REELS 826-827: 697 letters, including letters to her parents and her future husband Alan Fink, and letters from Bernard Chaet, Maxine Kumin, Tillie Olsen, Anne Sexton, Andrew Stevovich, Elbert Weinberg, and the Cober Gallery; a 15-page diary; a scrapbook containing photographs, clippings, catalogs and miscellany; and many loose clippings and catalogs.
UNMICROFILMED: Photographs of Swan, Ellsworth Kelly, and other students of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston School; letters relating to Swan's career and from friends and relatives, including Bernard and Ninon Chaet and Edwin and Rosalind Miller; Christmas cards by Swan and other artists; drafts and a transcription of a talk by Swan on Harold Tovish; exhibition announcements and catalogs; clippings; and printed material on Anne Sexton.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, illustrator, draftsman, and lithographer; Boston, Mass. Studied at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under Karl Zerbe. Ellsworth Kelly was also a student there. Swan collaborated as an illustrator with poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin.
Provenance:
Material on reels 826-827 was lent for microfilming in June of 1974 by Barbara Swan. She donated the photographs of Ellsworth Kelly in December 1974, and letters, writings, exhibition catalogs and miscellaneous printed material in 1992. Additional papers are expected.
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.
Interview of Harold Tovish, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution on November 13, 1997 at his home and studio in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tovish speaks of his kinetic sculpture of the 1960s; his return to kinetic work in the 1970s and early 1980s; his creative process; acceptance of death; his confidence in the role of art and his own work, despite the lack of a traditional broad base of support; his experience as a sculptor-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome, 1966; slow working procedures; his disenchantment with most modern art that employs technology; admiration for the formal economy of Minimalist art and its influence on him; the absence in his work, for the most part, of overtly political themes, yet the presence of moral stances stemming from his Depression-era background and anti-Vietnam War protests; his left wing political views; the artificiality of exhibitions; the desirability of artists organizing for mutual benefit and discourse; the transitory nature of fame; avoidance of friendships with museum curators; comparisons of his teaching experience at Boston University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; his 1990 exhibition at Boston University and Terry Dintenfass Gallery, NYC; self-portraits and variations on them; prints and drawings curator at the Boston Public Library, regarding Boston artists; the neglect of Boston area artists by other Boston art institutions; his 1988 retrospective at the Addison Gallery of American Art; the importance of a balanced and frank working relationship with his late wife, the sculptor Marianna Pineda; the professional mores that infused their generation of artists; the major change in his sculpture in the early 1980s; a subsequent period of drawing in the late 1980s which was triggered by attacks of vertigo; interest in anatomical parts; the infrequency of sculpture exhibits; a consistent thread of "darkness" or apprehensiveness in his work; and his acceptance of his first commission, a monument to the painter John Singleton Copley for Boston's Copley Square. Tovish also recalls Hyman Bloom, William Zorach, Sinclair Hitchings, Philip Guston, Doris Lessing, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Harold Tovish (1921-2008) was a sculptor in both Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 42 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire audio recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records are comprised of administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.
Scope and Contents:
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records include administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.
Administrative files include advertising and membership records, insurance documents, a guest book, resumes, and agreements with other corporations. Correspondence is with artists, galleries, museums, and arts organizations. There is a significant amount of correspondence regarding the Art Dealers Association of America.
Exhibition files are found for numerous exhibitions to which Dintenfass either loaned art or helped to organize. There is extensive documentation of the 20 Galleries/20 Years exhibition held at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery and the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in 1982 and the "Machine Themed Shows" in 1974-1975.
Artists' files comprise the largest group of materials within the collection. Files for Hyman Bloom, Alan Cober, Arthur Dove, Philip Evergood, Richard Fleischner, Antonio Frasconi, Sidney Goodman, William King, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Merkin, Horace Pippin, Paul Suttman, and Harold Tovish bulk the largest.
Financial records contain artist expense and sales ledgers, consignment papers, invoices and receipts, as well as records for D Contemporary Paintings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 5 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Administrative Files, 1961-1983 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1961-1981 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1962-1983 (4.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-7, OV 23)
Series 4: Artists' Files, 1947-1987 (8.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-15, OV 23)
Series 5: Financial Records, 1959-1981 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-22, OV 23)
Biographical / Historical:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. is a New York City art gallery founded in 1959 by Terry Dintenfass (1920-2004).
