Scope and Contents of Collection
Processing History
Biographical/Historical Note
Publication Rights
Access
Arrangement
Preferred Citation
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Mathias Komor photographic archive
Creator:
Peter A. Juley & Son
Creator:
Hildyard, R.H.
Creator:
Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984
Creator:
Raymond Fortt Studios
Creator:
Hackett, G.D.
Creator:
Smith, Richard Averill
Identifier/Call Number: 89.P.5
Physical Description:
10.2 Linear Feet
(23 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1935-1978
Abstract: Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents
objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and ethnographic art.
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 .
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Contents of Collection
Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents
objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and ethnographic art. Much of this material
is now in public and private collections in the United States. The Komor archive is comprised of photographs of objects and
some miscellaneous archival and ephemeral material. These are the only surviving records of the Komor Gallery and do not include
business records.
The bulk of the archive, Series I, is comprised of photographs of Classical, Near Eastern, and Egyptian antiquities; ethnographic
objects from Africa, Meso-America, and Oceania; Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian art; European sculpture, decorative
arts, and drawings. Photographers include Richard Averill Smith, G.D. Hackett, Peter A. Juley & Son, Raymond Fortt Studios,
and R.H. Hildyard. Most photographs document objects that went through the Komor Gallery, while others were added for study
or comparative purposes. Many of the photographs are not annotated.
In addition to the photographs, the collection also includes a small quantity of other material forming Series II. Included
here are scholarly correspondence; 17 drawings of various subjects; 54 rubbings; two architectural plans of Komor's New York
gallery; several manuscript versions and galleys of the printed text of Komor's 1951 exhibition catalog,
Imperial porcelains of the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 A.D.; a manuscript on Chinese ceramics; a manuscript by Alan Priest on a Chinese landscape scroll; and clippings.
Processing History
Jan Bender created the collection inventory in 2012 and Ann Harrison completed the finding aid.
Biographical/Historical Note
In 1974, the J. Paul Getty Museum began assembling a "photo library" by consolidating the visual resources of each existing
curatorial department. By the early 1980s, the Photo Archive was actively acquiring large collections of photographs from
commercial and private sources and scholars' archives that contained a photographic component. In 1983, the nearly one million
photographs of the Photo Archive were incorporated into the Research Institute's Special Collections.
Publication Rights
Access
Arrangement
Arranged in two series:
Series I. Photographs, 1972, undated;
Series II. Miscellaneous papers, 1935-1978, undated.
Preferred Citation
Mathias Komor photographic archive, circa 1940-1984, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 89.P.5.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa89p5
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art, Indic
Art, African
Imperial porcelains of the Ming Dynasty
Middle East -- Antiquities
Art -- Oceania
Art, Southeast Asian
Sculpture, European
Drawing, European
Classical antiquities
Egypt -- Antiquities
Negatives
Slides (photographs)
Transparencies
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Art, Japanese
Art, Chinese
Indian art -- Mexico
Decorative arts -- Europe
Rubbings
Indian art -- Central America
Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984 -- Photograph collections