Mary Griggs Burke Papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (Bulk, 1950S-2012)
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Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Finding aid prepared by Angela Salisbury Processing of this collection was funded by a generous grant from the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation This finding aid was generated using Archivists' Toolkit on March 08, 2019 The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY, 10028-0198 212-570-3937 [email protected] Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Table of Contents Summary Information .......................................................................................................3 Biographical note.................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents note.....................................................................................................9 Arrangement note.............................................................................................................. 11 Administrative Information ............................................................................................ 11 Related Materials ............................................................................................................ 12 Controlled Access Headings............................................................................................. 12 Works Consulted............................................................................................................... 14 Collection Inventory..........................................................................................................15 Series I. Object Files...................................................................................................15 Series II. Purchases and Considerations..................................................................... 37 Series III. Exhibitions and Loans................................................................................51 Series IV. Collection Management............................................................................. 81 Series V. Mini Museum Installations and Visitors.....................................................96 Series VI. Research, Writings, and Scholarship....................................................... 100 Series VII. Institutional and Philanthropic Affiliations............................................ 112 Series VIII. Personal and Miscellany....................................................................... 123 - Page 2 - Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Summary Information Repository The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives Collector Burke, Mary Griggs, 1916-2012 Title Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Dates 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Extent 80.0 Linear feet Language Principally in English, with substantial amounts in Japanese and some German. Abstract The New York art collector and philanthropist Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012) assembled what is regarded as one of the premier collections of East Asian Art in the United States and one of the finest and most encompassing private collections of Japanese art outside of Japan. Mrs. Burke served as a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1975-1995) and was a major supporter of arts and scholarship in New York during the last half of the 20th century. Through her bequest, her art collection was divided among the following institutions: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida, and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. The Mary Griggs Burke papers include correspondence with dealers, advisors and acquaintances, receipts, exhibition-related files, writings, and notes that document her activity as a collector and patron of the arts from the mid-1950s until 2012. Preferred Citation note [Title of item], [date], Box [number], Folder [number], Mary Griggs Burke papers, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives, New York. - Page 3 - Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) Biographical note The New York art collector Mary Griggs Burke (1916-2012) assembled what is regarded as one of the premier collections of East Asian Art in the United States. Over a span of five decades, Mrs. Burke acquired approximately 1,000 works in various media— more than 850 Japanese works, some 90 Korean pieces, and about 65 Chinese works of art. The core of the collection is Japanese painting, consisting of 450 works in screen, hanging scroll, handscroll, and album formats, and around 40 works of Japanese calligraphy, as well as a small number of ukiyo-e prints and woodblock printed illustrated books. Mrs. Burke’s dedication to The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a Trustee (1976-1995), her commitment to art historical scholarship, and the generous bequest of her collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Minneapolis Institute of Art secured her legacy as an influential arts patron. Mary Griggs was born in 1916 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Theodore W. Griggs and the former Mary Steele Livingston, both heirs to family businesses in railroads, banking, lumber, and other ventures. She was an only child, doted upon and educated at home in a Victorian-style house filled with antiques and furniture imported from Europe. Mary later recalled that her childhood home felt like a museum, where she lived amongst a variety of objects from different eras and cultures, including complete eighteenth-century European rooms and Chinese ceramics. Mary credited her interest in Japanese art as originating with her mother’s kimono, which captivated her as a child. Embroidered with a dramatic design of snow-covered branches on black silk, it was acquired by her mother while on a trip around the world in 1902. Both of Mary’s parents had traveled abroad in their youth and maintained an interest in art and antiques, and these influences nurtured Mary’s eclectic taste and helped to form her appreciation for collecting at an early age. Mary attended the Summit School for girls in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and then Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she graduated in 1938. While at Sarah Lawrence, Mary gained an even greater appreciation for the arts. She studied with Joseph Campbell and learned about painting from Bradley Walker Tomlin, a member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. Under Tomlin’s influence, Mary studied art technique and form, and began to collect art. She acquired one of Tomlin’s works, Still Life (Outward Preoccupation), donated to Sarah Lawrence College in 2015, a gift of the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation. In the 1940s, Mary’s mother gave her Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Place 1, now at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Mary said that this work, more than any other, influenced her developing taste for art. Tomlin and O’Keeffe’s paintings demonstrate Mary’s early proclivity for modern styles, and a preference for clean lines that she maintained when she later shifted focus to collect Japanese art. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Mary remained in New York and went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 1942, - Page 4 - Mary Griggs Burke papers, 1895, 1922-2016 (bulk, 1950s-2012) then studied toward a Ph.D. in psychology at the New School for Social Research until 1944. Though she maintained connections with Saint Paul throughout her life, she never returned to live in Minnesota. Mary kept an apartment in Manhattan and spent summers at Forest Lodge on the shore of Lake Namekagon in northern Wisconsin. Forest Lodge, the former logging camp that her maternal grandfather Crawford Livingston purchased in 1902, served as the family’s rural retreat for hunting and fishing. Mary inherited the property from her mother in 1943 and she returned there every summer for most of her life. In 1999, she donated the 872-acre estate to the Trust for Public Land, and it has since become a part of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. In 2002, Forest Lodge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time of this writing in 2017, the facilities were undergoing restoration work and were operated in partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and Northland College, home to the Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation. Mrs. Burke’s environmental and conservation interests included involvement with the International Crane Foundation, the Hobe Sound Nature Center in Florida, the Dodge Nature Center in West Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the Cable Natural History Museum in Wisconsin. Researchers may refer to these organizations for further information. Though Mary’s interest in art and collecting developed early, her love affair with Japanese culture began in earnest in 1954, when she traveled to Japan to research gardens for the design of her home being constructed near Oyster Bay, Long Island. Mary was interested in the modern, open-plan design of contemporary architecture and hired The Architects Collaborative, or TAC, led by Walter Gropius. Gropius had just returned from a tour in Japan and urged Mary to go and see the clean lines of Japanese architecture for herself. Junzo Yoshimura met Mary in Japan and introduced her to modern and traditional Japanese architecture, gardens, temples and shrines. This visit had a profound effect; Mary returned to the United States with ideas for her home and a new understanding of Japanese culture. The following