Editor’s Note

Abstract

Previous articleNext article FreeEditor’s NoteFull TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis issue introduces an expansion of the journal’s “Art Work” section to include both artists’ and curators’ creative engagements with the Archives of American Art. Reaching across the collections, curator Robert Cozzolino composes a visual argument about the ethics of seeing private, and at times unexpected, materials in artists’ archives. Through his judicious selection, juxtaposition, and display of primary sources, he thinks about how and if researchers should disseminate such materials. Cozzolino asks: Are there aspects of artists’ papers that, once uncovered, can or should ever be unseen?If this curatorial intervention sheds light on what it means to see into archives, the essays in this issue’s “New Research” section grapple with the issue of not seeing. They do so by probing a variety of archival absences and ambiguities. Sarah Gordon considers why a New Deal mural by Rockwell Kent, which offered a controversial message of liberation to Puerto Ricans, has been largely lost to history. Christina Weyl asks, through the case of Worden Day, how scholars might fill in the missing or forgotten details of a woman artist’s life and career. Amelia Barikin and Chris McAuliffe treat the remains of an unrealized film script as both a record and component of Robert Smithson’s artistic practice.“Archive Matters” continues the themes of absence and ambiguity by reflecting on what archival rediscoveries can tell us about American art and its histories. In my own essay, I find that unearthing a lost archive devoted to Maine art reveals a great deal, including the critical revaluation of regionality since the 1960s. Julia Bryan-Wilson, however, argues for not allowing the information we uncover in archives to determine solely the meaning of art. She focuses on her own archival find: notes on possible titles for Louise Nevelson’s abstract sculptures.In closing, I wish to note that Liza Kirwin, deputy director of the Archives, has been integral to the editorial team since we relaunched the journal in 2015, working on every issue alongside me and Emily D. Shapiro. It is in grateful acknowledgement of her efforts and support that we add her name to the masthead. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Archives of American Art Journal Volume 58, Number 2Fall 2019 Sponsored by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/706830 Views: 95 © 2019 by The Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.