[cont. from FB post dated 7/11] The Loft Party (*V) I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and attended (*1) The Art Institute of Chicago Junior School over a six year period before leaving in 1969 for collage at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. I payed my own way by mowing lawns, shoveling snow and caddying for golfers, etc. to pay for my classes at the Chicago Art Institute. After a morning class, Id spend the whole rest of the day in the Museum looking at and studying paintings, drawings and sculpture. I grew to love the quite solitude of the Museum galleries and suppose, I wished that someday I might add in someway to the Museums collections. I never dreamed of how directly I would in a vary big way. **************************Wishes sometime come to true.*************************** After my freshman year at Pratt, I decided to work in New York City during the summer break before continuing on to Paris and the Sorbonne which had accepted me in 1969, granting me a full scholarship. The Sorbonne had one provision, that I successfully complete one full year of collage in the States before theyed finalize my acceptance and scholarship. I had, at Pratt and with honors, by making the Deans List. After, Pratt Institute forwarded my freshman year transcripts to Paris I received a final letter of acceptance from the Sorbonne, with class information and a date to be there for registration. After purchasing a plane ticket, I was set to continue my collage education in the fall of 1970 at the Sorbonne in Paris. That summer, I had a job all lined up with Vogue Wright (responsible for doing all the large mail-order catalogues, for Sears, etc.) at their main offices in New York City as an assistant photographer and a photographer after a three month period if I chose to stay on. I remember being offered the job. Id a written introduction and reference from a Chicago Vogue Wright art director, who Id done a few projects for while still in Chicago, opening a door for me to meet the president of the company in NYC. After meeting and showing a portfolio compiled of collage projects, figure drawings, etc. I was offered a job on the spot. A shrewd art director appointed to show me around the Vogue Wright studios first showed me their large switchboard at constant use phoning models. A few doors down the hall from the switchboards my guide asked me to wait outside an office which he entered. Hardly before closing the office door behind him, I was bumped from behind and turned to see a beautiful young barefooted woman in a robe exiting a room across from the office. Stunned, I backed against the hallway wall and said, excuse me, and was rewarded by a wonderful smile from the model after which she merely sauntered down the hall. I stood there waiting for my guide outside the office that just happen to be directly across from the door of a models dressing room! My guide had me wait there for about 30 minutes during which I watched more then a hundred beautiful woman models coming and going up and down the hall, (a young mans dream). After a while my guide collected me, lead me on down the hall and showed me a number of photo studios in use, where Id be working if I took the job. However...! I had little interest in commercial art and design. Despite incentives offered at Vogue Wright my interest in fine art indomitably remained. Edith Dozier a Pratt classmate told me about an elderly aunt she thought crazy, who did lithos and etchings with American artists, Edith thought even more crazy. Edith, suggested I contact her aunt, Tatyana Grosman about a summer job assisting a printer. A letter was written and I received a phone call from the master printer Frank Akers who interviewed me, liked me and offered me a job working with him at ULAE as an apprentice litho printer providing that Tanya Grosman approved after meeting me. I told Frank about the job offer from Vogue Wright and he suggested that I visit the ULAE studio and meet Tanya before deciding between the two summer jobs. Frank handed me a round trip train ticket to Babylon and back, asking, what have you got to loose. A week later I met Tatayan Grosman (*2) at her home and ULAE studio, at 5 Skidmore Place, West Islip, New York (*3). We met in the tiny front room (*4) of what was once a gardeners cottage, seated around a small table and chatted for about an hour over coffee, tea, cheese and french bread. One thing I remember vividly about our first conversation is, Tanya asking me, why go to Paris and the Sorbonne when NYC is now the art center of the world? Tanya put me to work the same day, giving me a week to decide to stay and work for her or take the job with Vogue Wright. After a couple of days working at ULAE, I decided to stay. Once Id decided to stay and work at ULAE, Tanya offered me more work other then the four days a week working as an apprentice litho printer with Frank Akers. Tanya took me upstairs to where the edition prints were stored and asked if I might be willing to work a couple more days a week, keeping the print studio clean and the shelfs of prints, etc. in order, to which I