Interview of Jeanne L. Wasserman, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Cambridge, MA from January 28, 1993-July 19, 1994.
Wasserman speaks of her parents' cultural interests; first becoming interested in sculpture after visiting a Rodin exhibition in Paris with her family; visiting art galleries and studying painting in New York City as a young woman; her education at Fieldston and Radcliffe; trying to get a job in New York after college; working in advertising; meeting her husband, Max, and building a business with him; beginning to collect art; putting together a collection for the condominium project, 180 Beacon; the opening of 180 Beacon; working on a condominium project in the Virgin Islands; curating sculpture exhibitions at the Fogg Museum and at Wellesley; writing the catalogue for a Daumier exhibition at the Fogg; serving on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; organizing forums on contemporary art with the Council of the Arts at MIT; becoming involved with Harvard's Institute for Learning in Retirement; and notable purchases of work by Daumier, Rodin, Degas, Giacometti, de Chirico, Nicolas Schöffer, Henry Moore, and others. Wasserman also recalls Alfred Stieglitz, Peppino Mangravite, Elie Nadelman, Hyman Swetzoff, Joseph Hirshhorn, Erica Brausen, René and Charles Gimpel, Louise Nevelson, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Robert Indiana, Claes Oldenburg, Denise René, Yaacov Agam, George Rickey, George Segal, David Ross, Milena Kalinovska, Jacques de Caso, Yulla Lipchitz, Vera List, Jim Cuno, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jeanne L. Wasserman, (1915-2006) was a museum curator and art collector from Boston, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 12 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.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Art museum curators -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Function:
Art museums -- Massachusetts
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 papers or curator and arts administrator Jan Van der Marck measure 9.0 linear feet and 5.36 gigabytes and date from 1944 to 2010. His career is documented through biographical material, files on artists and art historians, museum administration records, and other professional records. Also found are papers concerning Van der Marck's personal interest and research on modern bookbinding.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of curator and arts administrator Jan Van der Marck measure 9.0 linear feet and 5.36 gigabytes and date from 1944 to 2010. His career is documented through biographical material, files on artists and art historians, museum administration records, and other professional records. Also found are papers concerning Van der Marck's personal interest and research on modern bookbinding.
Biographical material includes records of Van der Marck's personal collection of artwork, books, and photographs; early records consisting primarily of school documents, writings, and photographs; and one journal. Additionally there are copies of published interviews, one file of letters from friends, and several photographs of Van der Marck. Files on artists and art historians may include correspondence, photographs, slides, news clippings, exhibition catalogs, lists of artworks, exhibition planning documents, as well as articles or other writings by Van der Marck about the artist. Of note are files on Arman, Robert Indiana, Christo, Jacques Lipchitz, George Segal, Beverly Pepper, and Brian O'Doherty.
Museum Administration records document Van der Marck's activities as director or curator at various museums. Files may include museum exhibition planning records, administrative records, printed material, correspondence, and photographs. Also found are records of Van der Marck's other professional activities, such as his participation as guest curator of exhibitions, committee participant, and exhibition juror, as well as lecture files containing invitations, press materials, and drafts of his lectures. Additionally there are a few research files and copies of his published articles.
Papers concerning bookbinding document Van der Marck's research and personal collection of contemporary bookbinding and book arts. Included are files on bookbinders, slides and photographs of bindings, correspondence with libraries, and records of his purchase or donation of these works.
Biographical / Historical:
Jan Van der Marck (1929-2010) was a curator and museum administrator in Detroit, Mich., Chicago, Ill., and Miami, Fla.
Van der Marck was born in Roermond, the Netherlands, in 1929. His family owned a printing and publishing business. He studied art history at the University of Nijmegen and earned his doctorate in 1956 with a dissertation on 19th-century Belgian book illustration. In 1957 he came to the United States on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to research the relationship between museums and their audiences and studied briefly at Columbia University. In 1962 he was assistant director of fine arts exhibitions at the Seattle World's Fair. Van der Marck became curator at the Walker Art Center in 1963 and became the founding director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 1967. While in Chicago he invited Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap the museum building in canvas. He later served as project manager for their "Valley Curtain" project in 1971 and 1972.
