LibGuides: Art: Welcome!

Get Started

Welcome to the research guide for Art. The resources below are a great place to start your research.

Starry Night, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh — Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
**Attribution:**Vincent van Gogh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Use the menu on the left to find additional resources for finding books, articles, and more.

Online Reference Sources -- The following resources can help you build a foundation of knowledge on your topic, artist, artistic period, and more.

Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online
Art & Architecture Thesaurus provides access to metadata about art, architecture, and cultural heritage, both extant and historical. The metadata is gathered or linked from museum collections, special collections, archives, libraries, scholarly research, and other sources.
The J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum collection comprises Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity; European art—including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts—from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century; and international photography from its inception to the present day.
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)
This is an authoritative website about the entire history of art that includes images with descriptive information, essays, and maps from the museum collection. Search by artist's last name or style/period of art.
Museum of Modern Art Collection
MoMA has a collection of almost 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art. More than 81,000 works are currently available online.
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC online collection offers tens of thousands of images. Browse or search the collection and make connections among objects you know and newly discovered masterpieces

Print Reference Books -- Here are some selections to get you started!

Art History by Marilyn Stokstad; David A. Binkley (Contribution by); Claudia L. Brittenham (Contribution by); Michael W. Cothren; Frederick M. Asher (Contribution by); Douglass Bailey (Contribution by)
Call Number: Ref N5300 .S923 2011
ISBN: 9780205744220
Publication Date: 2010-07-01
Good start for beginning your research. Available in the Zuhl Library Reference section, 1st floor.
The Dictionary of Art by Jane Turner (Editor)
Call Number: Ref N31.D5 1996
ISBN: 1884446000
Publication Date: 2003-02-11
Boasting well over 6,000 contributors from 12 countries, the Dictionary offers its readers authoritative and comprehensive global coverage. A resource for both art and cultural studies, the Dictionary serves as a unique guide to all the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, drawing, printmaking, as well as the decorative arts. The Dictionary ranges far both geographically and historically; it features unparalleled coverage of art throughout the entire world, across all centuries.
Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall; Kenneth Clark
Call Number: N7560.N34 2008
ISBN: 9780813343938
Publication Date: 2007-12-25
Another excellent starting point. Also in the Reference section of Zuhl Library, 1st floor.
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography by Helene E. Roberts (Editor)
Call Number: N7560.E53 1998
ISBN: 1579580092
Publication Date: 1998-04-01
Excellent starting point to find themes in art. It is in the Reference section, 1st floor, Zuhl Library
The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists by Ian Chilvers
Call Number: N33 .O93 2009
Publication Date: 2009-09-03
This reference book covers Western Art from the ancient Greeks to the present day. Located in the Reference Section in Zuhl Library

News/Blogs

General information about local, regional, and nationwide art.

Arts Journal
ArtForum
View the current issue of this important contemporary art journal online.
ArtDaily
Communication Arts
Online version of the print magazine for the graphic arts.
Southwest Art Collectors Guide