Stephen Bury

The Frick Collection, Library, Faculty Member

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I am an art history specialist working in a museum/public art library context, publishing monographs, chapters, articles and reviews.

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Papers by Stephen Bury

Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches (review)

American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography, 2009

observes in his preface, "This is clearly the moment for a collection like Little Magazines and M... more observes in his preface, "This is clearly the moment for a collection like Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches" (xvi). The recent academic interest in the material conditions that facilitated the development of modernism has naturally let to a focus on some little magazines, yet many of these important publications have been neglected. Thinking of writers and editors as strategic players in a diverse marketplace has changed the ways scholars discuss these periodicals, which promoted a diverse range of editorial policies, aesthetics, political views and commercial interests. This collection offers analyses of a wide range of little magazines, including the Little Review, Poetry, Rogue, The Soil, Ebony and Topaz, Rhythm, Midland, The Egoist, and others. Each contribution analyzes these periodicals in an historical context; some discuss the conversation each magazine's editor and its contributors had within the magazine, and others focus on the dialectical relationship one or more magazines had with other publications. Churchill and McKible explain in the introduction that they wish to promote "a conversational model of modernism," and the essays they have chosen fit this model. Even if some essays demonstrate antagonisms among editors or contributors, the book successfully shows that even magazines that may have selfconsciously defined themselves against one another were in dialogue. Churchill and McKible define little magazines as "non-commercial enterprises founded by individuals or small groups intent upon publishing the experimental works or radical opinions of untried, unpopular, or under-represented writers" (6). The little magazines represented in this collection can be accurately be classified this way, but the emphasis on "experimental works or radical opinions" does suggest a certain ideological focus, which can be easily seen in many of the essays. Indeed, if one were to identify an overarching argument for the collection, it would be that the editors of and contributors to little magazines were often more radical than scholars have acknowledged. Thus the radicalism of Harriet Monroe is emphasized by John Timberman Newcomb; Jayne Marek argues for the feminism of Jesse Fauset and racial activism of Nora Holt; Caroline Goeser looks at Charles S. Johnson's revolutionary use of race and sexuality in Ebony and Topaz; Alan Golding argues that the radical Little Review was self-consciously more experimental than the conservative, canonizing The Dial; Bruce Clarke looks at the "feminist militancy" of Dora Marsden of the Freewoman, the New Freewoman and The Egoist; and Adam McKible

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La biennale di Venezia: a bibliographical note

Art libraries journal, 1980

The Biennale comprises a unique sequence of 20th century exhibitions of international (if uneven)... more The Biennale comprises a unique sequence of 20th century exhibitions of international (if uneven) coverage from 1895 onwards with only two breaks-between 1914-20 and 194248. It documents for the pre-Second World War period the non avant-garde in whom there is now increasing interest and since 1948 the activities of the avant-garde. It is a particularly useful source for Italian art and illustrates the metamorphosis of futurist art into fascist art. The Biennale has become part of art history: what has been shown has influenced what has subsequently been produced: the 1958 and 1960 Biennali, for example, were influential in the propagation of abstractexpressionism in Europe. The complexities of Biennale literature are a product of its history. (DFrom an international salon modelled on that of Munich it has grown into a vast art festival: the 516 works exhibited in 1895 had by 1966 increased five-fold. From 1907 the Giardini saw the spawning of the padiglioni stranieri or national pavilions: the Belgian pavilion was joined in 1909 by those of Britain, Hungary and Germany, and in 1912 by France and Sweden. From 1948 these pavilions often published their own exhibition catalogues. At the same time the Biennale organisation was growing apace: it set up its own Archivio storico delle arti contemporanee at Ca'Corner della Regina* 2) and a library at Calle Giustinian, San Marco. From 1950 to December 1971 it published the periodical La Biennale di Venezia: rivista trimestrale dell'Ente della Biennale and it now publishes an immense Annuario... eventi^\ The exhibition organisers grew more ambitious and arranged the Biennale "thematically": the 1976 Biennale was loosely based around "ambiente/arte" and it gave rise to a monograph by Germano Celant, published by the Biennale in 1977, and based on the "research undertaken for the preparation of the Biennale"^4). Other exhibitions were staged by the Biennale such as The Bachelor machines from September to October 1975^5^ and catalogues of them were published under the Biennale imprint. The Annuario. .. eventi provides the most convenient guide to these activities. The main publication of the Biennale remains the general illustrated 7