After leaving the Museum of Contemporary Art, Van der Marck worked briefly at the University of Washington in Seattle, and then served as director of the Dartmouth College Galleries and Collections from 1974 to 1980. At Dartmouth he continued to support non-traditional artworks and oversaw the installation of the lawn sculpture "X-Delta" by Mark di Suvero, despite negative campus reactions. In 1980 he became the director of the new Center for the Fine Arts in Miami. After a disagreement with trustees he left the Center and became chief curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1986. In 1995 he lost his job at the Detroit Institute when it was ruled that he violated a city residential requirement.
Aside from his work as an arts administrator, Van der Marck wrote and published many catalog essays, articles, and monographs on artists, lectured on contemporary art, and participated in arts organizations. He also maintained an interest in contemporary bookbinding.
Provenance:
The papers were donated in 2011 by Sheila Van der Marck, Jan Van der Marck's widow.
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.
Susan Elizabeth Ryan research material regarding Robert Indiana includes one postcard from Clement Greenberg to Ryan regarding Indiana, October 2, 1991; Dream-Work catalog regarding Robert Indiana, LSU, 1997; one photograph of Robert Indiana with Ryan, 2003; and one Christmas card from Indiana to Ryan, 2004.
Biographical / Historical:
Susan Elizabeth Ryan is an art historian in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ryan taught art history at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ryan was friends with and studied Robert Indiana and wrote the book Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech (Yale, 2000).
Provenance:
Donated in 2023 by Susan Elizabeth Ryan.
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:
Art historians -- New Mexico -- Santa Fe Search this
Transcripts of interviews conducted by John Jones for a research project sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies. Interviews are with American artists Rudolf Arnheim, George Cohen, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Lindner, Sheldon Machlin, Robert Motherwell, Claes Oldenburg, Man Ray, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Theodoros Stamos, Saul Steinberg, and Jack Youngerman. Jones questions most of the artists about the relationship of their painting to European tradition.
Provenance:
Interviews conducted by John Jones for a research project sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies. He lent the tapes to the Archives for transcribing.
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.
Topic:
Artists -- United States -- Interviews Search this
An interview on two audio cassettes with Alfonso Ossorio (also present is Jonathan Katz) conducted by Michael Plante on January 18, 1990, and an interview on one audio cassette with Robert Indiana conducted by Michael Plante on July 30, 1994.
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Plante is associate professor of Art History, Postwar United Sates, at Tulane University, New Orleans, La. Plante was a Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution during the time the interviews were conducted.
Provenance:
Donated 2023 by Michael Plante.
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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
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.
An interview of Audrey Sabol conducted 1987 June 10, by Marina Pacini, for the Archives of American Art.
Sabol speaks of her education; her assocation with the Arts Council of the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association; how the council was organized and how it operated. She discusses some of the individual artists involved with the exhibits, including Richard Serra. She continues by discussing her tenure on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania and Ti-Grace Atkinson, its first director; projects completed by the Beautiful Bag Co. such as Roy Lichtenstein dishes and a Robert Indiana love ring; and an unsuccessful attempt to do an exhibition on billboards for which a Roy Lichtenstein billboard was completed. She concludes by discussing her own collecting, and her observations on the Philadelphia art scene.
Biographical / Historical:
Audrey Sabol (1922- ) is an art administrator from Philadelphia, Pa.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 26 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.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Interviews Search this
Correspondence, biographical material, financial and legal papers, photographs, sketches, printed material and files on sculpture projects.
