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Erenberg (Sam) Papers
2012.M.52
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Sam Erenberg papers
Creator: Erenberg, Sam
Identifier/Call Number: 2012.M.52
Physical Description: 17 Linear Feet(24 boxes, 2 flatfile folders) and computer media (676 GB [109 files])
Date (inclusive): 1965-2012
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 .
Abstract: The papers highlight Erenberg's career as a painter, bookmaker, filmmaker, and installation and performance artist. The archive
includes correspondence, photographs, and project files documenting Erenberg's exhibition history; relations with artists,
curators, and gallerists; and the development of various projects including experimental films, installations, and artists'
books.
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Processed by Sheila Prospero under the supervision of Kit Messick in July 2014 and from January to June 2015.
One videotape was added to the collection in 2018; audiovisual materials are unavailable until reformatted.
Digital materials were processed by Laura Schroffel in 2017. Files require further processing and can be requested by contacting
reference.
Gift of Sam Erenberg. Acquired in 2012.
Open for use by qualified researchers, except audiovisual materials, which are unavailable until reformatted, and materials
in Box 24, which are sealed until 2066.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Sam Erenberg papers, 1965-2012, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2012.M.52.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2012m52
Arranged in four series: Series I. Correspondence, 1965-2010; Series II. Project files, 1967-2009; Series III. Works by other
artists, 1977-2012, undated; Series IV. Miscellaneous, 1979-2007, undated.
Fifty-three monographs and two serials were transferred to the library. These publications may be found by searching the library
catalog for the Sam Erenberg Collection.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Sam Erenberg papers highlight the artist's career as a painter, bookmaker, filmmaker, and installation and performance
artist. The collection includes correspondence and project files documenting Erenberg's exhibition history; relations with
artists, curators, and gallerists; and the development of several large-scale installation projects. Also featured are films
he created between 1967 and 1977, and works of art by other artists.
Series I contains both personal and business correspondence from 1965 to 2010. It includes personal letters from Erenberg's
family, as well as letters from artists such as Ciel Bergman and Stephen Westfall, and mail art from James Lee Byars. The
majority of the business correspondence relates to applications for fellowships, grants, residency programs, and teaching
positions, as well as art submissions and exhibition proposals. Also included are papers documenting gallery consignments,
artists' book projects, and other miscellaneous business papers.
The project files in Series II form the bulk of the archive and document Erenberg's artistic career. Included are papers related
to various projects such as exhibitions, installations, artists' books, performances, lectures, and fellowships. The papers
comprise correspondence, clippings, project notes, drafts, invoices, and ephemera. Some files include photographs and audiovisual
material. Additionally, this series contains original works by Erenberg including raw footage of his experimental films between
1967 and 1977. Photographic documentation of artworks and notebooks are filed at the end of the series.
The archive also contains Erenberg's collection of works and ephemera by artists in Series III. Works include prints, drawings,
and photographs by artists such as Byars and Karen Atkinson.
Series IV contains miscellaneous or unidentified papers, personal photographs, and audiovisual material. Of particular note
is an audio recording of Marcel Duchamp speaking at
The Art of Assemblage at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1961.
Biographical / Historical Note
American artist Sam Erenberg is a painter, bookmaker, filmmaker, and installation and performance artist. Born in 1943, he
grew up in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His interest in art began after being inspired by exhibitions
of Salvador Dali and hard-edge painting during the early 1960s. He enrolled in the Chouinard Art Institute (now known as the
California Institute of the Arts) to study painting in 1965, and it was there that he met his wife, Elena Mary Siff. In 1969,
they moved to the artistic community of Topanga Canyon, where Erenberg socialized with musicians and artists including Wallace
Berman and George Herms. Inspired by a creative community, Erenberg worked on several films with local artist friends and
reinforced his interest in filmmaking.
Erenberg received his BA in Art from California State University, Northridge in 1974 and an MFA from the University of California
Santa Barbara two years later. In Santa Barbara, Erenberg became more involved with performance art and started making artists'
books for his first performance piece. After graduate school, Erenberg became part of the exhibition committee for the Santa
Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and curated exhibitions for artists such as Chris Burden and Laurie Anderson. Erenberg was
actively involved in the art community in Santa Barbara, where he also had several solo and group exhibitions. He continued
to live in Santa Barbara with his family until 1993 and moved back to Los Angeles the following year.
Erenberg's films, installations, books, and paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Central
America and are included in collections worldwide including the Kunstmuseum Bern (Switzerland), Wexford Arts Centre (Ireland),
and the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum. He currently lives and works in Santa Monica.
Leopard test volume backup digital files were not retained in this collection according to the Library's digital preservation
and privacy policies.
Selected recordings were digitized and are available online: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2012m52av
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art, American -- California -- 20th century
Black-and-white negatives -- 20th century
Photographs, Original
Video art -- United States -- 20th century
Color photographs
Color negatives
Black-and-white photographs -- 20th century
Video recordings -- United States -- 20th century
Sound recordings -- United States -- 20th century
Performance art
Installations (Art)
Artists' books
Public art -- California
Gelatin silver prints -- 20th century
Chromogenic color prints -- United States -- 20th century
Dye difussion transfer prints -- United States -- 20th century
Printed ephemera