As I reached to pull the folder titled, "Victorian Questionnaire" out of the box and opened the front flap to transfer the contents, to my surprise, there were no loosely assembled papers or correspondence, research, or exhib

An Italian artist named Luciano Lattanzi had an exhibition titled "Semantic Paintings and Drawings" at the University Gallery in 1960. While logging his file, I found a mysterious stack of pen drawings, rendered in a spiderweb-like scrawl. These turned out to be made by the artist himself — you can see his signature at the bottom of the images. I realized these were templates for a promotional poster for the show. The file contained a reproduction of the following drawing, so I assume they chose this for the poster:

In the fall of 1960, the University Gallery showed 40 master prints by the famed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. These contact sheets feature images from the opening. Everyone seems to be drinking coffee or tea from tea cups, a tradition I'd rather like to see revived at art openings.

Found amongst the files was a draft of a brief history of the University Gallery. No author is identified, and while the tattered edges and coloring of the paper can give clue to its age, the final paragraph draws attention to the tentative list of exhibitions scheduled for the 1959-1960 season, providing an indication of when the draft may have been created.

Inspired by the photographs found of the 1947 exhibit, "Materials and Tools of Art" I thought it would be of interest to share the Materials and Tools of Archives - as related to the WAM Files project.

In 1959, the University Gallery was looking to bring in some hot young artists from the New York art scene. They wrote to (the now famous) Jasper Johns and his gallerist, Leo Castelli, and managed to put up a show of Johns' work in 1960 — and this was only two years after Johns had his first solo show in New York. The letter to Johns states:

The University Gallery, on a very modest budget, hopes to be able to initiate a new program which will aim at bringing to the campus a series of small exhibitions of work by New York artists of interest.

I hadn't heard of the Belgian painter Pierre Alechinsky before I came upon his file (the University Gallery exhibited his work in 1965), but some of the colorful pieces in the catalog caught my eye.

Another item that caught my attention in the file was a small hand-cut manipulated photo of a face, which I think is Alechinsky himself. There is no indication as to who made it or for what purpose, but it's quite an interesting little piece.

Amongst the files that were kept on exhibitions held at the University Gallery, an occasional treat is provided to the processor by the inclusion of photographs of the installation and final appearance of the exhibit. Often intermixed with correspondence and checklists of artwork, these photographs offer us prime examples of exhibit design from the era in which the exhibition was held.

"Materials and Tools of Art," prepared by Gallery staff, was held from September 29 to October 29, 1947.

In 1959, the University Gallery hosted a Japanese flower-arranging demonstration in conjunction with the exhibition "Japanese Prints", and I discovered this contact sheet documenting the event in the files. I love contact sheets, since they show every shot the photographer took on that roll, prior to editing.

Though a majority of processing has consisted of rhythmic re-foldering, several boxes have also contained mysterious miscellany found amongst the folder sets...

After removing each of the two folders containing materials for the Grace Hartigan Exhibition, (held at the University Gallery from Sept. 23 - Nov. 4, 1963), an item, which had been shoved underneath the folders, was revealed at the bottom of the box: a smaller cardboard box!

Most of the exhibition files from the late 1930s and early 1940s do not have photographs in them, but when they do, these images give a window into the times. This Swedish Arts and Crafts exhibition from 1944 actually still feels quite modern (I'm looking at you, IKEA). Some of the wall label drafts for the show are also quite interesting — Label IV reads:

While going through the University Gallery files from the early 1950s, we found many small posters (7"x11") for the exhibitions, no doubt to post around campus. These posters are one-color prints (sometimes on a colorful paper stock) with no images, but with some simple graphic flourishes--they are very charming in their simplicity. I can definitely see echos of this kind of straightforward design in today's graphic design trends. We thought we'd share a few of these gems!

It has begun. On Tuesday, February 8th, project processors Areca and Rebecca, U of M graduate students, and Weisman Art Museum interns, began processing the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum records contained within the University Archives. We've pushed up our glasses, rolled up our sleeves, advanced the lead on our mechanical pencils... and have begun re-foldering, re-boxing, and recording boxes within the collection containing materials that span from the late 1930s to the mid 1960s.

Since October 2010, The Weisman Art Museum has been closed to the public in order to complete a $14 million expansion project, to include four new galleries to showcase the permanent collection, a café cart, and an additional gallery space, the Target Studio for creative collaboration.