Team Provenance:
As week number six has come and gone, we have continued our search through the archives. Photographs of Brorby’s work continue to surface and we are adding them to our ever-growing collection of Brorby’s apparently prolific art career. A google doc for our team is now up and running - we are using it to start consolidating information on his pieces as it becomes available through our exploration of the archive material. With our knowledge of an art auction after Brorby’s death, we are starting to contact people to figure out the locations of the pieces not sold. This coming week we will tackle the best way to sift through and organize the bits and pieces of provenance information in his collection in a suitable manner.
Organization:
The weeks are passing by quickly, but it is still a slow, tedious process in the archival room here in the library. We now have a few boxes put together that contain several folders on the life of different family members - most notably Harry (of course), his father, Melvin, and his mother, Nancy. We have come across old photo albums, many piles of pictures, war documents and letters, as well as international business correspondence from Melvin during his time abroad. There was a family tree of Nancy’s family found which could prove to be interesting in the time to come. We’ll see where this all takes us in our individual research projects, but for now, we still need to put the pieces together as we continue to organize the memories which lay in the many boxes that remain stacked in our little room in the library.
Digitization:
This week contained a lot of reworking and reevaluating our position in digitization and our ultimate requirement to conduct independent research. Austin and I realized that scope and quantity of materials that need to be digitized would take at least the entirety of this semester to complete, if not much more time. We both felt distant and disengaged in the research at hand. This past Monday, after discussing things among the class on Friday, we asked for Mason to show us the ropes on the archiving process. As of now the plan has shifted towards archiving as a priority, in order for us to achieve deeper engagement with the materials at hand.
Timeline:
We met with Mary Porter again, this time at a cozy table at JP’s coffeehouse downtown Holland, to gather additional information on the Brorby family. Most of the content was the same as the previous meeting however Amanda managed to get a recording. This recording is on a CD which is with the archives, along with a copy of these notes in the class/timeline binder. (Brief information on this interview also available on the Harry Brorby ‘Google Excel’ Interview Chart). The first meeting was just myself [Nancy Laning] and Mary, and there was no recording. That specific meeting was nice to gain comfortability and chat about Harry, in general.
During this meeting, the second interview with Mary, Mary reiterated that Harry was a loner [although no evidence of family strife], that he collected ancient textiles, death masks, death carts and other items from South America, New Guinea, Mexico and Central America. An agent found much of his collection for him. Their living room was a bit scary since it housed many of these items and was darkened to secure their preservation.
He was on the Board of the Art Institute of Chicago and many other boards. He was an avid Tennis player. He considered himself a poet and composer. He wrote love songs and recorded them. She [Mary] and her girlfriend were asked to come to Melvin and Rhody’s home to accompany him on the piano on one occasion.
Rhody’s family (Rhoda Williams Broby) was very wealthy. She is not sure but there was some speculation that the family estate on Lake Michigan may have been from her trust fund. The estate had four separate houses. One for Harry and Nancy’s family, one for Vivi Horner’s Family (Harry’s sister), one house was for Rhody and one house for Melvin. She did say Melvin was totally in love with Rhody and was devastated upon her death. Rhody was an artist and Melvin had all of her work framed and hung after she was gone.
Mary talked about Plexiglas boxes Harry used to build scenes, and even made a nice sketch in Amanda’s notebook of these boxes, as well as Harry’s geodesic-dome studio on his family’s Lake Michigan estate. She is also an artist and works at a studio out of the Anderson Werkmann building in downtown Holland, Michigan. We asked her if she witnessed Harry paint, and she discussed Harry’s method of painting his Yellow Series. He would lay down black marks and then work inward with yellow. He would work and rework the same theme over and over. When he was in Tucson he began working on a series that involved bricks and corners. It would be nice to obtain at least an image of some or all of these ‘brick series’ pieces. Their Tucson home had two garages that were used as studios. They held pool tables covered with paint and art detritus.
Her recollection of the Brorby’s family is that they were quite close but very private. Son, Mike, was a drummer. He moved to NYC and eventually developed as a studio tech. or recording tech. He is married and has one son. Harry’s daughter, Katie, has had her difficulties: several marriages and few other issues. She reportedly lives near her mother now and spends nights there to care for her. Both Katie and Nancy are artists as well. Katie took care of Melvin in his old age.
Nancy was “discovered” a bit after Harry’s death and had a bit of a show in NYC. (Amanda is this what you understood too?) [Amanda: This was not clear to me, Nancy]. Her work involved little men/soldiers lying on the beach and ambushing other soldiers, crocodile hunters. Nancy was a runner and a dancer. She danced with a troupe run by Maxine DuBruyn, notable dancer and founder of the Dance Department at Hope College.
Mary gave us some names of people who had relationships with Harry: Don Hardy (local and still living) was a good friend of Harry’s (one of the only people she knew of that he did things with socially). They would fish together.
She mentioned professor from Calvin (now retired) named Chris Overvoorde. He is from the Netherlands but is of some renown locally at least. He may have been a student of Harry’s. His work has been featured at the Armstrong DeGraaf Gallery.
During the first interview Mary gave me the names of Pati Buursma Bekkin and her brother Brad Buursma. They are good friends with the Brorby’s and are willing to help us with any insight. We will be sure to post contact information on the wall in the library room (Amanda: now on Harry Brorby Interview Excel Chart).
It may be interesting to find out where Harry’s interest in the macabre originated and what became of his collection of artifacts.
