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.
 

Ader, Bas Jan, 1975-2010

box 1, folder 1

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

box 9, item D1

Compact disc of photographs

 

Allen, Terry, 1974-1977, undated

box 1, folder 2-4

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and color photographs

box 9, item D2

Compact disc of photographs

flatfile 1**

Posters (2)

 

Asher, Michael, 1974-1977

box 1, folder 5

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Buren, Daniel, 1974-1977

box 1, folder 6-7

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Calloway, Loren, 1975-1977

box 2, folder 1

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Copley, Billy, 1975-1977, undated

box 2, folder 2-3

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Dibbets, Jan, 1975-1977

box 2, folder 4

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Fulton, Hamish, 1973-1977

box 2, folder 5

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides and negatives

 

Horton, Lyn, 1974-1975

box 2, folder 7

Mixed materials

box 6

Slides and negatives

 

Korman, Harriet, 1973-1977

box 2, folder 8

Mixed materials

box 6

Slides and negatives

 

Joseph Kosuth, 1974-1977

box 2, folder 9-10

Mixed materials

box 6

Slides and negatives

 

Lamelas, David, 1973-2006

box 3, folder 1

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides and negatives

 

Leavitt, William, 1969-1976

box 3, folder 3

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides and negatives

 

Le Va, Barry, 1974-1977

box 3, folder 4-5

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides and negatives

 

Le Witt, Sol, 1975-1977, undated

box 3, folder 6-7

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides and negatives

 

Lodato, Peter, 1975-1977, undated

box 3, folder 8

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides

 

McCollum, Allan, 1973-1977, undated

box 3, folder 9-10

Mixed materials

box 7

Slides and negatives

box 8

On Kawara, 1977

 

Ruppersberg, Allen, 1974-1976

box 3, folder 11

Mixed materials

box 8

Color photograph

 

Salle, David, 1977, undated

box 3, folder 12

Mixed materials

box 8

Slides and negatives

 

Sorenson, Don, 1974-1976

box 4, folder 1

Mixed materials,

box 8

Slides and negatives

box 4, folder 2

Train, Michael, 1973

 

Van Elke, Ger, 1973-1977

box 4, folder 3

Mixed materials

box 8

Color photographs and negatives

box 4, folder 5

Wegman, William, undated

 

Weiner, Lawrence, 1974-1977

board 4, folder 6

Mixed materials

box 8

Slides and negatives

 

Wells, Lynton, 1975-1976

box 4, folder 7

Mixed materials

box 8

Slides and negatives

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

box 2, folder 6

Mixed materials

box 5

Slides

box 3, folder 2

Lawler, Louise, 1978

 

Schley, Van and Billy Adler, 1974, undated

box 4, folder 4

Mixed materials

box 8

Color photograph

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