Smarthistory.org is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook.
Different types of art information
Find Background Information
Search online catalog for the artist's name as author or subject (last name, space, first initial), or as keyword (place name in direct order between quotes, or search first and last name separated by and) to see if the Library has exhibition catalogues or art historical materials containing the artist's work
Use bio-bibliographical indexes to artists.
Search online catalog for topics by art form, style, country and/or time period under appropriate subject headings or keyword combinations. Information about artists may also appear in un-indexed anthologies under these types of headings. For example:
Search appropriate journal indexes by artist, topic (subject/keyword), art form/style, geographic place, or time period to find articles published in scholarly journals, popular magazines or newspapers.
Find Exhibition Catalogues
Exhibition catalogues are useful visual sources of an artist's work, and sometimes the only source for an image of a work held in a private collection.
Search online catalogfor exhibition catalogues by keyword, combining terms such as artist's or gallery name, city where exhibition held, school (e.g. Impressionism), form/process (e.g. sculpture), etc. with the truncated word exhibition?.
rembrandt and agnes and kingston
"jeff wall" and exhibition*
installation and exhibition*
Reviews of Exhibitions
Reviews of exhibitions can be found in art journal article indexes and appropriate newspapers. Some possible newspaper indexes are:
LexisNexis (for national and international full text newspaper coverage)
For biographical information search catalog under individual's name as a subject, or try general subject headings such as "Painters", "Sculptors" or "Women Artists". Examples:
