Art and design

The arts and design collections of the State Library contain a broad selection of materials relating to the world history of art from pre-history to the present day. The collection strength of 19th and 20th century Western art resources is complemented by specialist collections of Australian art, artists’ books, and bookarts and the contemporary resources of the Asia Pacific Design Library.

Subjects collected include:

• Painting, sculpture and design
  All schools, major artists, styles and periods from the ancient world to the 21st century are covered. Related fields such as drawing, illustration, graphic and decorative arts, commercial art, cartooning, fashion and textile arts are also collected.
  
  
• Architecture
  Architectural history from ancient times to the contemporary world is the basis of this collection. The related fields of urban design and planning, landscape architecture, interior design and decoration are also collected.
  
  
• Photography
  Works about major photographers, published collections of photographs and the history of photography to the present day are included. While historical collections cover technical aspects of photography, contemporary material has an artistic focus.
  
  
• Antiques and collectables
  The emphasis for this subject is on identification, collection and valuation of antiques and collectables. Related fields of ceramics and pottery, textile arts, art metalwork, numismatics and furniture history and design are also collected.

Search the visual arts collections in OneSearch.

Search arts e-resources and databases.

These resources are supported by specialist collections:

The Australian Library of Art comprising the James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts, a research collection devoted to the visual arts in Australia, the Lindsay Collection of Pat Corrigan related to the Lindsay family of Australian artists and writers, the History and Art of the Book Collection which contains specimens and reference works on all aspects of book and printing history and the Artists’ Book Collection including both Australian and international works.

The Asia Pacific Design Library, a shared space (physically and digitally) for industry, academia and the public to come together in the generation of new knowledge around design in the Asia Pacific.

In addition to SLQ resources, Design & Art Australia Online a collaborative e-Research tool, Artcyclopedia, a fine art search engine and Art history resources on the web provide access to visual arts information.