Schardt (Alois) Papers and Photographs, 1917-1983, undated, bulk 1917-1956, 1917-1983, undated (bulk 1917-1956)

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Summary

Title:

Alois Schardt papers and photographs

Dates:

1917-1983, undated (bulk 1917-1956)

Creators:

Schardt, Alois J. (Alois Jakob), 1889-1955

Abstract:

This collection is comprised of photographs, negatives, lectures, transcripts, correspondences, and other ephemera documenting Alois Schardt's career as a German art historian and museum director before, during, and after World War II. After being forced from job at the National Gallery of Berlin in 1933, Schardt was censored by the Nazi party. He left for the United States in 1940 with his photographs. The bulk of this collection consists of photographs and negatives, primarily of Christian art and architecture. His photographs for publication can also be found in the collection. Also present are lectures in English, transcripts of Schardt's published and unpublished manuscripts, and personal and professional correspondence.

Extent:

6.5 Linear Feet (18 boxes)

Language:

Collection material is in German

Preferred citation:

Alois Schardt papers and photographs, 1917-1983, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 910172.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa910172

Background

Scope and content:

Schardt's papers document part of the Nazis' movement against Expressionist art in the 1930s. Included are approximately 30 photographs of galleries he had hung in the Kronprinzen-Palais and the Moritzburg Museum, and roughly 100 photographs of works by Expressionist artists such as Willi Baumeister, Paul Klee, and Wilhelm Lembruck. Some of these photographs, like that of Klee's Wintergarten, may be unique images of a now lost or destroyed work. The papers also contain correspondence related to his dismissal from the National Gallery Berlin, as well as manuscripts of his published and unpublished writing on many aspects of art history and art criticism. Also present is limited professional and personal correspondence up until his death in 1955, and a wide variety of photographs of Christian art and architecture (mainly German) from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.

Arrangement

Arranged in three series: , , .Series I. Correspondence and ephemeraSeries II. Writings and lecturesSeries III. Photographs and negatives

Biographical / historical:

Alois Schardt was a German art historian and museum director. He was already serving as director of the Moritzburg Museum in Halle in 1933 when he was appointed director of the National Gallery in Berlin, replacing Ludwig Justi, who was forced from his job by the Nazis. Schardt was dismissed within months, and his newly-hung galleries, like those of Justi before him, were not opened to the public. Later he was forbidden to teach at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, to speak in public, or to publish. He left for the United States in 1940, bringing some installation photographs with him.

Processing information:

Cataloging (brief) completed January 29, 1993 by JMD.

Cataloging (full) completed August 19, 1994 by JMD.

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

Indexed terms

Subjects:: National socialism and art
Christian art and symbolism -- Germany.
Art museum directors -- Germany.
Expressionism (Art) -- Germany.
Photographs, Original
Negatives -- 20th Century.

About this collection guide

Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2018-04-18 12:32:28 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.