Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz, circa 1961-2001

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A Finding Aid to the Bruce Bassett Papers Relating to Jacques Lipchitz, 1961-2001, in the Archives of American Art, by Megan McShea and Johanna Kasimow

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Table of Contents:

• Biographical Information
• Overview of the Collection
• How to Use the Collection
• Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Biographical Information

The sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) was born in Lithuania and moved to Paris, France in 1909. There he studied at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts, the Académie Julian, and the Académie Colarossi. His circle of friends in Paris grew to include artists Constantin Brancusi, Jean Cocteau, Charles-?douard Jenneret (Le Corbusier), Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Chaim Soutine. Juan Gris and Amedeo Modigliani were his closest friends.

Lipchitz's early work was representational, but in Paris he was influenced by the modernist movement emerging around him. In 1915 he created his first Cubist sculpture, and his work quickly found favor and financial support. In the 1920s, his work evolved into a softer, expressive style of abstraction he called "transparent" sculpture, using a lost-wax technique. In the 1950s, he began creating "semi-automatics," again using wax but this time creating forms made by submerging hot wax in water and later cast in bronze. Lipchitz's later work was massive, dynamic, and incorporated more naturalistic forms.

Lipchitz fled France ahead of the Nazi occupation in June of 1941 and settled in New York City. He returned to France briefly after the war in 1946, but again left for New York after seven months. He remained in the United States for the rest of his life, and eventually became a citizen. In 1949, he and his second wife, Yulla, and their daughter Loyla, moved to Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. At his death in 1973, several large-scale sculpture commissions were left unfinished, and his wife Yulla took over the projects and saw that the installations were accomplished as planned. These posthumous installations include Government for the People, installed in Philadelphia in 1976, Bellerophon Taming Pegasus, installed at the Columbia University School of Law in New York City in 1977, and Our Tree of Life, installed in Jersusalem in 1978.

Bruce Bassett (1925-2009), a television and film producer, worked for NBC in New York for over 20 years. Bassett met the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) when they were both living in Hastings-on-Hudson, a suburb of New York City. In 1968, Bassett initiated an extensive oral history project when he realized that Lipchitz, as an English speaker and participant in the birth of modernism in Europe, was the only living artist who could provide an oral record of the beginnings of modern art for an English audience.

From 1968, until his death in 2009, Bassett carried out extensive documentation projects regarding Lipchitz, often in his spare time, under the auspices of two organizations he founded: the Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation (1968-1975) and Histor Systems (circa 1991-2001). In 1968 Bassett raised funds to enable Deborah Stott to travel to Italy and conduct roughly 200 hours of audio interview with Lipchitz, interviews which cover not only his own history, but also include a complete record of the origins of his extensive collection of primitive art, numbering almost 3000 objects at the time. Bassett himself traveled to Italy and filmed nearly 40 hours of additional interviews with Lipchitz in 1971. Drawing from these filmed interviews, Bassett created a pioneering interactive program which allowed museum-goers to pose questions to Lipchitz and moments later receive answers in the form of video segments of Lipchitz speaking. He used the same footage to write, produce, and direct a one hour documentary, "Portrait of an Artist: Jacques Lipchitz." Both projects were originally presented to the public in tandem with a retrospective exhibition of Lipchitz's sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1972, and were later revised and updated several times for subsequent distribution and presentation. The last presentation of the interactive project documented in Bassett's papers was held at the Krannert Art Museum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. The interactive project is now on line at the Israel Museum website entitled "Ask Jacques Lipchitz a Question," a project Bassett had been working on with Hanno Mott at his death. Bassett had visited the Museum several years earlier to demonstrate the video.

Bassett died in 2009 in New York, NY.

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Overview of the Collection

Scope and Contents

The Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz measure 43.3 linear feet and date from 1961 to 2001. The collection consists mainly of materials related to Bassett's extensive audiovisual documentation projects concerning the life and art of the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. Also found are paper records including letters, business records, printed materials, and paper production records related to the audiovisual projects. Other projects, unrelated to Lipchitz, include video and sound recordings related to Sidney Lifchez, IBM, Isamu Noguchi, the Storm King Sculpture Center, and Auguste Rodin.

Original sound recordings and photographs from Deborah Stott's 200 hour oral history with Jacques Lipchitz are found, as well as detailed, typewritten summaries of its content. Documentation used in Bassett's film projects about Lipchitz include original film and sound recordings from Bassett's 40 hours of interviews with Lipchitz from 1971, and film documentation of the posthumous installations of Lipchitz's large-scale sculptures in Philadelphia, New York, and Israel in the late 1970s. In addition to the raw footage from these projects, which is incomplete, the collection contains workprint and final, edited works Bassett created in multiple versions and formats, and paper records documenting the film projects' creation, production, and later use.

Among the papers related to the film projects are scripts, an index to original footage, programming notes, film lab records, exhibition materials, an extensive collection of questions about Lipchitz gathered from the public for the interactive project, and other production records. Other papers include letters from Lipchitz and his wife, business correspondence, financial records, contracts, project files, and printed materials.

Records of other projects, unrelated to Jacques Lipchitz, are also found, including video and sound recordings from Bassett's projects about the designer Sidney Lifchez, IBM, the Storm King Sculpture Center, Isamu Nogichi, and Auguste Rodin. Other projects not created by Bassett but found among his papers include two news films related to John F. Kennedy during his presidency, a screenplay entitled The Man with Two Sides to His Head by Anthony Cave Brown, the film Man Is My Name, by Pierre Dominique Guisseau, and a portion of the film Dream on Monkey Mountain.

Arrangement and Series Description

The collection is arranged as 6 series:

• Series 1: Jacques Lipchitz Letters, 1970 (Box 1; 2 folders)
• Series 2: Business Records, 1968-2001 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)
• Series 3: Printed Material, 1961-2001 (Box 2, OV 56; 0.6 linear feet)
• Series 4: Interview with Jacques Lipchitz conducted by Deborah Stott, 1968-1970 (Boxes 2-10; 8 linear feet)
• Series 5: Film Projects Regarding Jacques Lipcthiz, 1971-2001 (Boxes 10-34, 41-53, OV 57; 28.2 linear feet)
• Series 6: Other Projects, 1961-2000 (Boxes 35-40, 54-55; 5.2 linear feet)

Subjects and Names

Provenance

Donated 2010 by Hanno Mott, Jacques Lipchitz's step-son, on behalf of himself and his siblings, Lolya R. Lipchitz and Frank L. Mott.

Separated and Related Materials

Also found in the Archives of American Art are the Jacques Lipschitz papers, circa 1910-1999. In addition, the Israel Museum hosts a website entitled "Ask Jacques Lipchitz a Question," which presents Bassett's interactive film project on Lipchitz in a web-accessible environment.

How the Collection was Processed

The collection was processed by Johanna Kasimow and Megan McShea in 2010 and 2011.

How to Use the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual materials with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.

Ownership & Literary Rights

The Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Available Formats

Some of the audiovisual recordings in the collection have been digitized for research access. Refer to the detailed collection description for further details.

How to Cite this Collection

Bruce Bassett papers relating to Jacques Lipchitz, 1961-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Series 1: Jacques Lipchitz Letters, 1970 (Box 1; 2 folders)

This series consists of letters written by Jacques Lipchitz, and one letter fragment written by Lipchitz's wife. One folder contains photocopies of eleven letters written by Jacques Lipchitz to unnamed correspondents between 1927 and 1931. Letters are in French and concern sculpture commissions and personal matters. Also found are two letters written by Lipchitz to Bruce Bassett about their work together and a fragment of a letter from Lipchitz's wife to Bassett.

Series 2: Business Records, 1968-2001 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)

This series contains tax records, correspondence, invoices, contracts, releases, and project files concerning the work Bassett produced under the auspices of the Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation and Histor Systems, two organizations he founded. Both entities were concerned mainly with projects documenting the life and work of Jacques Lipchitz, and both contain materials related to the two main Lipchitz projects, namely the documentary and the interactive video installation. The Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation was dissolved in part because of the Lipchitz family's concerns that its existence would confuse and complicate transactions involving Lipchitz artworks after his death.

