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The collector Egidio Marzona has once again made a significant donation to the Art Library. Following the exhibition The Very First Edition. Artists' Books from the Marzona Collection at the Neue Nationalgalerie, which will be on display until next Sunday (26 January 2025), Marzona is donating 22 first books by artists to the SPK institution.

These are works from the 1960s, which are extremely rare and in some cases were only printed in a few copies. They are not to be found in public libraries and are rarely represented in art collections. These include Carl Andre 's first book First Five Poems from 1959, Bruce Nauman 's first book Pictures of Sculpture in a Room from 1965-1966, which is actually untraceable today and is listed by the artist as an independent work of art in his catalogue raisonné, and LawrenceWeiner's first exhibition catalogue, which is so rare that it is not even in the artist's possession.

In addition, there are publications by Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Marcel Broodthaers, Hanne Darboven and Gordon Matta-Clark. Particularly noteworthy is the legendary chess edition by Bernd and Hilla Becher Industriebauten, which was published on the occasion of their exhibition in Mönchengladbach in 1968 and contains 10 hand-printed photographs.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, says: "Egidio Marzona is an extraordinary collector and patron, he is a great friend of the art city of Berlin. We have been working closely with him for years, and his collection will also have a place in "berlin modern", which is currently under construction. We are both grateful and happy for this latest, very valuable donation. These valuable books are the very first publications by artists; they are important documents that deal with the emergence of artistic concepts and ideas."

Moritz Wullen, Director of the Art Library, adds: "The books are an excellent addition to the Marzona Collection, which was acquired in 2002. Even then, Marzona had donated the associated archive of artists' books, editions and catalogues, magazines, posters and invitation cards, records, films, letters and photographs from exhibitions to the Art Library. The diversity of concepts, forms and materials in the art of the 1960s motivated the collector very early on to preserve the diverse network of artistic ideas in a comprehensive "Encyclopaedia of Art from 1966 to 1978"."

Egidio Marzona's collection has formed a unique network of modern art in the context of the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin for many years. With the help of the collector, it has been possible to close the considerable gaps in the art of the sixties and seventies. In 2014, Marzona donated 372 important works of Concept Art, Minimal Art and Arte Povera to the Nationalgalerie and the Kupferstichkabinett. In 2002, Egidio Marzona donated unique archival holdings on the art of the 1960s and 1970s to the Art Library.