Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Clement Greenberg Papers, 1937-1983, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.greeclep
Creators:
Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994
Dates:
1937-1983
Languages:
The collection is in
English
and
French
.
Physical Description:
8.6 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of influential New York author and art critic Clement Greenberg measure 8.6 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1983. The bulk of the papers consists of letters from art critics, artists, family, friends, curators, collectors, publishers, galleries, and museums, with scattered letters from Greenberg. Also found are Greenberg's business and financial records along with small amounts of biographical material, printed material, and writings consisting of two reports.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content Note
The papers of influential New York author and art critic Clement Greenberg measure 8.6 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1983. The bulk of the papers consists of letters from art critics, artists, family, friends, curators, collectors, publishers, galleries, and museums, with scattered letters from Greenberg. Also found are Greenberg's business and financial records along with small amounts of biographical material, printed material, and writings consisting of two reports.
Correspondence includes letters to Greenberg, often documenting the lives and careers of many of the correspondents in significant detail, and scattered copies of Greenberg's replies. Much of the correspondence is rich and substantive, and is indicative of Greenberg's influence in the art world. Correspondents include Darby Bannard, Ethel Baziotes, Anthony Caro, Richard Diebenkorn, Piero Dorazio, Andre Emmerich, Paul Feeley, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Goodnough, Adolf Gottleib, Hans Hofmann, Philippe Hosiasson, Jacob Kainen, Rosalind Krauss, Robert Motherwell, Ken Moffett, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Beverly Pepper, Ludwig Sander, David Smith, Kimber Smith, Clyfford Still, Anne Truitt, Leslie Waddington and many others.
Biographical material includes notes from an interview with Greenberg conducted by Deborah Solomon in 1983. Greenberg's personal business and financial records include correspondence and other documentation related to Greenberg's appearances, such as for lectures and on television, and documents relating to Greenberg's testimony at the Mark Rothko Trial in 1974.
Artwork consists of one etching by Kurt Wisenski. Although the papers contain very few of Greenberg's writings about art, there are lists of artists and reports written by Greenberg on the state of art in Japan and India in 1967 which are probably related to his membership in the American Committee for Cultural Freedom. Printed material includes scattered clippings concerning art and exhibition announcements.
One series of access restricted papers contains documents relating to Greenberg's role as executor for the David Smith estate.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical Information, circa 1968-1983 (Box 1; 2 folders)
  • Series 2: Business and Financial Records, 1939-1983 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
  • Series 3: Correspondence, 1937-1983 (Boxes 1-8, 11; 7 linear feet)
  • Series 4: Artwork, 1973 (Box 8; 1 folder)
  • Series 5: Writings and Notes, 1967-1983 (Box 8; 3 folders)
  • Series 6: Printed Material, 1950-1982 (Box 8; 2 folders)
  • Series 7: David Smith Estate Materials, 1965-1982 (Boxes 9-11; 1.1 linear feet)

Biographical Note

Biographical Note
New York City author Clement Greenberg, was one of the most influential art critics of the twentieth century, primarily from the 1940s-1960s. He was an advocate of modern art, particularly the Abstract Expressionist movement, and was one of the first critics to recognize the significance of Jackson Pollock's work.
Greenberg was born in 1909 to Russian immigrants in Bronx, New York. After graduating from Syracuse University in 1930, he married and had a child, David. He settled in New York City while working at the United States Customs Department as an appraiser.
In the late 1930s, Clement Greenberg attended a meeting of the U.S. Works Progress Administration and heard Hans Hofmann speak of avant-garde art. In 1939, he wrote one of his first important critical pieces "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" for the Partisan Review. Greenberg argued that the avant-garde art movement rose out of the need to defend and maintain high art standards against the decline in taste brought about by America's consumerist and capitalist culture.
In 1940 Greenberg joined Partisan Review as an editor. He became art critic for the Nation in 1942 and was associate editor of Commentary from 1945 until 1957. In December 1950, he joined the CIA-fronted American Committee for Cultural Freedom.
Throughout the 1940s through the 1960s Greenberg continued to write essays and articles in which he promoted the work of the abstract expressionists, among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. He particularly championed Jackson Pollock. Greenberg wrote several seminal essays that defined his views on art history in the twentieth century, with "Greenberg on Collage" being one of his most important.
Greenberg's views on pop art were mixed. He also became less enamored with the second generation of abstract expressionists over time, while developing an interest in the Color-Field and Hard-Edge painters.
Through the 1960s Greenberg's views informed a younger generation of art critics including Michael Fried and Rosalind E. Krauss. Some writers maintain that Greenberg's views were so well-respected that he held too much of an influence in the art world. In time, Greenberg's antagonism to postmodernist theories and other modern art movements caused him to lose much of his credibility among both artists and art critics.
Greenberg was a long-time champion of sculptor David Smith's work and he became an executor of Smith's estate when the artist died suddenly in 1965. Greenberg resigned as executor in 1979 following controversy over his decision to strip white paint from five of Smith's outdoor sculptures, insisting that Smith had never intended to leave them white.
Greenberg died at the age of eighty-five in 1994. Since his death, letters edited by Greenberg's widow, Janice Van Horne, and a re-evaluation of his writings have helped to restore his reputation in the art world.

Administration

Author
Jayna Hanson and Stephanie Ashley
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Funding for the digitization of the papers was provided in part by The Walton Family Foundation.
Provenance
Clement Greenberg initially lent material for microfilming in 1968-1969. He donated most of this material to the Archives of American Art with additional papers in several accretions between 1984 to 1991.
Separated Material
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels N69-91, N70-7, and N737). Most, but not all, of these papers were later donated by Greenberg. Loaned materials not donated at a later date are not described in the container listing of this finding aid.
Alternative Forms Available
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2023 and is available on the Archives of American Art website. Materials which have not been digitized include blank pages, blank versos of photographs, duplicates, and access restricted records.
Processing Information
All accretions, including earlier microfilmed materials, were merged and processed by Jayna Hanson in 2009 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. The collection was prepared for digitization in 2022 by Stephanie Ashley and was digitized in 2023 with funding from The Walton Family Foundation.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
The Clement Greenberg papers, 1937-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research. Portions of the collection are access restricted including: documents relating to the estate of David Smith; some correspondence with Peter Fuller, Nuala O'Faolain, the Greenberg family, and other correspondents; and sales records and loan agreements. Written permission is required. Contact Reference Services for more information. 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.

Related Material
The Portland Art Museum holds Clement Greenberg's private art collection as well as a library of exhibition catalogs.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Abstract expressionism Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Smith, David, 1906-1965 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Noland, Kenneth, 1924- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Olitski, Jules, 1922-2007 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Emmerich, André Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Caro, Anthony, 1924- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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