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Will South papers

 Collection
Identifier: ACCN 3058

Scope and Contents

The papers of Will South papers date from 1955 to 2017. The papers highlight his expertise regarding specific American artitsts and the Californian art movement and document's South's career as a writer and museum curator through writings, exhibition catalogs, research materials, and correspondence.

Correspondence within the collection focuses on his research projects and includes correspondence to and from South. The series containing correspondence is rather limited and general in scope. The majority of correspondence was filed within the research materials and maintained in original order.

Writings are arranged alphbetically by title and include published articles, book reviews, and exhibition reviews. Included in the writings are several exhibition catalogs for exhibits either curated or containing content contributed by South. The majority of the exhibittion catalogs were produced for the Columbia Museum of Art, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake Art Center, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Along with South's writing are his lecture notes for various events.

The majority of the collection focuses on South's collected research materials. This series is arranged alphabetically according to the last name of person or by topic. These materials include correspondence with individuals regarding specific artists and their artwork, reproductions of primary source materials from various archives, collected news clippings, and articles. South's research focused extensively on Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Guy Rose, James Taylor Harwood, Conrad Buff, and other topics in American art.

Dates

  • 1955-2017

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 / Historical

Will South received his doctorate in art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1994, where he was the Henry R. Luce Fellow for 1991. He served as the Curator of Collections for the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 2000 until 2008. He currently serves as the Chief Curator for the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio.

South published several books including In Nature’s Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt for the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California; A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles for the Pasadena Museum of Art; Color, Myth & Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism for the North Carolina Museum of Art; California Impressionism for Abbeville Press; and Guy Rose: American Impressionist for the Oakland Museum of Art. His article, “The Unknown Henry Ossawa Tanner” for Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide was nominated for the American Art Museum Curators’ award for the outstanding scholarly article of the year.

He is married to Allison South. For further information regarding Will South, please refer to his website at willsouth.org

Extent

23 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Will South papers contain writings and lecture notes. Also included are research materials focused on individual artists. Will South is an artist and American art historian. South's research focused extensively on Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Guy Rose, James Taylor Harwood, Conrad Buff, and other topics in American art.

Arrangement

This collection has been organized into the following series: I. Correspondence; II. Writings; III. Lecture notes and announcements; IV. Research materials; V. Coursework; and VI. General materials.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Will South in 2017.

Related Materials

Separated Materials

Photographs and audio-visual materials have been tranferred to the Multimedia Division in Special Collecions.

Processing Information

Creator

Title
Will South papers
Author
Finding aid written by Betsey Welland.
Date
2024
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
The finding aid was written in English.

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