An interview of Nina von Eckardt conducted 2012 July 31 and August 13, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art, at von Eckardt's home, in West New York, N.J.
Biographical / Historical:
Nina von Eckardt (née Sutherland) (1940- ) worked as Leo Castelli's secretary at Leo Castelli Gallery. She is an art critic, writer, and illustrator under the name Nina ffrench-frazier. Avis Berman (1949- ) is an art historian and author in New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded as 4 sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 56 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:
The transcript and audio recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The scattered papers documenting the activities of pre-World War II Chicago art patron Josephine Hancock Logan measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1974. The papers also relate to her husband, Frank G. Logan, and the Society for Sanity in Art and were compiled by Gloria Kolodny Chanenson. Found are printed materials, a mailing list, photographs, and printed poetry by Logan.
Scope and Contents:
The scattered papers documenting the activities of pre-World War II Chicago art patron Josephine Hancock Logan measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1974. The papers also relate to her husband, Frank G. Logan, and the Society for Sanity in Art and were compiled by Gloria Kolodny Chanenson. Found are printed materials, a mailing list, photographs, and printed poetry by Logan.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Arts administrator Gloria Kolodny Chanenson (1920-2010) was a scholarship student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1938-1943, she was the secretary of Josephine Hancock Logan.
Josephine Hancock Logan (1862-1943) was prominent art patron from Chicago, Illinois. She was an opponent of modernism who founded the Society for Sanity in Art in 1936.
Provenance:
Donated 1988 by Gloria K. Chanenson.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The scattered papers of abstract artist, collector, and museum director Hilla Rebay measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1921 to 1963. Found are photographs, printed materials concerning Rebay and the Guggenheim Foundation Museum of Non-Objective Painting, and a transcript from a court case involving taxes.
Scope and Contents:
The scattered papers of abstract artist, collector, and museum director Hilla Rebay measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1921 to 1963. Found are photographs, printed materials concerning Rebay and the Guggenheim Foundation Museum of Non-Objective Painting, and a transcript from a court case involving taxes.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Abstract painter, art collector, and museum director Hilla Rebay (1890-1967) was active in New York City, New York, and served as the first director of the Guggenheim Museum.
Born Baroness Hildegard Anna Augusta Elisabeth Rebay von Ehrenwiesen in France, she studied art in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Rebay worked with Solomon Guggenheim to form a collection of Non-Objective paintings which became the foundation of the art collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Provenance:
Records documenting the legal case were donated by the Art Dealers Association of America in 1963, which participated in the case by designating expert witness for the government to testify as to the market value of paintings. Provenance of the rest of the collection is unknown.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Museum directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, and correspondence about feminist art and art groups; notes, essays and drafts of articles; photos of family, friends and associates, including Women in the Arts Foundation, Inc. members, and photos of art work; invoices, receipts and price lists; catalogs, announcements, clippings and printed materials. Also included are two untranscribed interviews: one of Dina Gustin Baker and Joyce Weinstein conducted by Zaleski in New York City, 1976; and another of Jean Zaleski and Ce Roser conducted by Vivian Southerland for radio station WBAI, New York City, 1976.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, art administrator; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated September 1979 and January 1980 by Jean Zaleski.
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:
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
An interview of Vivian Browne conducted 1968 July 1, by Henri Ghent, for the Archives of American Art.
Browne speaks of her family background and education; the development of her interest in art; reactions to her work; being a Black artist; printmaking; her work as a supervisor to art instructors in public schools; government support for the arts; her future plans.
Biographical / Historical:
Vivian E. Brown (1929-1993) was a painter and art administrator in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 50 min.
Transferred from original acetate tape reels.
