Keith Warner papers
name: label: Creator
content: Warner, Keith, 1895-1959
label: Names
content: "291" (Gallery)
label: Names
content: American Place (Gallery)
label: Names
content: Whitney Museum of American Art
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Dorcely, Roland
label: Names
content: Macdonald-Wright, Stanton, 1890-1973
label: Names
content: Marin, John, 1870-1953
label: Names
content: Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944
label: Names
content: O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986
label: Names
content: Rosenburg, Paul
label: Names
content: Russell, Morgan, 1886-1953
label: Names
content: Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
label: Names
content: Weber, Max, 1881-1961
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State)
label: Topic
content: Artists -- United States
label: Topic
content: Art -- Haiti
label: Topic
content: Art, Abstract -- Collectors and collecting
label: Topic
content: Art criticism
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting
label: Topic
content: Synchromism (Art)
label: Topic
content: Art, American
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Keith Warner papers were donated in 1992 by Edna K. Allen, wife of Keith Warner.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warner, Keith, 1895-1959
setName: label: See more items in
content: Keith Warner papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Keith Warner (1895-1959) was an American art collector. Warner was born and lived in Gloversville, New York, and maintained a manufacturing business that took him to New York City intermittently.  Warner began collecting Chinese porcelains after World War I, and a few years later his interest shifted to American abstract painting.  Warner retired from business in 1944. His collection was sold gradually after his death, mostly to private collectors, though some works are in museums in the United States and Japan.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.7 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1935-1975
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.warnkeit
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Illustrated letters
label: Type
content: Sketches
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 3 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1940-1963 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1-2)

Series 2: Collecting Files, circa 1940-1975 (12 folders; Box 2, OV 3)

Series 3: Artwork, circa 1945-circa 1965 (2 folders; Box 2)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The Keith Warner papers were processed by J. Lundin and microfilmed onto reel 4995 in 1995. In 2016, the finding aid was written and collection prepared for digitization by Megan Bean, and the collection was scanned in 2016 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The collection was digitized in 2016 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website. Blank pages and duplicates have not been scanned.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrated letters
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.

Warner's relationships with artists are documented in extensive letters which make up the bulk of the collection. Subjects range from exhibitions, the art market, artists' methods and works, art criticism, and collecting to personal subjects. Letters from Roland Dorcely and Alexander Calder include illustrated letters and postcards. Letters from Calder discuss a mix of business and personal matters, including a discussion of the design of jewelry commissioned for Warner's wife, Edna. Letters from Dorcely document Warner's cultivation, criticism, and collection of Dorcely's work, as well as the hardships of Haitian artists and Dorcely's views on art. The letters are in French with some English translations. 

Correspondence with Alfred Stieglitz documents his common endeavor with Warner in collecting the paintings of John Marin, and Stieglitz's gallery, An American Place. Letters associated with An American Place continue after Stieglitz's death in 1946. Found with Alfred Stieglitz's letters are two letters from Georgia O'Keeffe.  Max Weber letters include comments on his painting and sculpting, his retrospective show at the Whitney, the art press, national politics, and also refer to Stieglitz and Marin.  An extensive group of correspondence with Stanton MacDonald-Wright is mostly undated; MacDonald-Wright writes freely about Stieglitz, the "291" group of artists, and his partner in Synchromism, Morgan Russell. Also included are letters from Piet Mondrian related to collecting, as well as letters from unidentified correspondents. 

Warner's collecting files consist of diverse materials concerning his research, writing, and relationships with artists whose paintings he collected, particularly Roland Dorcely and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. Included are biographical sketches; writings about and by the artists, including manuscripts and published materials; newspaper and magazine clippings; exhibition announcements and catalogs; and photographs of works of art. Writings by Roland Dorcely, on the subject of his artistic process and perspective, include handwritten essays in French as well as typed English translations. Published articles from Script magazine (1945-1946) by Stanton MacDonald-Wright document his career as an art critic. Writings on Alexander Calder and Paul Rosenburg, taken from Warner's journal on Calder, and on the early relationship of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, documented on a visit with Stieglitz on May 3, 1944, are also present. 

Artwork consists of work by Alexander Calder and Roland Dorcely. Calder's work includes sketches proposing mobiles with notations as to material, scale, and cost. Dorcely's work includes sketches in graphite and ink of abstract figures and objects.