Acknowledgments

Wells, K. L. H.

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Acknowledgments

K. L. H. Wells

Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry Between Paris and New York

~This book began when Nancy Troy, my doctoral adviser at the University of Southern California (USC), handed me a manila file folder with some clippings on modern tapestry and casually suggested I could do something with the topic. Her confidence in the intellectual merits of the project, her indispensable advice on a wide range of issues, and her own...

Author

K. L. H. Wells

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21580

Acknowledgments

This book began when Nancy Troy, my doctoral adviser at the University of Southern California (USC), handed me a manila file folder with some clippings on modern tapestry and casually suggested I could do something with the topic. Her confidence in the intellectual merits of the project, her indispensable advice on a wide range of issues, and her own groundbreaking scholarship have guided me through the many years it took to make this book a reality. Vanessa Schwartz has been an equally invaluable mentor who supported me at every stage, even while she challenged me to question my modernist art historical training and to consider a wider audience for this work. Nancy Troy and Vanessa Schwartz have done more for my intellectual and professional development than I can say, and it is a pleasure to be able to thank them here. I also benefited enormously from the support of Tristan Weddigen, whose Textile Project at the Universität Zürich provided a crucial early forum for my research, and Richard Meyer, whose scholarship on twentieth-century American art has been an important influence. The Departments of Art History and Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where I was a postdoctoral fellow in the history and theory of craft, supported my work during a significant transition, and I especially thank Sonya Clark and Peggy Lindauer for their encouragement and advice. Many others contributed to this project at an early stage through their guidance, friendship, and help, and I wish particularly to thank Elinor Accampo, Glenn Adamson, Nadya Bair, Lucy Bradnock, Barbara Caen, Giselle Eberhard Cotton, Gérard Denizeau, Anne Dressen, Kate Flint, Xavier Hermel, Karen Huang, Suzanne Hudson, Priya Jaikumar, Cindy Kang, Karen Lang, Emily Liebert, Megan Luke, Patti Nelson, Dominique Paulvé, Andrew Perchuk, Claire Rifelj, Sean Roberts, Virginia Solomon, Erin Sullivan, Kris Tanton, and Jean Vittet.

Research for the project was funded by USC through the Dornsife College Doctoral Fellowship, the Russell Endowed Dissertation Fellowship, the Visual Studies Graduate Certificate Program, the Department of Art History, and the graduate student government. A generous fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Harmon Chadbourn Rorison Fellowship from the Institut Français d’Amérique at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, allowed me to conduct research in Europe. Funding from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) College of Letters and Science, Department of Art History, and the Arts and Humanities Research Travel Award enabled me to conduct the final research required for the book. These fellowships and grants would have produced far less without the professionalism and patient guidance of many archivists, curators, and librarians. For their thoughtful assistance, I wish to thank the staffs of Abbaye d’En Calcat, Archives d’Air France, Archives départementales de la Creuse, Archives de la Ville de Lausanne, Archives nationales de France, Atelier Robert Doisneau, Avery Library at Columbia University, Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, Bard Graduate Center, Barnes Foundation, Bauhaus Archiv, Bibliothèque des arts décoratifs, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Clifford Ross Studio, Dedalus Foundation, Edward Quinn Archive, Fondation Le Corbusier, Getty Research Institute, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Mobilier national, Musée départemental de la tapisserie in Aubusson, Musée Grenoble, Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art Archives, Pollock Krasner Study Center, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, Rockefeller Archive Center, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, San Antonio Museum of Art, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, UWM Golda Meir Library, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Special thanks to Glorvina Célérier and Kore Yoors for opening both their homes and their family archives to me with extraordinary kindness and trust, and to Yves Millecamps and the estates of Magdalena Abakanowicz and Iwao Yamawaki.

I feel particularly fortunate to have found such a welcoming home at UWM, where my colleagues have been a vital source of encouragement and intellectual exchange. Michael Aschenbrenner, Jocelyn Boor, Linda Brazeau, Derek Counts, Jennifer Johung, Ina Kielley, Richard Leson, Leigh Mahlik, Sarah Schaefer, Tanya Tiffany, and Ying Wang have made me feel tremendously lucky to be a member of the art history department. Although I have too many excellent colleagues at UWM to name individually, I thank them all for creating a community of strong intellectual and political engagement and Milwaukeean Gemütlichkeit. Special thanks to Elena Gorfinkel, Kate Negri, Matt Rarey, and Hilary Snow for remaining such good friends beyond their tenure with the department, to Jasmine Alinder for supporting the project at a crucial time, and to David DiValerio for being a port in the storm. In addition, I would not have made it through the writing process without the insights and support of an extraordinary writing group, and I wish to thank Sarah Carter, Tara Daly, Jodi Eastberg, Sarah Schaefer, and Katie Vater for being such wonderful colleagues and friends. Special thanks to Carolyn Lee for reminding us that there is life beyond academe.

I am deeply grateful to Amy Canonico at Yale University Press for taking on this project, and it has been a joy to work with her and everyone else at the press. Special thanks are due to the anonymous reviewers for going above and beyond in their generous feedback. Portions of chapter 3 appeared in “Rockefeller’s Guernica and the Collection of Modern Copies,” Journal of the History of Collections 27, no. 2 (2015): 255–277, and I thank the journal for giving this research an early showing. Presenting papers and panels with the Association for Art History, Association of Historians of American Art, Bay Area Graduate Symposium, College Art Association, Midwest Art History Society, Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), Society for French Historical Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison Material Culture Program, UWM, VCU, and the Western Society for French History enabled me to advance the arguments of this book. Writing the final manuscript was made possible through a generous fellowship at the Bard Graduate Center, while funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Society for the Preservation of American Modernists, the Pasold Research Fund, and the UWM Office of Research enabled me to illustrate the final text. Ann Hedlund generously shared images and her feedback on the manuscript, while Laura Kalba helped me navigate the wonderful world of French image permissions. I also wish to thank Elissa Auther, Bibiana Obler, T’ai Smith, and Jenni Sorkin for inspiring me with their important scholarship and words of encouragement.

My family has been a bulwark of support throughout the long process of writing this book. Much love goes to my faithful companion Biscuit; to my sisters, Jessica and Laura, for being sources of joy and understanding; to my nieces and nephews, Lily, Jackson, Judson, Dominic, and Anna, for thinking there was anything cool about their Auntie K; to my Grandma Heidi for her inspirational journey; and to my parents, Heidi Hartmann and Jack Wells, who acted convincingly like they would rather see this book in print than have another grandchild. For all these gifts and others beyond measure, thank you.

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