Library
Opening hours:
Monday, Saturday, Sunday: closed
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Thursday: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Contact:
tel.: (00 48) 42 633 97 90 wew. 56
head of dept. Aneta Błaszczyk-Smolec
tel. +48 42 639 12 52
a.blaszczyk@msl.org.pl
Loans of collection items from Library resources for public exhibition purposes have been suspended until the end of 2020, with the exception of earlier planned loans.
The Library of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is one of the oldest libraries dedicated to art in Poland. It was opened along with the museum; the Reading Room was opened on October 1, 1933.
Initially, the Library was holding mainly the collection of history and fiction books of the Bartoszewicz family, including also a substantial collection of antique prints, as well as a significant body of archives, the famous “Bartoszewicz’ Files”. Later, majority of this collection of books was deposited at the City Public Library, while the archives were moved to the State Archives in Łódź. In 1968, Ryszard Stanisławski, director of the Muzeum, made a decision to expand the organisational structure of the institution by establishing a Scientific Documentation Department, which incorporated the Library and Museum Archives.
The Museum Library collection has been developed as a specialist book stock devoted to art history and related humanities. It includes a vast holding of over 40 thousand items, almost 23 thousand of national and international exhibition catalogues with numerous catalogues of Polish exhibitions since the 1960s. There is also a separate collection of valuable publications from the interwar period.
In addition, the Department holds several dozen thousands of invitations, folders, and ephemera published by galleries and museums, as well as a solid body of magazines including: "Art Press”, “Artfrorum”, “Art International”, ”Art in America”, ”Kunst Forum”, ”Frieze”, ”October”, ”Leonardo”, ”MA” reprint, ”Sztuki Piękne” [Fine Arts], ”Maski” [Masks], ”Fotograf Polski” [Polish Photographer], ”Świat Fotografii” [The World of Photography], ”Fotografia" [Photography]. The collection is expanded with acquisitions, donations but also through the exchange of publications with many institutions, such as: Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Sprengel Museum in Hannover, K20 K 21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The most valuable documents relating mainly to broadly understood avant-garde are kept in special documentation collection. This collection includes, inter alia, archives of F. & S. Themersons, A. Nacht–Samborski, W. Strzemiński, the collection of ”The a.r. Group Library” and publications from the pioneer avant-garde period of the 1st half of the 20th century, letters and artists’ correspondence, as well as an interesting collection of prints and ephemera of the Polish neo-avant-garde of the 1970s and 1980s.
Muzeum Sztuki Library holds, inter alia:
books by Jan Brzękowski from the 1920s and 1930s illustrated by Hans Arp, Max Ernst or designed by Fernand Léger or Rafał Malczewski,
theoretical works of Leon Chwistek and Witkacy,
"Karol Hiller’s ex librises. Fourteen bookplates with introduction by Przecław Smolik" (1927),
"Futurism. A Tram Across the Street. Prose Epitomes and Poems" by Jerzy Jankowski (1920),
"A Shoe in the Buttonhole" by Brunon Jasieński (1921),
"Colours. Poems" by Stanisław J. Lec [graphic layout of the cover designed by a painter Otto Hahn] (1933),
"Futurist Rhythms and Futurist Landscapes" by Stanisław Młodożeniec (1934),
"Emil Zegadłowicz’ Ten Ballads about he Beskid Gadabouts" by Emil Zegadłowicz – [with colour woodcuts by Zbigniew Pronaszko] (1929),
"Songs of the Republic of Poland " by Jalu Kurek [with the cover designed by Kazimierz Podsadecki] (1929),
"New Mouth. A Lecture on Poetry" by Tadeusz Peiper [with Fernand Léger’s drawings] (1925),
"Sixth! Sixth!" by Tadeusz Peiper (1926 with author’s dedication),
"Living Lines. Poetry" [with drawings by Juan Gris] (1924);
Julian Przyboś poetry with designs by Władysław Strzemiński: "Screws" (1925), "With Both Hands" (1926), "From Above" (1930), "In the Depth of a Forest" (1932),
"A Cloud in Trousers" by Vladimir Mayakovsky [translated into Polish by Julian Tuwim with drawings by Jan Tschichold] (1923)
a collection of futuristic works by, i. a., Filippo Tomaso Marinetti "I novi poeti futuristi..." (1925), "L’Aeroplano del Papa. Romanzo profetico in versi liberi", (1914), "Come si seducono le donne e si tradiscono gli uomi" (po 1920), "Futurismo e fascismo" (1924), "Spagna veloce e toro futurista. Poema paralibero seguito dalla tearia delle parole in libertá" (1931) or Umberto Boccioni "Pittura, scultura futuriste" (1914).
The 1960s and subsequent decades are represented in special documentation by publications of the following artists: Tadeusz Kantor, Józef Robakowski, Andrzej Partum, Anastazy B. Wiśniewski, Antoni Mikołajczyk, Zbigniew Dłubak and collections documenting activities of artist groups, such as Łódź Kaliska, Galeria Wymiany [Exchange Gallery], Galeria Wschodnia [East Gallery], Galeria Czyszczenie Dywanów [Carpet Cleaning Gallery], Warsztat Formy Filmowej [Film Form Studio], "Construction in Process", and others.
The Documentation Department holds also an equally interesting collection of digital and analogue photography, which is systematically digitalised, like, e.g., documentation of exhibitions organised between 1930 and 2008, including over a dozen thousand photographs and a complete set of photographs of objects from the museum collection, which is systematically expanded and made available for publication purposes. Documentary photography of exhibitions and events held at the museum is supplemented with selected documentation of exhibitions depicting artistic life in Łódź.
Since 2011, the MS Library has been co-operating with the Union Catalog of Polish Research Library Collections – NUKAT.
Contact us:
biblioteka@msl.org.pl
phone: +48 42 633 97 90 ext. 56
Library Manager Aneta Błaszczyk-Smolec
phone: +48 42 639 12 52
a.blaszczyk@msl.org.pl
