Guggenheim to the Tate: Collectable Exhibition Catalogues

Andy Warhol: A Retrospective
edited by Kynaston McShine

A catalogue with 200 plates from MOMA’s 1946 retrospective on South Seas art.

The world’s greatest galleries and art museums support their major exhibitions by publishing beautifully illustrated catalogues that serve two purposes – they are a lingering reminder for visitors and an object of beauty for anyone’s bookshelf.
This selection of exhibition catalogues showcases publications from many of the top locations to see fine art, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, London’s Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and Victoria & Albert Museum, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Aside from memorable images, exhibition catalogues offer essays, retrospectives and fascinating insights from experts.
Various artists and movements, photographers, archeological and historical treasures, and even two fashion icons are covered within this list of sumptuously illustrated catalogues. Prices stretch from the ridiculously cheap into three figures for flawless first editions.
While it’s not always possible to attend an exhibition in New York, London or Los Angeles, it’s easy to add the catalogue to your collection.

Exhibition catalogues

Arts of the South Seas
by Ralph Linton & Paul S. Wingert

A catalogue with 200 plates from MOMA’s 1946 retrospective on South Seas art.

Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective

A hefty, well-illustrated catalogue from MOMA’s 1980 event, seven years after Picasso’s death.

Modern Art & Popular Culture: Readings in High & Low
edited by Kirk Varnedoe & Adam Gopnik

1990 catalog from a major exhibition covering art in advertising, comics, graffiti and so on.

Turner 1775-1851

London’s Tate Gallery 1974 catalogue of work by landscape watercolour artist William Turner.

George Stubbs 1724-1806

catalogue from the 1984 exhibition at the Tate Gallery of this famous horse painter’s work.

Joan Miro

Produced by Arts Council of Great Britain for the 1964 exhibition in London and Zurich.

Paul Klee: The Berggruen Collection
edited by Sabine Rewald

The Tate’s 1989 catalogue of a collection also seen in New York and Paris.

Cezanne

242 colour plates, 262 black & white plates. Tate’s catalogue from 1996 of this major exhibition.

The Art of Paul Gauguin

Published by Washington’s National Gallery of Art in 1988 with 280 illustrations.

Edouard Manet 1832-1883
edited by Anne Coffin Hanson

Published by Philadelphia Museum of Art & Chicago’s Art Institute in 1966.

Mario Testino: Portraits

London’s National Portrait Gallery, catalogue for a photography exhibition that toured the world.

Edward Hopper
edited by Carol Troyen

Many illustrations & essays. Published by Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in 2007.

Edvard Munch: Lithographs, Etchings, Woodcuts
edited by William S Lieberman

Catalogue from the LA County Museum of Art’s 1969 exhibition. 72 color & duotone reproductions.

David Hockney: A Retrospective


343 illustrations. Published by LA County Museum of Art in 1988 with 24 pages of original prints.

Masters of 17th Century Dutch Genre Painting

Published by Philadelphia’s Museum of Art in 1984 with 27 colour plates.

Exposure: Canadian Contemporary Photographers

catalogue to support Art Gallery of Ontario’s 1977 exhibition. More than 200 photographs.

Gianni Versace
edited by Richard Martin

NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue for its 1997-1998 exhibition on the fashion designer.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue for its massively successful 2011 exhibition. 293 color plates.

Treasures of Tutankhamun
edited by Katherine Stoddert Gilbert

33 colour plates. Catalogue from this 1976 exhibition of Egyptian artifacts from King Tut’s tomb.

Stuart Davis Memorial Exhibition 1894-1964

Early American modern art. Published by National Collection of Fine Arts & Smithsonian in 1965.

Korean Art and Design
edited by Beth McKillop

catalogue of Victoria & Albert Museum’s collection of Korean art starting in the 5th century.

Aubrey Beardsley
edited by Brian Reade

catalogue to promote Victoria & Albert Museum’s 1966 exhibition for this short-lived artist.

Rene Magritte
edited by James Thrall Soby

catalogue published by NY’s Museum of Modern Art for its 1965 exhibition of Belgian surrealism.

Ross Bleckner
edited by Lisa Dennison

Published by NY’s Guggenheim Museum in 1995 for its exhibition on this American artist.

Frank Gehry, Architect
edited by Fiona J. Ragheb

Catalogue for exhibitions held at the Guggenheim museums in NY and Bilbao in 2001.