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Description: The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue...
A rudimentary biography begins each artist’s entry. For well-known artists, this is very perfunctory and is provided merely as a setting for that artist’s role within the Société Anonyme ...
Author
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
PublisherYale University Press
Related print edition pages: pp.xi-xiii
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00158.004
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Explanatory Notes on the Use of the Catalogue
Biographies
A rudimentary biography begins each artist’s entry. For well-known artists, this is very perfunctory and is provided merely as a setting for that artist’s role within the Société Anonyme. For an artist represented in the collection only by prints, the biography stresses graphic arts even though the artist might be better known for paintings. Emphasis, where relevant, is given to the artist’s association with Katherine Dreier and the activities she sponsored. If, for example, this association concerned only the artist’s early years, that period will automatically loom large in the capsule biography. This leads to a distortion viewed from the perspective of the artist’s whole life, but the reader should supply the corrective by holding up the lens of the Société. Certain artists, such as Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, and Jacques Villon, have longer biographies because of the extent of their involvement with Dreier and the Société. For little-known artists, especially for those well documented in the Société archives, biographies are apt to be somewhat longer than average, on the logical grounds that information about them is not readily found elsewhere. In the cases of Gauguin, Matisse, and Redon, biographies are not given because the works by these artists were treated by Dreier as samples of early modernism, not integral to the collection.
Texts from the 1950 Catalogue
Because of Marcel Duchamp’s great importance and the particular attention paid to his words (they frequently are puns and have hidden meanings), all of his biographies for the 1950 catalogue have been reprinted, immediately following the editors’ biographies. In most cases his manuscripts survive, and these have been reprinted with all their faults of grammar and spelling. Aware of his imperfect English, Katherine Dreier edited his texts for publication, but in the process she often softened and generalized his metaphors, and changed his meaning in other ways as well. (Anthologies of Duchamp’s writing have used these edited texts rather than his original biographies.) The phrase “original text (date) for the 1950 catalogue” draws attention to these manuscripts. “Text from the 1950 catalogue” indicates those texts taken unaltered from the 1950 publication (not all of Duchamp’s manuscripts have been found). Except for Duchamp’s, no other contributors’ texts from the 1950 edition have been uniformly reprinted. A few by Dreier, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and George Heard Hamilton reappear in this catalogue, the choices based upon the particular interest displayed by certain of their biographies.
Principal References
The word “References” has been deliberately used to emphasize that this is not a conventional bibliography, but a compilation of references useful to the editors and readers of this catalogue. These are of two kinds: (1) all writings and exhibitions, no matter how minor, that are referred to more than once in the entries for works of art by a single artist; and (2) the major, most recent writings on the artist, whether or not referred to subsequently. Whenever recent books or exhibitions encapsulate most earlier writings, only these have been listed, in addition to category (1) above. This means that earlier books or exhibitions, no matter how famous or important to the artist at the time, are often lacking, as long as more recent works provide the essential information. The editors’ aim has been to provide not a list of all the important publications on a given artist, but the opposite—the minimum that would guide a reader quickly to the basic literature. This leads to curious results at times: famous artists can often be limited to two or three recent books or exhibitions, whereas minor artists, lacking such publications, have to be provided with lengthy lists. Length of the “Principal References,” therefore, is not commensurate with the fame of the artist.
Books and articles are listed in alphabetical order and are prefaced by short titles whenever reference is made to them subsequently within the same artist’s entry. By contrast, under individual objects (see below), the bibliography is put in chronological order so as to chart the evolution of an object’s publication.
Exhibitions are in chronological order and are given short titles if they will reappear under either the bibliography or the exhibition history of individual objects. Because people, not institutions, organize exhibitions, the editors have included the name of the principal organizer, editor, or author, whenever known. The months of an exhibition are given, as well as the year, if listed in the catalogue or another source, but note should be taken of the regrettable lack of precise dates in many catalogues (frequently the year alone is given). Where the name of a museum or gallery has changed over the years, the name current at the time of the exhibition is the one that is supplied; where confusion is feared, however, the institution’s present name is used.
Société Anonyme Exhibitions
Following “Principal References,” there is a separate list of all Société Anonyme exhibitions in which the artist figured before the collection was given to Yale University in 1941. The intention is to offer a quick review of the artist’s presence in the early exhibitions, by far the most important index of her or his role in the Société. The reader may sometimes search in vain for the names of the objects shown in certain of these exhibitions, because the incomplete records that survive often list only the artist, not the works of art. In other cases, Dreier showed works that she had borrowed or that she later sold, so the reader should not expect a one-to-one correlation between the exhibition record of objects now in the collection and the general list of all Société exhibitions in which the artist participated.
Titles
Titles in foreign languages, except for untranslatable ones like Duchamp’s Tu m’, are rendered in English and then given in the original language. Most of Dreier’s titles have been retained, but frequently she provided titles (sometimes more than one in succession) that were far from the artists’ intentions. If a work was well known by one or more titles now discarded, these are listed below the definitive title. When a work was exhibited under an erroneous or short-lived title that could give rise to confusion, this fact is recorded as part of the exhibition record.
Dates
Dates are given without qualification whenever the evidence is clear. These are often different from those in the 1950 catalogue because Dreier’s confidence in her memory has not always been borne out by the archives. When it is certain that an otherwise undated work falls between two dates, these are given, separated by a hyphen. Dates based upon circumstantial evidence are prefaced by “ca.” for circa.
