Library Catalog
 


Featured Acquisition


 
Joseph Cornell Correspondence to Susanna De Maria Wilson

A collection of unpublished letters from artist Joseph Cornell to one of his first assistants, then married to Walter De Maria, feature poetic and philosophical musings as well as examples of Cornell's exquisite collages.
Learn more.


Archives and Manuscripts



  Claire Copley Gallery Records, 1968–2011

This Los Angeles gallery launched the 20 artists—including Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, William Leavitt, Allen Ruppersberg, and Lawrence Weiner—now considered pioneers of Conceptual Art. 2014.M.2



  Jay DeFeo (American, 1929–1989)
Jay DeFeo mail art to Clinton Hill, 1954–63

These four pieces document the early friendship between the artists and are rare examples of DeFeo's work in the genre. 2014.M.15
Partial gift of the Clinton Hill/Allen Tran Trust



  René Magritte letters to Alexander Iolas, 1954–62

These nine letters, previously unknown and unpublished, were sent by the surrealist painter to the art dealer Iolas in New York, detailing their financial arrangements and their close interaction on the marketing and sale of Magritte's art. 2013.M.22



  Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (English, 1902–1983)
Diaries, 1916–22

Dating from his teen years to the time of his marriage in 1922, these highly personal handwritten diaries offer a unique glimpse into the architectural historian's formative years. The diaries are an addition to the Nikolaus Pevsner Papers already in the Research Institute's collections. 840209
Gift of the family of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner


Prints and Drawings



  Félix Bracquemond (French, 1833–1914)
Vive le tsar! (Le coq de la France), 1893

This etching, from an edition of 100 published in the French publication L'Estampe originale, refers to the Russian fleet's visit to the city of Toulon in 1893. 2014.PR.5



  Antonio Cattani (Italian, active 1770s–1780s) after Ercole Lelli (Italian, 1702–1766)
Three life-size écorché engravings, 1780–81

These extremely rare, monumental anatomical engravings are based on Lelli's wood sculptures that are still displayed at the medical school of the University of Bologna. 2014.PR.17**, 2014.PR.18**, 2014.PR.19**



  Arnault-Éloi Gautier-Dagoty [Gautier D'Agoty] (French, 1741–1780/83)
Cours complet d'anatomie (Complete anatomy course), 1773

This suite of 15 mezzotints depicting anatomical studies was produced using a four-color printing technique pioneered by the artist's father, Jacques-Fabien Gautier-Dagoty. 42-2



  Group of 34 prints, 1774–1970

This donation includes etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts by Honoré Daumier, Oskar Kokoschka, Lee Mullican, James Rosenquist, and Edouard Vuillard. View records.
Donated by Meredith A. Palmer and William A. Palmer



  Hieronymus Hopfer (German, active ca. 1520–1530)
Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1528–63

This 16th-century etched impression of the Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam (Dutch, 1466–1536) was likely produced after a medal by Quentin Metsys. 2013.PR.92



  Nicolas-Henri Jacob (French, 1782–1871)
The genius of lithography, 1819

The winged genius of lithography and a young woman engaged in printing a lithograph appear in this work celebrating the German inventor of the art form, Alois Senefelder (1771–1834). 2014.PR.8



  Antoine Masson (French, 1636–1700)
Portrait of Guillaume de Brisacier, 1664

Masson's expertly engraved portrait of de Brisacier features the bust of the sitter within an oval frame resting upon a plinth. 2014.PR.21



  Francesco Piranesi (Italian, ca. 1756–1810)
Fête donnée par le Général Berthier . . . (Festival given for General Berthier . . .), ca. 1801

These two hand-colored etchings depict the 1802 festival given for Louis Alexandre Berthier, minister of war under Napoleon, in his Parisian home and gardens to celebrate the establishment of peace between the French Republic, the Emperor, and the German people. 2014.PR.13



  Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
Vieux chevalier (Old knight), 1896

This lithographic depiction of an aged knight in armor was produced for the Album des Peintres-graveurs, a portfolio of works by multiple artists that was published in an edition size of 100 by Ambroise Vollard. 2014.PR.6


Rare Books and Serials



  Guillaume Apollinaire (French, 1880–1918)
La Poète Assasiné (The assassinated poet), L'Édition Bibliothèque des Curieux (Paris, 1916)

This collection of stories features a portrait of the author by André Rouveyre on the frontispiece and an illustrated cover with an original drawing in two colors by Leonetto Capiello. 41-264



