Scope and arrangement
The Sidney Tillim papers, dating from the 1930s to 2007 (the bulk dates from 1945 to 2001), offer a comprehensive view of Tillim's work and life. They provide multiple perspectives on the mid-to-late 20th century art world in New York City as seen through the eyes of a highly-respected critic, artist, and teacher. The papers illuminate Tillim's work and personal life through professional records; correspondence; professional and personal writings; teaching files; biographical files; notes and journals; art by Tillim and others; scrapbooks; photographs; and posters. All content dating from after Tillim's death was compiled by his widow, Diane Radycki.
Biographical Files mainly concern Tillim's life in the 1950s, but include documentation up to his death in 2001. They hold identification and legal documents, CVs, U.S. Army documents, datebooks, writings, drawings, letters, correspondence with family members, and awards.
Correspondence, the largest portion of the collection, dates from Tillim's college years until his death, and is with a wide swath of critics, writers, artists, and scholars. These include James Ackerman, Richard Bellamy, Helen Frankenthaler, Clement Greenberg, Gabriel Laderman, Phillip Lopate, Bernard Malamud, Larry Poons, and many others. The correspondence also holds family letters. Some letters from artists include small drawings or paintings.
Exhibition and Painting Records represent Tillim's work as an artist. They include a comprehensive list of exhibitions and tours in which his work was featured; correspondence with curators, museums, galleries, and dealers; exhibition programs and catalogs; and business records for Tillim's studios.
The Professional Files document Tillim's activities as a writer, critic, lecturer, and curator. They contain Tillim's published and unpublished art reviews, essays, and commentary; notes for and transcripts of lectures and symposia; Tillim's research files on the critic Clement Greenberg; and subject files regarding various projects, writings, and interviews.
The Teaching Files cover Tillim's academic career, primarily at Bennington College, but also including visiting appointments at other institutions. They include course files, syllabi, lectures, and departmental and administrative correspondence.
Tillim's Notes, dating from the late 1940s to 2001, hold drawings, sketches, journal entries, and brief notes and ideas, as well as a set of notes describing his psychotherapy. He also produced short fiction, essays, memoirs, and poetry, filed under Creative and Personal Writings.
Journals, more organized than the Notes, provide a first-person record of the New York art scene in the second half of the twentieth century from the unique vantage of an insider and critic who regularly attended shows and openings. and They also discuss many personal issues.
The Scrapbooks and Photograph albums contain imagery and clippings from the 1930s to 1995. They hold personal and family photographs, as well as images of Tillim with colleagues, students, and friends.
Art in the collection consists primarily of Tillim's work, dating from the late 1930s to 2001. Work given to Tillim by artist friends and acquaintances is also present. Other artists whose work Tillim collected include Marcia Brown, Ouida Canaday, Richard Haas, Richard Han, David A. Hanson, and Sol LeWitt. Tillim's art can also be found in the Biographical files, and art by others can also be found in the Correspondence.
The collection also holds sound recordings of lectures, interviews, and radio broadcasts of conversations with Tillim and other critics. Sound recordings are unavailable pending digitization.
The Sidney Tillim papers are arranged in ten series:
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1940s-2001
The Biographical files contain documentation of Tillim's life, as well as some of his family's, from the early 1940s to 2001, but most files date from the 1950s. The files include CV's, identification cards, passports, U.S. Army documents, wills, obituaries, address books, datebooks, and awards, as well as evidence of some of Tillim's activities. Major time periods covered are his service in the army (1943 to 1946); his college years at Syracuse University (1946 to 1950); his time in California (early 1950s); and his first years back in New York City (1956 to 1963). These files include writings, poetry, cartoons, job applications (most for writing or editing work), employment records, clippings, and notes on Tillim's psychoanalysis (starting during his California residency). The California files also contain an early book of poetry, Those Days And The Sea (1952, written to accompany his first art exhibition), and a chapter of an unfinished novel (circa 1952-1953). The files also hold letters or legal papers regarding Tillim's parents, sister, uncle, and wives, as well as genealogical notes.
