Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Lorrie Goulet papers, 1931-2009, in the Archives of American Art

Summary
Photo Album 1
Photo Album 1
Collection ID:
AAA.goullorr
Creators:
Goulet, Lorrie, 1925-
Dates:
1931-2009
Languages:
Collection is in English
Physical Description:
10 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of New York City sculptor, painter, educator, and writer Lorrie Goulet (1925- ) measure 10.0 linear feet and date from 1931 to 2009. Goulet's career is documented through biographical materials, correspondence, writings and notes, interviews, exhibition files, project and commission files, teaching files, personal business records, printed materials, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
The papers of New York City sculptor, painter, educator, and writer Lorrie Goulet (1925- ) measure 10.0 linear feet and date from 1931 to 2009. Goulet's career is documented through biographical materials, correspondence, writings and notes, interviews, exhibition files, project and commission files, teaching files, personal business records, printed materials, photographs, and artwork.
Biographical materials include awards, resumes, membership documents for the New York Artists Equity Association, and a scrapbook and photograph portfolio for Jose de Creeft's birthday in 1969. Scattered school records include a photocopy of a letter from Aimee Vorhees at the Inwood Pottery School.
Goulet's correspondence is mostly professional in nature but includes some letters from friends and family, including Jose de Creeft. Other notable correspondents include Chaim Gross, Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, and Richard Anuszkiewicz.
Writings and notes by Lorrie Goulet include artists' statements; notes and essays on sculpture, including a disbound binder entitled "Quadrations"; three journals about the creation of Enigma; a statement on Green Serpentine; lectures and talks, including a memorial tribute to Jose de Creeft; and poems. There are also a few writings by others about Goulet.
There are five transcripts of interviews with Lorrie Goulet and with Lorrie Goulet and Jose de Creeft. One of the interviews includes the original sound recordings on cassette tape and one includes a version of the transcript on floppy disc.
Extensive exhibition files document fifty years of Goulet's solo and group exhibitions held at galleries, museums, and institutions throughout the United States. Many of the files are from shows at Carolyn Hill Gallery, The Contemporaries, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, and Kennedy Galleries. Also found is extensive material on Goulet's exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Lorrie Goulet: Fifty Years of Making Sculpture (1998). File contents vary, but often contain photographs of openings and of works of art, correspondence, printed material, and price lists.
Project and commission files document Goulet's public commissioned works in the New York Public Library, 173 St. Branch, the Nurse's Residence and School at the Bronx Municipal Hospital, the New York City 48th Precinct Station House and Fire House, and the bust of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. There are also files concerning Goulet's television show Around the Corner, an educational children's show that aired from 1964-1968.
Teaching files are from Goulet's positions at the Art Students League, the school at the Museum of Modern Art, the New School for Social Research, and Scarsdale Studio Workshop. Personal business records include scattered bills and receipts for works of art by Goulet and Jose de Creeft and a file regarding Goulet's affiliation with art agent Anna Beck Nalle.
Among the printed materials are clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and issues of magazines and periodicals, many of which include articles about Goulet or her exhibitions. Also found is a videocassette tape concerning Jose de Creeft's Alice in Wonderland narrated by Goulet.
Photographs and eleven photo albums depict Goulet, her family life with Jose de Creeft, celebrations with friends, her artwork and studio, and travel. Also found are photos, slides, and transparencies of works of art. Pencil sketches are by Goulet of her studio. There is also a sketch of Lorrie Goulet by Zorach.
Arrangement
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
    Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical Material, 1931-2009 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1, 11)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1940s-2006 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1)
  • Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1949-2002 (0.6 linear feet; Box 1-2)
  • Series 4: Interviews, 1967-2002 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
  • Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1948-2008 (3.1 linear feet; Box 2-5)
  • Series 6: Project Files, 1950s-2007 (0.8 linear feet; Box 6, 12)
  • Series 7: Teaching Files, 1958-2000 (0.2 linear feet; Box 6)
  • Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1969-1990s (2 folders; Box 6)
  • Series 9: Printed Materials, 1940s-1999 (1.1 linear feet; Box 7-8)
  • Series 10: Photographs, 1930s-2008 (2.3 linear feet; Box 8-11)
  • Series 11: Artwork, 1955-1956 (0.1 linear feet; Box 10)
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
Lorrie Goulet (1925- ) is a sculptor, painter, educator, and writer active in New York City, New York. She is well-known for direct sculpture on wood and stone.
