The SoHo Center for the Visual Arts was founded by Larry Aldrich in 1973 in an area of New York inhabited by many artists whom the Center was intended to benefit; it included a Library specifically for artists, developed by Bernard Karpel. The Library’s collections emphasised twentieth-century art and were organised by means of colour-coding in place of orthodox classifying. The Library was staffed by artists, and was well used until its closure in 1985; it has subsequently been reopened within the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

I love the word ‘library’ and feel sorry for the French who wasted their equivalent on a mere stationery shop and cornered themselves into using the nobly historical yet somewhat dry term ‘bibliothéque’. I feel that my own books make up a library but would scarcely constitute a bibliothéque.

I am temporarily separated from the bulk of my books and thus more keenly aware than ever of their importance to me. It is not only the contents that I miss but the visible presence of them. I can picture the shelves and the configurations of buckrams and dust-jackets: in my mind’s eye particular books can be located. I see Bergson’s Creative Evolution there next to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Shall I ever read it again? I doubt it; yet the sight of it, austere on its appropriate shelf reminds me that in some sense what lies within its covers is also to be found within my head, although I cannot quote a word of it. Books do furnish a mind. The visual array of them is a house of memory in the form of a mnemonic of evocative spines.

“‘Of course not. The model is very important. Yanaihara and Caroline feel the same way you do about it, that posing is an active participation in the work. It’s not easy, either. I know that. But Genet felt that posing was completely passive. And he stopped posing because he felt he was being transformed into an object. I thought that was a very literary attitude.’”

Which libraries do you use and how do your use them? Having lived rather isolated I have felt the need to build up my own library. In younger days I used the local public library quite a lot. Their collection of art books was rather meagre, but it was still a strong inspiration. They had got several current art magazines as well, both Norwegian and international. I still use’ public libraries, especially their collection of fiction, poetry, philosophy, etc., which is quite good. They provide the information they have not got themselves through inter-library lending, and the services have been quite satisfactory. Apart from the library of the Statens Kunstakademi (National Academy of Fine Art) I have never used a ‘professional’ art library.

Painting, true painting, is an act of revelation. Therefore it is contradictory to learning. The creative act cannot come forth without an unlearning. It is a process from within to without, contrary to reading. However, there cannot be an unlearning without previous learning. The accumulation of knowledge can be compared, if not to fuel, which it is also, at least to a guiding system: the practising artist cannot know how his work relates to historical time without this knowledge of all art and its dilemmas.

The peintre-savant such as emerged in the seventeenth century, incarnated by Poussin, Rubens, and most probably Velazquez, could not possibly have come into existence without the library - the list of Velazquez’ books in that respect is telling: it included all the books a seventeenth century humanist would have wished, but the bulk of it was about art theory. But strangely enough, art history was neglected by most leading modernist artists. Kandinsky preferred the occult “sciences” to the study of art-theory and would have been surprised to discover that Lomazzo formulated some of the ideas which he, Kandinsky, considered new and revolutionary. Mondrian would have been shocked to discover that Quatremère de Quincy and ultra-idealism preceded his own ideas. Klee would have been exhilarated with Arcimboldo’s clavicello cromatico by which he equated sound and colour.

Now, after the close of the modernist era, it seems as if we are left with a devastated land: the disconnection between eye and hand for the painter is followed by the one between feeling and judgement for the viewer. The decadence of art-training is followed by a growing confusion between cultural history and art history, which is the history of exceptions. But besides the devastation we have also inherited a graver sense of the limitations, which the peintres-savants of the past couldn’t have had: they still could believe in eternity. For us, eternity is lost.

A number of public libraries in Denmark have acquired original prints or other works of art since the Danish Library Act of 1964, but only some lend pictures to individuals. Special art departments, bringing together literature, pictures, and other material, have been created in a few major libraries. Art exhibitions are an important activity undertaken by libraries as part of their role of making art accessible to the public. (Originally published in Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly, v. 18 n.4 1985).

Picture lending in Norwegian public libraries has recently been revitalised by the creation of the Artoteksentralen, initially a pilot project and now a permanent foundation, which circulates collections of original prints by Norwegian artists to public libraries, hospitals, and prisons. (An updated version of an article originally published in Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly v. 18 n.4 1985).

In Sweden picture lending is not new but has been most successful in hospitals. Developments in the 1950s and 1960s involving some 70 municipal libraries were followed by withdrawal into the traditional book-centred role of libraries. Future development of artotheques must be based on the principles of quantity and renewal (ensuring ample choice), and of quality (achieved by professional selection of original prints). A campaign to foster art appreciation and visual literacy, paralleling efforts in the field of literacy, would nourish the role of artotheques. (Originally published in the Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly v.18 n.4 1985).

Lending of works of art in Finland began in 1971 with the opening of an art lending service in Joensuu library, involving co-operation between artists and librarians. Other artoteks were established in the years immediately following. The time is ripe for reviewing Finland’s experience of art lending, its problems and its successes. (Originally published in the Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly v.18 n.4 1985).

Although the idea of lending works of art originated in Germany in 1885, the first library to actually do so was that of Newark, U.S.A., through the initiative of John Cotton Dana in 1903-4. Other countries followed suit - Britain before the end of the Second World War, Scandinavia by the late 1950s, and France, where in recent years over 30 picture libraries have been established with state support under Mitterand’s Minister for Culture, Jack Lang.

While in East Germany there are over 100 picture libraries lending mainly reproductions, in West Germany there are 61, lending exclusively original works. The Graphotek in Bremen Public Library is the third largest of these, and all citizens over 16 can borrow from its collection of over 2,200 works for eight weeks at a time, choosing either directly or, at any of the six branch libraries, from colour slides and catalogues.

The Bremen Graphotek has set out to build up a representative collection of German and international art from all periods, with special emphasis on contemporary art; prints make up the greater part of the collection, and reproductions are excluded. 720 artists are represented; 50% of funding is reserved for Bremen artists. Over 33,000 loans have been made in the Graphotek’s first ten years, with 75%-80% of the collection being out on loan at any given time. There has been a gradual trend towards more borrowing by schools, hospitals, etc.

The Graphotek has promoted 88 exhibitions. The last of these, on the occasion of the Graphotek’s 10th anniversary, displayed work by 70 artists illustrative of new directions in art since 1970.

The Graphotek also functions as a centre for information on art, artists, art galleries, etc., with reference books and art journals available for consultation.