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Smithsonian's Archives of American Art

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Collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources on the history of the art in the US.
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Since 1954, the Archives has collected roughly 16 million letters, photographs, diaries, oral history interviews, sketches, scrapbooks, business records, and other documents that support the study of the history of the visual arts in America. Smithsonian Privacy Statement: http://www.si.edu/privacy/
Smithsonian Terms of Use: http://www.si.edu/termsofuse/

10/21/2026

We are happy to announce that a finding aid is now online for the visionary painter, installation artist, and educator, Hung Liu (1948–2021).

Born in Changchun, China, Liu emigrated to the United States when she was 36 years old to study under Allan Kaprow at the University of California, San Diego. Liu is known for incorporating historical photographs and objects that reference Chinese people and history into her work, creating immersive paintings and installations that question the veracity of images and historical memory.

In her papers, researchers will find biographical materials, writings and notes, research and source material, sketches, exhibition files, teaching files, and photographic material.

Learn more about Hung Liu and read the finding aid to her papers on our website s.si.edu/4hXLkQn.

This project received federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Images:
All, Hung Liu papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Hung Liu at the Yungang Grottoes, ca. 1980.
2. Hung Liu. Sketch of “Spring Festival,” 2000.
3. Christine Eagon Photographic Arts. Hung Liu and her son Ling Chen Kelley at her studio, ca. 1995.
4. Allan Kaprow. Letter of support of Hung Liu’s request for her son to join her in the US, 7 Mar. 1986.
5. Photograph of “Dunhuang” by Hung Liu, ca. 1980.

10/20/2026

What could an artist store in a matchbox other than matches? These matchboxes were donated by Stefan Hirsch and Elsa Rogo when they gave their papers to the Archives of American Art and document their time spent in Mexico in the 1930s.

Read more about these artists and their work in Mexico on our blog: s.si.edu/3VZCCs7.

Image:
Stefan Hirsch and Elsa Rogo, ca. 1930. Stefan Hirsch and Elsa Rogo papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

10/16/2026

We’ve got style (guide)! Our Oral History Program Style Guide just got a refresh!

We’re always thinking about how to make our oral history transcripts more accessible. Since 1958, when the Archives of American Art recorded its first oral history interview, the Archives has produced more than 2,600 oral histories. These recordings chronicle expansive histories of art in the United States and beyond; they augment and nuance our understanding of the people who shape culture.

Oral histories provide unique situations that call for flexibility in editing practices, and we aim for clarity and consistency within the overall program and within individual transcripts. While this style guide reflects our institutional needs and those of our staff, transcribers, and audit editors, we hope that this guide continues to be useful for other oral history programs and projects as they tailor practices for their own needs.

Read the Oral History Program Style Guide on our website: s.si.edu/3VM8Res.

10/15/2026

Last call! “Best Laid Plans: Unrealized Projects from the Archives of American Art” closes October 18!

See rarely exhibited or published archival materials that introduce little-known, or entirely unknown, projects by influential artists and thinkers at our Lawrence A Fleischman Gallery in Washington, DC.

Plan your visit on our website: aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/best-laid-plans.

Featured documents:
All, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Gretchen Bender. Page from notebook, 1996–98. Gretchen Bender papers.
2. Gretchen Bender. Page 2 of storyboards for Jumper, 2002. Gretchen Bender papers.
3–4. Dara Birnbaum. Proposal material for “Four Gates,” 1993–94. Park Place, The Gallery of Art Research, Inc. records and Paula Cooper Gallery records.
5–6. Lowell Darling. Campaign event ticket and flier, 1978. Lowell Darling papers.
7–8. Nancy Holt. Polaroids of Sky Mound model, late 1980s. Nancy Holt Estate records.
9–10. Paul Ramírez Jonas. Drawings, 2006–2008. Paul Ramírez Jonas papers.

10/14/2026

Today the Archives of American Art remembers artist, curator, collector, and publisher Devon Dikeou, who passed away on October 6. Dikeou was active in New York City and Austin, Texas, but was most known for her contributions to the Denver, Colorado art scene. In particular, the Dikeou collection, which she founded with her brother Pany Dikeou. In 1998, she published the first issue of “zingmagazine, which was created, as Dikeou wrote in her first Editor’s Note, to “[establish] a forum of collaborative exchange.”

Dikeou was especially known as a mentor to artists and a proponent of the arts, especially in Denver. As she told Josh T Franco in a 2020 oral history interview, “It’s part of my practice: sharing other artists with other people.”

