Special Types of Art Books
Catalogues Raisonnés
Scholarly compilations of an artist's body of work.
You can search for them on the International Foundation for Art Research, Catalogues Raisonnés database.
- With information on more than 5,000 published catalogues raisonnés and catalogues in preparation, and links to hundreds of fully digitized and online catalogues raisonnés, the IFAR Database is a unique and essential tool for research in the visual arts.
Corpora
Scholarly compilations on a single type of object.
For example:
- Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (CVA) - Ancient pottery
- Corpus Vitrirarum - Stained glass windows
Museum, Permanent Holdings Catalogs
Detailed catalogs of a period or genre of art in a particular museum.
Most large museums now have online digital catalogs available as well. Here you can find a list of museums with digital collections.
Recommended Resources
- Britannica Academic
Britannica Academic provides access to high-quality, comprehensive reference information. Includes access to the Britannica encyclopedia, atlas, world data, the Classics, biographies, news, multimedia, and more. You can also use Britannica Academic to search an Internet directory that includes more than 300,000 links to Web sites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors. This database also includes the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary.
- Credo Reference
Credo Reference provides full-text online access to hundreds of multidisciplinary reference book collections, including art, history, law, medicine, psychology, technology, bilingual dictionaries, and encyclopedias through a one-stop search platform. Search results often include articles from a wide array of publications and frequently present subject coverage from multiple perspectives. Using Credo Reference to approach a topic from different viewpoints can be a great way to expand your familiarity with the topic and it can help you develop new arguments and observations for your research.
- Oxford Reference Premium
This reference database includes access to almost 400 dictionaries and encyclopedias of fully-indexed, cross-searchable works published by Oxford University Press with detailed information across a broad subject range of topics.
The Concise Dictionary of Art Terms by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199569922Publication Date: 2010-08-20The Concise Dictionary of Art Terms is an accessible and useful A-Z covering a wide range of terms from the visual art world, including materials, techniques, and important styles and periods. In this new edition, the text has been fully revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field. It has also been expanded with more than 100 brand new entries, focusing primarily on modern and contemporary art materials and techniques.The Dictionary has also been enhanced with the addition of over 100 weblinks to selected entries, which are accessed and kept up-to-date via a companion website. These links will add another dimension to the print book by visually illustrating various materials and techniques, whilst also providing easy access to important collections that are freely available online.From abstract art to woodcuts, and the Baroque Revival to ziggurats, this highly browsable dictionary is the ideal reference source for students of Art and all related subjects, for gallery visitors, and for all people interested in the visual arts.
A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, 3rd Edition by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781138577305Publication Date: 2018-11-20Author Kostelanetz provides intelligence and information unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, he ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Johan Cruyff, and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City.
The Oxford dictionary of American art and artists, 2nd Edition by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780191807671Publication Date: 2018This dictionary offers readers a wealth of factual detail on and analysis of America's leading artists, along with analysis of their work.
The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, 5th Edition by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780191782763Publication Date: 2015Covering Western art from the ancient Greeks to the present day, this dictionary contains clear and concise entries on styles and movements, materials and techniques, and museums and galleries. It also includes biographical entries for artists, critics, collectors, dealers, and patrons, with places and full dates of birth and death
Best Bets
- Art & Architecture ePortalA&AePortal contains more than 350 e-books related to the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design. Most titles are exclusive to the platform and are published by Yale University Press and other leading university presses (Princeton, Harvard, MIT) and museum publishers (Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art). It contains a wide variety of content, including scholarly monographs, museum catalogs, and catalouges raisonnés. In the Subject Areas tab you can find categories dedicated to African, African American and Black Diaspora, Architecture and Urban History, and Fashion and Textile History to name a few.
- JSTORJSTOR is a multidisciplinary digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. NOTE: Artstor's collections are moving to JSTOR and the Artstor website will be retired on August 1, 2024. Includes: American Art, Aperture, Ars Orientalis, The Art Bulletin, Art Education, Art Journal, Canadian Art Review, Critical Inquiry, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Oxford Art Journal, Representations, to name a few.
- ProQuest Platform (ProQuest)
Users can search, find and preview more than 900 million documents and retrieve scholarly full-text open access sources directly curated by ProQuest.
Other Useful Databases
- Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest)
A comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
- eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost)
This collection contains over 246,000 eBooks on a wide variety of academic subject matter.
- eBook Central (ProQuest)
eBook Central is a collection of nearly 250,000 academic e-books on a wide variety of subjects.
- Kanopy
Kanopy is a video streaming collection with over 26,000 films ranging from documentaries, indie, foreign, classic and blockbuster movies in several subjects and sub-subject areas. PBS, New Day Films, Kino Lorber, and California NewsReel are just a few of the content providers.
- Open Textbook Library
Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are considered open because they are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution. Currently offers more than 1280 open textbooks.
- Taylor & Francis Online
This resource includes millions of peer-reviewed journal articles published under the Taylor & Francis, Routledge and Dove Medical Press imprints across many academic disciplines.
- Wiley Online Library
Wiley Online Library provides access to multidisciplinary content across more than 1,600 journals and 22,000 ebooks.
- African American Art History InitiativeA multi-project initiative by the Getty to make African American art history more visible to the public and accessible to the scholarly community worldwide
- Black Futures: The art of resistance [Podcast]Black History/Black Futures: The Art of Resistance features Hampton Roads’ Brittney S. Harris, in conversation with Endowed Professor of Virginia Black History and Culture, Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, will moderate this discussion, exploring each guest’s artistic genre.
Together, they uncover stories of resistance through music and theatre in the past and present. What does resistance look like or sound like in an artistic medium? How can art affect lasting change? How do their genres intersect to tell the past story of resistance and represent the ongoing resistance to racism in the artistic field? What does the future of composing and playwrighting look like? How does their work now shape the future of African Americans in the arts? - CalisphereCalisphere is your gateway to digital collections from California's great libraries, archives, and museums. Discover over 2,125,000 images, texts, and recordings.
- Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME)DLME offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions.
- Documents of Latin American and Latino ArtExplore over 9,000 documents of 20th and 21st-century art in Latin America, the Caribbean, and among US Latino communities.
- EuropeanaWe display digital cultural heritage from over 4,000 different European providing institutions. Contains images, documents, books, sound and video recordings, and 3D files.
- Getty Research Guides and BibliographiesLibrarians, scholars, and curators provide topical overviews of Research Institute collections and specialized areas of research.
- Getty Research PortalGetty Research Institute's collection of digitized art history texts. Over 190,000 titles.
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art HistoryDiscover the story of art and global culture through The Met collection.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) | African American ArtSAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of works by African American artists in the world.
- Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online CollectionsPublished by MCN (Museum Computer Network). This guide also includes digital archives and libraries.