Archives of American Art
Avis Berman research material on Katharine Kuh
Berman, Avis
AAA.bermavis3
Archival Resource Key
3.6 Linear feet
1939-2006
The Avis Berman research material on art dealer and curator Katharine Kuh measures 3.6 linear feet and dates from 1939 to 2006. The materials were compiled by art historian Avis Berman in preparing Katharine Kuh's memoir, which was published posthumously as My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator. The collection includes Katharine Kuh's files; Kuh's drafts, manuscripts and interviews for her memoir; and Avis Berman's files relating to the book's publication, and memorabilia. Series 5 is regarding the reissue of The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Modern Artists by Katharine Kuh, published by De Capo Press. Included are drafts, correspondence, agreements and permissions, reviews, photographs of artwork, and administrative records.
English
.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
The Avis Berman Research Material, 1939-2006 was donated to the Archives of American Art by Avis Berman, an art historian and literary executor of Katharine Kuh's estate in 2007 and in 2021.
Location of Originals
The collection includes photocopies of Katharine Kuh's correspondence; some of the letters may be among the Katharine Kuh papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Daniel Catton Rich correspondence is located at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Related Material
The Archives of American Art holds the Katharine Kuh papers, 1908-1994. Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Katharine Kuh conducted by Avis Berman, March 18, 1982-March 23, 1983. Additional Katharine Kuh material is located at the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Processing Information
The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared Joy Weiner in 2009. In 2022, an addition was processed and finding aid updated by Sarah Mundy.
Preferred Citation
Avis Berman research material on Katharine Kuh, 1939-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Terms of Use
The donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that they may own in the following material: all writings by Avis Berman.
Biographical Note
Writer and art historian, Avis Berman lives and works in New York City. Berman was a close friend of Katharine Kuh's and is Kuh's literary executor. Berman compiled Katharine Kuh's research materials for the memoir that she was working on at the time of her death; the book was subsequently published as My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator in 2006.
Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) was a curator and art dealer born in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College in 1925, where she studied art history under Alfred Barr. In 1928, she earned her Master's in Art History at the University of Chicago. As a graduate student, Kuh developed an interest in modern art, particularly the work of European artists.
Kuh married George Kuh, a businessman in 1930. She and Kuh divorced six years later.
In 1935, she established the Katharine Kuh Gallery in Chicago. The gallery was dedicated to featuring the works of contemporary European and American painters and sculptors, such as Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Gyorgy Kepes, Paul Klee, Gaston Lachaise, Fernand Léger, Carlos Mérida, Joan Miro, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Pablo Picasso, as well as Charles Biederman, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, and Isamu Noguchi, among others. The Katharine Kuh Gallery was one of the first galleries in Chicago to show photography as art. Kuh held exhibitions for Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Edward Weston, and she also showed the photographs of Gyorgy Kepes and Man Ray.
At the gallery, Kuh taught classes on an informal basis to individuals interested in modern art. During this period, she spent her summers as a Visiting Professor of Art History at the University School of Fine Arts of San Miguel in Guanajuarto, Mexico (1938-1940). With the onset of America's involvement in World War II, Kuh realized that the war would curtail her contact with many of the European artists whose works she had promoted and in 1942, she decided to close the gallery.
In 1943, Katharine Kuh took a position in the public relations department at the Art Institute of Chicago. The following year, Kuh was asked to take over the Gallery of Art Interpretation at the Art Institute. Later she was appointed the Curator of Painting and Sculpture; in this role, she developed a close collaborative relationship with the Director of the Art Institute, Daniel Catton Rich. From 1946-1953, she served as the Editor of the Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly.
She left the Art Institute in 1959 and settled in New York City. She served as an art editor at the Saturday Review and World Magazine. She was also an art consultant for the First National Bank of Chicago from 1968-1979.
Katharine Kuh traveled extensively and often wrote about the art of the places she visited such as Sicily, Turkey, and the Yucatan. In the 1940s Kuh developed an interest in the wood carvings of the Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The University of Alaska awarderd her an honorary doctorate for her efforts to preserve the indigenous artwork of the region's Native Americans.
Her publications on twentieth-century art included: Art Has Many Faces (1951), The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists (1962), Break-up: The Core of Modern Art (1965), and The Open Eye: In Pursuit of Art (1971). Kuh also wrote the catalog that accompanied the "Fernand Léger Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago" (1953). At the time of her death, Katharine Kuh had completed a final draft of her memoir, which she had tentatively titled, Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in an Art Odyssey.
In 1994, Katharine Kuh died in New York City.
