The Dorathy Bruce Farr papers

Collection

Identifier: WUA027

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection of papers represents various stages of Dorathy Bruce Farr’s life. There are letters she wrote to her friend Rex Amos; news clippings of art show reviews; photographs taken at a party late in her life, and a copy of her obituary from The Oregonian in 1989.

Dates

1965-1989

Creator

Farr, Dorathy Bruce (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Library acts as “fair use” reproduction agent.

For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Copyright Information: Before material from collections at Willamette University Archives and Special Collections may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permission. Persons wishing to quote from materials in any collections held by University Archives and Special Collections should consult the University Archivist. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.

Biographical / Historical

Dorathy Bruce (1904-1989), also known as Dorathy Bruce Farr, was a Portland painter and batik artist who spent a portion of her career in New York, where she and her husband, the painter Fred Farr, were associated with the Abstract Expressionist group which included Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell. Bruce created murals in New York and Florida and had shows from New Hampshire to New Orleans. Bruce and her husband won a grant in the 1940s to work on a mural in the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C. In addition to murals, Bruce worked in lithography, woodblock, pottery, and mosaics.

Back in Portland, Dorathy Bruce had shows at the Fountain Gallery and Sally Judd Gallery from the 1960s to the early 1980s before becoming ill and unable to work. She died on August 21, 1989.