The records of the Woman's Building feminist arts organization in Los Angeles measure 32.5 linear feet and date from 1970-1992. Originally founded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven in 1973, the Woman's Building served as an education center and public gallery space for women artists in southern California. The records document both the educational and exhibition activities and consist of administrative records, financial and legal records, publications, curriculum files, exhibition files, grant funding records and artist's works of arts and prints. A significant portion of the collection documents the Women's Graphic Center, a typesetting, design, and printing service operated by The Woman's Building.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the Woman's Building measure 32.5 linear feet and date from 1970 to 1992. The organization played a key role as an alternative space for women artists energized by the feminist movement in the 1970s. The records document the ways in which feminist theory shaped the Building's founding core mission and goals. During its eighteen year history, the Building served as an education center and a public gallery space for women artists in Los Angeles and southern California; the records reflect both functions of the Building's activities.
The Administrative Files series documents the daily operations of the Building, with particular emphasis on management policies, budget planning, history, cooperative relationships with outside art organizations and galleries, special building-wide programs, and relocation planning. Included in this series are the complete minutes from most Building committees from 1974 through closing, including the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council. The General Publicity and Outreach series is particularly complete, containing publicity notices from most events, exhibits, and programs held at the Woman's Building, including brochures, announcements, programs, invitations, press releases, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles.
The Woman's Building's educational programs centered on courses offered by the Feminist Studio Workshop and the Extension Program. While the Workshop provided a two-year program for women interested in fully developing their artistic talent, the Extension Program offered a broad range of classes, specifically oriented to working women interested in art and art vocations. The records fully document both programs, focusing on the course development and descriptions, teacher contracts, class evaluations, budget planning, and scholarship programs. Although the Archives does not have the entire slide library, there are files concerning the establishment and administration of the library, as well as a few folders of slides.
The Gallery Programs series houses the records of the visual, performing, literary and video arts events held at the Woman's Building. Administrative files detail the daily operation of the gallery spaces. The files in the remaining subseries are primarily arranged by event and contain proposals, announcements, publicity, and artist biographies.
The Women's Graphic Center became a profit-making arm of the Woman's Building in 1981 but the typesetting and design equipment had been used by staff and students since 1975. The records in this series focus on the work produced at the Center, including general projects and artist designs and art prints. Many of the design and printing examples were produced for Woman's Building events and programs.
The Artist's Works of Art series includes artist books, resumes, correspondence, postcards, and samples of art in the form of sketches, drawings, and prints. There is also material related to Woman's Building projects. Especially noteworthy is the "What is Feminist Art?" project where artists gave their responses in various formats and mediums from text to pieces of artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series.
Series 1: Administrative Files, circa 1970-1991 (Box 1-9, 32; 9 linear feet)
Series 2: Educational Programs, 1971-1991 (Box 10-14; 4.9 linear feet)
Series 3: Gallery Programs, 1973-1991 (Box 14-20, OV 54; 5.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Women's Graphic Center, circa 1976-1989 (Box 20-23, 32, OV 33-50; 5.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Artists' Works of Art, circa 1972-1990 (Box 24-25, OV 51-53; 1.7 linear feet)
Series 6: Grants, 1974-1992 (Box 25-30; 5.3 linear feet)
Historical Note:
In 1973, artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven founded the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW), one of the first independent schools for women artists. The founders established the workshop as a non-profit alternative education center committed to developing art based on women's experiences. The FSW focused not only on the development of art skills, but also on the development of women's experiences and the incorporation of those experiences into their artwork. Central to this vision was the idea that art should not be separated from other activities related to the developing women's movement. In November of 1973 the founders rented workshop space in a vacated building in downtown Los Angeles and called it The Woman's Building, taking the name from the structure created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The FSW shared space with other organizations and enterprises including several performance groups, Womanspace Gallery, Sisterhood Bookstore, the National Organization of Women, and the Women's Liberation Union.
