Connections Project/ Conexus Exhibition Documentation and Artwork, 1985-1989

Creator:

Abstract:

This collection highlights the international, feminist art exhibit Connections Project/ Conexus, co-curated by Josely Carvalho and Sabra Moore. The collection contains documentation of the exhibition's creation including correspondence to and from participating artists, correspondence between the curators, correspondence with exhibiting institutions, design specifications, insurance information, and budgets. It also contains original pieces of artwork including a photocopier artists book and individual artworks.

Extent:

8.83 Linear Feet (2 document boxes, 2 records cartons)

Language:

English .

Scope and content:

This collection consists of artwork, exhibition planning documents, and exhibition installation documentation. The artwork in the collection includes 146 original book pages, on 5x8/12 pieces of watercolor paper and inclusive of a variety of mediums, produced for the 150 Artists Book.

Exhibition documents demonstrate the physical and intellectual labor required to imagine and implement the Connections Project/ Conexus show and include sproject proposals and budgets; grant and foundational support applications; correspondence and budgets from fiscal sponsors; correspondence between the curators and artists in the form of letters and postcards; and insurance applications.

Within the exhibition planning documents is a significant amount of correspondence between the curators and various galleries, museums, and cultural institutions that reveal the challenges and successes of curating the show. This correspondence includes communication with Central Hall, Artists Space, Centro Brasileiro de Projetos de Arte, Franklin Furnace, The New Museum, Clocktower, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MoCHA), Museum de Arte Contemporãnea da Universidade de São Paulo, Southeastern Massachusetts Art Gallery. Additionally, the correspondence includes form letters to various contemporary art museums and galleries across the United States. The installation of the exhibit is documented in photographs and slides, newspaper clippings, plans for the exhibit's display, and a transcript of a conversation between Josely Carvalho and Sabra Moore about the exhibit.

Biographical / historical:

Connections Project/ Conexus was a collaborative exhibition organized by Sabra Moore and Josely Carvalho. The exhibition brought together sixteen pairs of women artists from North and South America. These thirty two aritsts produced large-scale artworks responding to themes including birth, body, shelter, race, food, environment, spirit, and war/death. As part of the exhibition, the thirty two participant aritsts each proposed up to an additional five artists to produce pages for an artists' book, 150 Artists Book.

The exhibition was shown in the United States at the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MoCHA) in New York City (January, 1987), and the Southeastern Massachusetts Art Gallery in Dartmouth (1988). It then traveled to Brasil, where it was exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporãnea da Universidaded de São Paulo (1989). The accompanying 150 Artists Book, produced in an edition of 600 copies, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Committed to Print show (1988).

Core pairs of artists working and showing in the exhibition included: Josely Carvalho and Bette Kalache; Liliana Porter and Karin Lambrecht; Faith Ringgold and Luise Weiss; Kathie Brown and Denise Milan; Nancy Spero with Valerie Savilli and Christina Parisi; Kazuko and Ile de Freitas; Sabra Moore and Maria do Carmo Secco; Mimi Smith and Lucia Py; Howardena Pindell and Lygia Pape; Vivian Browne and Alice Brill; Marina Gutierrez and Maria Lidia Magliani; Jaune Quick-To-See Smith and Sopia Tassinari; May Stevens and Vera Café; Mary Beth Edelson and Simone Michelin; Ida Applebroog and Ely Bueno; Catalina Parra and Anesia Pacheco e Chaves.

Please note, this history borrows generously from a collection description provided to the Barnard Archives and Special Collections by Sabra Moore.

Appraisal information:

Prior to the acquisition of the collection, two pieces of artwork were returned to artists. Louise Bourgeois' piece was returned to her dealer John Cheim at his request in 2003. A color Xerox copy of her original is included in the collection. Ora Lerman's piece was returned directly to the artist in 1996. In 2017, Catalina Parra's piece was returned to her at the bequest of her daughter, Isabel Soler Parra.

Processing information:

This collection was processed and the finding aid written by Shannon O'Neill in May, 2017.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in two series, one of which has been further arranged in subseries. The contents are arranged in the original order and it is noted on collection folders which documents came from Josely Carvalho and which documents came from Sabra Moore. The series and subseries arrangement of the records is as follows:

Series 1, Exhibition Documentation, 1985-1989

Series 2, Artworks, 1985-1986

Subseries 2.1, Birth/Nascimento
Subseries 2.2, Food/Alimento
Subseries 2.3, Shelter/Habitação
Subseries 2.4, Race/Raça
Subseries 2.5, Body/Corpo
Subseries 2.6, Environment/ Medio-ambiente
Subseries 2.7, Spirit/Espirito
Subseries 2.8, War/Death/Guerra/Morte

Accruals:

Gift of Josely Carvalho and Sabra Moore, 2016

Accruals are not expected.

Physical location:

This collection is located in the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library. To use this collection, please contact the Barnard Archives and Special Collections at 212.854.4079 or archives@barnard.edu.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related material:

Photocopies or scans may be made for research purposes.

Access and use

Restrictions:: This collection has no restrictions.
Terms of access:: All rights of copyright remain with Josely Carvalho, Sabra Moore, and the individual artists represented within the materials. The Barnard Archives and Special Collections may permit individiuals to quote from the materials. Individuals utilizing the materials, who wish to publish and/or profit monetarily from the materials, must obtain permissions from the copyright holder(s).

Preferred citation:: Connections Project/ Conexus Exhibit Documentation and Artwork, 1985-1989; Box and Folder; Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library, Barnard College.

Location of this collection:: Barnard Archives & Special Collections

Barnard Archives & Special Collections
Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning 423
Barnard College
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027, USA
Before you visit:: Please contact archives@barnard.edu with research requests or to schedule a visit; see our website for more information.

Contact:: archives@barnard.edu

Collection