Grace Martin Taylor, Artist, Papers
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 3206
Papers of West Virginia artist Grace Martin Taylor (1903-1995) include papers, news clippings, programs, photos, certificates, and artwork of West Virginia artist. In addition to her work as an artist, she was also an educator who taught in Charleston at Mason College, and later at Morris Harvey. Her art, in several media including oils and watercolor, is modernist in style, showing a preference for abstraction.
Addendum of 2018-10-30, Lucie Mellert Papers includes papers of Lucie Anne Mellert, Ms. Taylor's daughter. These include award plaques, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and more, about herself and her promotion of her mother’s artwork.
Addendum of 2018-10-30, Grace Martin Taylor Papers includes notebooks, digital files including images of artwork and videos of gallery openings and receptions, typescripts, photographs, artifacts, printed material, clippings, correspondence, ephemera, sketchbooks, artifacts, and artwork; subjects include her career as an artist as well as an educator.
A grouping of 27 prints by Grace Martin Taylor were deaccessioned from this collection and transferred to the Art Museum of West Virginia University in 2011.
English
No special access restriction applies.
Researchers may access digitized and born digital materials by visiting the link attached to each item or by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Grace Martin (Frame) Taylor (February 11, 1903 - October 1, 1995) was born in Scotts Run, near Morgantown, West Virginia. She graduated from West Virginia University in 1929. She earned her Master of Arts there in 1949. She studied under Blanche Lazzell, West Virginia's most renowned artist, and like Lazzell, she studied under the noted abstract artist Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She also attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
Her art, in several media including oils and watercolor, is modernist in style, showing a preference for abstraction. She is best characterized from the following quote of a review of her Lynn Laskin Gallery show of December 1957 in Charleston: "Here is an artist of great seriousness of aesthetic purpose, singular individuality of style, with special strengths of inventiveness and finely-balanced painting constructions. These are paintings in which the true, serious nature of abstract art should become apparent."
As an educator, Grace Martin Taylor taught in Charleston, WV at Mason College of Music and Fine Arts. She began work in their art department in 1931 and would ascend to the presidency in 1956. In 1956, Mason College merged with Morris Harvey College (now University of Charleston), where Taylor would work as a professor of art till 1968.
Grace married Wilbur C. Frame in 1929; they had one daughter together, Lucie Anne, and later divorced. Grace then married William E. Taylor in 1951. She died in Charleston, WV.
10.4 Linear Feet (Summary: 10 ft. 5 in. (11 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 wrapped package, 1/2 in.); (3 record cartons, 15 in. each); (2 document cases, 4 in. each); (2 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 flat storage box, 3 in.); (1 flat storage box, 3 1/2 in.); (1 flat storage box, 4 in.))
1.63 Gigabytes (23 .jpg and .iso files )
Papers, news clippings, programs, photos, certificates, and artwork of West Virginia artist, Grace Martin Taylor, who taught in Charleston at Mason College, and later at Morris Harvey. Her art, in several media including oils and watercolor, is modernist in style, showing a preference for abstraction. Also included is some material regarding her daughter, Lucie Anne Mellert, and her promotion of Taylor's art.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository