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Yes, Julia, I had dog-eared copies of those articles.  My most vivid memory,
however, of Anna was actually getting to meet with her at the Library of
Congress in January 1981 when a production directed by my husband of a
Russian Futurist opera, "Victory over the Sun," was produced by the L.A.
County Museum of Art in connection with an exhibition of Russian avant-garde
art that toured to the Hirshhorn.  By 1981 I had been attending ARLIS
conferences for several years and had also attended the Cataloging SIG
meetings.  Anna always gave a report on art subject cataloging at LC.
Although I was somewhat intimidated by her position (not by her), I think I
must have mentioned the production to her and that I would be accompanying
my husband to DC.  She not only attended the production at the Hirshhorn,
she invited me to come to see her in her office.  Now I was really
intimidated-but of course I went to see her, expecting to see that, as head
of art subject headings for the LC-and therefore for art subject headings of
the Anglo-American world (!), she would be in a perhaps glass-enclosed
office, surrounded by many assistant art subject heading catalogers!!  Well,
as many of you probably know, that was not the case.  Anna was seated at a
desk, surrounded by other catalogers, each of whom had a different subject
heading specialty-not related to art.  She was, however, surrounded by art
books-on her desk-and on the floor.  She wanted to talk to me because she
was interested in the folk art and contemporary craft subject cataloging
problems I was having in my relatively new position as the museum librarian
at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.  It was not a very lengthy
visit as she could not take much time away from what was obviously an
overwhelming job.  She listened to me talk about the many problematic terms
that (still!) are used to describe this material-and she encouraged me to
stick with it and to take a pragmatic approach.  I was always happy to see
Anna Smislova at ARLIS meetings-and she always greeted me warmly.  That
visit to her desk at LC, however, was an early lesson about how small the
world of art librarianship is-and how devoted and generous its practitioners
are.  It also confirmed the importance of ARLIS/NA as a vehicle for support
for art librarians from far-flung large and small organizations.  I am glad
to know that Anna lived such a long and fascinating life and happy to have
been touched by her wisdom and warmth early in my career.

 

Joan M. Benedetti

 

 

From: ARLIS/NA List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Wisniewski, Julia
Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2019 5:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Anna Smislova

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Every art cataloger who mentored me had dog-eared copies of her Art
Documentation articles, Art Subject Cataloging and Architecture Subject
Cataloging. 

 

Now Anna Smislova has passed away. Please see the Washington Post obituary:
https://tinyurl.com/y5wqpcvm 

 

--Julia

 

Julia Wisniewski

Cataloger

U.S. Arts, Sciences and Humanities Division

202-707-2314

 <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]

 



 

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