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1940s-2010
The Correspondence begins in the late 1940s, when Tillim was a student at Syracuse University, and continues throughout his lifetime. Tillim kept three file sets: family letters, an alphabetical file, and a chronological file. Many, though not all files, contain letters from Tillim. Tillim did not carry on extensive correspondence over years with any individual, but the files do show he maintained light correspondence with many friends and colleagues. However, Series III: Exhibition and Painting Records contains extensive correspondence with Uli Bohnen, a critic and writer.
The correspondents in the alphabetical and chronological files include critics, art dealers, artists, and scholars, such as James Ackerman, Richard Bellamy, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Michael Fried, Clement Greenberg, Donald Judd, Allan Kaprow, Alex Katz, Max Kozloff, Hilton Kramer, Yayoi Kusama, Gabriel Laderman, June Leaf, Al Leslie, Helen Levitt, Sol LeWitt, Phillip Lopate, Bernard Malamud, Robert Morris, Linda Nochlin, Ken Noland, Jules Olitski, Charles Olson, Philip Pearlstein, Adrian Piper, Larry Poons, Ad Reinhardt, Faith Ringgold, Barbara Rose, Robert Rosenblum, Tom Sachs, Ron Sanders, Peter Saul, Meyer Schapiro, Leo Steinberg, Robert Storr, Mark Tansey, Lionel Trilling, Alan Wallach, Susan Wheeler, Philemona Williamson, and Hilma Wolitzer. Some correspondence with artists contains small works of art. The container list contains more details on correspondents in the chronological file.
The family letters include correspondence with Tillim's first wife, Muriel, as well as with his father, cousins, siblings, and an uncle (also named Sidney Tillim). The Muriel Tillim files hold Sidney Tillim's correspondence with doctors, family, and friends regarding her attempted suicide and hospitalization from 1972 to 1973. Letters from 1996 consist of condolence notes to Sidney Tillim following Muriel's death.
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1948-2007
These records document Tillim's work as a painter, from his days as a student at Syracuse University to his last exhibition in 2001. The Exhibition records are arranged alphabetically by venue or, in the case of tours, by name of the exhibition. They include correspondence with galleries, curators, collectors, and dealers; programs; catalogs; financial and funding records; slides of art; notes; and, in some cases, photographs of exhibits, galleries, and receptions. The first folder in this file set holds a chronology with a comprehensive list of Tillim's solo and group exhibitions, from 1948 to 2007, as well as a list of the exhibitions' curators and reviewers. Of note are Tillim's correspondence with the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery; files on early exhibitions; and the text of a lecture titled "Bugs Bunny Meets The Sublime," delivered in and filed under Skowhegan, Maine.
The Painting records include financial and business records regarding Tillim's studios in New York from the mid-1960s to 2001; a set of sources Tillim used for inspiration (primarily magazine and newspaper clippings); and several clippings of articles and interviews pertaining to Tillim as an artist.
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1950-2000
The Professional Files document Tillim's practice as a writer, critic, lecturer, and curator. They are in four divisions: Manuscripts and Notes; Symposia and Lectures; Clement Greenberg Research Files; and Subject Files.
Manuscripts and Notes contain Tillim's criticism and essays that appeared in such venues as Art in America, Arts Digest, and Artforum. These writings, arranged by title, subject, or correspondent, represent both published and unpublished work. The content rages from notes and early drafts, to multiple drafts with comments, to final published copy. Correspondence with editors is also present. The files for the Alliance of Figurative Artists include the text of a lecture Tillim delivered to the organization.
Symposia and lectures are arranged by the hosting institution. A detailed, alphabetical guide to these lectures was assembled by Tillim's wife, Diane Radycki. A paper copy of this guide can be found in box 45, folder 22; it can also be viewed as an added resource through the archival portal. The files, mainly filed alphabetically, include lecture notes, written or typed full texts, programs, and correspondence with presenters or other symposia panel members. Some lectures were recorded. Sound recordings are unavailable pending digitization.
Tillim researched a book on the life of the critic Clement Greenberg, but never completed it. His research files on Greenberg include a full transcription by Peggy Schiffer Noland of Greenberg's famed Bennington Seminars of 1971, correspondence with Noland, and notes and writings on Greenberg by Tillim and others, some bearing Tillim's annotations.
