Number 1, volume I, March 2010

Vassar’s Modernism: The New Art Library

Over the course of the 2008-2009 aca-demic year the Art Library underwent an extensive restorative renovation. Opened in 1937, the design constituted an experiment in a North American adaptation of the Machine aesthetic characteristic of the Bauhaus, and stands today as a rare example of a pre-WWII American modernist interior. Its architect, John McAndrew (1904-1978), taught architecture and archi-tectural history in the Art Department at Vassar from 1931 to 1937. McAndrew would go on to promote what he termed a “naturalized” version of European modernism in his influential position as Curator of Architecture and Design at the recently founded Museum of Modern Art from 1937 to 1942. McAn-drew championed an architecture that maintained the clarity and openness

of the Bauhaus style, while adding to it a certain chromatic warmth, liveli-ness and textural complexity that the austere, pristine spaces of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius eschewed. At MoMA he sponsored exhibitions dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and to the Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto. Although McAn-drew would lose in his efforts to shape the course of American architecture to his one-time traveling companion, pre-decessor at MOMA, and proponent of the International Style Philip Johnson, McAndrew’s contribution to American modernism has yet to be adequately assessed. The Art Library, now restored to its original beauty and function by another architect/educator, the late Paul Spencer Byard, and his partner, Charles Platt, stands as tangible evidence of currents and complexities in the story of twentieth-century architecture that have yet to be fully understood.

John McAndrew, proposal for the Art Library, 1935

New Art Resources on the Web

Explore Thomas Cole (http://www.explorethomascole.org). Vassar Col-lege faculty and students were deeply involved in this multi-layered project devoted to the life and work of Hud-son River School founder Thomas Cole. The site includes a guided tour of seventeen major paintings, which give an in-depth understanding of the artist’s context and creative process, a virtual gallery of Cole’s major works, an interactive biographical timeline, interactive maps, definitions of terms, textual materials, notes about tech-nique and process, and bibliographic references for further reading. The proj-ect is sponsored by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site located at Cedar Grove in Catskill, New York, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Karen Lucic, Professor of Art at Vassar College, and Vassar Ford Scholar Elizabeth Gardner provided research and historical content for the site. Vassar students Kaitlin Manning, Jill Kaufman, Eleanore Neumann, and Spencer Richards also assisted in the project. The Visual Resources Library provided some of the digital images.

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters (http://vangoghletters.org/vg/). The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sci-ences have published a massive new edition of the complete letters of Vin-cent van Gogh. The edition took a team of editors, translators, and student scholars five years to complete. The entire corpus of 902 letters has gener-ously been made available to scholars and the general public over the internet free of charge. This new edition con-

tains the original text of the complete extant correspondence of all letters to and from Vincent van Gogh, and includes a transliteration of the text, a complete digital facsimile, an English language translation (the originals are in Dutch, French, and English), editorial notes, and art works. The edition also contains a chronology, various lists, and an extensive bibliography. The online format allows the reader to col-late the letters by date, correspondent, and place, and to search the corpus in keyword or advanced search modes. It also allows the reader to choose from various formats for side-by-side dis-play of the facsimile, text and notes, sketches, and translation. A six-volume print version of the edition with accom-panying cd-rom of the more than 4,300 art works referred to in the text is also available in the Art Library (Art Quarto N6953 G63 A3 2009).

Artlibraries.net (http://artlibraries.net). Artlibraries.net is a virtual union catalogue of the collections of more than 60 important art libraries in Europe and North America. Among the North American Libraries included are the Getty Research Library, the Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum, the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the National Gallery of Canada. The Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich and Heidelberg University Library organized the project.

Art Babble (http://artbabble.org). Art Babble is a Hulu-type website for art videos. Hosted by the Indianapolis Mu-seum of Art the service contains input from dozens of art museums and other institutions including MOMA, the Getty, LACMA, NYPL, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The site includes curatorial

Marginal Notes

The exhibition in the Art Library of artists’ books by Jim Dine(closing 26 March) reminds that books are objects too. And like all other objects they have a history, as Nicholas Adams writes. Sometimes that history is all too pain-fully visible in the notes people have written in the margins or in underlining. But they also have an official history.