In 1954, Theresa "Terry" Dintenfass opened D Contemporary Paintings in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With financial backing from Armand Erpf, she moved the gallery to New York City in 1959 and changed the name to Terry Dintenfass Gallery. There, she became a protégé of Downtown Gallery owner Edith Halpert. Dintenfass was one of several notable female art dealers in the city during the 1940s-1980s among Edith Halpert, Betty Parsons, Grace Borgenicht, Antoinette Kraushaar, and others. She showed work on consignment from other dealers, and when Edith Halpert retired, Terry Dintenfass, Inc. began to represent the estate of Arthur Dove. Other notable artists represented by the gallery included social realists Philip Evergood and Robert Gwathmey, and African American painters Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence, whom she represented for 25 years. The gallery's stable also included William King, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom, Antonio Frasconi, and others.
After Dintenfass retired in 1999, her son Andrew took over the business and continues to run the gallery today. Terry Dintenfass died in 2004 in Manhattan.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Terry Dintenfass conducted by Paul Cummings on December 2, 1974-January 13, 1975 for the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1995 by Terry Dintenfass.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Interview of Harold Tovish, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution on June 24, 1974 and March 17, 1977.
Tovish speaks of his first introduction to art and sculpture as a child; growing up in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum; meeting and marrying Marianna Pineda; getting a scholarship to study sculpture at Columbia; serving in the Army in World War II; studying and working in Paris after World War II; early exhibitions; getting a teaching job at Alfred University; his teaching style and attitude towards students; his conception of himself as an artist; his limited output. Tovish also recalls Ossip Zadkine, William Zorach, Germaine Richier, Oronzio Malderelli, George Grosz, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Harold Tovish (1921-2008) was a painter and sculptor from Brookline, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 10 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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire audio recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Biographical material; correspondence, including letters from artists, galleries, museum officials, universities and others, and copies of letters from Tovish to his family, editors, students, and others; manuscripts for lectures; art school course assignments; project files; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1942-1993 and price lists and checklists for exhibitions, 1974-1986; clippings of reviews, interviews and editorials, 1942-1991; 5 photographs of Tovish and his sculpture; and a small amount of material compiled by Tovish on other artists, such as Rodin; and terms of agreement for commission of a sculpted portrait of Washington University professor, Carl Cori.
REEL 5281: Fourteen photographs and eleven notes and letters between Tovish his wife, Mariana Pineda. Photographs show Tovish at ages 16, 20, 24; Tovish in Paris; Pineda in Paris, Utah and Hawaii, with Nina Tovish, with Harold Tovish, and Pineda immediately after her death. Letters and note cards are mostly personal, reflecting their family life, birthdays, and anniversaries.
Tovish was born in the Bronx to a poor Jewish immigrant family. As a result of his family becoming destitute after Tovish's father's death ca. 1929, he spent most of his childhood at the Hebrew Orphan asylum in Manhattan, where he studied sculpture under Andrew Berger. He worked on various WPA projects in the 1920s, studied sculpture with Oronzio Mandarelli at Columbia University (1940-1943), fought in Europe during WWII, and studied art in Paris under the GI Bill. Tovish married fellow student Marianna Packard Pineda in the late 1940s. After his noted teaching career began at the University of Minnesota (1951-1954), he again studied in Europe, and moved to Boston to teach at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1957. He served as one of the first Fellows at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, and later taught at Boston University (1971-1983). He exhibited widely, became active in anti-Vietnam War activities, and in the Boston Visual Artists Union.
Provenance:
Donated in 1997 and 1998 by Harold Tovish, except for 14 photographs and 11 items of correspondence between Tovish and Pineda which he lent for microfilming in 1997.
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.
The records of the Boston, Massachusetts Swetzoff Gallery measure 18.6 linear feet and date from 1941 to 1968. Materials include administrative files, scattered general correspondence, named files, exhibition files, financial records, printed material, a scrapbook of printed material, photographs, and the personal papers of Hyman Swetzoff.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the Boston, Massachusetts Swetzoff Gallery measure 18.6 linear feet and date from 1941 to 1968. Materials include administrative files, scattered general correspondence, named files, exhibition files, financial records, printed material, a scrapbook of printed material, photographs, and the personal papers of Hyman Swetzoff.
Administrative records include twenty day books, mailing lists, leases, and shipping records. Correspondence is scattered but includes holiday cards and general correspondence between other institutions, galleries, and clients.
Named files are a mix of artist, subject, and client files and relate to Gallery's relationships with artists, buyers and clients, and institutions and galleries. Files may include correspondence from or about the named individual. Substantial materials are found for Varujan Boghosian, Richard Boyce, Bruce Connor, Robert Eshoo, Fannie Hillsmith, Gyorgy Kepes, Yutaka Ohashi, Marianna Pineda, Odilon Redon, Reba Stewart, Harold Tovish, and Fernando Zóbel.
Exhibition files document exhibitions at the Swetzoff Gallery, events at other galleries for which Swetzoff loaned works, and for larger art fairs and exhibitions in which the gallery participated. Financial records include artist account ledgers, appraisals, consignments, accounts receivable and payable, price lists, receipts, records of purchases, sales statements, and other general financial records. Ledgers may include artist name, title of work of art, buyer, and price.
Printed material is scattered and includes some exhibition material and clippings. There is one scrapbook of printed materials. Photographs are of artists, gallery employees, installations, and of works of art.
The Hyman Swetzoff papers include biographical material of Swetzoff and his family, correspondence, business records, writings, photographs, and artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Administrative Files, 1949-1968 (1.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1951-1965 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 3: Named Files, 1949-1968 (8.4 linear feet; Boxes 3-12, OV 20-21)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1946-1966 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 12-13)
Series 5: Financial Records, 1941-1968 (3.4 linear feet; Boxes 12-16)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1949-1968 (0.3 linear feet; Box 16)
Series 7: Scrapbook, 1948-1950 (0.3 linear feet; Box 16)
Series 8: Photographs, 1950s-1960s (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 16-17)
Series 9: Hyman Swetzoff Papers, 1950-1968 (2.0 linear feet; Boxes 17-19)
Biographical / Historical:
The Swetzoff Gallery operated in Boston, Massachusetts from the late-1940s to 1968.
Brothers Hyman and Seymour Swetzoff opened the Frameshop Gallery in Boston around 1948. Later, they expanded the business to include the sale of art and renamed the business Swetzoff Gallery. Hyman took sole-ownership of the gallery, which he ran until he was murdered by an unknown assailant in 1968.
The Swetzoff Gallery worked with many artists, dealers, galleries, and collectors including Albert Alcalay, Hyman Bloom, Varujan Boghosian, Richard Boyce, James Ensor, Robert Eshoo, Fannie Hillsmith, Gyorgy Kepes, Elie Nadelman, Yutaka Ohashi, Bradley Phillips, Marianna Pineda, Reba Stewart, Jean Tock, and Hugh Townley among many others.
Provenance:
The records of the Swetzoff Gallery were donated by Sidney Swetzoff in 1968.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Art, American -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- Massachusetts
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Gallery records
Photographs
Citation:
Swetzoff Gallery records, 1941-1968. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund
An interview of Dana Chandler conducted 1993 March 11-May 5, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Chandler remembers his childhood in the Black community of Roxbury, Massachussets, with numerous siblings, pugnacious, hard-drinking longshoreman father, and mother who was the linchpin of the family; precocity as a reader and child artist; attendance at Saturday morning children's art classes at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Boston Educational High School where needed discipline was instilled in him by its all-white faculty; and as an assistant at school after graduation (1959-61).
Chandler talks about his awareness of budding civil rights movement; his attendance (1962-67) at Massachusetts College of Art while supporting his new, young family and working for the Jamaica Plain Area Planning Action Council which was funded by the federal Model Cities program; his first exhibitions (1967), in a liberal local church and a black businessmen's club; the exhibition (1969) "Twelve Black Artists from Boston," at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; and his involvement, along with Harold Tovish and Michael Mazur, in the group, Artists Against the War.
He recalls his initiation of the exhibition, "Afro-American Artists/New York and Boston," at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1970, for which he was given no credit; his position as an unpaid cultural commentator for a Black newspaper and radio station; his politically-charged paintings and prints from the late 1960s onward; his meetings with senior Black artists, such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett Mora, and Benny Andrews; and his steady espousal of confrontation.
