Acknowledgments

Weyl, Christina

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Acknowledgments

Christina Weyl

The Women of Atelier 17: Modernist Printmaking in Midcentury New York

Acknowledgments

Author

Christina Weyl

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20499

Acknowledgments

There once was a room with a press
     and a man who was hard to impress
Then some women came in
     and created a din,
and now they have ink on their dress.
     —Richard Lichtenstein, 2015

Many individuals and institutions have supported this project, and I owe them all a great deal of gratitude. Major financial support for research and writing came from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Society for the Preservation of American Modernists. The New York Public Library provided access to the Wertheim Study, where I revised several chapters. The Wyeth Foundation for American Art Publication Grant, administered by College Art Association (CAA), defrayed the costs of producing this book and beautifully reproducing the amazing prints created by women artists of Atelier 17.

Joan Marter, my advisor at Rutgers, first suggested this topic in the spring of 2010, when I wrote a seminar paper on Louise Nevelson’s Atelier 17 prints. She encouraged me to develop this paper into a dissertation during an independent study the following fall. Always a networker for her students, Joan introduced me to Maria Nevelson, the artist’s granddaughter, who in turn put me in touch with the esteemed Nevelson scholar and biographer Laurie Wilson. Laurie generously shared important interview tapes from her dissertation research in the 1970s, and the fascinating material contained in these primary sources gave me the final push to embark on this topic.

The art history department at Rutgers, its faculty, and fellow graduate students supported the intellectual development of my dissertation. Departmental grants from the Mitnick-Jacobs Fund, the Mary Bartlet Cowdrey Fund, and the Mellon Foundation funded early research trips and opportunities for hands-on study of printmaking techniques. Along with Dr. Marter, my dissertation committee, Susan Sidlauskas and Andrés Zervigón, and my outside reader, Helen Langa from American University, offered valuable feedback and were the first to encourage me to turn this story into a book. I would like to thank Kira Maye Albinsky for spearheading the “Dissertation Support Group,” a monthly writing group for Rutgers students living in New York. Group members who read and insightfully commented on chapter drafts include: Allison Leigh, Olena Martynyuk, Jeff Fraiman, Shana Lopes, and Ksenia Nouril. Later, Kira and I revived the group with two other Rutgers graduates, Aliza Edelman and Alison Poe, whose thoughtful critiques and careful line editing enriched this project as it developed into a book. Heather Cammarata-Seale and Jodi Rodgers have also been steadfast cheerleaders.

I was fortunate to hold the Jane and Morgan Whitney predoctoral fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the 2012–13 academic year. Several members of the museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints encouraged my project, including Samantha Rippner, George Goldner, Nadine Orenstein, Carmen Bambach, Kit Basquin, Freyda Spira, Femke Speelberg, Liz Zanis, and Mary Zuber. Rachel Mustalish, Angela Campbell, and Lisa Conte in the Paper Conservation Department helped me understand the technical complexity of Atelier 17 prints. Marcie Karp and her team in the Education Department were amazing hosts. I owe a tremendous debt to the staff of Watson Library for paging innumerable books and allowing me the use of a carrel during my fellowship year and the year that followed. Special thanks to Linda Seckelson, Ronnie Fein, Ren Murrell, P. J. Raftery, Jessica Ranne, and Fredy Rivera. I met many bright scholars at the Met, who listened intently to my ideas over countless lunches in the staff cafeteria: Alan Doyle, Donato Esposito, Amanda Gannaway, Erin Leary, Megan McCarthy, Elizabeth Perkins, Furio Rinaldi, Allison Rudnick, Britany Salsbury, Sarah Schaefer, and Shannon Vittoria.

In the summer of 2016, the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center hosted an exhibition I curated, based on the ideas in this book. Helen Harrison, Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Director, shared her extensive knowledge of these artists, many of whom she knew personally as residents of eastern Long Island. The show subsequently traveled to the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, where I am grateful to Nicole Simpson, Christine Giviskos, and Amanda Potter for supporting the exhibition with engaging public programming.

Curators from several institutions generously shared their collections with me. Many have moved institutions since the project began, so I list them alphabetically: David Acton, Katherine Blood, Stephen Coppel, Jennifer Farrell, Jim Ganz, Lisa Hodermarsky, Rena Hoisington, Domenic Iacono, Amy Johnston, Marilyn Kushner, Shelley Langdale, Patrick McGrady, Kate Meyer, Joann Moser, Christopher Oliver, Carlotta Owens, Mark Pascale, Marshall Price, Jennifer Ramkalawon, Charlie Ritchie, Elizabeth Seaton, Ann Shafer, Jessica Smith, Marilyn Symmes, Madeleine Viljoen, Roberta Waddell, and Helena Wright. I must also acknowledge the registrars, print room supervisors, and support staff at these institutions who facilitated my visits, including: Ben Levy (Baltimore Museum of Art); Marguerite Vigliante (Brooklyn Museum); Bo K. Mompho (Davis Museum at Wellesley College); Tara Cerretani and Jessica Ficken (Harvard Art Museums); Patrick Murphy (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); Katherine Alcauskas (Museum of Modern Art); Jared Ash (Newark Public Library); David Christie, Margaret Glover, and Alvaro Lazo (New York Public Library); Nora Lambert and James Wehn (Philadelphia Museum of Art); Laura Wellner (Syracuse University Art Galleries); Arielle Schraeter and Michelle Donnelly (Whitney Museum of American Art); and Beth McKeown (Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University).

