The preservation of artists’ papers and other art source material has steadily increased since the Second World War. Art archives include national repositories, archives attached to museums and libraries, archives devoted to a single person or institution, and ‘multiple collection archives’. Archival materials range from manuscript and photographic records to original works of art. Some archival materials have been published in microform formats; many others have not, and potential users depend on being able to locate them by means of various finding aids. Unless supported by public funds, the archives themselves depend on grants or sponsorship. Art archives may be staffed by archivists, museum curators, or librarians; future developments require not merely cooperation but also a ‘harmonization’ of these three professions, and a critical approach to the application of new technologies.

While a great deal of the material evidence of Australian art of the past has been lost as a result of bushfires, other natural causes, accidents, or carelessness, even more has been deliberately destroyed. Artists or their families have often wished to erase the memory of convict or immigrant origins, youthful indiscretions, or previous marriages. The failure of national and state governments to formulate policies to ensure the preservation of business archives (including the archives of architectural firms and art galleries) continues to allow valuable material to be lost. Surviving archival material is often dispersed, occasionally inaccessible, and not infrequently inadequately catalogued. Fortunately nationwide initiatives have been launched – not a moment too soon – by the National Library of Australia and the Library of the Australian National

The Victoria and Albert Museum, itself an archive of material culture, houses several collections of archival records. The Museum’s Registered Papers are divided between the Museum itself, which holds those papers relating to objects in the Museum, and the Public Record Office, where papers relating to Museum buildings and administration can be found; all papers produced since 1984 are to be housed together in a newly established V & A Archive. The quality of the archive of Registered Papers is uneven due to the lack of a controlling and unifying policy; this, and questions of conservation and administration, are being addressed as part of the current restructuring of the Museum. For the same reason the archives of the different Departments, though important, vary considerably not only in content but also in their organisation. The National Art Library, part of the V & A, includes archival collections of ephemera, comprising examples of printing and graphic design, and of manuscripts, including artists’ papers; it also includes the Archive of Art and Design, founded in 1978 to avoid the splitting up of significant archives between the Museum’s Departments.

Amongst the treasures of the British Architectural Library are the RIBA Nomination Papers which have been completed by all prospective members of the Royal Institute of British Architects since its foundation in 1834 and which now form part of the RIBA Archive. These papers are currently the basis for an innovative database project entitled British Architectural Biography 1834-1914, which is being funded over three years by the Getty Grant Program of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Exhibition catalogs and related ‘ephemera’ frequently include statements by artists which can be regarded as primary documents. Artists’ statements which are included in catalogs of group exhibitions tend to be relatively difficult to access and so are easily overlooked, while statements included in ephemeral publications associated with group exhibitions are virtually irretrievable even when such material is retained by libraries. Some help is available from published bibliographies and online databases; more thorough cataloging procedures are also available.

Books have featured as subject matter in R. B. Kitaj’s art and are a constant inspiration to Kitaj the artist. Inevitably, his work has sometimes been described as ‘bookish’, and has attracted written commentaries. In recent years Kitaj has started writing about some of his pictures in a series of ‘Prefaces’, some of which are to be published as a book; the ‘Prefaces’ are, however, explorations rather than explanations.