Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Vera Klement papers, 1950-circa 2016, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.klemvera
Creators:
Klement, Vera, 1929-
Dates:
1950-circa 2016
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
3.3 Linear feet
1.36 Gigabytes
Repository:
The papers of painter and educator Vera Klement measure 3.3 linear feet and 1.36 GB and date from 1950 to circa 2016. The papers include scattered correspondence with Franz Schulze and others, writings and notes including digital copies of a memoir, an interview, and a film, personal business records, printed and digital material, fourteen sketchbooks and other works of art, and photographs, including a photo of the MacDowell Colony in 1957.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The papers of painter and educator Vera Klement measure 3.3 linear feet and 1.36 GB and date from 1950 to circa 2016. The papers include scattered correspondence with Franz Schulze and others, writings and notes including digital copies of a memoir, an interview, and a film, personal business records, printed and digital material, fourteen sketchbooks and other works of art, and photographs, including a photo of the MacDowell Colony in 1957.
Of note is Blunt Edge, an unpublished memoir by Klement in born-digital format; a born-digital recording of an oral history by Linda Kramer and Sandra Binion (2010); a born-digital copy of a film entitled Vera Klement: Blunt Edge, by Wonjung Bae; a bound volume, Disorder and Early Sorrow: a Meditation on War and Death in Homage to Picasso's Guernica 1937, by Vera Klement; and a poetry project compiled by Klement entitled Born of Silence.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Due to its small size the collection is arranged as one series.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Vera Klement (1929-) is a painter and educator in Chicago, Illinois. She is a founding member of "The FIVE."
Vera Klement was born in Danzig, Germany (now GdaƄsk, Poland). She came to the United States in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime and settled in New York City. Klement studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, graduating in 1950. After moving to Chicago in 1965, she taught at the University of Chicago from 1969 to 1995 and is a Professor Emerita. She became a founding member of "The FIVE," a group of artists, who protested what they saw as a regionalist bent in Chicago art during the early 1970s.
Klement continues to live and work in Chicago, Illinois.

Administration

Author
Jayna M. Josefson
Sponsor
Processing of this collection received federal support from the Collections Care Initiative Fund, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the National Collections Program
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Vera Klement donated her papers to the Archives of American Art in several installments in 1986, 2004, and 2017.
Processing Information
The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2020. Born-digital materials were processed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2021 with funding provided by Smithsonian Collection Care and Preservation Fund.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing 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. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Conditions Governing 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
Vera Klement papers, 1950-circa 2016. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Materials
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Vera Klement conducted for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project. The interviews were conducted by Lanny Silverman, 2015 June 12 and 14, and by Jason Stieber, 2016 May 25.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketchbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Drawings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators -- Illinois -- Chicago Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- Illinois -- Chicago Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women educators Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Schulze, Franz, 1927-2019 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
MacDowell Colony Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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