A Finding Aid to the Neil Welliver Papers, 1964-1981, in the Archives of American Art

Scope and Contents

The papers of painter and educator Neil Welliver measure 1.4 linear feet and date from 1964-1981. The collection documents Welliver's career through mixed professional and personal files that include correspondence, some exhibition material, writings, slides of art by others and of friends, and a video recording of a talk given by Welliver in 1974.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged as one series due to its small size.

Biographical / Historical

Neil Welliver (1929-2005) was a painter and educator from Millville, Pennsylvania.

Welliver earned his bachelor's degree from the Philadelphia College of Art and his Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale University where he studied under Josef Albers and Burgoyne Diller. By the late 1950s Welliver had developed his signature style of combining abstract and representational art, painting people and landscapes and other natural scenes. He taught at Cooper Union from 1953-1957 and at Yale University from 1955-1966. He then began working at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Art, going on to become chairman before retiring in 1989. With the encouragement of Alex Katz and Lois Dodd, Welliver began spending time in Maine in the early 1960s, painting and exploring the natural landscape. By the 1970s, Welliver spent most of his time away from Philadelphia on his property in Lincolnville, Maine.

Welliver's solo shows included exhibitions at Alexandra Grotto in Philadelphia, Stable Gallery in New York, Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York, and the Farnsworth Museum of Art in Maine. Group exhibitions that featured his work included Five Landscape Paintings (2006), University of Maine Museum of Art, In The Country (1987), The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting (1972), Whitney Museum of American Art, and many others. His paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.