LISTMAKERS—NEW EXHIBITION AT THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM LOOKS AT THIS UNIVERSAL FORM OF DOCUMENTATION AMONG ARTISTS AND WRITERS SHOW FEATURES A WIDE VARIETY OF ITEMS FROM THE COMMON "TO-DO" TO LISTS OF BOOKS TO READ, APPOINTMENTS MADE, AND PLACES TO SEE

Press release date: 
Friday, April 1, 2011

On View Are Examples by Such Celebrated Figures as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, H. L. Mencken, and Eero Saarinen

**Press Preview: Thursday, June 2, 2011, 10 a.m. until noon** R.S.V.P.: (212) 590-0393, E-mail Media

From the weekly shopping list to the Ten Commandments, our lives are full of lists—some dashed off quickly, others beautifully illustrated, all providing insight into the personalities and habits of their makers. Beginning June 3, a new exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates this most common form of documentation by presenting an array of lists made by a broad range of artists, from Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder to H. L. Mencken, Eero Saarinen, Elaine de Kooning, and Lee Krasner. Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art is on view through October 2. With examples such as Picasso's picks for the great artists of his age (Gris, Léger, etc.), H. L. Mencken's autobiographical facts ("I never have a head-ache from drink"), and Robert Smithson's collection of quotations about spirals, the items on view are intriguing, revealing, humorous, and poignant.