American artists. Cole started the gallery after his career as the director of the Associated American Artists Gallery (AAAG), an organization that helped transform the commercial print industry in the United States. The Sylvan Cole Gallery exhibited the work of number of artists including Stanley William Hayter, Raphael Soyer, Martha Bloom, Grant Wood, Stuart Davis, and John Taylor Arms. In addition to the individual artists exhibited, the Sylvan Cole Gallery also held group shows of U.S. and European prints; and exhibited at art fairs held in New York, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Sylvan Cole, commonly referred to as Sylvan Cole Jr., was born in Manhattan in 1918 to Sylvan Cole Sr. and Ballin Cole. (His family's name was Cohn at the time of his birth.) "Junior" graduated from Cornell University in 1939 and then worked for Sears Roebuck & Co. while getting his master's at Rutgers University. He then served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Shortly after returning from the war, Cole began working at AAAG, ultimately serving as its director and president from 1958 to 1983. While at AAAG, Cole appraised artwork, curated exhibitions, and purchased and sold many prints on behalf of the gallery. He developed a lasting relationship with painter, lithographer, and sculptor Richard Florsheim, and after Florsheim's death in 1979, Cole became involved with the Richard Florsheim Art Fund. Cole was well-known as a primary authority on fine-art prints of the twentieth century when he established his gallery in 1984. Cole wrote about and publicly discussed twentieth-century prints over the next few decades, performed appraisals, and worked with the government and Internal Revenue Service from the 1980s to 1990s on laws and court cases involving prints. He helped establish the International Fine Print Dealers Association and was involved in several other organizations including the Fire Island Fine Arts Project, Friends of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, and Appraisers Association of America.
Sylvan Cole's first marriage was with Vivian Vanderpool, and they had three children: Robert, James, and Nancy. Cole's second wife, Lilyan, died in 1988; he then married Mary Myers Cole, who passed away in 2008.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Sylvan Cole conducted by Avis Berman, 2000 June-October.
Provenance:
The Sylvan Cole Gallery records and Sylvan Cole Papers were donated by Sylvan Cole in 2003.
Restrictions:
Sylvan Cole files that pertain to his role as an IRS expert witness from 1985 to 1991 are access restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sylvan Cole Gallery Records and Sylvan Cole Papers, 1935-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
The papers of realist painter Raphael Soyer date from 1933 to 1989 and measure 3.9 linear feet. They document Soyer's career as a painter, printmaker, and writer. Found within the papers are scattered biographical materials, including several transcripts of interviews with Soyer; extensive personal and professional correspondence; writings and notes by Soyer and others; scattered legal and financial records; exhibition materials, clippings and other printed material; and photographs of Soyer in his studio, with artists and friends, and at art events. Also found are one sketch and a facsimile of Soyer's 1968 sketchbook produced by Forum Gallery.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of realist painter Raphael Soyer date from 1933 to 1989 and measure 3.9 linear feet. They document Soyer's career as a painter, printmaker, and writer. Found within the papers are scattered biographical materials, including several transcripts of interviews with Soyer; extensive personal and professional correspondence; writings and notes by Soyer and others; scattered legal and financial records; exhibition materials, clippings and other printed material; and photographs of Soyer in his studio, with artists and friends, and at art events. Also found are one sketch and a facsimile of Soyer's 1968 sketchbook produced by Forum Gallery.
Biographical materials include award certificates, including a 1975 certificate from the National Academy of Design, lists of artwork by Soyer, and several transcripts of interviews with Raphael Soyer in which he discusses topics such as his career as an artist, artists in New York City, and the inspiration for his artwork.
Personal and professional correspondence is with numerous artists, writers, art historians, curators, gallery owners, arts organizations, museums, and universities. Correspondents include Lambro Ahlas, Rudolf Baranik, George Biddle, John Bratby, David Burliuk, Peter De Francia, Lloyd Goodrich, Joseph Hirsch, Joseph Hirshhorn, Edward Hopper, Joe Lasker, Henry Varnum Poor, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and many others. Additional correspondence is addressed to Reality magazine, for which Soyer was an editor.
Writings and notes by Soyer include several drafts and notes for his four published books A Painter's Pilgrimage (1962), Homage to Thomas Eakins (1966), Self-Revealment: a Memoir (1969), and Diary of an Artist (1977). Also by Soyer are draft essays, lectures, and articles - many about social realism. Writings by others include essays and articles by artists and art scholars sent to Soyer for review.