The series is arranged as 2 subseries:

• 2.1: Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation, 1968-1982
• 2.2: Histor Systems, 1991-2001

2.1: Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation, 1968-1982

The Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation was founded by Bruce Bassett in 1968. Projects carried out through the Foundation include the the audioguide created for the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, the Deborah Stott Interviews (Series 4), Jacques Lipchitz Interactive Project (Series 5.2), Jacques Lipchitz Documentary (Series 5.3). The JLAF dissolved around 1978, but Bassett carried on with his work related to Jacques Lipchitz under the auspices of Histor Systems (series 2.2).

Series includes financial records, organizational records, correspondence, contracts, and project files related to the major projects carried out through the Foundation. The Bylaws folder includes a list of the JLAF Board of Directors from 1971. Notable documents in Correspondence include a letter from Nelson Rockefeller to Lipchitz, and letters about the creation of a Jacques Lipchitz Sculpture Museum (which never came to pass). The Contracts and Releases folder includes the original media release signed by Jacques Lipchitz. The Brooks Memorial Art Gallery project files document the production of an audioguide in conjunction with a 1974 Jacques Lipchitz exhibition at Memphis, TN museum through correspondence, checklists, drafts of a script, and photographs. The documentary project files contain records of fundraising and distribution of the film, a list of music used, and correspondence describing changes to 1977 version of film. The interactive project files consist mainly of documents related to a demonstration of the interactive system in December, 1973.

Additional documentation of the interactive project is found in series 2.2, Business Records, Histor Systems, and in series 5.2, Film Projects, Interactive Project. A long interview with Lipchitz and a large collection of photographs, both produced under the auspices of the Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation, are found in series 4, Interview with Jacques Lipchitz conducted by Deborah Stott.

2.2: Histor Systems, 1991-2001

Bruce Bassett founded Histor Systems to continue his work on the Jacques Lipchitz interactive project, as well as some work connected to the Lipchitz Documentary, after the Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation was dissolved. Under this organization, Bassett also worked to promote the interactive system for use documenting other notable public figures, without success.

This series primarily contains records relating to the presentation of the Lipchitz interactive project, which was usually presented under the title "Conversations with Lipchitz." There are also records relating to the Lipchitz documentary and its later releases with French and Spanish subtitles. Other records in the series include invoices mostly addressed to Hanno Mott, records relating to a demonstration of the interactive system in Israel, and an interactive project file that includes informative and promotional letters about Histor Systems, most notably addressed to Bill Gates and President Jimmy Carter (at the time, a prospective subject for an interactive project). The Interactive Project Files includes a list of Histor Systems directors in 1996.

The last installation of the interactive system to be documented here was with the exhibition Lipchitz and the Avant-Garde: From Paris to New York, in 2001 at Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Krannert Art Museum records relate to the financial and logistical operation of the interactive system, as well as marketing and publicity for the exhibition.

Series 5, Film projects related to Jacques Lipchitz, contains the actual audiovisual content of the interactive project and the Lipchitz documentary, as well as records related to their production.

Series 3: Printed Materials, 1961-2001 (Box 2, OV 56; 0.6 linear feet)

This series contains published material on Lipchitz collected by Bassett, as well as publicity for Bassett's Lipchitz documentary and interactive projects. A.M. Hammacher's book Lipchitz is inscribed by Jacques Lipchitz.

Series 4: Interview with Jacques Lipchitz conducted by Deborah Stott, 1968-1970 (Boxes 2-10; 8 linear feet)

Deborah Stott, at the time a graduate student in Art History at Columbia University, recorded roughly 200 hours of conversation with the artist between 1968 and 1970 in Pietrasanta, Italy. The series contains a near-complete run of the sound recordings on 209 sound tape reels (1/4"), as well as detailed typewritten summaries of the subject content for each reel are available at the beginning of the series, and a 32 page transcript of the first reel. 183 of the reels are marked "first dub" and are presumably copies made from the original tape. 26 of the original sound reels are also found, for tape numbers 112-135 and 184-185, and are interfiled with their dubbed copies. Reels 137 and 165 are not extant, but typewritten summaries do exist for those reels. Also found are photographs that document Lipchitz's acquired collection of primitive and ancient art, which are often referred to by number in the interviews. Included are contact sheets, negatives, prints, and photocopies of prints.

