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Tobey C. Moss Gallery records on Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg
LSC.1964
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Tobey Moss Gallery records on Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg
Creator:
Tobey C. Moss (Gallery)
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1964
Physical Description:
3.6 Linear Feet
(9 boxes) and .157 GB (9 digital files)
Date (inclusive): 1910-2007
Abstract: Founded in 1978, the Tobey C. Moss gallery presents the work of Southern California artists, including Lorser Feitelson (1898-1978)
and Helen Lundeberg (1908-1999). The contents of this collection have been generated as a result of this representation and
the gallery's subsequent acquisition of material related to the careers of both artists. In addition to representation, Tobey
Moss was involved with the Feitelson Art Foundation and provided appraisals of its collections. This collection contains
primary materials related to these activities, reproductions of materials predating Moss's involvement, and some primary materials
belonging to Feitelson and Lundeberg, largely in the form of correspondence and photographs and photographic reproductions
across formats.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections
Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary 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.
[Identification of item], Tobey Moss Gallery records on Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg (Collection 1964). UCLA Library
Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
7092308
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Acquired from Tobey Moss in 2012.
Minimal processing by Gloria Gonzalez with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli, July 2012.
Folder-level processing by Lori Dedeyan in 2014 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from
Jillian Cuellar. Digital materials processed by LSC Archivists in 2018, under the supervision of Shira Peltzman and Jessica
Tai. The original structure, naming, and contents of the material have been maintained.
Processing of this collection was generously supported by Arcadia.
Founded in 1978, the Tobey C. Moss Gallery in Los Angeles, was established by Tobey Moss. As part of its emphasis on modern
and particularly Southern California artists, the Moss Gallery presents the work Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg. Feitelson
and Lundeberg are best known as founders of Post- Surrealism and hard edge painting. Moss first met the artists during the
early 1970s. Shortly after Feitelson's death in 1978, Moss opened the Gallery and began helping Lundeberg in organizing, classifying,
exhibiting, writing, advertising and publishing gallery announcements and brochures for both artists' work. In addition to
exhibiting the artists' work, Tobey Moss provided representation for Feitelson and Lundeberg, becoming involved with the Feitelson
Art Foundation. Moss assisted Lundeberg with her eventual estate for the following twenty years. Through these activities
and a close friendship, Moss organically acquired material related to the two artists and their work. The gallery continues
to show work by the two artists.
Lorser Feitelson, born in 1898, studied in New York and Paris from 1919- 1927, coming into contact with the modern art movements
there. He settled in Los Angeles in 1927 and taught at the Art Center School and at the Stickney Memorial School of Art, where
Helen Lundeberg was his student. In 1934 Feitelson and Lundeberg founded Post-Surrealism. From 1937 to 1943, he served as
area supervisor of murals for the New Deal's Federal Art Project. Feitelson also designed and managed the Stanley Rose art
gallery and gave many public lectures on topics concerning contemporary art, even creating and hosting a television program
in the late fifties. He and Lundeberg continued their artistic innovation as Hard Edge painters, a style which came to define
the Los Angeles aesthetic of the sixties. Feitelson exhibits and retrospectives have been hosted at institutions such as
the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the LA County Museum of Art, the LA Municipal
Art Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Tobey C. Moss Gallery. Feitelson died in 1978.
Helen Lundeberg was born in Chicago in 1908 and moved with her family to Pasadena in 1912. As a student at the Stickney Memorial
School of Art, she was taught by Lorser Feitelson, who would become her lifelong collaborator and partner. Their joint accomplishments
have been detailed above. Her contributions to art have often been framed within this context of partnership, but she is
an artist in her own right. Throughout the thirties, Lundeberg worked as an exhibiting artist and muralist for the Federal
Arts Project; her History of Transportation mural in Inglewood was restored in 2007 through a grant from the Getty Foundation.
Lundeberg continued her practice up through the 1980s, and her works are included in the permanent collections of the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, the Norton Simon Museum, the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and numerous other public and private collections. Lundeberg died in 1999. Alternative
rock group Sonic Youth paid tribute to her in their 2006 song, "Helen Lundeberg."
Most of these materials pertain to the function of the Tobey C. Moss gallery in managing the careers of Feitelson and Lundeberg,
in the 1980s and onward. Materials relating to the artists' involvement in the Post- Surrealist and Hard Edge movements are
mostly reproductions; however, Feitelson's original notes and correspondence from the 1930s- 40s are included. These materials
have been generated, reproduced, or compiled by Tobey Moss. They include correspondence, photographs, exhibition records
and ephemera dating from the 1920s onward, reproductions of artwork across various photographic formats, gallery records,
documentation pertaining to the administration of the Feitelson Art Foundation and its collections, articles, publications,
and other press materials.
This collection has been arranged in the following series and subseries:
- Series 1: Lorser Feitelson materials, 1924-2004
- Subseries 1.1: Exhibitions, 1924-2001
- Subseries 1.2: Professional Career, 1931- 2004
- Series 2: Helen Lundeberg materials, 1931-2007
- Subseries 2.1: Exhibitions,1931-2003
- Subseries 2.2: Professional Career, 1931-2007
- Series 3: Joint materials, 1910- 2005
- Subseries 3.1: Exhibitions, 1934- 2003
- Subseries 3.2: Publications and Images, 1910- 2005
- Subseries 3.3: Foundation and Art Collections, 1960- 2000
- Series 4: Tobey Moss correspondence & gallery records, 1976- 2004
Born-digital materials are integrated into Subseries 3.1 based on content. The original order of the files has been retained.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS DIGITAL MATERIALS: Access to WordPerfect files in their original format is unavailable due to lack of
required software. Alternate viewing arrangements may be available. All requests to access special collections materials must
be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg papers circa 1890s-2002, (bulk 1919-1999) at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives.
Art, American -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century.
Feitelson, Lorser, 1898-1978
Lundeberg, Helen, 1908-1999
Feitelson Art Foundation -- Archives.