Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [ca. 1928]-2008 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
17 drawings
22 pages of drawings with text
2 cm textual records
1 DVD
1 audiocassette
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Rolph Scarlett was a pioneering non-objective painter, jewellery designer, stage designer and educator known for his association with the Guggenheim Museum and Hilla Rebay. Born in Guelph, Ontario, Scarlett had early training in jewellery design through apprenticeship in a family business, and briefly attended the Art Students' League in New York. He returned to Canada for periods of time in the 1910s and 1930s, in between efforts to establish his career as a designer in the United States and internationally. On business travel to Switzerland in 1923, he encountered Paul Klee and became a proponent of pure abstraction in art. Scarlett moved to New York in 1937, becoming acquainted with Hilla Rebay and Rudolf Bauer, and winning a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Rebay purchased sixty of Scarlett's works for the collection of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, affirming his significance to the founding collection of what would become the Guggenheim Museum. Scarlett joined the staff as the museum's chief lecturer from 1940 to 1946. Scarlett's work is held in major collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the de Young Museum.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Judith Nasby is a retired curator and educator based in Guelph, Ontario, known for her work at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (now Art Gallery of Guelph), in particular her exhibitions on Inuit artists and artists from the Guelph area. She made contact with Rolph Scarlett in the mid-1970s, visiting him at his home and establishing a friendship and correspondence. Scarlett entrusted her with a group of his early abstract studies and copies of key documents for her research. He undertook to teach her his method of non-objective composition through a lively correspondence course in 1976 and 1977. Nasby's 2004 book Rolph Scarlett: Painter, Designer, Jeweller was the eventual culmination of her research.
Archival history
Material comprising this collection was given to Judith Nasby by Rolph Scarlett or accumulated by Nasby in the course of their correspondence. It remained in her possession until its transfer to AGO in two parts on November 5 and December 3, 2019.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
AGO Credit line: Gift of Judith Nasby, 2021
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Collection consists of research on Rolph Scarlett by Judith Nasby, correspondence between Rolph Scarlett and Judith Nasby on his artistic method, and studies by Rolph Scarlett.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
System of arrangement
Collection is arranged in three series.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open. Access to Special Collections is by appointment only. Please contact the reference desk for more information.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright is held by the creators or their heirs. Copyright belonging to other parties, such as that of photographs, may still rest with the creator of these items. It is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain permission to publish any part of the collection.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Draft
Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation revision deletion
Originally prepared 2020; uploaded 2022.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Prepared by Aline Zara, uploaded by Amy Furness.