http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8sf31n6 No online items Anne Tardos Papers Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Copyright 2015 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 [email protected] URL: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/collections/sca/index.html Anne Tardos Papers MSS 0770 1 Descriptive Summary Languages: English Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla 92093-0175 Title: Anne Tardos Papers Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0770 Physical Description: 45 Linear feet(66 archives boxes, 16 records cartons, 1 flat box, 1 map case folder, 4 films) Physical Description: 106 GBof digital files Date (inclusive): 1937-2014 (bulk 1960-2014) Abstract: Papers of Anne Tardos (1943-), a multilingual poet, composer, and artist. The collection documents Tardos's highly collaborative creative process, especially her decades-long partnership with poet Jackson Mac Low. Her papers include personal documents; correspondence with friends, family, and colleagues; manuscripts of poetry, essays and talks; writings of others, especially Jackson Mac Low; materials gathered and created for conferences, exhibitions, concerts, interviews and other events; ephemera; and extensive audiovisual and digital media. Scope and Content of Collection Papers of Anne Tardos (1943-), a multilingual poet, composer, and artist. The collection documents Tardos's highly collaborative creative process, especially her decades-long partnership with poet Jackson Mac Low, and ingenuity and originality in digital artwork. Her papers include personal documents; correspondence with friends, family, and colleagues; manuscripts of poetry, essays and talks; writings of others, especially Jackson Mac Low; materials gathered and created for conferences, exhibitions, concerts, interviews and other events; ephemera; and extensive audiovisual and digital media. Prominent correspondents include Ay-O, Steve Benson, Carol Bergé, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Simone Forti, Lyn Hejinian, Geoff Hendricks, Jackson Mac Low, Charlotte Moorman, Joan Retallack, Larry Rosing and Nancy St. Paul, Jerome Rothenberg, Anne Waldman, and Rosmarie Waldrop. Arranged in ten series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) ARTWORK, PRINTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS, 5) WRITINGS OF OTHERS, 6) INTERVIEWS, 7) PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS, 8) PROGRAMS, POSTERS, AND FLYERS, 9) AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS, AND 10) DIGITAL MEDIA. Biography Poet, composer, and visual and performance artist Anne Tardos was born in Cannes, France in 1943. She grew up in Paris, Budapest, and Vienna, developing fluency in French, Hungarian, German, and English before moving to New York in 1966. Her parents were both artistic: her father a writer of fiction and her mother a radio producer and speaker which, Tardos says, is a kind of performance art. Both parents were fervent communists and then, disillusioned, just as fervently anticommunist. This lack of philosophical continuity during her formative years is a reason, Tardos believes, that she isn't inclined toward political commitment or to trust any belief system that offers certainty, a stance that was greatly reinforced by the destruction on September 11, 2001 of the World Trade Centers, located a few blocks south of her Tribeca home on North Moore Street. Tardos pioneered a unique multilingual writing style, and often complemented her texts with video stills, photographs, and collages. Her writing is renowned for its fluid use of multiple languages and its innovative forms. She has worked in numerous media, creating performance pieces, radio plays, videos, and musical compositions. In 1975, Tardos met poet and composer Jackson Mac Low. In 1980, they began a decades-long collaboration composing, writing, and performing poetry and music, and they married in 1990. In addition to numerous live performances, their collaborative and individual works have been featured on numerous radio programs in the United States and in Europe, including WNYC-FM and Westdeutscher Rundfunk. The nature of their artistic collaboration can be suggested by music critic Anthony Tommasini's description of their jointly composed piece "For Dick Higgins" as "a sound collage of spoken texts, vocal effects and an occasional struck bell, performed by the two composers." Hejinian begins Tardos interview with a similar observation: "You have worked in an enormous variety of artistic mediums…and in mixed media and cross-genre forms of your own invention." Tardos herself has said of her writing process, "The text becomes music and the writer becomes a composer who listens." Adding to this aesthetic amalgam is the fact that many of her poems are multilingual, using French, Hungarian, and German as well as English words and