With a purse of her lips and a spring in her step, Theresa Papanikolas has proved the old adage that whistling while you work can take one very far indeed.

The Honolulu Academy of Arts' curator of European and American art spent several months delving into drawer upon drawer of the academy's archived modern works on paper to deliver “;From Whistler to Warhol: Modernism on Paper,”; the museum's latest major exhibition, which opened Wednesday.

By the end of her research, Papanikolas had perused virtually the entire collection of 15,000 works. Did her love of the job sustain itself as she rifled endlessly through those thousands of pieces?

“;It was really fun. I'm one who loves going through archives,”; she confirmed with a laugh. “;But I had to wear very comfortable shoes.”;

Papanikolas has held the curatorial position since 2008, when she moved from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The decision to come to Honolulu came in part because “;I knew the academy has a strong collection of modern prints and drawings,”; she said of her specialty and first love.

Adding charm to the labor of love were the happy surprises that were revealed.

“;The archives were largely untouched, especially recently,”; she said. “;I happened upon a drawer marked 'Picasso,' and in it I found some of his finest prints.”;

Papanikolas' inspired effort, which took a year from start to finish, has resulted in a sweeping show of 160 pieces that offers more than simple bragging rights over the academy's collection.

“;The show presents an overview of the history of modern art through works on paper,”; she said. “;It's a pretty comprehensive view, from the mid-19th century to the 20th century.”;

Names on the lineup are prominent enough that they're part of the mainstream vernacular. They include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Willem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.

PRECEDING ALL that great talent was James McNeill Whistler, who began the modernist movement, and the show opens with a profile of his etchings.

Whistler's philosophy of “;art for art's sake”; was a foundation of modernism, Papanikolas explains in an exhibit brochure. It took the medium of printmaking from its utilitarian function of image reproduction into the realm of fine art. Whistler's modernism rescued printmaking from becoming obsolete with the advent of photography.

The exhibit moves on to the development of printmaking and drawing in late 19th-century France, where graphic art was likewise liberated from its illustrative function and pivotal “;Barbizon artists”; revived etching. The end of the 19th century brought forth radical modernism, and the show chronicles the era with Gauguin and Cezanne and cubists such as Picasso. A section on German expressionism in the early 20th century spotlights woodblock printing's revolutionary place in the country's modernist movement.

The exhibit moves next to the American realism of the early 20th century, represented through such artists as Edward Hopper, who depicts complex human experience amid big-city life. When abstraction finally did hit the United States in the 1940s, printmaking was especially conducive to the spontaneous work of surrealists and the “;psychic impulses”; of abstract expressionists. Such artists as De Kooning and Pollock illustrate this section of the show.

The likes of Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg populate the exhibit's final section, a focus on minimalism and pop art from the 1960s. The era brought about collaboration between master printers and fine artists, and works explore concepts of high and low art and the commodification of art.

Papanikolas decided “;Whistler to Warhol”; was a perfect follow-up to the museum's successful Katsushika Hokusai ukiyo-e show, “;Hokusai's Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.”;

That show reflected the academy's stellar Japanese print collection. This one, impressive in its own right, illustrates the diversity of the academy vaults.

“;I kept making wonderful discoveries,”; Papanikolas said of her grueling, albeit joyful, archival dig.