Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1929-1973 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
77 boxes and 99 items (12 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Otto Schneid, born in Jablunkova, Czechoslovakia, January 30, 1900, was an art historian, professor, writer, and artist. During the 1930s he began work on a dictionary of twentieth century Jewish artists to be published in Vienna in 1938, but the plates were confiscated by the Nazis. In 1939 he went to Palestine (Israel) as a research student at Jerusalem University. From 1948-1960 he taught art history at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Haifa, and continued to write about art. In 1960 he decided to concentrate on his creative work (poetry, painting, sculpting) and moved to the United States, where he lived from 1960 to 1963. During that period he had seven one-man shows there and one in Canada. In 1964 he moved to Canada where he continued to paint and to write. He died in Toronto in 1974.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection consists of research materials for Schneid's unpublished book on 20th century Jewish artists in Europe, manuscripts for his published and unpublished works, and galleys for his published writings. The research materials include correspondence with more than 120 Jewish artists, copies of their exhibition catalogues, and other published works, and photographs of their art. Most of these artists perished during the Second World War.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English