passages. Before, during, and after her marriage to Mac Low (which ended with his death in 2004), Tardos pursued many solo endeavors as well. A typical example of a "found sound composition" is her 1975 recording of the sounds her refrigerator made as she defrosted it, which she then overlaid with a series of her own vocalizations, creating in effect a Duet with Anne Tardos Papers MSS 0770 2 Refrigerator. She has illustrated covers of many small press publications, her texts have been set to music by several contemporary composers, and her visual work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art and galleries in New York, Paris, and elsewhere. Her publications continue to demonstrate new ways in which disparate media can be creatively partnered. As the esteemed critic Marjorie Perloff has written, "Tardos plays with every possible verbal/visual/ musical relationship…and can work magic with the…tension between high art and 'ordinary' signage." And as Hejinian has succinctly stated, "Your work throughout is exemplary of what is truly 'innovative.'" Tardos married the composer Michael Byron in 2012. Publication Rights Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection. Preferred Citation Anne Tardos Papers, MSS 770. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. Acquisition Information Acquired 2014. Restrictions Original films, sound recordings and digital media are restricted. Researchers may request user copies be produced in advance. Related Materials Jackson Mac Low Papers, MSS 180. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. Digital Content The collection includes 274 digital sound recordings. A list of the file names is available upon request. Subjects and Indexing Terms Women poets -- United States American poetry -- 20th century Tardos, Anne -- Archives Hejinian, Lyn -- Correspondence Mac Low, Jackson Smith, Monty W., 1944- -- Correspondence Retallack, Joan -- Correspondence BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL Scope and Content of Series Series 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS: Includes early student papers, assorted biographies, bibliographies and resumes, calendars, grant and exhibition paperwork, Tardos's and Mac Low's marriage certificate, and other miscellaneous materials. Arranged chronologically. Box 1, Folder 1 Student notebook and grade school materials 1950 - 1951 Box 1, Folder 2 Citizenship 1958 - 1985 General note Naturalization form requests. Box 80 Calendars 1976 - 2003 General note With notes by Anne Tardos and Jackson Mac Low. Box 1, Folder 3 CAPS application 1981 Box 1, Folder 4 Biographies 1981 - 1989 Box 1, Folder 5 Contracts 1982 - 2011 General note Performances, artwork loans, and other contracts. Anne Tardos Papers MSS 0770 3 BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL Box 1, Folder 6 National Endowment for the Arts support requests 1985 General note Letters asking for support for Jackson Mac Low grant application. Box 1, Folder 7 Franklin Furnace Jerome Foundation grant proposal 1986 Box 1, Folder 8 PASS Artist in Residence Application 1986 Box 1, Folder 9 Performance lists 1989 - 1998 Box 1 Marriage certificate to Jackson Mac Low 1990 Box 1, Folder 11 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant application 1991 Box 1, Folder 12 New York Foundation for the Arts grant applications 1991 - 2009 Box 1, Folder 13 Publication lists 1992 - 1997 Box 1, Folder 14 Biographies 1993 - 2009 Box 1, Folder 15 Tapes loaned to The Kitchen for restoration 2003 December 2 Box 1, Folder 16 The Poetry Project Silent Auction catalogs 2006 - 2008 General note Lists selections of Anne Tardos works for sale. Box 1, Folder 17 Poem Sound performance lists 2007 Box 1, Folder 18 EPC webpage biography 2008 Box 2, Folder 1 John Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant applications 2009 - 2012 Box 2, Folder 2 Haverford College exhibit 2013 - 2014 Box 2, Folder 3 Bedroom/workroom decorations undated General note Includes poems and ephemera. Box 2, Folder 4 Mailing lists undated Box 2, Folder 5 Satellite Video Exchange Directory entries undated General note Tardos's equipment holdings list for artist work and materials exchange program. CORRESPONDENCE Scope and Content of Series Series 2) CORRESPONDENCE: Prominent correspondents include Charles Alexander (Chax Press), Eric Andersen, Ay-O, Steve Benson, Carol Bergé, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Steve Clay (Granary Books), Simone Forti, Lyn Hejinian, Geoff Hendricks, Jackson Mac Low, Charlotte Moorman, Pauline Oliveros, Joan Retallack, Larry Rosing and Nancy St. Paul, Jerome Rothenberg, Petr Kotik, Monty Smith and Katharina Bergdoll, Anne Waldman, and Rosmarie Waldrop. Also includes extensive correspondence with her mother, Berthe Tardos, father Tibor Tardos, and daughter Esther Van Messel. Arranged alphabetically by correspondent, with an additional four folders of miscellaneous