This interview was carried out under the auspices of the Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation and largely funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Some of the sound recordings have been digitized for research access.

Series 5: Film Projects Regarding Jacques Lipchitz, 1971-2001 (Boxes 10-34, 41-53, OV 57; 28.2 linear feet)

This series contains paper records, artifacts, motion picture film, video, and sound recordings created and used in the production of Bruce Bassett's film projects related to Jacques Lipchitz. Bassett originally shot over 40 hours of motion picture film with synchronized sound recordings in 1971. From this footage he developed the first incarnations of his two main projects: the Jacques Lipcthiz interactive project, also known as "Conversations with Jacques Lipchitz," and a documentary about Lipchitz. Both projects debuted to the public at the 1972 Jacques Lipcthiz retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After Lipchitz's death in 1974, Bassett shot additional footage documenting the casting of large-scale Lipchitz sculptures in Italy, and the installations of those sculptures in New York, Philadelphia, and Jerusalem, carried out by his widow, Yulla Lipchitz. This material was used in an updated version of the documentary, which was released around 1977. Subsequent releases occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The interactive project was also exhibited in multiple versions, in a variety of formats as video and computer technology evolved, between 1973 and 2001. See the subseries descriptions below for more detail.

The series is arranged as 3 subseries:

• 5.1: Original Footage and Stock Footage, 1971-1981
• 5.2: Jacques Lipchitz Interactive Project, 1972-2001
• 5.3: Jacques Lipchitz Documentary, 1972-1994

5.1: Original Footage and Stock Footage, 1971-1981

This subseries contains original footage shot by Bassett and his crew and used as the source material for his two film projects documenting Jacques Lipchitz. Bassett's initial filming took place in Italy in August and September of 1971, and later in Philadelphia, Miami, New York, and Jerusalem between 1976 And 1978. Footage from the shoot in Italy contains several long interviews with Lipchitz and footage shot in his Italian studio and foundry. All numbered camera and sound reels from the Italy filming are described in detail in the script book at the beginning of the series. Film and sound footage from the later shoots contain mainly documentation of the posthumous large-scale sculpture installations overseen by Lipchitz's widow, Yulla Lipchitz, as well as multiple interviews with her.

120 of the 171 original sound reels from the Italy filming survive, but very little of the camera footage remains. In addition to original sound reels, a dubbed copy of all of the sound recorded in Italy is found on a smaller set of reels, so any missing original sound reels can be recovered from the dubbed copy. Four miscellaneous, sound-only reels of original sound recordings are also found. None of the original camera reels remain from the Italy shoot, but workprint copied from 20 of the 193 original camera and sound reels were made at a later stage in Bassett's work, possibly to edit new versions of his film projects. These workprints were named "archival prints" by Bassett and are the only remaining raw footage from the 1971 filming period in Italy. Some of them have splices, indicating portions were removed. Reels are listed by the new reel numbers assigned by Bassett when they were re-printed, but their original reel numbers, indexed and described in the script book at the beginning of the series, are also noted. Two unnumbered reels of original footage of Lipchitz working in his studio on the sculpture The Last Embrace are also found in this series.

For later filming in the US and Jerusalem, original camera reels, some with sound on film, and separate original sound reels are found. There is no paper record of these shoots in the collection. Material is arranged by subject and date. Other raw footage found includes four camera reels of sculptures by Lipchitz from the Metropolitan Museum.

Other source material in this series includes stock footage and stock soundtrack, produced by others but used in Bassett's Lipchitz projects, and a couple of short reels of sound effects and titles.

Note that the workprint is silent 16 mm picture unless otherwise indicated, original sound reels are ¼" tape, and soundtrack is 16mm fullcoat magnetic stock. Some of the later foundry and installation footage was shot on reversal positive film with a magnetic stripe soundtrack, identified in the container listing as sound on film.

