Galerie Schmela records - Calisphere
Galerie Schmela records - Calisphere
Galerie Schmela records - Calisphere
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INVENTORY OF THE GALERIE<br />
SCHMELA RECORDS, 1923-2006, bulk<br />
1957-1992 ...<br />
first solo show of nail pictures in 1961. From 1957 to 1980, the following artists had their first solo or group exhibition in Germany at <strong>Galerie</strong><br />
<strong>Schmela</strong>: Yves Klein (1957), Antoni Tàpies (1957), Georges Mathieu (1957), Sam Francis (1958), Jean Tinguely (1959), Konrad Klapheck<br />
(1959), Lucio Fontana (1960), Arman (1960), Martial Raysse (1961), Günther Uecker (1961), Morris Louis (1961), Kenneth Noland (1962),<br />
George Segal (1963), Robert Morris (1964), Jörg Immendorff (1965), Joseph Beuys (1965), Gordon Matta-Clark (1977), and many others.<br />
Access<br />
Open for use by qualified researchers, except unreformatted audiovisual materials.<br />
Publication Rights<br />
Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions .<br />
Preferred Citation<br />
<strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> <strong>records</strong>, 1923-2006, bulk 1957-1992. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2007.M.17<br />
Acquisition Information<br />
Acquired in 2007.<br />
Processing History<br />
The archive was initially processed by Laura Schroffel, who also created a preliminary finding aid. Isabella Zuralski further processed the<br />
archive, created the final series arrangement, and completed writing the finding aid in June 2011. The biographical/historical note was<br />
adapted from text by JoAnne Paradise.<br />
Separated Materials<br />
Several periodical issues and monographs, including two rare publications on Joseph Beuys, were transferred to the Getty Research Library<br />
for individual cataloging and can be found by searching the library catalog for <strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> Collection.<br />
Scope and Content of Collection<br />
The <strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> <strong>records</strong> reveal the work of a passionate art dealer focused on seeking out and promoting new and innovative artists<br />
emerging in the changing social, political, and cultural landscapes in postwar Europe and the United States. The archive documents the<br />
gallery's business under Alfred <strong>Schmela</strong>'s direction from the inaugural show in 1957 until his death in 1980, as well as the continuation of the<br />
gallery by <strong>Schmela</strong>'s widow and daughter during the 1990s, with a few items dated to 2006.<br />
The most substantial series comprises correspondence with artists, collectors, art dealers, museums and museum curators, and art critics,<br />
revealing <strong>Schmela</strong>'s instrumental role in shaping the art market by introducing innovative and challenging contemporary art to private<br />
collectors and museums. Extensively represented is correspondence with Shusaku Arakawa, Joseph Beuys, Christo, Lucio Fontana, Michael<br />
Gitlin, Robert Indiana, Christian Löwenstein, Georges Mathieu, Robert Morris, Walter Pichler, Otto Piene, Raphael Jesús Soto, and Richard<br />
Tuttle.<br />
In Series II are the particularly extensive files <strong>Schmela</strong> developed on some of the artists with whom he worked. The Joseph Beuys files<br />
contain ephemera, press clippings, typescripts, printed matter by various authors and institutions concerning his artistic practice, teaching,<br />
and political activism, and correspondence including the gallery's exchanges with Beuys's estate and family, and with clients. The files on<br />
Yves Klein and ZERO include correspondence, ephemera, typescripts, extensive press coverage. The Klein file also contains a recording of<br />
the opening of his first solo show at <strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> in 1957, labeled "Diskussion anlässlich der Ausstellungseröffnung Yves propositions<br />
monochromes."<br />
Series III contains several hundred vintage photographs of openings, performances, artists installing their shows, visitors, collectors,<br />
installations, individual artwork, and Alfred <strong>Schmela</strong> himself and his family.<br />
A small series of materials concerns Alfred <strong>Schmela</strong>'s first auction, held on the premises of Künstlerverein Malkasten in Düsseldorf on 15<br />
June 1963, and another small series contains business <strong>records</strong> and ledgers.<br />
A sizable collection of ephemera in Series VI consists of small catalogs, invitations, a few artists' books, and numerous posters documenting<br />
exhibitions of a vast number of artists, mostly contemporary, from Europe and North America.<br />
In Series VII press clippings from the mid-1950s to late-1990s, primarily from local daily newspapers, include reviews of exhibitions held at<br />
<strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> and elsewhere in Germany and abroad, articles about current trends in contemporary art, art criticism, the politics of art,<br />
Alfred <strong>Schmela</strong>, individual artists, collectors, museum curators, art dealers, various art institutions, and the Kölner Kunstmarkt.<br />
Arrangement<br />
Organized in seven series: Series I. Correspondence, 1957-2002, undated; Series II. Selected artists files, circa 1957-2006, undated; Series<br />
III. Photographs, circa 1957-1992, undated; Series IV. 1963 <strong>Galerie</strong> <strong>Schmela</strong> auction, 1962-1969, undated; Series V. Financial <strong>records</strong>,<br />
1965-1978, undated; Series VI. Ephemera, circa 1957-1992;Series VII. Press clippings and publications, 1953-1992, undated.<br />
Subjects - Names<br />
Arakawa, Sh�saku, 1936-2010<br />
Arman, 1928-2005<br />
2007.M.17 3