Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Perls, Hugo
| title | Frank Perls Papers and Frank Perls Gallery Records, circa 1920-1983, bulk 1949-1975 | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | The Frank Perls papers and Frank Perls Gallery records measure 23.8 linear feet and date from 1920-1983, with the bulk dating from 1949-1975. Personal papers include writings, military records, appointment calendars, and photographs. Gallery records date from its opening in 1939 until its closure in 1981 and consist of financial, sales, and legal records; exhibition files; exhibition catalogs and announcements; subject files that contain a variety of correspondence with artists, dealers, galleries, museums, and friends and family, as well as reference materials and photographs; and scrapbooks. Personal papers contain biographical materials, including military records from Perls' service in the army during World War II, personal photographs, documentation on his estate settlement, and numerous short stories. Of particular interest are Perl's stories about his interactions with Pablo Picasso and his work to uncover fraud, fakes, and corruption in the art world. There are also many photographs of Picasso, photographs of family, the war, and Perls, including two original photographs of Perls by Man Ray. Gallery sales, purchases, consignments, insurance appraisals, loans, provenance research, and general business expenses are well documented in the General Business and Financial Records. Perls jointly owned artwork with several galleries in New York, including the Curt Valentine Gallery and M. Knoedler Gallery, and these consignment and joint sales are documented in the invoices. A complete accounting of the Gallery's income and expense reports from 1950-1971 is also be found in this series. Artists extensively documented through financial transactions are William Brice, James Strombotne, and Howard Warsaw. Extensive exhibition files document the gallery's exhibitions and Perl's curatorial work. Files contain varied documentation, such as photographs, catalogs, announcements, and publicity for Frank Perls Gallery shows from 1939 through 1971. Artists represented in this series include Sam Amato, Robert Chuey, Jaques Lipchitz, Pablo Picasso, James McGarrell, and James Strombotne. Files are also found for the two major retrospective exhibitions Perls organized and curated, Matisse Retrospective at University of California, Los Angeles and Sixty Years of Picasso Prints at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, both in 1966. Additional information about these exhibitions is also found in the Subject Files. Subject Files are extensive and varied in name, content, and topic. They consist mostly of correspondence with friends, family, colleagues, artists, critics, galleries and dealers, clients, arts organizations and associations, publications, and others. There are also reference files and exhibition files for exhibitions held at other galleries and museums in which Perls was interested, guest curated, or loaned artwork. The contents of each file unit varies, but many include correspondence, photographs, appraisal records, sales records, invoices, reports, and membership records. The files highlight his close personal relationship with many artists, including William Brice, Rico Lebrun, James McGarrell, Channing Peake, Pablo Picasso, and James Strombotne. Subject Files also contain abundant correspondence with colleagues and family members, including his brother Klaus, who owned and operated the Perls Gallery in New York. Many of the files concern Perl's work with art documentation and authentication. Subject Files have been arranged according to Frank Perls original order. Finally, scrapbooks contain newspaper articles, catalogs, and announcements about exhibitions at the Perls Gallery in New York during the late 1930s and the Frank Perls Gallery in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Series 1: Frank Perls papers, circa 1920-1981 (Box 1-2, 28; 1.1 linear feet) Series 2: General Financial and Business Records, 1949-1975 (Box 2-4, 23-27; 3.4 linear feet) Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1937-1975 (Box 5-6; 1.5 linear feet) Series 4: Subject Files, circa 1939-1983 (Box 6-22; 16.5 linear feet) Series 5. Scrapbooks, 1937-1957 (Box 28; 0.3 linear feet) |
| extent | 32.5 linear ft. Addition: 0.4 linear ft. |
| formats | Financial Records Correspondence Exhibition Files Scrapbooks |
| access | Use requires an appointment and is limited to Washington, D.C. office. |
| record link | http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/frank-perls-papers-and-frank-perls-gallery-records-9601 |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| finding aid | available online at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/frank-perls-papers-and-frank-perls-gallery-records-9601/more |
| acquisition information | Donated 1976-1988 by Joan Hazlitt, Perls's secretary, for the Perls estate. This collection was processed by Diana Shenk in 2009, with funding provided by the Getty Foundation. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:30:06 |
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| title | Eugénie Soderberg Papers, [ca.1930]-1973. | repository | Stony Brook University |
| description | The collection includes personal and professional correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, photographs, scrapbooks, clippings, and works of art. Biographical Note: Swedish-born journalist and author who came to the United States in 1940 as a reporter for Scandinavian newspapers, where she wrote about fine arts in America. She was the daughter-in-law of Swedish playwright Hjalmar Söderberg. She was associated with a group of Swedish literary radicals in the 1930's, whose work was published in the avant-garde magazine 'Spektrum.' Her best-known novel is 'Student-Fabriken' (Student Factory). She was married the classical scholar Hugo Perls. |
| extent | 36.4 cubic ft. |
| formats | Personal Papers Business Papers Correspondence Photographs Clippings |
| access | This collection is unprocessed. |
| record link | http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/collections/manuscripts/soderberg.shtml |
| record source | http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/collections/manuscripts/index.shtml |
| finding aid | Unprocessed |
| acquisition information | This collection was acquired in 1972 through Barbara Lipman-Wulf, who, with her husband, Peter Lipman-Wulf, were personal friends of Eugenia Söderberg. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:16 |
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| title | Perls Galleries records, 1935-1997. | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | The 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. |
| extent | 79.7 linear ft. |
| formats | Catalogs Photographs Clippings Works of Art Correspondence |
| access | This collection was sealed until the death of Klaus Perls in 2008. The collection was processed by Julie Schweitzer in 2008. |
| record link | http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/perls-galleries-records-6120 |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| acquisition information | Donated 1997 by Douglas Mayhew, long-time associate of the family. |
| updated | 10/14/2016 14:07:50 |
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| title | Perls, Hugo: Art World Personality Files. | repository | Whitney Museum of American Art |
| description | Folder(s) may include announcements, clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, small exhibition catalogs, and other ephemeral material. Request folder(s) by title and subject (Perls, Hugo). |
| extent | 1 folder |
| formats | Ephemera Clippings |
| access | Contact the Library at the Whitney Museum for access restrictions. |
| record source | http://library.whitney.org/ |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:16 |
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