Scattered legal and financial records include bank statements, receipts, leases, and documents related to the publishing of his books. Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements, clippings, and other published items.
Photographs depict Soyer in his studio, with other artists and friends such as Chaim Gross, Edward Hopper, and Jose De Creeft, and at art events, and include a few photographs of his artwork. Also found are one pencil sketch and a facsimile of Soyer's 1968 sketchbook produced by Forum Gallery.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1939-1986 (Box 1, OV 6; 12 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1940-1988 (Box 1-2; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 3: Writings & Notes, circa 1946-1987 (Box 2-3; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Legal & Financial Records, 1959-1988 (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1933-1989 (Box 3-4; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1953-1987 (Box 5, OV 6; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, 1968, undated (Box 5; 2 folders)
Biographical Note:
Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) and his twin brother Moses (1899-1974) were born on December 25, 1899, in the Russian town Borisoglebsk. Their father Abraham was a scholar and Hebrew teacher who encouraged all of his children to sketch and paint. After the family was deported from Russia, they settled in the Bronx, New York, in 1912. Raphael and Moses briefly attended school, but at 16 they began working various jobs to help support their family. They also began taking free art classes at Cooper Union and later Raphael attended the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League where he studied with Guy Pene du Bois. He began to show his paintings in 1926 and in 1929 gallery owner Charles Daniel gave him his first one man show. Soyer became one of the leading realist painters and printmakers, often depicting Depression-era transients, Manhattan streetscapes, shoppers, and women at work. He also painted and sketched numerous self-portraits and portraits of fellow artists and cultural figures, many of whom were also his friends, including Allen Ginsberg, Chaim Gross, Edward Hopper, and Arshile Gorky.
Beginning in the 1930s Soyer showed his work frequently at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Associated American Artists Galleries, National Collection of Fine Arts, and other national and international exhibitions. During the 1940s and 1950s he was a leading advocate of realism and spoke out against the abstract style that was dominating the New York art scene. In 1953 he co-founded Reality magazine.
Soyer joined the Forum Gallery in New York in the early 1960s and became good friends with his dealer Bella Fishko. Also during the 1960s he published three books, A Painter's Pilgrimage (1962), Homage to Thomas Eakins (1966), and Self-Revealment: a Memoir (1969), and had his first retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1967.
Throughout his career Soyer also occasionally taught at art schools including the Art Students League and the New School. He also collaborated with his friend, writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, by illustrating several of Singer's books. Soyer and his wife Rebecca, whom he married in 1931, lived the rest of their lives in New York City, but often traveled to Europe. They had one daughter, Mary. Soyer's final book, Diary of an Artist, was published in 1977 and in 1979 he received the Gold Medal from the National Arts Club. He continued painting realist subjects until his death in 1987.
Related Material:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are several collections related to Raphael Soyer: Esther Reier letter from Raphael Soyer, 1978 May 29; Raphael Soyer's Artist Statement from 1947; a Raphael Soyer lecture from 1960; the papers of his twin brother, Moses Soyer; Brooklyn Museum interviews of artists, circa 1965-1968 (includes an interview of Soyer); and the Karl E. Fortess taped interviews with artists, 1963-1985, which also includes an interview with Raphael Soyer. The Archives of American Art's Oral History collection has an interview of Raphael Soyer dated May 13-June 1, 1981 conducted by Milton Brown.
Additional Raphael Soyer papers, 1949-1954, are available at Cornell University.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (N68-1) including a small amount of correspondence and three sketchbooks. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Raphael Soyer donated portions of the collection between 1961 and 1980. He also loaned materials for microfilming in 1968. His widow, Rebecca, and his grandson, Joseph Leiber, on behalf of the entire Soyer family, donated additional materials in 1991 and 1993.
Restrictions:
Use of the 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:
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of painter, pritnmaker and instructor, Rudolf Baranik, measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1951-1982. Included is biographical data; letters from Philip Evergood, Raphael Soyer, John Canaday, Philip Guston, and others; photographs of Baranik and of his work; transcripts of interviews of Baranik conducted by Martin Reis, Irving Sandler, Mary Gordon, leonard Altman, and Lynn Katzman; exhibition announcements and catalogues, including one for the work of his son, Steven Baranik; clippings and other printed material.
Biographical / Historical:
Rudolf Baranik (1920- 1998) was a painter, printmaker, and instructor in New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1975-1983 by Rudolf Baranik.
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:
Art teachers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, Abstract -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