Scope and Content Note
The Avis Berman research material on art dealer and curator Katharine Kuh measures 3.6 linear feet and dates from 1939 to 2006. The materials were compiled by art historian Avis Berman in preparing Katharine Kuh's memoir, which was published posthumously as My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator. The collection includes Katharine Kuh's files; Kuh's drafts, manuscripts and interviews for her memoir; and Avis Berman's files relating to the book's publication. Also included is memorabilia.
The Katharine Kuh files contain correspondence; exhibition files; writings and notes; and Kuh's interview with Lily Harmon on J. B. Neumann. Correspondents include Walter Arensberg, Marcel Duchamp, and Edgar Kaufmann. Also included is the scattered correspondence of Daniel Catton Rich with Walter Arensberg, Chester Dale, Katharine Kuh, Samuel Marx, and others. Exhibition files pertain to exhibitions curated by Katharine Kuh for the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection and one-man shows for Rico Lebrun and Mark Tobey, respectively.
Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey contains Katharine Kuh's draft versions of book chapters; her manuscripts and interviews; and drafts of chapters that were not incorporated in the published memoir. Also included are manuscripts for the memoir and an annotated version of Avis Berman's interview with Kuh.
The Avis Berman files include correspondence, writings, printed material, clippings, press releases, and miscellaneous printed material. Files document Berman's activities concerning the publication of the memoir.
Memorabilia consists of a monograph and a memorial booklet.
Also included is material regarding the reissue of Kuh's book The Artist's Voice: Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists in 2000. Berman collected the material as the literary executor of Kuh's estate. The files contain agreement and permission paperwork, correspondence, book drafts, and financial records.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 5 series:
Missing Title
- Series 1: Katharine Kuh Files, 1944-2003 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
- Series 2: Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in an Art Odyssey by Katharine Kuh, 1939-2006 (Boxes 1-3; 2.0 linear feet)
- Series 3: Avis Berman Files, 1950s-2006 (Box 3; 0.6 linear feet)
- Series 4: Memorabilia, 1976, 1977 (Box 3; 0.1 linear feet)
- Series 5: Files Regarding The Artist's Voice: Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists Reissue (Boxes 4-5, 0.5 linear feet)
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York
Women art historians
Women authors
Art, Modern
Interviews
Lebrun, Rico, 1900-1964
Neumann, J. B. (Jsrael Ber)
Rich, Daniel Catton, 1904-1976
Tobey, Mark
Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968
Harmon, Lily, 1912-
Kaufmann, Edgar, 1910-1989
Kuh, Katharine
Arensberg, Walter, 1878-1954
Dale, Chester, b. 1883
Katharine Kuh Files
Series 1
Archival Resource Key
0.4 Linear feet
Box 1, 4
1944-2003
Scope and Contents note
This series contains correspondence; exhibition files; writings and notes; and an interview. Included is Katharine Kuh's correspondence with artists, collectors, museums, and others during her tenure at the Art Institute of Chicago and the correspondence of the Art Institute's Director, Daniel Catton Rich with Kuh and others. Letters between Rich and Walter and Louise Arensberg chronicle Rich's efforts to obtain the Arensbergs' art collection for the Art Institute. Exhibition files contain letters, a chronology, notes, list of artwork, printed material, press releases, and clippings; included is an extensive file on Kuh's efforts to organize the exhibition, 20th Century Art from the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. Writings and notes include Kuh's article for Vassar Alumnae Magazine; her written reports of visits to galleries; notes on possible acquisitions for the Art Institute of Chicago; published copies of journals featuring writings by Kuh; and a copy of a transcript of Katharine Kuh's 1984 interview with Lily Harmon on J. B. Neumann.
