Tuchman (Maurice) papers, 1949-1998, undated

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Summary

Title:
Maurice Tuchman papers
Subtitle:
1949-1998, undated
Dates:
1949-1998, undated
Creators:
Ruscha, Edward, Cotton, Paul, 1939-, Byars, James Lee, Weiner, Lawrence, Dine, Jim, 1935-, Johns, Jasper, 1930-, Guston, Philip, 1913-1980, Klüver, Billy, 1927-2004, Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-, Hammersley, Frederick, 1919-2009, Lippard, Lucy R., Christo, 1935-, Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-1996, Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009, Man Ray, 1890-1976, Tuchman, Maurice, Kienholz, Edward, 1927-1994, Kowalski, Piotr, 1927-2004, Tinguely, Jean, 1925-1991, Restany, Pierre, Arikha, Avigdor, 1929-2010, Hockney, David, Kitaj, R. B., LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007, and Baldessari, John, 1931-
Abstract:
Maurice Tuchman (Jacksonville, Florida, 1936) is one of the most important curators to have emerged from Los Angeles, and his papers form a significant resource for the study of Southern California art history from the early 1960s to the 1990s. The archive documents many of Tuchman's projects both at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where he served as curator from 1964 to 1994, an those done outside the institution as a scholar and art consultant. His professional files include most notably his appointment books from 1965 to 1994, and the photographs he took during the installation of Art and Technology (1971). A large section of personal correspondence, photographs and miscellaneous papers is also present, together with some audiovisual materials.
Extent:
34.8 Linear Feet (70 boxes, 7 flatfiles)
Language:
Collection material is in English.
Preferred citation:

Maurice Tuchman papers, 1949-1998, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2015.M.19.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2015m19

Background

Scope and content:

Maurice Tuchman's archive documents many of his projects both at LACMA, where he served as curator from 1964 to 1994, and those done outside the institution, as a scholar and art consultant.

Series I. Personal papers includes correspondence from 1970 to 1997, photographs mainly of trips, parties and other social gatherings, and different groupings of personal files, bearing no clear distinction between strictly private matters and the professional activities Tuchman was conducting outside of LACMA. A few family and childhood souvenirs are also present in the series.

Series II. Professional files includes the complete collection of Tuchman's appointment books from 1965 to 1994; miscellaneous material on artists and other art professionals including posters and other ephemera, photographs and artworks; press clippings mostly documenting Tuchman's lawsuit against LACMA; and a fragmentary collection of project and research files comprising mostly photographs and ephemera.

Series III. contains audiovisual materials, including recordings of Tuchman's conversations and lectures, documentaries on artists and exhibitions, video art, and other materials.

Most of the documents were originally loose and have been ordered by the archivist. Original arrangement has been retained whenever the material has been found organized in folders or binders.

Biographical / historical:

Maurice Tuchman was born in 1936 in Jacksonville, Florida, to a Jewish Polish immigrant family who raised him in the Bronx. He received his BA from the City College of New York, and then enrolled in the graduate art history program at Columbia University to study under Meyer Schapiro, counting William Rubin, Donald Judd, and Barbara Rose as fellow students. After receiving his master's degree, he spent some time in Berlin, and on his return joined the Guggenheim Museum as a research fellow under director Thomas Messer. In 1964 he became LACMA's first full-time curator of modern art.At LACMA he significantly helped to define the reputation of the museum, with such significant exhibitions as Edward Kienholz (1966); American Sculpture of the Sixties (1967); Art and Technology (1971); Seven Artists in Israel, 1948-1978 (1978, with Stephanie Barron); The Avant-Garde in Russia 1910-1930: New Perspectives (1980, with Stephanie Barron); Art in Los Angeles: Seventeen Artists in the Sixties (1981); The Spiritual in Art : Abstract Painting 1890-1985 (1986); and Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art (1992, with Carol Eliel). His tenure was occasionally marked by controversy, including the charge of sexism that accompanied Art and Technology and Art in Los Angeles, both of which were criticized and protested for their lineup of male artists.In addition to his work at the museum, Tuchman also prepared the catalogue raisonné for Chaim Soutine (Köln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1993).In 1993, the recently-appointed director, Michael Schapiro, attempted to move Tuchman to a newly created position as curator of twentieth-century drawings, after failing to convince him to accept early retirement. A lawsuit by Tuchman reinstated him to his former position, though he transitioned to senior curator emeritus, and then retired by the end of the following year.

This note is drawn from a text compiled by John Tain.

Sources consulted:

Kienholz, Edward, "Maurice Tuchman: Bronx Cowboy & Super Curator," Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1967.

Wilson, William, "Maurice Tuchman: Still the Enfant Terrible after 25 Years," Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1989.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Maurice Tuchman in 2015.
Processing information:

Processed by Pietro Rigolo in 2016.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in three series: Series I. Personal papers, 1949-1997, undated; Series II. Professional files, 1964-1998, undated; Series III. Audiovisual materials, 1964, 1969, 1978, 1984-1993, undated.

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.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Pietro Rigolo
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-04-01 11:06:46 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The archive is open for use by qualified researchers with the following exceptions: audiovisual materials and data disks are unavailable until reformatted.Box 63 is sealed until 2057 due to privacy issues.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Maurice Tuchman papers, 1949-1998, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2015.M.19.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2015m19

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website