agreed. That same day Tanya showed me shelfs of working and trial proofs, etc. saying she did not know what to do with them other then burn them. If given to the artists, most would end up on the market and undermine the value of the editions, besides the proofs did not meet any final esthetic intent had by the artists for the editions. While Tanya was telling me this, smoke was rising outside from a burn barrel which was being filled with a number proofs, etc., by Tanyas husband Maurice. It took me only a few seconds thought before I ventured to tell Tanya, they should be saved! Tanya just looked at me silently questioning? And, I explained that they had an intrinsic historic value and showed something of the individual artists thought process, their working methods and techniques, all to be treasure and mulled over by future writers, curators professors and students of fine art! I went on to describe quick sketches, impressions of partially finished and reworked prints, etc. by the old masters that have survived ages and found there way into museum and library collections that are treasured for just the aforementioned reasons. I then, ended by suggesting all the proofs etc. should be kept together as ULAE archives to someday be offered to an institutions to be housed, shown and available for independent study! Tanya, quietly and simply told me to go stop Maurice from burning anymore proofs. And, to return to the print studio with any he hadnt already tossed into the burn barrel. Which I did, saving a number of Larry Rivers and Frank OHaras proofs that are the earliest of all the ULAE print archives housed at The Art Institute of Chicago today. When I returned with a few dozen proofs saved from the burn barrel, Tanya had me place them back on a shelf with other proofs. She then told me that from the moment on it was my job and responsibility to take care and keep in order all the edition prints and print archives considering myself ULAEs print archivist and curator. After a pause, she add, and also my personal archivist. A couple days later Tanya asked me to help her convince all the artists that the ULAE print archives should be saved and held together to be offered at some future time to a single institution for the reasons Id spoken to her about. And, this I did, convincing one artist at a time and of the few that had passed on, I convinced a surviving family member. As the end of that first summer in New York neared, pressure mounted on me to decide between leaving to study at the Sorbonne in Paris or remain in New York where I could continue my collage education at Pratt while also continuing to work at ULAE. Tanya and Maurice, the artists who worked at ULAE and others associated with ULAE all conspired to convince me to stay. And, I did after writing a letter to the Sorbonne saying Id not be attending the Paris University in the Fall. All the time I worked at ULAE, besides working as printer etc., I remained ULAEs archivist and curator of edition prints and print archives. After my first year working at ULAE Tanya decided, that asking me to also be her personal archivist was to much a work load so over the fallowing years she employed others for the purpose, however, I continued as her personal archivist of a few things like her family photographs, her and Maurices letters, and documents prier to emigrating to the US. Many of the photos, etc. were used by Riva Castleman in her book Tatyana Grosman A Scrapbook . After Maurice Grosman, Tanyas husband passed away, ULAE slipped into the red. While Tanya founded ULAE and was its director, Maurice had played an everyday major supportive roll and for a while the publishing house floundered after Maurices death. And, once in deep in the red struggled from day to day. Realizing this I went to Tanya and suggested that maybe it was time her collection of artists proofs, one from every ULAE edition and the print archives were offered to an institution. Such a sale would get ULAE out of the red, boost the interest of the now famous artist she worked with to work more often at the print studio and create security for her and her business for the rest of her life. Tanya agreed and first asked me who I thought she should offer the collection to. I suggested many with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Art Institute of Chicago at the top of my list. Of all Id suggested she showed no interest in offering the collection to the Art Institute of Chicago. She took my list of a couple dozen acclaimed museums of art and asked her social secretary Tony Towle for his opinion, then Bill Goldston ULAEs shop manager, then the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Tanya also asked the opinions of others who had been friends for many years and a few collectors also friends for many years like Dr. Joseph Singer and, Morton and Carol Rapp. After hearing the opinions of many, Tanya offered the collection to three museums of fine art, MoMa The Museum of Modern Art in N.Y.C., the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Louvre in Paris. All three responded to Tanyas offer with a great deal of interest, however, all