Lorrie Goulet was born in Riverdale, NY in 1925. As early as the age of seven, Goulet attended the Inwood Pottery School in New York City where she studied under Aimee Vorhees. After the Goulet family moved to Los Angeles, Lorrie continued her studies in art and, in 1940, apprenticed under Jean Rose, a ceramicist in Southern California. In 1943, Goulet enrolled at Black Mountain College in North Carolina where she studied with Joseph and Annie Albers. This is also where she met her husband, sculptor Jose de Creeft; they married in 1944 and had one child, Donna Maria de Creeft. Goulet and de Creeft divided their time between Hoosick Falls, New York and New York City.
Goulet's first solo exhibition was held at the Clay Club Sculpture Center, New York, in 1948. She was represented by Kennedy Galleries in New York, David Findlay Jr. Gallery, and the Harmon Meek Gallery in Naples, Florida. She has exibited widely, including in a number of Annual Exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and in the fine arts pavilion of the New York World's Fair of 1965. In 1998, she was honored by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. with a solo exhibition titled Fifty Years of Making Sculpture.
Goulet taught sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art's Peoples Center, New York, in 1957. From 1961 to 1975 she was on the faculty of the New School, New York, and in 1981 began teaching at the Art Students League of New York, where she taught until 2004. Between 1964-1968 Lorrie Goulet demonstrated sculpture techniques on a CBS Television children's program called "Around the Corner", sponsored by the New York City Board of Education.
Lorrie Goulet's sculpture can be found in the permanent collections of museums across the country. She also completed a number of public sculptures commissioned by the City of New York for several of its public buildings in the Bronx including the Branch Public Library at 173rd Street and Grand Concourse (1958), the Nurses School and Residence, Bronx Municipal Hospital (1961), and the 48th Precinct Police and Fire Station Headquarters (1971) - all in varying materials. A bronx bust of King Juan Carlos I of Spain created by Goulet is displayed in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
Goulet is also a painter, philosopher and poet and continues to work in her studio in New York City.
Administration
Author
Jayna M. Josefson
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund
Existence and Location of Copies
Portions of the collection are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 428 and 438 at Archives of American Art offices, and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Lorrie Goulet lent a portion of her papers in 1972 for microfilming and later donated those papers along with additional materials to the Archives of American Art in 2010.
Processing Information
The collection was processed to a minimal level and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund. The Archives of American Art has implemented accelerated processing tactics when possible in order to increase information about and access to more of our collections. Processing included arrangement to the series, subseries, and folder levels. Generally, items within folders were simply verified with folder titles, but not arranged further. The collection was rehoused in archival containers and folders, but not all staples and clips were removed.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
Preferred Citation
Lorrie Goulet papers, 1931-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Related Materials
Also found in the Archives of American Art are the papers of Lorrie Goulet's husband, sculptor Jose de Creeft.
Keywords
Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Artists' studios -- Photographs Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women sculptors Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women educators Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women authors Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Diaries Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Video recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scrapbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketches Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New York Artists Equity Association Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vorhees, Aimee Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.) -- Faculty Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kennedy Galleries Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Carolyn Hill Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
De Creeft, José, 1884-1982 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Anuszkiewicz, Richard Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scarsdale Studio Workshop Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Contemporaries (Gallery: New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
David Findlay Galleries (New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
National Museum of Women in the Arts (U.S.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Inwood Pottery School Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gross, Chaim, 1904-1991 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nalle, Anna Beck Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vogel, Dorothy Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vogel, Herbert Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Repository Contact
Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions