Douglas Crimp Papers
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Abstract
Douglas Crimp (1944-2019) was an art historian, critic, curator, teacher, photographer, and AIDS activist. Crimp taught contemporary art, art theory, dance theory, feminist theory, gay theory, and queer theory at many institutions. Crimp's work as a critic focused on postmodern art theory, and combined activism, editing, writing, and exhibition curation. His AIDS activism involved personal participation in the group ACT UP, centering AIDS in scholarly journals, and original cultural analysis that contributed to the development of queer theory. He published multiple works, including AIDS Demo Graphics, On the Museum's Ruin, and Before Pictures. The Douglas Crimp Papers (dated 1970-2019) consist of materials created and collected by Crimp documenting his life, AIDS activism, and career as an art critic, curator, and teacher in the fields of dance, film, photography, feminist theory, and queer theory. The bulk of the collection includes correspondence, scholarly articles, drafts of lectures on critical theory topics, manuscripts and drafts for published books, and notes and drafts for seminars and lectures.
Biographical Note
Douglas Crimp (1944-2019) was an art historian, critic, curator, teacher, photographer, and AIDS activist. Crimp was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and studied art history at Tulane University in New Orleans. He moved to New York City in 1967, after which he worked as a curatorial assistant at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and as an art critic for Art News and Art International. Crimp taught contemporary art, art theory, dance theory, feminist theory, gay theory, and queer theory at many institutions, including The School of Visual Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Rochester.
Crimp's work as a critic focused on postmodern art theory, and combined activism, editing, writing, and exhibition curation. His AIDS activism involved personal participation in the group ACT UP, centering AIDS in scholarly journals, and original cultural analysis that contributed to the development of queer theory. He published multiple works, including AIDS Demo Graphics, On the Museum's Ruin, and Before Pictures, his memoir. Crimp also curated many exhibitions and wrote the corresponding catalogues, most notably, Pictures at Artists Space (1977), which helped launch the careers of artists including Sherrie Levine and Robert Longo, among others. Crimp coined the term "Pictures Generation" to define the work of artists like Longo and Levine, who appropriated images from mass culture to carry out a subversive critique. While editor of the contemporary arts journal October, he wrote articles that upended the idea of the museum as an objective space for presenting artwork. His work influenced a generation of artists, such as Cindy Sherman and Joan Jonas, by exploring the idea that a work of art is dependent on its historical and social circumstances and encouraging artists to be disruptive and revolutionary.
Sources cited:
Cowan, Sarah. "Douglas Crimp, Scholar, Curator and Art World Disrupter, Dies at 74." The New York Times. July 15, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/arts/douglas-crimp-who-saw-art-through-a-social-prism-is-dead-at-74.html.
Crimp, Douglas. "Pictures." October 8 (Spring, 1979): 75-88. https://www.academia.edu/5724916/Pictures.
Arrangement
The records are arranged into eight series, five of which have been further arranged into subseries. The series and subseries arrangement of the records is as follows:
Series I. Personal
Subseries IA. Family
Subseries IB. Daily Calendars
Subseries IC. Awards
Subseries ID. Photographs
Subseries IE. Activism
Series II. Correspondence
Subseries IIA. Personal
Subseries IIB. Professional
Series III. Consulting and Curatorial Work
Series IV. Teaching, Lectures, and Conferences
Subseries IVA. Teaching
Subseries IVB. Lectures and Conferences
Series V. Writing
Subseries VA. Published
Subseries VB. Unpublished
Series VI. Work by Others
Series VII. Printed Matter
Subseries VIIA. General
Subseries VIIB. Reviews
Series VIII. Subject Files
The contents of each series or subseries are arranged chronologically with the exceptions of Series II (Correspondence), which is arranged alphabetically by last name or organization name and then chronologically for more general correspondence; and Series VI and VIII, which are also arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Contents
The Douglas Crimp Papers (dated 1911-2019) consist of materials created and collected by Crimp documenting his life, AIDS activism, and career as an art critic, curator, and teacher in the fields of dance, film, photography, feminist theory, and queer theory. His advocacy of revolutionary advances in performance art, video, photography, painting, and sculpture is apparent in his early writing and curatorial work on such artists as Agnes Martin, Joan Jonas, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Serra, all of whom were seen as artists who were experimenting with traditional methods. Additionally, he challenged the traditional idea of a museum, which he did not see as open to experimentation; this view is evident in his collaboration with Louise Lawler for On the Museum's Ruins. When the AIDS crisis emerged in the mid-1980s, Crimp fought for the rights and visibility of people living with H.I.V.; his activism is not only reflected in his participation in different advocacy groups such as ACT UP but in his writing as well. He focused on queer theory in the 1987 special issue of October titled "AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism" (included in this collection in the publication, AIDS Riot: Artist Collectives Against AIDS, New York, 1987-1994) and "Getting the Warhol We Deserve: Cultural Studies and Queer Culture" (1999), about Andy Warhol, among other articles and books.
The bulk of the collection documents Crimp's career as an art critic, curator, and teacher, and includes correspondence, scholarly articles, drafts of lectures on critical theory topics, gallery invitations and announcements, and notes and drafts for seminars and lectures. Crimp's work as an editor, critic, and writer are particularly well represented through correspondence with publishers, contracts and other agreements, manuscript drafts (in both paper and digital formats), research materials, press releases, and reviews. Crimp's curatorial work is documented through loan agreements and documents used to plan exhibitions at various galleries. This collection also includes personal materials, such as weekly calendar planners from the late 1970s through the 2000s, personal correspondence, ACT UP t-shirts, and photographs (some of which are in digital formats).
Subjects
People
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open without restrictions. The collection also includes a copy of a transcript of an oral history interview of Crimp for the Archives of American Art (AAA); the interview is closed at AAA until 2030.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). Copyright permission requests should be directed toward Marc Siegel.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Douglas Crimp Papers; MSS 600; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the estate of Douglas Crimp (Nicholas Baume, Executor, and Marc Siegel, Literary Executor) in August 2019. The accession number associated with this gift is 2020.027.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
Appraisal
A list of deaccessioned books is available in the collection file.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were rehoused in archival boxes, with loose material placed into folders in their original order. Materials were described on the collection-level with a box-level inventory. Born-digital materials on physical carriers were identified, physically separated, and inventoried. Born-digital carriers were removed from their original locations using separation sheets and physically transferred to Box Shared Fales Accessions 083. During processing, born-digital items were forensically imaged, arranged, and described. New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
At the time of processing, the collection was arranged and described into series and subseries based on the original order and the types of materials. Routine financial statements, duplicate publications, and documents with sensitive personal information were removed.
