The Morgan Library’s current exhibition “Handmade: Artists’ Holiday Cards from the Archives of American Art,” has some great holiday cards created by modern and contemporary artists. Among the artists represented are Claes Oldenburg, Helen Frankenthaler, Milton Avery, Alexander Calder, Ad Reinhardt, and Saul Steinberg.
Dating from the 20s to the 90s, the cards were chosen from among 6,000 artist collections at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. Exhibition curator Mary Savig says;
“The cards are often in keeping with the artists’ familiar styles, though a few represent creative departures. They’re a little bit more personal and are sent directly to someone else. They were really just meant for a few people to see.”
Some of them are jokey, like Oldenburg’s pig drawing with the caption, “Sappy Goo Year.” Others are more avant, like Kay Sage’s “Merry Xmas, Happy 1959,” in typewritten rows of letters. The exhibit is on view through January 4 at The Morgan Library.
Painter Ad Reinhardt shows illustrates a portrait of himself as a sign painter (his former occupation) & his wife over a hot stove, while his son Jeb is ‘slaying Goliath.’
Saul Steinberg sent this card to curator Dorothy Miller in 1945.
Artist Julia Thecla sent this hand-painted holiday card to Katharine Kuh, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Claes Oldenburg’s card to Sam Wagstaff, sent around 1965.
Artist Kay Sage sent this holiday card to Eleanor Howland Bunce in 1959.
Alexander Calder’s 1929 New Year’s card was signed with his nickname, ‘Sandy.’
Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi, 1959.
Philip Guston send this card to Dorothy Miller in the early 1970s.