Archives and documents

The history of contemporary art cannot be fully appreciated without magazines, artist editions and books, documents, catalogues, archives of artists and all types of documentary material, original or reproduced. The Study and Research Center of MACBA intends to create an archive which collects this essential material that still is not considered with the importance that it merits. The archive is like an instrument with multiple facets: on the one hand, the collection and conservation of materials that constitutes the writings on art, and on the other, to incite and make available to the public the archive for the creation and development of a cultural history of the art of our times.

The material brought together for this exhibition is an introduction to some of the rich material from the study center. On this occasion, we have selected editions and documents that constitute the strong points of the current archive: the editions of Dieter Roth, Robert Filliou, Marcel Broodthaers and Ed Ruscha; examples from artists who have used the book as a medium for the presentation of their work; special editions created by the Städtische Kunsthalle de Mönchendgladbach with artists such as James Lee Byars, Jannis Kounellis, Jasper Johns, Daniel Buren and Carl André; a set of magazines of great intellectual importance from the 1970s (Avalanche, The Fox, Art Bulletin, 0 to 9, etc.); documents and publications by the International Situationist; the edition Artists and Photographs; as well as material by artists who have contributed to the renovation of the languages of art during the 1970s in Spain.

The archive has been created with acquisitions and donations from artists, collectors and institutions. Its growth will be constant and will allow for presentations of thematic and monographic exhibitions, which will relate to other exhibitions of MACBA.