When the building they were renting was sold in 1975, the FSW and a few other tenants moved to a three-story brick structure, originally designed to be the administrative offices of the Standard Oil Company in the 1920s. In the 1940s, it had been converted into a warehouse and consisted of three floors of open space, conducive to publically available extension classes and exhibitions offered by the Woman's Building staff and students. By 1977, the majority of the outside tenants had left the Woman's Building, primarily because they were unable to sustain business in the new location. The new building was more expensive to maintain and the FSW staff decided to hire an administrator and to create a board structure to assume the financial, legal, and administrative responsibility for the Building. The funds to operate came from FSW tuition, memberships, fund-raising events, and grant monies.
In 1981, the Feminist Studio Workshop closed, as the demand for alternative education diminished. The education programs of the Building were restructured to better accommodate the needs of working women. The Woman's Building also began to generate its own artistic programming with outside artists, including visual arts exhibits, performance art, readings, and video productions. That same year, the Woman's Building founded the Women's Graphic Center Typesetting and Design, a profit-making enterprises designed to strengthen its financial base. Income generated from the phototypesetting, design, production, and printing services was used to support the educational and art making activities of the Building.
When the graphics business closed in 1988, the Woman's Building suffered a financial crisis from which it never fully recovered. The Building closed its gallery and performance space in 1991.
Related Material:
Among the other resources relating to the Woman's Building in the Archives of American Art is an oral history with Suzanne Lacy on March 16, 1990, March 24, 1990, and September 24, 1990. While not credited as a founding member, Lacy was among the first group of staff of the Woman's Building which she discusses in her interview.
The Getty Research Institute also holds a large collection on the Woman's Building which includes a wide range of material relating to its exhibitions, activities, and projects.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art donated 5 boxes of video tape from the collection to the Long Beach Museum of Art, Video Annex in 1994. According to documentation, this was the desire of Sandra Golvin and the Board of Directors of the Woman's Building. Printed material collected but not produced by the Woman's Building regarding feminism was transfered to Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
Provenance:
The Woman's Building records were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1991 by Sandra Golvin, President of the Board of Directors. An small addition of a set of "Cross Pollination" posters was donated in 2019 by by ONE Archives at University of Southern California Libraries via Loni Shibuyama, Archives Librarian.
Woman's Building records, 1970-1992. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and Joyce F. Menschel, Vital Projects Fund, Inc.
The records of Holly Solomon Gallery, a New York City gallery specializing in contemporary American art, measure 200.6 linear feet and 0.002 GB and date from circa 1948-2003. The gallery's activities are documented through dealer files, subject files, artists' files, inventories, sales and loan records, administrative and financial records, printed and digital materials, photographic materials of artwork and exhibitions, and sound, video, and film recordings. Also found are records of the alternative space, 98 Greene Street Loft, as well as Holly Solomon's personal papers.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of Holly Solomon Gallery, a New York City gallery specializing in contemporary American art, measure 200.6 linear feet and 0.002 GB and date from circa 1948-2003. The gallery's activities are documented through alphabetical files, dealer files, subject files, artists' files, inventories, sales and loan records, administrative and financial records, printed and digital materials, photographic materials of artwork and exhibitions, and sound, video, and film recordings. Also found are records of the alternative space, 98 Greene Street Loft, as well as Holly Solomon's personal papers.
Alphabetical files span from 1991-2000 and contain correspondence with clients, galleries, and museums, as well as related documentation regarding loans, inquiries, sales, exhibitions, and travel plans. These general files were maintained separately from the gallery's subject and artists' files but may overlap in subject matter.
The dealer files contain gallery correspondence to and from art dealers regarding inquiries on works and artists. These files are sparse and particular to the early 1980s. Subject files are mainly comprised of correspondence but also include printed materials, slides, and other related documents. Subjects include dealers, organizations, museums, clients, art fairs, travel, and projects that the gallery or Holly Solomon worked with.
Artists' files consist of correspondence, printed material, slides, photographs, and scattered inventory records, regarding the sale of artwork, as well as shipping records and insurance claims. Also included is correspondence between the gallery and the artist. There is substantial documentation on artists Kim MacConnel, Nam June Paik, Izhar Patkin, William Wegman, and Joe Zucker. Inventory records include inventory lists created by Holly Solomon Gallery as well as an art inventory card file. Inventory cards note the title, date, and size of the work as well as the dates and movements of the work, and may include a photograph. Some documents are also found in digital format in series 14, Born-digital records.
