Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Reichardt (Jasia) Correspondence
890143
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Jasia Reichardt correspondence
Date (inclusive): 1956-1987
Number: 890143
Creator/Collector:
Reichardt, Jasia
Physical Description:
12 Linear Feet
(17 boxes, 1 flatfile folder)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Jasia Reichardt correspondence,
1956-1987, consists mainly of correspondence between artists, writers, and Reichardt from
1965 to 1975 when she was Assistant Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London,
and Director of the Whitechapel Gallery.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this
collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language: Collection material is in English,
Polish, and French.
Polish-born Jasia Reichardt has lived most of her life in England, where in the 1950s she
was associated with the Gaberbocchus Common Room, a meeting place for artists and
scientists. She has worked as an art writer, curator, and author of interdisciplinary
studies about the relationship between literature and art or science and art. She was
Assistant Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, from 1963 to 1971, where
she curated two exhibitions of lasting impact:
Between Poetry and Painting
(1965) and
Cybernetic Serendipity (1968). In 1971 and 1972, she worked for
The Toymakers Co-operative soliciting artists to create original toys, a project funded by
an American entrepreneur seeking new, more ingenious products. From 1974 to 1976 she was
Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, after which she taught at various colleges, wrote for
international art magazines, and independently curated exhibitions generally on the
relationship between cybernetics and art. She has authored and edited several books,
including
Robots: Fact, Fiction and Prediction (1978), worked on a project
about the visualization of mathematics, and curated the exhibition
Electronically
Yours
(1998) for the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Jasia Reichardt correspondence, 1956-1987, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 890143.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa890143
In 2009 with grant funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR),
Laura Schroffel processed the collection and made an inventory under the supervision of Ann
Harrison, while Annette Leddy helped devise the arrangement and wrote the descriptive notes.
Documentation for the acquisition of the archive included a detailed item-level inventory.
Andra Darlington scanned the inventory and linked it to this finding aid at the beginning of
each series.
See also Jasia Reichardt archive of concrete and sound poetry, 1958-1975, accession no.
890143B.
Scope and Content of Collection
Series I, the major portion of the archive, consists of general correspondence with artists
and writers from the 1960s and 1970s, when Reichardt was first Assistant Director of the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and then Director of the Whitechapel Gallery. Many
of the letters concern exhibitions she organized, including discussion with artists as to
selection of work and their post-opening responses. Other letters comprise requests for
submissions to the
ICA Bulletin or for appearances on panels, as well as
publication proposals. Among the most substantial files are those from artist/poets who
participated in Reichardt's exhibition
Between Poetry and Painting (1965),
such as Henri Chopin, John Furnival, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Dom Pierre Sylvester Houedard,
though her broad circle of friends and colleagues extends to Max Bill, Jean-Jacques Lebel,
and anthropologist Desmond Morris. Many of these files include drawings, photographs, or
poems. There is also extensive correspondence between Reichardt's husband Tony and the
artist R.B. Kitaj.
Files relating to the Toymakers Co-operative, an enterprise for which Reichardt solicited
artists to create original toys, comprise Series II. The original proposal from Reichardt,
the artist's response, and a printed profile of the final product and its creator are
included in most files. Many of the same artists as in Series I, such as Luis F. Benedit and
Eugenio Carmi, participated in this project.
Series III, Artist's thoughts on the seventies, concerns a project Reichardt worked on as
guest editor of
Studio International in 1981, asking artists to present their
thoughts on the 1970s in written or visual form. Included here are their responses, as well
as occasional photographs of their work.
Arranged in three series: Series I. General correspondence, 1956-1987; Series II. The
Toymakers Co-operative, 1971-1972; Series III. Artists' thoughts on the seventies,
1970-1981.
Toys
Nineteen seventies
Visual poetry
Concrete poetry
Art and technology
Art exhibitions -- 20th century
Photographs, Original
Photographic prints -- 20th century
Drawings (visual works) -- 20th century
Toymakers Co-operative
Studio International (Firm)
Morris, Desmond
Finlay, Ian Hamilton
D S H (Dom Sylvester Houédard)
Lebel, Jean Jacques
Carmi, Eugenio
Reichardt, Tony
Benedit, Luis, 1937-
Kitaj, R. B.
Bill, Max
Furnival, John
Chopin, Henri
Reichardt, Jasia