VDB Collection

VDB’s collection includes countless seminal works that describe the development of video as an art form from the 1960s to the present day.  Over the course of its history, the VDB has grown to include the work of more than 600 artists and 6,000 video art titles. The VDB has proudly supported hundreds of established and emerging artists, including Basma Alsharif, Sadie Benning, Harun Farocki, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Sterling Ruby, and Martine Syms.

New Releases

New Releases are the latest acquisitions to the VDB collection, including contemporary works by artists, titles that are newly-preserved or edited which are being made available, often for the first time, and recently-released DVD Box Sets and Compilations.

DVD Box Sets

DVD Box Sets Single artist surveys published alongside monographs with contextualizing essays, or special anthologies around a topic or theme, many of them produced by the Video Data Bank.

Compilations

Curated Compilations are multiple titles programmed around a particular subject or theme.

Single Artist Compilations are surveys of an artist's moving image work.

Special Collections

On Art and Artists

On Art and Artists (OAA) is a unique collection of interviews and portraits of artists, musicians, performers, architects, theorists, and critics, spanning 1974 to the present.  The OAA collection features more than 400 available titles, of which at least half are interviews produced by the Video Data Bank and its co-founders Lyn Blumenthal and Kate Horsfield.  In addition, the collection offers artist interviews produced by external producers and producing organizations — including Artists Television Network, Long Beach Museum of Art, and the University of Colorado —and experimental documentaries and portraits, many of them produced by artists.

The On Art and Artists collection has grown into an archive of considerable cultural and historical significance, comprised of interviews and portraits of some of the most noteworthy contemporary practitioners and thinkers from the U.S. and beyond. Originally conceptualized as a tool by which to provide art students with insight into the lives and practices of artists, the OAA collection now stands as a compelling testimony for wider audiences as to what it means to be an artist.

From Abromović to Wodiczko, the On Art and Artists collection offers those interested in art history, contemporary practices, and education a rare and rewarding study guide, offering insight into the lives, practices and methodologies of some of the most vital practitioners of our time.

Videofreex Archive

Videofreex, one of the first video collectives, was founded in 1969 by David Cort, Mary Curtis Ratcliff and Parry Teasdale, after David and Parry met each other, video cameras in hand, at the Woodstock Music Festival. The group soon grew to ten full-time members--including Chuck Kennedy, Nancy Cain, Skip Blumberg, Davidson Gigliotti, Carol Vontobel, Bart Friedman and Ann Woodward — and produced tapes, installations and multimedia events.

In 1971 the Freex moved to a 17-room, former boarding house called Maple Tree Farm in Lanesville, NY, where they operated one of the earliest media centers. Their innovative programming ranged from artists' tapes and performances to behind-the-scenes coverage of national politics and alternate culture. During the decade that the Freex were together, this pioneering video group amassed an archive of 1,500+ raw tapes and edits.

The Videofreex Archive, now housed at VDB, chronicles the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s and '70s. Available titles are the results of an ongoing project to preserve and digitize important examples of this early video art collective.

Early Video Art

Early Video Art is a collection of more 200 titles that are central to an understanding of the historical development of video art. This collection includes, but is not limited to, many titles from the original Castelli-Sonnabend collection, the first and most prominent collection of video art assembled in the United States. The work in this collection was produced between 1968-1980, and includes seminal artists such as Vito Acconci, Lynda Benglis, Joan Jonas, and Lawrence Weiner. These works represent important examples of the first experiments in video art, and include conceptual and feminist performances recorded on video, experiments with the video signal, and "guerilla" documentaries representing a counter-cultural view of the historical events of the 1960s and '70s. Many of these tapes represent a desire for a radically redefined television experience that is centered on the innovative, the personal, the political, and the non-commercial.

Kuchar Archive

The Video Data Bank is proud to carry the extensive video catalogs of renowned artists George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar.