Contributing Institution: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Title: Marion Kronfeld Collection

Identifier/Call Number: MS.2019.011

Physical Description: 5 boxes

Date (inclusive): 1912-1999

Abstract: Marion Kronfeld (1912- 2004) was an American artist based in Los Angeles, CA. She worked primarily with printmaking and lithography techniques, and was an avid diarist. Her sketchbooks include landscapes, portraits, and rough sketches in pen and ink, pencil, pastels, colored pencils, and watercolors. Many of the sketchbooks also have handwritten musings, shopping lists, names and contact information, and other notes in them. Marion's diaries document her life, marriage, travels, philosophical and political reflections, and artistic process.

Language of Material: English .

The collection consists of 17 notebooks and sketchbooks of varying sizes, 1 baby book, and 1 small booklet bound with staples, created by or related to artist Marion Campbell Kronfeld. Materials include 11 of Kronfeld's sketchbooks, a bound copy of a short story written and illustrated by Marion titled "Adventures of the Pruitts at Fenimore," five of her handwritten diaries (as well as a diary written by Marion's husband Alfred Kronfeld), and Marion's baby book. Some of the items contain laid-in ephemera. Additional correspondence from Marion to friend and colleague Vance Gerry is also included here, most of which is written by Marion on pochoir cards designed by her.

Marion McDonald Campbell Kronfeld was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 12, 1912. After studying at the Cleveland Institute of Art, she married Alfred Kronfeld (1915- 1996) in 1935, and they toured Europe together after Marion won a scholarship to study abroad. Marion also studied printmaking, particularly lithography, at the National Academy and the New School for Social Research, both in New York. After her studies in New York, she and Alfred moved to Pasadena, where he became the longtime owner of The Campus Bookstore. In 1954, Marion traveled to Mexico to study printmaking and materials such as lacquers with José Gutierrez. Her published illustrations were primarily for works from the Plantin Press in Los Angeles - most notably "Designs Cut for Plantin Press Calendars 1941-1946: With Some Additional Designs" and "Early American Inebrietatis" in 1964. She was also accomplished with various forms of printmaking, including woodcut, linocut, and lithography. Some of Marion's more political work was included in an exhibit titled "You Say You Want a Revolution" at Galerie St. Etienne, New York, in 2016-17. Her diaries in this collection document her daily life, particularly her dreams and philosophical interests, as well as musings on and anxieties around her artwork. Marion died in Los Angeles in 2004.

This collection is open for research.

Series 1: Clark Library purchase, Johnson Rare Books, 2019 (accession MS.2019.011) Series 2: Clark Library purchase, Jeff Weber Rare Books, 2009 (accession MS.2009.007)

This collection was physically processed and described in 2019 by Megan Riley. Materials from accession MS.2009.007 (correspondence to Vance Gerry) was processed and described in 2022 by Rebecca Fenning Marschall.