Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Liberman (Alexander) Photography Archive
2000.R.19
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Alexander Liberman photography archive
Date (inclusive): 1911-1998
Number: 2000.R.19
Creator/Collector:
Liberman, Alexander
Physical Description:
337 Linear Feet
(405 boxes, 4 flat file folders, 19 framed items)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The archive contains photographs by
Alexander Liberman, Russian-born photographer, art director of Vogue magazine, and editorial director of Condé Nast publications.
Included in
the collection are approximately 8,000 photographic prints, 50,000 transparencies, 90,000
negatives, 38 books of contact prints, and prints mounted for exhibition. The predominant
subjects are artists and other cultural figures, and European historical sites. Also
included are personal photographs of family and friends.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this
collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language: Collection material is in
English
Biographical / Historical Note
Russian-born artist Alexander Liberman was the influential art director of Vogue magazine
from 1943 to 1962, then editorial director of Condé Nast publications until 1994. As an
artist, Liberman worked in paint, large-scale sculpture, and photography. He photographed
contemporary artists and other cultural figures, friends, family, and historical sites from
about 1925 until 1998. He published several books of his photographs, including
The Artist in His Studio (1960, 1988),
Campodiglio: Michelangelo's Roman Capitol (1994), and
Then: Photographs 1925-1995 (1995).
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Alexander Liberman photography archive, 1911-1998, The Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles, Accession no. 2000.R.19.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2000r19
Gift of the Alexander Liberman estate, 2000.
Preliminary processing by Alan Tomlinson under the supervision of Jocelyn Gibbs. Two boxes
of photographic material were received in 2003, 2004. In 2010 Emmabeth Nanol researched the
dates for images in Series II.A and Series VI.A and added them to the finding aid, along
with the number of unique images in each folder. In 2012, Emmabeth Nanol rearranged the
finding aid under the supervision of Andra Darlington. Box 47A is sealed for conservation
purposes.
Selected photographs of artists and personalities were digitized between 2011-2012 with
support from ARTstor.
Connect to selected digitized
images from Series I. Artists and personalities.
Helen Frankenthaler transparencies from Series I. Artists and personalities were digitized
in 2017.
Connect to digitized
images
.
Alexander Liberman papers, 1953-1997, undated (accession number 2003.M.30).
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains photographs by Alexander Liberman from 1925 to 1998, including
approximately 8,000 photographic prints, 50,000 transparencies, 90,000 negatives, 38 books
of contact sheets, and loose prints mounted on foam core. The subjects of the photographs
fall primarily into two groups: contemporary artists and cultural figures, and European
historical sites. The collection documents over 242 major European and American artists,
such as Braque, Cezanne, Dali, de Kooning, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Matisse,
Newman, Picasso, Rauschenberg, and Rothko. Among the images are portraits of the artists at
work or in their studios, photographs of their work in progress, and documentation of
finished artworks. A smaller group of photographs documenting historical and architectural
sites focuses on Greece, France, Italy, and Spain. Some photographs depict Liberman's family
and friends. Production materials for some of his photographic books are included, as are
images for Barbara Rose's book on Liberman. Also present are photographs by other
photographers, some dating as early as 1911.
Arranged in six series:
.Series I. Artists and personalities, 1911-1995, undated;
Series II. Publications,
circa 1925-1998;
Series III. Prints in
edition for exhibition, circa 1994-1996;
Series IV. Benrubi
returns, circa 1940-1995;
Series V. Places,
1960-1972, undated;
Series VI. Negatives,
contact prints and scrapbooks, 1936-1972, undated
Kandinsky, Wassily
Liberman, Alexander
Matisse, Henri
Ernst, Max
Giacometti, Alberto
Duchamp, Marcel
Picasso, Pablo
Rothko, Mark
Newman, Barnett
De Kooning, Willem
Cézanne, Paul
Braque, Georges
Rauschenberg, Robert
Painters -- Portraits
Celebrities -- Portraits
Sculptors -- Portraits
Portrait photography
Art, Modern -- 20th century
Artists' studios
Artists -- Portraits
Rome (Italy) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- Pictorial
works
Capitoline Hill (Italy) -- Pictorial works
The artist in his studio Campodiglio : Michelangelo's Roman capitol Then : photographs 1925-1995
Transparencies
Photographs, Original
Photographic prints
Negatives (Photographs)
Liberman, Alexander