As week number six has come and gone, we have continued our search through the archives. Photographs of Brorby’s work continue to surface and we are adding them to our ever-growing collection of Brorby’s apparently prolific art career. A google doc for our team is now up and running - we are using it to start consolidating information on his pieces as it becomes available through our exploration of the archive material. With our knowledge of an art auction after Brorby’s death, we are starting to contact people to figure out the locations of the pieces not sold. This coming week we will tackle the best way to sift through and organize the bits and pieces of provenance information in his collection in a suitable manner.
Organization:
The weeks are passing by quickly, but it is still a slow, tedious process in the archival room here in the library. We now have a few boxes put together that contain several folders on the life of different family members - most notably Harry (of course), his father, Melvin, and his mother, Nancy. We have come across old photo albums, many piles of pictures, war documents and letters, as well as international business correspondence from Melvin during his time abroad. There was a family tree of Nancy’s family found which could prove to be interesting in the time to come. We’ll see where this all takes us in our individual research projects, but for now, we still need to put the pieces together as we continue to organize the memories which lay in the many boxes that remain stacked in our little room in the library.
Digitization:
This week contained a lot of reworking and reevaluating our position in digitization and our ultimate requirement to conduct independent research. Austin and I realized that scope and quantity of materials that need to be digitized would take at least the entirety of this semester to complete, if not much more time. We both felt distant and disengaged in the research at hand. This past Monday, after discussing things among the class on Friday, we asked for Mason to show us the ropes on the archiving process. As of now the plan has shifted towards archiving as a priority, in order for us to achieve deeper engagement with the materials at hand.
Timeline:
We met with Mary Porter again, this time at a cozy table at JP’s coffeehouse downtown Holland, to gather additional information on the Brorby family. Most of the content was the same as the previous meeting however Amanda managed to get a recording. This recording is on a CD which is with the archives, along with a copy of these notes in the class/timeline binder. (Brief information on this interview also available on the Harry Brorby ‘Google Excel’ Interview Chart). The first meeting was just myself [Nancy Laning] and Mary, and there was no recording. That specific meeting was nice to gain comfortability and chat about Harry, in general.
During this meeting, the second interview with Mary, Mary reiterated that Harry was a loner [although no evidence of family strife], that he collected ancient textiles, death masks, death carts and other items from South America, New Guinea, Mexico and Central America. An agent found much of his collection for him. Their living room was a bit scary since it housed many of these items and was darkened to secure their preservation.
He was on the Board of the Art Institute of Chicago and many other boards. He was an avid Tennis player. He considered himself a poet and composer. He wrote love songs and recorded them. She [Mary] and her girlfriend were asked to come to Melvin and Rhody’s home to accompany him on the piano on one occasion.
Rhody’s family (Rhoda Williams Broby) was very wealthy. She is not sure but there was some speculation that the family estate on Lake Michigan may have been from her trust fund. The estate had four separate houses. One for Harry and Nancy’s family, one for Vivi Horner’s Family (Harry’s sister), one house was for Rhody and one house for Melvin. She did say Melvin was totally in love with Rhody and was devastated upon her death. Rhody was an artist and Melvin had all of her work framed and hung after she was gone.
Mary talked about Plexiglas boxes Harry used to build scenes, and even made a nice sketch in Amanda’s notebook of these boxes, as well as Harry’s geodesic-dome studio on his family’s Lake Michigan estate. She is also an artist and works at a studio out of the Anderson Werkmann building in downtown Holland, Michigan. We asked her if she witnessed Harry paint, and she discussed Harry’s method of painting his Yellow Series. He would lay down black marks and then work inward with yellow. He would work and rework the same theme over and over. When he was in Tucson he began working on a series that involved bricks and corners. It would be nice to obtain at least an image of some or all of these ‘brick series’ pieces. Their Tucson home had two garages that were used as studios. They held pool tables covered with paint and art detritus.
Her recollection of the Brorby’s family is that they were quite close but very private. Son, Mike, was a drummer. He moved to NYC and eventually developed as a studio tech. or recording tech. He is married and has one son. Harry’s daughter, Katie, has had her difficulties: several marriages and few other issues. She reportedly lives near her mother now and spends nights there to care for her. Both Katie and Nancy are artists as well. Katie took care of Melvin in his old age.
Nancy was “discovered” a bit after Harry’s death and had a bit of a show in NYC. (Amanda is this what you understood too?) [Amanda: This was not clear to me, Nancy]. Her work involved little men/soldiers lying on the beach and ambushing other soldiers, crocodile hunters. Nancy was a runner and a dancer. She danced with a troupe run by Maxine DuBruyn, notable dancer and founder of the Dance Department at Hope College.
Mary gave us some names of people who had relationships with Harry: Don Hardy (local and still living) was a good friend of Harry’s (one of the only people she knew of that he did things with socially). They would fish together.
She mentioned professor from Calvin (now retired) named Chris Overvoorde. He is from the Netherlands but is of some renown locally at least. He may have been a student of Harry’s. His work has been featured at the Armstrong DeGraaf Gallery.
During the first interview Mary gave me the names of Pati Buursma Bekkin and her brother Brad Buursma. They are good friends with the Brorby’s and are willing to help us with any insight. We will be sure to post contact information on the wall in the library room (Amanda: now on Harry Brorby Interview Excel Chart).
It may be interesting to find out where Harry’s interest in the macabre originated and what became of his collection of artifacts.