Peter Howard Selz papers
name: label: Creator
content: Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019
label: Names
content: College Art Association of America
label: Names
content: Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.) (Faculty)
label: Names
content: Marlborough Gallery
label: Names
content: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
label: Names
content: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)
label: Names
content: University of California, Berkeley. University Art Museum
label: Names
content: Baykam, Bedri, 1957-
label: Names
content: Beckmann, Max, 1884-1950
label: Names
content: Benton, Fletcher, 1931-
label: Names
content: Bergman, Ciel, 1938-
label: Names
content: Bury, Pol, 1922-2005
label: Names
content: Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976
label: Names
content: Chase-Riboud, Barbara
label: Names
content: Christo, 1935-
label: Names
content: Conner, Bruce, 1933-2008
label: Names
content: Dubuffet, Jean, 1901-
label: Names
content: Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956
label: Names
content: Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966
label: Names
content: Golub, Leon, 1922-2004
label: Names
content: Graves, Morris, 1910-2001
label: Names
content: Guston, Philip, 1913-1980
label: Names
content: Hadzi, Dimitri, 1921-2006
label: Names
content: Lebrun, Rico, 1900-1964
label: Names
content: Lindner, Richard, 1901-1978
label: Names
content: Lipchitz, Jacques, 1891-1973
label: Names
content: O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986
label: Names
content: Onslow-Ford, Gordon
label: Names
content: Paris, Harold, 1925-1979
label: Names
content: Petlin, Irving, 1934-
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967
label: Names
content: Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970
label: Names
content: Tinguely, Jean, 1925-
place: label: Place
content: San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
topic: label: Occupation
content: Authors -- California -- Berkeley
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- California -- Berkeley
label: Topic
content: Realism
label: Topic
content: Political cartoons
label: Topic
content: Pop art
label: Topic
content: Environment (Art)
label: Topic
content: Painting, Abstract
label: Topic
content: Ceramics
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- California
label: Topic
content: Art -- Political aspects
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Exhibitions
label: Topic
content: Art -- Germany
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Peter Howard Selz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Peter Selz in multiple installments from 1976 through 2014. Additional papers were donated in 2018 by Gabrielle Selz, Peter Selz's daughter.
creator: label: Creator
content: Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019
setName: label: See more items in
content: Peter Howard Selz papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005.  The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and nine scrapbooks.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019) was a pioneering historian of modern art, professor, and writer who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-1988 and founded and directed the Berkeley Art Museum from 1965-1973.  

Selz was born in 1919 in Munich, Germany to Eugene Selz and Edith Drey Selz.  In 1936, the family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States.  Selz attended Columbia University from 1937 to 1938 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942.  During World War II, Selz served in the U.S. Army in the Office of Strategic Services.  He married writer Thalia Cheronis in 1948 but they later divorced in 1965; he married several times afterwards.   

After the war, Selz attended and taught at the University of Chicago where he received a Ph. D. in German Expressionism.  He spent a year in Paris, 1949-1950, at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre on a Fulbright grant.  He received a second Fulbright grant in 1953 to study at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Belgium.  From 1953-1955, Selz also taught at the Chicago Institute of Design. 

In 1955 Peter Selz accepted a position to chair the art history department at Pomona College in Claremont and relocated to California for a few years.  He also became director of the college's art gallery.  

In 1958 Selz moved to New York City to become curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and was there through the transformative mid-1960s.  While at MOMA, he organized several significant exhibitions of modern art, including the 1960 Jean Tinguely "Homage to New York," a sculpture that destroyed itself (and started a fire) in the sculpture garden of the museum;  New Images of Man (1959), the Art Nouveau show (1960), and the Art of Assemblage (1961).  He also launched important retrospectives, including the first Rodin retrospective in the United States and a comprehensive exhibition of Alberto Giacometti's work in 1965. 

In 1965, Peter Selz returned to California to become the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he held until 1973.  He organized exhibitions of Funk, film, and ceramicists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson.   Peter Selz later became project director for Christo's "Running Fence", the 24.5-mile long fabric fence over the Marin County hills in 1976.  He also served concurrently as a professor of art history at UC until retiring in 1988.  

Peter Selz was a member of the College Art Association's board of directors for two terms, 1958-1964 and 1966-1971.  Selz is a prolific writer, and the author or co-author of numerous books, exhibition catalogs, and articles.  Notable books include German Expressionist Painting (1957), Art in a Turbulent Era (1965), Art in Our Times (1981), and Sam Francis (1975).

