Sunday, June 10, 2018

Taking a Glance at the Richter Archive

Where: National Gallery of Art Library, East Building

When: closing August 24, 2018

The National Gallery purchased the George Martin Richter Archive of Illustrations on Art in 1943.  To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of this important resource for artistic scholarship, the Library has put several items from the archive on display.

What appealed to me most was that Richter developed his own classification scheme for his collection.  That's the sort of thing that might appear easy to do, but is in fact incredibly difficult, especially as one's collection grows.  And this collection numbers about 60,000 items.

I also enjoyed seeing a photograph of a bullring in Madrid - included for its architecture.  It's not that I have any interest in bullfighting, but I remember this photograph from a show in 2011, and I always feel proud of myself for recognizing something I've seen before.

Verdict: Worth a look if you are interested in archival collections or the history of the National Gallery's holdings.

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