Finding aid for the David Lamelas papers, 1964-1997
Finding aid prepared by Jennifer Osorio.
Descriptive Summary
Title: David Lamelas papers
Date (inclusive): 1964-1997
Number: 2005.M.12
Creator/Collector:
Lamelas, David, 1946-
Physical Description:
4.5 linear feet
(5 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The personal and professional papers of Argentinean sculptor and filmmaker David Lamelas provide an overview of Lamelas's
artistic practices and the development of his work from sculpture to architecture, film, and conceptual installations. Drawings,
sketches, notes, plans, photographs, correspondence, sketchbooks, and other papers produced or collected by Lamelas document
selected work from his early period in Buenos Aires, through his projects in Europe and North America and his latest work
in the 1990s.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Language: Collection material is in English and Spanish.
Biographical/Historical Note
Argentinian artist David Lamelas is one of the pioneers of Conceptual Art. The son of Spanish immigrants, Lamelas was born
in Buenos Aires in 1946 (or 1944?). While in his teens, he studied art at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, with an early
focus on sculpture; he began exhibiting his work in Buenos Aires around this time. At the age of 21, he represented Argentina
at the 1967 Bienal Internacional de Sáo Paulo, with a work of architectural intervention, Dos Espacios Modificados (Two Modified
Spaces). That same year, Lamelas created his important installation, Situación de tiempo (Time situation), in Buenos Aires.
He represented Argentina at the XX Venice Biennale with the installation piece "Office of Information about the Vietnam War
at Three Levels: The Visual Image Text, and Audio."
In 1968 Lamelas left Argentina for London, where he studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art. During his time at St.
Martins he developed an interest in film. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s Lamelas continued to work and exhibit in Europe.
He was a pioneer in the radical repositioning of sculpture at this time, using new materials and modes of production. Lamelas
moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and currently makes his home in Berlin. He has continued to make films and videos, including
works such as "Film Script," "To Pour Milk Into a Glass," and "The Dictator." Among his better known non-film works are "The
Other Side/El Otro Lado," an installation project that was part of InSITE97 binational exhibition of art in public places,
and "Publication," a book as art exhibition.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
David Lamelas papers, 1964-1997. The Getty Research Insititute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2005.M.12
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2005m12
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2005.
Processing History
Jennifer Osorio processed and arranged the archive in March 2006, under the supervision of Jocelyn Gibbs.
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers of David Lamelas primarily comprise preparatory notes, sketches and drawings for installation and film works from
the period after he left Argentina in 1964 to 1997, when he was living in Los Angeles. The archive also contains a number
of photographs and negatives (including some personal images), manuscripts of film scripts, correspondence, and assorted ephemera
such as gallery invitations and publicity postcards. The archive includes several small journals that contain sketches and
notes, and writings on a variety of topics.
The sketches, drawings and notes give particular insight into the working processes involved in the creation of highly conceptual
art in a variety of mediums. The collection provides a portrait of his working processes and the development of his work from
sculpture to architecture, film, and conceptual installations. This fundamental period of Lamelas's artistic practice became
the basis of his future work, for which he has received critical acclaim.
Arrangement note
Arranged in 8 series:
Series I. Sculptural and installation works, 1960-2004;
Series II. Films, 1969-2004;
Series III. Textual works, ca. 1970;
Series IV. Proposals and notes for unrealized works, undated;
Series V. Correspondence, 1956-1977;
Series VI. Personal documents and writings, 1967-1994;
Series VII. Photographic materials, 1944-1997;
Series VIII. Printed matter, 1967-1989
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Names
Lamelas, David, 1946-
Subjects - Corporate Bodies
Bienal Internacional de São Paulo
Centro de Artes Visuales (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)
Subjects - Topics
Art--Modern--20th century
Artists--Latin American
Cinematography, Abstract
Conceptual Art
Experimental Films--Argentina
Installations (Art)
Subjects - Titles
David Lamelas: fifteen years: October 1978, Center of Art and Communication.
Genres and Forms of Material
Correspondence
Drawings (visual works)
Film stills
Photographic prints
Photographs, Original
Posters--20th century
Screenplays
Sketchbooks--20th Century
Storyboards
Contributors
Bienal Internacional de São Paulo
Centro de Artes Visuales (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)
Series I.
