MC 1187

Inventory to the Judith K. Brodsky Papers

By William Hemmig, Charlotte Priddle, Rene Aranzamendez, and Stephanie Crawford

October 2003

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries

Finding aid encoded in EAD, version 2002 by Stephanie Crawford 2016

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.

Biographical Sketch

Judith K. Brodsky was born in 1933, and received her M.F.A. from Harvard University where she majored in art history. A printmaker, artist, and activist, her work is in the collections of over 100 museums and corporations. She was the first artist to be elected President of the Women's Caucus for Art in 1976, a national organization of female professionals in the visual arts, and created the Coalition of Women's Art Organizations in order to lobby Congress on behalf of women in the arts.

Brodsky joined the faculty of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in 1978 from Beaver College in Pennsylvania. On joining Rutgers, she became chair of Art Department on the Newark campus, and later served as an associate dean and associate provost before joining the visual arts faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick in 1986. It was during this same year, in New Brunswick, that she established the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper as an international, national, and regional center for producing prints and handmade paper projects, particularly through culturally diverse artists, for the benefit of education and learning.

She is currently a Professor Emerita in the Department of Visual Arts at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey and is a board member of the New York Foundation for the Arts.. She is also the national president of ArtTable, an organization of 1,200 women in leadership positions in the visual arts, and is a past president of the College Art Association.

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Scope and Content Note

The Judith K. Brodsky Papers spans the period 1973-1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1977 to 1987. It is approximately 30.5 cubic feet in size, comprising 17 manuscript boxes, 25 records center carton, and 1 newspaper box for oversize materials. The collection contains a mixture of formats including photographs and video.

The collection has three thematic subgroups: Judith K. Brodsky, Teaching Files, and Alternative Galleries.

The Judith K. Brodsky subgroup documents Brodsky's professional life, exclusive of teaching, from 1973 through 1988. It chronicles her leading role as an advocate for the equal status of women in the arts, art institutions, and criticism, and art education. The collection consists of three types of files kept by Brodsky: those pertaining to specific professional activities, files of research materials related to her professional interests, and correspondence unrelated to specific activities.

The ACTIVITIES series consists of reports, publications, speeches, articles, correspondence, notes, financial records, and other materials documenting specific professional activities. The bulk of the material involves Brodsky's coordination of FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts (1974), her activities in the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) from 1977-1988, her involvement in the 1977 International Women's Year (IWY), and her organization of the exhibition Printed by Women (1983), with much of the additional material documenting her growing involvement with Rutgers during this period.

The RESEARCH series includes materials gathered by Brodsky to support her advocacy on behalf of women in art. It largely consists of published writings by others, statistical information gathered from published sources and organizations, bibliographical information, and background materials collected from organizations promoting civil rights and women's rights.

The CORRESPONDENCE series consists of letters to Brodsky, mostly from 1976, unrelated to specific professional activities. Also included are copies of third party correspondence and published materials sent as enclosures with correspondence.

Most of the material is in paper format. There are several original issues of periodicals on newsprint that have been filed in their entirety because of their rarity. These, along with several posters associated with IWY and with CWA conferences and exhibitions as well as a small amount of other oversized material, are housed in a newspaper box. There are a few items in book format, notably U.S. Government documents related to the IWY and a galley of the Printed by Women exhibition catalog that have been stored in folders. Also stored in folders are two sets of index cards related to the artists in Printed by Women. The ACTIVITIES and RESEARCH series include a small amount of photographic material in the form of color slides and black and white prints. These materials have been retained in their respective series because of their limited numbers and their close relationship with the paper materials they accompany.

The Teaching Files subgroup includes materials and activities organized during and as a part of Brodsky's teaching at the Mason Gross School of Arts from roughly 1986 through the 2010s. Of special interest is the class Art Since 1960s and the project "Models of Persistence: Women Artists of the 20th Century." The materials in this subgroup are mainly paper based, although there are a few photographs, slides, and videotapes included. The sub group is divided into five series.

The ART SINCE 1960S COURSE MATERIAL series contains material pertaining to the organization and teaching of the Art Since 1960s course at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. It was a two semester course that ran from the Fall of 1986 through the Spring of 1987. The critical studies course, which became subtitled "Models of Persistence: Women Artists of the 20th Century," was intended to introduce students to unrecognized women artists. It also aimed to examine gender prejudices in the art world by focusing on two living women artists: Minna Citron and Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Students were able to conduct oral history interviews and organize exhibitions around the lives of works of two women artists who were left out of mainstream histories of art. The class also focused on the evolution Abstract Expressionism, related to women artists. Associated with the class, Brodksy held occasional morning seminars which were open to the public. This series includes student papers, grant proposals, budget reports, videotaped interviews, and correspondence.

