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Theodore Milton Wassmer papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 0655

Scope and Contents

The Theodore Milton Wassmer papers is made up of various materials that illustrate the personal and professional life of Wassmer as a successful artist, as well as many other artists whose work he collected.

The collection is comprised of nineteen boxes. Boxes 1-3 contain general material on Wassmer's paintings, but also have biographical information. Specifically, box 1 has background on Wassmer's first studio, his penthouse studio in the Avenues area of Salt Lake City, as well as biographical information on the artists Florence Ware and Judy Lund, Wassmer's wife. Box 2 has information on Wassmer's brief Hollywood career and successful military career. Boxes 4-7 contain correspondence of Ted Wassmer and Judy Lund, with various friends and associates, arranged alphabetically. Boxes 8-10 house information pertaining to the art collection of Wassmer and Lund. It is an alphabetical listing of their collection of various artist's works that are located in Utah at the Springville Museum of Art and Snow College. Box 11 holds information on the "Wassmer Retrospective" that occurred at the Springville Museum of Art in 1990, reviewing Wassmer's career as a painter. Also, a list of his exhibitions of not only his work, but of the various artists collected by Wassmer and Lund. Box 12 is a collection of catalogues from the Springville Museum of Art, and a Wassmer painting on the cover of Dialogue. The remaining boxes include general materials.

Dates

  • 1930-2006

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Theodore Milton Wassmer was born on 23 February 1910 to Hester Hall and Theodore James Wassmer in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the first of eight children to be born to the family.

Wassmer's interest in painting did not begin until 1927 at age 17, when he was given his first set of oil paints. Up to that time, he had never been exposed to oil painting or artists. By selling his artwork, he saved enough money to go to the Chicago World's Fair of 1934, where he was greatly impressed by displays of Old Masters and Impressionists. For the next five years, Wassmer worked days in a hardware store, while studying landscape and mural painting at night, and on weekends with mural painter Florence E. Ware. He also worked as a model and background painter for Ms. Ware, who painted the University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall murals under a WPA project grant, which was headed in Utah at the time by his future wife Judy Farnsworth Lund. In 1939 Wassmer rented the top floor apartment of a brownstone house on the corner of 2nd Avenue and "E" Street, referring to it as his penthouse studio. During the very productive 2 1/2 years he stayed there, he held one-man art shows, and received many prominent visitors in the art and music world.

A talent scout from Paramount Studios approached him in 1941. A screen test was arranged in Hollywood, which resulted in the offer of a contract. Unfortunately, Wassmer never had to make the decision between art and films, as it was made for him by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. In January 1942 Wassmer enlisted in the Air Force, and spent three years at Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas. In his off duty hours, he painted large murals in the recreation building. Due to a freak accident in July 1944, Wassmer's right arm, which was his painting arm, was paralyzed. He was sent to Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City for treatment. He began painting with his left arm, and created a large mural for the hospital wall. He was discharged from the Air Force in October 1945 as a sergeant, but only had 10% use of his right arm.

Wassmer married Judy Farnsworth Lund in December 1945 in New York City. They left for Cape Cod where they spent the summer painting. The two studied painting at the Art Student's League in New York City and Woodstock. After focusing on learning portrait painting, he opened a studio in the Carnegie Hall tower in New York City. He spent two years painting portraits, but decided it wasn't for him. He turned his study to Cezanne, impressionistic and post impressionistic painting, observing and copying from originals. To further their art education, Wassmer and Lund made two trips to Europe to study the museums of Spain and Italy. The couple purchased an old stone house in the rural setting of Bearsville, New York, in 1952. They made painting studios out of two garages. Here they continued to live for the next 30 years, where she worked on portraits, and he worked on exhibiting across the country. Many of his paintings are centered on dance and theater. He was never able to paint large canvasses again due to his injuries. The stone house was sold in 1985, and the couple returned to Salt Lake City. From their personal art collection of American and European painters, they donated over 700 works to the Springville Museum of Art in Springville, Utah, to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, and to the Brigham City Museum. These collected paintings are known as the Lund-Wassmer Collections. In 1990, the Springville Museum of Art held a 60 year retrospective show (1930-1990) of 100 of Wassmer's works from around the country. There are in existence over 2000 paintings by Ted Wassmer that are in private collections, or in museums at colleges or schools around the United States and Europe.

Extent

11 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Theodore Milton Wassmer papers (1930-2006) consist of various materials that illustrate the personal and professional life of Wassmer as a successful artist, as well as many other artists whose work he collected.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Boxes 1-12 were donated by Theodore Wassmer in 1992.

Box 13, folders 1-7, was donated by Theodore Wassmer in December 2000.

Box 13, folder 8, was donated by Theodore Wassmer in 1997 and 1999.

Box 14 was donated by Theodore Wassmer in April 2003.

Boxes 15-18 were donated by Theodore Wassmer in August 2003.

Box 19 was donated by Theodore Wassmer in 2004.

Related Materials

See also the Utah Artists Project for examples of Wassmer's artwork.

See also the Julia Farnsworth Lund Wassmer papers (Accn 1599) located in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.

Separated Materials

Photographs and audio-visual materials were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0839 and A0602).

Processing Information

Processed by Jane Brinkerhoff and Lisa DeMille from 1993-2004.

Box 19 processed by Betsey Welland in 2012.
Title
Inventory of the Theodore Milton Wassmer papers
Author
Finding aid created by Jane Brinkerhoff.
Date
1993 (last modified: 2019)
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Revision Statements

  • 2000-2004: Finding aid revised and updated by Lisa DeMille.
  • 2012: Finding aid revised and updated by Betsey Welland.

Repository Details

Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Repository

Contact:
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863