Barton (Rick) drawings and paintings, circa 1956-1964

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Summary

Title:
Rick Barton drawings and paintings
Dates:
circa 1956-1964
Creators:
Evans, Henry Herman and Barton, Rick
Abstract:
Rick Barton was a gay Beat artist who lived in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s. The collection is primarily comprised of drawings created by Barton, chiefly in pen and ink, in the late 1950s to early 1960s.
Extent:
11.25 linear feet (3 flat boxes, 3 oversize flat boxes, 1 map folder)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Rick Barton drawings and paintings (Collection 2374). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection is comprised of works of art on paper by artist Rick Barton. The drawings were primarily done in pen and ink, though, at least three of them, drawn in prison, appear to have been drawn in charcoal with burnt wood matches. Many of the drawings were published by the Peregrine Press in the Press's limited edition books and print portfolios.

Biographical / historical:

Rick Barton was born in New York in 1928. He was an artist who claimed to have conducted a self-guided education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. While serving in the U.S. Navy in 1947, he traveled to China where he observed traditional line painting. He was most prolific in the gay San Francisco Beat subculture of the 1950s and 1960s. There he garnered a group of disciples who were drawn to his unique artistic style, which evidences an array of influences, including Chinese line painting, Renaissance woodcut illustrations, and Cubism. Barton drew his surroundings constantly, and was most attracted to subjects such as rooms, people, hands, cafés, churches and botanicals, which were represented in detailed and imagined perspectives. While he primarily lived in San Francisco, Barton spent time in Los Angeles, drawing spaces like Olvera Street, Bunker Hill, and other Los Angeles environs. Some of his drawings were printed by Henry Evans, who ran the Peregrine Press in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s, and who supported Barton by purchasing what is now the largest extant collection of his original drawings throughout those years. Barton passed in 1992.

Sources: The Morgan Library & Museum Associate Curator of Modern & Contempory Drawings Rachel Federman and "Rick Barton," The Morgan Library & Museum, accessed October 2019, https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/403453.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Henry Evans, 1971.
Custodial history:

Drawings were purchased from the artist by Henry Evans, printmaker and owner of Peregrine Press.

Processing information:

Processed by Hannah Moshier, under the supervision of Jasmine Jones, 2019. Collection description created by Genie Guerard and Jasmine Jones, 2019.

These materials were originally a part of the Collection of original works of art on paper (LSC.0099). Given the breadth and depth of drawings by Barton in Collection 0099, it was determined and recommended by LSC curator, Genie Guerard, in 2018 that the Rick Barton drawings comprise their own collection.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in chronological order.

Physical location:
Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Physical facet:
(775 drawings, 4 paintings)
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Hannah Moshier and Jasmine Jones, 2019.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-05-17 13:31:07 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Rick Barton drawings and paintings (Collection 2374). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website