One of the best resources for those of us who study American art is undoubtedly the Archives of American Art. Founded in 1954 in Detroit, the institution was originally intended to collect microfilm of archival material relating to American art…
Last week I wrote about research I have been doing on two recent acquisitions in CFAM’s Alfond Collection. This week, I’d like to continue with American photographer Andrew Moore’s 2016 Pitt’s Folly, Perry County, AL, from the recent series Blue…
In art history, as in most academic disciplines, we divide ourselves into a dizzying array of subfields, from experts in ancient Greek pottery to Qing-era Chinese painting to Mayan architecture and far beyond. My own expertise is in nineteenth century…
One of the particular strengths of the CFAM collection I have been delighted to discover is in the medium of etching, one of the primary modes of printmaking used by artists since the Renaissance. To make an etching, a very…
For me, one of the great pleasures of museum work is getting to know an individual collection. At institutions like CFAM, which are tied to specific communities of alumni, donors, students, faculty, and local visitors, collections grow organically, reflecting the…
“Change is coming, whether you like it or not.” – Greta Thunberg What change is coming? Climate change and the movements centered around it. As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd, an annual event dedicated to environmental protection, here’s…
I read somewhere that collections are what museums are; exhibitions, what they do. This makes perfect sense, of course. Except for the comparatively rare kunsthalle (a German word roughly translated to “art gallery” but used in English to mean non-collecting…