Administrative records contain general office materials such as phone messages books, staff notebooks, exhibition guest books, and business diaries, exhibition documentation, notes, and mail from prospective artists. Records primarily cover the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to business diaries, Holly Solomon also created "Dear Diary" binders which contain a collection of contact information and notes on clients and events. Some of these diaries were maintained for specific events. Some documents are also found in digital format in series 14, Born-digital records.
Sales and loan records consist of in and out sheets, consignments, and sales invoices. Also in this series are sales and loan logs and files that track the same information but from different access points, including sales by artist. Financial records document the financial activities of the galleries, apart from sales, and include shipping records, tax and insurance information, and accounting statements and reports. Also in this series are sales and loan logs and files that track the same information but from different access points, including sales by artist. Some documents are also found in digital format in series 14, Born-digital records.
Printed material consists of artist clippings, gallery exhibition catalogs, press releases, posters, and miscellaneous books, magazines, and clippings regarding the gallery. Included are clippings pertaining to the Pattern and Design art movement. Photographic material includes photographs and slides documenting artists' work and gallery exhibitions. Sound, video, and film recordings include artworks created by gallery artists, performances recorded live at the gallery, and the publicity Holly Solomon, the gallery and its artists received. The work of video artist Nam June Paik is highly represented through some of his video artworks, as well as television interviews with him. Prominent artists William Wegman and Laurie Anderson are also represented through original artworks and publicity. Publicity videos include Holly Solomon herself, being interviewed for television and documentaries.
The records of 98 Greene Street Loft include a large quantity of sound, video, and film recordings of poetry readings, live music, art, and theatrical performances that took place from 1971-1973, as well as scattered paper records such as play scripts, photographs, a guest book from 1971, printed material, and posters.
Holly Solomon's personal papers consist of biographical documents, correspondence, memorabilia, printed material, motion picture film, and photographs collected by Holly Solomon throughout her life. Included are school records, letters, notes and cards from friends and artists she represented at her gallery, photographs, invitations, event fliers, and other mementos. Printed material, mostly magazines and newspapers document her accomplishments.
Sound and video recordings include recordings collected by the Holly Solomon Gallery documenting the gallery itself and the artists it represented. Recordings include artworks created by gallery artists, performances recorded live at the gallery, and the publicity Holly Solomon, the gallery and its artists received. The recordings range from before the gallery's opening in 1975 until after its closure in 2002, with most recordings coming out of the 80s and 90s. The work of video artist Nam June Paik is highly represented within the series through some of his actual video artworks, as well as through numerous documentaries and television interviews with him. Prominent artists William Wegman and Laurie Anderson are both represented through original artworks and publicity.
Born-digital records consist of documents recovered from floppy discs included in the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 14 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Alphabetical Files, 1991-2001 (Boxes 1-9; 8.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Dealer Files, 1980-1990 (Box 9-10; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Subject Files, circa 1975-2002 (Boxes 11-25; 15.0 linear feet)
Series 4: Artists' Files, circa 1975-2002 (Boxes 26-47; 22.0 linear feet)
Series 5: Inventory Records, 1975-2001 (Boxes 48-66, 157-162; 25.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Administrative Records, circa 1980-2003 (Boxes 67-81, OV 202; 15.1 linear feet)
Series 7: Sales and Loan Records, circa 1975-2001 (Boxes 82-87; 6.0 linear feet)
Series 8: Financial and Legal Records, circa 1969-2001 (Boxes 88-114, 191, 192; 27.7 linear feet)
Series 9: Printed Material, circa 1968-2002 (Boxes 115-135, 193-194, OV 203-222, RD 223; 23.5 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1969-2000 (Boxes 136-156, 194-196, 201, OV 224; 22.2 linear feet)
Series 11: 98 Greene Street Loft, circa 1969-1973 (Boxes 166-169, 194, FC 197-200, FC 228-236, OV 225-227; 5.6 linear feet)
Series 12: Holly Solomon Personal Papers, circa 1948-2002 (Boxes 170-182, 194, FC 237-241; 13.6 linear feet)
Series 13: Sound and Video Recordings, circa 1966-2001 (Boxes 183-190; 7.6 linear feet)
Series 14: Born-Digital Records, (ER01-ER04; 0.002 GB)
The collection has been minimally arranged into series based on the found arrangement upon receipt, assumed to be the original arrangement of the gallery. Folders have been arranged within series and general folder contents verified, but in most cases, item level arrangement has not been completed.
