SAM HUNTER
ART HISTORIAN, 1923 - 2014
Detail of a letter from Jean Tinguely.
Sam Hunter, his legacy and his archive:
Sam Hunter was a professor, museum director, scholar, author, critic and curator who influenced generations of students, visual professionals, the general public and art historians around the world, some of whom went on to shape visual culture. Sam Hunter’s archive represents more than sixty years of original intellectual property that he created from 1947 to 2009. The collection includes most of his writing, his work production, his poetry, personal correspondence and related ephemera, and his working library of art books, exhibition catalogs and other associated publications. Since Sam’s death, he has been consistently referred to in educational and commercial publications, by scholars, students, foundations, art galleries and museums. Excerpts, references and photographs appeared in, for example, a Willem De Kooning Foundation publication related to an exhibition at L’Orangerie in Paris 2021-22, a book on Sean Scully and an exhibition catalogue for a Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition 2022, a Frank Bowling’s exhibition catalogue in 2022, a William Copley exhibition catalogue and an Isamu Noguchi exhibition catalogue. Additionally, photographs of Francis Bacon and his studio taken by Sam appeared in several scholarly publications (three in October 2024), and two photographic prints included in the “Human Presence” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, October 2024. The appearances of his name are too numerous to count.
These exhibition catalogues from the library are just two of twenty five hundred (2,500). Primary Structures, 1966, and Philip Guston, 1965, both exhibitions at the Jewish Museum organized under Sam's direction.
Of its 122 linear shelf feet, the archive of Sam Hunter is comprised of a considerable variety of primary source materials that reflect his life’s work as an author, professor, museum director, art critic, and curator in the field of modern and contemporary art history, and as the unique exuberant personality and lover of life that he was. The physical archive includes book and exhibition catalog manuscripts, annotated manuscripts, drafts, unpublished manuscripts, digital files of several types, photographs, handwritten letters from artists, professional and personal correspondence, date books, rolodexes, syllabi, lectures, bibliographies, publishing contracts, over one hundred audio interviews of artists and gallerists and other related figures, additional interviews transcribed from tapes which were taped over, exhibition checklists, project proposals, notes, research, galleys, slides, transparencies, a typewriter, a computer, a lightbox, clothing, newspaper and magazine articles by him, exhibition reviews by him, book reviews by him, letters to the editor, emails, symposia and panels text and related brochures, student files, PhD candidate dissertations, newspaper clippings about him and others, artwork and navy records, and other physical artifacts.
Additionally, there are 319 linear shelf feet of Sam's personal working library of art books and exhibition catalogues, including copies of the over fifty books and over one hundred thirty-five exhibition catalogues he either authored or participated in. The entirety of the archive and library is housed near Princeton, New Jersey. Not included are about 50 (fifty) linear feet of personal files that document a rather dramatic life full of novel adventures.
- Maïa Hunter
Below are a handful of examples of the thousands of documents, ephemera and images that live in the archive.
Above, examples of working files and audio cassette tape interviews of people like Josef Albers, George Segal, Isamu Noguchi, Neil Welliver, Larry Rivers, Leo Castelli, William Rubin, Larry Rubin, Roland Balay, Tom Wesselmann, Bill Beckley, Arnaldo Pomodoro. Transcribed interviews of David Smith, William De Kooning and others. Both audio and transcriptions unpublished.
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An example of many annotated lectures, essays, manuscripts, etc. along with most likely the typewriter on which it was written.
Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Laurie Savage by Naomi Savage, Princeton, NJ.
One of a series of photographs of Francis Bacon and his studio source materials by Sam Hunter that are in the archive. The pixels here are greatly reduced - please refer to the CV section for more information on these photographs.
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Excerpts of correspondence from Jean Dubuffet to Sam, 1970. One of many typed and handwritten letters from artists like Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Ad Reinhardt, Barnett Newman, and Jean Tinguely to Sam.
Sam Hunter in the US Navy and afterward, 1940s. Photographers unknown.
Former Director of the Rose Art Museum Christopher Bedford announcing the establishment of the Sam Hunter Emerging Artists Fund in 2014 at the Inauguration of the "Light of Reason" sculpture installation by Chris Burden on the Brandeis University campus. Photo by Maïa Hunter, 2014.
~ Many thanks to the interns and others who helped to make the inventory of the archive and exhibition catalogues possible. ~