Googly-enheim.

January 8, 2012 10:46 AM

The Guggenheim Museum is claiming to be the first museum to begin issuing new exhibit catalogues as e-books for purchase. But even more exciting to the 20th century art history nerd, they've also partnered with the Internet Archive to offer free digitized versions of out-of-print catalogues going back to the 1930s.

If you have trouble with the search, you're not alone. I did too.

This is a hopeful sign - looking forward to many more museums following suit.

posted by Miko (12 comments total)

Wow! Thanks for this!
posted by yoink at 10:55 AM on January 8

Great googly moogly.

Thank you.
posted by louche mustachio at 10:57 AM on January 8

Squeee!


(Thank you!)
posted by jokeefe at 11:05 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]

This is really incredible, but am I correct that you can't download these? If that's the case, it makes it significantly harder to actually read this, especially if you don't have a tablet.
posted by johnasdf at 11:17 AM on January 8

OH WOW except everything I've seen appears to be reproduced in grayscale. I thought older catalogs might have not had color in the first place, but then I checked a '90s Kokoschka catalog that is listed as having color plates.
posted by pernoctalian at 11:20 AM on January 8

Aaaaaargh! Whhhhhhhy is it all in FLASH! Otherwise huzzah.
posted by Faintdreams at 11:34 AM on January 8

A lot of older museum catalogues are only in grayscale - it was a cost thing mostly. It is sad.

Yeah, I don't think these are downloadable, at least not just yet. If you'd like download-ability it might not hurt to write to them and say just that.
posted by Miko at 11:46 AM on January 8

You can download them here. Or, when viewing the book at the Guggenheim site, on the front page that shows Internet Archive's scanning watermark at the bottom of the page is the direct URL to the book hosted at IA.
posted by stbalbach at 12:29 PM on January 8 [7 favorites]

You can download them here.

You are a scholar and a gentleperson.
posted by yoink at 3:58 PM on January 8

Brilliant! I feel stupid for not looking at the Internet Archive page first! Incidentally, at least a few are in color, including the ones related to Gauguin and Chinese art history.
posted by johnasdf at 5:31 PM on January 8

That's really exciting. Thanks for sharing.
posted by BentleyOwen at 11:50 PM on January 8

Finally! One step closer to the inevitable future of me getting rid of my art-book collection.

I can't look at it right now, what is the resolution like? Can you zoom in like in the google art project?


And OMG The Maurizio Cattalan app is hosted by JOHN WATERS??? wow, that's worth $6 to me, especially since I'll miss the exhibition. (now I just need a tablet...)

The Cattalan ebook is $20. Did anyone buy it? I am curious to know if it is worth it. It links me to Itunes, which I have blocked. Can someone say what format it is in? Thanks!
(Amazon also lists a Kindle edition for $18, but no way I am buying an art book formatted for a non-zooming B&W device.)
posted by Theta States at 8:29 AM on January 9