Alan R. Solomon papers, 1907-1970, bulk 1944-1970

Series comprises résumés; an engagement book and a monthly planning book from 1965, annotated with appointments and other information; and miscellaneous material including Solomon's high school diploma and report cards, his 1944 army honorable discharge papers, his 1947 Harvard College transcripts, two identity cards from Expo '67, and an astrological chart created for Solomon in 1967.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Correspondence documents Solomon's education, teaching appointments, and his relationships with various artists, publishers, museums and other art institutions, and colleagues.

Correspondence with Centro de Artes Visuales, including with Jorge Romero Brest and Alfredo Rodriguez Arias, relates to proposals for New York performances by the organization, and the possibility of circulating Solomon's Young Italians exhibition in South America.

Correspondence with Cornell University relates primarily to Solomon's appointments to various teaching positions at Cornell in the 1950s, and his promotion to Associate Professor of Fine Arts in 1962. Documentation relating to the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, which Solomon established in 1953, is limited to correspondence regarding a dispute over who should replace Solomon as director of the museum in 1961.

Correspondence with Harvard relates to Solomon's studies at Harvard College and later Harvard University, including the completion of his doctorate and his thesis on Picasso, and his teaching appointments at Harvard. It also documents Solomon's gifts to the Harvard College Fund. Records relating to specific courses taken and taught by Solomon can be found in Series 5: Teaching and Study Files.

Correspondence with the Jewish Museum relates primarily to the details of negotiations and terms under which Solomon was hired as the museum's director in 1962, but provides only cursory documentation of Solomon's Rauschenberg and Johns exhibitions in 1963 and 1964 respectively. Additional documentation on Solomon's work at the museum can be found in the Jewish Museum subject file in Series 6.

Publishers and publications represented here include James Fitzsimmons, of the publication Art International, and the Swedish art review, Konstrevy, for whom Solomon wrote articles on Jim Dine. Correspondence with National Educational Television provides contractual details of Solomon's appointment as a writer and consultant for the "Art U. S. A." series on contemporary American painters, and documents expenses related to that role.

Correspondence with Frank Lloyd of Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Inc., includes details of a proposed project to establish an International Art Center in Rome.

Three folders of correspondence with Eugene Schwartz document Solomon's interest in the market for non-original works of art, or works about American art. Solomon worked with Schwartz's Mass Originals, Inc. corporation, on an enterprise to create fifty-minute taped lectures, with slides, for sales to universities, museums, and libraries. The correspondence includes letters from Schwartz outlining his proposals to create a market for the lectures, letters to artists asking for their participation in the project, and the responses of some of the artists.

Correspondence with the University of California relates to arrangements for speaking engagements, and also references Solomon's appointment to the University of California, Irvine, in 1968, and arrangements for the exhibition, Tony DeLap: The Last Five Years, 1963-1968 (1969), at the Art Gallery, University of California, Irvine.

There is one folder of correspondence with Connie Trimble, who provided secretarial services for Solomon in the 1960s. This correspondence provides details of arrangements for various projects in which Solomon was involved, including Expo '67.

Individual items of note include a postcard and Christmas card from Christo and Jeanne-Claude; a letter from Ray Johnson; two postcards from Claes Oldenburg; a postcard from Robert Rauschenberg with a photo of Rauschenberg and others, including Christo and Jean-Claude; and a 1966 greeting card from Galeria Bonino, New York, which includes a limited edition signed and numbered print by Luis Felipe Noé.

The bulk of the correspondence documenting Solomon's work as an exhibition organizer and curator can generally be found in Series 8: Exhibition Files. Additional records documenting his relationships with artists and art organizations can be found in Series 6: Subject Files.

Records are arranged alphabetically by correspondent or subject, and chronologically thereafter.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Series comprises the transcripts of twenty interviews, many of which were conducted by Solomon in or around 1966, in his capacity as writer and consultant for the National Educational Television series "U. S. A. Artists." Some of the transcripts may also be from interviews conducted by Solomon for his project with Mass Originals, Inc., to offer taped lectures of artists, with slides, to universities, museums, and libraries.

Interviews are with artists, with the exception of interviews with Leo Castelli and Clement Greenberg. Transcripts are generally typescript drafts with annotations.

Series is scanned in entirety, with the exception of duplicates with no annotations.

Series includes many of Solomon's writings on art and artists, such as essays ultimately published in exhibition catalogs, and/or magazines and journals, as well as notes used in the course of his writing, which date back to his time as a student and teaching assistant.

At the beginning of the series is a bibliography of Solomon's writings with a set of related notes on index cards, compiled circa 1969. Articles and essays include writings on individual artists such as Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, and on the changing American art scene, including "New York: The Second Breakthrough," and "The New American Art," many of which were ultimately published in exhibition catalogs. Published catalogs are housed with the corresponding manuscript drafts where such records exist.

The series also includes drafts of Solomon's text for the book New York: The New Art Scene, in addition to the book's dust jacket, a section of the published book (pages 225-256), and prints of photographs, and photocopies of photographs, taken by Ugo Mulas for the book. Subjects include Lee Bontecou, John Chamberlain, Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns and Tatyana Grosman, Frederick Kiesler with Baby Jane Holzer and Andy Warhol, Debby Hay, the New York Police stopping a dance party at Andy Warhol's Factory, Claes and Patty Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol in his studio with Philip Fagan and Gerard Malanga.

Also found are three bound volumes containing what appear to be related typescripts and notes, possibly representing a book Solomon was working on, with the title "Romanzo."

Typescripts of five lectures from the 1950s are followed by university writings, including Solomon's honors thesis on Odilon Redon, and his dissertation on Pablo Picasso. Published catalogs and other writings include published articles or catalogs with introductions written by Solomon, such as those for two exhibitions at the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Picasso: The Graphic Work (1959) andFantasy in the Prints of Goya (1960); a catalog for a 1965 Mary Baumeister exhibition; an article by Solomon entitled "Bennington Artists: The Green Mountain Boys," published in the August 1966 issue of Vogue; and the catalog for Tony Delap: The Last Five Years, 1963-1968 (1969) at Felix Landau Gallery.

Notes include what appear to be seven sets of index cards, four on various artists and other subjects, arranged alphabetically, and three on the individual subjects of Picasso, Van Gogh, and Vuillard. Also found are notes on American architecture, Chinese art, and other miscellaneous subjects, and a notebook which includes drafts of letters concerning day-to-day business and work on exhibitions, includingAmerican Painting Now.

Series is organized by type of writing in the following order: articles and essays, including those ultimately published, books, lectures, university writings, and notes. Folders are arranged alphabetically by title within those groupings.

The bulk of this series has been scanned with the exception of: duplicates; the full text of some catalogs and other printed material for which only the covers and/or pages relevant to Solomon's writing, have been scanned; and portions of the "Romanzo" typescripts a non-art-related manuscript of which only a sample has been scanned.

Series documents courses taken, or taught, by Solomon at Harvard University, where he was a student, a teaching fellow, a course assistant, and a tutor, and at Cornell University where he was an instructor, and an assistant professor, before serving as Director of Cornell's Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art from 1953-1961.

Material includes course outlines, information on instructors, descriptions of slide shows, lecture and seminar notes, and other notes.

Essays written by Solomon as a student can be found in Series 3: Writings and Notes.

Series has been scanned in entirety with the exception of duplicates.

Subject files consist primarily of printed material, such as announcements and catalogs, news clippings, and posters, collected by Solomon on a variety of art related subjects. Subject file headings are taken directly from the original files where possible. The largest subset of files documents painters and sculptors, arranged alphabetically by name. These files occasionally include artist biographies and résumés, scattered correspondence, and scattered photographs of artists and artwork. They include letters from Jim and Nancy Dine, Öyvind Fahlström, Robert Indiana, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Charles Oster, and Ray Parker.

