Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
map search

Advanced Search

Archives related to: Ault, Lee

titleJacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionThe records of art gallery Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., include extensive gallery correspondence files, reference files on American and European collectors and their collections, gallery inventory and stock records, financial records, exhibition files, auction files, and the records of subsidiary companies, including de Hauke & Co., (later Modern Paintings, Inc.), and Gersel Corporation (records for firms Tessa Corp. and Georges Haardt & Co. are not found). Included within the collection are Germain Seligman's personal correspondence, writings, and records relating to his private art collection. The records primarily document the gallery's business after becoming established in New York under the direction of Germain Seligman, but also include records of the Paris office, providing a comprehensive view of the activities and transactions of collectors and art dealers in the years leading up to and following World War II.

The largest series, Correspondence (80 ft.), includes general correspondence of Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., primarily when Germain Seligman directed the firm and the New York office. Correspondents include U.S. and European clients, artists, collectors, museums, dealers, galleries, shippers, U.S. and foreign government agents, bankers, and insurance firms.

Also found are personal correspondence of Germain Seligman; legal correspondence and other documentation concerning specific and general legal affairs (including attempts to recover Seligmann family and gallery artwork stolen in Paris during WWII); abstracts of letters sent; a small group of outgoing correspondence; correspondence of staff and agents Theresa D. Parker, Clyfford Trevor, and Rolf Hans Waegen; and inter-office memoranda.

Series 2, Collector's Files (35 linear ft.), document the firm's extensive system of tracking important clients and collectors in the art world. Files contain descriptions or artwork, sale prices, locations, and photographs of work owned by individuals as well as major American and European museums. Included in this series are files documenting the firm's involvement with the Duc d'Arenberg Collection, the Clarence H. Mackay Collection, Mortimer L. Schiff Collection, and the Prince of Liechtenstein Collection; and additional files and notebooks relating to collectors and collections.

Auction and Exhibition Files trace the sales and exhibition activities undertaken by the firm. Reference Files includes a card catalog to books and catalogs in the firm's library, and a photograph reference index to works.
Financial Files and Shipping Records consists primarily of records of the New York office, and includes purchase receipt files, credit notes, invoices, consignment invoices and books, invoices, consular invoices, sales and purchase account books, ledgers, and tax records.

The De Hauke & Co. Inc. records, 1925-1949, contain records of the firm's largest subsidiary. Included are correspondence, administrative and legal files, and financial records. The records of the firm established to incorporate most of de Hauke & Co.'s stock, Modern Paintings, Inc., include legal and financial files.

Germain Seligman's Personal Papers series includes scattered family and biographical material; research and writing files for his books, Roger de La Fresnaye, with a Catalogue Raisonne (1969), Merchants of Art, 1880-1960: Eighty Years of Professional Collecting (1961), The Drawings of Georges Seurat (1947), and Oh! Fickle Taste; or, Objectivity in Art (1952), and other writings and articles, including those co-authored with his wife, Ethlyne J. Seligman; documentation on his personal art collection, photographs of family members, and the Paris gallery.
extent203 linear ft.
formatsCorrespondence Financial Records Inventories Photographs Notes
accessUse of original papers requires an appointment
record linkhttps://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.jacqself.pdf
record sourcehttps://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jacques-seligmann--co-records-9936
finding aidPublished finding aid available (279 p.): Finding Aid to the Records of Jacques Seligmann & Co., 1904-1978. Electronic finding aid available at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/jacqselc.htm
acquisition informationDonated 1978-1979 by Mrs. Germain Seligman, daughter-in-law of Jacques Seligmann. Additional material was acquired in 1994 through the Estate of Mrs. Seligman. The Paris archives of Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., were destroyed by the Seligmann staff in 1940 to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Nazis.
updated06/08/2023 16:42:15
....................................................................


titlePerls Galleries records, 1935-1997.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionThe records of the Perls Galleries measure 79.7 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1997. Founded by Klaus Perls in 1937 and operating until 1997, the gallery dealt primarily in modern French art and the artwork of Alexander Calder. Found within the records are extensive correspondence (circa 44 linear feet) with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and collectors; photographs and negatives of inventory and other artwork; exhibition files, scattered financial records; and exhibition catalogs and clippings.

