Charles Searles papers, 1968-2010
Searles, Charles Robert,
b. 1937
d. 2004
Painter, Educator, Sculptor
New York, N.Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.
Collection size: 4.3 linear feet
Collection Summary: Biographical material, correspondence, commission files, exhibition and loan files, personal business records, and printed material documenting the career of sculptor, painter, and muralist Charles Searles.
Personal business records include financial and banking records, deeds, legal documents, and blueprints related to Searles' studio in Bloomingburg, N.Y. Printed material, some contained within scrapbooks, includes magazines and clippings publicizing Searles's work, exhibitions, and career, broadsides and limited edition pamphlets, some of them created by Searles, for events and programs organized by organizations to which Searles belonged, such as the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition and the National Conference of Artists. Also present is a bound volume of photocopies featuring political cartoons from 1968-1969 on the topic of race relations and civil rights.
Biographical material includes artist statements, certificates, an address book, and a transcript of an interview recorded for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1974. Correspondence is with galleries and museums, notably the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and June Kelly Gallery, as well as correspondence related to various commissions and public art projects. Much of the correspondence is organized by commission, project, or exhibition. Exhibition and loan files include loan agreements and correspondence related to exhibitions in which Searles's showed his work appear.
Biographical/Historical Note: Charles Robert Searles (1937-2004) was a sculptor, painter and muralist in Philadelphia, Pa. and New York, N.Y.
Donated 2012 by Kathleen Spicer Searles, Charles Searles' widow.
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