Scope and Content of Collection
The Sam Erenberg papers highlight the artist's career as a painter, bookmaker, filmmaker,
and installation and performance artist. The collection includes correspondence and project
files documenting Erenberg's exhibition history; relations with artists, curators, and
gallerists; and the development of several large-scale installation projects. Also featured
are films he created between 1967 and 1977, and works of art by other artists.
Series I contains both personal and business correspondence from 1965 to 2010. It includes
personal letters from Erenberg's family, as well as letters from artists such as Ciel
Bergman and Stephen Westfall, and mail art from James Lee Byars. The majority of the
business correspondence relates to applications for fellowships, grants, residency programs,
and teaching positions, as well as art submissions and exhibition proposals. Also included
are papers documenting gallery consignments, artists' book projects, and other miscellaneous
business papers.
The project files in Series II form the bulk of the archive and document Erenberg's
artistic career. Included are papers related to various projects such as exhibitions,
installations, artists' books, performances, lectures, and fellowships. The papers comprise
correspondence, clippings, project notes, drafts, invoices, and ephemera. Some files include
photographs and audiovisual material. Additionally, this series contains original works by
Erenberg including raw footage of his experimental films between 1967 and 1977. Photographic
documentation of artworks and notebooks are filed at the end of the series.
The archive also contains Erenberg's collection of works and ephemera by artists in Series
III. Works include prints, drawings, and photographs by artists such as Byars and Karen
Atkinson.
Series IV contains miscellaneous or unidentified papers, personal photographs, and
audiovisual material. Of particular note is an audio recording of Marcel Duchamp speaking at
The Art of Assemblage at the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art in 1961.
Arrangement
Arranged in four series:
Series I. Correspondence, 1965-2010;
Series II. Project files,
1967-2009;
Series III. Works by other
artists, 1977-2012, undated;
Series IV.
Miscellaneous, 1979-2007, undated.
|