  Guillaume Apollinaire (French, 1880–1918)
Vitam Impendere Amori (To threaten life for love) (Paris, 1917)

The author's proof of this original edition with six poems by Apollinaire features illustrations by André Rouveyre. 41-263



  Denis Dodart (1634–1707)
Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Plantes (Memoirs which can serve as a history of plants) (Paris, 1676)

This large illustrated folio outlines the natural historical research plans of the burgeoning French Academy and includes 39 engravings by Nicolas Robert and Abraham Bosse. 45-9
Gift of Tania Norris



  Patricia Lagarde (Mexican, b. 1961)
Fantastic Island (Mexico City, 2011)

Based on a photograph Lagarde found of her grandfather's boat, she constructed a story of a shipwreck at 86° 13' N, the latitude of the Fantastic Islands, that became the basis of this artist's book. N7433.4.L173 F21 2011



  Frank O'Hara (American, 1926–1966)
Biotherm (For Bill Berkson) (San Francisco, 1990)

A postwar entry in the long tradition of Ut pictura poesis (a Latin phrase meaning, "As is painting, so is poetry"), this artist's book is accompanied by a suite of eight gravure prints. 45-7



  Dmitri Mitrokhin (Russian, 1883–1973), illustrator, and Viktor Borisovich Shklovskii (Russian), author
Puteshestvie v stranu Kino (Journey to the land of the movies) (Leningrad, 1925)

In this children's story, a Russian boy visits Hollywood and encounters a number of celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin. 41-182



  Salomon Trismosin (fl. 1473)
Aureum vellus . . . (The golden fleece . . .) (Rorschach, 1598–99)

The only known complete copy in the United States in contemporary hand-coloring of the first edition of the Aureum vellus. Trismosin claimed to be the teacher of Paracelsus, the "father" of modern pharmaceutical medicine. 41-266
Gift of the GRI Council



  Tristan Tzara (Romanian/French, 1896–1963)
Cinéma calendrier du coeur abstrait; Maisons (Calendar cinema of the abstract heart; Houses) (Paris, 1920)

This book features woodcuts by Jan Arp and a signed note to Louis Broder, a friend of the surrealists. 41-265


Rare Photographs



  Lewis Baltz (American, b. 1945)
Lewis Baltz Archive, 1967–2013

The collection includes an almost complete series of negatives with printing notes, contact sheets, over 225 proof prints, 38 duplicate final prints, videocassettes, hundreds of installation views, and ephemera, in addition to publications by and about the artist. 2013.M.31
Gift of Lewis Baltz and Slavika Perkovic



  Désiré Charnay (French, 1828–1915)
Ruines américaines (Paris, 1862), photographed 1858–60

Forty-five albumen prints of Chichén Itzá, Izamal, Mitla, Palenque, and Uxmal record these Mayan sites as they looked in the mid-19th century and represent some of the earliest extensive photographic documentation of pre-Columbian architecture. 2014.R.13



  Edward Ranney (American, b. 1942)
Ancient Peruvian Sites, 1985–2009

Internationally recognized landscape photographer Edward Ranney has documented the sacred sites of ancient American peoples in Peru since his first visit to that country in 1964 to 1965, exemplified by these 14 toned gelatin-silver prints. 2013.R.18



  John Sadovy (Czech, 1925–2010)
Assassination of secret police officers during the Hungarian revolution of 1956, 1956

Dated and stamped as press images (Sadovy/Time), these photographic prints present in sequence the gruesome death by execution of security police officers on the way out of the Communist headquarters in Budapest at the hand of Hungarian rebels. 2014.R.2



  下鄉羊雄 Yoshio Shimozato (Japanese, 1907–1981)
メセム属 : 超現実主義写真集, Mesemu Zoku: Chōgenjitsu shugi Shashinshū (Genus Mesemb.: surrealist photography collection) (Nagoya, 1940)

This extremely rare book of photographs by Shimozato and other artists of the Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde group is one of the masterpieces of Japanese modernist photography, one of the last to be published on the eve of the Second World War. N7433.4.S5555 M57 1940



  Wegner & Mottu (Dutch, 1862–1913)
Internationale tentoonstelling Amsterdam (15 Julij–18 October 1869) (International Exhibition Amsterdam July 15–October 18, 1869), 1869

This portfolio of 97 loose albumen photographs was taken by the Dutch studio Wegner & Mottu to document the "International Exhibition of Objects for the Artisan's Household and Workshop." 2014.R.5