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Greenberg (Clement) Papers
950085
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Title: Clement Greenberg papers
Date (inclusive): 1928-1995
Number: 950085
Creator/Collector:
Greenberg, Clement,
1909-1994
Physical Description:
25 Linear Feet
(50 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The Clement Greenberg Papers document
the professional and personal life of the art critic known for championing American Abstract
Expressionist painters.
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Language: Collection material is in
English .
Clement Greenberg, born in 1909 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, was raised in New York
City, Norfolk, Virginia, and Brooklyn. As a child, Greenberg drew from nature with unusual
accuracy, and as a teenager he joined the Art Students League, but by the time he attended
Syracuse University his interests had shifted to languages and literature, and upon
graduation he set out to become a writer. For nearly a decade Greenberg wrote poetry, short
stories, and a novel (never finished) while also reading extensively in English, German and
French. To earn a living, he worked in his father's businesses, which gave him opportunity
to travel and live in various parts of the U.S. During this period he published two stories,
one poem, and two book-length translations. He was also briefly married, fathered a son, and
divorced.
He returned to New York City in 1936 and found employment as a clerk, first for the Civil
Service Comission, then for the Veteran's Administration, and finally for the Customs
Service, Department of Wines and Liquors. His interest in art re-emerged as he began taking
drawing classes at a WPA studio and consorting with Greenwich Village artists, including
Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner, and Jackson Pollock. At the same time, Greenberg met the circle
of writers around
Partisan Review, with whom he shared an
interest in socialist politics on the one hand, and aesthetics on the other. In 1939
Partisan Review published Greenberg's "Avant-garde and Kitsch," to
great acclaim.
Soon thereafter, Greenberg joined the editorial staff of
Partisan
Review
, and was employed primarily as a literary reviewer. In 1941 he wrote his
first art review for
The Nation and, resigning from
Partisan Review, served as
The Nation's
regular art reviewer from 1942 to 1949. He was also the associate editor of
Commentary from 1944 to 1957. Greenberg wrote four books:
Miró (1948),
Matisse (1953),
Hans Hofmann (1961), and
Art and
Culture
(1961). The latter, a classic of American art criticism, has influenced
artists and critics alike.
Greenberg is most remembered for having recognized the achievements of Pollock, Barnett
Newman, Mark Rothko, and other abstract expressionists at a time when few others could
perceive them, and still fewer could explain them. Greenberg offered clear, concise
explanations in formalist terms, situating these painters squarely within the Western
tradition. These painters' unprecedented success assured Greenberg's success; he became
America's leading art expert.
In his personal life, Greenberg carried on numerous amorous relationships with women, among
whom were intellectuals and painters known in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. From
1950-1955, Greenberg was romantically involved with the much younger Helen Frankenthaler,
with whom he remained friends for the rest of his life. In 1955, as that relationship ended,
Greenberg began his lengthy psychoanalysis. He married Jenny Van Horne, an actress, in 1956,
and they had a daughter in 1963. The marriage floundered soon thereafter, and the couple
eventually divorced but then remarried in the decade before Greenberg's death.
In the 1950s Greenberg abandoned regular reviewing in favor of occasional articles for
major reviews and catalog essays. He also began organizing exhibitions on such painters as
Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Newman and Hofmann. He gave lectures at museums and universities,
served as a consultant for galleries and museums, and from 1958 to 1960 was employed by
French and Company. Greenberg's ties to artists, critics, dealers and curators gave him
unequalled influence in a booming American art market, influence that endured through the
1960s and 1970s, even though others did not always endorse the artists he championed, such
as Ken Noland and Jules Olitski.
Greenberg's reputation began to decline in the late 1970s after it was discovered that,
while serving as the executor of David Smith's estate, he had had the paint stripped from
six Smith sculptures. The resulting scandal fueled a kind of revolt against what some saw as
Greenberg's tyranny over the New York art world. A new generation of critics emerged who
questioned Greenberg's connoisseurship, his view of art history, and his character. Magazine
articles referred to him as "the most hated man in the art world."
