Art, Artists, and Artworks Research Guide
Background Information
Books
Journal and Magazine Articles
Images
Background Information
Reference books are excellent places to start your research. The books are shelved in the reference section of the Library. Some of these reference works will give you a critical introduction to an artist's work or an important artwork. Others will have essays on a variety of related topics.
Return to TopContemporary Artists [X] N6490.C6567 2002 (2 vols.)
Dictionary of Art [X] N31.D5 1996
A comprehensive history of the visual arts in 34 volumes with many illustrations.
Dictionary of Art Terms: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting and the Graphic Arts [X] N33.H25 1984Dictionary of Women Artists [X] N8354.D53 1997
Biographical sketches, bibliographies, and illustrations.Encyclopedia of American Art before 1914 [X] N6507.E53 2000
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art
[X] N7565 .E53 1998
Discussion of themes depicted in works of art, such as betrayal, dreams/visions, envy, self-portraits, and temptation.Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance & Mannerist Art [X] N6370 .E53 2000
Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art [X] N6052 .E53 2000
Grove Art Online
An encyclopedic database with descriptive articles and links to external images.The Oxford Companion to Art [X] N33.O9 1989
World Artists 1950-1980 [X] N6489.M37 1984
Biographical sketches of artists who came to prominence in the mid- to late twentieth century.
Books
The Library Catalog includes Emerson College Library's holdings for books, journals, and audiovisual materials. Please note that the catalog is shared with 8 other members of the Fenway Libraries Online (FLO), including MassArt and the Museum of Fine Arts. You may go to these libraries and use their collections or you may borrow items by clicking on the Place Request button in the catalog.
To locate books or videos about or by an artist, search for your artist as Subject heading or Author.
Examples of subject heading searches:
monet claude [NOTE: last name first, and you don't need to capitalize]
oldenburg claes
O'Keeffe, Georgia
To locate materials about a particular artistic movement or museum, search by Subject heading.
Examples:
Impressionism (art)
realism in art
painting, French
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
If you do not find enough information, try a Keyword search. Even if there is not a complete book on your subject, you may find a chapter in a book on a more general subject.
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Journal and Magazine Articles
The Library subscribes to a number of online databases that allow you to search multiple journals at once. Use keywords to search for articles related to a topic or artist. All databases listed are available from the Articles and More page of the Library's website.
Academic Search Premier
A multidisciplinary database with some full-text articles. Search for articles or try the image search.
Expanded Academic ASAP
A humanities and social science database with some full-text articles. Includes art journals such as Art Bulletin, International Review of African American Art, Art Journal, Art History, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society.
Oxford Reference Online
Under Subject Reference, choose Art & Architecture.
JSTOR
Complete full-text back issues of hundreds of core journals in the Arts and Sciences, including dozens of journals in Art & Art History.Project Muse
A full text arts and humanities database. Includes the journal Leonardo.
Emerson subscribes to a small number of major art journals and the FLO art libraries and full-text databases will be your primary sources for these. You can use the other libraries or request materials online.
Return to TopImages
The Library subscribes to several online databases that contain images.
ARTstor
A rich digital library of more than 500,000 images covering art, architecture and archeology, which can be viewed online at full resolution and downloaded at reduced size for projects and presentations.
AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive
Contains hundreds of thousands of photos and graphics from the Associated Press, most taken since 1995, plus historical images dating back to the 1800s. 1995 to present. This database is useful for finding pictures of artists and exhibitions, including gallery and museum openings.Grove Art Online
An encyclopedic database with descriptive articles and links to external images.
To find a specfic work of art, look for the website of the museum where the work is located. Museum sites will often have images of works of art, along with the provenance.
Museum of Fine Arts, BostonOr try a general site.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Harvard University Art Museums (Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, Sackler)
Timeline of Art History (from the MET)
Art History Resources on the Web
To locate images online, try museum sites as well as the following image databases.
