Archives of American Art Blog

Behind the Scenes with WETA Around Town

The WETA Around Town production crew and host, Peter Winant, recently filmed a segment on the Archives of American Art’s current exhibition, Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts and Other Artists’ Enumerations

Here are some behind-the-scenes photographs of the taping. Spoiler alert: Peter Winant loves lists! You can watch our Around Town segment on WETA's website.

Peter Winant practicing his introduction. Photo by Liza Kirwin.

The WETA production crew setting up the next shot. Photo by Liza Kirwin.

Peter Winant working on his own to-do list outside of the Lawrence A. Fleischman gallery. The lists in the exhibition surely inspired him! Photo by Mary Savig.

Mary Savig is a curatorial assistant at the Archives of American Art.

Nothing is Certain, Except Art and Taxes

Although perhaps not the most glamorous of archival records—don’t we all dread receiving W2 forms in the mail?—a tax document can communicate a lot about an artist.

During the Depression, Mitchell Siporin’s 1939 tax return form revealed that his sole source of income was his work for the Treasury Department and the Works Progress Administration. These federal commissions helped artists preserve their livelihoods and also enlivened public buildings across the nation with murals and sculpture. Browse other Depression-era documents in our exhibition Hard Times, 1929-1939.

Conversely, the success of painters Elaine and Willem de Kooning enabled them to support fellow artists and make modest donations to charities. Elaine made sure to itemize these contributions in this list of income and expenses for the de Kooning's 1953 joint tax return. They were able to claim a loss of $1,987.74, which likely made their tax day more palatable. This list is currently on display as part of the Archives’ Lists exhibition in Washington, D.C.

Elaine and Willem de Kooning's notes for their joint tax return for 1953. Elaine and Willem de Kooning financial records, 1951-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Even the most avant-garde ventures of the late 1960s heeded the call of the taxman. In 1968, dealer Paula Cooper hired an accountant to help her register the Paula Cooper Gallery as a small business. It was the first gallery in SoHo, then an industrial slum so foreign to the art trade that it was known as “Hell’s Hundred Acres.” The Paula Cooper Gallery forged ahead with original projects and influential exhibitions, all while balancing a ledger, maintaining sales journals and, of course, filing annual tax returns. Read more about Park Place and the beginning of the Paula Cooper Gallery.

William Feltzin to Paula Cooper, October 5, 1968. Park Place Gallery Art Research records and the Paula Cooper Gallery records, 1965-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Maybe if we treat filing taxes as a conceptual art project, April 15 would be more enjoyable. Just don’t let the IRS in on the fun!

*Special thanks to Liza Kirwin for her previous research on these documents.

Mary Savig is a curatorial assistant at the Archives of American Art.

In Full Bloom: Springtime in Washington

Page 15 of Mollie Garfield Album, 1882-1883. Mollie Garfield (Mary Garfield Stanley-Brown) papers regarding President James Garfield, 1874-1883. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

While spring officially arrives on March 21, for the thousands of tourists and native Washingtonians who flock annually to the Tidal Basin, it is the National Cherry Blossom Festival (currently through April 11) which truly ushers in the season in the Nation’s capital.

This small watercolor by the artist William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) forms part of a memorial scrapbook presented to Mollie Garfield after the assassination of her father, President James Garfield.  And, though it marks a sad occasion, Holmes's lifelike rendering exemplifies re-birth and the bloom of spring.

More on Mollie Garfield , William Henry Holmes, and cherry blossoms:

Cherry blossoms: Washington, DC Metro Area Flickr pool

• Mollie Garfield (Mary Garfield Stanley-Brown) papers regarding President James Garfield, 1874-1883
• William Henry Holmes artists' files, 1879-1932 
• Cherry blossom slideshow from the Smithsonian's Collections Search Center
  

Elizabeth Botten works in the Reference Services Department at the Archives of American Art.

Eero Saarinen's To-do Lists

To-do list, August 16, 1961 by Eero Saarinen. Aline and Eero Saarinen papers, 1906-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Lately I’ve been thinking about lists—to-do lists, membership lists, grocery lists, lists of paintings sold, lists of appointments made and met—and what they can tell us about the list maker and a moment in time.

Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen (1910–1961), who designed such structural icons as the TWA terminal (1962) at JFK International Airport in New York and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (1965), was a great list maker.

Saarinen’s papers are peppered with lists of all kinds. In Roman numerals, I through IV, he set out the progress of his divorce, and from one to ten he listed the names of architects whom he considered to be his “subconscious board of directors,” that is, individuals with whom he may not agree, but nevertheless would like their approval.

Saarinen was also fond of enumerating his second wife’s good qualities–“generous, attractive, amusing, intelligent, talented, love-able, constructive, creative,” and the like, in multiple lists, often in red pencil.

His last to-do list (pictured), consisting of 52 separate items, is his most poignant. It was written on August 16, 1961, just five days before he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and sixteen days before he died from complications of surgery. He was 51 and in the midst of major architectural projects, as well as his home renovation. His list of all that was left undone is evidence of a life cut short.

See our current exhibition Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery at the Reynolds Center in Washington, D.C. and the Lists book published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Liza Kirwin is curator of manuscripts at the Archives of American Art. She will be giving a Gallery Tour of the Lists exhibition on Sunday, April 11 at 2:00 p.m.