LibGuides: Art Resources: Art Websites

Art History

Art History Resources
In-depth hyperlinked lists divided by period, region, and topic, covering art history from prehistoric art through contemporary times, along with links to other sites with art history research resources. Website author and editor: Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The site pairs essays and works of art with chronologies, telling the story of art and global culture through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. Search the timeline by Artist/Maker or by Keyword (for example, art movement or style, geography, material or technique, object or subject matter, or time period.)

Smarthistory

What is Smarthistory?
Smarthistory is a center for public art history with thousands of free videos and essays written by experts who want to share their knowledge with learners around the world. Smarthistory was founded in 2005 by two art historians, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.

Who uses Smarthistory?
Millions of people use Smarthistory every year, including undergraduate and graduate students, museum visitors, life-long learners, and university professors.

How can I find the art I want to learn about?
Use the search box or the Histories of Art pull down menu at the top of every page. You can also use the left navigation once you are on a content page. Have fun exploring!

How can I cite Smarthistory?
A citation is provided at the bottom of every Smarthistory content page.

Smarthistory
Smarthistory is a center for public art history, with thousands of free and CC licensed videos and essays written by experts who want to share their knowledge with learners around the world.

Artist Biographies

artnet Monographs
Use the artnet Monographs library to find comprehensive information on artists. This body of Modern and Contemporary artists’ sites serves as a research tool, bringing insight into the depth and scope of extraordinary artists oeuvres. The artists are grouped as Contemporary (Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture) and 19th Century / Modern.

Artsy

The Art Genome Project
The Art Genome Project is a classification system and technological framework developed by Artsy. It maps the characteristics ( “genes”) that connect artists, artworks, architecture, and design objects across history. There are currently over 1,000 characteristics in The Art Genome Project, including artistic disciplines, subject matter, art historical movements, visual qualities, mediums and techniques, geographic regions, cultural and religious styles and more. Presented by Artsy, a platform for discovering and displaying art that features the world’s leading galleries, museum collections, foundations, artist estates, art fairs, and benefit auctions.
Artsy for Education
Resources for discovering and learning about art online, presented by Artsy. Includes dozens of searchable articles on a variety of topics, including studies of various aspect of The Art Genome Project.

General Art Websites for Introductory Information

These websites can provide introductory information about your topic.

Art cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine
A resource with 9,000 artists listed, 2,900 art sites indexed, and 160,000 links. The main mode of searching within the site is a search on an artist's name.

e-flux
The e-flux site includes a news digest, events, exhibitions, schools, journal, books, and art projects related to contemporary art, culture, and theory internationally. Search the archive to look at past issues of the e-flux journal for essays relating to the creation of contemporary art.
Glossary of art terms - Tate
Tate's online glossary is designed to explain and illuminate some of the art terminology found on the Tate website, from abstract art to Zero. Tate has four major sites and holds the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art, which includes nearly 70,000 artworks.

General Art Websites - Other Resources

Archives of American Art
The Archives is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America over the last 200 years. Their holdings include more than 20 million letters, diaries and scrapbooks of artists, dealers, and collectors; manuscripts of critics and scholars; business and financial records of museums, galleries, schools, and associations; photographs of art world figures and events; sketches and sketchbooks; rare printed material; film, audio and video recordings; and the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art.
ART21
The site provides links to previews and clips from its multimedia content: the PBS-broadcast series: ART21 'Art in the Twenty-First Century and short-format documentaries, including the Art in the Twenty-First Century series, and the ART21 Artist to Artist series featuring artists in conversation with their peers in shared exhibition settings. The videos are viewable on multiple digital platforms.
Contemporary Art Daily: A Daily Journal of International Exhibitions
Contemporary Art Daily publishes high quality documentation from exhibitions ranging from major museums to young commercial galleries. Contemporary Art Venues is a free public database of over 650 exhibition venues from across the world. The Contemporary Art Quarterly archives contain primary research material and documentation: images of exhibitions, artists’ writings, interviews, performance scores, videos, and more.
Smithsonian Collections Search Center
An online catalog containing most of the Smithsonian Institution's major collections from their museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are 9.3 million catalog records relating to areas for Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology with over 1.3 million images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals.
Web Gallery of Art
The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European fine arts, decorative arts, and architecture (3rd-19th century), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. Artist biographies, commentaries, guided tours, period music, catalogues, free postcards, and mobile services are provided.

Catalogues Raisonnés

Catalogues raisonnés — scholarly compilations of an artist's body of work — are critical tools for researching the provenance and attribution of artwork. The Catalogues Raisonnés Database, from the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), features annotated bibliographic information and links to additional resources regarding over 3,800 published catalogues raisonnés and approximately 350 catalogues-in-preparation concerning 2,580 artists.

The database has external links to the complete or partial digitized text of published catalogues raisonnés available on Google Books, HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and other online platforms. Additionally, Database users are able to link to WorldCat to locate the library nearest to them that holds a print copy of a particular catalogue.

Catalogues Raisonnés Database
Catalogues raisonnés are scholarly compilations of an artist's body of work. This database has two electronic resources — a collection of published catalogues raisonnés and one of catalogues in preparation. They can be searched separately or together. Search by artist name, catalogue author, country of artist's birth or death, or period of artist's activity.

Europeana | Europe's Digital Collections

Europeana - Europe's Digital Collections
Explore over 58 million artworks, artifacts, books, films and music from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives. Their search and filter tools can help you find what you’re looking for. They have dedicated thematic collections on art, fashion, music, photography and World War I, each with galleries, blogs and exhibitions.

Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive

Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive
This digital archive contains 3,000 copyright-free Victorian Shakespeare illustrations from four major illustrated editions of Shakespeare’s Complete Works in the Victorian era. Presented by Dr. Michael Goodman, a recent English Literature PhD graduate from Cardiff University.

Citing Works of Art, Photographs, and Images in NoodleTools

Watch this tutorial to learn how to use NoodleTools to cite images in art: photographs or illustrations, "born digital" images like logos or graphics, or works of visual art.

Tutorial created by Susan Timmons, Upper School Librarian, The Harpeth Hall School, Ann Scott Carell Library, Nashville, Tennessee, September 5, 2018, using Screencast-O-Matic.

Art Resources: Art Websites

Finding Online Art Resources