United States. Department of the Treasury. Section of Painting and Sculpture Search this
Extent:
2 Items ((on partial microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1936-1937
Scope and Contents:
Two contracts between the U.S. Treasury Department, Section of Painting and Sculpture, and French, in which he agrees to paint murals in the Parcel Post Building in Richmond, Virginia, and in the Post Office in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.
Biographical / Historical:
Mural painter, sculptor, etcher, and draftsman; New York, N.Y. Born in Ossining, N.Y. Studied at Amherst College and at the Art Students League.
Provenance:
Donated 1982 by Jared French.
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 papers of painter George Tooker measure 5.1 linear feet and date from circa 1851 to 2010. The papers document Tooker's personal and professional life through biographical material, correspondence, project files, gallery files, exhibition files, printed material, artwork and one sketchbook, and numerous photographs, including some taken by noted photographer George Platt Lynes.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter George Tooker measure 5.1 linear feet and date from circa 1851 to 2010. The papers document Tooker's personal and professional life through biographical material, correspondence, project files, gallery files, exhibition files, printed material, artwork and one sketchbook, and numerous photographs, including some taken by noted photographer George Platt Lynes.
Biographical material consists of membership and travel documents, writings on and by Tooker on his circle, an address book, resume, and papers regarding Tooker's education. Also included are biographical material related to Tooker's partner William Christopher who passed in 1973. A 1978 interview with Vermont Public radio on two sound reels is also featured.
Correspondence is with friends, colleagues, and organizations. Correspondents include Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Walter Bachinski, William Christopher, Otto Dix, Jared and Margaret French, Ralph Ginzburg, Xavier Gonzalez, Robert Isaacson, Edward Laning, Lincoln Kirstein, Lee Nordness, Bernard Perlin, Joan Peterson, Theodore Stamos, Bridget Tichenor, and others. Also included are family correspondence and correspondence regarding the Estate of William Christopher.
Project files document Tooker's commissions including the set and costume design for Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera The Saint of Bleecker Street and Tooker's participation in the selection of candidates for the Vestris Prize for Choreography. Files contain correspondence, business documents, printed ephemera, sketches, photographs, three volumes of vocal scores, and textile samples.
Gallery records include business correspondence and consignments with various key galleries in Tooker's career spanning the 1960s to the end of his career including D.C. Moore Gallery, Marisa Del Re Gallery, and Durlacher Bros..
Exhibition records include documents regarding the organization of several select exhibitions in Tooker's career incuding an early retrospective at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (1974) and a later traveling retrospective from 2008-2009.
Printed material consists of invitations, press releases, news clippings and exhibition catalogs documenting the careers of both George Tooker and William Christopher.
Artwork includes numerous sketchbooks, loose drawings, and sketches from Tooker's studies at the Art Students' League in the mid 1940s, in addition to an early ex-libris print created by Tooker in his youth. Also included is a sketchbook by William Christopher, as well as a study for the work The Subway, in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Photographic materials depict Tooker's family life as well as his early artistic collaborations depicted in a number of black and white photographs taken by George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa in the mid to late 1940s. A majority of the photographs depict artists and friends, among them: George Tooker and his companion William Christopher, Paul Cadmus, Jared and Margaret French, Lincoln and Fidelma Kirstein, Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, and Bridget Tichenor. Other photographs are of Tooker building his home, gardening, and working in his studio in Hartland, Vermont. Also included are installation views from the exhibition Painting in the United States (1949) at the Carnegie Institute in Pennsylvania. There are also a fair amount of photographs, transparencies, slides and negatives documenting artwork from both the studios of George Tooker and his late partner William Christopher.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1920-2005 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 1, 5)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1932-2010 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, Oversize 7)
Series 3: Project Files, circa 1935-1968 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 2-3, 6)
Series 4: Gallery Records, circa 1960-2009 (0.3 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, circa 1967-2009 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 1, 3)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1851-2010 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 3, 5)
Series 7: Artwork and Sketchbook, circa 1932-2009 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 3, 5, 8)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1900-2010 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 4-5, 8)
Biographical / Historical:
George Tooker (1920-2011) was a painter based in Hartland, Vermont and New York, New York. Tooker was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 5, 1920 to George Clair Tooker and Angela Montejo Roura. He graduated from preparatory school at Phillips Academy, Andover in 1938 and received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Harvard University in 1942. Tooker studied drawing and painting under Reginald Marsh, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Harry Sternberg at the Art Students' League from circa 1944 to 1945.
