About us

The Landesverband Bildende Kunst Sachsen e.V and the Deutsche Fotothek of SLUB Dresden offer artists in Saxony, sponsored by the Saxon State Ministry of Science and Art, the opportunity to present themselves and their works in the Saxon database of Fine Art.

The database sees itself as a showcase for Saxon art, which should contribute to representing the entire spectrum of visual art in Saxony as comprehensively as possible, to preserving it in the long term and to making it accessible both nationally and - through a bilingual interface - internationally. At the same time, the database is also a working tool for museums, galleries, art academies and art historians.

Through the use of authority control, standardized metadata (LIDO) and the support of international image exchange formats (IIIF) as well as the connection to the certified long-term archive of the SLUB, sustainability and reusability of the data at the highest technical level are guaranteed. Technically, the database uses the structures of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB), which already makes more than two million photographs available online with the image database of the Deutsche Fotothek.

Why join in?

The experience of many artists has shown that sooner or later the question arises as to how the works can be documented, how a complete overview of the artistic work can be built up and how it can be made accessible to others.

The creation of digital catalogues of works with images and text (linkable to biographies, exhibitions, publications, documents, AV material or websites) in the web-based database can also be helpful in the compilation of publications, application materials, exhibition catalogues, etc. It also serves as a source for art research and curatorial or thematic research.

The database system has two functions. It enables you to set up and document a catalogue of works and to publish part or all of your artistic work with worldwide access. The database contains input and research options for:

- personal data of the artist,
- Representation of the individual works in illustration and text
- Provenance of the works,
- Exhibition activity of the artist,
- Publications/ written material from/about the artist.

Artists can decide for themselves whether all information is to be released for publication or only for internal documentation purposes. The data can be exported in PDF format for local storage. The data in the database can be supplemented and changed at any time. The web-based system makes this possible from any Internet access, and the responsive design of the database also allows it to be accessed via mobile devices.

The vast amount of information that will be included into the database can only be handled if the author enters the work into the database on his own responsibility. The contact persons in the Regionalverbände or in the Landesverband can, if necessary, provide advice and support services, e.g. on the organisation of the works, digitisation and recording. Light sets (LED spotlights, tripods), laptops and digital cameras can be borrowed to create high-quality images for working with the plant database. Further information on the conditions of participation can be obtained from the Regionalverbände or from the office of the Landesverband.

Visibility

The aim of the database is to make the works of Saxon artists known to as wide a circle of interest as possible. For this purpose, the data records of the database will be transferred via an OAI exchange interface in LIDO format to other portals: the Deutsche Fotothek, arthistoricum.net, as well as the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB) - currently still in a closed test system - and in future also the Europeana, the European digital library.

Interoperability

The work database relies on the reusability of the digital images shown here. The basis for this is the support of the image exchange format IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), which makes it possible to retrieve image data via a uniform interface. This interface is provided by arthistoricum.net, the specialist portal for art history. It is based on two open source programs: the Image Server Cantaloupe and the Image Viewer Mirador, which can also be used as a research environment due to its functions for image manipulation and annotation. With this combination it is possible to collect, edit and compare IIIF-compliant images from different sources in a single working environment. Furthermore, image areas can be marked and annotated. This function is currently limited to the local browser session, but in the future it will be possible to annotate and exchange this information between different user groups.

Next to each image description in this database, you will find a link via which you can load the respective image into the IIIF Viewer for editing. Help for using IIIF via the toolbox of arthistoricum.net can be found here.