Karl Zerbe papers, 1928-1996

Biographical material includes a variety of documentation including exhibition lists, meeting minutes, legal records, addresses, loan papers, awards, as well as notes related to Zerbe's honors, affiliations, and estate records.

Correspondents include American poet, writer, and critic Mark Van Doren, the American Federation of the Arts, the Carnegie Institute, and others. Topics include Zerbe's work in exhibitions, his paintings, and some commisions. Also found is one file of letters that belonged to his daughter, Maria.

Journals appear to have been authored by both Zerbe and his wife, Marion, and include appointments, daily schedules, photographs, sketches, and miscellaneous writings. Also found are some painting descriptions and writings by others about Zerbe.

Gallery files include correspondence, price lists, sales and loan records, printed material, and some shipping papers documenting Zerbe's relationship with numerous galleries including the Downtown Gallery, Foster Harmon Gallery, Nordness Gallery, and Robert C. Vose Gallery.

Included are cashbooks from 1942-1974 as well as correspondence, financial lists, receipts, and invoices from lectures, commissions, loans, and other expense-related endeavors.

Printed material primarily consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements, clippings, ephemera, and artist cards. Also included is the leaflet, "'Modern Art' and the American Public," distributed by the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1948, filed with a bulletin announcement calling for a meeting to discuss the leaflet that was immediately distributed by the Modern Artists Group of Boston.

Photographic materials include slides, negatives, snapshots, and contact sheets depicting Zerbe's artwork and personal life. The slides include Zerbe's individual works, some of his series of works, friends and family, as well as images of works by other artists from the late-nineteenth and twentieth century. Also included are slides from Zerbe's lecture on the encaustic-style painting.

Moving images include home movies, documentary film footage and other event footage. Home movies depict nature and family trips. Also found are videocassettes containing raw footage, rough cuts, and the final version of "Expressions of Life," a one hour documentary for television on the life and work of Karl Zerbe. Documentation on this project also includes interview transcripts with Zerbe and others, a production script, and production notes. The documentary was written by Ernest Kolowrat, 1986, Peter J. Barton Productions. Additional recordings include a CBS Sunday Morning story on the Neue Galerie, New York, and a partial recording of amateur color footage from the 1939 Cultural Festival in Munich titled, "Good Morning Mr. Hitler."