José de Creeft papers, 1871-2004, bulk 1910-1990

Biographical materials include an address books and calling cards, awards, and resumes. Membership materials include scattered minutes and identification cards reflecting good-standing in an organization, many of which are art related. De Creeft's naturalization records and travel documents are also found, some of which are in Spanish. An interview from 1972 on a sound tape reel is with de Creeft by Karl Fortness and interviews with Lorrie Goulet by Jules Campos are on two cassette tapes.

Primarily, correspondence concerns business with some dealers and galleries, exhibitions, students, and art colleagues however family and personal correspondence is also found. Letters from Alfredo, Alice, Barbara and William, Nina de Creeft and Christian (de Creeft) Durupt date from the 1920s to the 1980s. Other correspondents include Alexander Calder, Hunt Diederich, Joseph Escudar, and Gil Gomez, Jacques Lipchitz, Edwin Dickinson, James Johnson Sweeney, Costantino Nivola, Abraham Rattner, and Lamar Dodd, among others

Researchers should note additional correspondence may be found in Series 5 and Series 6.

Fifty of de Creeft's diaries date from 1926 to 1981 and are almost complete. There are no diaries for the years 1930 or 1951 and some years have multiple diaries. Some are bound volumes and others are loose pages that were removed from three-ring binders. The bulk of the diaries are in Spanish and many include sketches.

The bulk of the writings found in this series are entitled "escritos various" by de Creeft and are in Spanish. Most are typescripts of essays or draft essay and some also include sketches and doodles. Also found are notebooks, an artist's statement, and lists of works of art. Works by others are by Manuel Borja, Jules Campos, Deborah Norden, Domingo Carmelo Querolez, and Daniel Stetson. Also found is a sound tape reel of Lorrie Goulet reading poetry and a VHS video recording entitled José de Creeft by Bob Hanson.

Subject files are mixed and include teaching files, project files, and files concerning topics of interest. Teaching files are found for his work at the New School for Social Research, Black Mountain College, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Art Students League. Project files cover Poet, Alice in Wonderland, and his submission for the completion of the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, 1961-1963. A VHS video recording found within the files regarding Alice in Wonderland is likely a recording of the dedication of the sculpture. Contents of the files vary widely but often include correspondence, printed materials, a few sound and video recordings, scattered financial material and business records, and photographs.

Business records include self-appraisal of works, contracts, leases, price lists, and scattered receipts. Three sets of index cards are inventories of sculpture and some include photographs.

Other business records may be found in subject files under the names of specific galleries.

Found are published books, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, exhibition labels, postcards, and posters which document de Creeft's career.

Photographs and twenty-seven photograph albums depict de Creeft, his family, friends, including Alexander Calder, and works of art. Included are de Creeft with friends in Paris; de Creeft and his wife Lorrie Goulet with Raphael Soyer, posing with Soyer's portrait of them; Gertrude Lawrence; art juries, which include Chaim Gross, Jacques Lipchitz, Theodore Roszak, and William Zorach; students, friends, and faculties of Black Mountain College, Art Students League, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Norton School of Art, including Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Julio De Diego, Walter Gropius, J. B. Neumann, and Abraham Rattner, among others.

Seven mixed media scrapbooks document de Creeft's career from 1929 to 1982 and may contain clippings, exhibition materials and other printed material, correspondence, and photographs.

Artworks include scattered pen and pencil sketches and one sketchbook dating from the 1920s. Many of the works are unsigned.