Correspondence primarily discusses sales (and includes invoices), loans, and exhibitions, as well as more routine activities such as gallery maintenance, the printing of exhibition catalogs and letterhead, and the shipment, framing, or restoration of artwork. Many letters enclose photographs, negatives, or slides of artwork, and clippings. A few letters contain oversize architectural or engineering drawings, and a small handful of letters are illustrated.

Correspondents include artists such as Darrell Austin, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Karl Priebe; galleries such as the Corcoran Gallery, Fujikawa Galleries, Galerie Maeght, and the Pierre Matisse Gallery; museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art; collectors such as Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, Adelaide de Ménil, Valentine Dudensing, and Henry Ford, II; and celebrity clients such as Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, Henry and Clare Booth Luce, and Barbra Streisand.

The records contain nearly thirty-two linear feet of photographs and negatives. Photographs are of artists and the inventory of the gallery's artwork. Additional photographs represent artwork either by artists not represented by the gallery or not included in the gallery's inventory. Most of the photographs are black and white. Over fifteen linear feet of negatives are of gallery stock. Photographs are also found in the exhibition files.

There is a relatively small amount of records relating to exhibitions, loans, and sales. Found are exhibition lists, schedules, invitations and announcements, photographs of exhibition installations, press releases, and records of loans to other institutions and galleries. Sales records include artist lists, inventory lists, invoices, pick up and delivery receipts, and price lists.

Printed materials include a large number of clippings and an incomplete run of catalogs from Perls Galleries exhibitions between 1939 and 1980.

The collection also includes ten original pencil drawings from John Canaday's series entitled My Beautiful Girls and a reproduction of eight drawings from the same series

Biographical/Historical Note:
The Perls Galleries (1937-1996) was a New York art gallery. The gallery dealt in contemporary French artists of the School of Paris, such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, but also acted as the primary representative of Alexander Calder beginning in 1954.

extent79.7 linear ft.
formatsCatalogs Photographs Clippings Works of Art Correspondence
accessThis collection was sealed until the death of Klaus Perls in 2008. The collection was processed by Julie Schweitzer in 2008.
record linkhttps://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.perlgall.pdf
record sourcehttps://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/perls-galleries-records-6120
acquisition informationDonated 1997 by Douglas Mayhew, long-time associate of the family.
updated06/09/2023 15:39:53
....................................................................


titlePhotographs of artwork, 1960-1969
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionBlack and white photographs by Michael Katz of works by Linda Lindeberg, Marcia Marcus, David Smith, and others. Also works from the collections of Lee Ault, Robert Boltt, Tishman, and photography done for the Museum of Modern Art and several commercial galleries.

Biographical/Historical Note:
Michael Katz is a photographer from New York, N.Y. Specialized in art photography.
extent400 photographic negatives; 154 photographic prints.
formatsPhotographs Negatives
accessse of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
record linkn/a
record sourcehttps://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/photographs-artwork-6567
acquisition informationDonated 1995 by Michael Katz.
updated06/08/2023 16:42:21
....................................................................


titleCatherine Viviano Gallery records, 1930-1990, bulk 1949-1978
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionThe records of the Catherine Viviano Gallery measure 11.6 linear feet and date from 1930-1990, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1949-1978.

Established in New York City in 1949, the gallery specialized in contemporary painting and sculpture primarily by American and European artists.

The collection consists of artists' files; correspondence with artists, collectors, dealers, museum directors, curators, and publishers; business records; printed material; and photographs of artwork and artists. Also included are records relating to Catherine Viviano's activities as a private dealer and consultant after she closed the gallery in 1970.

Artists' files include biographical material; artists' statements; correspondence; sales and expense reports; lists and notes; guest lists; writings by others; receipts, invoices, and statements; printed material, including press releases, exhibition announcements, brochures, catalogues, clippings; and photographs of artwork and artists.

Included are extensive files on Afro Basaldella, Renato Birolli, Robert Broderson, Anselmo Franesconi, Joseph Glasco, Manabu Mabe, César Manrique, Luciano Minguzzi, Ennio Morlotti, Bernard Perlin, Daniel Rice, and Bernard Rosenthal. There are also files on Jan Cox, Kay Sage, and Kazuo Wakabayashi.

Correspondence comprises the largest series in the collection and consists of general correspondence; correspondence with museums, galleries, and art-related institutions in the United States; and correspondence with museums, galleries, and art-related institutions abroad. Letters focus on routine business matters, e.g., appraisals and sales, acquisitions, and organizing exhibitions at the Catherine Viviano Gallery and other venues.

General correspondence includes letters between Catherine Viviano and artists and their family members. Among the correspondents are: Mary Callery, Bernard Chaet, Piero and Virginia Dorazio, Jean Dubuffet, Dallas Ernst, Karl Fortress, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Sage Goodwin, Morris Graves, José Guerrero, Earle Ludgin, Joan Miro, Alfonso Ossorio, Dorothea Tanning, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Adja Yunkers and his wife, Dore Ashton, among others. Also found is Viviano's correspondence with clients, many of whom were prominent collectors, e.g., Richard Brown Baker, Carl and Joan Fisher, Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman, Joseph Hirschhorn, Marc Moyens, Vincent Price, Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Nelson Rockefeller, Stanley Seeger, and Frederick and Dorothy Zimmerman. Of interest, are letters from Elizabeth Bishop inquiring about the purchase of a work of art from the gallery.

Included are letters from art historians, museum directors, curators, representatives at other art-related institutions, and publishers including Walter Bareiss, Walter Barker, Dominque De Menil, Valentine Dudensing, William Eisendrath, S. Lane Faison, Emily Genauer, Bertram Goodhue, Erhard and Barbara Göpel, James Laughlin, Porter McCray, Abram Lerner, Doris Meltzer, Stephen Robson Miller, John Bernard Myers, Perry Rathbone, Belle Krasne Ribicoff, Meyer Shapiro, George Stout, and Curt Valentin.

Correspondence with museums, galleries, and art-related institutions in the United States contains letters between Viviano and museum directors, curators, dealers, artists, and collectors pertaining to loans, shipping and delivery of artwork, appraisals and sales, and acquisitions. Files include substantive correspondence with the American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Federation of the Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, the Barnes Foundation, Bristol Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Bundy Art Gallery, Carnegie Institute, City Art Museum of St. Louis, Cleveland Museum of Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Denver Art Museum, Des Moines Art Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Art Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, University of Nebraska Art Galleries, University of Virginia, Mary Washington College, Wadsworth Atheneum, Walker Art Center, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Atkins Museum of the Fine Arts, World House Gallery, and Yale University Art Library.

Correspondence with museums, galleries, and art-related institutions abroad primarily concerns the lending of artwork for exhibitions, acquisition and sales; also included are letters requesting biographical information on artists. Letters between Catherine Viviano and representatives of Max Beckmann Gesellschaft Archiv and Galerie Gunther Franke contain provenance-related information on Beckmann's work.

Business records document the routine business operations of the gallery. Printed material includes an incomplete run of Catherine Viviano Gallery exhibition catalogues; invitations and announcements from other galleries and institutions; and miscellaneous printed material.

Photographs include three images of miscellaneous artwork used for art reference.

Biographical/Historical Note:
Catherine Viviano (1889-1992) opened her gallery in 1949 on 42 East 57th Street in New York City. Specializing in contemporary American paintings and sculpture, the gallery featured younger American and European artists, e.g., Robert Broderson, Carlyle Brown, Jan Cox, Joseph Glasco, Peter Lanyon, Manabu Mabe, César Manrique, Bernard Perlin, Joseph Rollo, Bernard Rosenthal, and Kay Sage, among others.

