Local Museums
1. Visit the website of the museums you visited or where the art is located. See if anything is written about your piece.
2. Look around their site for more description about the style or time period in which your piece(s) were made.
3. Visit other museum or gallery sites (Google search artist name + "site:.org" or "site:.edu" for most museums, or just the word museum) where your artist has work displayed. Repeat step 2.
- American Visionary Arts MuseumFolk/outsider/non-traditionally trained artists with a lot of talent.
- Corcoran GalleryDistinguished collection of historic and modern American art.
- Freer/Sackler GalleriesAsian art
- Hirshhorn MuseumModern and contemporary art and sculpture
- Phillips CollectionAmerica's first museum of modern art
Websites to find similar works and descriptive text about the artistic and cultural/historical context of works
- Art History Resources on the WebMore links than you ever thought possible! Published by Dr. C. Witcombe, Professor of Art History
- Barnes Foundation of PhiladelphiaThe Barnes Foundation was established by Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.”
- Google Art ProjectCollections from museums/galleries worldwide. Includes description of works.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online (Washington, DC)Contains digital images (pictures, photographs, prints, drawings, posters, architectural and engineering drawings) held by the Library of Congress.
- The LouvreParis, France. Need we say more??
- The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThis museum in New York City has large collections of ancient art, including Greek, Roman and Near Eastern.
- The National Gallery, LondonCollection images with comments.
- New York Public Library Digital GalleryProvides free and open access to over 700,000 images, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
- Philadelphia Museum of ArtDiscover works of art at one of the largest and most renowned museums in the country.
- Principles of DesignUse these basic ideas to talk about how your artist expresses their vision.
- Museum of Modern Art MOMAGood descriptions for key works.
Wikipedia
Yes, read Wikipedia and whatever else looks academically appropriate to get some basic knowledge on the place and time period in which the work was created. You do not need to cite things that are considered common knowledge. Basic Googling is a good first place to start gathering important key words to use to search later.
How do you know if a website is good enough to cite for a college paper?
Art research, including art history, music and literary criticism, is a little different than science or current event-related searching.
Current? For art, this criterion is less important.
Relevant? Reliable? For art history, your job is to tie together historical, biographical, artistic, ideas and individual interpretations can be valid.
Authoritative? This criterion matters in art history! Living artists, scholars, and museum professionals are authoritative sources.
Biased? Everyone has an opinion about art, but we want to quote people who can really talk about it critically.
Is this fact or opinion? Is it biased? Is the creator/author trying to sell you something?