In 1988 Peter Selz was named emeritus professor at University of California, Berkeley.  In 1993 he was on the acquisitions committee of the Museums of Fine Arts, San Francisco.  In 2012, Selz curated The Painted Word exhibition. Selz died in 2019 in Albany, California.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 31.5 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 0.696 Gigabytes
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1929-2018
label: Date
content: bulk 1950-2005
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.selzpete
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Video recordings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is arranged as 10 series.   When possible the original order of Peter Selz was maintained.  However, multiple accessions were merged and integrated.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-2013 (2.3 linear feet; Box 1-3, Box 37)

Series 2: Writings, 1942- circa 2014 (8.3 linear feet; Box 3-10, OV 32, Box 37, 0.035 GB; ER01, ER12) 

Series 3: Professional Files, 1949-2012 (1 linear feet; Box 11, Box 37)

Series 4: Project Files, 1962-2015 (2.8 linear feet; Box 12-14, OV 33, Box 37)

Series 5: Membership and Association Records, 1958-2014 (1.1 linear feet; Box 14-15, Box 37)

Series 6: Artists' Research Files, 1955-2014 (7.9 linear feet; Box 15-22, OV 34-35, 0.520 GB; ER02-ER08)

Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1959-2014 (5.2 linear feet; Box 23-27, Box 38, 0.093 GB; ER09-ER11)

Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1929-2014 (1.2 linear feet; Box 28-29, OV 36, Box 38)

Series 9: Printed Material, 1957-2014 (0.3 linear feet; Box 29, Box 38)

Series 10: Scrapbooks, 1947-2018 (1.4 linear feet, Box 29-31, Box 38)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Multiple accessions were merged and integrated and processed by Rihoko Ueno in 2014, with funding from the Frederick Hammersley Foundation. The 2018 addition was minimally processed and integrated into the collection by Rayna Andrews in 2018, with funding from Gerald and Bente Buck.
 Born-digital materials were processed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2019 with funding provided by Smithsonian Collection Care and Preservation Fund.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Portions of the collection are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 2343-2345 and 4383-4385 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.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005.  The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and scrapbooks.

Correspondence is with colleagues, artists, museums, and galleries concerning a wide variety of topics, including exhibitions and publications.  The bulk of the correspondence consists of alphabetical files (two linear feet) that includes correspondence with artists.  Notable correspondents include Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gordon Onslow Ford, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Graves, Philip Guston, Dimitri Hadzi, Jacques Lipchitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Jean Tinguely, and others.   Eight additional files of chronological correspondence is with curators, arts organizations, and publishers.  Additional correspondence is found in the professional files, project files, membership files, artists' research files, and exhibition files. 

The bulk of the writings series is comprised of files related to Selz's books and includes typescript drafts and galleys, printed and digital material, correspondence, and publishing contracts.   Files are found for Art in Our Times, Art of Engagement, Beyond the Mainstream, and Theories of Modern Art.  Other writings consist of drafts of articles, essays, notes, and lectures by Selz. Also included are writings by others, including materials related to Paul Karlstrom's biography of Selz.

Professional files document curatorial and teaching positions at the Chicago Institute of Design, Pomona College, University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art.  The series includes contracts, recommendations, syllabi, and correspondence.   

Project files document Selz's professional work on specific art projects, panels, and symposiums.  There is extensive documentation of Selz's work as project director of Christo's Running Fence, as well as other environmental art work projects by Christo, the Berkeley Art Project, Disney Art Project,  "Funk Art" symposium, and the "Art and Politics in the 20th Century" symposium.  Project files contain a wide variety of materials, such as correspondence, printed material, financial records, reports, photographs, and other documents.  There are 2 tape reels, 1 VHS, and 1 sound cassette.

Membership and association records document Selz's involvement with or membership in various art councils, trustee boards, such as the College Art Association, Art in Chicago Advisory Committee, Bay Area Rapid Transit (B.A.R.T.) Art Council, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum Advisory Board, among others.  Materials include meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, and memoranda.

Artists' Research Files consist of a wide variety of research materials Selz compiled about artists for lectures, writings, projects, exhibitions, etc.  Files vary and may include original and photocopied correspondence, photographic material, resumes, printed and digital material, and writings.  There is also 1 sound cassette.  Files are found for Bedri Baykam, Max Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Ciel Bergman, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Bruce Conner, Jean Dubuffet, Lyonel Feininger, Leon Golub, Dimitri Hadzi, Rico Lebrun, Harold Paris, Irving Petlin,  among many others.

Exhibition files include catalogs, reviews, clippings, writings, correspondence, and other material documenting exhibitions organized by Selz.  Limited materials are found for the MOMA Art Nouveau exhibition.  More extensive documentation is found for Seven Decades of Modern Art, 1895-1965, The Joint Show (1967),  The American Presidency in Political Cartoons (1976), American Modern Art Between the Two World Wars (1979), German Realism in the Twenties: Artist As Social Critic  (1980), Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (1989), a Richard Lindner Retrospective (1996), Spaces of Nature (1999), Color and Fire:  Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000 (2000), and a Nathan Oliviera Retrospective (2002), among others.  Some of the materials are in digital format.

Personal business records are related to the Mark Rothko estate and Kate Rothko's legal case against Marlborough Gallery, Inc.  Also included in this series are Peter Selz's school transcripts, bequests, royalty statements, house designs, and other material. 

Printed materials include clippings, prints of articles written by Peter Selz, exhibition announcements and invitations, and photocopies of artwork images.

There are nine disbound scrapbooks dating from the 1940s up through 2012 containing clippings, exhibition announcements, and photographs of art events, Selz, and artists. This series also includes materials from the 2018 addition that may have previously been compiled in binders.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews of Peter Selz conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom on July 28, 1982, October 12, 1982, and November 3, 1999.