News

The exhibition Lost and Found: The Lesbian and Gay Presence in the Archives of American Art presents, through letters, photographs, unpublished writings and rare printed material, glimpses into the sometimes private, sometimes “out” lives, careers and communities of gay American artists.

This September, Kraushaar Galleries, a leading dealer in American art of the first half of the 20th century, will celebrate its 125th year, a record of longevity that dates back to the 19th century and is shared by only three other New York galleries. Concurrent with this celebration year, the Archives of American Art will open “Kraushaar Galleries, Celebrating 125 Years.”

In conjunction with the exhibition at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, Lists: To-dos, Illustran Arted Inventories, Collected Thoughts and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of Americat, conceptual artist Ding Ren will perform “Observations with a Typewriter” in the first floor of the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery July 2 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The toils and triumphs of a wide range of individual artists and art organizations—documented in letters, photographs, journals, business records and oral history interviews at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art—reveal how American artists survived against the odds. The exhibition “Hard Times, 1929–1939” will be on display from June 1 to Sept. 3 in the Archives’ New York Research Center. 

Painter Elizabeth Peyton and Vogue editor-at-large Dodie Kazanjian will speak at the Cosmopolitan Club at 122 East 66th Street in New York City May 19. 

As part of the federal Save America’s Treasures initiative to preserve significant historic properties and collections, the Archives of American Art has been awarded a matching grant of $250,000 for the preservation and digitization of the Archives’ Oral History Collection, one of the oldest, most-consulted and historically significant oral history collections in the country. The Archives is the nation’s pre-eminent repository for primary sources documenting the history of the visual arts.

The Archives of American Art mourns the passing of Nancy Spero on October 18, 2009. An icon of feminist art, Nancy Spero’s assemblages and installations confronted issues of inequality and oppression.

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation has awarded $100,000 to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art to digitize the historical records of the Jacques Seligmann and Co. gallery for preservation and online public access. 

The Archives of American Art mourns the passing of Otto Heino, an influential and charismatic ceramicist. With his late wife, Vivika Heino (1910–1995), they forged a distinct blend of traditional Asian glazes and Scandinavian minimalism.

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art is pleased to announce the award of a three-year grant of $213,315 from the Leon Levy Foundation for the archival processing of the André Emmerich Gallery business records and Emmerich’s personal papers.