LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library -Jorge Luis Borges

The Van Abbemuseum’s library is recognized as one of the best specialist libraries in the Netherlands. Accessible free of charge, the library concentrates on scholarly literature in the field of modern and contemporary visual art. You are welcome to read the periodicals here, to study books or simply to scan for ideas. You can gather background information or conduct research undisturbed in the library. The tools at your disposal include an online catalogue, a reading room with computer facilities and a film projection room. Besides the library’s varied programme of artists’ films and videos from the museum collection, films may be screened on request.

The library has over 130 thousand titles, including books, exhibition and collection catalogues, national and international periodicals, videos, CDs and DVDs. This collection is particularly well endowed with artists books and other publications on Minimal Art, Conceptual Art and Fluxus. Besides publications, it includes invitations, posters and special productions such as multiples and bibliophile editions. Other special resources include the archive of documentation on the art museum’s collection and the archive of exhibitions since 1936. The library endeavours to keep track of current developments in contemporary art though new acquisitions, gifts and exchanges with other museums. In exceptional cases, collections from external organizations find a place within that of the library. For example, the archives and library of the now defunct Gate Foundation was taken into the care of the library.

The exhibition and museum archives form an integral part of the library’s collection. You can consult files for information on the history of the museum, its exhibitions and art collection. The exhibition history can also be accessed through the library’s online catalogue. Museum staff are working on the ongoing digitization of the archives and making it available online.

One of the museum’s core tasks is conducting research. The Van Abbemuseum concentrates on two specific areas:

• research into all aspects of the collection and the significant artistic standpoints it represents;

• research into the history and ideology of the museum as a public institution in general.

The following dissertation on the Van Abbemuseum’s exhibition and collection strategies was published in 2005:

R. Pingen, Dat museum is een mijnheer. De geschiedenis van het Van Abbemuseum 1936–2003 (‘That museum is a “mister”. The History of the Van Abbemuseum 1936–2003'), Amsterdam, Artimo/Eindhoven, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, 2005.

The library and archives of the Van Abbemuseum gratefully receive gifts, legacies and long-term loans of relevant archival material on the museum’s exhibition history and on artists represented in the collection. The museum will respect the authorial and archiving rights relating to all donated and loaned material.