Exhibitions > Archive > lists

Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

February 5 to September 27, 2010
Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, Washington, DC

Buy the Lists book

Traveled to:
The Morgan Library and Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY
June 3 to October 2, 2011

This exhibition celebrates a common document–the list–as a key to the lives of some of the most celebrated artists of the last two centuries.

There are hundreds of thousands of lists in the Archives of American Art. This exhibition includes over 70 examples from Leo Castelli’s to-do lists to Oscar Bluemner’s illustrated list of works of art.

Whether dashed off as a quick reminder or carefully constructed as a comprehensive inventory, this humble form of documentation provides insight into its maker’s personal habits and decision-making processes. Pablo Picasso itemized his recommendations for the 1913 Armory Show and Alexander Calder’s address book reveals the who’s who of the Parisian avant-garde in the early 20th century. In the hands of their creators, these artifacts sometimes become works of art in and of themselves.

A companion book to the exhibition, published by Princeton Architectural Press, includes an introduction by John W. Smith, director of the Archives, and an essay by Liza Kirwin, the Archives’ curator of manuscripts. It is available for purchase in the museum store or through an online bookseller.