CORRESPONDENCE COLLECTION

The Correspondence Collection consists of letters, postcards, notes, and relevant papers created or accumulated by Peter Halley, documenting his relationship with various artists, critics, writers, and curators from the 1980s to present.

From over 300 correspondents, highlights include Elaine Sturtevant, Anne Truitt, and Franz Erhard Walther.

Artists

Notable Figures

SNAPSHOTS COLLECTION

The Snapshots Collection consists of thousands of photographs, slides, and transparencies, detailing candid moments with people, studio processes, and installations.

The photographs were produced as the events unfolded by both Peter’s staff and closest friends, offering unique snapshots of the artist’s life and career.

PEOPLE AND PORTRAITS

STUDIO SNAPSHOTS

INSTALLATION AND PRODUCTION SNAPSHOTS

PETER HALLEY LIBRARY

Consisting of nearly 800 publications collected by Peter Halley and members of his studio, the Peter Halley Library contains a comprehensive body of published information on the artist’s life, artwork, and career.

UNPUBLISHED STUDIES AND NOTES

Comprising hundreds of loose pages and notebooks, this collection of studies, sketches, and texts offers an intimate look into Peter Halley’s early artistic and critical formation.

Between 1981 and 1993 specifically, Halley used composition notebooks with graph paper to develop a visual and linguistic vocabulary—one that blends diagrammatic drawing with dense annotation, conceptual notes with personal ephemera. Technical studies for paintings sit beside ideas for Kodalith prints, fragments of unpublished texts, and lists of appointments or addresses.

Together, these studies, manuscripts, and notebooks reveal a diaristic, experimental space where Halley’s engagement with geometry, media theory, and social structure began to take form.

UNPUBLISHED NOTES

NOTEBOOKS 1981 - 1993

EXHIBITION EPHEMERA COLLECTION

The Exhibition Ephemera Collection offers an expansive, tactile record of Peter Halley’s creative and professional life. Comprising over 2,000 items—many of which are digitized or currently being processed—the collection includes posters, lecture and exhibition invitations, booklets, catalogue proofs, and other printed matter.

Spanning from the 1960s to the present, these materials document a wide range of artistic, academic, and cultural events that have shaped and reflected Halley’s evolving practice. This collection is part of a broader digital archival initiative designed to preserve and extend access to the full scope of the Peter Halley Archive.

INVITATIONS, POSTCARDS, & POSTERS

PRESS RELEASES

PRESS COLLECTION

The records comprise press clippings about the career of Peter Halley. The records, 1970-2024 (bulk 1985-2013), contain clippings, facsimiles and complete periodicals from national and international publications covering over four decades of Halley’s career as an artist, writer, lecturer and teacher. The press clippings were collected and maintained by Peter Halley and staff members of Peter Halley’s studio.

INDEX MAGAZINE

INDEX Magazine was a New York City-based publication with interviews with art and culture figures. It was created by Peter Halley and Bob Nickas in 1996, running until late 2005.

Covering the burgeoning indie culture of the 1990s, Index regularly employed photographers Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Ryan McGinley, and had interviews with Björk, Brian Eno, Marc Jacobs, and Scarlett Johansson, mixing new talents and established names in music, film, architecture, fashion, art, and politics. The publication also had interviews with local New York City personalities such as Queen Itchie and Ducky Doolittle.

In 2014, it launched Index A to Z: Art, Design, Fashion, Film, and Music in the Indie Era.The book about indie culture was published by Rizzoli.[citation needed]

The magazine also produced the online series Delusional Downtown Divas, starring Isabel Halley and Lena Dunham.

The INDEX magazine collection is currently being assessed and remains largely unprocessed. However, even in its early stages, the collection reveals a rich archive of materials—including a substantial set of audio cassettes featuring interviews with fashion designers, actors, and writers. It also contains thousands of photographs, back issues of the magazine, ephemera, and correspondence, offering a vivid snapshot of the cultural landscape INDEX helped shape.