REELS N69-31, N69-38, N69-67 and N69-79: General correspondence, 1954-1969. Correspondents include Richard Adler, Betty Asher, David Bright,James and Charlotte Brooks, Dorothy Brown,Robert M. Doty, Herbert Ferber, James Fitzsimmons, Betty Freeman, Francoise Gilot, Esther and Adolph Gottlieb, Sam Hunter, Mildred and Sam Jaffe, William King, Jane and Sam Kootz,Boris and Lynn Kroll, Jules Langsner, William and Mary Lescaze, Conrad Marca-Relli,Norman McManus, Sidney H. Morris, Richard and Dione Neutra, Louise Nevelson, Ruth Nivola, Claude and Sara Picasso, Paloma Picasso, Mary Gardner Preminger, Vanessa Reis, Julius Shulman, Kurt W. Simon, Irving and Jean Stone, Ala Story, Catherine Viviano, June Wayne, Wou-Ki Zao, Adja Yunkers, and others.
REELS 1789-1791: Letters from James Brooks, Paloma Picasso, Claude Picasso, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Indiana, Sam Hunter, and Gertrude Kasle; a biographical sketch; financial and legal papers, including contracts, price lists, bills and receipts; files on Knoedler and Company; files on sculpture projects containing correspondence, sketches, photographs of Rosenthal and his art work, and clippings and printed material; and notes.
Biographical / Historical:
Tony Rosenthal (1914-2009) was a sculptor in New York, N.Y. Born 1914 Highland Park, Ill. Known professionally as Tony Rosenthal. His work is in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by Rosenthal, 1969 and 1980.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Topic:
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
1.2 Linear feet ((ca. 700 items partially microfilmed on two reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1968-1977 and [undated]
Scope and Contents:
Photographs by Roxanne Everett, of artists fabricating and installing their sculpture at Lippincott, Inc., and other sites.
REEL 1400: 23 photographs including: Robert Breer, Ellsworth Kelly, Donald Lippincott, Clement Meadmore, Robert Morris, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, George Sugarman, and Minoru Yamasaki.
REEL 1875: 79 photographs including: Robert McIntyre Doty, Jean Dubuffet, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, David McKee, Clement L. Meadmore, Robert Murray, Forest Warden Myers, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosati, Lucas Samaras, George Sugarman, and others.
UNMICROFILMED: 593 photographs, among them ca. 300 of Claus Oldenburg, and many of Robert Murray, George Sugarman, Louise Nevelson, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosati, Ellsworth Kelly, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
North Haven, Ct. Founded in 1966 by Donald B. Lippincott as a place for artists to create large sculptures and receive help in transportation and installation of their work.
Provenance:
Photographs on reel 1400 donated 1974 by Roxanne Everett and Donald B. Lippincott; those on reel 1875 donated 1978 by Everett. Unmicrofilmed photographs donated by Roxanne Everett, October 4, 1983.
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 Jonathan Lippincott. 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.
Interview of Larry Aldrich conducted 1972 April 25-June 10, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art. Aldrich speaks of his acquisitions and his program for selling art at Christmas and praises William S. Lieberman as "the curator of collectors". He discusses funds given to museums by the Larry Aldrich Foundation; visits to artists' studios; exhibiting a portion of his collection for the first time at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art; Robert Indiana's "Love Series"; and modern movements including "Lyrical Abstraction" and "Cool Art." He recalls Stephen Antonakos, Richard Brown Baker, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Leo Castelli, Grace Hartigan, Budd Hopkins, Jasper Johns, John Myers, Dorothy Miller, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Robert Smithson, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Larry Aldrich (1906-2001) was an art collector from New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 9 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 18 digital wav files. Duration is 17 hrs., 11 minutes.
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:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Robert Indiana conducted 1963 Sept.12-1963 Nov. 7, by Richard Brown Baker, for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Indiana (1928-) is a painter from Vinalhaven, Me.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Postcard of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. Note on back reads simply: Indiana; autumn.
Provenance:
Provenance unknown.
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.
