Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives

Resources (2)

• Hilla von Rebay Foundation, 1894-1997 (bulk 1938-1955)

  101 cubic ft. (204 boxes). Hilla Rebay (1890–1967) was Solomon R. Guggenheim's art adviser from 1929–49, curator of the S. R. Guggenheim Collection, and first director of the Museum of Nonobjective Painting (i.e., the Guggenheim Museum), 1936–52. She was also a non-objective painter herself, ca. 1917–67, with a deep interest in W. Kandinsky. She knew personally and corresponded with many artists and others born in the Russian Empire or Soviet Union.

  The archive holds materials about these artists, filed under the person's name or that of relevant organizations. Most of the holdings are letters but there are also photographs and miscellaneous documents, 1915–67.

  Among those for whom the archive has material are the following (substantial holdings italicized) : Ilya Bolotowsky, Marc Chagall, Sonia Terk Delaunay, Olga Egeressy, Naum Gabo, John D. Graham, Fannina Halle, Wassily and Nina Kandinsky, Olga Kotchoubey, Vladimir Korostevitz, Antoine Pevsner, Alexandra Povorina (Ahlers-Hestermann), S. Sigaloff, Esphyr Slobodkina, Daria Troubetzkoi, Alexandra Tolstoi (Tolstoi Foundation), Nicolai Vorobiov, and Abraham Walkowitz. Finding aid available: https://www.guggenheim.org/finding-aids/collection/m0007

• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Curatorial Department. Records from Artist and Object files, 1916-2007 (bulk 1940-1980)

  2.25 cubic ft. (7 boxes). The Records from Artist and Object files collection (1916-2007) is largely comprised of correspondence. The correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing letters between artists whose work was supported by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum or who participated in its exhibitions, and museum staff. Museum staff includes the directors of the museum (Hilla Rebay; James Johnson Sweeney; Thomas M. Messer; Thomas Krens; and Lisa Dennison), curatorial and administrative personnel, and Solomon R. Guggenheim. The correspondence addresses artists’ concerns, exhibitions, art objects, and the larger art world. The records also include biographical questionnaires used by the museum to maintain accurate, current information on the artists represented in the collection and photographs of the artists, along with documents such as deeds of gift and licenses for copyright. The collection contains the following artist files of note: Archipenko, Bolotowsky, Chagall, Gabo, Goncharova, Kandinsky, Lipchitz, and Pevsner. Finding aid available: https://www.guggenheim.org/finding-aids/collection/a0009