Archives of American Art Blog

Archivist on the Road: Colorado

Passing over a spur of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico on my way to Colorado (I hiked in these mountains as a boy, so it was something like a homecoming). Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010.

I’ve had the pleasure of escaping the recent crippling heat in Washington, DC to begin a nearly month-long collecting trip in the Rocky Mountain states. We loosely define these as New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. I will be visiting every one!

I’m in Colorado at the moment, a state which has traditionally attracted artists, hippies, bikers, and free spirits with its wild west appeal, striking topography, and relatively low cost of living. During the 1960s and 70s a huge number of communes were established here, many of them around ideals of artistic freedom. I visited one such magical place.

Libre is a solid 12 miles from any paved road. Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010.

Libre was founded in 1968 by New York painter Dean Fleming, his wife Linda, and a group of their close friends. Fleming was part of the important Park Place group of artists who fused geometry, sculpture, painting, and sound to create groundbreaking group installations in their cooperative space in SoHo. Fleming was intrigued by the design philosophy of Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic domes as a low cost solution to housing shortages. After visiting Colorado for an exhibition in Denver, Fleming purchased a remote 360 acre tract of land in the mountains southwest of Pueblo, Colorado. With the help of his friends he built the house and studio he lives in to this day.

Every board of Dean Fleming’s house was measured, cut, and hammered by hand. The dome is much larger than it appears from the outside. Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010.

Fleming invited his friends to move to this land and build their own homes. Slowly, the community gained momentum. Eventually, they built 15 homes, placed the land into a non-profit corporation, and drafted a set of bylaws governing only the most primary concerns of the community. Libre survives to this day.

An astonishing collection of thousands of photographs from every stage of his life and career, correspondence, and hundreds of sketchbooks constitute Fleming’s archives. His studio space, built by his own hand, is a marvel of light and simplicity.

Dean showing me his latest work. Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010.

Dean in his studio.  Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010.

Fleming’s son, Luz was born at Libre and was also married there just a few days before my visit. Luz and his wife, Christine represent the next generation at Libre and are a testament to its continued vigor. As the four of us sat in Fleming’s kitchen with its hand-hewn charm and loving solidity, I was struck by how much the manifestation of one’s vision for life relies on a sort of relaxed courage. Fleming said, “We didn’t know how to build any of this stuff. We just came out and did it.”

This was my favorite part of the main dome, separated from a large workspace by a freestanding wall. Photo by Jason Stieber, 2010

Jason Stieber is one of two Collections Specialists at the Archives of American Art. Jason travels throughout the United States in search of treasures to add to the Smithsonian’s collections.

Rolling Through Summer

Robert (Bob) Blum and Otto Bacher were avid cyclists, and their letters to each other trade remarks about tire punctures, recreational rides, and deals on secondhand bicycles. This ink drawing of the bike-riding artists, whose first names you’ll find where their faces belong (Otto is in the foreground, and Bob, wearing a plaid jacket, is to his right), is one of several such images in the Otto Bacher papers.

Drawing of two cyclists, by Robert Frederick Blum. Otto Bacher papers, 1873-1938. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Letter from Robert Frederick Blum to Otto H. Bacher. Otto Bacher papers, 1873-1938. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Jenifer Dismukes is managing editor of the Archives of American Art Journal.

Notes on the short film “Art Discovers America”

“Art Discovers America” is a patriotic World War II-era educational film about American artists made by the artist and collector Alfredo Valente, an Italian immigrant. In the 1930s, with profits from his photography business, Valente began to collect paintings by artists he considered to be American masters. The filmmaker’s personal relationships with the artists portrayed in the film—including Raphael Soyer, John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh, and Abraham Walkowitz—are reflected in the staged footage he shot of them working in their studios or en plein air.

The film was made independently and distributed by MGM, and within a year had it been bought by the Loews studio and made into a longer educational film called “Grandpa Called It Art” (1944). Although the Archives of American Art does not have a copy of the later film, the title suggests it may not have retained the same passionate admiration of the artists that characterizes Valente’s film.

This print came to the Archives of American Art in the Alfredo Valente papers, 1941-1978, and the film’s subsequent fate suggests that few prints of Valente’s film were probably ever made or seen. The Archives received funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve it in 2009, resulting in the video you see here. Unfortunately, irregular frame intervals in the original print result in some distortion of the picture and sound of the projected film, but even still, Valente’s enthusiasm for his subject, and his rare access to his artist friends, comes through.

Megan McShea is the Audiovisual Archivist at the Archives of American Art.