In 1937, for example, the Carnegie Foundation made an immense dona-tion of books to the Art Library and the library added a special bookplate to commemorate the event. You can still find them. On other occasions, a fac-ulty member or an alumnus may have donated books and until very recently it was the practice of the library to ac-knowledge their gift in the bookplate. Sometimes a book can disclose owners that can reveal the spread of an idea. An autobiography of the nineteenth century utopian socialist Robert Owen (HX 696 09 A3 1857) has the dedication “T.J. Barratt, Jan. 1, 1872 from his Father-in-law.” On the inside cover is a photograph inscribed “Francis Pears.” A very short search (using Google) reveals that Francis Pears was the grandson of the founder of Pears Soap (still available today) and that Thomas J. Barratt was, in-deed, his son-in-law and famous for his innovative advertising techniques. Pears admired Robert Owen and Pears Soap was prized for its modern formula using glycerin rather than animal fats. The Pears advertisements at the end of the nineteenth century made exten-sive use of art. The painter John Millais sold Barratt the rights to his painting “A Child’s World,” which was then re-christened as “Bubbles” (1886). In the painting a small boy watches a soap bubble float away from him. Barratt, a clever advertising man, added in a bar of Pears Soap to the painting to make it seem that his soap had produced the soap bubble. If you have a story told by a book’s history, speak to the Art Librarian Tom Hill. It would be wonder-ful to see more book histories in our newsletter.

tours of exhibitions, conversations with artists, and short documentaries. The “more info” tab to the right of the video panel offers links to related materials on the web. A “Channels” tab at the top of the main page organizes content by medium and subject.

John Everett Millais, Bubbles, Liverpool, Lady Lever Art Gallery

Hot Dream (52 Books)

The Vassar College Art Library will pres-ent Jim Dine’s artist book multiple HOT DREAM (52 BOOKS), on in the exhibit case in the main reading room February 6 - March 26, 2010. Dine conceived of the work as the serial expression of a year in the life of the artist, with one book produced each week over the course of the year. Expressions of consciousness, biography, and imagination, the books represent a melting point for some of the artist’s long-time interests, includ-ing book-making, drawing, and perfor-mance. Included among the 52 volumes are 10 audio CDs that contain poems, an autobiography, a remembrance of Rob-ert Creeley and a performance by the artist of a song he wrote some 40 years ago. Because of the work’s size and richness individual items in the exhibit will be changed and rearranged once a week over the course of the month.

Jim Dine is known for his involvement in the early Pop Art movement, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and others. He is also known for having been one of the early progeni-tors of the Happenings of the 1960’s, which were precursors of the perfor-mance art recently on display in this year’s Performa festival in New York.

Other Artists’ Books in the Collection

Over the past several years the Art Library has been adding to its collec-tions various artists’ books like Hot Dream. These are housed, for conser-vation purposes, in the Special Col-lections Library as a discreet collec-tion. Included among these works are multiples (books published in multiple copy) by Ed Ruscha, Martin Wilner and Claes Oldenburg. We are also collect-ing singles or one-of-a-kind works, and these include a work entitled Star Death by the Mexican-born artist Dianna Frid. Artists’ books are, in the words of Walk-er Art Center librarian Rosemary Furtak, books by artists that “refuse to behave like books.” An excellent introduction to the subject can be found in David Jury’s Book art object (Berkeley: The Codex Foundation, 2007), or Joanna Drucker’s The Century of Artists’ Books (New York: Granary Books, 2004), both available in the Art Library.

Inaugural Issue

This is the first issue of what we hope will be a long run of the Art Library Newsletter. We intend to publish monthly during the academic year, bringing news about Art Library collec-tions, services, exhibitions, and events to the Vassar College Community. Submissions from faculty and students are welcome. If you have an article or news item you would like to submit, please email Thomas Hill, Art Librarian, at thhill@vassar.edu.

Jim Dine, Hot Dream, (52 Books)

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The Art Library Newsletter is issued by the Art Library at Vassar College. The newsletter is prepared by Thomas Hill and submissions or possibly topics for be sent to him (thhill@vassar.edu)