Guild Art Gallery records, circa 1933-1937

Collection Information

Size: 1.2 Linear feet

Summary: The records of the Guild Art Gallery measure 1.2 linear feet and date from circa 1933-1937. Operating in New York City between 1935-1937, the gallery was founded by artists Margaret Lefranc (also known as Margaret Schoonover) and Anna Walinska. Scattered records of the gallery include correspondence, including some with artists, exhibition files, financial records, a scrapbook and other printed materials, a drawing by Anna Walinska, and photographs of artwork and the gallery.

Biographical/Historical Note

The Guild Art Gallery was founded in 1935 by artists Anna Walinska and Margaret Lefranc (also known as Margaret Schoonover) and operated at 37 West 57th Street in New York City until 1937. Arshile Gorky held his first New York solo exhibition there. In 1935, the founders were quoted in Art Digest as stating that the new gallery "plans to exhibit, without charge, the work of contemporary artists, whether known or unknown; to develop, through a receptive audience, a better understanding of the creative expression and the problems of creative expression and the problems of contemporary society; and to illustrate the relationship of painting with the other arts." The gallery's opening exhibition featured both Walinska and Lefranc, as well as Boris Aronson, Don Forbes, Henry Major, Rosa Newman, Philip Reisman, Ben-Shmuel, Ary Stillman, and, notably, Arshile Gorky.

Provenance

Margaret Lefranc (also known as Margaret Schoonover), co-founder of the Guild Art Gallery, donated the gallery records to the Archives of American Art in 1981.

Related Materials

Also found among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are the Anna Walinska papers.

Language Note

Collection is in English.

Funding

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund.