NEWS RELEASE                

For Immediate Release 

 
Contact:   
 
   Eric Davis,  Marketing & Communications Director
                505.424.2351, or [email protected]  
   Ryan Flahive, Archivist
                505.424.2392, or [email protected]
 
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Acquires Personal Papers of Artist Seymour Tubis
 
    
Santa Fe, NM - March 20, 2018. The Archives at IAIA recently acquired the papers of artist and educator Seymour Tubis (1919-1993). The collection was donated by Tubis's daughter, Nina T. Wooderson, who is executor of the artists' estate. Tubis was faculty at IAIA from 1963-1981 and is credited with establishing the Institute's printmaking department.
 
 
Seymour Tubis in the IAIA Printmaking Studio, c. 1968, Tubis Papers, IAIA Archives, Santa Fe, NM
 
Seymour Tubis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1919. Tubis first received fine art training in 1941 and 1942 at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art before serving in the Army during World War II. Upon returning to the states after the war, Tubis studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946-1949. From 1949-1950, Tubis lived in Europe and held his first solo exhibition of paintings, drawings, and tapestries at the Galerie St. Placide in Paris, France in 1950. Over the next three decades, Tubis exhibited his artwork coast to coast until his death in 1993. His artwork, including paintings, sculptures, and prints have been collected by the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United States Department of State, and the Museum of New Mexico to name a few. Tubis was also an art educator. He began teaching private classes in New York and Rockport, Massachusetts in 1948 and continued to teach classes in painting and printmaking in New York until his move to Santa Fe in 1960. Tubis joined IAIA in September 1963 and was a valuable member of the fine arts faculty until 1981.

The Tubis Papers (7 cubic feet) contain correspondence, catalogs, event flyers, photographs, and slides that document his art career between 1946-1992. Also included in the papers is a series of documents stemming from "Contemporary American Indian Printmaking" an unpublished book project Tubis worked on until 1992. The manuscript lays out the history of printmaking at IAIA including philosophy, lists of printmaking students, exhibition records, photographs, slides, course outlines, and other source materials used to create the publication. Also included are a series of records on IAIA including early syllabi, Tubis's gradebooks, writings on printmaking theory, student sales records, and publications.

Seymour Tubis , Old Musician, Etching, Aquatint, and Drypoint, 1948, Image from The Print Collector's Quarterly, February 1949. Tubis Papers, IAIA Archives, Santa Fe, NM.
 
 
The collection provides art historians with further insight on the unique curriculum and diverse faculty at IAIA in the 1960s and 1970s. "From my perspective, Tubis's papers provide a direct link between the Abstract Expressionist movement and IAIA," says Ryan S. Flahive, Archivist at IAIA. "His body of work as a professional artist suggests a modern and experimental approach to painting and printmaking that found its way into IAIA student work."
 
The Tubis papers are processed and ready for research; the general guide to the collection can be found on the Rocky Mountain Online Archives-Guide to the Seymour Tubis Papers .

For more information on the Tubis Papers or the IAIA Archives, please contact Ryan S. Flahive at [email protected].
  
 
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Offering undergraduate degrees in Studio Arts, Creative Writing, Cinematic Arts and Technology, Indigenous Liberal Studies, and Museum Studies -- a minor in Performing Arts -- an MFA in Creative Writing -- along with certificates in Business and Entrepreneurship, Museum Studies, and Native American Art History -- IAIA is the only college in the nation dedicated to the study of contemporary Native arts. The school serves 517 full time equivalent (FTE) Native and non-Native American college students from across the globe.  IAIA is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission -- and is the only college in New Mexico accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. 
 

About IAIA -- For over 50 years, the Institute of American Indian Arts has played a key role in the direction and shape of Native expression. With an internationally acclaimed college, museum, and tribal support resource through the IAIA Land Grant Programs, IAIA is dedicated to the study and advancement of Native arts and cultures -- and committed to student achievement and the preservation and progress of their communities.  Learn more about IAIA and our mission at www.iaia.edu. 

 

 


 
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