Xavier Gonzalez papers, 1908-1997

Biographical materials include an address book; awards for the National Academy of Design, the Brevoort-Eikemeyer Prize, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and others; annotated calendars; identification cards and citizenship certificate; records for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Board of Trustees; passports and resumes; student rosters from Gonzalez's classes at the Truro Art Center; and legal documents including power of attorneys, last will and testament, and an estate bequest to Gonzalez and Ethel Edwards.

Correspondence is with the National Arts Club regarding an award, with students from the Art Students League and Truro Art Center, with Ethel Edwards concerning Gonzalez's artwork after his death, and with the San Antonio Art League discussing the artwork of Gonzalez's uncle, Jose Arpa. Other correspondence is about professional events and activities, inquiries about purchasing artwork, and with family members.

General correspondence is arranged chronologically. Other correspondence is arranged alphabetically.

Found in this series are two unpublished, illustrated manuscripts titled "Book for Travellers" and "The Story of Arthur the Mouse" by Gonzalez. Also by Gonzalez are drafts and mockups for the book Notes About Painting (1955), unidentified drafts, and Wellfleet summer class lecture notes. Writings by others include memorials about Gonzalez, statements on art, poetry, and artist biographies by mostly unidentified authors.

Project files consist of preparatory sketches, research notes, correspondence, and plans for a 1976 U.S. Bicentennial monument, murals for City College and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York, a mural in Lajitas, Texas, a series of paintings for the Department of the Interior, paintings and research on the Old Kingdom in Egypt commissioned by Life magazine, a portrait of Judge M. Joseph Blumenfeld, and maps and posters illustrated by Gonzalez during World War II for the U.S. Navy.

This series includes sales, inventory, and consignment records for Gonzalez and Ethel Edward's artwork at the Kornbluth Gallery, Left Bank Gallery, Neal Auction Company, Shore Studios Gallery, and The Spanish Institute. Files for the Wellfleet Art Gallery, a gallery and art school established and operated by Gonzalez, include floor plans, mortgage papers, and inventory and sales records for Gonzalez, Edwards, and other artists represented by the gallery.

In this series are artwork reproductions, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, invitations, magazines, and press releases. The books include He Who Saw Everything, The Epic of Gilgamesh, illustrated by Gonzalez; A History of Texas Artists and Sculptors, inscribed by Frances Battaile Fisk; and The Modern Renaissance in American Art, Provincetown Painters 1890s-1970s and Ralph M. Pearson Courses by Mail which reference Gonzalez's artwork.

Found within this series are 72 scrapbooks, many of which also include numerous sketches, in addition to printed materials, unidentified project plans, photographs, writings about art, correspondence, and inventory and sales records. One of the scrapbooks also contains a notebook labeled "Notes of Paris, Visits with Picasso, 1936-1938". The notebook was originally inside a paper pocket constructed on a page of the scrapbook by Gonzalez. The notebook contains sketches and drafts for an article about Pablo Picasso.

The books are arranged in rough chronological order; however, some date spans overlap.

Personal photographs include family photographs, many portraits and snapshots of Gonzalez and Ethel Edwards with friends and colleagues at social events, exhibitions, and while traveling. Also found are photographs of Gonzalez with composer Aaron Copeland, ceramicist Kenneth E. Smith, Cincinnati Art Museum director Philip R. Adams, and a portrait of Art Students League executive director Stewart Klonis. Gonzalez's paintings, jewelry designs, and sculptures; student murals; and scattered photographs of Gonzalez's students are in photographs of works of art. The series may include photographs of works by other artists.

Miscellaneous artwork includes Illustrated notes to Ethel Edwards, folded and cutout paper projects, and sketches. A watercolor greeting card by an unknown artist is also found here.