Findings
Congratulatory letter, Lawrence Kupferman to Thomas Messer, 1961. Thomas M. Messer records, Series 2: Administration, A0007, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 16: Congratulatory Letter from Lawrence KupfermanMarch 31, 2010 “I want to congratulate you on your new directorship – New York’s gain and our real loss. You did a wonderful job here in Boston and really you are a really vital force here and everybody will miss you.” This letter to Thomas Messer written by Boston-based artist and Massachusetts native Lawrence Kupferman on February 1, 1961, was found among the hundreds of congratulatory messages received by the newly appointed director in 1961. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Board of Trustees selected Messer as the museum’s third director. He filled the vacancy left by James Johnson Sweeney in August 1960. Before coming to New York, Messer was the director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. —Pete Asch, archives assistant |
Hilla Rebay, nonobjective art diagrams, n.d. Hilla Rebay records, A0010, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 15: Hilla Rebay on Nonobjective ArtMarch 24, 2010 From 1936 to 1952 Baroness Hilla von Rebay was director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, then known as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting. Rebay often created drawings to explain her philosophy of nonobjective art. According to Rebay, nonobjective art was essentially artwork without a recognizable subject. In the drawing on the right, Rebay explained the development of a composition through the use of certain lines, colors, and shapes. She compared the fluid “lyrical” line to the decisive “dramatic” line. She used geometric shapes to illustrate the blue, red, and green motifs. The drawing on the left shows a color-coded diagram utilizing these elements. The dotted lines emphasize the placement and balance of these elements within the composition, which when done correctly, could achieve an aesthetic harmony. —Martha Horan, archives assistant |
The 1978 summer student volunteers. Thomas M. Messer records, A0007, Administration: Personnel: Volunteer program, 1978, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 14: 1978 Summer Internship ProgramMarch 17, 2010 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has a five decade history of providing college students with museum work experience. A student volunteer program, the precursor to the current internship program, was established in 1963 by the museum’s librarian, Mary Joan Hall. Requiring assistance in the day-to-day running of the library, she contacted Barnard College. In a January 28 letter, she wrote to the college’s placement office, “For an art history major the mere fact of being on the ‘inside’ of a museum should prove invaluable from the point of view of gaining experience as well as knowledge of the field.” The success of the first volunteer led the museum to implement a permanent program that grew in size and scale over the years. In 1968 sixteen summer volunteers overseen by an intern coordinator chosen from the previous year’s participants worked in nearly every museum department. Ten years later, the individuals pictured here attended a three-month internship program that included weekly educational seminars. —Pete Asch, archives assistant |
Inscription and title page of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings catalogue, 1936. Exhibition Files. A0003. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 13: Hilla Rebay Catalogue InscriptionMarch 10, 2010 This inscription from Hilla Rebay to Solomon R. Guggenheim was found in a catalogue for the 1936 exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection of Non-Objective Paintings, which was presented by the Carolina Art Association at the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery in Charleston. The exhibition was the first of several to showcase Mr. Guggenheim’s collection prior to the 1939 opening of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, later renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. With the words “Not only art but also the great collector is the advanceguard [sic] of progress,” Rebay expressed her admiration for the man whose collection she helped build and for whom she served as first museum director. The middle panel of the title page includes an image of Rudolf Bauer’s No. 57, Blue Balls. —Amanda Brown, NHPRC Grant Intern |
Usonian House, erected for Sixty Years of Living Architecture: The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1953. James Johnson Sweeney records, A0001, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 12: Frank Lloyd Wright Temporary Building and ExhibitionMarch 4, 2010 Frank Lloyd Wright, the renowned and innovative architect, was commissioned to build a permanent building to exhibit and house the Guggenheim Museum’s collection in 1943. Construction did not begin until 1956, but a temporary glass-pavilion building designed by Wright was erected in 1953 on the grounds where the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum building can be found today. Sixty Years of Living Architecture: The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright, the first and only exhibition held in the building, opened on October 5, 1953. The show, dedicated to Wright’s career and lifeworks, featured drawings, models, and life-size reconstructions of his most famous architectural creations and interior designs. This included a full scale Usonian House, based on Wright’s vision of the future of American private homes that was built on the museum grounds before being sold, disassembled, and moved to a permanent location. The house’s unique flat roof and upper windows can be seen on the left of the picture behind the concrete wall erected around both structures. —Pete Asch, archives assistant |
