Panza Collection Initiative records
Scope and Content Note
The Panza Collection Initiative (PCI) records document the project activities during the three project phases that occurred between 2010 and 2020. The collection contains assembled research material, re-catalogued and reclassified documents, newly generated artwork-related reports, and audiovisual assets created during project activities.
The collection is divided into ten series: Series 1. Advisory Committee Meetings; Series 2. Object Lessons: The Panza Collection Initiative Symposium; Series 3. Dan Flavin; Series 4. Robert Irwin; Series 5. Donald Judd; Series 6. Robert Morris; Series 7. Bruce Nauman; Series 8. Lawrence Weiner; Series 9. Doug Wheeler; and Series 10. Other Artists.
Series 1. Advisory Committee Meetings is organized into five subseries, one for each meeting. All meetings were video recorded, edited, and transcribed. Participants were given the chance to edit the transcripts for accuracy and clarification, and researchers should cite from the transcripts if needed.
Series 2. Object Lessons: The Panza Collection Initiative Symposium is organized chronologically according to the event proceedings. Full-length recordings are available on the finding aid, but the recordings were not transcribed.
Series 3 through 10 are organized by artist case studies, alphabetically by last name. Each series is organized into three subseries: A) Artworks; B) Interviews; and C) Research. Subseries A is arranged by accession number; subseries B is arranged chronologically; and subseries C is arranged alphabetically by the name of the repository. Each artwork in subseries A is further divided into the following sections: artwork history; artwork views; components reclassified to archives; drawings in the Guggenheim collection; paper-based artwork components; and technical documentation.
The artwork checklist and works listed in subseries A. Artwork, are comprised of artworks examined during the PCI with corresponding research material. Accession numbers that begin with DC denote decommissioned works. Available documents and associated metadata are represented in the PDF contact sheets from the Guggenheim Museum Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). The images in the DAMS were collected during the PCI from a variety of sources for research purposes only. Higher resolution images can be provided upon request, if available. Further contextual information about all images may be found in the artwork history documents listed under each artwork. Information in subseries A. Artwork was organized in 2020 and may be outdated, as the care and research for the Panza Collection is an ongoing effort under the mission of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.
Subseries B. Interviews contains all assets related to the interviews conducted with living artists or the estates of deceased artists, and past associates of the artists, such as fabricators, studio assistants and office managers, gallerists, attorneys, and curators. Several interviews were originally video recorded on MiniDV tapes, then digitized. In cases where no video recordings were made, the audio recordings are available for research. A list of available content can be found in each interview information PDF as digitized content.
Subseries C. Research includes copies of primary and secondary source research material received or reproduced by the PCI team, including papers from unprocessed collections in the Guggenheim Museum Archives. Some images from this subseries are duplicated in subseries A. Artworks.
Dates
- 2010-2020
Restrictions:
The collection is partially restricted. All files have been digitized but only a selection has been published on the finding aid due to copyright and permissions.
Publication Rights:
Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be discussed with the Manager of the Library and Archives. Contents may contain material under third party copyright.
Historical Note
In 2010, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum launched the Panza Collection Initiative (PCI), a multiyear project devoted to addressing the long-term preservation and sustainability of fabrication-based, variable, or ephemeral artworks from the 1960s and 1970s. The project focused on the large repository of works of Minimal, Post-Minimal, and Conceptual art acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation from the collection of Giovanna and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo between 1990 and 1992. The acquisition included works by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Maria Nordman, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, James Turrell, Meg Webster, Doug Wheeler, and Lawrence Weiner, among others.
The goals of the PCI were to explore and navigate the unique challenges posed by works from this period, and to establish strategies for their proper care and display. The project team examined questions regarding an object’s materials and means of fabrication; its replication over time, both authorized or unauthorized; the changing parameters for installation, from site to site; and the proliferation of contracts, certificates, working drawings, and other documents devised to support its authenticity through strict rules of ownership, fabrication, and display.
The PCI was organized and carried out in a series of artist case studies, particularly focusing on seven artists in the Guggenheim’s Panza Collection: Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner, and Doug Wheeler. Each case study followed a set of four consistent procedures: archival research; interviews with the artist, artists’ estates, fabricators, former assistants, and other relevant parties; analysis and review of extant artworks, including installation and physical examination of selected works; and dialogue with experts from other institutions in the field in the form of an Advisory Committee.
The project was carried out in three phases. The first phase (2010-2013) established case studies on artists Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, Donald Judd, Lawrence Weiner, and Robert Morris. The second phase (2013-2017) continued to examine the work and practices of the artists in the first phase and expanded the scope to include Robert Irwin and Doug Wheeler. (The project team also had an opportunity to interview Carl Andre and Maria Nordman during this phase). In-depth attention was devoted to establishing a new collection status category, called Decommissioned, and a selection of works by Judd, Flavin, and Irwin were presented to and approved by the Board to be reclassified as such. Efforts to reorganize drawings and other paper-based artwork components led to some works and documents being reclassified to archives or elevated to artwork status. This effort involved materials relating to works by all of the aforementioned artists, as well as Richard Serra. The third and final phase (2018-2020) was devoted to the broad dissemination of the project’s findings in the form of an interdisciplinary strategy meeting, a two-day public symposium, an expanded project website, a print publication, and the creation of a dedicated research collection and collection finding aid within the Guggenheim Museum Archives.
More information can be found on the Panza Collection Initiative .
Extent
10 cubic feet
Language of Materials
English
Historical Abstract
In 2010, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum launched the Panza Collection Initiative (PCI), a multiyear project devoted to addressing the long-term preservation and sustainability of fabrication-based, variable, or ephemeral artworks from the 1960s and 1970s. The project focused on the large repository of works of Minimal, Post-Minimal, and Conceptual art acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation from the collection of Giovanna and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo between 1990 and 1992. The goals of the PCI were to explore the unique challenges posed by works from this period and to establish strategies for their proper care and display.
Scope and Content
The Panza Collection Initiative (PCI) records document the project activities during the three project phases, which occurred between 2010 and 2020. The collection includes assembled research material, re-catalogued and reclassified documents, newly generated reports on collection artworks, and audiovisual assets created during project activities.
Arrangement:
Organized into 10 series: Series 1. Advisory Committee Meetings; Series 2. Object Lessons: The Panza Collection Initiative Symposium; Series 3. Dan Flavin; Series 4. Robert Irwin; Series 5. Donald Judd; Series 6. Robert Morris; Series 7. Bruce Nauman; Series 8. Lawrence Weiner; Series 9. Doug Wheeler; and Series 10. Other Artists.
Physical Location
CF, OS
- Title
- Panza Collection Initiative records A0071
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Tali Han and Kristen Tivey in 2020. Finding aid updated by Kristen Tivey in 2021.
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- The Panza Collection Initiative was been generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through all three phases of project activities, and processing and select digitization of this collection were made possible due to the third and final Mellon Foundation grant.
Repository Details
Part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives Repository
One Liberty Plaza
24th floor
New York NY 10006
