Los Angeles Art Association records, 1922-1990

Administrative records document the founding, history, and ongoing functions of the Los Angeles Art Association. Included is an address book and calendar, an award from the American Red Cross, as well as applications for employment with LAAA and applications for fellowships and various scholarships. Also found are board of trustees' meeting minutes, membership lists and membership materials, publicity materials, visitor and artist registers, materials relating to the history of the LAAA, by-laws, and articles of incorporation. Additionally, there are scattered materials relating to Executive Director Helen Wurdemann's activities over the course of her 40-year tenure, including an agenda book, address book, articles and clippings about Wurdemann, and obituary.

This series is arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Correspondence consists primarily of letters, notes, and cards received from artists, galleries, and other art associations and organizations. Also included is correspondence regarding LAAA's Earl Mansion location near Otis Art Institute, as well as correspondence from the Unemployment Reserves Commission in 1938. Executive Director Helen Wurdemann also received many letters and cards of congratulations in 1954 for being honored for her work with LAAA at a Masquers Club banquet in Hollywood.

Subject files covering a variety of special topics and projects were compiled by the LAAA and have been kept in their original order. There are files concerning the California Arts Council, a project to create a directory of artists in Southern California, other organizations and art associations, the Stendhal Gallery, California Landscape, and the Watts Tower Commission project. Individual files may include clippings, notes, lists, announcements, letters, photographs, newsletters, and brochures.

This series is arranged by subject.

Exhibition files are found for various LAAA exhibitions, including the 1937 "Loan Exhibition of International Art" which featured such works as Pablo Picasso's "Woman With Blue Turban," Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending the Stairs," and Salvador Dali's "L'eco Nostalgic," and saw more than 200,000 visitors; "Independent Artists of Los Angeles" (1923); "Top Flight Artists of Southern California" (1941); and others.

Artist files contain a variety of mateirals, such as resumes, correspondence, exhibition catalogs, clippings, lists, announcements, photographs, and slides of work. Files are found for Hans Burkhardt, Charles P. Cross, Janet Culbertson, Jules Engel, Duane Loppnow, Michael O'Mara, Dorothy Orr, Richard Poole, Joseph D. Portanova, Carol Tolin, Antonio Tonon, and Jack Zajac, among others.

This series is arranged alphabetically by name of artist. Some files are devoted to a single artist, but most are devoted to multiple artists, and filed by letter of the alphabet.

Financial and legal records include financial and exhibition ledgers, receipts and bills paid, an audit report, financial notes, art loan paperwork, and art rental/sales paperwork.

This series is arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Printed material includes art museum and gallery bulletins, art school catalogs and brochures, clippings mentioning LAAA as well as general clippings, gallery exhibition announcements, organization bulletins and newsletters, periodicals and magazines, as well as unannotated proof sheets for the catalog of the "Loan Exhibition of International Art" (1937). Also included is a limited edition print of the book, Paintings by William Merritt Chase signed to LAAA by B. M. Newhouse.

This series is arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Photographic materials consist of black and white original photographs, copy prints, color snapshots, safety negatives, color slides, and a photograph album. Most of the photographs are of works of art. There are also images of LAAA events and exhibition openings, Helen Wurdemann, artists and other persons, as well as photographs intended for publications. There are images of artwork in the William Presten Harrison Collection and one photograph album containing photographs of portraits by Douglass Parshall.

This series is arranged by subject.

This series includes 10 scrapbooks of clippings, gallery announcements and exhibitions, correspondence, photographs, and notes and annotations.

This series is arranged chronologically according to original order. Some scrapbooks have been disassembled and kept in their original order, while others have been kept intact.