Chandler discusses teaching at Simmons College, Boston, 1971 to present; his creation in 1974 of the African-American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AMARP), Northeastern University, Boston, and his direction of it until 1993, when he was relieved of the position by the University.
Chandler discusses his exhibition at Northeastern University in 1976, "If the Shoe Fits, Hear It!" under the name Akin Duro, and its evidence of the respect in which he was held; the loss of much of his work in a studio fire; and his current large-scale graphic work.
Biographical / Historical:
Dana Chandler (1941- ) is an African American painter, printmaker, and educator from Boston, Massachussets.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 51 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding for the transcription of this interview provided by the Newland Foundation.
The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Hungarian-born artist, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes, measure 21.2 linear feet and date from 1909-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1935-1985. The papers document Kepes's career as an artist and educator, and as founder of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), through biographical material, correspondence, writings by Kepes and others, project files, exhibition files, printed material, sketchbooks, artwork, sound recordings and motion picture films, and photographic material.
Correspondence provides a wide range of documentation on all aspects of Kepes's career including his collaborations and friendships with artists, architects, writers, scientists, and fellow educators including Rudolf Arnheim, Alexander Calder, Henry Dreyfuss, Charles and Ray Eames, Clive Entwhistle, R. Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, S. W. Hayter, Jean Hélion, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Lev Nussberg, Robert Osborn, George Rickey, Saul Steinberg, Kenzo Tange, Robert Jay Wolff, and Jekabs Zvilna. Correspondence also documents the evolution of Kepes's vision for the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, which he established in 1967, and his subsequent leadership of CAVS at M.I.T. Records document his collaborations with students and fellows including Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Margaret Mead, Otto Piene, Alan Sonfist, Athena Tacha, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, and Wen-Ying Tsai. Correspondents also include people who contributed to Kepes's Vision + Value series, including Michael Blee, Kazuhiko Egawa, Jean Hélion, and others. Correspondence includes three motion picture films, including what appears to be an early version of Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.
Writings include notes and manuscripts for articles and essays in which Kepes explored ideas evident in his books The New Landscape and Language of Vision, and submitted to publications such as Daedalus, Design, Domus, and Leonardo. Writings also include manuscripts for lectures, and draft manuscripts documenting Kepes's collaborative work with fellow M.I.T. professor Kevin Lynch on city planning, which culminated in Lynch's research project "The Perceptual Form of the City."
A small group of "Times Square Project" files documents Kepes's proposal for a lightscape in Times Square that was ultimately not realized.
Teaching files include sound recordings of circa five symposia and discussions held at M.I.T., the Illinois Institute of Technology, and elsewhere, some featuring Kepes and including Philip Johnson, Eero Saarinen and others.
Exhibition files include documentation of three exhibitions, including Light as a Creative Medium (1968) and a Kepes exhibition at Saidenberg Gallery (1968). They also record Kepes's involvement in designing the 1968 Triennale di Milano.
Printed material includes a substantial collection of announcements and catalogs for Kepes exhibitions, lectures, and other events, and includes catalogs and announcements for scattered exhibitions of his wife, artist and illustrator, Juliet Kepes. Clippings from newspapers and magazines include articles about Kepes, and contain some copies of published writings and designs by him. The series also includes sound recordings and motion picture films containing original material for a CBS television series "The 21st Century," probably as part of the episode "Art for Tomorrow," which appear to feature M.I.T. fellows Jack Burnham and Vassilakis Takis. Another motion picture film of an Italian documentary "Operazione Cometa" can also be found here.
Two sketchbooks contain pen and ink and painted sketches by Kepes. Artwork by Kepes includes original poster designs, caricatures, and many pencil, and pen and ink sketches and paintings on paper and board, including designs for stained glass. Artwork by others includes ink on mylar sketches by D. Judelson and Konstancija Brazdys, and a sketch by Harold Tovish. Also found are circa seventeen motion picture films and four sound recordings, the majority of which are untitled and by unidentified artists, but include films by M.I.T. fellows Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, Philip Thiel, Harold Tovish, Wen-Ying Tsai, and others.
Photographs are of Kepes, Juliet Kepes, and other family members; students, colleagues, and friends, including R. Buckminster Fuller, Serge Chermayeff, Harry Bertoia, Varujan Boghosian, Alexander Calder, Marchall McLuhan, Margaret Mead, Herbert Read, I. A. Richards, Saul Steinberg, and William Wurster; and of Kepes in his studio. There are also photos of exhibition installations in which Kepes's work appeared or which he designed, and photos of his artwork and of images for publications which he wrote or edited. Photos by others include artwork by established artists and work by students, as well as photographs arranged by subjects such as cityscapes, forms found in nature, light patterns, mechanical devices, and photomicrographs. A collection of lantern slides with similar content to the photos of artwork and photos by subject is also found in this series and includes a lantern slide of Picasso creating a design with light.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eleven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1940-circa 1980 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 28)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1936-1984 (5.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-7, 28 OV 33, FCs 39-41)
Series 3: Interviews and Transcripts, 1954-1970 (4 folders; Box 7)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1948-circa 1980s (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 28)
Series 5: Times Square Project Files, 1972-1974 (6 folders; Box 9)
Series 6: Teaching Files Sound Recordings, circa 1953-1972 (0.7 linear feet; Box 9)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1958-1973 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 9-10)
Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1922-1989 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 10-12, 28-29, OVs 35, 37, FCs 42-49)
Series 9: Sketchbooks, circa 1940s-circa 1970s (2 folders; Box 12)
Series 10: Artwork and Moving Images, circa 1924-2003 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 12, 13, OVs 33-36, 38, FCs 50-62)
Series 11: Photographs, 1909-1988 (10.4 linear feet; Boxes 13-32)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, designer, art theorist, and educator, Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), was born in Selyp, Hungary, and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest. He worked with Moholy-Nagy in Berlin and London before joining him at the New Bauhaus (later the Chicago Institute of Design) in 1937.
Kepes taught courses at the New Bauhaus from 1937 to 1945, and published Language of Vision in 1944, summarizing the educational ideas and methods he had developed during his time at the institute. In 1946 he accepted a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) where he initiated a program in visual design.
In 1956 Kepes published The New Landscape in Art and Science, in which he presented images from nature that were newly accessible due to developments in science and technology, and explored his ideas for a common language between science and the visual arts.
In 1965, these ideas were apparent in Kepes's proposal of an expanded visual arts program at M.I.T., which would "build new as yet undetermined bridges between art and engineering and science," according to the minutes of an M.I.T. Art Committee meeting in March of that year. Kepes's vision dovetailed with M.I.T.'s vested interest in promoting the arts, and faculty and administrators were open to the argument that "The scientific-technical enterprise needs schooling by the artistic sensibilities." In 1967, they appointed Kepes Director of M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS).
Kepes retired from the regular faculty at M.I.T. in 1967, to focus on his role as director of CAVS, where he worked to provide artists with opportunities for exploring new artistic forms on a civic scale through a working dialogue with scientists and engineers. Early fellows of the center included Maryanne Amacher, Joan Brigham, Lowry Burgess, Jack Burnham, Piotry Kowalski, Otto Piene, Vassilakis Takis, and Wen-Ying Tsai.
In 1965-1966 Kepes edited a six-volume series entitled Vision + Value, published by George Braziller, Inc. Each volume featured essays that centered around a core theme: The Education of Vision; Structure in Art and Science; The Nature and Art of Motion; Module, Symmetry, Proportion, Rhythm; Sign, Image, Symbol; and Man-Made Object. Contributions came from prominent artists, designers, architects, and scientists of the time including Rudolf Arnheim, Saul Bass, Marcel Breuer, John Cage, R. Buckminster Fuller, Johannes Itten, Marshall McLuhan, and Paul Rand.
Kepes experimented widely with photography, producing abstract images through the application of fluids and objects to photographic paper. He also took commercial work throughout his career, producing designs for all kinds of objects, including books and stained glass windows for churches. He returned to painting in the 1950s, and his development as a painter continued throughout his career at M.I.T., where he remained until his retirement in 1974, and beyond. His paintings, which were abstract and often incorporated organic shapes and hints of landscapes, can be found in museums such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Kepes received many awards during his lifetime, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1958); the Gold Star Award of the Philadelphia College of Art (1958); the National Association of Art Colleges Annual Award (1968); the California College of Art Award (1968); and the Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1968). In 1973 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member, and became a full academician in 1978. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Related Materials:
Additional papers of Gyorgy Kepes can be found at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 1211) including ninety-eight letters to Kepes from colleagues, 1946-1974. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Gyorgy Kepes lent papers for microfilming in 1974 and donated material to the Archives of American Art in a series of gifts between 1974 and 1993.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce requires written permission from Juliet Kepes Stone or Imre Kepes. 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.
