Photograph of George Gershwin by Nikolas Murray, ca. 1925.  20.5 x 25/5 cm. 
Charles Green Shaw papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution 

The musical and visual arts have always gone hand in hand, particularly in the way that each medium inspires the other.  Chopin wrote nocturnes; Whistler painted them.  Kandinsky created symphonies with color, and Debussy used notes to create two sets of tone pictures for the piano, appropriately titled Images.  Both music and the visual arts have a dual nature:  there are technical and theoretical aspects to both, but at the same time, they can be evocative and emotional or sublimely beautiful.  

It is no wonder then that visual artists take inspiration from music, or that they might try their hands at the musical arts--particularly the piano which provides challenge and delight to both the novice and the professional.   As the 300th anniversary of its invention is celebrated, the piano still remains one of the most popular instruments today. The Smithsonian Institution is currently honoring this occasion with the exhibit, Piano 300:  Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos  on view at the International Gallery of the S. Dillon Ripley Center through June 3, 2001.  

The documents for this presentation have been selected from the collections of the Archives of American Art.  Having amassed over 14,000,000 items since its founding in 1954, the Archives of American Art is the world's largest repository of material relating to American art and artists.  The personal and professional papers of artists, dealers, critics and art historians, the institution records of art galleries, museums, societies and other organizations, and a thriving oral history program, all provide documentation on a wide variety of artistic styles, movements and periods.  

Elizabeth Botten 
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