Contemporary American Painting from the James A. Michener Collection

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Notes

1. No reference is made to the exhibition in Francis Pound's recent book, an important feature of which is positioning New Zealand art more firmly within an international context. Francis Pound, The Invention of New Zealand: Art and National Identity 1930–1970 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2009). A rare mention made by Elva Bett refers to the exhibition as the ‘Mitchner Art Collection’ and dates it to 1964. Elva Bett, New Zealand Art: A Modern Perspective (Auckland: Reed Methuen, 1986), 42.

2. See for example, Gary Catalano, The Years of Hope: Australian Art and Criticism (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1981), 156–57; Sasha Grishin, Australian Art: A History (Carlton: Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2013), 399; and Terry Smith, Transformations in Australian Art (St Leonards, New South Wales: Craftsman House, 2002), 101.

3. This is in contrast to the better-known Two Decades of American Painting, sent out to Australia by the Museum of Modern Art's International Program in 1967. See, for example, R. L. J. Elliott, ‘Two Decades of American Painting: Art, Politics and the Cold War’ (PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 2009).

4. For a full discussion of the USIA, see Nicholas Cull, The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945–1989 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

5. Alan Solomon, ‘Stati Uniti’, CVB XXXII 272, quoted in Nancy Jachec, Politics and Painting at the Venice Biennale, 1948–64: Italy and the Idea of Europe (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 182.

6. James A. Michener, foreword to The James A. Michener Foundation Collection, by Allentown Art Museum (Allentown, PA: Allentown Art Museum, 1963), iii.

7. James A. Michener, ‘The Collector: An Informal Memoir’, in The James A. Michener Collection: Twentieth Century American Painting (Austin: University of Texas, 1977), xii.

8. The Allentown Art Museum would be responsible for the Michener Collection until 1968, when Michener relocated it to the University of Texas in Austin where it still resides.

9. Richard Hirsch, introduction to The James A. Michener Foundation Collection, ix.

10. Campbell had visited the United States in 1961 and solicited both the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and MoMA in New York for exhibitions. Robert Campbell to James A. Michener, 25 July 1963, Archives of the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin (hereafter cited as BMA Archives). Missingham had visited in 1960–61 and had engaged art museums in discussions regarding sending a show of American art to Australia. Draft press release, MS 3940/5/6, Papers of Hal Missingham, 1899–1989, National Library of Australia, Canberra. This reference was passed to the author by Eric Riddler, archivist at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, in an email message dated 17 July 2013.

11. Tony Green, ‘McCahon's Visit to the United States: A Reading of Letters and Lecture Notes’, Bulletin of New Zealand Art History 3 (1975): 24–31.

12. Pound, The Invention of New Zealand, 267–69.

13. Campbell to Michener, 25 July 1963, BMA Archives.

14. The Worcester Art Museum itself did not at this stage have a collection of modern American art.

15. Hirsch to Michener, 29 October 1963, BMA Archives. Michener replied to Hirsch on 4 November 1963 expressing enthusiasm for the project, which suggests that he had overlooked Campbell's earlier letter from Adelaide. Michener to Hirsch, 4 November 1963, BMA Archives.

16. Hirsch to Michener, 29 October 1963, BMA Archives.

17. Campbell to Hirsch, 6 November 1963, BMA Archives.

18. Gabites to the secretary of External Affairs, cc. director, NAG and director, ACAG, 27 April 1964, MU000007\008\0005, Te Papa Archives, Wellington.

19. I have not uncovered the correspondence between Tomory and Missingham, but it is mentioned in the letter from Tomory (signed on his behalf by McCahon) to Hirsch, 6 August 1964, BMA Archives.

20. Ibid.

21. Hirsch to McCahon, 24 August 1964, BMA Archives.

22. Tomory (signed on his behalf by S. D. Cockerill, the ACAG secretary) to Hirsch, 10 September 1964; Hirsch to Cockerill, 18 September 1964, BMA Archives.

23. Greenberg's show was displayed first at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, then travelled to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

24. Hirsch, introduction to The James A. Michener Foundation Collection, ix.

25. Michener to Hirsch, 4 November 1963, ibid.

26. BMA Archives.

27. Campbell to Rich, 6 November 1963, BMA Archives.

28. Hirsch to Campbell, 11 November 1963, BMA Archives.

29. Hirsch to Campbell, 12 December 1963, BMA Archives.

30. Ibid.

31. Richard Hirsch and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Contemporary American Painting: A Selection from the James A. Michener Foundation Collection, Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, for Showing in Australian State Galleries and Newcastle City Gallery through 1964 (Sydney: Edwards and Shaw, 1964), 1.

32. Richard Hirsch, ‘Contemporary American Painting’ in Auckland City Art Gallery, Contemporary American Painting from the James A. Michener Collection Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania (Auckland: Wakefield Press Limited, 1965), 2.

33. Ibid.

34. ‘Michener Paintings at N.S.W. Art Gallery’, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 May 1964.

35. Brian Seidel, ‘Fine Samples of U.S. Art’, News, 9 March 1964.

36. John Baily, ‘Heights Reached in a Splendid Array’, Mail, 7 March 1964.

37. Daniel Thomas, ‘Adelaide in the Big Time’, BMA Archives.

38. Elwyn Lynn, ‘The Travelling Exhibition of Selected Paintings from the James A. Michener Foundation Collection’, Art and Australia 2, no. 3 (December 1964): 204.

39. Ibid.

40. Smith, Transformations in Australian Art, 100.

41. Ibid., 101.

42. Grishin, Australian Art, 399.

43. John Coley, ‘Images from the New World’, Press, 18 May 1965.

44. Ibid.

45. B. B. [Beverley Simmons], ‘Michener's Choice a Touchstone for N.Z. Artists’, New Zealand Herald, 3 March 1965.

46. Coley, ‘Images from the New World’.

47. Ibid.

48. Jo Noble, ‘Modern Art: What's It All About?’, New Zealand Woman's Weekly, 14 June 1965, 24.

49. Gordon Brown, ‘Art in Our Time as Seen through American Eyes’, Auckland Star, 4 March 1965.

50. Baverstock to Edgar, 18 May 1965, Exhibition File 13D, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Archives.

51. Edgar to Keith, 10 June 1965, DPAGS II 38/16 1965, Dunedin City Council Archives.

52. Keith to Hirsch, 4 March 1965, BMA Archives.

53. Ross Ritchie in discussion with the author, 28 May 2014.

54. See Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling, Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2009), 27–30.

55. John Coley in discussion with the author, 21 October 2013.

56. Ibid.