Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Schardt, Alois Jakob, 1889-1955
| title | Alois Schardt papers, 1917-1956, 1983. | repository | The Getty Research Institute |
| description | Schardt’s Nachlass documents part of the Nazis’ Kulturkampf against Expressionist art in the 1930s. Included are ca. 30 photographs of galleries he had hung in the Kronprinzen-Palais and the Moritzburg Museum, and ca. 100 photographs of works by Expressionist artists such as Willi Baumeister, Paul Klee, and Wilhelm Lembruck. Some of these photographs, like that of Klee’s Wintergarten, may be unique images of a now lost or destroyed work. The papers also contain correspondence related to his dismissal, as well as manuscripts of his published and unpublished writing on many aspects of art history and criticism. Also, limited professional and personal correspondence up until his death in 1955, and a wide variety of photographs of Christian art and architecture (mainly German) from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Series I, Correspondence and ephemera: Ca. 60 items, including carbons of Schardt’s outgoing correspondence, detailing his increasing difficulties with the Nazi government, including correspondence with Bernhart Rust (Reich minister of science, education, and popular culture) and the bureaucrats in Halle, especially from 1933-1940. Includes 4 letters from Ernst Barlach (1922-1934). A few letters date after the war and are from other Germans involved in the controversies surrounding Expressionist art, such as the dealers Hildebrand Gurlitt and Karl Nierendorf. Also, correspondence with Franz Marc’s widow Maria, and letters in English covering Schardt’s difficulties finding employment in the Los Angeles area (1940-1956), where he had settled his family upon emigrating, and regarding his involvement in the local arts community. Series II, Writings and lectures: Includes much of Schardt’s published writing, including 14 pieces for the Deutsche allgemeine Zeitung (1921), offprints of articles, mss., typescripts, and preparatory material for his books Franz Marc and Das Initial. Unpublished materials include two versions of his dissertation on human proportion in Egyptian and Greek sculpture; a typescript for a book on the principal characteristics of German art (1933); a ms. and typescript for a book on Lyonel Feininger; and an (unfinished?) ms. and typescript for a book on German art, 1900 to 1940. Schardt also wrote ca. 80 occasional or course lectures in English on a wide variety of topics in the arts. Series III, Photographs and negatives: Images of the galleries in the Kronprinzen-Palais of the National Gallery, the Moritzburg Museum, and of individual Expressionist works already described. Ca. 1,500 photographs of Christian art and architecture, much of it unidentified and unsorted, principally of churches and their decoration, paintings and plastic arts, and Medieval mss.; also ca. 700 negatives matching some of the photographs. |
| extent | 6.5 linear ft. (18 boxes) |
| formats | Correspondence Photographs Clippings Notes |
| access | Open for use by qualified researchers. |
| record link | http://library.getty.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=297506 |
| record source | http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cat297506 |
| finding aid | Box and folder list available in the repository; folder-level control. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:48 |
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