The gallery was also notable for introducing the work of Italian artists, who had been cut off from the American art scene during World War II, including Afro Basaldella and his brother Mirko Basaldella, Renato Birolli, Leonardo Cremonini, and Luciano Minguzzi.

Born in Italy in 1899 and raised in Chicago, Catherine Viviano came to New York in the early 1930's to work at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, where she remained for sixteen years before founding the Catherine Viviano Gallery.

In 1970, Catherine Viviano closed the gallery, though she continued to work from her home as an art dealer and consultant. She died of a stroke at the age of ninety-two in 1992.

extent6.0 linear ft.
formatsBusiness Papers Artist Files Correspondence Printed Materials Photographs
accessUse of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
record linkhttp://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/catherine-viviano-gallery-records-11096/more
record sourcehttp://siris-archives.si.edu/
finding aidAvailable online and in the repository
acquisition informationThe Catherine Viviano Gallery records were donated in 2003 on behalf of Margaret Viviano, Catherine Viviano's sister, by her grandnephew, Peter C. Salerno, who had Power of Attorney for Margaret Viviano. Separated and Related Materials: Among the other resources relating to Catherine Viviano Gallery in the Archives of American Art are the Kay Sage papers, 1925-circa 1985, bulk 1950-1965.
updated11/12/2014 11:30:16
....................................................................


titleWorld House Galleries records, 1927-1991, bulk 1953-1980
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionArtists' files containing correspondence, biographical information, photographs of works of art, price lists (1924-1991); business records (1956-1988); auction sales (1956-1988) and shipping statements (1958-1986) regarding the World House Galleries. Among the artists represented by the gallery were Jean Dubuffet, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, and Georgio Morandi.

Bio / His Notes:
Art gallery; New York, N.Y. Est. 1953. Closed 1968.World House Galleries was founded by Herbert Mayer, Sr. The gallery represented an eclectic group of artists from Austria, France, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.
extent7.5 linear ft.
formatsArtist Files Business Papers Correspondence Photographs Inventories
accessUse requires an appointment, contact repository for restrictions and policies.
record linkhttps://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.worlhoug.pdf
record sourcehttps://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/world-house-galleries-records-6036
finding aidAvailable online and in repository
acquisition informationDonated 2002 by Herbert Mayer, Jr., son of Herbert Mayer.
updated06/08/2023 16:42:24
....................................................................


titleOral history interview with Larry Aldrich, 1972 Apr. 25 - June 10.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionInterview of Larry Aldrich conducted 1972 Apr. 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, Va., 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.

Bio / His Notes:
Larry Aldrich (1906-2001) was an art collector from New York, N.Y.
extentSound: 9 sound tape reels ; 5 in. Transcript: 385 p.( available on line)
formatsSound Recording Transcript Online Transcript
accessContact repository for restrictions and policies.
record linkhttps://www.aaa.si.edu/download_pdf_transcript/ajax?record_id=edanmdm-AAADCD_oh_216586
record sourcehttps://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-larry-aldrich-12596
finding aidTranscript online.
acquisition informationPart of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958.
updated06/08/2023 16:42:20
....................................................................


title635 Madison Ave., New York [City] to Muriel Rukeyser
repositoryBerg Collection of English and American Literature
descriptionNot currently available

Subject Headings: Rukeyser, Muriel, 1913-1980, recipient
extent1 page
formatsCorrespondence
accessRestricted access; Berg Collection; Permit must be requested at the division indicated. Requests for reproduction and/or permission to quote must be made in writing to the Curator and be accompanied by Estate permission.
record linkhttp://catalog.nypl.org/record=b16514161~S1
record sourcehttp://catalog.nypl.org/record=b16514161~S1
updated11/12/2014 11:30:16
....................................................................