The papers of illustrator and painter Dahlov Ipcar measure 11.7 linear feet and date from 1906 to 1993. The bulk of the papers consists of personal and professional correspondence relating to Ipcar's career, and the careers and legacies of her parents, William and Marguerite Zorach. Also found are scattered biographical materials which include writings, sketches, and photographs, and printed material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of illustrator and painter Dahlov Ipcar measure 11.7 linear feet and date from 1906 to 1993. The bulk of the papers consists of personal and professional correspondence relating to Ipcar's career, and the careers and legacies of her parents, William and Marguerite Zorach. Also found are scattered biographical materials which include writings, sketches, and photographs, and printed material.
Correspondence is with family members, including Adolph, Charles, and Robert Ipcar, and Marguerite, Peggy, Tessim, and William Zorach. Other correspondents include George Biddle, Emma Friendlander, Milton Garb, Caroline Pratt, and Forbes Watson. The letters comment on Ipcar's longstanding personal friendships and relationships with family members.
Additional correspondence is found within Ipcar's professional files which also include printed material and scattered business records, and reflect the original order of the papers. Files in this series also pertain to a scholarship in sculpture given by Dahlov and Adolph Ipcar to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in memory of William and Marguerite Zorach.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1906-1978 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 1, 12, RDs 13-14)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1930s-1993 (6.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-7)
Series 3: Professional Files, 1939-1991 (2.8 linear feet; Boxes 7-10)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1939-circa 1980s (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 10-12)
Biographical / Historical:
Dahlov Ipcar (1917-2017) was a painter and illustrator active in Robinhood, Maine. She was the daughter of artists Marguerite and William Zorach.
Ipcar was born Dahlov Zorach in Vermont, to William and Marguerite Zorach. Dahlov's sculptor father and her textile artist mother painted and encouraged her to paint from an early age. She attended progressive schools, including Oberlin College in Ohio, but dropped out after one year. She married Adolph Ipcar at the age of nineteen and moved with him to Maine where the couple took over a farm once owned by her parents.
At the age of twenty-one, Ipcar showed her work in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. By the 1940s and 1950s, her artwork was heavily influenced by her rural life, and often depicted farm workers with their animals. She created murals for the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture during the Great Depression. Later in life, Ipcar began to illustrate children's books and began to write and illustrate her own books, which were often about animals or featured animal illustrations.
Dahlov Ipcar died in Maine in 2017.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the The Zorach Family papers, 1900-1987 and the Elizabeth Hertz letters from William and Marguerite Zorach, 1943-2006.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reels 1519, 5136. The reels include Correspondence, 1930-1979, including letters from William Zorach and Robert Tristam Coffin; and three scrapbooks, 1936-1979, containing clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements. Also found on the microfilm are letters from Ipcar's parents to Ipcar and her husband, Adolph Ipcar, ca. 1939 and 1951-1968, concerning family affairs with some references to art; two scrapbooks, 1979-1990, containing portions of Ipcar's autobiography, exhibition announcements, clippings and other printed material on Ipcar's work and her community service [note: the first half of the first scrapbook was previously filmed on reel 1519, fr. 336-446, and has not been refilmed]; and Robinhood Snooper, writings referred to as "wall newspapers," written by Dahlov and Adolph Ipcar, 1934-1938 and undated, pertaining to family and local "gossip." Also present are photocopies of works of art by other artists, 1942 and 1965, including a sketch of Marguerite Zorach. The material was returned to the donor afer microfilming and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Dahlov Ipcar loaned a portion of her papers for microfilming in 1979 and 1996. She donated additional material between 1979 and 1997.
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.
Dahlov Ipcar papers, 1906-1997. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of this collection received federal support from the Collections Care Initiative Fund, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the National Collections Program
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