Thomas Hess papers
name: label: Creator
content: Hess, Thomas B.
label: Names
content: Mark Rothko Foundation
label: Names
content: Bess, Forrest, 1911-1977
label: Names
content: Campbell, Lawrence
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Elaine
label: Names
content: De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997
label: Names
content: Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011
label: Names
content: Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974
label: Names
content: Guston, Philip, 1913-1980
label: Names
content: Kline, Franz, 1910-1962
label: Names
content: Milles, Carl, 1875-1955
label: Names
content: Newman, Barnett, 1905-1970
label: Names
content: Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967
label: Names
content: Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002
label: Names
content: Rosenberg, Harold, 1906-1978
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-
label: Names
content: Schuyler, James
label: Names
content: Smith, David, 1906-1965
label: Names
content: Still, Clyfford, 1904-1980
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Artists -- Italy
label: Occupation
content: Editors -- New York (State) -- New York
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Thomas Hess papers were donated in multiple increments from 1985 to 1987 by Hess' children, Anne Helen, William, and Philip Hess, except for a file on Barnett Newman donated by Newman's widow, who presumably had borrowed it from Hess. In 2014, additional correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, and cartoons, including some by Ad Reinhardt, were donated by Elizabeth Wolff, Hess' sister. A small addition was donated in 2022 by Anne Hess, Thomas Hess' daughter.
creator: label: Creator
content: Hess, Thomas B.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Thomas Hess papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of New York editor and art critic Thomas Hess measure 10.01 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1978. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, extensive writings and notes, artists and subject files that also include recorded conversations with artists and others, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork. 

There is a .01 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes a six page typed manuscript, "Think, American Painting," undated, by Thomas Hess and the book American Realists and Magic Realists, The Museum of Modern Art, 1943, signed by Hess.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Thomas B. Hess (1920-1978) was an editor, art critic, and curator who worked in New York City. He was on the staff at Art News for 26 years (1946-72). Starting as an editorial associate, he was named managing editor in 1948, then executive editor in 1954; he assumed the top editorial post in 1965 upon the death of long-time editor Alfred Frankfurter. In his critical writing from the late 1940s on, he was an influential supporter of the Abstract Expressionists. He wrote widely on other topics as well. In 1972 he left Art News after an ownership change. He then became the art critic for New York magazine (1972-78), a large-circulation weekly reaching a much larger public. (He was also, in the late '60s, a correspondent for the French daily newspaper Le Monde.) 

Over the years he undertook several major curatorial projects including traveling retrospectives for Willem de Kooning (1968-69) and Barnett Newman (1971), which he organized for the Museum of Modern Art. His "New York School Painting and Sculpture" appeared at the New York State Museum in Albany in 1977. Both MoMA exhibitions were accompanied by comprehensive monograph/catalogues: Willem de Kooning (1968) and Barnett Newman (1971). Hess's other books include Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase (1951, Viking); Willem de Kooning (1959, Braziller); De Kooning, Recent Paintings (1967, Walker & Co.); Barnett Newman (1969, Walker & Co.); De Kooning: Drawings (1972, New York Graphic); and The Art Comics and Satires of Ad Reinhardt (1975, De Luca Editore, Rome).

Hess became consultative chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of 20th-Century Art a few months before his death from a heart attack in July 1978, age 57. Already under way were a Clyfford Still retrospective and a smaller show of recent paintings and sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly. Both exhibitions, completed by Philippe de Montebello (the Met's then new director) and Lowery S. Sims (the Met's then acting 20th-century curator) respectively, took place the year after Hess's death.

Thomas Hess was born in Rye, New York, to Gabriel Lorie Hess, a lawyer, and Helen Baer. He attended school in the United States and Switzerland. He continued his education at Yale University majoring in French 17th-century art history and literature. After graduating in 1942, Hess worked for a short period at the Museum of Modern Art under Alfred H. Barr and Dorothy Miller, before entering World War II as a pilot. In 1944 he married Audrey Stern with whom he had three children, William, Philip, and Anne Helen.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 10.01 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1939-1978
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.hessthom
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Greeting cards
label: Type
content: Illustrated letters
label: Type
content: Paintings
label: Type
content: Cartoons (humorous images)
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Collages
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 8 series.

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1945-1977 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, OV 15)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1945-1978 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 11)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1940-1978 (2.5 linear feet; Box 2-5, OV 12)

Series 4: Artists and Subject Files, circa 1946-1978 (4.5 linear feet; Box 5-9, OVs 13, 15-16)

Series 5: Printed Materials, 1943-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Box 9, OV 11)

Series 6: Photographic Materials, 1949-circa 1960s (0.8 linear feet; Box 9-10, OV14)

Series 7: Artwork, 1939-1978 (0.4 linear feet; Box 10, OV 11)

Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, 1943 and undated (0.01 linear feet; Folder 17)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Sarah Mundy in 2017 with funding from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care Pool Fund, using accelerated processing strategies implemented by the Archives to increase information about and access to more of our collections. For this collection, accelerated processing included arrangement to the series and folder levels, adhering to the creator's original arrangement as much as possible. Generally, folder contents were simply verified with the original folder titles, but items within folders were not arranged further. All materials were rehoused in archival folders and boxes for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Portions of the collection are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 3685-3697 and 5028 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.

All sound recordings in this collection have been copied for research access and digital copies are available in the Archives of American Art offices.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Greeting cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrated letters
label: Genre/Form
content: Paintings
label: Genre/Form
content: Cartoons (humorous images)
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Collages
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of New York editor and art critic Thomas Hess measure 10.01 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1978. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, extensive writings and notes, artists and subject files that also include recorded conversations with artists and others, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork. 

Biographical material includes a certificate, architectural plans, investment information, invoices, publisher and loan agreements, will for Paul Stamm, and resumes. Correspondence is with members of Hess' family including his wife and children, Philip Guston, Meyer Schapiro, David Smith, James Schuyler, Forrest Bess, Elaine de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Larry Rivers, Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, and others. 

Writings and notes consist of manuscripts and drafts by Hess for Art News, Le Monde, Vogue, New York magazine, and other publications; Hess' senior essay and class notes; notes on Ingres, Italian artists, and travels abroad; notebooks on art and literature; and scattered writings by others. 

Artists and subject files contain primarily photographs of artwork, artists, and colleaguesare mostly photographs of artwork, artists, and colleagues.  Some of the files also contain printed materials, writings, notes, and other documentation.  The file on Willem de Kooning includes a sound recording of a conversation between Hess, de Kooning, and Harold Rosenberg.  There are also significant files on Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Carl Milles, Barnett Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and the Mark Rothko Foundation Inc. 

Printed materials include  brochures and flyers, clippings, magazines and newspapers, press releases, travel memorabilia, and a printed scarf.  Photographs are of of Hess, his wife Audrey, other family members, works of art, travel, Larry Rivers and Ad Reinhardt, and other artists and colleagues. Artwork includes drawings, paintings, collages, cartoons, and holiday cards made by Hess and his children, along with artwork by others including Audrey and Lawrence Campbell, Ad Reinhardt, and unidentified artists. 

There is a .01 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes a six page typed manuscript, "Think, American Painting," undated, by Thomas Hess and the book American Realists and Magic Realists, The Museum of Modern Art, 1943, signed by Hess.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: Materials on legacy microfilm reel 5028 related to Barnett Newman are photocopies.  The originals are located at the Barnett New Foundation in New York City.