Historical Note:
The Holly Solomon Gallery was established in 1975 by Holly Solomon and her husband, Horace Solomon, at 392 West Broadway in New York City's SoHo area. The gallery focused on contemporary art.
The gallery represented artists such as William Wegman, Nam June Paik, Laurie Anderson, and Robert Kushner. In 1983, the gallery moved uptown to 724 Fifth Ave at 57th, but then moved again in the early 1990s back downtown to SoHo at 172 Mercer Street. After the gallery closed Holly Solomon continued to deal art from the Chelsea Hotel until her death in 2002.
Holly Solomon was born Hollis Dworken in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1934. She started college at Vassar College, and later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College where she graduated in 1955. In 1953 she married Horace Solomon. Holly Solomon was an aspiring stage actress and was enrolled at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio shortly after moving to Manhattan. Although she was not a successful actress she and her husband began collecting art and were fans of the Pop Art movement. In 1969 the couple opened an alternative work and performance space for artists named 98 Greene Street Loft. The space provided a venue for poets, actors, and artists to work and perform. Solomon wrote and produced a five part documentary from performances at 98 Greene Street, and in 1972 it was shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 98 Greene Street Loft closed in 1973. Holly Solomon was also a proponent of the Pattern and Decoration, or "P and D", art movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many of the artists featured in her gallery were involved in the P and D movement including Robert Kushner, Kim MacConnel, Ned Smyth, and Brad Davis.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2010 by Thomas and John Solomon, Holly Solomon's sons.
Restrictions:
This collection is access restricted. Use requires written permission. Financial and Legal Records (Series 8) are closed to researchers until they can be processed to a more detailed level. 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.
Sound and video recordings include recordings collected by the Holly Solomon Gallery documenting the gallery itself and the artists it represented. Recordings include artworks created by gallery artists, performances recorded live at the gallery, and the publicity Holly Solomon, the gallery and its artists received. The recordings range from before the gallery's opening in 1975 until after its closure in 2002, with most recordings coming out of the 80s and 90s. The work of video artist Nam June Paik is highly represented within the series through some of his actual video artworks, as well as through numerous documentaries and television interviews with him. Prominent artists William Wegman and Laurie Anderson are both represented through original artworks and publicity. Exhibition annoucements and gallery installation instructions accompany some of Anderson's sound cassettes used in her gallery shows. Also included are six empty cassette cases of hers with poems on the covers. Many of the publicity videos are of Holly Solomon herself, being interviewed for television and documentaries as early as 1989 for an episode of Art Market Report all the way up until just before her death in 2002 when she was profiled in a docuemntary about women art dealers called Off the Canvas. Recordings are on 164 videocassettes (136 VHS, 21 U-matic, 7 Betamax), 13 sound cassettes, and 2 sound tape reels.
Arrangement note:
Sound, video, and film recordings are arranged in rough alphabetical order by artist. Where there was no artist name listed, the title was used if present.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is access restricted. Use requires written permission. Financial and Legal Records (Series 8) are closed to researchers until they can be processed to a more detailed level. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Holly Solomon Gallery records, circa 1948-2003. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, 1943-1975, bulk 1964-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The Rosamund Felsen Gallery records measure 28.9 linear feet and date from 1949 to 2014, with the bulk of the records dating from 1978 to 2014. The records shed light on the gallery's operations primarily through administrative records, artist files, exhibition and event files, financial records, born digital material, photographs, and slides.
Scope and Contents:
The Rosamund Felsen Gallery records measure 28.9 linear feet and date from 1949 to 2014, with the bulk of the records dating from 1978 to 2014. The records shed light on the gallery's operations primarily through administrative records, artist files, exhibition and event files, financial records, born digital material, photographs, and slides.