Watch Devon Dikeou’s complete 2020 oral history interview on our YouTube channel: s.si.edu/3VPpyFE, and read a transcript of the interview on our website: s.si.edu/4zsmrly.

Images:
1. Screenshot from oral history interview with Devon Dikeou, 2020 July 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
2. Devon Dikeou, Josh T Franco, and Hayley Richardson at an Archives of American Art “Archives Live” event in Denver, Colorado, September 8, 2022.

10/13/2026

Donated to the Archives of American Art in 2025, the papers of Jorge Soto Sánchez (1947–1987) are a rich resource for those with an interest in Latino art.

Born to Puerto Rican parents living in East Harlem section of New York City, painter and printmaker Soto Sánchez joined the Taller Boricua workshop in the early 1970s, serving as its director for a time. Subsequently, he was involved in the Nuyorican movement. Soto Sánchez also studied and taught art classes at El Museo del Barrio where some of his subjects included Taino and Pre-Columbian art, as well as twentieth-century Puerto Rican artists like Francisco Oller and Jose Campeche.

Found in the Sánchez’s papers are correspondence, mail art, sketches and small paintings, files from his curatorial work with Puerto Rican artist Carlos Osorio, and exhibition announcements and catalogs related to his own exhibitions.

The collection is open and available to researchers in our reading room. Visit our website to read the finding aid and learn more about the Jorge Soto Sánchez papers: s.si.edu/4ybVEsE.

Images:
All, Jorge Soto Sánchez papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
1. Jorge Soto Sánchez. Mail Art Collage, undated.
2. Jorge Soto Sánchez. Hand-colored flyer for El Taller Boricua, not before 1980.
3. El Grupo Morivivi. “Graphics” exhibition catalog, 1977.
4. Jorge Soto Sánchez. Painting, undated.

10/09/2026

A group of notes and sketches featured in “Best Laid Plans: Unrealized Projects from the Archives of American Art” come from Paul Ramírez Jonas’ papers documenting an exhibition he developed for the National Maritime Museum in London between 2006 and 2008, which was not actualized.

For the work, Ramírez Jonas takes inspiration from Greek mythology, specifically the story of the “Argo” and the Ship of Theseus and the vessels’ parts being completely replaced over the course of a long voyage. The sailors feel like they are on the same ship, but it is unrecognizable to everyone else when they return home. As Ramírez Jonas tells curator Jacob Proctor, the drawings evoke movement and a sense of being in flux: “I’ve always thought that’s such a good sculptural idea, where something you think is solid is not solid at all.”

“Best Laid Plans: Unrealized Projects from the Archives of American Art” is on view through October 18, 2026, at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, DC. Plan your visit on our website: s.si.edu/4tExsh9.

Images:
All, Paul Ramírez Jonas. Drawings, 2006–2008. Paul Ramírez Jonas papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

10/08/2026

Final call! The priority deadline for publication consideration in the 2028 volume of the peer-reviewed Archives of American Art Journal is Thursday, October 15, 2026.

We publish essays that tell new and innovative stories about visual art in relation to the United States. All submissions must make critical or creative use of archival materials in the Archives collections, but that need not be their singular focus. Research articles run 5,000–7,000 words, including notes, and may include up to 15 illustrations.

Visit our website for more information about the journal and submission guidelines: s.si.edu/3OElTor.

Image:
Frederick Hammersley. Collage, “An Idea,” between 1948 and 1971. Frederick Hammersley papers. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

10/07/2026

Our fiery pink Fall 2026 “Archives of American Art Journal" is hot off the press!

The new issue, featuring a studio photograph from the newly acquired Jackie Winsor papers on the cover, is printing as we speak. Be on the lookout for the Fall 2026 issue shipping to subscribers and available through our digital publishing partners in the coming weeks.

Learn more about the journal on our website: s.si.edu/427XUkQ.

10/06/2026

Our mission at the Archives of American Art is collecting, preserving, and making available to all primary sources documenting the visual arts in the United States. This work begins with our collecting team who travel across the country, and even around the world, to meet with artists, their families and estates, and arts organizations to bring their papers to Washington, DC to be preserved and made available for research.

When they travel, collectors take a kit with them with items that help them assess archives in the field. Asian Pacific American Collections Specials Christina Ayson-Plank shares what’s in her bag for American Archives Month!

Visit aaa.si.edu to learn more about our work and collections.

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Tuesday	9am - 5pm
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Friday	9am - 5pm

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