Liza Kirwin remembers coming across a letter from the famed 20th-century sculptor Alexander Calder when she applied for a job at the Smithsonian Institute. An impression of that letter was sealed and stamped in the back of her mind for 28 years.

Today, Calder's letter, along with about 60 others, is a part of “More Than Words: Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art,” an exhibit currently on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

“This gives a human story to the history of American art,” said Kirwin, the Smithsonian Institute's Archives of American Art manuscript curator.

For example, Frida Kahlo wrote a letter to her lover while separated from Diego Rivera. Three pink imprints of Kahlo's lips, each addressed to the lover, Rivera and a friend, rest at the bottom of the letter. “Here is a kiss to you and one for Diego and one for Donald,” Kahlo wrote.

“She was nuts about him,” Kirwin said about the affair.

The letters allow the viewer to have a more personal relationship with the artist than their actual work would, Kirwin said.

“They tend to tell you something about the artist's personality,” Kirwin said.

Many have never been published, and most of the letters are fragile and light-sensitive. The letters will only tour the country once and return to storage.

Out of this exhibit comes a little hope — that maybe people will opt for the ink and paper over the e-mail or text message.

“People don't write letters anymore,” Kirwin said. “It's a kind of communication that is rarely experienced anymore. Everything is instantaneous.”

Marion Oettinger Jr., San Antonio Art Museum director, said one of the letters that stands out for him is from painter Waldo Pierce, in which he divides his attention among three female lovers.

There's a drawing of the artist writing a letter, stretched out on his belly in a field of grass. At the bottom of the letter are three women each dining on a plate of heart. The artist was married four times.

“I think it's really clever,” Oettinger said. “It's using an abstract expression of affection ..... But here, it's bringing that down to a personal level — times three.”

Oettinger said letters allow people to develop a more personal relationship. He also wants the letters to inspire community dialogue about the way in which people communicate today.

“I've spent a lot of time writing letters in my life, but I don't write like I used to,” Oettinger said. “None of us do.”

Emily Messer | 210SA