Technical Literature Art

Traditionally, the SLUB Dresden pays special attention to art. We have had an official collecting mandate since the 1960s, which to this day enables us to comprehensively acquire specialist and secondary literature on fine and applied arts as well as photography.

For the visual arts, the focus is on contemporary and contemporary art from 1945 onwards in all its facets: painting, graphic art, sculpture up to performance and video art.

In photography, commercial art and design we acquire comprehensively in terms of time. You thus have several hundred thousand volumes at your disposal, which we expand year after year with several thousand volumes of the latest national and international research literature.

In addition to publications by publishers, we attach great importance to so-called grey literature. The brochures and booklets published by artists, galleries and museums on their own initiative are often the only sources for exhibitions of young creatives, especially in contemporary art. Whenever possible, we strive to make these rare brochures digitally accessible to all. For example, you can find catalogues of exhibitions from the immediate post-war period in our Digital Collection Exhibition Catalogue of the SBZ/DDR.

Since 2014, we have also been developing our art-related services in the digital space and helping to shape the digital transformation in art history in the specialist information service Art, Photography, Design | arthistoricum.net.

At the SLUB Dresden we are responsible for the website of arthistoricum.net and develop the professionally curated catalogue. Our work focuses in particular on image research and the development of innovative tools for scholarly work on images. We are also involved in the digitisation of older literature in order to make research literature on our art topics available nationwide in open access.

Our specialist art-historical literature can be found in the open-air display on level -1 and level 0. Here you will find mainly newer literature and reference works. By far the largest part is kept in the stacks and can be ordered via our catalogue for loan or consultation on site. Many volumes are available for loan and can usually be obtained via interlibrary loan. A small part, which is particularly worthy of protection, is only presented on site in the Collections Reading Room.

Are you looking for the right literature for your academic work? In the SLUB catalogue and in subject databases we offer a wide range of possibilities for a well-founded search. In order to make it easier for you to proceed effectively, we have compiled helpful tips and offers.

If you have any questions about our art collection, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact: Simone Fleischer | Tel.: +49 351 4677-333 Appointment booking via the knowledge bar Or: Write to us