This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
The papers of art historian and painter Ethel Schwabacher date from 1939 to 1975 and measure 2.3 linear feet. Found are biographical materials, including motion picture films, correspondence, research and writing files including sound recordings, printed material, and photographs. The papers document Schwabacher's research and writings on her former teacher Arshile Gorky and her colleague John Ford, and her own painting career.
Biographical materials include two interview transcripts from the 1960s and three home movies. Largely professional in nature, Schwabacher's correspondence is with artists, art historians, and instititions including Giorgio Cavallon, Clement Greenberg, Barnett Newman, Richard Pousette-Dart, and Oscar Williams. Research and writing files form the bulk of the collection and consist of materials compiled and written by Schwabacher on various artists and general art subjects, including John Ford and Arshile Gorky, and an unpublished manuscript titled "1948." Material on John Ford also includes sound recordings.
Portions of the collection are available on 35mm microfilm reels N69-64-N69-65, 3975, and 4986-4987 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
After microfilming onto reels N69-64-N69-65, the papers were returned to Ethel Schwabacher. The majority of the material was later donated in 1974-1975.
Ethel Schwabacher (1903-1984) was a painter and art historian from New York, New York.
Schwabacher studied at the National Academy of Design, the Art Students League, and in Europe before studying with Arshile Gorky in New York from 1934-1936. Schwabacher wrote
Ethel Schwabacher lent her papers for microfilming in 1966 and subsequently donated all but a few items in 1974-1975. Additional material was donated in 1984 by Syracuse University, which had received it from Schwabacher.
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The collection received a preliminary level of arrangement after donation and was microfilmed onto reels N69-64-N69-65, 3975, and 4986-4987. The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Janya Josefson in 2020.
Ethel Schwabacher papers, 1939-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is arranged as 5 series.
Found are two transcripts from interviews with Schwabacher, conducted by Dr. Osis and Colette Roberts, a resume, and three motion picture film home movies taken at Brookdale Farm.
Letters are from colleagues and various institutions concerning Schwabacher's painting career and her research. Notable correspondents include Ethel Baziotes, Giorgio Cavallon, Clement Greenberg, Barnett Newman, Richard Pousette-Dart, and Anna Walinska. A note from Oscar Williams is on a picture postcard of himself with Dylan Thomas (1958)
Research and writing files consist of artist files, compiled research materials, and writings. Artist files are on John Ford, Arshile Gorky, Jose Guerrero, Helen Keen, and Jeanne Reynal. The file on Ford includes twenty-two letters from Ford (two are illustrated) and four sound recordings of Schwabacher's verbal notes and Ford's comments. Material on Gorky includes a study for his illustrations for Andre Breton's
Writings by Schwabacher consist largely of dismantled notebooks, both identified and unidentified. Some of the notebooks include research and drafts for Schwabacher's writings "Paradise of the Real" and "Conflict of Freedoms" and for "1948." Within notebooks for "1948" are letters from Richard Pousette-Dart, and lists and photographs of works by Willem De Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Anne Ryan, Clyfford Still, Bradley Walker Tomlin, and Jack Tworkov. Other writings by Schwabacher, 1966, include typescripts for "Conflict of Freedoms" and "The Portrait as Image."
Printed material consists of clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs for Schwabacher and others, and two reproductions of art works.
Photographs are undated and are of art work by Schwabacher.