Joan Ludman papers relating to Fairfield Porter

ArchivalResource

Joan Ludman papers relating to Fairfield Porter

circa 1910-2003

The Joan Ludman papers relating to Fairfield Porter measure 4.2 linear feet and are dated circa 1910-2003, bulk 1976-2001. The papers primarily document her research for <emph render="italic">Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of his Prints</emph> (1981) and <emph render="italic">Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels </emph>(2001). There are records concerning "Prints by Fairfield Porter from the Lauris and Daniel J. Mason Collection," a traveling exhibition organized by Ludman. Also found are Ludman's records concerning her authentications of Porter's artwork, and general printed material about Porter. Photographs are of Porter and his work. A 2015 addition includes provenance forms sent to Ludman from artwork owners.The compilation of <emph render="italic">Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of his Prints</emph> and its publication are documented by a variety of records. Research correspondence includes photocopies of Porter's letters from the 1930s to John Wheelwright about linoleum cuts he made for the Socialist publication <emph render="italic">Poems for a Dime</emph>. Letters from Anne Porter concerning the catalogue raisonné are among the miscellaneous correspondence. Also found is a "Log of the Work in Progress on Research and Interviews…" kept by Ludman, along with notes and transcripts of interviews conducted during the course of her research. Printed material concerns Porter's prints, and photographs include those reproduced in the catalogue raisonné.Ludman's work on <emph render="italic">Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels</emph> is documented by correspondence, a "master index," writings, printed material and photographs. Among the correspondence are questionnaires completed by owners of Porter paintings. Correspondence with Anne Porter includes typed excerpts from letters, 1922-1938, that mention her husband's painting activities. A "master index" summarizing Ludman's research is found among the writings. Printed material mentions or reproduces paintings by Fairfield Porter. Photographs include the images reproduced in the book; there are also snapshots of some early paintings, among them unidentified and unrecorded works.Exhibition records document "Prints by Fairfield Porter from the Lauris and Daniel J. Mason Collection," a show organized by Joan Ludman that traveled in 1982 and 1983 under the auspices of the Gallery Association of New York State. Printed material provides general background information about Porter and his work. Also found are an article and book review by Fairfield Porter, along with printed material concerning members of his family and a map of Great Spruce Head Island, Maine.Authentication records consist of letters conveying Mrs. Ludman's opinions about works purported to be by Porter. The majority of photographs are of Fairfield Porter. Also included are Manhattan street scenes photographed by Porter, and views of Joan and Harold Ludman's 1976 visit with Mrs. Porter at the home and studio.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630611

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 5 Entities related to this resource.

Porter, Fairfield, 1907-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x1715v (person)

Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) was a painter and critic from Southampton, N.Y. Fairfield Porter was born near Chicago in 1907, the fourth of five children of James and Ruth Furness Porter. His father was an architect, his mother a poet from a literary family, and Porter grew up in an environment where art and literature were highly valued. His father designed the family homes in Winnetka, Illinois and on Great Spruce Head Island, an island in Maine that he purchased for the family in 1912....

Wheelwright, John, 1897-1940

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r503xq (person)

John Wheelwright was a New England poet. Born in Boston to an old and aristocratic family, he studied architecture at Harvard University and later the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but never finished a degree. After expulsion from Harvard, he became a member of the lost generation, and embraced socialism. He published three books of verse, each complex and cautiously admired by his peers, each owing much to his Boston Brahmin heritage. He was struck and killed by a drunk driver before h...

Gallery Association of New York State

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65x7w77 (corporateBody)

Poor, Anne, 1911-2011

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h83gc3 (person)

Ludman, Joan.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vn7cw0 (person)

Joan Ludman, an art historian with expertise in prints, developed a deep interest in the work of Fairfield Porter while living in Westbury, Long Island. She compiled and published a catalogue raisonné of Porter's prints in 1981, and another of his paintings, watercolors, and pastels in 2001. Now retired, Mrs. Ludman lives in Florida. By the early 1970s, Joan Ludman had amassed a sizeable amount of information about Fairfield Porter and considered writing a biography. Ins...