Despite this growing opposition, Greenberg continued to publish articles, though less
frequently, to give talks in the US and abroad, and to advise certain artists, dealers and
curators until his death in 1994. His
Collected Essays,
published in 1986 and 1993 was highly praised, offsetting to some degree the years of
disrepute.
Open for use by qualified researchers, with the following exceptions:
- Letters from Helen Frankenthaler (Box 5, f.1) are sealed until 13 September 2030;
- 2 travel diaries written with Helen Frankenthaler (1952-1954, Box 20) are sealed until 13
September 2030.
The following items were sealed for a period of time and are now open for use by qualified
researchers:
- 18 Journals (1928-1991, Boxes 14-15) were opened 13 September 2005;
- 32 Diaries (1952-1993, Boxes 21-22) were opened 13 September 2010;
- 14 Journals (1943-1993, Boxes 16-17) were opened 13 September 2015;
- Letters from John and Vera Russell (1966-1968, Box 4, f. 5) were opened 13 September
2015.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Clement Greenberg Papers, 1928-1995, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession
no. 950085.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa950085
Acquired in 1995 from Clement Greenberg's widow, Janice Van Horne. 5 boxes of additions
were received 2004: papers (2.5 lin. ft., unprocessed), a videotape and 2 audio cassette
tapes (processed and reformatted).
The Clement Greenberg Papers were processed and cataloged in 1996 by Annette Leddy.
Audiotapes and videotapes re-processed and individually cataloged in Oct 2003 and July 2004.
Audiotapes, videotapes and film (including 1 videotape and 2 audiotapes received in 2004)
were reformatted 2003-2004. Four boxes of additions received in 2004 remain unprocessed.
Eight audiotapes have been digitized.
Online access is
available only to on-site readers and Getty staff.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Clement Greenberg Papers document the life of America's most influential art critic
from the age of nineteen until his death. They reveal, in extraordinary depth and detail,
his personal and intellectual development, and the intertwining of the two. Greenberg's
letters to Harold Lazarus, together with his Journals
(sealed), tell the inner
story of the critic's outward success: his artistic and literary ambitions, his family
relationships, his attraction and resistance to women, his obsession with
Partisan Review colleagues, his friendship with Pollock and other
artists, and his fascination with aesthetics. Numerous manuscripts, often handwritten and in
several drafts, reveal Greenberg's writing process and the evolution of his ideas from the
late 1920s until the year before his death. The compilation of clippings spanning several
decades portray the shifting public view of Greenberg, while photographs and tapes preserve
a visual and audio record of him lecturing and otherwise interacting in the art world.
Missing from these papers is a collection of Greenberg correspondence with art world
figures held at the Archives of American Art.
Various media comprise the Papers, including manuscripts, personal journals and diaries,
clippings, photographs, slides, videotapes, audiotapes, and film.
Additions to the collection have been placed at the end.
The Papers are arranged in 8 series: Series I: Correspondence, 1928-1994; Series II:
Personal, 1928-1994; Series III: Manuscripts, 1928-1993; Series IV: Work files:
clippings and manuscripts, 1939-1994; Series V: Writings by others: clippings and
manuscripts, 1950-1994; Series VI: Photographs and Art Images, 1943-1992; Series
VII: Printed Matter, 1966-1992; Series VIII: Videotapes, Audiotapes and Film,
1970-1995; Series IX. Additions to Collection, ca. 1933-1993.
Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994
Lazarus, Harold,
1909-1983
Louis, Morris, 1912-1962
Noland, Kenneth, 1924-2010
Bush, Jack, 1909-1977
Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011
Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956
Russell, John, 1919-2008
Russell, Vera
Smith, David, 1906-1965
Art criticism -- History -- 20th century -- United States
Art, Abstract -- United States
New York school of art
Abstract expressionism
Art critics -- United States -- Correspondence
Nation Partisan Review
Photographic prints
Motion pictures (visual works)
Diaries
Videotapes
Audiotapes
Photographs, Original
Lazarus, Harold,
1909-1983
Frankenthaler, Helen,
1928-2011
Russell, John,
1919-2008
Russell, Vera
Greenberg, Clement,
1909-1994