Research Guides: Art: Web Resources

Web sites for Art and Art History

There are excellent web resources for art and art history research and study. Many national museums and libraries have online collections, so you will find other relevant resources by searching the Internet for museums in specific countries. The resources linked below were chosen specifically for excellent visual content, but include only resources in English.

AccessCeramics
Excellent image database developed by staff at the Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College in Portland focuses on contemporary ceramic work. Search by method, material, artist name, object type, and even temperature! This is a beautiful site with great inspiration for ceramic artists.
Bibliography of the History of Art/International Bibliography of Art
A comprehensive tool for Western art history research, provided by the Getty Research Institute.
Cooper Hewitt Museum
The Cooper-Hewitt collection is international in scope, includes both historic and contemporary design, and includes one-of-a-kind and mass-produced items. The collection focuses on drawings, prints and graphic works; product design, textiles, and wall coverings.
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit initiative. We work with cultural institutions and artists around the world. Together, our mission is to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere.
Greenwich House Ceramics NOW Catalogs
Catalogs of the annual exhibition series to help users know about what is happening in ceramics now. Ceramics NOW is the accompanying catalog.
Guggenheim Museum – Online Collections
Excellent resource for the study of international contemporary art and artists.
MetPublications
Five decades of MetPublications on art history, available to read, download, and/or search for free.
Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Outstanding resource for research on many art historical periods including ancient Egypt artifacts, Greek and Roman art, Byzantine, Renaissance, Asian and Central Asian art, 19th Century art movements, fashion, weaponry, and many other topics up to the early 20th century.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Collections
Outstanding online collections from the Met. Categories include: Islamic Art, Decorative Arts, American Painting & Sculpture, European Painting, the Costume Institute, Drawings & Prints, Africa, Oceania & the Americas, Egyptian Art, Musical Instruments, and others.
Museum of Art & Design (was American Craft Museum)—Online Collections
Fantastic resource for the study of American craft and its international influences, including ceramics, textile arts, jewelry, and domestic arts.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Excellent resource for contemporary art, artists, and thematic exhibits.
Museum of Modern Art – Online Learning
Outstanding resource for research on modern art and its influences worldwide, up to the present.
The New Museum
Excellent resource on contemporary art, artists, and cutting-edge thematic exhibits.
Smarthistory
Smarthistory is a free art history resource. It is unique in its approach of bringing together the varied expertise and voices of the academic community of art historians for teaching and learning.
Smithsonian Museum of American Art
Excellent collection of material about art and artists in the US from multiple national collections housed at the Smithsonian Institute.
Whitney Museum of American Art – Online Collections
Excellent resource for research on contemporary art and artists in the US.

Evaluating web resources

Evaluating websites and other resources is important to ensure that the sources you are using are credible and accurate.

The CRAAP Test is very easy to remember and can be used to check the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose of resources being used for papers and assignments.

The CRAAP Test includes a list of questions that can be used to evaluate information that you find. This is particularly important in the evaluation and use of websites.

Currency: the timeliness of the information

When was the information published or posted?
Has the information been revised or updated?
Is the information current or out-of-date for your topic?
Are the links functional?

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
Who is the intended audience?
Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: the source of the information

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
Are the author’s credentials or organizational affiliations given?
What are the author’s credentials or organizational affiliations given?
What are the author’s qualifications to write on the topic?
Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?
Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?
examples: .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .gov (U.S. government), .org (nonprofit organization), or .net (network)

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content, and

Where does the information come from?
Is the information supported by evidence?
Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?
Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?
Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Purpose: the reason the information exists

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?
Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?
Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbvqKaVZxUw&list=PLPiuZ472MIUmI626F-l0zyrWK-XboMLeT&index=3

Online Encyclopedias

Oxford Reference Online

Art & Architecture
The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists
A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
The Oxford Companion to Architecture
The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms
The Oxford Dictionary of Art
A Dictionary of Modern Design
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture
The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts
Sage e-Reference
Gale Virtual Reference
•American Folk Songs: A Regional Encyclopedia, 2v, 2008
•Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: Digital Imaging, Theory and Applications, History, and Science, 4th ed., 2007

Reference online

Here are some excellent online reference resources you can access from the Utah Tech University Library Article Database page.


Art Full Text (WilsonWeb): Full text coverage from the Wilson database of periodicals and journals of articles on art, architecture and archaeology throughout the world.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science): Citation index that provides consolidated searching of a social science citation index, art and humanities citation index and multi disciplinary databases—may be searched by author, title, subject, and topic. These are citations of usage, not full text and will be useful primarily to upper division students and faculty doing research.

ARTstor: Curated collections of art images and associated data for scholarly use. Includes links to art images in museum collections and reference materials.

JSTOR: A scholarly journal archive that provides image and full text access to archival (more than 5 years old) scholarly journals in a wide variety of subject areas.

Oxford Art Online
This database includes the Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford Companion to Western Art, links to Images from ARTstor.

Project MUSE
Provides full-text access to a selection of humanities and social sciences journals.