Andrew C. Ritchie records, 1942-1949.

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Andrew C. Ritchie records, 1942-1949.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/660831436

Administrative records and correspondence of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, art director of the Albright Art Gallery from mid-1942 to July 1, 1949. This material continues the general file of correspondence documenting the Gallery's development that comprises Record Group 2. It includes Ritchie's correspondence as well as records of his predecessor, Gordon Washburn, dating from early 1942, and those of his successor, Edgar Schenck, in late 1949, Ritchie took a leave of absence from the Gallery from about June 1945 to May 1946. During this period the curator of education Katherine E. Neilson, assumed the acting directorship, and records from this period are included here . The addition to the staff of Charles P. Parkhurst as assistant curator during the period 1946-47 accounts for other material in this series. Beginning with the records of 1947, correspondence, reports and notices of Buffalo Fine Arts Academy directors and committees are arranged in Record Group 2. (Prior B.F.A.A. records and correspondence are found in Record Group 1, Series 2). Principal correspondence in this collection falls into three main categories. First, correspondence with other museum administrations documents a large number of loans from the Albright Art Gallery permanent collection for inclusion in exhibitions. Other correspondence with museums concerns administrative policies, including surveys of institutional practices in American museums; these records document decision-making. The third principal category of correspondence is that of art dealers, usually offering works of art for purchase consideration, but sometimes also documenting loans to exhibitions at the Albright and at private dealer galleries. Also found during processing were a selection of letters from artists, including occasional letters from Yves Tanguy, British artist Edmond Kapp, Josef Albers, and Charles Burchfield, to name a few. Of these letters, those from Kapp and Albers include the most significant or interesting details. Correspondence during the war years documents the Gallery's participation in the war effort, and the extent to which the war permeated nearly every civilian activity and institution. Restrictions on the public's use of automobiles, and increased work-hours in factories had significant effects on museum attendance. The Gallery staff played interesting roles in local war organizations, including the Buffalo War Council and the local American Red Cross. Exhibitions also changed to accommodate new public interests in military life and weaponry. Major permanent collection acquisitions during Ritchie's directorate include: Daumier's Laundress on the Quai D'Anjou; Reynold's Cupid as Link Boy and other gifts of 18th century English paintings with funds from the Knox family; Seurat's Le Chahut; and Gauguin's Yellow Christ. Significant Room of Contemporary Art purchases include Bracque's Still Life; Tanguy's Indefinite Divisibility; and Mare Chagall's Acrobat. In addition to these acquisitions, the Albright improved the permanent collection by deaccessioning a number of lesser quality artworks at auction in 1943. Records of this event will be found in Record Group 4. Significant exhibitions during this period included the first Charles Burchfield Retrospective (1944), the Maillol Memorial Exhibition (1945), Contemporary British Painting and Sculpture (1946), and the industrial arts exhibition, Good Design is Your Business (1947). Ritchie's curatorial correspondence about exhibitions is included in Record Group 3.

23 manuscript boxes (11 linear ft.)

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, G. Robert Strauss, Jr. Memorial Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7952558

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, G. Robert Strauss, Jr. Memorial Library

Related Entities

There are 9 Entities related to this resource.

Ritchie, Andrew Carnduff, 1907-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b960wz (person)

Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (1907–1978) was a Scottish-born American art historian specialising in British 18th-century sculpture, a professor, museum director and post-World War II 'Monuments Man'. He was the director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., director of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, and director of the Yale University Art Gallery. Andrew Carnduff Ritchie was born in Bellshill in Scotland in 1907. In 1922 he moved with his family to Pittsburgh. At...

Neilson, Katharine B. (Katharine Bishop)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d79h68 (person)

Schenck, Edgar Craig, 1909-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sx6jqk (person)

Edgar Craig Schenck became director of the Albright Art Gallery on September 1, 1949. He left office July 1, 1955. His five-year term as art director was a transitional period between the directorships of his predecessors, who struggled to achieve and maintain regional and national standards of excellence, and that of his successor, Gordon M. Smith, under whose leadership the Gallery achieved international recognition. Schenck was born in Hot Springs, North Carolina in 1909. He earned his MFA fr...

Association of Art Museum Directors

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n91bmd (corporateBody)

Albright Art Gallery (Buffalo, N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6449m7f (corporateBody)

Buffalo Fine Arts Academy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c57kw9 (corporateBody)

On November 11, 1862, a group of prominent Buffalo citizens met to adopt a constitution and by-laws for the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. At this initial meeting, it was agreed to establish and maintain a permanent art gallery in Buffalo. Until this was accomplished in 1905, the Academy held exhibitions in several locations in downtown Buffalo. In 1905, the Academy moved to its current location on Elmwood Avenue. The 1905 building, gifted by Buffalo entrepreneur and philanthropist John...

Washburn, Gordon B. (Gordon Bailey), 1904-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bc43z1 (person)

Gordon Bailey Washburn (1904-1983) was an art museum director from New York, N.Y. Director of Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., 1931-1942. Director of Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1942-1949. Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Penn., 1950-1962. Director, Asia House Gallery, New York, N.Y., 1961-1974. From the description of Oral history interview with Gordon Bailey Washburn, 1970 Mar. 4-18 [sound recor...

Parkhurst, Charles D. (Charles Dyer), 1849-1931

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b85db1 (person)

Art administrator, curator; Washington, D.C.; b. 1913. From the description of Charles Parkhurst interview, 1982 Oct. 27. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 276394240 Charles Parkhurst, b. 1913, Art administrator, curator of Washington, D.C. From the description of Oral history interview with Charles Parkhurst, 1982 Oct. 27. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 646397448 Genealogist and military officer, probably a resident of Massachusetts. From the d...

Buffalo Fine Arts Academy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c57kw9 (corporateBody)

On November 11, 1862, a group of prominent Buffalo citizens met to adopt a constitution and by-laws for the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. At this initial meeting, it was agreed to establish and maintain a permanent art gallery in Buffalo. Until this was accomplished in 1905, the Academy held exhibitions in several locations in downtown Buffalo. In 1905, the Academy moved to its current location on Elmwood Avenue. The 1905 building, gifted by Buffalo entrepreneur and philanthropist John...