Behind the acronym GAAEL there is the Guide des archives de l’art conservées en France, digital instrument referred to documents related to the period between the nineteenth and twenty-first century.

A project developed over twelve years (2001 – 2013), in partnership with the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes-LARHRA – UMR 5190 (Lyon, Grenoble) and the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (Paris X). Online since January 2004, the database is part of a more extended program AGORHA (http://agorha.inha.fr) coordinated by Annie Claustres, at the Département des Etudes et de la recherche (DER) dell’INHA Paris.
GAAEL develops through three guidelines: people and organisms, biographical references and archive resources, which allow the user to advance to the discovery of innumerable sources. They are reviewed the archives, manuscripts and papers of artists, collectors and gallery owners mentioned in the various centers scattered in the borders of the country, in a group run by Richard Leeman before (2004-2009) and later by Pierre Wat ( 1999-2009). On the thousands of documents inserted through different campaigns inventory of funds integrated with AGORHA (Aurélie Nemours, Archives CAPC musée du Audiovisuelles d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Raoul Hausmann, Otto Freundlich, Archives de l’Institut d’art contemporain de Villeurbanne Bernard Dorival, Antoine Bourdelle …) coming from external institutions.

INHA Galerie Colbert ©Sara Rania

INHA Galerie Colbert ©Sara Rania

Was the 2001 when started the first campaign to raise elements of the set of entities (public and private) to be included in future database, identified around the archives of artists, gallery owners and collectors born after the1870. A valid investigation extended to foundations and private family archives and conducted through a questionnaire on all the research centers on the national territory which allowed to test the ground before beginning the games. Has been its usability to push the Committee to approve the extension of the project, in April 2004, to the nineteenth century, intended to bring into the bosom of the database also artists born after 1780.
A useful point of reference whose coordinates allow the orientation of scholars and researchers facilitating preliminary research and study plans. By dropping in some “ad hoc” research we discovered that papers, biographical documents, catalogs, sales and exhibitions, photographs and monographs related to Pissarro are kept in the Archives by Pissarro (1830 – 1903)of which hand written stocktaking is preserved at the Association des amis de Camille Pissarro in Pontoise (http://agorha.inha.fr) where is available by appointment and authorization.

Via |  http://www.inha.fr

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