Since 2005, a public reference library has been operating on the second floor of the museum’s building. The library’s collecting activity focuses on Hungarian and international art after 1945 as main subject area, with a special emphasis on the art of the Central Eastern European region.
The collection consists of:
- Hungarian as well as foreign exhibition catalogues,
- monographs on local and international artists,
- international specialist literature on contemporary art
- theoretical works (on photo, film, video, architecture, design, etc.)
- catalogues of important international biennials, triennials
- conference documents
In addition, the library’s collection includes publications published by significant foreign institutions which are not available on the Hungarian book market. More specialised areas of contemporary art (photography, film, video, media art, design) form a separate collection. Hungarian as well as international publications dealing with the theory of contemporary architecture are also available at our library.
A special emphasis is given to literature on Venice Biennials. The collection comprises the exhibition catalogues of both the main (central) and the Hungarian pavilions, going back retrospectively until the 1960’s, also, important related theoretical and historical literature, in addition – though only sporadically – exhibition catalogues of certain national pavilions, small prints, audio visual documents, and, from 2015 onward, competition dossiers and curator’s reports related to Hungarian participation. You can browse the available documents in the library’s online catalogue.
The most important Hungarian (Artmagazin, Balkon, Magyar Műhely, Mozgó Világ, Műértő, Művészet, Új Művészet, etc.) and foreign (e.g Artforum, The Art Newspaper, Art Press, Cabinet, Flash Art, Kunstforum, Springerin, Texte Zur Kunst, Third Text) periodicals can be read in the periodical collection of the library, including issues from the 80’s.
