Visual Arts in the U.S.

Biographies

• American National Biography
  Authoritative short biographies of "people who have influenced and shaped American history and culture." Biographies include portraits, references to authoritative book-length biographies and names of archives were applicable. Only deceased biographical subjects are included.
• Current Biography Plus Illustrated
  Contains the full text and all the images of the 23,000 biographies and obituaries of artists, politicians, business people, journalists, actors, writers, sports figures, scientists, and other people prominent in the news that have appeared in Current Biography Yearbook since 1940 and a number of other biographical dictionaries. Includes links to obituaries as well as to books and articles by and about the subject.

Published biographies and autobiographies can be found in the Library's catalog.

Biographies can be found via a subject search:  wright, frank lloyd
Autobiographies can be found via an author search:  wright, frank lloyd

Biographies and Autobiographies not owned by the Library can be found via WorldCat. The Borrow from another library link in the WorldCat records will generate an interlibrary loan form and the Library will loan the book from another library.

Encyclopedias

• Grove Art Online
  Comprises the full text of The Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner (1996, 34 vols.), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, edited by Hugh Brigstocke (2001), The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (1998, 4 vols.), and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Articles that have been added or updated since their appearance in print are date-stamped in the upper right corner of the screen.
• For further encyclopedias please consult the encyclopedias tab on the art history subject guide on the Library’s homepage or ask for advice.

Images

• Catalog
  The Library owns a large number of art books with excellent reproductions of art works. The complete oeuvre of an artist is sometimes available in a catalogue raisonneand can be found in the Library's catalog:

  Keyword search example: "catalogue* raisonne*" AND kandinsky

  
  

  The physical description field on the description tab in the Library's catalog identifies whether a book has illustrations: ill. stands for illustrated and col. ill. stands for colored illustrations.

  Example:  ill* AND kandinsky

• ARTstor
  High quality images with detailed meta data about materials used, work types, repositories, and subjects. The Advanced Search interface has a search by creator option.
• Grove Art Online
  Images of artists and their art can be found by clicking on the image tab. The image tab also has a number of links to external images. Most of these links go to art museum web sites.

Critical Literature

Critical articles published in scholarly art and art history journals can be found through a variety of online journal indexes to which the Library subscribes. Read the index/database description carefully before selecting a resource. Good starting pointsare:

• Art Abstracts
  Indexes key international English-language arts publications. Includes periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, competition and award notices, exhibition listings, interviews, film reviews and more.
• ARTbibliographies Modern
  Covers all aspects of modern and contemporary art, traditional fine arts of painting, sculpture and drawing. The database's scope extends from artists and movements beginning with impressionism, in the late 19th century, up to recent works and trends in the late 20th century. It incorporates abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, and exhibition catalogs and reviews.
• Bibliographie of the History of Art
  Indexes print and electronic journal articles, books, essays, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues.
• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
  The single most important bibliographical research tool for research in architecture, urban design, historic preservation and urban planning history.
• Art Index Retrospective
  Indexes international art journals published between 1929 and 1984. Art Index Retrospective includes references to reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals.
• Catalog
  Books and book chapters in the Library's print collection are another source of critical literature on an artist's work. Books that are not owned by the Library can be found via WorldCat.

  Keyword search example: warhol AND "criticism and interpretation"

For further indexes of scholarly journals please consult the Subject Guides page on the Library’s homepage or ask for advice.

Contemporary News Coverage

The Library owns a number of digital collection that may contain important primary sources about an artist's life and career. 

• Historical New York Times
  The complete archive of the entire historical run of The New York Times from 1851 to the present with the exception of the most current two years. Most important art exhibits as well as public events in an artist's life will be covered here. The archive includes classified ads, photos, obituaries, editorials and commentary.
• American Periodicals Series
  Contains a wide selection of periodicals published between 1740 and 1900. Includes numerous popular magazines, among them a number of art magazines.
• Primary sources, such as autobiographies, diaries and letters can also be found via the Library's catalog. Include keywords that describe primary sources such as correspondence, diaries or sources together with the subject's name in the search box. WorldCatmay be used to identify primary sources published in books not owned by the Library. Titles identified with the help of WorldCat can be requested through interlibrary loan.

  Artists - United States - diaries
  Haring AND Keith AND diaries
  correspondence AND Ansel AND adams
  interviews AND lichtenstein

Style Guides and Citation Management Software

• Documenting Sources, Chicago Style
  DianaHacker.com: Research and Documentation Online.
  Sample bibliography.
• Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide
  Made available free online by Chicago University Press.
• Using Chicago Style to Cite and Document Sources
  (excerpted from Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger).
• The Chicago Manual of Style
  Available online and in print.
  Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1993.
  Information desk Z253.U69 2003
• RefWorks
  Never type a bibliography again! RefWorks will help you easily gather, manage, and store bibliographic citations for all types of information, as well as generate footnotes and bibliographies.