Sculptural and installation works
1960-2004
Physical Description:
.2 linear feet 11 folders
Scope and Content Note
Series comprises preparatory materials, including notes, drawings and sketches, and correspondence, for sculpture and installation
pieces.
Box 1, Folder 1
"A study of relationships between inner and outer space"
1960s
Physical Description:
10.0 items
Box 1, Folder 2
"A study of relationships between inner and outer space," in Spanish
1960s
Physical Description:
12.0 items
Box 1, Folder 3
"Office of information about the Vietnam War at three levels: the visual image, text, and audio" and plans for alternate versions
of the "Newsroom"
1968
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 1, Folder 4
Garden project, Christ Church College, Oxford
1968
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 1, Folder 5
InSITE project
1997
Physical Description:
15.0 items
Box 1, Folder 6
"Analysis of elements by which the massive consumption of information takes place"
1968
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 1, Folder 7
Site-specific installation: notes and sketches, plus two silver foil cut-outs
undated
Physical Description:
16.0 items
Box 1, Folder 8
Site-specific installations
undated
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Box 1, Folder 9-11
Sculptural/installation projects: sketches and drawings
undated
Physical Description:
24.0 items
Box 4*, Folder 1-2
Site-specific installations: sketches and drawings
undated
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Series II.
Films
1969-2004
Physical Description:
.25 linear feet 13 folders
Scope and Content Note
Notes, drawings and sketches, scripts, and other preparatory materials document Lamelas's film making.
Box 1, Folder 12
"Time as Activity"
1969
Physical Description:
16.0 items
Box 1, Folder 13
"People and Time"
1969
Physical Description:
6.0 items
Box 1, Folder 14
"A new dimension of time" reading by Jorge Luis Borges from film "A new refutation of time"
1970
Physical Description:
5.0 items
Box 1, Folder 15
"Film 18 Paris IV"
1970
Physical Description:
13.0 items
Box 5*, Folder 6
"Film 18 Paris IV"
1970
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 1, Folder 16
"Interview" with Marguerite Duras
1970
Physical Description:
3.0 items
Box 1, Folder 17
"Cumulative Script"
1971
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Box 1, Folder 18
"To pour milk into a glass"
1972
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 1, Folder 19
"The manipulation of meaning"
1972
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 1, Folder 20
"Film Script"
1972-1975
Physical Description:
16.0 items
Box 1, Folder 21
"The Violent Tapes," LA version, early steps manuscript
1975
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 1, Folder 22
"The Desert People" and notes for another film, unknown title
1985
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Box 1, Folder 23
"The Dictator" and "The Dictator Returns"
1985
Physical Description:
11.0 items
Box 1, Folder 24
"L'effet: Ecrans"
2004
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Series III.
Textual works
ca. 1970
Physical Description:
.1 linear feet 3 folders
Scope and Content Note
Materials relate to Lamelas's "Publication" of 1970 and a project for a book.
Box 2, Folder 1
"Publication"
1970
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 2, Folder 1
"Publication"
1970
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 5*, Folder 2-3
"Publication": uncut sheets, annotated
1970
Physical Description:
43.0 items
Box 2, Folder 3
Project for a book
undated
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Series IV.
Proposals and notes for unrealized works
undated
Physical Description:
.1 linear feet 3 folders
Scope and Content Note
Drawings, notes, written proposals for unrealised works. One drawings is oversize.
Box 2, Folder 4-6
Proposals, notes, sketches, drawings
undated
Physical Description:
36.0 items
Box 5*, Folder 4
Oversized drawing for unrealized work
undated
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Series V.
Correspondence
1956-1977
Physical Description:
5.0 folder(s)
.15 linear feet
Scope and Content Note
33 letters and telegrams to Lamelas and 30 draft letters from Lamelas.
Box 2, Folder 7
Letters and telegrams to David Lamelas from others
1956-1971
Physical Description:
13.0 items
Box 2, Folder 8
Letters to David Lamelas from others
1972-1977
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 2, Folder 9
Letters to David Lamelas from others
undated
Physical Description:
12.0 items
Scope and Content Note
Plus 6 empty envelopes.