Arrangement note
Katharine Kuh Files have been arranged into four subseries:
- Subseries 1.1: Katharine Kuh Correspondence, 1944-1982
- Subseries 1.2: Daniel Catton Rich Correspondence, 1946-1958
- Subseries 1.3: Exhibitions Curated by Katharine Kuh, 1949-1955
- Subseries 1.4: Writings and Notes; Interview, 1947-1984
Katharine Kuh Correspondence
1.1
Archival Resource Key
1944-1982
Abell, Walter - Cook, Gene
Archival Resource Key
1944-1957
1
1
Duchamp, Marcel - Hess, Thomas
Archival Resource Key
1944-1954
1974
1
2
Kaufmann, Edgar - Kunstadler, Sigmund
Archival Resource Key
1953-1957
1
3
Langsner, Jules - Maxon, John
Archival Resource Key
1949-1959
1982
1
4
Daniel Catton Rich Correspondence
1.2
Archival Resource Key
1946-1958
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1946-1947
1
5
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1948
1
6
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1949
1
7-8
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1950-1951
1
9
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1952-1953
1
10
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1954
1
11
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1955
1
12
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1956
1
13
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1957
1
14
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1958
1
15-16
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
17
Exhibitions Curated by Katharine Kuh
1.3
Archival Resource Key
1949-1955
20th Century Art from the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection
Archival Resource Key
5 Folders
1949-1956
1
18-22
Rico Lebrun: Latest Paintings from Mexico,
Archival Resource Key
1954-1956
1
23
Mark Tobey, One-Man Exhibition,
Archival Resource Key
1954-1955
1
24
Writings and Notes; Interview
1.4
Archival Resource Key
1947-1969; 1984
"Explaining Art Visually," Vassar Alumnae Magazine (March 1957)
Archival Resource Key
1957
1
25
Reports on Gallery Visits
Archival Resource Key
1947-1959
1
26
Notes on Acquisition of Artwork for the Art Institute of Chicago
Archival Resource Key
undated
1953-1957
1
27
Miscellaneous Notes
Archival Resource Key
1954-1955
undated
1
28
Published Writings by Kuh
Archival Resource Key
1948-1969
4
1-2
Katharine Kuh's Interview with Lily Harmon on J. B. Neumann
Archival Resource Key
1984
1
29
Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey by Katharine Kuh
Series 2
Archival Resource Key
2 Linear feet
Boxes 1-2
1939-2006
Scope and Contents note
This series includes Katharine Kuh's drafts of book chapters, manuscripts, and interviews compiled for her memoir, which she had tentatively titled Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey. Also found are annotated excerpts of Avis Berman's oral history interview with Kuh. Files include correspondence, notes, printed material, clippings, reviews, and photographs.
Arrangement note
Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey by Katharine Kuh has been arranged into three subseries:
- Subseries 2.1: Draft Versions of Chapters, 1939-2006
- Subseries 2.2: Manuscripts and Interviews, 1987-1993
- Subseries 2.3: Draft Versions of Chapters Not Used in My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legendary Curator, 1945-1997
Draft Versions of Chapters
2.1
Archival Resource Key
1939-2006
"Preface and Introduction,"
Archival Resource Key
12 Folders
1959-2006
1
30-42
"Josef Albers,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1984-1994
1
43-45
"Bernard Berenson,"
Archival Resource Key
1990s
1
46
"Stuart Davis,"
Archival Resource Key
1990s
1
47
"Hans Hofmann,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1990s-2002
1
48-50
"Edward Hopper,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1990s-circa 2002
1
51-53
"Alfred Jensen,"
Archival Resource Key
4 Folders
1990s
1
54-57
"Alfred Jensen,"
Archival Resource Key
8 Folders
1990s
2
1-8
"Franz Kline,"
Archival Resource Key
4 Folders
1990s-2003
2
9-12
"Fernard Léger,"
Archival Resource Key
11 Folders
1953-1998
undated
2
13-23
"Isamu Noguchi,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1990s-1995
undated
2
24-26
"Mark Rothko,"
Archival Resource Key
11 Folders
1950s-1990s
2
27-37
"Clyfford Still,"
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1990s-2002
2
38-39
"Mark Tobey,"
Archival Resource Key
4 Folders
1962-1994
2
40-43
"Mies van der Rohe,"
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1990s
undated
2
44-45
"Mies van der Rohe,"
Archival Resource Key
4 Folders
1939-2003
undated
3
1-4
"Vincent van Gogh,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1974-1995
3
5-7
Manuscripts and Interviews
2.2
Archival Resource Key
1987-1993
Manuscript of Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey by Katharine Kuh
Archival Resource Key
1993
3
8
Final Version of Sorting Out and Summing Up: Episodes in An Art Odyssey by Katharine Kuh
Archival Resource Key
1993
3
9
Excerpts of Interviews with Katharine Kuh conducted by Avis Berman
Archival Resource Key
1987
3
10
Draft Versions of Chapters Not Used in My Love Affair with Modern Art: Behind the Scenes with a Legenday Curator
2.3
Archival Resource Key
1945-1997
"Alaska,"
Archival Resource Key
5 Folders
undated
1946-1997
3
11-15
"Central America,"
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1945-1992
3
16-17
"Corporate Art,"
Archival Resource Key
4 Folders
1978-1995
3
18-21
"Charles and Ray Eames,"
Archival Resource Key
1990s-1995
3
22
"Germany After the War,"
Archival Resource Key
6 Folders
1990s-1996
3
23-28
"India,"
Archival Resource Key
3 Folders
1990s-1992
3
29-31
"La Grand Jatte,"
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
1960
1990s
3
32-33
"Mexico,"
Archival Resource Key
1990s-1993
3
34
"Self Portraits,"
Archival Resource Key
1975-1990s
undated
3
35-36
Avis Berman Files
Series 3
Archival Resource Key
0.6 Linear feet
Box 3
1950s-2006
Scope and Contents note
This series contains Avis Berman's research materials related to the editing and publication of My Love Affair with Modern Art: Scenes with a Legendary Curator. Included is correspondence, a letter agreement, writings, printed material, clippings, press releases, and miscellaneous printed material. Also found is Katharine Kuh's correspondence detailing her efforts to find a publisher for the memoir. Writings contain draft versions of chapters formatted on floppy disks.