Subjects that reflect Solomon's wide-ranging interests in new and experimental art forms, include dance companies and programs, such as the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and Happenings, which documents events held by a group of artists, including Jim Dine, Alan Kaprow, and Claes Oldenburg, who presented their work in "evening exhibitions of art in a new dimension," particularly at the Reuben Gallery in New York City in the early 1960s. The Happenings were a forerunner to projects such as the First New York Theater Rally of the mid-1960s. Happenings material includes announcements for events, and a piece of paper with the word "Help" repeatedly painted on it used in Jim Dine's "Car Crash," circa 1960.

Material on the Jewish Museum includes press releases relating to the museum's mission from 1963, in regard to undertaking a general art program "emphasizing the work of younger or otherwise unrecognized artists who contribute to what is vital and influential in the contemporary art world," and the dedication of the Albert A. List building. Also found are reviews of 1963-1964 exhibitions at the museum, and an invitation to the preview of Jasper Johns (1964), at the Jewish Museum.

Records are arranged alphabetically by folder title. Folder titles for the group of files relating to painters and sculptors indicate a range of artists, not all of whom will be mentioned in the folder title.

This series has been partially scanned. For most of the catalogs and other publications, scanning may be restricted to covers, title pages, and other selected pages.

Series documents Solomon's involvement in the First New York Theater Rally, which he co-produced with Steve Paxton. The event was a month-long festival of dance Happenings, and other performance events that took place at three venues in New York City: the Judson Church, a television studio at 81st Street and Broadway, and Al Roon's Health Club.

Records include artist statements by Lucinda Childs, Jim Dine, Judith Dunn, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, the Once Group, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Whitman. Statements by Jim Dine and Alex Hay include one drawing by each artist. Also found are what appear to be pieces of a combine by Robert Rauschenberg, which probably represented part of his artist statement.

Photographs include five group polaroid photos of artists involved in the project, two of which include Solomon; two group photographs of the participants; three photos of performances; and contact sheets of numerous photos taken by Peter Moore, Elizabeth Novick, and Terry Schute, of performances, preparations for performances, individuals involved in the project, and related events.

Printed material consists of descriptions of the program, a newspaper announcement, and a group of tickets.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Series documents Solomon's role as an exhibition director, primarily for six of his most well-known exhibitions, including the American exhibition at the 1964 Venice Biennale and American Painting Now for Expo '67 in Montreal.

Records for each exhibition typically include correspondence, including scattered letters from artists, loan and shipping arrangements and agreements, budget related material, lists and notes, printed material including catalogs and press coverage, and photographs of installations, exhibition related events, and artwork.

Also found are damage reports for damage to artwork incurred during exhibitions and subsequent insurance claims, particularly during American Painting Now, which traveled from Montreal to the Institute of Contemporary Art from December 1967-January 1968. The November 1967 correspondence for this exhibition includes a sketch and instructions by Claes Oldenburg for the installation of his sculpture, Giant Soft Fan. Additional records documenting American Painting Now include photographs of the installation, and correspondence detailing much of the planning and logistics for the exhibition.

Records relating to the 1964 Venice Biennale provide extensive documentation of Solomon's role as United States Commissioner, his vision for the exhibition, the problems that arose in regard to housing it in the confines of the space officially allowed, and the plan for an annex location. Records include plans of the American Pavilion, purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in 1954; correspondence with Marietta Stern, assistant to the Unites States pavilion, and Ileana Sonnabend, European representative for many of the artists in the exhibition; documentation of arrangements with the United States Information Agency and the Department of State; budgetary records; extensive press coverage; Solomon's final report on the Biennale; and records related to problems that arose due to damage to artwork, and subsequent insurance settlements, including letters from Leo Castelli, Andre Emmerich, Giordano Falzoni, Kenneth Noland and Giuseppe Panza. Also of note are photographs of Biennale events, artists, and other individuals, taken by Ugo Mulas and others. Subjects include artwork arriving by plane and canal in Venice; artists, including Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Rauschenberg accepting the Grand Prize; various Biennale officials; Leo Castelli and Alan Solomon; the installation process; and people attending the exhibition and related events.

Other exhibitions documented here include Andy Warhol (1966) at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Dine-Oldenburg-Segal (1967) at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Albright-Knox Gallery; Young Italians (1968) at the Institute of Contemporary Art; and Painting in New York 1944-1969, a major retrospective installed for the opening of the new Pasadena Art Museum in fall, 1969.

Records are arranged alphabetically by exhibition title, and by record type thereafter.

Series is scanned in entirety with the exception of duplicates, the full text of some exhibition catalogs, and photographic negatives for which copy prints exist.

Solomon's business records offer scattered insight into his financial situation. His general business records include lists, notes, contracts, expense forms and vouchers, and purchase orders for Solomon's work in various capacities. Of note is an American Federation of Musicians agreement between the Institute of Contemporary Art and "Louis Reed," with booking agent Andy Warhol, for the Velvet Underground and Nico to perform as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable on October 29, 1966 for a fee of $2500. This show accompanied Solomon's Andy Warhol exhibition.

One folder of notebook pages lists payments for artwork purchased and paid for by someone identified as "RJF." Also found are index cards indicating prices of some works of art.

Receipts and expenses include paid invoices, records of payment for teaching appointments, lectures, honorariums, and articles written, and scattered receipts for purchases of artwork and exhibition expenses.

The bulk of this series has been scanned. Material documenting routine financial transactions has not been scanned.

Series includes announcements and catalogs, including posters, news clippings, and other publications relating to events of interest to Solomon. Catalogs for which Solomon wrote introductions or other essays can be found in Series 3: Writings and Notes.

Included in the posters found here are two Jasper Johns lithographs for Peintures & Sculptures & Dessins & Lithos, Jasper Johns (1960), Galerie Rive Droite, and Jasper Johns (1963) at Leo Castelli Gallery.

This series is partially scanned. For many exhibition catalogs and other publications, only the covers, title pages or other relevant pages have been scanned.

Photographs are of Solomon, artists and others, exhibitions and events, and artwork, by photographers including Robert R. McElroy, Ugo Mulas, and Hans Namuth.

Photos of Solomon include snapshots, photo booth snapshots, portraits, photos taken at various events and with others, and a series of photos taken at a party by Ugo Mulas. Also found is one photograph taken by Robert Rauschenberg of Mulas, Solomon, and designer and illustrator, Michele Provinciali.

There are photographs of circa eighteen artists, including many studio shots, some of which were probably taken by Ugo Mulas for the book New York: The New Art Scene, but are not specifically identified as such.

Photos of Jim Dine include a series taken of a Happenings performance entitled "Car Crash" at Reuben gallery, circa 1960. Also found is a series of mounted photographs of Dine's artwork, some of which are signed by the artist.

Photos of Laura Grisi picture the artist with others, including Barnett Newman, Larry Poons, and Frank Stella.

Photographs of Robert Rauschenberg include many taken at the Venice Biennale by Ugo Mulas, and picture Rauschenberg at the ceremony, seated next to Alan Solomon, during which he received the Grand Prize. Also found are photographs of Rauschenberg beside his artwork, and at Biennale parties. Some photos show Rauschenberg's artwork arriving by canal in Venice and being transported to the Biennale exhibition space.

Two photos of Andy Warhol were taken by Nat Finkelstein at The Factory, circa 1964.

Photographs of others include Leo Castelli, and Robert and Ethel Scull in their home, surrounded by their art collection.

Also found here are photographs of the exhibition Toward a New Abstraction (1963) held at the Jewish Museum during Solomon's tenure as director; photographs of an unidentified performance; photos by Hans Namuth at an unidentified exhibition; and a series of black and white snapshots of building interiors in Venice, with other Venice buildings and canal scenes.

A group of negatives, originally housed in a cigar box with no identifying information, can be found at the end of the series. Subjects appear to be a combination of family and friends, travel, buildings, artwork, and exhibitions.

Photographs are arranged by subject. Dates assigned to photos of artwork are for the years in which the pictured artwork was produced, where known.

Series is scanned in entirety, with the exception of duplicates, blank versos of photographs, and negatives for which copy prints exist.