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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Waddy, Ruth G. (Ruth Gilliam), 1909-2003 Search this
Extent:
26.1 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Sketchbooks
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Date:
1928-2018
Summary:
The papers of African American artist, curator, and arts administrator Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery measure 26.1 linear feet and date from 1929-2019. The papers relate to Montgomery's career and involvement in the African American art scene in California and Washington, D.C. The collection includes biographical materials consisting of calendars and appointment books, certificates and awards, records regarding Montgomery's personal art collection, resumes and biographies, and other personal records; correspondence with colleagues and friends such as Benny Andrews, Willis Bing Davis, Edmund Barry Gaither, Eugene Grigsby, Dele Jegede, Samella Lewis, Nzegwu Nkiru, and A.M. Weaver; professional activity files documenting Montgomery's career as a consultant, curator, member, and volunteer for a myriad of organizations including the American Association for State and Local History, National Conference of Artists, and the Oakland Museum; and research files and notes on African and African American arts and history, Black media, Black photographers, the museum profession, and the artists Betye Saar, Lois Mailou Jones, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Romare Bearden, Ruth Waddy, Sam Gilliam, and Sargent Johnson. Also included are files regarding Montgomery's career as an artist containing material on the Brandywine Workshop, interviews with Floyd Coleman and for The Historymakers, sales and consignment records, and other material; printed and documentary material consisting of art reproductions, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and posters regarding Montgomery and other African American artists; artwork by Montgomery, including student sketchbooks, and others; photographic material of Montgomery, friends and colleagues, events, personal snapshots, and works of art; and unidentified audiovisual material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist, curator, and arts administrator Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery measure 26.1 linear feet and date from 1929-2019. The papers relate to Montgomery's career and involvement in the African American art scene in California and Washington, D.C. The collection includes biographical materials consisting of calendars and appointment books, certificates and awards, records regarding Montgomery's personal art collection, resumes and biographies, and other personal records; correspondence with colleagues and friends such as Benny Andrews, Willis Bing Davis, Edmund Barry Gaither, Eugene Grigsby, Dele Jegede, Samella Lewis, Nzegwu Nkiru, and A.M. Weaver; professional activity files documenting Montgomery's career as a consultant, curator, member, and volunteer for a myriad of organizations including the American Association for State and Local History, National Conference of Artists, and the Oakland Museum; and research files and notes on African and African American arts and history, Black media, Black photographers, the museum profession, and the artists Betye Saar, Lois Mailou Jones, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Romare Bearden, Ruth Waddy, Sam Gilliam, and Sargent Johnson. Also included are files regarding Montgomery's career as an artist containing material on the Brandywine Workshop, interviews with Floyd Coleman and for The Historymakers, sales and consignment records, and other material; printed and documentary material consisting of art reproductions, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and posters regarding Montgomery and other African American artists; artwork by Montgomery, including student sketchbooks, and others; photographic material of Montgomery, friends and colleagues, events, personal snapshots, and works of art; and unidentified audiovisual material.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1967-2015 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1, OV 27)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1963-2014 (2.0 linear feet; Boxes 2-4)
Series 3: Professional Activity Files, 1963-2017 (7.6 linear feet; Boxes 4-11)
Series 4: Research Files and Notes, 1928-2018 (4.0 linear feet; Boxes 11-16)
Series 5: Files Regarding Montgomery's Career as an Artist, 1970-2016 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 16-17)
Series 6: Printed and Documentary Materials, 1964-2018 (7.2 linear feet; Boxes 17-23, 26, OVs 27-29, 31-34
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1957-2006 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 23, 26, OV 30)
Series 8: Photographic Materials and Moving Images, circa 1965-2017 (3.0 linear feet; Boxes 23-27, OV 27)
Series 9: Unidentified Audiovisual Materials, circa 1990s (1 folder; Box 25)
Biographical / Historical:
Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery (1930- ) is an African American artist, curator, and arts administrator in California and Washington, D.C.
Montgomery was born in New York and moved to Harlem in New York City after the divorce of her parents, Oliver and Carmelite Thompson. Upon graduating from Seward Park High School in 1951, Montgomery worked painting faces on dolls and statues. In 1955, she married Ulysses "Jim" Montgomery and moved to Los Angeles. In California she began working for jewelry designer Thomas Usher while attending Los Angeles City College. She continued her education at California College of the Arts (California College of Arts and Crafts) where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1969. During the late 1960s, Montgomery began curating exhibitions. From 1971 to 1976, she was curator for Rainbow Sign Gallery in Berkeley. Other roles Montgomery held were as the national exhibits workshop coordinator at the American Association for State and Local History and as program development consultant at the African American Museums Association. From 1976 to 1979, she was art commissioner for the city of San Francisco.
