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 1942-48. 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 abstract-expressionism in Europe.

A description of some of the more ephemeral types of documentation surrounding contemporary art is followed by an indication of some of the problems involved in their acquisition, cataloguing and preservation. This is a revised version of a paper given at the two-day course on the Literature of Art and Architecture, organised by ARLIS and the Library Association in December 1979.

Ephemera, the fleeting images of moments in time, are valuable for the historical perspectives, social insights and visual stimuli they can generate. The means of collecting are various and frequently cheap. Collections can be organised along simple or sophisticated lines depending on individual libraries’ resources.

These notes started life as a short paper, presented to audiences at Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart during a tour of Australia which the author made at the invitation of ARLIS/ANZ in September 1979; in this revised and extended form they were read to an inaugural meeting of an ARLIS North West of England group, at Preston Polytechnic on October 31st 1979.