In the American Grain: Dove, Hartley, Marin, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz exhibition records

The 1995 exhibition In The American Grain: Dove, Hartley, Marin, and Stieglitz was organized by Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Senior Curator at The Phillips Collection. The exhibition brought together examples of the work of four major American modernists who were championed by Stieglitz and collected by Duncan Phillips. According to Director Charlie Moffett the exhibition provided, “a special view of a critical phase in the development of American Modernism.”

These curatorial records were collected and created in the course of research, planning, and executing the exhibition and its catalogue. Some records in the series refer to the exhibition by different names, suggesting a variety of proposed titles beginning with: Duncan Phillips and Painters of the American Scene in 1991; Duncan Phillips Collects: The Stieglitz Circle in 1992; and finally In The American Grain by 1993. In The American Grain was exhibited at The Phillips Collection from September 23, 1995 through December 31, 1995. The exhibition traveled to the Seattle Art Museum from February 8, 1996 through May 5, 1996; The Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan from June 8, 1996 through July 14, 1996; The Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan from July 20, 1996 through August 8, 1996; The Chiba Municipal Museum of Art, Japan from August 24, 1996 through September 23, 1996; and the Portland Art Museum from October 1996 through January 1997.

The primary creators of the catalogue and exhibition planning records in this collection were Beth Turner, Senior Curator, and Leigh Weisblat, Assistant Curator for Research. Some records were also created by Charlie Moffett, Director of the Phillips Collection.

This collection consists of the research, catalogue, and exhibition planning files of the curators interfiled. These records consist of research materials, catalogue, and exhibition planning and execution documents such as financial records, lender files, schedules and checklists.

A significant portion of research for this exhibition involved examining and photocopying a large body of correspondence at Yale University's Beinecke Library. The correspondence ranges from 1911 to 1964, the bulk of which dates from the 1920s and the 1930s. Significant and frequent correspondents include Alfred Stieglitz, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Duncan Phillips. Secondary source research materials include of photocopies of newspaper articles, essays, reviews, and portions of books written about artists, locations, and themes in American painting. Object research files include images of works in the exhibition and descriptions. The catalogue series contains correspondence with the publisher, internal correspondence, requests for permission to reproduce research, and the contract with Counterpoint, publisher of the exhibition catalogue. Exhibition records include preliminary exhibition proposals, venue correspondence, lender files, grant applications, budget information as well as installation records.