Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Blatas, Arbit.
Title:	Arbit Blatas Papers
Inclusive Dates:	1908-1999
Quantity:	5 linear ft.
Abstract:	Letters, manuscripts, clippings, articles, and programs covering the career of the Russian-born artist.
Language:	Bulk of material is in English but there are also some items in French, Lithuanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Arbit Blatas (1908-1999) was a Russian-American painter and sculptor, known for his impressionist street scenes as well as for his series of paintings and sculptures of many of the modern masters with whom he worked and studied.

Born a Russian Jew in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1908, Blatas began painting very early, and had his first exhibition at the age of 14. His father refused to let him go to Paris to study unless he could prove he was talented, so at 17 the two of them went to Riga to see a painter there and have him assess young Blatas' skills. Fortunately, he deemed the boy very talented and so Blatas' father agreed to let him go to Paris.

He arrived in Paris at the peak of what would later be called the École de Paris (School of Paris), whose luminaries included Picasso, Cocteau, Matisse, Leger, Braques and others. Blatas quickly became acquainted with them and at 21 was the youngest acknowledged member. In addition to becoming recognized for his impressionist style street scenes and portraits, he also painted and/or sculpted all of these giants of the Paris art world over a period of some thirty years.

In 1941, with the upsurge in Nazism and World War II looming , Blatas left Paris for New York City. He set up shop in a studio on West 56th Street and had a number of solo exhibitions at the French Art Gallery. His pleasure in his work was tempered by personal sadness, as his mother died in a concentration camp. His father survived and the two were later reunited in Paris after the war. Sometime in the early 1940s he married and had a daughter, Dorothée, who figures in a number of his paintings of the time. He eventually became an American citizen.

Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s Blatas divided his time between New York and Paris, producing paintings, sculptures and lithographs. In 1960 a series of works based on The Three-Penny Opera foreshadowed an interest in opera that was to flourish later when he met and married mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik. Both intensely creative, intelligent, and passionate about stretching their artistic abilities, their partnership sparked a mutual explosion of creativity. "I think of myself as a 19th century person," Resnik said, "and Blatas as a painter of another epoch...we complement each other and it's volcanic - Vesuvius and Etna, with a lot of flowing lava!" [Opera News, 12/8/84].

Resnik, world-famous for her Carmen and other performances, had begun to reduce her performance schedule and was exploring new outlets for her creativity while Blatas, who believed he was "always learning," had no hesitation in trying something new. The first fruit of their collaboration was a critically acclaimed production of Carmen in Hamburg in 1970, directed by Resnik, for which Blatas designed the scenery and costumes, his first foray into theatrical design. (Both also appeared in the documentary about Bizet and Carmen which was shot during the production.) In the next eight years they collaborated on nine more operas including Elektra (Venice, 1971), Salome (Lisbon, 1975), Falstaff (Warsaw, 1975) and Pique Dame (Vancouver 1976 and Sydney 1979).

Blatas and Resnik spent much of their time in Venice and some of his loveliest paintings are of that city. In 1979, Blatas produced a seven-panel bronze bas-relief on the theme of the Holocaust which was installed in the Jewish Ghetto there. In 1981 a second casting was dedicated at Shrine of the Unknown Jewish Martyrs in Paris and in 1982 a third in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York. This in turn inspired his wife to produce and finance a documentary on Venetian Jews entitled "Geto: The Historic Ghetto of Venice" which was shown on PBS.

In 1982, a major exhibition of all the Blatas sculptures and portraits of the Paris School was staged in Venice, presided over jointly by the Mayors of Paris and Venice (Jacques Chirac and Mario Rigo, respectively). Museums in New York, Paris, London and elsewhere continued to acquire and stage exhibits of Blatas' work, even as he continued to try his hand at new things including a treatment for a murder mystery film "Adventure in Spain," three childrens' books, and an outline for a 13-part series called "Around the World with Peter Ustinov," intended as in-flight entertainment for airline passengers. In 1997 his paintings of Venice were collected in "An Artist's Venice" with the introduction written by Regina Resnik.

Arbit Blatas was honoured with many awards during his lifetime including a Certificate of Appreciation from New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the gold medal "Venezia Riconoscente" from the city of Venice and the Medaille de Vermeil of the City of Paris, and he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Government for his contribution to French art.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Arbit Blatas Papers consists of correspondence-subject files, set design and other performance material, memorabilia, writings, and printed material.

Correspondence-subject files relate to various museums, organizations, and expositions, including Holocaust memorials in New York and Venice.

Set design contains material relating to sets, costumes, and staging for a number of operas, including Carmen, Elektra, and Faust.

Memorabilia contains clippings, awards, photographs, scrapbooks, and other material documenting Blatas' life and career.

Writings, for most of which the author cannot be determined, contains assorted manuscripts and scenarios or treatments.

