Visual Arts Archive

Association of Berlin Artists summer party, Schloss Ruhwald park, 17 June 1877

Käthe Kollwitz working on Mutter mit zwei Kindern, Berlin 1935/1936

Catalogue of the Allgemeine Deutsche Kunstausstellung, Dresden 1946

Lutz Dammbeck, La Sarraz, Media collage, Arts Centre GDR National Front, Leipzig, 24 June 1984

Karla Woisnitza, Diary 1979

Academy members and archive donors Werner Stötzer, Michael Schoenholtz and Rolf Szymanski visiting the Visual Arts Archives, Berlin 2008

Depot with files in the Verband Bildender Künstler Archive waiting to be processed

The Visual Arts Archives was founded in 1994. The Archives collects, preserves and makes accessible written documents from artists working in the areas of painting, graphic arts and sculpture, art history and publishing. Such estates and papers are either donated during the artists' lifetimes or bequeathed to the Archives on their death. The Archives also holds documents from art associations and societies from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

The Visual Arts Archives has presently grown to over 130 holdings of nearly 1,000 linear metres of written documents, as well as approx. 40,000 photos and 30,000 slides. Archives of members of the Visual Arts Section represent around one quarter of the holdings relating to individuals. The papers and estates kept in the Visual Arts Archives provide information on the work and biographies of around 17,000 artists, primarily from German-speaking regions.