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designinform € Design Abstracts Retrospective € Design ProFILES € ReVIEW € designinform Research Guides Researching Modern German Art, Architecture and Design Hi We are in the process of digitizing Dressler¹s Kunstjahrbuch and Kunsthandbuch for the years 1909-1921 for the designinform database ReVIEW [full text] These were meticulously compiled under the editorship of the architect and painter Willy Oskar Dressler (1876-1954) and published annually in Germany from 1906. [The title changed from Kunstjahrbuch to Kunsthandbuch with the 1921 edition] They are extraordinarily scarce and for that reason little known. Very few libraries outside Germany have more than one or two editions [see WorldCat] and yet they contain a wealth of biographical information on thousands of late nineteenth and early twentieth century German and German speaking (i.e. Austrian and Swiss) painters, sculptors, architects, decorative and applied artists, and art critics not included in Thieme-Becker, Benezit, or any other sources. They also contain profiles of the leading art galleries, museums, art societies, art schools, etc. in Germany and Austria, giving addresses, details of collections and new acquisitions, names of teaching staff, curators, etc. The scarcity of the Kunstjahrbuch and Kunsthandbuch may partly be due to the fact that several of the early editions were produced on poor quality paper that has turned brittle with age. Indeed, our copies, which we use on a daily basis in compiling entries for the designinform database Design ProFILES, are beginning to fall apart requiring us to digitize them. The digitized, cross-searchable editions of the Kunstjahrbuch and Kunsthandbuch 1909-1921 should be available on designinform in November 2012. They are an invaluable and indispensable source for research on modern German art. We plan to digitize the volumes editions from 1906-1908, but they pose a bit of a challenge as the text is in a rather ornate Gothic script, making it difficult to OCR. Fortunately Dressler switched to modern German script with the 1909 edition Best wishes Chris Chris Mees Editor designinform Design Research Publications . Poundsford . Vicarage Lane . Burwash . East Sussex . England TN19 7JS T: +44 1435 883950 E: [log in to unmask] W: http://www.designinform.co.uk/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~