Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

George Wittenborn, Inc. print view role Scholar/Critic/Expert dates 1905- city New York City state NY other cities Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; Lisbon, Portugal; sex n/a historical notes George Wittenborn was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1905 into a family of booksellers. Wittenborn ran his father's stationery and bookshop and apprenticed under the bookseller and gallery owner Karl Buchholz before moving to Berlin in his early twenties to open his own shop. There, he was harassed by the Nazis for his open display of ideologically left-leaning books. Wittenborn left for Paris in 1932, where he opened a shop selling art books. Among his most notable clientele were Léger, Arp, Ernst, Picasso, and Braque. It was in Paris that he met his wife, an English poet and translator Joyce Phillips. Fearful that Nazi control would spread to Paris, the couple fled for Portugal and then to New York in 1936. On his arrival, Wittenborn managed the international department of Brentano's bookshop and in 1937, with his friend Heinz Schultz, formed a mail-order company for art books - Wittenborn and Co.-which operated out of his Columbia University area apartment and his used car. He had met Schultz (1904-1954), his most important friend, through the social circle of expatriate dealer, Curt Valentin. Together in 1941, they founded Wittenborn & Schultz on East 57th Street. The bookshop became an important intellectual center in New York, where the refugee Surrealists, art dealers of the day, architects, designers, and young Abstract Expressionists all gathered. Soon after Schultz's death, Wittenborn moved the store to 1018 Madison Avenue in 1956, and renamed it Wittenborn and Company. There, the Wittenborns displayed artwork on all available wall (and ceiling) space, calling it the One-Wall Gallery. It became a venue for both prominent and emerging artists, with shows ranging from André Masson's etchings to the early work of Hans Haacke, who had his first show there. In addition to selling monographs, exhibition catalogues, and artists' books, Wittenborn set about publishing books he deemed important, as he had throughout his career. Certainly the most important of his publishing enterprises was the Documents of Modern Art. The compilation was a venture begun in 1943 in collaboration with Robert Motherwell, who served as general editor, and Bernard Karpel, Librarian at The Museum of Modern Art, who served as documentary editor and compiled many of the series' bibliographies. The groundbreaking series specialized in making available in English major European texts by modern artists and about modern art. decades of activity 1920-1930 1930-1940 1940-1950 1950-1960 1960-1970 1970-1980 updated 03/22/2024 12:09:28 bibliographic search Search Frick Art Reference Library Catalog Search Photoarchive Search Worldcat Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) Search Wikidata Entry Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details The Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives George Wittenborn, Inc. Papers see details... Archives of American Art Victor Building, Suite 2200 George Wittenborn interviews, 1973 Apr. 12-July 6. see details... The Museum of Modern Art Library and Archives Artist file: Wittenborn, George, 1905-1974; miscellaneous uncataloged material. see details... «  back