three museums hesitated, wanting to wait on making any type of commitment while weighing Tanyas provisions to keep the collection together, maintain publication copyrights shared by ULAE and the individual artists, loaning back the artist proofs and archives for the purpose of reproductions and for me to travel with the collection as a curator of the collection. A lot for Tanya to ask in the way of provisions but the value of the collection was huge and Tanyas asking price for the collection was relatively vary modest. As for Tanyas provision that I accompany the collection as a curator..., it kind of took me by surprise. I was honored that Tanya included me as provisional curator of the collection but not at all sure it was something I wanted to do. ***************[cont. from FB post dated 7/11] The Loft Party (*V) **************** After watching Michael Crichton leave while standing on the landing outside the lofts door, I re-entered the crowded gathering. Upon entering, I stepped to the side of the doorway bumping into an older gentleman in the crowd to whom I said I was sorry. After literally bumping into the gentleman I felt a compulsion to introduce myself, rattling off yet again my professional background. The gentleman then introduced himself as a minor curator from the Art Institute of Chicago who was in NYC to attend auctions at both Christies and Sothebys on behalf of the Museum. I told him I was from the Chicago suburbs, had attended the Institutes Junior School and treasured my time as a youth wondering the Museum galleries, which then led to light conversation about the Museum at present. I asked about the Museums contemporary collection and the curator remarked, I dont know that they have one! Fallowing his assertion, I asked if the Museum had any works by artists who Id worked with at ULAE, Robert Motherwell or Jasper Johns, etc. and the curator declared that he had never heard of the artists. Much surprised, I gently and diplomatically proposed that maybe the Art Institute of Chicago had fallen behind the times. The curator took mild exception to my view saying how so? And, I responded by saying he only need look and read the last pages of any collage level art history text to gain knowledge of the artists Id just mentioned. A bit chagrinned the curator fell silent until I mentioned that presently, MoMA the New York Museum of Modern Art, Washington D.C.s Smithsonian National Gallery of Art and the Louvre in Paris were all seriously considering the purchase of ULAEs huge collection of work by the artists Id just mentioned. Mention of the three museums considering and vying for the requisition immediately sparked the curators interest. The curator asked to hear more about the collection, etc. and sense the offers made to the three museums had become common knowledge, I was at liberty to elaborate. And, did, while the curator searched through his pockets to find a small notepad which he then began to take notes in, all the while asking questions about the ULAE collection. After a time he said, thank you..., vary good to meet you..., can I have a phone number where you can be reached? Of course, I gave him a number. I expressed pleasure reminiscing and talking with him about the Art Institute of Chicago after which we shook hands and we each dissolved into the horde of people crowded in the loft. A couple weeks later I received a phone call from a curator of prints and drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, fallowed two hours later by another phone call from the Director of the Museum. They phoned to expressed an interest in the ULAE collection of artists proofs and print archives. I told both of the Chicago gallery which acted as an agent representing ULAE, that sold ULAE prints in the Chicago area. Both the curator and director told me they had all ready talked with the Gallery director who knew little about the ULAE artist proofs and print archives that had been offered as a complete collection to a museum else where. I told them that Tatyana Grosman had selected only three museums to offer the collection to and she lacked any interest in offering the collection to the Art Institute of Chicago! I ended up speaking at length with both the curator and the director, both asking me to speak to Tanya on behalf of the Art Institute of Chicago telling her of the Museums interest in the collection. Finally, after about two hours on the phone speaking with the director, I told him about Tanyas provisions asking if he felt they were acceptable and could be agreed upon. He said, yes, after which I agreed to talk with Tanya about the interest of the Art Institute of Chicago for the reacquisition of the collection, intervening and asking that she also extend her offer to sell the collection to the Art Institute of Chicago. I told the director I could make no promises, only that I would speak with Tanya and try to convince her to consider the Art Institute as possible repository for the collection. this memoir, to be continued in my next post
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:12:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015