Montgomery moved to Washington, D.C. in 1980 to serve as the community affairs director for Howard University's WHMM-TV station. She then began working for the United States Information Agency (USIA) as a program officer in their Arts America program in the early 1980s. In her role, she worked to promote cross-cultural exchanges through art, specializing in American exhibitions touring abroad. Montgomery retired from the USIA in 2008.
As an artist, Montgomery gained recognition for her work in printmaking and metalworking. She was the recipient of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities fellowship in 2012 and an Excellence in the Arts Award from the Brandywine Print Workshop in 2004. Due to her diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in the 1990s, Montgomery had to stop working with metal but continued her printmaking work.
Provenance:
The Evangeline J. Montgomery papers were donated in 2019 by Evangeline J. Montgomery, as part of the Archives' African American Collecting Initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art museum curators -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
This microfilm collection of material from African American painter and arts administrator Vivian E. Browne dates from 1959 to 1968, and consists of correspondence, exhibition catalogs, clippings, and a sketchbook.
Biographical / Historical:
Vivian E. Browne (1929-1993) was an African American painter and arts administrator. She co-founded the women's art cooperative gallery SoHo 20 in New York in 1973, exhibiting there several times through 1989. Browne also taught in the art and design department at Rutgers University.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1968 by Vivian Browne.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The Sharon Frances Patton research material on the artist Vincent Smith measures 0.8 linear feet and dates from 1968-2005. Materials document Smith's career as an artist and include many letters as well as autobiographical writings by him. Also featured in this collection are many printed materials relating to his career including magazines, exhibition materials and clippings. This collection also includes three sound cassettes featuring a profile of Smith and his thoughts on music.
Scope and Contents:
The Sharon Frances Patton research material on the artist Vincent Smith measures 0.8 linear feet and dates from 1968-2005. The research materials document Smith's career as an artist and include many letters as well as autobiographical writings by him. Also featured in this collection are many printed materials relating to his career including magazines, exhibition materials and clippings. This collection also includes three sound cassettes featuring a profile of Smith and his thoughts on music.
Arrangement:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1980-2004 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1982-1998 (2 folders; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, 1976-circa 1994 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1968-2005 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 5: Sound Recordings, 1986-1989 (3 folders; Box 2)
The collection is arranged as 5 series:
Biographical / Historical:
Sharon Frances Patton (1944- ) is a art historian and museum director in Baltimore, Maryland.
Vincent Smith (1929-2003) was a painter from New York City. His work was exhibited extensively and is now part of many distinguished collections.
Patton earned her BA in humanities with an emphasis on Studio Art from Roosevelt University in Chicago. This was followed by an MA from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a Ph.D. in African Art History at Northwestern University. During and after these degrees she was a professor at various colleges around the country as well as a curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Director of the Center for African American Studies at University of Michigan and the Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. From 2003-2008 she was the Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. Throughout her career she has organized around 20 exhibitions, compiled catalogs (one of which was on Vincent Smith's "Riding on a Blue Note" exhibit), written articles and essays and given lectures. She has also written two books, Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden and African American Art.
Smith became a full-time artist in 1953 after stints as a hobo, in the army and as a post office worker. Around this time he studied art at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York City's Art Students League and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine on a scholarship. He also cited other African American artists as valuable resources for the development of his work. Much of his early work focused on the culture of jazz in New York City, but in the mid-1950s, with the start of the Civil Rights Movement, his work took on a more political tone. His first solo show was in 1955 at the Brooklyn Museum Art School Gallery and this was followed by many more solo and group shows throughout his career. His work is now in the collections of many museums as well as President Clinton, who was given one of Smith's pieces at his first inauguration. In 1980 he received a college degree from Empire State College at the State University of New York, Saratoga.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Sharon Frances Patton in 2012.
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.
