'An art book is a museum without walls'. André Malraux
The Gallery's Art Library is Ireland's leading research centre for the study of art history. It contains the country's most extensive bibliographic collections relating to the development of the visual arts. The holdings range from key art history reference texts, monographs, serials and artist’s books, to early and rare editions dating from the 16th century onwards. These resources are continuously updated with new publications, reflecting the National Art collections as well as the visual and decorative arts more broadly.
We are open by appointment Monday to Friday. For more information you can contact the Library & Archives at: [email protected] or +353 (0)1 663 3589.
Reference collection
The library has an extensive reference collection consisting of leading international directories and dictionaries of art, as well as access to a large number of useful online resources.
Artists' monographs
The collecting of monographs on artists has been a long-standing commitment kept by the Gallery since its foundation in the 19th century. The collection holds many publications on key artists, and library staff continue to catalogue and add to the collection on a daily basis.
Rare and antiquarian books
Many of the publications in the library's special collection, which includes rare and antiquarian books, art treatises, illustrated books, pamphlets, early exhibition and sales catalogues, are unique to this collection.
Library catalogue
The Art Library’s substantial holdings are available to browse through the Library catalogue. The catalogue provides details of all printed collections as well as on-site access to a wide variety of full text digital resources, including e-journal databases, art indexes, newspaper archives and dictionaries of art.
Printed journals
The library holds over 200 journal titles including important internationally respected titles such as: The Burlington, Apollo, Art Newspaper, Art Bulletin and Art Journal, British Arts Journal, Master Drawings, Museums Journal, Oud Holland, Oxford Arts Review, Journal of the History of Collections, Paragone, Simiolus, Restaurator and many others.
Source: Irish Art Digital Archive & Library
Explore Irish art through our new digital archive collections.
Online resources
Access to over 900 online resources, the majority related to art history, as well as access to ancestry.com, Art Newspaper, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, British newspaper archive, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Studies in Conservation. Access via JSTOR provides articles from the Irish Arts Review, Dublin Historical record and many others. Readers can use two computers in the reading room.
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Source: Irish Art Digital Archive & Library
Explore Irish art through our digital archive collections.
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Online Research Resources
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