ARTH 284: New Art

Fall 2008

Joy Sperling

crewdson-ophelia.jpg

Gregory Crewdson
Untitled (Ophelia)
image courtesy of ArtSTOR

Laura Dowler, Fine Arts Librarian
dowlerl@denison.edu / x6688


Reference Materials

  • Grove Art Online:
    The best place to start; articles on thousands of artists, countries, and media. Updated more frequently than the print version.

  • Oxford Reference Books Online / Art Section:
    Online access to six of Oxford's art reference books.

  • Contemporary Artists / DEN Ref N6490 .C6567 2002

  • Contemporary Women Artists / DEN Ref N8354 .C66 1999
    Look for other books on specialized groups of people near this book!

  • Encyclopedia of Sculpture / DEN Ref NB198 .E53 2004

Finding Books

Follow these steps to find books about artists:
  1. Use the OhioLINK Catalog to search for books or other materials.

    • KEYWORD Search: "firstname lastname" (ex.: "Kehinde Wiley")
      shows all items containing the artist's name somewhere in the record

    • SUBJECT Search: Lastname, Firstname (ex.: Walker, Kara)
      shows all items about this person, broken down by type of material: biographies, correspondence, criticism, etc.

  2. Print out or e-mail your relevant results by following these steps:
    • Add items to your "Saved List" in one of the following ways:
      • From the BROWSE screen, click "Mark All On Page" OR, to save selected items, click "Save Marked Records."
      • From the ITEM screen, click "Save for Export."
    • To get to the Saved List, click "View Saved Records."
    • To print the list, click "Screen" under "Send List To." Make sure "Full Display" is selected under "Format of List."
    • A new printer-formatted screen should appear with all the items you saved.


  3. Request items directly through OhioLINK--just click "Request this Item" and follow the directions.



You can also use the Contemporary Artists Index  to find exhibition catalogs. This resource allows you to find artists that may have participated in group exhibitions as well as individual shows. Search book titles in the OhioLINK catalog.

Types of books that are unique to art:

  • Artist Monographs
    Books by or about artists that are published independent of any museum or gallery exhibition. Usually, monographs are in-depth writings that analyze or provide context for an artist and his/her work.
    ***To find monographs, look for words like "Criticism and Interpretation" in the subject search results.


  • Exhibition Catalogs
    Document museum and gallery shows. Exhibition catalogs are the best source for high-quality images of an artist's work. Also, many exhibition catalogs include artist biographies, curatorial essays, artist interviews and/or writings, and career chronologies.
    ***Exhibition catalogs will appear in your subject search with the word "Exhibitions" as part of the subject heading.


  • Catalogue Raisonne
    A complete study of an artist's entire entire body of work (at least in one medium). These usually include images of every piece of work ever created by an artist, along with each piece's provenance/history.
    ***Catalogues raisonnes will appear as a separate item in the list of subject heading terms.

Finding Articles

Use Art Full Text to locate articles that have appeared in magazines and scholarly journals.

After you find relevant articles, use the CONSORT Catalog to see whether we subscribe to the journal. (If we don't, use InterLibrary Loan.)

One more place to search...

GOOGLE!
Many contemporary artists run their own web sites or are represented by galleries with web sites. These sites may contain useful information, such as interviews, photos of the artist's work, and bibliographies.

The most efficient way to search: "Firstname Lastname" (use quotes)