Tony Vevers papers
name: label: Creator
content: Vevers, Tony
label: Names
content: Long Point Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Provincetown Art Association
label: Names
content: Purdue University -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Sun Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Andersen, Yvonne
label: Names
content: Dickinson, Edwin Walter, 1891-1978
label: Names
content: Falcone, Dominic
label: Names
content: Grooms, Red
label: Names
content: Halvorsen, Elspeth
label: Names
content: Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966
label: Names
content: L'Engle, Lucy, 1889-1978
label: Names
content: L'Engle, William, 1884-1957
label: Names
content: Motherwell, Robert
label: Names
content: Smith, Houghton Cranford, 1887-1983
label: Names
content: Stout, Myron, 1908-1987
label: Names
content: Tworkov, Jack
label: Names
content: Vevers, Tabitha
label: Names
content: Webster, E. Ambrose (Edwin Ambrose), 1869-1935
label: Names
content: Yamamoto, Gwen
label: Names
content: Yamamoto, Taro
place: label: Place
content: Provincetown (Mass.) -- Description and Travel
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Massachusetts
label: Topic
content: Transcripts
label: Topic
content: Artists' studios -- Photographs
label: Topic
content: Art -- History -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 19th century
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
label: Topic
content: Educators -- Massachusetts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2013 by Elspeth Halvorsen-Vevers the widow of Vevers.
creator: label: Creator
content: Vevers, Tony
setName: label: See more items in
content: Tony Vevers papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of painter and art historian Tony Vevers measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1947 to 2008, with the bulk of materials dating from 1960 to 1999.  The collection concerns his career as a painter and teacher and his research and writings about the history of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  Found within the papers are correspondence, writings, subject files, printed material, and photographs.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Painter and art historian, Tony Vevers (1926-2008) and his artist wife Elspeth Halvorsen (b. 1929) lived and worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts, as year-round or summer residents from 1955 to 2006.  From 1964 to 1988, Vevers taught art and art history at Purdue University in Indiana.  An active participant in the Provincetown art community, he was also an historian of the Provincetown art scene.  

Vevers was born in London, England and immigrated to the United States in 1940, graduating from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut and Yale University. Following college he studied in Florence, Italy, and with Hans Hofmann in New York City, where he met his wife Elspeth Halvorsen. The couple had two daughters, one of whom, Tabitha is also an artist.

Vevers, active in the Abstract Expressionist movement, had several one-man exhibitions and participated in over one hundred group exhibitions. His works are in the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, the Delgardo Museum in New Orleans and many universities, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad.

Tony Vevers died in Chatham, Massachusetts on March 2, 2008 following complications from pneumonia.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3.4 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1947-2008
label: Date
content: bulk 1960-1999
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.vevetony
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Prints
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Portraits
label: Type
content: Watercolor paintings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged in 7 series:

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1962-2000 (Box 1; 1 folder)

Series 2:  Correspondence, 1950s-2006 (Box 1; 0.1 linear foot)

Series 3: Writings, 1947-2008 (Boxes 1-2; 1.9 linear feet)

Series 4:  Subject Files, 1954-2006 (Boxes 2-3; 0.7 linear foot)

Series 5:  Printed Material, 1960s-2008 (Boxes 3-4; 0.7 linear foot)

Series 6:  Artwork, circa 1950s-circa 2005 (Box 4; 2 folders)

Series 7:  Photographs, circa 1950s-1984 (Box 4; 0.1 linear foot)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared in 2014 by Harriet E. Shapiro.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Portraits
label: Genre/Form
content: Watercolor paintings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of painter and art historian Tony Vevers measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1947 to 2008, with the bulk of materials dating from 1960 to 1999.  The collection concerns his career as a painter and teacher and his research and writings about the history of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  Found within the papers are correspondence, writings, subject files, printed material, and photographs. 

Among the biographical materials are résumés, a personal statement, the transcript of Tabitha Vevers's 1986 "Conversation with My Father," and applications for grants to study Provincetown artists and the history of the Provincetown art community from the 1920s to the 1950s. Personal and professional includes some letters to his wife Elspeth. 

The collection as a whole—and especially Vevers's writings and subject files–focuses on the Provincetown art community, its history and significance. Vevers's writings include many lectures prepared for classes he taught at Purdue University and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, catalog essays, and notes.  There are notes and research materials about artists Houghton Cranford Smith, E. Ambrose Webster, Edwin Dickinson, and Lucy and William L'Engle, and subject files about the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Long Point Gallery, and other galleries in the area, as well as a file of Provincetown-related obituaries and eulogies for Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, and Jack Tworkov, with Vevers's eulogies for Tworkov and Myron Stout.

Printed materials consist mainly of clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements relating to Vevers and his art interests. Artwork consists of a small print and watercolor, probably by Vevers, as well as a pen-and-ink portrait by an unidentified artist.

Photographs are mainly of artwork by Vevers. The two images of Vevers show him as a young boy and in 1984 at work in his studio. There are several photographs of exhibition installations at the Sun Gallery in Provincetown, 1958-1959, identified artists are: Yvonne Andersen, Dominic Falcone, Red Grooms, Taro and Gwen Yamamoto.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Also found in the Archives of American Arts are two oral history interviews with Tony Vevers, one conducted by Dorothy Seckler 1965 September 9, the second conducted by Robert F. Brown in 1998 July 9 and August 25.