This subseries contains the Macbeth Gallery publications Art Notes and Biographical Notes in addition to scattered exhibition announcements, catalogs and news clippings. The bulk of the news clippings in the collection and the gallery's exhibition catalogs can be found in Series 5: Scrapbooks.
Art Notes was an occasional publication issued during the art season "in the Interest of American Art and the Macbeth Gallery" from 1896 to 1930. The booklets typically contain essays on artists, current exhibitions at the gallery and current events in the art world and are an excellent source of information on the history of the gallery until 1930 and the opinions of the owners on various artistic trends and movements. Of particular note is an essay criticizing the Modernist movement which received attention in the press as well as letters, primarily of support, from many of the gallery's clients. Most of the issues are in bound voumes although there are also some individual copies of the publication. Numbers 14, 24, and 73 are missing. Judging by the number of requests for Art Notes in the Series 1: Correspondence, it was an extremely popular publication, especially with those who artistic tastes tended toward the conservative.
Also found here is the publication Biographical Notes, a collection of short biographies of fifty artists "whose reputations and experience of over twenty years enables us to vouch with some degree of certainty." The publication was intended to satisfy "the natural curiosity of the picture collector to know who the man is who painted the picture, and what he has done in the past that may indicate his position in the future."
Several of the exhibition announcements and catalogs found here are annotated and some are accompanied by news clippings. Catalogs include those for the gallery's fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries. One catalog for an exhibition organized and circulated by the American Federation of Arts in conjunction with the Archives of American Art is included here because it documented the role of the Macbeth Gallery. The catalog contains an essay written by Robert G. McIntyre for the exhibition entitled "The Macbeth Gallery: A Capsule History."
Also found here is a folder of six scattered news clippings recording milestones in the gallery's history such as the move to 15 East Fifty-seventh Street and the gallery's fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries. At the end of the series is a box of duplicate copies of Art Notes.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
