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INVENTORY OF THE MATHIAS KOMOR PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE, 1935-1978
89.P.5
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Title: Mathias Komor photographic archive
Date (inclusive): 1935-1978
Number: 89.P.5
Creator/Collector:
Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984
Physical Description:
10.2 linear feet
(23 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents
objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and primitive art.
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Language: Collection material is in
English
In 1974, the J. Paul Getty Museum began assembling a "photo library" by consolidating the visual resources of each existing
curatorial department. By the early 1980s, the Photo Archive was actively acquiring large collections of photographs from
commercial and private sources and scholars' archives that contained a photographic component. In 1983, the nearly one million
photographs of the Photo Archive were incorporated into the Research Institute's Special Collections.
Open for use by qualified researchers. For further information, consult the
Guide to the Photo Archive and Database .
Photographs and permission to publish must be obtained from copyright holder(s). For further information, contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Mathias Komor photographic archive, circa 1940-1984, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 89.P.5.
Finding aid created in 2012.
Scope and Content of Collection
Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents
objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and primitive art. Much of this material is
now in public and private collections in the United States. The Komor archive is comprised of photographs of objects and some
miscellaneous archival and ephemeral material. These are the only surviving records of the Komor Gallery and do not include
business records.
The bulk of the archive, Series I, is comprised of photographs of Classical, Near Eastern, and Egyptian antiquities; ethnographic
objects from Africa, Meso-America, and Oceania; Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian art; European sculpture, minor
arts, and drawings. Photographers include Richard Averill Smith, G.D. Hackett, Peter A. Juley & Son, Raymond Fortt Studios,
and R.H. Hildyard. Most photographs document objects that went through the Komor Gallery, while others were added for study
or comparative purposes. Many of the photographs are not annotated.
In addition to the photographs, the collection also includes a small quantity of other material forming Series II. Included
here are scholarly correspondence; 17 drawings of various subjects; 54 rubbings; two architectural plans of Komor's New York
gallery; several manuscript versions and galleys of the printed text of Komor's 1951 exhibition catalog,
Imperial porcelains of the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 A.D.; a manuscript on Chinese ceramics; a manuscript by Alan Priest on a Chinese landscape scroll; and clippings.
Arranged in two series:
Series I. Photographs, 1972, undated;
Series II. Miscellaneous papers, 1935-1978, undated.
Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984 -- Photograph collections
Art, African
Art, Chinese
Art, Indic
Art, Japanese
Art, Southeast Asian
Art--Oceania
Classical antiquities
Decorative arts--Europe
Drawing, European
Indian art--Central America
Indian art--Mexico
Sculpture, European
Egypt--Antiquities
Middle East--Antiquities
Imperial porcelains of the Ming Dynasty
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Negatives
Rubbings
Slides (photographs)
Transparencies
Hackett, G.D.
Hildyard, R.H.
Peter A. Juley & Son
Raymond Fortt Studios
Smith, Richard Averill