Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.
Images shape our sense of self, both as we receive and as we express them. Artists have interrogated the power of images for an array of feminist aims, and this episode tracks the work of Sarah Edwards Charlesworth and Celia Alvarez Muñoz as they examine, exploit, and explode the image.
Mail art (alternatively called “correspondence art” or “postal art”) emerged as a form of artistic practice in which an international network of participants use the mail to make art and share it with others regarding culture and communications, creatively sidestepping the art market and, in many instances, eluding government censors.
Jacob Proctor, the Gilbert and Ann Kinney New York Collector, highlights the Michèle C. Cone Papers, recently acquired by the Archives. The following essay was originally published in the Spring 2022 issue (vol. 61, no. 1) of the Archives of American Art Journal.
The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the papers of noted critic, writer, and broadcaster Robert Hughes. Measuring approximately 28 linear feet, the collection documents Hughes’s life and multifaceted career through extensive personal and professional correspondence; notebooks; drafts of articles, lectures, documentaries, and book projects; audio and video recordings; photographs; press clippings; and other personal records.
Original material can be consulted by appointment in our Washington, D.C. Headquarters.
Select holdings are available on microfilm at the Archives' offices in Washington, D.C. and at our New York Office.
Copies of unrestricted microfilm materials can be obtained through one of our affiliated research centers.
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Internship, fellowship, and volunteer opportunities provide students and lifelong learners with the ability to contribute to the study and preservation of visual arts records in America.
A virtual repository of a substantial cross-section of the Archives' most significant collections.