Technical Description
Dimensions are given in centimeters, height before width. If a painting or drawing is of irregular size, the measurements are taken at the widest points. For most prints two measurements are used, those of the entire sheet of paper, and those of the image (or plate mark, when discernible). The same distinction is made for drawings if the artist confined the composition to a reduced portion of the sheet. The types and colors of paper are only noted if they depart from the normal range of white or off-white papers. All inscriptions in the artist’s hand are recorded, wherever found; actual signatures are preceded by the word “signed.” Exhibition and dealers’ labels are not recorded unless they give dates, titles, or exhibitions that would not otherwise be known. If an artist used a monogram, it is carefully recorded on the first occasion, but thereafter is referred to simply as “monogram.”
Acquisition
The years and sources of acquisition are the least reliable features of the 1950 catalogue, presumably because Miss Dreier did not regard such information as very important. Careful sifting of her archives has led to accurate information in most cases, but the documentation for acquisition is not referred to whenever it is easily recovered from the archives (it is cited if there is something unusual about the date or source). Purchase prices are listed where known, in the currency for which the work was billed or paid. Translation into foreign or domestic currency, whichever is appropriate, is added in parentheses if the exchange rate is known (it was very volatile in the 1920s and in Germany sometimes changed from month to month).
Related Works
A list is provided of closely related works, for example, the finished composition for which the Société object is a study, or other studies for the same work. This is a strictly defined category, and a work is not included merely because it has the same or similar motifs.
Bibliography for Each Object
The bibliography for each object includes all known references to it, no matter how minor. If the object is shown in an illustration, this is always noted, but no plate or figure numbers are included. “Illus. only” means that the Société object was reproduced without accompanying commentary, a notation that relieves the researcher from looking for a nonexistent text. Short titles in bold face return the reader to “Principal References” for the same artist; those in italic refer instead to the list of short titles used throughout the catalogue. The word “scrapbook” means that the source of the reference is one of the several scrapbooks in which Dreier pasted a miscellany of magazine and newspaper clippings, most of them reviews of Société exhibitions. Not all the references supplied by the scrapbooks and by other sources have been traced to their original publications; some of them therefore lack page or edition numbers.
A peculiar problem arises in art bibliographies when an object is the study for a finished painting or one of an edition of several sculptures or, finally, one print of many. Does the reproduction, for example, of a variant of the Société object constitute a “publication” of it? The editors have adopted the following practice: as far as possible (not all text references nor even all photographs make it clear), we include all known references and reproductions of the Société object. In addition, we add those references to other variants of the same object that have distinct value. A discussion of the iconography or the dating of a Société object, although applied to another impression or variant, will therefore be incorporated in our bibliography if it makes a positive contribution.
An equally vexing problem arises when an object is referred to or reproduced in the catalogue of an exhibition in which the object itself has not figured. Such catalogues are put under “Bibliography,” because “Exhibitions” must be limited to actual showings of the object. The phrase “not in exhibition” is added whenever an exhibition catalogue appears under “Bibliography.”
Exhibition List for Each Object
The preceding remarks on the “Bibliography” for each object, and on “Principal References,” are also applicable to the exhibition lists for the objects, with due allowance for the special forms that exhibition catalogues sometimes take. Most exhibitions have been verified, but some conjecture enters in view of the incomplete records of the Société and the fact that catalogue entries, often lacking dimensions, cannot always be taken as proof of an object’s inclusion. The words “probably” and “possibly” indicate the editors’ sense of relative certainty, but even “possibly” is warranted by strong circumstantial evidence.
Page numbers of a catalogue are used only when no exhibition numbers were given to the individual objects. “Travelling” means that an exhibition was shown in each of the institutions that are listed or, in the case of many stops, in each of the cities listed. “Circulating” means that an exhibition was organized by the first institution listed, but was not necessarily shown at that institution.
Commentary for an Object or a Group of Objects
The commentary for a series or a sequence of related objects usually appears following the first of the group. In a few cases the commentary is part of a separate text that precedes the group. The commentaries are intentionally varied, since a “well-rounded” interpretation, while having the virtue of smoothness, too often lacks savor. An interpretation that emphasizes the salient features of an object and its history is more likely to fulfill the needs of history, as long as prejudice is excluded. Some works have relatively lengthy essays if the Société archives contributed new information of importance or if heretofore unpublished ideas were considered essential: Marcel Duchamp’s Tu m’ (cat. 233) or his brother’s Seated Woman (cat. 247), for example. Others, especially if they are well known and frequently discussed, may have short commentaries. “Minor” works will receive more attention than “major” ones if there is interesting or new material to bring forward. Some works will have longer texts if the editors think that the stages of an incomplete or tangled history need to be laid out clearly: Boccioni’s Study I for “Dynamism of a Cyclist” (cat. 42), or Léger’s Study for “La Ville” (cat. 428), for example.
Footnotes are rare, partly because the accompanying bibliography supplies the reader with the sources drawn on and partly because of the density of the writing, more like that of encyclopedia entries than conventional prose.
In this catalogue, exhibitions and publications are recorded through January 1981 and thereafter only with rare exceptions.
Explanatory Notes on the Use of the Catalogue
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