Special Collections

The Art & Artist ephemera collection documents the activities of artists, curators, collectors, art organisations and galleries. These files may contain press releases, obituaries, exhibition notices, invitations, flyers, posters, photographs, newspaper clippings and other printed ephemera, as well as biographical information. The files are divided between Australian & New Zealand, and International material, and their scope reflects the collecting areas of the National Gallery.

The Research Library also collects the National Gallery’s own publications and ephemera. We hold a significant collection of National Gallery's exhibition catalogues, pamphlets, postcards, posters, audio-visual material, invitations, reviews and press releases relating to our collections and exhibitions.

Art & Artist ephemera files are discoverable in the Library Catalogue.

The posters provide a history of the National Gallery of Australia exhibitions from the period before the National Gallery of Australia – then the Australian National Gallery – was officially opened in 1982 to today. Check out our series of blog posts for an introduction to the collection:

From the Archives: A history of the NGA in posters - Part I

From the Archives: A history of the NGA in posters - Part II

Currently being digitised and catalogued, this collection is available to explore online via our catalogue. For more information, please submit a request with details of your research enquiry.

The Craft Australia National Historical Collection is a significant slide archive on the development and practice of the Australian Studio Craft Movement from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The catalogues associated with this slide collection form part of the archive, MS 84 Papers of Craft Australia.

Two formed library collections are held by the Research Library and Archives. These collections of pre and post war artists reflect their very different personal and political interests.

The Adrian Feint collection

This collection provides an insight into the range of publications available to an artist during the first half of the twentieth century. Adrian Feint (1894–1971) was a bookplate designer, commercial artist and painter. Feint created cover designs for popular magazines such as The Home and Art in Australia. He was the co-director of Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney between 1924–1928.

The Noel Counihan collection

Noel Jack Counihan (1913–1986) was an artist, revolutionary and a foundation member of the Contemporary Art Society (Australia) in 1938. His library provides an insight into the life of an Australian social realist painter, printmaker, cartoonist and illustrator active from the 1930s to the 1950s. Noel Counihan was interviewed by James Gleeson.