Claire Copley Gallery records 2014.M.2
Annette Leddy
Special Collections
2014
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Claire Copley Gallery records
Creator:
Claire Copley Gallery
Creator:
Allen, Terry, 1943-
Creator:
Copley, Claire
Creator:
Buren, Daniel
Creator:
Kosuth, Joseph
Creator:
Asher, Michael
Creator:
Leavitt, William
Identifier/Call Number: 2014.M.2
Physical Description:
9 Linear Feet
(13 boxes, 1 flatfile folder)
Date (inclusive): 1968-2011, bulk 1973-1977
Date (bulk): 1973-1977
Abstract: The records of one of the first Los Angeles galleries to show the work of conceptual artists such as Terry Allen, Michael
Asher, Daniel Buren, Joseph Kosuth, and William Leavitt. The collection includes artist files containing correspondence, ephemera,
and comprehensive photographic documentation of each exhibition.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English
Processing History
Processed and cataloged by Annette Leddy in 2014.
Preferred Citation
Claire Copley Gallery papers, 1968-2011 (bulk 1973-1977), The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2014.M.2
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2014m2
Publication Rights
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in three series: Series I. Gallery artists, 1969-2010; Series II. Other artists, 1969-1981; Series
III. Assorted, 1974-2011.
Acquisition Information
Acquired from Claire Copley in 2014.
Biographical/Historical Note
Claire Copley Gallery was one of the first Los Angeles art galleries to show some twenty artists now considered pioneers of
Conceptual Art, whose works now form parts of major museum collections around the world.
The daughter of artist, dealer, and collector William Copley, Claire Copley founded her own gallery to showcase the work of
emergent international artists of her generation, including Americans Michael Asher, Terry Allen, Joseph Kosuth, Allen Ruppersberg,
and William Leavitt; Europeans Jan Dibbets, Bas Jan Ader, Ger Van Elk, and Daniel Buren; the Japanese artist On Kawara; and
Argentine David Lamelas. The installations, done in collaboration with the artists, were innovative and elegant, as was the
related ephemera. Though in operation for a relatively short duration, the gallery was a key venue in the formation of the
Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the galleries of Eugenia Butler, Rolf Nelson, Nick Wilder, and Riko
Mizuno. It was one of three galleries profiled in the Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Sam Francis Gallery of the Crossroads
School in 2011 titled
She Accepts the Proposition: Women Gallerists and the Redefinition of Art in Los Angeles, 1967-1978.
Related Archival Materials
This collection relates to the William and Noma Copley Foundation records (accession no. 880403), in that Claire Copley is
the daughter of William Copley, and there is some overlap between the artists documented in the two archives.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection, comprised of artist files, with a small amount of material relating to gallery management and accounting,
offers a comprehensive view of the work of important conceptual artists in the first stage of their careers. The artist files
often contain professional yet friendly correspondence with Claire Copley regarding details of exhibition installation and
planning, theoretical discussions of the artwork, and personal news. Project proposals, sketches, clippings of reviews, and
announcements are often present. There is comprehensive and expert photographic coverage of each exhibition, and of each artwork
in a given installation, generally in three formats: black and white photographs, negatives, and slides, with the occasional
color print. Clippings reveal the lack of understanding that the exhibitions met with, a highlight of which was a police action
against a Daniel Buren exhibition that extended to the gallery exterior, an event for which there is also photo-documentation
in the archive.
The work of artists who were not represented by the gallery but whose work comprised part of the gallery's inventory or simply
part of the gallery's broader art context, such as Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and Bruce Nauman, appears generally in slides
in alphabetical sequence within the binders of slides and negatives; however, Louise Lawler, Gilbert & George, Schley and
Adler, and Duane Zaloudek have mixed materials folders as well. Ken Feingold is the only artist who showed in the gallery
who has no material in the archive.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Compact discs
Slides (photographs)
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles
Art, American -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Conceptual Art -- United States -- 20th century
Black-and-white photographs
Black-and-white negatives
Photographs, Original
Allen, Terry, 1943-
Asher, Michael
Buren, Daniel
Kosuth, Joseph
Leavitt, William
Gallery artists, Series I.
1969-2010, undated
Physical Description:
7.41 Linear Feet
(11 boxes, 1 flatfile folder)
Arrangement
Arranged in alphabetical order by the artists' last names.
Scope and Contents
Files contain correspondence, primarily between the artists and Claire Copley, announcements, project plans, installation
sketches, black and white photographs, slides, and occasional color photographs of exhibitions and individual works.
box 9, item D1
Compact disc of photographs
Allen, Terry,
1974-1977, undated
box 5
Slides and color photographs
box 9, item D2
Compact disc of photographs
Asher, Michael,
1974-1977
Calloway, Loren,
1975-1977
Copley, Billy,
1975-1977, undated
Fulton, Hamish,
1973-1977
Korman, Harriet,
1973-1977
Lamelas, David,
1973-2006
Leavitt, William,
1969-1976
Le Witt, Sol,
1975-1977, undated
Lodato, Peter,
1975-1977, undated
McCollum, Allan,
1973-1977, undated
Ruppersberg, Allen,
1974-1976
Salle, David,
1977, undated
box 8
Color photographs and negatives
Weiner, Lawrence,
1974-1977
box 11, box 12, box 13
Duplicate ephemera,
1974-1977
box 8
Unidentified negatives,
undated
Other artists, Series II.
1968-1981, undated
Physical Description:
0.5 Linear Feet
(4 folders; circa 75 slides)
Arrangement
Arranged within the alphabetical sequence of manuscripts or slides.
Scope and Contents
Material relating to the work of artists who were not part of the gallery's roster of artists but whose work comprised part
of the gallery's inventory or simply part of the gallery's broader art contex
flatfile 1**
Duchamp, Marcel,
1968
Scope and Contents
Special edition (mock)
New York Times commemorating the artist.
Gilbert & George,
1973-1974
Schley, Van and Billy Adler,
1974, undated
box 4, folder 8
Zaloudek, Duane
1981
Scope and Contents
An artist Copley wrote about after the gallery closed.
box 5, box 6, box 7, box 8
Assorted slides,
1968-1977, undated
Arrangement
In alphabetical order by artist's last name within the slide binders.
Scope and Contents
From one to twenty-seven slides of work by the following artists: John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Frederick Barthelme, Hilda
Becher, Larry Bell, Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, George Brecht, Chris Burden, Victor Burgin, Ian Burn, Christo, Hanne Darboven,
Walter DeMaria, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, Gilbert & George, Dan Graham, Han Haacke, Michael Heizer, Eva Hesse,
___Hines, Douglas Huebler, Robert Irwin, Janis Kounellis, Christine Kozlov, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Rauschenberg,
Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Keith Sonnier, Bernar Venet, Michael Walls, Doug Wheeler.
Assorted business files, Series III.
1974-2011, undated
Physical Description:
1.17 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Arrangement
Arranged in rough chronological order.
Scope and Contents
Material pertaining to the operation of the gallery and its closing.
box 4, folder 9-15
Mixed materials,
1974-2011, undated
Scope and Contents
Including inventories, sales records, stationary, and press releases from
She Accepts the Proposition.
box 8
Negatives of unidentified gallery event,
undated
box 9, item D3
Compact disc of gallery photographs,
undated
box 10
Wooden box used for filing negatives,
undated