This book relies extensively on archival material, and the staff at several institutions facilitated this research. In alphabetical order by institution, they include: Sofia Bakis (Allentown Art Museum); Joy Weiner, Kelly Quinn, and Marisa Bourgoin (Archives of American Art); Stephanie Cassidy (Art Students League); Angie Park (Brooklyn Museum); Maggie Wright (Easton Foundation); Jenny Swadosh and Erika Hichez-Valerio (The New School); Fernanda Perrone (Rutgers University Special Collections); and Louise Burley (Tate Archives).

Atelier 17 artists and their families and friends were incredibly enthusiastic about this project and generous with their time. Their memories enlivened my understanding of the workshop. Foremost among them are Désirée Lévy-Hayter, widow of Stanley William Hayter, and Carla Esposito, widow of Julian Hayter (the son of Stanley William Hayter and Helen Phillips). Both have written extensively about Hayter and Atelier 17 and were always quick to answer any questions. In alphabetical order by Atelier 17 artist, I must also thank: Lily Ascher’s daughter, Esha Neogy; Dina Kevles Gustin Baker; Carla Becker, daughter of Fred Becker and Jean Morrison Becker; Lois Borgenicht, Berta Kerr, and Jan Schwartz, daughters of Grace Borgenicht Brandt; Cynthia Bell and Ron Wenner of the Cynthia Brants Trust; John Small, son of Sylvia Carewe; Bernard Childs’s widow, Judith Childs; Hariana and Robin Chilstrom, nieces of Hazel Chilstrom; Minna Citron’s granddaughter Christiane H. Citron, and Minna’s mentees, Donna Marxer and Linda Stein; Ellen Abbey Countey’s daughter, Thomasin Countey; Constance DuHamel, friend of Worden Day and executor of her estate; Barbara Pollitt and Rip Hayman of the Sari Dienes Foundation; Patricia Collier, niece of Virginia Dudley; Christine Engler’s daughter, Mathea Rubin; Diana Fourpome, granddaughter of Teresa d’Amico Fourpome; Sue Fuller’s friend Janet Ruttenberg and her son Eric Ruttenberg; Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, niece of Lily Garafulic; Murray Zimiles, nephew of Jan Gelb; Dorothy Gillespie’s son Gary Israel; Terry Haass’s brother and sister-in-law, Ferdinand and Emily Scharf; Lois Hall DeLuca; Leo Katz’s granddaughter Lisa Katz Wadge; Kett (Margaret Jean Kettunen Zegart); Ruth Leaf, her daughter Karen Casino, and her granddaughter Mia Casino; Alice Trumbull Mason’s daughter, Emily Mason, and Emily’s studio assistants, Stephen Rose and Marela Zacarias; Margret Mills-Thysen, daughter of Agnes Karlin Mills; Henrietta Mueller’s son Christopher Mueller; Louise Nevelson’s granddaughter Maria Nevelson; Harriet Berger Nurkse’s son Dennis Nurkse; George Ortman; Kathy Perutz, daughter of Dolly Perutz; Judith Brodsky, Miriam Schapiro’s friend and executor; David Seidler and Susan Stedman, who manages the estate of Doris Seidler; Anne Wienholt and her daughter Sara Bettini; Mary Ann Ephgrave, the executor of Catherine Yarrow’s estate; and Doris Yokelson.

Several art dealers and galleries supported this project by sharing material and years of expertise. Foremost among them are Susan and Bill Teller of Susan Teller Gallery; Dan Lienau and Gala Chamberlain of the Annex Galleries; Margo Dolan, Ron Rumford, and Jon Eckel of Dolan/Maxwell; Emily Lenz of D. Wigmore Fine Art; and Joan Washburn of Washburn Gallery.

I would like to thank my editor, Amy Canonico, for her constant support, as well as the team at Yale University Press, who have worked tirelessly to produce this book. Thanks also to Laura Hensley for her detailed copy edits. My gratitude is also due the two anonymous peer reviewers whose excellent feedback strengthened the manuscript. Several other colleagues generously read portions of the manuscript, including Christine Filippone, Mary Manning, Ann Shafer, and Anne Swartz.

Finally, I am enormously grateful to my family, without whom this project would not have come to fruition. My parents, Jane and Alan Weyl, gave me the privilege of an excellent education and encouraged me to pursue graduate studies. My father, in particular, contributed invaluable genealogical research on the women artists on Atelier 17’s roster. My brothers and sisters-in-law listened patiently as I jabbered on about my research and the book’s progress. Peggy and Michael Lichtenstein, my parents-in-law, have been unwavering in their support and willingness to babysit Max and Avi so that I could have more time to write. My boys’ smiles and laughter have helped me to maintain a positive outlook as I toiled on the book. My husband, Richard Lichtenstein, to whom this book is dedicated, deserves my utmost thanks. Although his background is in quantitative analysis and computer science, he listened patiently to my ideas and helped me structure my arguments cogently (he is also my most important editor, ensuring my writing is jargon free). In championing my path as an independent scholar, Richard is a model for our young sons, who I hope will grow up to be strong supporters of women’s rights and professional pursuits.

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