Art & Art History General

Note: Many of the databases and/or article links referenced in this guide require CaneID authentication through the the UM Library system unless denoted by the "open access" symbol. 

The following guides originate from the University of Miami Libraries Architecture Research Center (ARC) on the Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami. This location is the homeland of the Tequesta, Seminole and Miccosukee peoples.

This acknowledgment is one of the ways in which we work to educate ourselves about this land, its history, and our relationships with the land and each other.

Home to an outstanding array of rare books, manuscripts, archival collections, photographs and audio-visual items, maps, architectural drawings, artists’ books, and other research materials that document the history of Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and beyond.

Lowe Art Museum
Conveniently located right on the Coral Gables Campus, the Lowe offers carefully curated global collections from antiquity through the present. 

Academic Resources at the Lowe
Visit the Lowe and meet with its staff if you have research questions related to the Lowe’s art collection.        

Object-Based Learning
Object-based learning (OBL) is a student-centered learning approach that uses objects to create a more profound learning experience.  These objects can include artworks, artifacts, archival materials, or digital representations of unique objects. 

Art Institute of Chicago (AIC)
Founded in 1879 as both a museum and a school for the fine arts, AIC represents a diversity of artistic traditions from around the world.   

Brooklyn Museum of Art
American Art, Arts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Islamic World,  Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, European, Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art and Feminist Art.  

The Clark Sterling and Francine Clark Institute
European and American paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. 

Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA)
Highly selective and comprehensive art museum with collections from all periods and from all parts of the world. Collections are strong in the areas of European Art, American Art, Islamic Art, and Medieval Art. 

Denver Art Museum (DAM)
Strong in modern masterworks and contemporary objects representing  more than a century of artistic innovation. The over 12,500 works made since 1900, the  collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)
Search over 60,000 records on art dating from the earliest civilizations to the present. 

The Frick Collection
The Frick is known for its distinguished Old Master paintings and outstanding examples of European sculpture and decorative arts.

J.Paul Getty Museum 
The collection comprises Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity; European art—including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts—from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century; and international photography from its inception to the present day.

Guggenheim Museum
Featuring over 1,700 artworks by more than 625 artists, the Collection Online presents a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection of approximately 8,000 artworks. 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
African, American, Ancient Americas, Ancient Near East, Art of the Pacific, Chinese, Contemporary, Costumes and Textiles, Decorative Arts and Design, Egyptian, European Painting & Sculpture, German Expressionism, Greek, Roman and Etruscan, Islamic, Japanese, Korean, Latin American, Modern, Photography, South and Southeast Asian 

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) 
Long term Exhibitions

Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA)
Founded in 1870, the Met’s collection has grown to represent more than 5,000 years of art from across the globe—from the first cities of the ancient world to the works of our time.

Morgan Library & Museum 
Holdings ranged from Egyptian art to Renaissance paintings to Chinese porcelains. For his library, Morgan acquired illuminated, literary, and historical manuscripts, early printed books, and old master drawings and prints.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA)
Explore over 160,000 high quality images of historical portraits, examples of art movements,cultural objects from around the world, textiles and more from the MFA’s encyclopedic collections. 

Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFA H)
MFA houses an encyclopedic collection of nearly 70,000 works of art created throughout the world, from antiquity to the present. 

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA NY)
MoMA’s evolving collection contains almost 200,000 works from around the world spanning the last 150 years. The collection includes an ever-expanding range of painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, photography, architecture, design, film, and media and performance art.

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri)
Recognized internationally as one of the finest general art museums in the United States, the Nelson-Atkins currently maintains collections of over 40,000 works of art. 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA)
SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to modern and contemporary art. 

Toledo Museum of Art (TMA)
Paintings and sculptures by Bearden, Cézanne, Calder, Close, Cole, Degas, van Gogh, El Greco, Holbein, Kiefer, Matisse, Miró, Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Turner; masterworks from antiquity and Asia; decorative arts; and a renowned glass collection.

Walker Arts Center  
Works of modern and contemporary art, especially focused after 1960. Holdings include more than 13,000 individual pieces including books, costumes, drawings, media works, paintings, photography, prints, and sculpture.

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• A Biographical Dictionary of Artists
• A Biographical Dictionary of Artists" provides an unparalleled guide to the figures who have dominated the visual art throughout the ages. International in scope and coverage, the book contains authoritative entries on non-Western artists as well as more familiar figures.
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• ArtLex Art Dicctionary 
• Great reference material in art, art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and art education.
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• Dictionary of Art Historians 
• A biographical and methodological intended as a beginning point t learning the background of major art historians or western art history. 
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• The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture  
• Deals with all aspects of Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Africa to Central,  South, and East Asia and includes entries on artists, rulers, writers, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, calligraphy, textiles, and more
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• Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture 
• The Hisotrical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architectre provides an overview of Neoclassicism, focusing on its major artists, architects, stylistic, subcategories, idea, and historical framework of 18th century style found mainly in Europe and the United States
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• Oxford Art Online  
• Oxford Art Online offers access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available    today.
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• Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists  
• This reference work deals with all aspects of Western art from 1300 to the present day. It provides information on painters, sculptors, and graphic artists, technical processes, terminology, theory, schools, movements, patrons and collecting, and much more.
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• Web Gallery of Art 
• The Wed Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable daabase of Western(European) fine arts of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism (1000-1900), currently containing over 40,100 reproductions.   

A Short Guide to Writing About Art

ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM)
A premier source of information on modern and contemporary arts that provides full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews dating from the late 19th century onwards, including photography since its invention.

Art Index Retrospective 1929-1984
Contains hundreds of titles from feature articles, interviews, film reviews, book reviews, bibliographies, exhibition listings, conference reports, anthologies, and editorials. Coverage includes fine, decorative and commercial art. 

Bibliography of the History of Art
BHA and RILA cover European and American visual arts material published between 1975 and 2007.

Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ

Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals

JSTOR
Approximately 165 art, architectural history, and archaeology titles are included.

ProQuest Research Library
Provides in-depth coverage of the top 150 core academic subjects, including 5,060 titles -over 3,600 in full text- from 1971 forward. It features a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers

Worldcat Online Catalog

 

Kanopy / The Arts

ARLISNA (Art Libraries of North America) Book Reviews

National YoungArts Foundation
The National YoungArts Foundation identifies and nurtures the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts and assists them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development.  YoungArts serves as the exclusive nominating agency for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the country's highest honor for young artists.

Knight Foundation Art Research Center (ICA Miami)
Dedicated to promoting continuous experimentation in contemporary art, advancing new scholarship, and fostering the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions and programs, and its collection, ICA Miami provides an important international platform for the work of local, emerging, and under-recognized artists, and advances the public appreciation and understanding of the most innovative art of our time.

American Association of Art Museums (AAM)
Every type of museum is represented including art, history, science, military and maritime, and youth museums, as well as aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums, historic sites, and science and technology centers. 

Association of Art Historians
The national organization for professional art and design historians, researchers or students who are involved in education, galleries, museums and art-related publishing, or any other activity linked with art and design history. 

College Art Association
Promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts. 

International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)
Provides tools to help people make informed decisions about the legal, ethical, and scholarly issues involved in the collecting and exhibiting of art.