eBooks on the web
British Museum Publications: Museum research catalogues, publications, and journals written by staff and external experts.
Canadian Online Art Book Project: Founded in 2013, the Canadian Online Art Book Project is a growing digital library of books–all original works commissioned by the Art Canada Institute–by the country’s leading art experts on artists who have made a critical contribution to the evolution of the nation’s art history.
Fundacion Juan March (Madrid): The Fundación Juan March presents to the public its on-line gateway to the complete content of each of the 205 catalogues accompanying the exhibitions held at its three venues since 1973, in Madrid, Cuenca (the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español) and Palma de Mallorca (the Museu Fundación Juan March).
Getty Publications Virtual Library: More than 300 Getty publications to download and read for free.
Getty Research Portal: A free online search platform providing worldwide access to an extensive collection of digitized art history texts from a range of institutions. This multilingual and multicultural union catalog affords art historians and other researchers the ability to search and download complete digital copies of publications devoted to art, architecture, material culture, and related fields.
Guggenheim Museum Publications: Guggenheim Museum publications provided by the Internet Archive.
HathiTrust Digital Library: A partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. “Full View” books are readable online but cannot be downloaded. Examples: Gods, saints, & heroes : Dutch painting in the age of Rembrandt and Gemini G.E.L. : art and collaboration / Ruth E. Fine.
Heritage Preservation (World Monuments Fund): Extensive publications on heritage preservation issues.
Internet Archive Open Library: A free digital library with over 45,000 art titles.
Latsis Foundation E-Library: Publications of cultural, artistic and historical interest to researchers in Greek art and archaeology.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications: MetPublications is a portal to The Met’s comprehensive publishing program including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last five decades.
MoMA Exhibitions: Exhibitions from MoMA’s founding in 1929 to the present. Several include downloadable pdfs of older exhibition catalogs, checklists, installation images, press releases and more.
National Gallery of Art Publications: The National Gallery of Art’s publishing program balances an allegiance to the art and craft of the printed book with a commitment to the utility and accessibility of digital and online formats. Free Backlist titles here.
OSCI Museum Catalogues: The Getty’s Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative provides access to catalogues from
Smithsonian Books Online: The Smithsonian Libraries’ online books. Most books available here are in the Public Domain unless otherwise noted, and are therefore free to download, use, re-use, and re-mix without regard to copyright.
Video Art & Artists Essays: PDFs of essays commissioned by the Video Data Bank on the subject of video art and artists, as well as a range of essays about individual artists’ work.