Irving Block papers
name: label: Creator
content: Block, Irving
label: Names
content: Ankrum Gallery
label: Names
content: California State University, Northridge -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
label: Names
content: United States. Works Progress Administration
label: Names
content: Burkhardt, Hans Gustav, 1904-1994
label: Names
content: Faiss, Fritz
label: Names
content: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Animation (Cinematography) -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Art and motion pictures
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: Illustration of books
label: Topic
content: Motion picture industry
label: Topic
content: Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- Los Angeles
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated 1984 by Block and in 1996 by Jill Block, the widow of Irving Block. Additional drawings, print and poster donated 2015 by Virginia Elwood-Akers, a former librarian at California State University, Northbridge who received the drawings from colleague Dean Norman Tanis, head of the Santa Susana Press.
creator: label: Creator
content: Block, Irving
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Irving Block (1910-1986) was a painter and educator in Los Angeles, California. Block was born in New York City. He was involved in the Works Projects Administration's Federal Art Project in the 1930s, and worked as a matte shot artist at 20th Century Fox during the 1940s and 50s. He taught for many years at California State University, Northridge (1963-1980). Block co-authored with Alan Adler the original story for the science fiction film Forbidden Planet, for which he designed Robbie the Robot.
function: label: Function
content: Motion picture studios -- California -- Hollywood
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.62 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1938-1986
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.blocirvi
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Biographical material, professional and personal correspondence, subject files, financial records, artwork, printed material and an audio cassette.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Biographical information includes a résumé and award. Business correspondence, 1964-1984, regards the opening of The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Block's teaching position at California State University, Northridge, and personal correspondence includes 5 illustrated letters by Block to his wife and two printed cards from Fritz Faiss. Subject files regard the WPA, 1938-1983, film animation, 1957-1976, and book illustration, 1978-1984. Financial records relate to Block's association with the Ankrum Gallery, 1936-1981. Photographs are of Block, his friends, family and works of art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Artwork includes 2 sketches, 1962, and approximately 60 pencil figurative drawings and studies done during weekly life drawing sessions established by Block and Hans Burkhardt at the Studio Club on the MGM lot from the 1950s to mid-1970s (among them is a pastel by Burkhardt of Block drawing the nude model); and 16 drawings and one print and one poster, most of which were executed by Irving Block for Santa Susana Press, California State University, Northridge's 1986 broadside of John Updike's poem, A Pear Like a Potato. Printed material, 1941-1982, includes exhibition catalogs and clippings. An audio cassette contains Block's reminiscences of his friendship with Burkhardt and a recording of Block delivering a lecture to a senior seminar class on Walt Whitman.