5.2: Jacques Lipchitz Interactive Project, 1972-2001

This series contains the edited film and video created for the Lipchitz interactive project, as well as paper records documenting the production and presentation of its various installations.

Audiovisual materials include multiple versions of "answers" compiled from the Lipchitz interviews filmed in 1971, used in multiple interactive installations between 1972 and 2001. Each version exists in a group of 2 to 4 reels or tapes, in its source format of motion picture film, or its installation format of various video types. Each group and its elements is described using the reel names and numbers assigned by Bassett to maintain their connection to paper documentation, and groups are arranged chronologically. Six miscellaneous reels, which do not appear to belong to any of the main groups of film reels, are arranged after the dated reels. Although they may duplicate some of the dated material, these miscellaneous reels were found to be in better condition than some of their copies, so they were retained.

Also found are 117 small film and soundtrack reels of named segments whose titles correspond to segments listed in the source books. These may be outtakes or workprint of the edited Lipchitz answers.

Paper records in this series include the original questions generated by the public during installations of the interactive project. Questions exist in multiple forms including orignal handwritten cards and printouts in multiple sets, each with a different arrangement of data. Notebooks include mainly technical and shot notes, but also notes on an Andy Goldsworthy interview. Production files contain detailed notes on the assembly of segments and revisions to the reels, including a negative pull list for a recent revision. The Program Guide contains annotated indexes to segments on each reel or disc, and other technical notes.

Source Books, found in the paper documentation, provide a scene-by-scene content inventory and transcript of the audiovisual material in each version presented to the public between 1972 and 2001. They also contain notes related to the operation of the interactive program. Although all of the source books contain redundant and similar content, each version has its own annotations and a variety of interfiled production records specific to its particular installation. The 2001 source book from the Krannert Art Museum installation also includes a disc directory, photographs of sculptures in the Krannert exhibit, and an article on Lipchitz.

Technical drawings show the way the video equipment was set up in the installations, showing a user in relation to the interactive system display. The Transcript folder includes a collection of Lipchitz's comments on Pablo Picasso gathered from the footage, a portion of which appears to have been licensed to another production company in the 1980s.

The chronological arrangement of audiovisual materials in this series has been altered slightly due to the size and physical requirements of the objects.

5.3: Jacques Lipchitz Documentary, 1972-1994

This series contains audiovisual and a few paper records related to the documentary Bassett produced about Jacques Lipchitz. The first version was created in 1972 in tandem with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Lipcthiz retrospective exhibition. The documentary was updated in 1977 with footage added from the posthumous large-scale sculpture installations, and then revised again in 1991.

The series includes multiple finished versions of the documentary in their presentation and distribution formats (film and video), and pre-print master elements of the finished versions (A+B roll and internegative; master from which distribution copies are made). Also found are production elements made at different stages of production and revision, excerpts of the finished film compiled for publicity, and two pieces of television coverage of the installation of Bellerophon Taming Pegasus that use Bassett's footage.

Some of the film cans contain paper lab records for prints and edits created over the years.

Additional records related to the documentary are found in Series 2.1 Business Records, Jacques Lipchitz Art Foundation, and Series 3, Printed Materials.

One copy of the documentary has been digitized for research use.

Series 6: Other Projects, 1961-2000 (Boxes 35-40, 54-55; 5.2 linear feet)

This series contains audiovisual material and a few paper records from projects unrelated to Jacques Lipchitz that were also found among Bruce Bassett's papers. Other projects by Bruce Bassett include audiovisual recordings from projects about Isamu Noguchi, Sidney Lifchez, Auguste Rodin, the Storm King sculpture center, IBM, and others, listed below. The Lifchez documentary is well-documented, but records of other projects in the series are incomplete and fragmentary. Also found are projects by others, including a draft of a screenplay, two news films of John F. Kennedy, and several other film titles. The films Dream on Monkey Mountain and Man Is My Name were made by others but were produced or aired by NBC, where Bassett worked, and he may have been involved in their production or broadcast.