Sandler (Irving) Papers, 1909-2007, bulk 1950-2000, bulk 1950-2000

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Summary

Title:
Irving Sandler papers
Dates:
1909-2007, bulk 1950-2000, bulk 1950-2000
Creators:
Katz, Alex, 1927-, Held, Alex, Pearlstein, Philip, 1924-2022, and Sandler, Irving, 1925-2018
Abstract:
Papers of the American art critic Irving Sandler, including five decades of notes, transcripts and audiotapes of interviews with artists and art professionals, materials documenting art organizations and associations, and correspondence regarding publications, lectures, and academic appointments.
Extent:
45 Linear Feet (92 boxes, 1 flat file folder)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Irving Sandler papers, 1909-2007, bulk 1950-2000, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2000.M.43.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2000m43

Background

Scope and content:

The Irving Sandler Papers comprehensively document the career of an American critic who chronicled and commented upon the contemporary art scene for five decades. The foundation of Sandler's biographical approach to art criticism is the informal interview or "conversation" with the artist; the archive comprises all Sandler's notes, transcripts, and audiotapes of these encounters. Although the core of the archive is the material about abstract expressionist artists of the 1950s, artists and art movements of subsequent decades are amply documented, with special attention to Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, and Al Held. Sandler also took copious notes on panel discussions; such notes appear in several series, and form the basis of Series II. Art Professionals which, like Series I. Artists, spans five decades. Notes on panel discussions are also central to Series III. Organizations and Associations and in particular to the documentation of the Artists' Club, of which Sandler was Program Director for seven years. Here the concerns of 1950s New York artists emerge in the Club's chosen topics for lecture and debate. Many interviews and panels from Series I. through Series V. were also recorded and appear in Series XIV. Audiotapes and Video Tapes.

Series III. Organizations and Associations reflects, along with Sandler's role as critic, his active support for emergent artists. The Artists' Space files in Series III chronicle the difficulty of establishing a physical space, and also deal with management issues and controversies plaguing early exhibitions. Series III further details Sandler's involvement in academic and curatorial organizations for which he served on the directing board. The work that he performed for foundations and commissions is documented in Series IV.

Sandler's career as a professor, independent curator, and reviewer is documented in Series V. through IX. Correspondence is professional, with editors regarding reviewing assignments, with curators regarding exhibitions, and with university administrators regarding promotion. Sandler's long standing column for The New York Post appears in Series VI. Notes and Writings and in Series XIII. Printed Matter. Extensive handwritten notes for his 1950s artists' interview series on The Casper Citron Radio Show appear in Series VI. Notes and Writings. Series XIII. Printed Matter contains an interesting assortment of announcements and brochures for exhibitions Sandler presumably attended over five decades.

Biographical / historical:

Irving Sandler was born in New York City in 1925. He holds a B.A. from Temple University (1948) and an M.A. from University of Pennsylvania (1950), where he studied American history. His interests turned then to contemporary art, specifically the abstract expressionist painting current in the 1950s New York art world. He tried his hand at painting for a year or so, and became manager of a gallery on 10th Street, thereby meeting artists he admired. Soon feeling his vocation to be that of chronicler and critic rather than artist, in 1954 Sandler began taking copious notes of conversations with artists, or among artists, during informal gatherings at the Club, the Cedar Street Tavern, or in artists' studios. In 1958, he married the art historian and medievalist Lucy Freeman, who later became a professor of art history at New York University.

In 1956, Irving Sandler became the director of the Tanager Gallery, Program Chairman for the Artists' Club, and a reviewer for Art News and Art International, establishing two roles that he would fill for the rest of his career: supporter of emergent artist groups, and advocate critic. A third role, that of professor, emerged in the 1960s.

Sandler's approach to art criticism was, like Greenberg's and Rosenberg's, grounded in personal friendships with artists whose work he reviewed, but Sandler avoided the extreme partisanship and rancor for which those critics are known. Maintaining a personal ethic of openness to new styles or schools of art, and a methodology that considered art world consensus on the one hand and the artist's intention on the other, he flourished as a relevant commentator of contemporary art for five decades. In the 1970s, Sandler began writing books that synthesized his collection of interviews and reviews into broad surveys of contemporary art, including The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism (1970), The New York School: The Painters and Sculptors of the Fifties (1978), American Art of the 1960s (1988), and Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s (1996). In addition, he wrote monographs on individual artists, such as Mark Di Suvero, Alex Katz, Beverly McIver, and Judy Pfaff.

Sandler taught throughout the 1960s at New York University, where Lucy Freeman Sandler was assistant professor. Freeman became a full professor at NYU in 1975 and Sandler earned a Ph.D. in art history there in 1976. For the rest of his academic career he taught at SUNY Purchase, with occasional visiting professorships at other northeastern U.S. institutions. In 1972, he organized "Artist's Space," an alternative exhibition space for young artists. Laurie Anderson, Judy Pfaff, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, and Chuck Close are among those that got their start there. He served on the board of, or otherwise lent support to, many other artists' organizations. Eventually, he held positions in academic and curatorial organizations as well, such as the College Art Association and Independent Curators Incorporated, and in foundations supporting the arts, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sharpe Art Foundation. His interest in public art led to his serving on the board of Public Art Fund, which generated public art projects such as "Sculpture in Environment," "City Walls" and "Prospect Mountain," and he was involved in many other public art commissions around the country. Sandler died in New York City on June 2, 2018.

Acquisition information:
Collection acquired from Irving Sandler in 2000.
Processing information:

Annette Leddy and Kelly Nipper processed the collection. In 2012 Annette Leddy integrated additional material. The finding aid was reviewed and edited by members of the Anti-Racist Description Working Group in 2022; names of women artists were added. Edits were made throughout the finding aid.

Arrangement:

The papers are organized in fourteen series: Series I. Artists, 1914-2007, undated Series II. Art Professionals, 1925-2000 Series III. Organizations and Associations, 1937-2000 Series IV. Foundations and Commissions, 1964-2001 Series V. Exhibitions and Panels, 1965-2000 Series VI. Notes and Writings, ca. 1950-2000 Series VII. Research, 1940s-2000 Series VIII. Correspondence, 1956-2000 Series IX. Personal, 1959-2000 Series X. Writings by Others, 1948-1994, n.d. Series XI. Photographs, 1909-2001 Series XII. Serials, 1950-1995 Series XIII. Printed Matter, 1940-2000 Series XIV. Audio and Video Tapes, 1958-2007, undated.

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:
archives, personal papers, and manuscripts
Bibliography:

The following books were consulted in the writing of this finding aid: McDarrah, Fred. The Artist's World in Pictures. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1961Sandler, Irving. American Art of the 1960s. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.Sandler, Irving. Art of the Postmodern Era. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Annette Leddy
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-01-28 08:55:31 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Irving Sandler papers, 1909-2007, bulk 1950-2000, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2000.M.43.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2000m43

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website