Okay folks, buckle up, because I have an art history research thread incoming. Nothing to do with Covid or presidential politics, but just a pure art and archives extravaganza, hallelujah! 1/

Many thanks to @br_tton for introducing me to a fantastic resource on @internetarchive: the scanned contents of the artist files from @LACMA https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Artist+files%22 2/

For those who don’t know, an artist file is a resource usually assembled in a museum library. It sounds fancy but it’s basically all the extraneous materials that get dumped into folders over the years, much of it mailed to curators & other museum staff 3/

It usually contains exhibition invitations and other ephemera, which sound rather inconsequential but can actually furnish a lot of illuminating information, particularly about an artist’s early career 4/

And hoo boy, these LACMA artist files are a gold mine! They cover everyone from Vija Celmins, David Hockney, and Patssi Valdez to Noah Purifoy, Robert Irwin, and Bas Jan Ader. And here’s just a small sampling: 5/

Plenty of fascinating materials on Charles White https://archive.org/details/artistfilewhitecharles 6/

An early (1972) performance piece by Jack Goldstein at the Mizuno Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard https://archive.org/details/artistfilegoldsteinjack/ 7/

Miriam Schapiro dressed for success in 1975 https://archive.org/details/artistfileschapiromiriam/ 8/

A 1980 two-person show, "Illegal Landscape," by Asco members Willie Herrón and Gronk, with music at the opening reception performed by Chicano punk band Los Illegals (headlined by Herrón) https://archive.org/details/artistfilegronk/ 9/

The perfect number of items—69!—in Paul McCarthy’s file, including this 1982 invitation
https://archive.org/details/artistfilemccarthypaul/ 10/

And no less than 400 pages of items on Andy Warhol https://archive.org/details/artistfilewarholandy/ 11/

But wait, there’s more! LACMA also uploaded some amazing audio files, including one that’s absolute gold: Lawrence Alloway talking about a show that put Pop art on the map, his 1963 “Six Painters & the Object” exhibition https://archive.org/details/POPART_201903 12/

Plus Michael Fried talking about Morris Louis in 1967 https://archive.org/details/clcmar_000038/clcmar_000038_a_access.mp3 13/

All of it—the artist files, the recordings, and even full LACMA exhibition catalogues—can be found here: https://archive.org/details/lacma?tab=collection. Enjoy!