Administrative records consist of advertising files, property records, a gallery notebook, gallery digital files, and more. Also included in this series are several folders comprised of Rosamund Felsen's personal and professional papers and photographs. Artist files consist of resumes, slides and photographs of artists and their work, printed mnaterial, some sales and consignment records, and correspondence. Artists represented in the collection include Richard Jackson, Kaz Oshiro, Tim Ebner, John Boskovich, Jeff Gambill, Jeffrey Vallance, Mitchell Syrop, Mac James, Marnie Weber, Keith Sklar, Leland Rice, Erika Rothenberg, Peter Lodato, Paul McCarthy, Jim Shaw, Al Ruppersberg, Ilya Kabakov, Lari Pittman, Cisco Jiménez, Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, and Heidi Kidon.
Exhibition and event files relate to Rosamund Felsen Gallery exhibitions and performances as well as a number of art fairs and exhibitions held at other galleries and museum spaces. The files contain consignment and sales records, check lists, born digital material, photographs and slides, installation directions, printed material, and more. Financial records contain primarily sales records, invoices, some correspondence, and receipts.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as four series.
Series 1: Administrative Records, 1968-2013 (2 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 30-33)
Series 2: Artist Files, 1949-2013, bulk 1978-2006 (19.7 linear feet; Box 22-25, OV 34)
Series 3: Exhibition and Event Files, 1979-2014 (3.7 linear feet; Box 22-25, OV 34-36)
Series 4: Financial Records, 1978-2014 (3.5 linear feet; Box 25-29)
Biographical / Historical:
The Rosamund Felsen Gallery was established in 1978 in Los Angeles, California by Rosamund Felsen. The gallery closed its physical location in 2016 after nearly four decades as a widely influential contemporary art gallery.
In 1960, Rosamund Felsen began her art career working as an assistant registrar for the Pasadena Art Museum, and eventually became curator of prints. Felsen also worked at Gemini GEL: Graphics Editions Limited alongside her second husband, Gemini co-founder Sidney Felsen. From these positions, Felsen became friendly with both established and younger artists, learned to mount exhibitions, and participated in art-related operations. In 1977, Timothea Stewart asked Felsen if she would like to work at her new gallery. After two exhibitions, Felsen took over the Timothea Stewart Gallery and started her own.
Rosamund Felsen gallery exhibited artists working in various mediums, including video and sound, and frequently showed live performance art. Early artists exhibited at the gallery included Richard Jackson, Keith Sonnier, Maria Nordman, Chris Burden, and William Wegman. Felsen gallery opened Robert Rauschenberg's In + Out City Limits: Los Angeles (1981) on New Year's Eve; and added artists Jeffrey Vallance, Mike Kelley, Lari Pittman, and Erika Rothenberg to its roster by the end of the 1980s. Felsen brought on a list of new artists in the 1990s, including Paul McCarthy, Renee Petropoulos, Tim Ebner, Meg Cranston, Steven Hull, and Nancy Jackson. The gallery continued to show solo and group exhibitions of its artists, and featured a run of smaller artist-curated exhibitions of local and international artists. The Project Wall exhibitions included artist/curators Andrea Bowers and Steven Hull and showed European artists Erwin Wurm and Nils Norman. By 2004, Felsen's artists were all living in Los Angeles except for two, video artists Judith Barry and Joan Jonas.
In 1990, the gallery moved from Los Angeles to West Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard. Four years later, Felsen Gallery moved to a location in the Bergamot Station Arts Center, where it remained until 2015. After Bergamot, the gallery moved to the Arts District in Los Angeles. Rosamund Felsen Gallery closed its physical location in 2016, but continued representing a number of artists online.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Rosamund Felsen conducted by Anne Ayres, October 11, 2004.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in several installments from 2014 to 2016 by the Rosamund Felsen Gallery via Rosamund Felsen, gallery founder and owner. Rosamund Felsen Letters and Postcards were donated in 2016 by Rosamund Felsen.
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.
Rosamund Felsen Gallery records, 1949-2014. 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.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.