Jules Olitski papers
name: label: Creator
content: Olitski, Jules, 1922-2007
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Abstract expressionism
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated in 2012 and 2013 by the Olitski Family Estate via Lauren Olitski Poster, director of the estate and Olitsky's daughter.
creator: label: Creator
content: Olitski, Jules, 1922-2007
setName: label: See more items in
content: Jules Olitski papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of artist and educator Jules Olitski measure 3.2 linear feet and date from 1950-2012. The collection sheds light on Olitski's career through writing files that consist of drafts, edits, and some correspondence; printed material such as newspaper clippings and articles, exhibition material, and published writings; portrait photographs of the artist; and sound and video recordings from interviews and lectures.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Jules Olitski (1922-2007) was a painter, sculptor, and educator in New York, New York, who established himself as one of the leaders of the abstract expressionist movement in the United States during the 1950s-1960s. 

Olitski was born in the Ukraine, and moved to New York in 1923 after his father, a commissar, was executed. By 1935, Olitski had developed an interest in art and was awarded a scholarship at the Pratt Institute where he began taking classes in 1939. Soon after he attended the National Academy of Design until 1942 when he enlisted in the United States Army.

In 1949 Olitski studied sculpture with Ossip Zadkine in the Zadkine School of Sculpture in France, and the next year attended the Academia de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He then moved back to the United States for his higher education, earning a master's degree  from New York University. Olitski became an associate professor of art at the State University of New York, New Paltz in 1954. He held several more teaching positions throughout the 1950s and 1960s in New York and Vermont.

From the 1970s-2000s Olitski received honorary degrees from Keen State College, Hartford Art School, and Southern New Hampshire University, and held solo shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Knoedler Contemporary Art in New York, La Musee de Valence in France, and the Drabinsky Friedland Gallery in Toronto. He also participated in several major group exhibitions around the world including American Drawings, 1964 (1964) at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970 (1970) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Green Mountain Boys - Caro, Feeley, Noland and Olitski at Bennington in the 1960's (1998), and exhibited elsewhere in Vermont and New York, and many other locations.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3.2 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1950-2012
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.olitjule
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Video recordings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is arranged as four series.

Series 1: Writing Files, 1965-1976 (Box 1; 10 folders)

Series 2: Printed Material, 1950-2012 (Box 1-3; 2.3 linear feet)

Series 3: Photographs, 1967-2006 (Box 3; 7 folders)

Series 4: Recorded Interviews and Lectures, 1977-2003 (Box 3-4; .7 linear feeet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Christopher DeMairo in 2021.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of artist and educator Jules Olitski measure 3.2 linear feet and date from 1950-2012. The collection sheds light on Olitski's career through writing files that consist of drafts, edits, and some correspondence; printed material such as newspaper clippings and articles, exhibition material, and published writings; portrait photographs of the artist; and sound and video recordings from interviews and lectures.


The majority of the collection consists of printed material that provides  comprehensive coverage of Olitski's career including announcements, catalogs, and newspaper clippings from Olitski's exhibitions at galleries and museums. Sound and video recordings are of interviews with Olitski related to exhibitions of his work and of lectures given by Olitski at Brown University, the University of Miami, and the National Museum of American History, and other locations. The bulk of these recordings date from the 1990s.