California Asian American artists biographical survey records, circa 1850-2007

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Summary

Creators:
Stanford University
Abstract:
The collection contains biographical files on more than 1000 artists active in California between 1850 and 1965, biographical files for 91 artists not active in California, and reference files. Biographical files contain exhibition records, catalogs, press coverage, and examples of art work (in the form of slides or photographs); in some cases there is also correspondence and/or interviews. Some materials may be photocopies. The reference files contain similar materials but are arranged by subject. Because of date range of the project and the nature of immigration before the 1970s, artists of Chinese and Japanese ancestry predominate in these files.
Extent:
25 Linear Feet
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

California Asian American Artists Biographical Survey Records (SC0929). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

The California Asian American Artists Biographical Survey Collection is composed of biographical files on more than one-thousand artists active in California between 1850 and 1965, as well as reference files, and a limited number of files on artists active outside of California. Materials were gathered during the research phase of the Asian American Art Project that culminated in the publication of the book Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970, and the organization of the material reflects its use for this purpose. (Please see "Introduction to Biographies of California Asian American Artists, 1850-1965" in Asian American Art, A History: 1850-1970, for more detailed information regarding the research methods and criteria used to build this collection.)

The collection is composed of four series:

1. California Artists Files (entry artists)- files on 159 artists who are included in the biographical entries in Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970.

Files contain a range of materials including photocopies of secondary biographical source materials, information from census records, photocopies of newspaper articles (including internment camp newspaper articles), photocopied materials from other repositories such as the Archives of American Art and the Oakland Museum of California, original documents, interview transcripts and some audiotaped interviews, and examples of artwork (ranging from photocopies to color reproductions). Some information appears in the form of spreadsheets or other compiled documents produced by project researchers, and related materials and original source materials can be found in series 4.Audiovisual materials and oversized documents have been pulled from files and appear at the end of this series.

Abbreviations used in descriptions for these files include:

FAMSF: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

CPLH: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

SFAI: San Francisco Art Institute (formerly know as the California School of Fine Arts)

LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

SFMOMA: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

SFAA: San Francisco Art Association

2. California Artists Files (non-entry artists)-files on 1,222 artists not included in the biographical entry portion of Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970.

Contents of files predominantly are photocopies of secondary biographical source materials, photocopies of newspaper articles, and spreadsheets or other compiled documents produced by project researchers, with related and original source materials found in series 4. In many cases a file in series 2 may only contain one document. There is no detailed description of the content of files in this finding aid.

3. Non-California Artists Files- files on 91 artists not active in California for a significant portion of their career.

Contents of files predominantly are photocopies of secondary biographical source materials, photocopies of newspaper articles, photocopied materials from other institutions, and spreadsheets or other compiled documents produced by project researchers, with related and original source materials found in series 4.

4. Reference Files.

These files predominantly contain materials than have been photocopied and place in individuals artist files. Within series 4 are descriptive sub-series such as "Schools," "Exhibitions and Exhibition Records," "Internment," "Artist Clubs," in which all pertinent information has been compiled.

Biographical / historical:

The California Asian American Artists Biographical Survey Collection, was begun as a project of San Francisco State University in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art, and was initially funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The collection has been housed at Stanford University since 2003 as part of the Asian American Art Project directed by Gordon H. Chang and Mark Dean Johnson.

The materials found in the collection are the result of over ten years of work by researchers and students at San Francisco State University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; Sacramento State University; and Stanford University.

For a majority of these artists information is limited and may only consist of a listing in an exhibition catalog, a mention in a newspaper, or a record in an enrollment document for an art school. We were however able to amass significant information for 159 artists. Research sources consulted were primarily in English. Books, exhibition catalogs and other published materials regarding specific artists in other languages were translated when possible.

With 1965 as the cutoff date for this project, we have used the criteria that artists must have been actively exhibiting or studying in California by this time. Because of the date range of this project and the nature of immigration before the 1970s, artists of Chinese and Japanese ancestry predominate in these files, with artists of Filipino and Korean ancestry being fewer in number, and artists of other Asian ancestry not present at all.

Physical location:
Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

Terms of access:

While University Archives is the owner of the physical and/or digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

Preferred citation:

California Asian American Artists Biographical Survey Records (SC0929). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Stanford University Archives, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Website