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Art & Art History
Find authoritative sources for your art / art history paper or project.
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Library Quick Search
Use Library Quick Search to search for books and articles across many databases in a single search.
Google Scholar
- How to Use Google Scholar Off CampusDue to recent changes made by Google, you'll need to do a one-time set-up for your account to access full-text articles available through UTSA Libraries. Step by step instructions provided.
Key Databases
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowComprehensive art reference resource and excellent starting place for biographies of artists, as well as discussions of art movements, theory, and criticism. Provides definitions, bibliographies, and encyclopedic entries concerning almost any art-related topic. Provides access to the encyclopedic Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and more.
- Art Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSelectively indexes and abstracts articles from art-related periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins published throughout the world. Also indexes dissertations and art reproductions. Many articles in full text.
- Bibliography of the History of Art This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive art bibliography, BHA covers European and American art from late antiquity through the early 21st century. Includes the fine arts and decorative and applied arts. Indexes art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealers' catalogs, and articles from more than 1,400 journals. One of its strengths: indexing specialized international publications that are not widely distributed. Incorporates the complete contents of International Repertory of the Literature of Art (RILA) and Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie (RAA). Additional content published after 2007 can be found in the International Bibliography of Art (IBA).
- International Bibliography of Art (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive art bibliography, IBA picks up where the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) left off, with content published from 2008 to the present. Covers European and American art from late antiquity through the early 21st century. Includes the fine arts and decorative and applied arts. Indexes art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealers' catalogs, and journal articles. One of its strengths: indexing specialized international publications that are not widely distributed.
- ARTbibliographies Modern (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowIndexes and abstracts current literature of modern art, photography, and design from more than 550 art journals, museum bulletins, exhibition catalogs, and books. Covers all aspects of modern and contemporary art including performance art and installation art, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, theater arts, crafts, jewelry, illustration and more as well as the traditional fine arts of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing.
- AHRnet: Art History Research net This link opens in a new windowFour related and cross-searchable databases including ReVIEW, a digitized, fully-searchable collection of rare out of print decorative and fine arts journals from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries; Arts + Architecture ProFILES, a biographical dictionary of modern designers, craftspeople, artists and architects; Arts: Search Research Guides on a variety of art-related topics; and DAR: Design Abstracts Retrospective, a retrospective of DAAI: Design & Applied Arts Index. DAR provides access to more than 70 design and design-related journals, from 1900-1986. See also DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index.
- DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowCovers a wealth of research topics in design--from architecture to packaging, marketing to advertising, photography to typography, metalworking to multimedia, and industrial design to interior design. Indexes and abstracts more than 130,000 research articles, reports, reviews, and news items from over 500 design and craft journals and newspapers. Also provides information on more than 50,000 designers, craftspeople, studios, workshops, and firms. Database subfiles include an international directory of educational institutions that offer courses in design and craft and an international directory of design and craft periodicals. See also Design Abstracts Retrospective.
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive listing of journal articles published worldwide on architecture, city planning, interior design, landscape architecture, historic preservation, and sustainable design. Coverage is primarily from the 1930s to the present (with selective coverage dating back to the 1740s). No full text. Request articles via Get It For Me.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowSearchable full-text and full-image backfiles of scholarly journals, as well as e-books, and primary resources. Subject areas include the arts, humanities, social sciences, science, math, and business. Includes the Artstor Digital Library containing millions of images from the world's museums, archives, and libraries.
- Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowProvides citations and abstracts, as well as full text PDFs, to millions of doctoral dissertations and master's theses from graduate schools and universities around the world. Full text coverage is primarily from 1997 forward, with a significant number of full text titles previous to 1997. Coverage is from 1637 to the present.
- WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new windowComprehensive online catalog of library holdings locally and worldwide. Lists books, journals, maps, recordings, films, scores, open access resources, and other materials from academic, public, corporate, and specialized libraries. Get It For Me button allows you to request to borrow an item.
- Newspaper DatabasesRemember to check newspaper databases for exhibition announcements or artist interviews. For example, Alt-PressWatch provides the full text of over 170 regional newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. Alternative newsweeklies provide reviews of local theater, movies, books, and local attractions. We also have access in other databases to the New York Times all the way back to the 1800s.
Key Web Resources
- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAuthoritative museum resource! Timelines, thematic essays, world maps, images, subject/artist index.
- Smarthistory"Smarthistory is the leading open educational resource for art history. We make high-quality introductory art history content freely available to anyone, anywhere. Smarthistory is a platform for the discipline where art historians contribute in their areas of expertise and learners come from across the globe. We offer nearly 500 videos and these are being translated into dozens of languages."
- Student's Guide to Italian Renaissance ArchitectureFree interactive online e-book discusses major renaissance buildings by both architect and type, including background on ancient and medieval buildings. Highly illustrated. User must agree to license for full access.
- Art Discovery Group CatalogueAn art-focused research experience within the WorldCat environment. Selected art library catalogues are searchable alongside additional content from a multitude of additional sources, promising more comprehensive results in a global setting. More than 1,900 databases and millions of journal articles and e-books can be searched simultaneously.
- The Getty Research InstituteSearch the Getty Research Portal, digital collections, read digitized Getty publications, and more.
- Archives of American Art - Smithsonian InstitutionThe Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America. Includes 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures. Many have been digitized. Free website.
- Texas Artists and Artisans ArchiveIn the 19th century, Texas artisans and artists created ceramics, furniture, textiles, metalworks, photographs, paintings, and works on paper. This online archive documents the lives, work, and products of Texas artisans and artists through 1900. Search or browse by object type, materials, techniques, Texas region or county, artists names, occupation, gender, ethnicity, and more. The William J. Hill Texas Artists and Artisans Archive was created by the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
- Contemporary Artists IndexAn index to all of the group exhibition catalogs added to the Cleveland Institute of Art's library in the last twenty year. Includes over 26,000 artists and designers. The Index provides access to information about artists and designers beyond what is usually found in catalog records or accessible through art databases.
- Material OrderA searchable online open source collection for materials research. Search materials by composition, use, or form.. A project of Harvard, the New School, and RISD.
- Getty Union List of Artist Names - ULANULAN is a structured vocabulary, including names, biographies, related people, and other metadata about artists, architects, firms, studios, museums, patrons, sitters, and other people and groups involved in the creation and study of art and architecture. Part of the official Getty Vocabularies.
- Getty Provenance IndexProvides access to archival inventories, sales catalogs, and dealer stock books for provenance research. Their additional databases provide access to collectors files, payments to artists, and public collections.
- Dictionary of Art HistoriansA free scholarly database providing biographical and methodological background information on major art historians of western art history.