Printed material consists largely of exhibit catalogs, spanning more than forty years. Other printed material includes books (two biographies of Blatas) and magazines with articles about or by Blatas, or related to his work or career.

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Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence-subject files are arranged alphabetically by name or topic. Set design material is arranged alphabetically by name of the work performed. Memorabilia is arranged alphabetically by type or topic. Writings and printed material are arranged alphabetically by type.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Related Material

Extra copies of some published items sent to Rare Books for cataloging.

See also the Arbit Blatas / Regina Resnik Collection, Associated American Artists Records, and Peter Lipman-Wulf Papers.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Subjects

Genres and Forms

Occupations

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Arbit Blatas Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Regina Resnik.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: MR
Date: 31 Oct 2005
Revision history: 31 Oct 2005 - EAD file created (MRR); 30 Mar 2017 - inventory expanded/corrected (MS)

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Inventory

	Correspondence-subject files
Box 1		Exposition Internationale de Paris 1937
Box 1		Fundação Calouste Gulbekian 1977
Box 1		Holocaust Memorial, New York 1979
Box 1		Holocaust Memorial, Venice 1978-1981
Box 1		Museums 1978, 1997-1998
Box 1		Titus Productions, for the NBC TV series "Holocaust" 1978

	Set design - also includes costume design, programs, etc.
		Carmen
Box 1			Brochure, "The Dream and the Destiny"
Box 1			Photos from Hamburg production 1971
Box 1			Programs from Hamburgische Staatsoper 1970-1972
Box 1			Script, "The Dream and the Destiny"
Box 1			Stage plans
		Elektra
Box 1			Costume research and drawings
Box 1			Production photos
Box 1			Programs from the Teatro la Fenice, Venice 1971-1972
Box 1			Program from Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg 1972-1973
Box 1			Programs from the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos, Lisbon 1972, 1977
Box 1			Stage plans
		Falstaff
Box 1			Photos
Box 1			Program from Teatr Wielki, Warsaw 1974-1975
Box 1			Stage plans
		Pique Dame [Queen of Spades]
Box 1			Costume breakdown
Box 1			Photographs
Box 1			Program, Vancouver Opera Association, Vancouver 1976
Box 1			Program, Australia Opera, Sydney Opera House, Sydney 1979
Box 2			Stage plans, Sydney Opera House
Box 2			Vancouver art show
		Salome
Box 2			Costumes and stage props
Box 2			Photographs
Box 2			Program, Teatro Nacional S. Carlos, Lisbon 1976
Box 2		Publicity material, miscellaneous
Box 2		Stage plans, various opera houses

	Memorabilia
Box 2		Biographies and prefaces to art publications and related material
Box 2		City of New York, certificate of appreciation
		Clippings
Box 2			Lithuanian press
Box 2			New York press
Box 2			Paris press
Box 2			Miscellaneous (2 folders)
Box 2		Comments by visitors to a Blatas exhibit
Box 2		Interview script, in French
Box 3		Légion d'Honneur documentation, letters, photos, press
Box 3		Lithuania 1988
Box 3		Passenger lists
Box 3		Photos
Box 3		Scrapbooks (2 folders)
Oversize 1		Scrapbook - includes photocopies of most pages
Oversize 2		Scrapbook
Box 3		Price lists from 2 exhibitions
		Venice exhibition 1982
Box 3			Correspondence
Box 3			Press and clippings
Box 3			Tourist booklets of Venice
Box 3		Who's Who in American Art 1965

	Writings
Box 4		Manuscripts - by others, possibly Blatas but not identified
Box 4		Scenarios - by Blatas, along with others

	Printed materials
		Books
Box 4			Arbit Blatas, preface by deAndry-Farcy, Paris, Quatre Chemins 'Editart' 1939
Box 4			Arbit Blatas' School of Paris, NY, Bresher & Small 1964
		Exhibition catalogs
Box 4			Exhibition catalogs 1940-1944 (3 folders)
Box 5			Exhibition catalogs 1945-1969 (6 folders)
Box 6			Exhibition catalogs 1970-1995 (2 folders)
Box 6			Dummy catalog for the Venice show 1982
Box 6			Undated
		Magazines
Box 6			Aidai 1953-1958
Box 6			The Art Digest 1940-1950 (2 folders)
Box 6			The Art News 1940-1942
Box 7			A-C 1938-1941
Box 7			E-J 1938-1939, 1944, 1952, 1992
Box 7			M 1941, 1967, 1997
Box 7			N 1942, 1950-1953
Box 7			Opera News 1984, 1997
Box 7			Pictures on Exhibit 1940-1948
Box 7			P-S 1948, 1951, 1970, 1988, 1996
Box 8			V-W 1986, 1988, 1992
		Miscellaneous printed material

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