The papers of sculptor and educator Marianna Pineda (1925-1996) date from 1943-1998 and measure 3.7 linear feet and 0.001 GB. The collection documents Pineda's career through biographical material, correspondence, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, photographs, and some audiovisual material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor and educator Marianna Pineda (1925-1996) date from 1943-1998 and measure 3.7 linear feet and 0.001 GB. The collection documents Pineda's career through biographical material, correspondence, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, photographs, and some audiovisual material. Biographical material includes correspondence with art historians, museums and galleries, and family, writings, teaching files, membership records, and some material related to Pineda's memorial organized by her husband, Harold Tovish. Exhibition files include checklists and pricelists, loan agreements, shipping information, catalog mock-ups as well as some printed and digital material and photographs from group and solo exhibitions. Project files include correspondence, printed material, sketches, photographs, and contracts related to Pineda's commissions, most notably her 6-foot bronze sculpture of Queen Lili'uokalani, The Spirit of Lili'oukalani, located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Other materials include drafts, correspondence, and printed matter related to her lecture "Rodin's Portrayal of Women." Personal business records consist of sales records, gallery files, grant and fellowship applications, records of artwork gifted as well as some invoices and receipts. Printed material includes exhibition material such as invitations, catalogs, clippings, and postcards; news clippings written about Pineda and her artwork; an article written by Pineda; and some material related to other artists. Photographs depict Pineda, Harold Tovish and other family members, artwork, Pineda's solo exhibition in 1970, and scenes from inside Pineda's studio.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 6 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1943-1998 (Box 1; .7 linear feet)
Series 3: Project Files, 1971-1996 (Box 2-3; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1951-1996 (Box 3; .5 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1947-1996 (Box 3-4; .5 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1947-1996 (Box 5, OV 6; .3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Marianna Pineda (1925-1996) was a sculptor and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. Pineda studied at Cranbrook Academy with Carl Milles, Bennington College with Simon Moselsio, University of California, Berkley, with Raymond Puccinelli, Columbia University with Oronzio Maldarelli, and in Paris with Ossip Zadkine. She met her future husband while studying at Columbia, fellow sculptor Harold Tovish. Pineda exhibited her work in group exhibitions held at Brooklyn Museum, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Carnegie Institute, Pennsylvania, and had solo shows at the Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii, Walker Art Center, Minnesota, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and Swetzoff Gallery, Boston. Her public commissions include a 6-foot bronze sculpture, The Spirit of Lili'oukalani, located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Pineda's sculptures are found in the permanent collections of the Boston Public Library, Walker Art Center, Fogg Art Museum, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, and others. Pineda was an instructor at Newton College of the Sacred Heart and Boston College, and was an adjunct professor of sculpture at Boston University.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Marianna Pineda conducted by Robert Brown, May 26 and June 14, 1977.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Marianna Pineda in 1989, and after her death by her widower, Harold Tovish, in 1997 and 1998.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Marianna Pineda papers, 1943-1998. 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.
A vitae and passport; correspondence, 1969-1988, written as Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, regarding grant applications and with other artists including Harold Tovish, Sigmund Abeles, William King; files on the Artist's Committee of Western New York of which Paterson was president, 1974-1977, containing correspondence, printed material and writings regarding artists of the committee and the art gallery affiliated with the committee; photocopies of Paterson's income tax returns, 1968-1988, contracts, and other financial records; 3 photographs of Paterson's sculpture.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor, teacher; Buffalo, N.Y. Founding member and first director of the Artists Committee of Western New York.
Provenance:
Donated by Anthony Paterson, 1992.
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) -- Buffalo Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- Buffalo Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Harold Tovish, 1974 February 7-1977 March 17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Harold Tovish, 1997 November 13-1998 April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
