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Allessandra Liberati
Scope and Contents
The Hilaire Hiler papers measure 3.8 linear feet and date from circa 1898-1969. Biographical material includes identification documents, certificates, licenses, membership cards, and a biographical sketch. Correspondents include Faber Birren, Kay Boyle, Marc Connelly, Caresse Crosby, Nancy Cunard, Ben Cunningham (to Hiler's daughter), John Ferren, Al Hirschfeld, Carl Holty, Robert Bruce Inverarity, Gyorgy Kepes, Katharine Kuh, Rico Lebrun, Fernand Leger, Albert W. Levi, Paul Mathews, Henry Miller, Abraham Rattner, Man Ray, Ad Reinhardt, Meyer Schapiro, Charles P. Snow, Edgar Varese, Herbert G. Wells, O'Brien Boldt, Jerome Flax, the Foundation for Integrated Education, Jay H. Herz, Charles Lavell, Jim Moran, Henry Schnakenberg, George Wittenborn, and William Carlos Williams. Also included is correspondence from Hiler's time spent in Paris in the 1920s. In the five Holty letters, Holty comments on aesthetics, color theory, the work of Abraham Rattner, Holty's painting, the history of modern art after World War Two, and his trip across America with Henry Miller and Rattner.
Writings includes several titled writings by Hiler as well as miscellaneous notes and writings and three notebooks. Also included are manuscripts for Hiler's autobiography and a manuscript for Color and Design: A Structuralist Approach (1955) which includes thirty-seven illustrations and diagrams. Writings by others are also present. Personal business records include multiple card files, materials for a course on color design, three photographs of artworks and a sales receipt, and various bills and receipts. Printed material includes clippings, one hundred nineteen miscellaneous items relating to color and design, published articles by Hiler titled "Costumes and Ideologies," "Some Associative Aspects of Color," "Structuralism," "The Search for a Method of Graphic Expression," and "The Origin and Development of Structural Design", materials related to exhibitions, and miscellaneous printed material. Artwork includes two sketchbooks, and seventeen loose sketches.
Language
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Papers were donated 1967-1968 by Hilaire Hiler.
Related Materials
The archives also hold three articles by Hiler: "The Aquatic Park Murals", November 5, 1938; "Color in Architecture", and "An Approach to Mural Decoration" as well as a letter from Hiler to Joe Allen, State Supervisor, Federal Art Project, San Francisco and an announcement of a seminar on color directed by Hiler.
Funding
Sponsor
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Processing Information
This collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared, by Allessandra Liberati in 2023.