Collection Information
Size: 8.5 Linear feet
Summary: The papers of art historian and critic Michèle Cone measure 8.5 linear feet and date from circa 1970 to 2020, with the bulk from 1980-2010. The collection documents Cone's work as a professional critic, educator, and scholar through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, writings, recorded interviews, research files, project files, photographic material, and printed matter.
Biographical material includes resumes, unpublished memoirs, and documents. Correspondence reflects relationships with friends and colleagues, professional organizations, art magazines, museums, and galleries.
Writings include drafts and finished versions of art criticism, scholarly essays, lectures, and interviews. Subjects include contemporary art, especially in New York, as well as French art during the periods before, during, and after the Vichy regime and Nazi occupation. The collection also includes research materials for these texts, including extensive files on Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein, and Francis Picabia.
Also included are many tape recorded interviews with notable artists and other practitioners, including Roy Lichtenstein, Daniel Spoerri, Ben Vautier, Cady Noland, Haim Steinbach, Robert Gober, Peter Halley, Allan McCollum, Jeff Koons, Vito Acconci, Christo, Damien Hirst, Richard Rogers, Leo Castelli, and others; as well as recordings of lectures and panel discussions featuring prominent thinkers and cultural figures, including Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, Harold Rosenberg, John Cage, Anne D'Harnoncourt, and others.