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Artists' Books: A Cataloguers' Manual by Maria White, Patrick Perratt, Liz Lawes

The Art Book, Feb 1, 2007

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Artists' multiples 1935-2000

Ashgate eBooks, 2001

Fortunato Depero’s ‘Bolted Book’

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Embedding a Culture of Innovation at the Frick Art Reference Library

Developing NYARC: the New York Art Resources Consortium

Art libraries journal, 2011

NYARC is a consortium of New York art resources, initially including the libraries of Brooklyn Mu... more NYARC is a consortium of New York art resources, initially including the libraries of Brooklyn Museum, the Frick Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. The Metropolitan was not part of the Arcade (integrated libraries system) programme funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and withdrew its designation as a NYARC entity in December 2010. This article gives a brief history of NYARC and examines whether it achieved its aims of sharing resources, making them more accessible to the public, and saving money.

The Artist’s Book in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Walter Benjamin and the Artist’s Book

Arts, Oct 21, 2019

Walter Benjamin, who was familiar with the pre-Second World War avant-garde, argued that mechaniz... more Walter Benjamin, who was familiar with the pre-Second World War avant-garde, argued that mechanization threatens the aura of art objects. The digital revolution has been seen as reconfirming Benjamin's thesis, but the digital can be seen to reaffirm the value of the actual, physical artist's book, and moreover, artists have exploited the digital-as technologies and subject matter-to make artists' books.

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10. Graphic Design, Typography and Artists’ Books

The Energy of Delusion

Museum libraries came late to the digitization party - primarily because of perceived copyright i... more Museum libraries came late to the digitization party - primarily because of perceived copyright issues. Since 2010 the three libraries of the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) have embarked on a series of niche, boutique digitization projects, pushing the boundaries of fair use, but they have also embraced the born-digital, establishing a program to capture art-history-rich websites and to give access to them via an innovative use of a discovery layer which prioritizes web resources in the ranking of results.

1, 2, 3, 5: Building a Collection of Artists’ Books

Art libraries journal, 2007

Because artists’ books can be expensive to buy and to keep, institutions need to have a clearly a... more Because artists’ books can be expensive to buy and to keep, institutions need to have a clearly articulated rationale for collecting them. This could range from documenting the history of art, and contemporary art in particular, to a survey of how artists have used the book format to explore their ideas. This latter approach would support the use of artists’ books in practical workshops leading to the creation of yet further artists’ books.

Viewpoint

Art libraries journal, 2002

‘A national art library’: if every one of these four words raises questions and demands qualifica... more ‘A national art library’: if every one of these four words raises questions and demands qualification, together they suggest even more. Art is so elusive and resistant to institutionalisation that no single library - ‘a’ national art library - could possibly have the omniscience and omnipresence (never mind the money) to collect everything: to take a UK example, how many libraries managed to collect the Freeze (1988) exhibition catalogue at the time? And who collected the ‘programme note’ from that one-off performance in a half-derelict warehouse in Penge? Co-operation and collaboration in collection development are needed to maximise the research resources available in any particular nation, to ensure the retention of last or archival copies - and any national art library must surely have a role in this. However, this just sets up a chain of secondary problems - with access and funding at the top of the list. Individual institutions ultimately have their own agendas and priorities: and this even applies to national institutions, where existing collection strengths may skew collecting priorities. Perhaps we have to accept an incomplete but vibrant mosaic: the librarian’s desire for comprehensiveness and universal bibliographic control cannot be achieved in the real world.

“The Universal penman”: an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, 2 July-28 Sept. 1980

Art libraries journal, 1980

Collecting ‘the now’

Art libraries journal, 2013

I s it, should it be, the responsibility of an art librarian to document and collect 'the now'? T... more I s it, should it be, the responsibility of an art librarian to document and collect 'the now'? There are obvious pros and cons of this-the inevitable valuejudgments, the expensive errors of unnecessary acquisition or omission, the labour involved, deviation from the institutional mission, etc. The author explores a personal journey through the acquisition of artists' books and multiples, defending a role for the art librarian in the interstices of curatorship and the art world as it actually happens.

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