Due to construction work in Gorky Park, we recommend you use the entrance from Leninsky Prospekt.

Library

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art has a public library on Russian and international contemporary art open to all visitors. Garage Library is a reference library and has a collection of 30,000 books, including catalogues of solo and group exhibitions and studies on contemporary art and culture.

Launched in 2014, Garage Library became the first public library in Russia devoted entirely to the art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Publications available at the library cover a wide range of subjects related to the development of art from early modernism and the avant-garde to the present day: artistic practices, contemporary philosophy, cultural studies, social theory, gender and postcolonial studies, media theory, visual studies, photography, architecture, design, cinema, theatre, and fiction

The collection keeps expanding with the addition of new publications. Along with exhibition catalogues from Russian and international museums (Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, Stedelijk, Centre Pompidou, MoMA), the library acquires new studies released by leading Russian and international publishers (NLO, HSE, MIT Press, Hatje Cantz, Gestalten). In addition to new releases, the library boasts a collection of rare books.

A wide selection of periodicals from across the world includes key journals on visual art (Artforum, Flash Art, Mousse), photography (Aperture, Camera Austria, Foam) and architecture (Architectural Review, Domus, Mark). Along with recent issues, the library holds copies of rare archived issues of art theory and criticism journals (October, Third Text), and Russian periodicals from before and after perestroika (A-Ya, Mesto pechati, Kabinet, Dekorativnoye iskusstvo).

All books and catalogues published by Garage, including those in collaboration with Ad Marginem Press, are also available at the library.

Visitors can access the online catalogue to search for books and periodicals by subject, key words, authors, and personalities.

Several tables at the library are equipped with computers; visitors have access to the Internet and academic resources like Artstor and JSTOR, and are welcome to use the free scanners.

To bring books in its collection to the public attention, Garage Library runs a program of public events and reading groups.

In 2017, the library launched Single Copy, a project to support the development of the genre of the artist’s book in Russia.

Tuesday–Friday: 1 p.m.–9 p.m.
Saturday: 12 a.m.–8 p.m.
The library is closed on Sundays, Mondays, and public holidays.

All services at the library (admission, scanning, wi-fi) are free of charge.
To use the library, please bring your passport and get a library pass.
Visitors can only scan texts if they bring their own portable storage device.
Publications marked “Access by request” are issued based on a preliminary application containing links to electronic catalogue entries and sent to library@garagemca.org no later than one working day before the planned visit to the library. No more than ten publications can be borrowed by one person at a time. The books have to be returned personally to the librarian on duty.

Library catalogue

Go to catalogue

Storage location

Moscow, Garage Archive Collection
St. Petersburg, Garage Archive Collection

Subjects

Authors

New arrivals

New Vision: Arab contemporary art in the 21st century

2006

In the perpetual quest for the new, the exciting and the innovative, the attention of the global art community has in recent years been more and more focused on the Middle East. Exhibitions and articles have highlighted a remarkable burst of creativity in the region, as Arab countries from Syria to Algeria, Egypt to Lebanon and Palestine to Saudi Arabia have launched some of the most fascinating artists in recent years. The conceptual playfulness of Hassan Khan, the charged paintings of Jeffar Khaldi, the organic sculptures of Diana Al-Hadid, and the moving photography of Yto Barrada have dazzled audiences with their variety, innovation and thoughtfulness. Until now, however, nobody has captured the vitality of the region’s art in a single book. New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century offers the most comprehensive, scholarly and in-depth survey yet of what is currently happening at the cutting-edge of art in the Arab world. It begins with five groundbreaking essays that offer the best context to date for contemporary Arab production. Between them they discuss the critical issues of diaspora, globalization, identity and audience, and also explore the origins of the current boom in the political upheavals of the late 20th century. These essays are then followed by some 90 superbly illustrated profiles of key artists, organizations and galleries. Mixing the well known with the up and coming, this section offers a vibrant perspective on the current state of Arab art.