Alexander Liberman’s photographs of Constantin Brancusi’s Paris studio, n.d. Exhibition records, A0003, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York. Works by Brancusi © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Finding 11: Brancusi Studio Contact SheetFebruary 24, 2010 The Constantin Brancusi retrospective exhibition opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on October 26, 1955. This contact sheet illustrates Brancusi’s sculptures in his Paris studio. An inscription on the back of the photograph reads “Alex Liberman” in pencil, suggesting that he was the photographer. Alexander Liberman appears elsewhere in the records, corresponding with James Johnson Sweeney about images taken at Brancusi’s studio. Alexander Liberman, a mid-century photographer who bridged art and fashion, was also Art Director at Vogue and then Editorial Director at Condé Nast. He photographed artists such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Brancusi in their studios for the book, The Artist in His Studio. —Martha Horan, archives assistant |
Dwight D. Eisenhower presenting the Guggenheim International Award to Joan Miró, May 18, 1959. Exhibition records, A0003, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 10: Photograph of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presenting Award to Joan MiróFebruary 22, 2010 Taken at the White House on May 18, 1959, this photograph shows President Dwight D. Eisenhower presenting the 1958 Guggenheim International Award to the Spanish artist Joan Miró. Best known for his biomorphic surrealist paintings, Miró received the award in recognition of Night and Day, his ceramic murals at the UNESCO building in Paris. The Guggenheim International Award was given every two years between 1956 and 1971 to a work of art created within the previous three years. Based on the selection of an international committee, winning artists received a prize of $10,000. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation intended the award to be both a recognition of outstanding achievements in the visual arts and an important manifestation of international goodwill. —Amanda Brown, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant intern |
Thomas Messer, n.d. ©The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York Finding 9: Happy 90th Birthday to Thomas Messer, Director EmeritusFebruary 9, 2010 Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, on February 9, 1920, Thomas Messer came to the United States as an exchange student in 1939. Mr. Messer's relationship with the Guggenheim began in 1961 when he became Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a position he would hold for twenty-seven years. During his tenure, Mr. Messer worked to greatly expand the museum's collection and exhibition programs. He was responsible for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation's acquisition of two important collections. The first, the Thannhauser Collection, assembled by Justin K. Thannhauser, included Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern works, and broadened the museum’s collection beyond its 20th-century focus. The second, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, including the Venice Palazzo that housed it, was secured by the Foundation in the 1970s. The painting and sculpture from Venice further extended the span and depth of the museum's collection to include works from movements such as Surrealism, which had been underrepresented in the New York museum. Today, on February 9, 2010, as we begin the process of surveying the records created by Mr. Messer during his tenure at the Guggenheim, we would like to wish Mr. Messer a very happy 90th birthday. Congratulations and best wishes! —Rachel Chatalbash, archivist |
Transcript of Marguerite Arp’s lecture, "Arp as I Knew Him," May 17, 1969. Jean Arp (1886–1966) A Retrospective Exhibition, 1969. Exhibition records, A0003, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York Finding 8: Arp as I Knew Him (A Love Story)February 5, 2010 In 1969 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum paid tribute to Jean Arp (1886–1966) with a retrospective exhibition. His second wife, Marguerite Arp, spoke of her experience with her husband during a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition. The transcription of the talk begins “May I, his friend for many years and finally his second wife, take this opportunity to say that he was as great a man as an artist and that my life with him was wonderful.” Marguerite concludes by sharing that “essential for us was our love for art, our love of life, our love of all that is beautiful and good and that is what made our life so happy.” —Martha Horan, archives assistant |