The MINNA CITRON EXHIBIT series includes documentation of the creation, organization, and opening of the exhibit Minna Citron at 90 which ran from October 3 - 24, 1986. Citron was a New Jersey born artist with a long career as a printmaker and painter. She was chosen as a focus by half of the students participating in the Art Since 1960s class of 1986 and 1987. The series includes exhibit catalogs, correspondence, and press clippings.

The BERNARDA BRYSON SHAHN EXHIBIT series includes material pertaining to the creation, organization, and opening of the exhibit Bernarda Bryson Shahn: The Continuing Creative Journey which ran from March 25 -April 24, 1987. Shahn had been a resident of the New Jersey artist community in Roosevelt since the 1930s, when it was originally called the Jersey Homesteads. Shahn became the focus of the other half of students participating in the Art Since 1960s course. Included in the series are correspondence, proofs of catalogs, and press clippings.

MODELS OF PERSISTENCE: TEACHING, ART, AGE, AND GENDER CONFERENCE took place on April 23, 1987. It was organized as a means of encouraging other educators to examine and counteract the bias towards female artists, particularly those from an older generation. The conference was held at the Mason Gross School of the Arts and was the culmination of the Art Since 1960s course. Materials in this series document the organization of the conference and include various press clippings related to it.

Lastly, VARIOUS TEACHING MATERIALS documents Brodsky's continuing dedication to education from the late 1980s through the late 1990s. Materials include course handouts, syllabi, student papers, MFA and Senior Theses, and a little correspondence.

The Alternative Galleries subgroup documents the general emergence of the women's art movement of the 1970s, including Judith Brodsky's participation in it. The subgroup is divided into six series, consisting of records documenting the activities of alternative galleries devoted to promoting women's art. The material was used and possibly collected as a resource for the writing of a chapter titled "Exhibition, Galleries, and Alternative Spaces." This chapter was published in The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History, and Impact, edited by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard in 1994.

The CORRESPONDENCE series consists of miscellaneous cards and notes to brodsky from various individual artists and art institutions. The EXHIBITION NOTICES series consists of exhibition notices and other publicity materials received by Brodksy from 1975-1989. The majority pertains to women artists, although there is one folder of notices for male artists. There is also one folder of notices for the faculty of the Mason Gross School of the Arts. Several exhibition notices are oversized posters, which are housed in the newspaper box. The MISCELLANEOUS EXHIBITS series is composed of publicity handouts and articles devoted to alternative exhibits not associated with specific alternative galleries or institutions.

The SOURCE MATERIALS series comprises the bulk of the subgroup. It is composed of publicity handouts, information schedules, published articles, organization histories, and other documents devoted to specific women's art groups or institutions that impacted the growing visibility of women artists of the 1970s. The series documents the emergence and increasing awareness of the women's art movement across the whole of the United States. Materials include slides, photographs, exhibit catalogs, and paper documents. The series is arranged alphabetically by the name of the gallery or space.

The JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, AND PUBLICATIONS series contains articles and publications that focused on the growing activities within the women's art movement. Publications or catalogs published directly by alternative spaces can be found in the SOURCE MATERIALS series. The series includes copies of the Feminist Art Journal, Women and Art, and Women's Art Journal.

MANUSCRIPT: EXHIBITIONS, GALLERIES, AND ALTERNATIVE SPACES is the final series. It contains two drafts of a chapter authored by Judith Brodsky in the text The Power of Feminist Art, which was edited by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. The chapter deals with the rise of the alternative gallery as a strategy employed by the women's art movement as a means to circumvent the systemic disregard shown to women artists by mainstream art institutions of the 1970s. Also contained in this folder are two computer disks.

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Arrangement Note

All files are arranged chronologically by subject, except for various exhibition files that are arranged alphabetically.

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Related Collections

Several collections housed in Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives are related to Judith Brodsky, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, and the women's art movement in general.

Brodsky's presidency of the WCA (1976-1978) is documented in the Women's Caucus for Art Records (MC 883). The Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (also known as the Brodsky Center) papers from the mid 1980s through the mid 2000s detail the organization, promotion, exhibitions, and fundraising of the Center which was founded by Brodsky.

The Bernarda Bryson Shahn Papers provide examples of Shahn's work. The Borough of Roosevelt Historical Collection contains items donated by Shahn, detailing her life at the artist's colony.

The records of the Heresies Collective, inc. (MC 1041) and the New York Feminist Art Institute / Lucy Lippard Women's Art Registry (MC 892) include extensive documentation of the feminist art movement from the 1970s to the present.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Judith K. Brodsky Papers. MC 1187. Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

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Detailed Description of the Records/Container List

This section provides descriptions of the materials found within each series. Each series description is followed by a container list, which gives the titles of the "containers" (for example, folders, volumes, or cassettes) and their locations in the numbered boxes that comprise the collection. The availability of any digital items from a container is indicated with a hyperlink.