A subscription to art
As a member of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft you enjoy numerous benefits throughout the year: borrowing rights in the library, free admission to the museum, invitations to exhibition openings and events, a 10% discount in the museum shop and Kunsthaus restaurant, and much more besides.
Using the library
Loans
Loan periods:
Items may be borrowed for 30 days; unless they have been reserved, this period is automatically extended by a further 60 days. Items may be recalled at any time during this extension and must then be returned within 10 days.
Returns:
Please return items you have borrowed direct to the library during opening hours.
Interlibrary loans
Interlibrary loans are only available for titles relating to art history. The Kunsthaus library will lend books from other libraries to you and will supply copies of articles from journals. Loan periods and restrictions on use will be as stipulated by the library that holds the items.
For registered users
Ordering:
If you cannot find a title either in the Kunsthaus library or in another library in Zurich (please check swisscovery first), use our form for interlibrary loans.
Delivery periods:
Orders from Swiss libraries are normally delivered within two weeks. The delivery period will depend on the location of the supplying library.
For libraries
The Kunsthaus library lends out media and makes copies as part of national or international interlibrary loans. Interlibrary loan orders are normally dispatched within one working day. The International Standard Identifier for Libraries and Related Organizations (ISIL) for the Kunsthaus Zürich library is CH-000273-5.
Guided tours and training
We offer guided tours of the library for groups who want to learn more about the library’s work, history and collection. Special introductions to using the library tailored to the specific needs of a group can also be arranged.
Search training
There are many ways of searching for literature, pictures and facts related to modern art. In our training sessions you’ll learn how to use the relevant sources from printed publications and online offerings.
To register and for further information, contact:
Reading room
Here you will find reference works on art history and related fields, current issues of journals, exhibition catalogues and new acquisitions which can be consulted freely, but only in the reading room.
All other media are held in the closed stacks and can be ordered via the online catalogue. Orders will be ready in a short time (usually no more than 15 minutes).
Orders for the same library opening day are accepted until 5.45 p.m.
Journals
All journals can be searched for in the online catalogue. Availability is shown under ‘Holding information’. Volumes of journals may be loaned out; issues from the current year can be consulted in the reading room.
Current journal subscriptions can be identified by the shopping cart symbol.
Online catalogues
The Kunsthaus library catalogue can also be accessed via the following online catalogues:
Art Discovery Group Catalogue (an association of major art libraries in Europe and North America), Swiss Serials Portal.
Archive of the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection
The archive of the Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection consists of index cards, entry books, correspondence, invoices and other documents on the Emil Bührle Collection, which was put together between 1936 and 1956. Until 1948, the members of the collector’s family maintained a card index containing details of the works acquired. From 1948 until his death in 1956, Emil Bührle employed a private secretary who compiled an inventory of the collection and created an archive to administer it. The archive of the Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection has been collated and analysed by Lukas Gloor, the Foundation’s curator from 2002 until the end of 2021. It has been digitised and is available for public consultation in the reading room of the library at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
Access by appointment: andrej.kilian@kunsthaus.ch, +41 44 253 85 31
Treasures from the library
Although the Kunsthaus library does not normally purchase rare and expensive books, a number of these exceptional works have been acquired over the years. Some were gifts; others entered the library as new publications and were neither rare nor valuable at the time. Examples include Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc’s ‘Der blaue Reiter’ from 1912 and Edward Ruscha’s ‘Babycakes with Weights’ from 1970.
All rare books may be consulted on submission of an application in writing bibliothek@kunsthaus.ch