Arrangement note
The Avis Berman Files have been arranged into three subseries:
- Subseries 3.1: Correspondence, 1981-2003, undated
- Subseries 3.2: Writings, 1990s-1994
- Subseries 3.3: Printed Material, 1950s-2006
Correspondence
3.1
Archival Resource Key
1981-2003
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1981-1982
3
37
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
undated
1991-1992
3
38
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1993
3
39
Letter Agreement
Archival Resource Key
1994
3
40
Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1994-2003
3
41
Writings
3.2
Archival Resource Key
1990s-1994
Katharine Kuh Manuscript Chapters: "Sorting and Summing," "Hofmann," "Kline," "Rothko," "Jensen," "The 20th Century Briefly," "Tobey" and "Jensen Revisions,"
Archival Resource Key
(2 1/2" disks)
1990s
3
42
Various Manuscript Chapters: "Rothko Quote," "B. Berenson and Germany," "Preface and Donors," and "India and World Corp.,"
Archival Resource Key
(4 1/2" disks)
1994
3
43
Printed Material
3.3
Archival Resource Key
1950s-2006
Clippings
Archival Resource Key
1950s
2005-2006
3
44
Press Releases
Archival Resource Key
1954-2006
3
45
Miscellaneous Printed Material
Archival Resource Key
1950s
3
46
Memorabilia
Series 4
Archival Resource Key
0.1 Linear feet
Box 3
1997
1976
Scope and Contents note
Memorabilia houses a book of poems by Richard T. Cox and a memorial booklet.
Many Seasons by Richard T. Cox
Archival Resource Key
1976
3
47
Memorial Booklet for Denise Browne Hare
Archival Resource Key
1997
3
48
Files Regarding The Artist's Voice: Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists Reissue
Series 5
Archival Resource Key
0.5 Linear feet
Boxes 4-5
1998-2000
Scope and Contents
The series consists of material regarding the reissue of Katharine Kuh's book The Artist's Voice: Talks With Seventeen Modern Artists in 2000. Berman collected the material as the literary executor of Kuh's estate. The files include permission forms and correspondence with artists and artists' estates to reprint artwork; agreements with museums and organization including the Artists Rights Society, Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art; photographs of artwork; reviews of the book; and a file for the Society for Preservation of American Modernists. The file for De Capo Press includes contracts and financial records, notes, an author questionnaire, and drafts of the book's layout and foreword by Berman.
Agreements and Permissions, Alexander Calder
Archival Resource Key
1999
4
3
Agreements and Permissions, Ben Shahn
Archival Resource Key
1998-2000
4
4
Agreements and Permissions, David Smith
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
5
Agreements and Permissions, Edward Hopper
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
6
Agreements and Permissions, Edwin W. Dickinson
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
7
Agreements and Permissions, Franz Kline
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
8
Agreements and Permissions, Georgia O'Keeffe
Archival Resource Key
1998-2000
4
9
Agreements and Permissions, Hans Hofmann
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
10
Agreements and Permissions, Isamu Noguchi
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
11
Agreements and Permissions, Jacques Lipchitz
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
12
Agreements and Permissions, Joseph Albers
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
13
Agreements and Permissions, Marcel Duchamp
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
14
Agreements and Permissions, Mark Tobey
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
15
Agreements and Permissions, Morris Graves
Archival Resource Key
1998
4
16
Agreements and Permissions, Museums
Archival Resource Key
1998-2000
4
17
Agreements and Permissions, Naum Gabo
Archival Resource Key
1998
5
1
Agreements and Permissions, Organizations
Archival Resource Key
1998
5
2
Agreements and Permissions, Stuart Davis
Archival Resource Key
1998
5
3
De Capo Press
Archival Resource Key
1998-2000
5
4
Photographs of Artwork
Archival Resource Key
1999
5
5
Reviews
Archival Resource Key
2000
5
6
Society for the Preservation of American Modernists (SPAM)
Archival Resource Key
1998
5
7