The records of New York City's Grand Central Art Galleries measure 1.3 linear feet and date from 1931 to 1968, with the bulk of the material from circa 1952 to circa 1965. The majority of the records are related the Grand Central Moderns, the modern art division of Grand Central Art Galleries. The collection includes group exhibition files, artists' files, printed material and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The records of New York City's Grand Central Art Galleries measure 1.3 linear feet and date from 1931 to 1968, with the bulk of the material from circa 1952 to circa 1965. The majority of the records are related the Grand Central Moderns, the modern art division of Grand Central Art Galleries. The collection includes group exhibition files, artists' files, printed material and photographs.
Group exhibition files consist of catalogs, announcements, clippings, artist biographies, correspondence and photographs. The art exchange exhibition between Grand Central Moderns and Galerie Jeanne Bucher is especially noteworthy.
Artists' files include exhibition catalogs, announcements, resumes, clippings, photographs and limited correspondence. The bulk of the material is on artists who had exhibitions at Grand Central Moderns. Notable artists include Elise Asher, Byron Browne, Victor Candell, Joseph De Martini, Xavier Gonzalez, Jacob Kainen, Jennett Lam, Seong Moy, Arthur Osver, Herman Rowan, Lucia Salemme, and Robert Watts, among others.
Printed material mostly consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements of other galleries. There are a few clippings on Grand Central Art Galleries.
There are a few photographs of artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Series 1: Group Exhibition Files, 1952-1957 (Box 1, OV 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Artists' Files, 1940-1968 (Box 1, 0.7 linear feet)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1951-1965 (Boxes 1-2; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Photographs, 1931, circa 1960-circa 1965 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Biographical / Historical:
Grand Central Art Galleries (1923-1994) was a large New York-based art gallery, which also had a modern art division called Grand Central Moderns (1947-circa 1967).
The Grand Central Art Galleries was founded in 1923 and operated as the exhibition space of the Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association in New York City. Grand Central Art Galleries was located at Grand Central Terminal for nearly 30 years before moving on to the Biltmore Hotel at 40 Vanderbilt Avenue, then relocating to 24 West 57th Street. The Galleries regularly exhibited the works of its members and sometimes boasted as many as thirty to forty exhibitions annually.
From its establishment in 1923, Edwin S. Barrie was the director of Grand Central Art Galleries and he founded Grand Central Moderns in 1947, which he also managed until the early 1950s. The gallery moved from one address to another before ultimately relocating to 130 East 56th Street. Colette Roberts was the curator and she took over as director in 1952 until roughly 1965, about two years before Grand Central Moderns closed. Byron Browne, Kenneth Campbell, Lamar Dodd, Xavier Gonzalez, George Morrison and Louise Nevelson were a few of the artists represented by the gallery.
Erwin S. Barrie retired from his position as director of Grand Central Art Galleries in 1975. The gallery closed in 1994.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels NGCAG1-NGCAG2) including 23 yearbooks, 1928-1945, and exhibition catalogs, 1923-1929. The originals were returned to Grand Central Art Galleries after microfilming and are not described in the the container listing of this finding aid.
Provenance:
Grand Central Art Galleries loaned materials for microfilming in 1966. Addition records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Grand Central Art Galleries in 1966 and 1967.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
The papers of New York City art entrepreneur, curator, and journalist Joan Kron date from 1959 to 1971 and measure 1.4 linear feet. The papers include correspondence, scattered financial records, notes and writings, printed material, photographs, a sound and video recording, and project/exhibition files concerning Kron's involvement in the 1960s with the exhibtions of the Arts Council of the Young Men's/Women's Hebrew Association (YM/WHA)of Philadelphia and her business, the Beautiful Bag and Box Co.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York City art entrepreneur, curator, and journalist Joan Kron date from 1959 to 1971 and measure 1.4 linear feet. The papers include correspondence, scattered financial records, notes and writings, printed material, photographs, a sound and video recording, and project/exhibition files concerning Kron's involvement in the 1960s with the exhibtions of the Arts Council of the Young Men's/Women's Hebrew Association (YM/WHA)of Philadelphia and her business, the Beautiful Bag and Box Co.
