Riva Helfond papers
name: label: Creator
content: Helfond, Riva, 1910-2002
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New Jersey
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- New Jersey
label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- New Jersey
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Women printmakers
label: Topic
content: Women educators
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated in 1983 by Riva Helfond.
creator: label: Creator
content: Helfond, Riva, 1910-2002
setName: label: See more items in
content: Riva Helfond papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of printmaker Riva Helfond measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1934 to 1983. The papers concern Helfond's professional career and participation in the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA). Found are biographical materials, correspondence, a notebook, personal business records, photographs, printed material, a clippings scrapbook, and three sketchbooks.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: New Jersey painter, printmaker, and educator Riva Helfond (1910-2002) was known for her social realist studies of working people and their lives. She was employed by the the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project (WPA FAP) and taught printmaking at New York University and elsewhere.


Born in Brooklyn, New York, Helfond studied at the School of Industrial Art and the Art Students League and worked for the FAP at the Harlem Community Art Center with Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. She subsequently worked in the FAP's Graphic Arts Division with Louis Lozowick and Jacob Kainen, and in the silk- screen division where she was supervised by Anthony Velonis. In 1964 she taught printmaking at New York University and after 1980 was on the faculty of Union College in Cranford, New Jersey.

Helfond was married to sculptor Will Barrett and her circle of friends included Abstract Expressionist artists and critics such as Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, and Harold Rosenberg. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Brooklyn Museum,  and many other institutions.

Helfond died in New Jersey in 2002.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.2 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1934-1983
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.helfriva
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2023 with support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of printmaker Riva Helfond measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1934 to 1983. The papers concern Helfond's professional career and participation in the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA). Found are biographical materials, correspondence, a notebook, personal business records, photographs, printed material, a clippings scrapbook, and three sketchbooks.