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RUTH BOWMAN

15 February 1978

Mrs. Dorothy C. Miller
12 East 8th Street
New York, New York 10003

Dear Dorothy:
There is no way I can leave town without writing to thank you for all that you did to make yesterday's talk at the Newark Museum go as smoothly as it did. I do so wish that you had been there if only to see the rough cut work print of the restoration film that we showed after my talk. Rachel Strickland came down from MIT to show it on a special projector since the in-process print still has the sound and image on separate reels. We have not had the best luck in funding it but we are pressing on.

My trip to Louis Allen Abramson's apartment at 25 Fifth Avenue proved totally successful. He is the architect of the ill-fated Riviera and owns the two--and probably only--sketches. The paint on one is very crumbled but the other has the Whitney 1951 sticker on the back. The colors are as subtle as can be, almost unphotographable in delicate nuance. They are practically perfect Kandinsky-Miro, no discernible figurative elements.

Almost everything that you send me is specifically useful for the "Murals Without Walls" exhibition catalogue. I do hope that we can borrow the original 1936 manuscript which will be properly encased and insured as well as your copy of the "New Horizons in American Art" catalogue. Judging form the current Synchromist exhibition at the Whitney, original documents are by far preferable to photocopies.

I am hoping that the family will let me also exhibit Gorky's naturalization certificate which Matthew loaned me along with the Camouflage brochure. Ethel Schwabacher tells me she took that course which of course establishes that it was indeed taught.

I am off for two weeks in Los Angeles followed by another week in the archives in Washington. I shall be back the week of the 13th of March and will call you then. I do wish you a speedy recovery from your all too long confinement and look forward to seeing you before too long.

Thank you again for all your help.

Cordially yours,
Ruth
Ruth Bowman
RM:mu

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