Papers relating to Kron's volunteer chairmanship of the Arts Council of the Young Men's/Women's Hebrew Association (YM/WHA)of Philadelphia include general files concerning the administration and operation of the organization, as well as exhibition files for Art 1963/ A New Vocabulary (1962) and Museum of Merchandise 1967.) Files generally consist of correspondence, clippings and other printed materials, notes and writings, photographs, and financial documents. The exhibition files for Art 1963/ A New Vocabulary include a typescript "Dictionary Suggestions" by Billy Klüver which contains slang terms with creative definitions, and photographs of Claes Oldenburg, Billy Klüver, Joan Kron, Sam Maitin, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Audrey Sabol, George Segal, Jean Tinguely, and Robert Watts. The files for Museum of Merchandise contain a painting on paper by Geoffrey Hendricks, a drawing by Ray Johnson, a photograph of fabric designer Karl Rosenberg, a photograph of a wedding dress design by Christo, and a 1/2" open reel videotape made by Nam Jun Paik of Kron's appearance on The Tonight Show.
The records of the Beautiful Bag and Box Co., an art entrepreneurial business created by Kron and her colleague Audrey Sabol, include correspondence, a ledger of sales and deposits, income tax records, miscellaneous invoices, notes and writings, clippings, miscellaneous printed material, and photographs. Also found are project/product files for Art Museum Store, Temporary Tattoos, Durable Dishes designed by Roy Lichtenstein, Eat Pin likely designed by Robert Indiana, Art on Billboards, and Stunning Stationery. The file for project Art on Billboards contains postcards from Allan Kaprow and Jim Dine expressing interest in the project, and a photograph of Edwin and Audrey Sabol on a motorcycle posing in front of a billboard designed by Roy Lichtenstein. There is also a 7" audio reel tape recording of a radio program Hey, Look at That containing comments about billboards from Kron, Roy Lichtenstein, architect Robert Venturi, and Evan H. Turner, Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 2 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Arts Council of the YM/YWHA of Philadelphia, 1959-1971 (Box 1-2, OV 3; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 2: Beautiful Bag and Box Co., 1963-1969 (Box 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Joan Kron (circa 1928-) is a fashion and style journalist in New York City, but began her career in Philadelphia as an advocate of avante-garde artists and co-founder of The Beautiful Bag Co. which worked with artists to produce commercial household and fashion art products. Kron worked on projects with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana, among others.
Joan Kron was born circa 1928 in New York. She studied at the Yale University School of Drama from 1946-1948, graduating with a degree in costume design. She married surgeon Dr. Samuel Kron and lived in Philadelphia during the 1960s. For almost a decade, Kron volunteered as chairman of the Arts Council of the Young Men's/Young Women's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia (YM/YWHA.) The YM/YMA Arts Council focused on promoting and hosting new and avant-garde programs in dance, theatre, poetry, crafts, and the visual arts. Under Kron's leadership, the YM/YWHA Arts Council curated Arts1963/A New Vocabulary (1962) and Museum of Merchandise (1967.)
Kron's work with the Arts Council allowed her to build business partnerships with several artists. She partnered with Andy Warhol to produce a line of perfume, "You're In," packaged in silver Coca-Cola bottles, with Robert Indiana for a Love Ring, and other products and projects associated with the exhibitions of the Arts Council. Then, around 1964, she partnered with colleague Audrey Sabol to form The Beautiful Bag and Box Co. and continued to explore commercial products created or designed by artists, including a line of dinnerware "Durable Dishes" designed by Roy Lichtenstein, a series of billboards displaying art work and the Eat Pin, most likely designed by Robert Indiana.
Kron began her career in journalism in the late 1960s by contributing an article about a cannabis harvest in an upscale neighborhood to the Philadelphia magazine in 1969. She continued to write for the magazine until after her divorce. She moved to New York City in 1971 and was hired by New York magazine. She researched and wrote a special issue about the blossoming SoHo art district. Kron then focused the remainder of her career primarily on writing, and worked for a number of magazines and newspapers, and published several books. As of 2010, she was living in New York City and working as contributing editor at large for Condé Nast's Allure magazine, primarily covering the subject of cosmetic surgery.
Related Materials:
Additional copies of microfilm reels 4224-4225 are available at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Also found in the Archives are selected papers of the Young Men's/Women's Hebrew Association Arts Council that were loaned by Judith Golden for microfilming, and are now available only on microfilm reels 3898. Another small collection of printed material from the YM/WHA records was donated by Acey Wolgin and microfilmed on reel 4340, and transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum Library's vertical files.
Provenance:
Joan Kron donated her papers in 1987.
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.