Box 2, Folder 10
Drafts of letters from Lamelas to others
ca. 1969
Physical Description:
13.0 items
Box 2, Folder 11
Drafts of letters from Lamelas to others
undated
Physical Description:
17.0 items
Series VI.
Personal documents and writings
1967-1994
Physical Description:
.2 linear feet 9 folders
Scope and Content Note
Includes school materials (admission papers, English lessons) from Lamelas's time in London, and 4 sketchbooks (1988-1994).
Series also contains writings by and about Lamelas in the form of lecture notes, interview transcripts, and essays for catalogues.
Box 2, Folder 12
Saint Martin's School of Art admission documents
1968
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 2, Folder 13
Spiral-bound notebook, notes for English lessons in London
ca. 1977
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 2, Folder 14
Small accordion-style sketch book
1988
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 2, Folder 15
Small book with sketches and addresses
1991
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 2, Folder 16
Small fabric-covered sketch book
1991-1993
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 2, Folder 17
Small fabric-covered sketch book
1994
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Scope and Content Note
with loose inserts (2 photographs, one invitation, two post-it notes)
Box 2, Folder 18-20
Writings by and about Lamelas
1967-1972
Physical Description:
31.0 items
Scope and Content Note
Lecture notes, interview transcripts, exhibition catalog notes.
Box 2, Folder 18
1967?
Physical Description:
9.0 items
Box 2, Folder 19
ca. 1968-1970
Physical Description:
11.0 items
Box 2, Folder 20
1972?
Physical Description:
12.0 items
Box 2, Folder 21
Writings by and about Lamelas: lecture notes, interview transcripts, personal notes
undated
Physical Description:
12.0 items
Series VII.
Photographic materials
1944-1997
Physical Description:
14.0 folder(s)
Scope and Content Note
Photographs of family and friends (circa 1944-1960) and photographs of art works, circa 1964-1997.
Box 3, Folder 1
Personal family photographs
ca. 1944-1960
Physical Description:
3.0 items
Box 3, Folder 2
"Time as Activity" and "Signaling of 3 objects"
1966-1969
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 3, Folder 3
Negatives and contact prints for "Lamelas" poster, other works
1964-1966
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 3, Folder 4
"Situacion del Tiempo"
1967
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 3, Folder 5-6
Personal snapshots from Sao Paolo Biennale
1967
Physical Description:
22.0 items
Box 3, Folder 7
"Time '70-71": photographs and contact sheets
1970-1971
Physical Description:
5.0 items
Box 3, Folder 8
Portraits of David Lamelas in Buenos Aires
1960s
Physical Description:
10.0 items
Box 3, Folder 9-10
"The Dictator": photographs
1985
Physical Description:
25.0 items
Box 3, Folder 11
"Manila Run": photographs, contact sheets, negatives
1987
Physical Description:
17.0 items
Box 3, Folder 12
"Gun": photographs
1994
Physical Description:
6.0 items
Box 3, Folder 13
"Viviendas," "Marseille + House": photographs, contact prints, and negatives
1995-1996
Physical Description:
8.0 items
Box 5*, Folder 1
"Encore Bruxelles Show": negatives and contact prints
1997
Physical Description:
5.0 items
Box 3, Folder 14
Black & white photographs of Lamelas
undated
Physical Description:
17.0 items
Series VIII.
Printed matter
1967-1989
Physical Description:
0.25 linear feet
14 folders
Scope and Content Note
Series contains publicity for Lamelas's exhibitions and clippings about his work. Also included are invitations and gallery
announcements for exhibits by other artists.
Box 3, Folder 15
Publicity materials for Lamelas's exhibitions
1970-1989
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Box 3, Folder 16
Invitations and announcements for exhibitions by others
ca. 1969-1972
Physical Description:
7.0 items
Box 4*, Folder 3
Invitations and announcements for exhibitions by others
ca. 1967
Physical Description:
2.0 items
Box 3, Folder 17
Spanish-language newspaper clippings
undated
Physical Description:
3.0 items
Box 5*, Folder 5
Portugese-language newspaper clipping about the IX Sao Paolo Biennale
1967
Physical Description:
1.0 item
Box 3, Folder 18
"David Lamelas fifteen years" from the Center of Art and Communication
1978
Physical Description:
1.0 item