Tooker became acquainted with American painter Paul Cadmus while studying at the Art Students' League. Cadmus introduced Tooker to a circle of artists and writers living and working in New York and Europe in the mid to late 1940s that included George Platt Lynes, Jared and Margaret French, Monroe Wheeler, Glenway Westcott, and Lincoln and Fidelma Kirstein. He lived and worked with his partner and fellow artist William Christopher in New York City and later Hartland, VT.
In 1953, Tooker was commissioned by writer and philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein to design the sets and costumes for The Saint of Bleecker Street, an opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti. In 1966, the Wasemquia Charitable Trust sponsored the Vestris Prize for Choreography in cooperation with the Boston Ballet Company and Tooker was invited by trustee Henry H. Crapo to participate on the Committee of Judges for the Vestris Prize. In 1968, NASA commissioned Tooker to produce drawings and one painting documenting the development of spacecraft at the Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Tooker's paintings are found in numerous art museums and galleries including the Whitney Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, DC Moore Gallery, Robert Isaacson Gallery, and the Venice Biennale. In 1968, Tooker's paintings were featured in the art magazine, Avant-Garde.
Related Materials:
Available in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with George Tooker conducted in 1966 by Grace G. Alexander for radio station WNYC, New York City.
Materials related to the George Tooker papers can be found the William Christopher papers at the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
George Tooker donated his papers to the Archives of American Art in 1973. A subsequent addition was donated in 2018 by Aaron Watkins, the executor to George Tooker's estate.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ilse Bischoff, 1982 January 27. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Paul Cadmus, 1988 March 22-May 5. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Two cards from Paul Cadmus to acquaintance Edgar Munhall. Topics include Nicolas Poussin's work, "The Arcadian Shepherds," artist Jared French, and the Oklahoma City Art Museum. Enclosed with one letter is a copy of a letter from Cadmus to Carolyn Hill, Director the of the Oklahoma City Art Museum. Also included is a brochure on "The Arcadian Shepherds" with text by Munhall.
Biographical / Historical:
Edgar Munhall is a curator emeritus at the Frick Collection, New York, N.Y. Munhall specialized in French art, including the work of Nicolas Poussin.
Provenance:
Donated 2013 by Edgar Munhall.
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.
An interview of Paul Cadmus conducted 1988 March 22-May 5, by Judd Tully, for the Archives of American Art. Cadmus speaks of his childhood and family background; his early interest in art; studying at the National Academy of Design; his early career; traveling to Europe in the 1930s; getting on the WPA Federal Art Project; controversies involving some of his paintings; changes in technique; his inspirations; his affiliation with Midtown Galleries. He recalls Jared French, Lincoln Kirstein, George Tooker, E.M. Forster, and W.H. Auden.
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) was a painter from Weston, Connecticut.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 59 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' 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.
An interview of Ilse Bischoff conducted 1982 January 27, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Bischoff speaks of her upbringing in a wealthy German family in New York; her study of costume design in Paris and at the Parsons School of Design, New York City; her training at the Art Students League, and with William Zorach. She recalls her friendships with Helen Appleton Read, Paul Cadmus and Jared French.
Biographical / Historical:
Ilse Bischoff (1901-1990) was an illustrator, painter, and collector. Birthdate also cited as 1903. Full name Ilse Marthe Bischoff. Born in New York City, Bischoff studied at the Art Students League and in Europe. Later, she worked as an illustrator of childrens' books and collected German porcelain.
General:
Originally recorded 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 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 others.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
