Project presention
For several years, art historians have been interested in artists' libraries as a new resource to better understand the genesis of works of art, to identify artists’ cultural sphere, to determine their knowledge and to draw the contours of their imagination.
Say what you read, I'll tell you who you are
In the words of Françoise Levaillant, in the introduction to the founding conference on 20th and 21st century artists’ libraries: "A book source allows us to identify, date and explain a theme or a motive [...]. It also makes it possible to show a "filiation", intellectual or technical, and to finally register such or such work in a socio-cultural environment [...] not to mention that the books are often reserves of images of all kinds; among them, in particular, the albums read or looked at during childhood and adolescence, of which two or three titles are enough to summon an imaginary to the surface during the artistic process".
Artists’ libraries thus constitute an essential yet still little-studied resource that can help us reconstitute artists’ knowledge and imagination as well as understand their works. The list of works and authors, the dates of publications, traces of having been read... all these clues allow us to define the contours of the artists’ intellectual life. The illustrations or works of artistic literature document their imaginary museum, and the autographed letters offer us clues about their social circles. When compared alongside one another, these libraries allow us to trace the circulation of ideas and knowledge. Since they are both vectors and witnesses, the artists' libraries finally testify to the mechanisms of emergence of the spirit of a place, an artistic movement, or an era.
The projet in a few words
The Artists’ Libraries project is an ambitious program that combines scientific research and technological innovation. Its objective is to reconstitute artists' libraries using digital tools. By making available on the Internet the lists of books, magazines, catalogs and illustrations that formed the libraries of these artists, and especially by offering the possibility to browse through these works directly from the portal, this program offers an immersive, intimate experience with regard to artists and their artworks.
The project takes the form of a digital portal, designed for research on artists' libraries. This portal is organized around three main axes: reporting and dissemination of resources; elaboration of research; valorization and mediation of results.
It also manifests in scientific meetings and events: the conference Un Portrait intérieur, le musée imaginaire des impressionnistes (September 6-7, 2016, Musée des Beaux-arts in Rouen), the seminar Imaginaires et représentations des bibliothèques (INHA, in collaboration with Thalim, 1st semester 2018).
A project anchored in a dynamic research ecosystem
This program is conducted at the History of the Arts and Representations (Histoire des Arts et des Représentations, HAR-EA 4414) at the Université de Paris-Nanterre and supported by the Labex Pasts in the Present (Les Passés dans le présent, ANR-11-LABX-0026-01). Directed by Ségolène Le Men, professor emeritus of art history at the Université de Nanterre, and led by Félicie Faizand de Maupeou, research engineer at the Labex Pasts in the Present, this program benefits from the collaboration of many associate researchers, members of the HAR, international researchers and curators. This project also benefits from the support of the COMUE Université Paris Lumières and was developed in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The Monet library, which is currently online, is the first part of a project that is intended to expand by integrating the libraries of artists from the 19th century to today. We are in discussion with several institutions for the integration of the libraries of Eugène Delacroix, Antoine Bourdelle, Le Corbusier, André Masson, Francis Bacon, Joan Miro, Hans Hartung, Isidore Isou, Guy Debord... Artists' libraries are not easy to research, and each one requires specific types of work, whether it is the inventory of a collection, the interoperability with existing databases, or the reconstruction of a mental collection.
We hope to be able to put other collections online very soon in order to make research on artists' libraries more possible!