The Subject Files, arranged by topic, document Tillim's involvement with or opinions on artists, museums, organizations, and artistic styles and movements. Also present are interviews with Tillim, and articles about him. The files hold notes, writings, letters, and photographs. The files also contain recordings of conversations with other critics broadcast on WBAI radio in New York.
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1961-1993
These files mainly document Tillim's nearly 30-year career at Bennington College, where he taught in the Visual Arts Department, and also acted as student advisor. The files include administrative and departmental memos, notes, correspondence, and meeting minutes; course files and lectures (arranged by title); information on art exhibitions at Bennington curated by Tillim; anonymous student evaluations of Tillim; posters; and art by students and former students. Also present are files for visiting professorships or guest lecture appointments at other institutions from the early 1960s to the 1980s.
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1949-2001
Tillim's Notes are voluminous, dating from 1949 to 2001. Arranged chronologically, they are comprised of small, daily pocket books of notes and pencil/ink sketches, as well as small watercolors; larger notebooks, referred to by Tillim as "Studio Notebooks," which contain journal entries as well as drawings and sketches; and unbound, loose notes. A separate set of "Psychological Notes" discusses Tillim's psychoanalysis and his anxiety resulting from combat injuries in World War II.
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1950s-1990s
These files hold short Tillim's short fiction, essays, memoirs, plays, and poetry. Tillim produced such writings throughout his life, but the short stories mainly date from the 1950s, when he attempted to have some of them published. Essays and memoirs, filed by title, make up the bulk of these writings. Also present are notes for and drafts of unfinished writings in various genres. See the Journals for more of Tillim's personal reflections.
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1945-2001
The journals begin during Tillim's army service in Berlin, pause while he is studying at Syracuse University, and pick up again after his graduation, when he moved to California for two years. They provide a record of the New York art scene as witnessed by an artist and critic, as well as a unique window into Bennington College. The journals are also intimate, and record his psychological states, as well the break-up of Tillim's first marriage to Muriel Tillim. Tillim later returned to nurse her through cancer until her death in 1996, and entries are sparse during these years. The journals then resume and continue to close to the end of his life in 2001. In earlier journals, Tillim's handwriting is legible, but it gradually becomes less readable from the 1950s onward. The journals also contain occasional insertions of clippings, drawings, or letters. The Journals are in 41 volumes dating from 1945 to 2001, numbered 1 through 43 (there are no volumes numbered 4 or 40).
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1930s-1995
These albums date from the 1930s to 1995. The scrapbooks date from Tillim's teens through his army service and college years at Syracuse University. They hold clippings, photographs, cartoons, drawings, and occasional narration. The scrapbooks dating from 1945, covering time in Berlin during World War II, are constructed narratives illustrated by photographs and drawings. The post-college photograph albums document Tillim's first wedding in 1956; and show Tillim with his wife, family, friends, and, in later years, colleagues and students at Bennington College. See also Eileen Travell's photograph portraits of Tillim in box 109, folder 18.
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1930s-2001
The Art consists primarily of Tillim's work, dating from the late 1930s to 2001. Works given to Tillim by friends and acquaintances is also present. Tillim's widow, Diane Radycki, arranged his work by media, which generally fall into a chronological sequence. The divisions are sketchbooks (1948 to 2001); genres and early abstract paintings (1938 to 1959); narrative paintings (1960s to 1970s); history paintings (1970s); abstracts and late figurative paintings (1980s to 2001); drawings (1960s to 2000); Korectypes (1992 to 2001); and graphics (1950s to 2001). There are also photographs; commercially-released record albums painted over by Tillim; and a print of Tillim's housed within New York, Edition Juni, a collection of work by various artists. Most of the narrative and history paintings include multiple preparatory studies in the form of pencil or ink sketches.
Other artists whose work Tillim collected include Marcia Brown, Ouida Canaday, Richard Haas, Richard Han, David A. Hanson, Sol LeWitt, Richard A. Miller, Geraldine Griffin Vroman, and Daniel Wolf.