Presentation

Serralves Library specialised in post-1960 contemporary art in its various manifestations - visual arts, performing arts, architecture, music - and different approaches - art theory and history, cultural policies, collecting, fairs and biennials, competitions and cultural education - with special emphasis on the themes and artists presented in the Museum's programme and represented in the Serralves Collection.

Serralves Library’s documentary collection comprises more than 50,000 items, including exhibition catalogues, monographs, periodicals and video and audio recordings. It is used in the research underpinning the definition of the programme and the production of the activities developed by the Museum’s management. It also serves the community of readers and researchers who are searching for information from the Foundation to develop their research work or simply extend their knowledge about contemporary art.

Aimed primarily at researchers, artists, art critics, architects and university students, Serralves Library has an online catalogue of its collection.

Members of the public can also register as a Reader on the Library's website. This status allows users to guarantee the availability of desired titles on a specific date and ensures accompanied access to the Library's documental collections – the Collection of Artist’s Books and Publications (a unique collection in the Iberian Peninsula used to organise more than 50 exhibitions on the Library's mezzanine floor), the Melo e Castro Collection (which includes examples of one of the 20th century’s most interesting artistic movements), and two collections put together for presentation of two exhibitions, the Raymond Hains Collection and the Porto 60/70 Collection.

The Archives, in particular the Álvaro Siza Archive (40 projects donated by one of the world’s leading architects), the Carlos Alberto Cabral Collection (a magnificent collection that documents the construction project of Serralves Villa and Park), the Photographic Archive (images of Serralves Villa, garden, farm, exhibitions, works from the collection and activities), and the Graphic Material Archive (compilation of materials produced within the framework of the Foundation's activities) are available to the general public, subject to prior booking.