The Archive of Visual Arts manages and processes an extensive collection of documents, mainly of Czech and Slovak fine arts of the 20th and 21st centuries - catalogues, monographs, invitations, books, magazines, photographs, etc. The documents are stored in rented premises in Prague 4 Nusle. The stored documents are processed in the abART information system (www.isabart.org).


We operate a study room, antiquarian bookshop and warehouses in Prague 4 Nusle, Pod Terebkou 15, as well as a public library in the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague 7, we organize exhibitions in the Small Tower of DOX and in the Polička/Shelf gallery, organize lectures, process bibliographies and publish publications all year round.


Archive of Visual Arts
The Archive of Visual Arts was established in 1984 as part of the activities of Gallery H in Kostelec nad Černými lesy. The original definition (Czech and Slovak fine art since 1939) was soon expanded, and the archive was opened up in all respects – in time (old art), territory (foreign artists, exile), and subject matter. Contemporary Czech and Slovak art continues to be the main interest. The basis of the archive are catalogues sorted into several sections: catalogues of individual exhibitions, catalogues of joint exhibitions, catalogues of groups, catalogues of individual galleries. A special section is the typographic collection - more than 30,000 books. In addition to catalogues, monographs, books and magazines, the Archive also collects, processes and makes available other documents that are not systematically archived elsewhere - invitations, posters, press releases, texts, clippings, photographs, slides, parte, visiting cards, etc. Today it is the largest such specialised collection, with hundreds of thousands of items. Duplicate materials are offered to non-commercial galleries for exchange, to other interested parties for sale (www.artarchiv.cz/duplicity).


Library and Exhibitions
Since January 2010 the Archive has been operating a library on the 1st floor of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, in Prague 8 Holešovice. The library also serves as a study room with computers, scanner, printer. In the adjacent space of the library, the so-called Small Tower, the Archive organizes exhibitions with the theme of our archive (Look into Archive 1: Photographs, Look into Archive 3: Parte, Look into Archive 7: Slide). Since January 2013, we have been running an unconventional exhibition space Polička/Shelf in one shelf of our library. At monthly intervals, we present original author's books there.


Archival storage in Nusle
In 2018, we moved our archival collections (hundreds of thousands of documents) to rented storage space at 15 Pod Terebkou Street, Prague 4 Nusle. Here we archive most of our documents, author and collective catalogues, extensive typographic collection, magazines, hundreds of thousands of invitations, posters, slides and all other archival materials. In addition to the warehouses, we also operate Pod Terebkou, a publicly accessible study room with an antiquarian bookstore.


The abART Information System
Since 2003, the Archive has been developing, developing and operating its own information system – abART, a comprehensive database of Czech and Slovak art available free of charge at www.isabart.org. abART was created to process documents and information, with an emphasis on capturing, classifying and processing them in depth (scientifically) as accurately as possible. The basic principle is the versatile linking of the input data. The information (data) is not mechanically taken over, it is always referred to source sources, so far mostly to documents stored in the Archive. As of the beginning of June 2019, abART has 147,304 people, 66,661 exhibitions and events processed, 174,878 documents, 2,230,963 basic links created, with only a small part of the holdings processed so far. abART can create exhibition overviews, literature inventories, anniversaries, files of native and regional personalities thanks to its links. Sources are cited in the creation of records, and data are updated daily. abART is now used by many target groups - students, art theorists, cultural workers, journalists, publicists, librarians, gallery owners, collectors, publishers, information centres, etc. The information stored in abART can be shared and distributed under a Creative Commons license - BY-NC-SA (Attribution – No commercial use – Keep the license).