Arnold Mesches papers, 1939-2015

Project files date from 1950s-2014 and consist of grant files, activism files, project notebooks, and art projects. Grant files include correspondence and writings for various grant and fellowship applications and awards. Activism files pertain to the Los Angeles Peace Tower, Arts Coalition for Freedom of Expression, and the pardon of muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Peace Tower files contain mailing lists, a prospectus, account statements, petitions, photographic material, printed material, and a large amount of correspondence, primarily between Irving Petlin, one of the work's principal organizers, and other artists and curators including Rudolf Baranik, Jay de Feo, Elaine de Kooning, Leon Golub, Max Kozloff, and Mesches. It is unclear how Mesches came to possess this selection of material, although he was one of the organizers. One file pertains to the restaging of the work at the Whitney Museum in 2006.

Eight project notebooks (disbound) contain preliminary sketches, technical notes including color palette and paint formulas, Polaroids of in-process works, and source material. These detailed notebooks document Mesches' process from source material to finished work.

In addition, over 100 art project files further detail individual works, and include preliminary drawings in pen, pencil and charcoal, as well as collages, source material, and Polaroids. File titles primarily reference titles of works, however a few file titles describe the subject or genre, including murals, illustrations of courtrooms and trials, landscapes, and others. Several of Mesches' serial works are well represented here, including Anomie, Comings Attractions, and The FBI Files. The source material for The FBI Files is also found here, which consists of Mesches' declassified FBI file, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in 1999.

The series is arranged as four subseries.