Emerson Woelffer papers, 1937-1999

Collection Information

Size: 0.4 Linear feet; 0.6 Linear feet, Addition

Summary: Correspondence, printed material, and a drawing.

REEL 1052: 114 letters received relating to business matters, exhibitions, Woelffer's teaching career, and his friends. Correspondents include Robert Motherwell, Gerald Nordland, Mitchell Wilder, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Paul Jenkins, Charles Laughton, Joann & Gifford Phillips, Buckminster Fuller, Nathan Oliveira, Anne Weber, Annette Giacometti, George Wittenborn, John Baldessari, and others.

REEL 3482: Newspaper clippings and an article, 1948-1974, about Woelffer.

ADDITION (D.C.): Personal and business correspondence with artists, galleries, foundations, and others. Among the correspondents are Clinton Adams, Katharine Kuh, Robert Motherwell, Ed Ruscha, Aaron Siskind, Clay Spohn, June Wayne, and the Paul Kantor Gallery; and 2 b&w photographs of Woelffer with Mark Rothko in Boulder, Colo. taken by Woelffer's wife, Dina.

Biographical/Historical Note

Surrealist and Dada painter, teacher, and art collector; Los Angeles, California. Born in Chicago. Moved to Los Angeles in 1959. Taught at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Otis Art Institute. Collector of primitive art. One of Southern California's most respected senior modernists, Emerson Woelffer (b. 1914) came to Los Angeles in 1959 to teach at Chouinard Art Institute (now California Institute of Art). He later taught at various Southern California institutions, most notably at Otis School of Art and Design. In 1961 he was a Tamarind Fellow. He continued to teach at Otis until his retirement in 1992.

Provenance

Material on reel 1052 was lent for microfilming by Woelffer in 1976, and subsequently donated by him in 1993 with additional (unfilmed) papers. Additional papers were donated by Woelffer in 1996, and again in 1999, with more expected.

Language Note

English .