Visual Arts & Photography: Research

This page has help and research hints for finding information about art and artists.

To find information online, you can perform a search in a search engine (like Google) for "Non-profit Art Organizations" to see what is available.

• Try synonyms such as "not for profit" or "volunteer"
• If you have a specific geographic area (such as "Illinois" or "Chicago") or discipline (such as "painting" or "education") include that term in your search.

Your searches will get you to websites like the following:

Search Article Database

Academic Search Complete & JSTOR include articles about artists, reviews of his/her works, exhibition reviews, auction proceedings, descriptions of collections containing works by the artist, etc. Most of these articles will be from magazines and journals, with some newspapers.

• Begin by doing a basic keyword search for your artist, for example, "Jasper Johns". Put the artist's name in quotations.
• If you retrieve too many results, we can narrow down by using such words as:

  Art Exhibitions           Artists                Painters           Reviews

  Art Museums            Auctions            Exhibitions

Search News Databases

America's News & Access World News contain newspaper articles. The articles will be reviews from exhibitions, descriptions of the artist's current works, and explanations of shows. Access these databases from the Staley Library Database List > News.

• Again, begin by doing a basic search for your artist with the name in quotations.
• Try to think of words that would be used for exhibitions. If you know the name of a show, include that name in your search.
• With newspaper articles, consider the possible dates for your searches. Would they have written about the artist in the past year? Past 10 years? Adjust your search limits accordingly.

Checking the Online Catalog for Books

Go to Millikin Library Discovery to find books on your artist.

• In the search box, type in the name of your artist.
• If you retrieve too many results that are not about the artist, do a new search putting the name in quotations.
• If you do not find enough, first check your spelling. Next, consider doing an I-Share search, which searches other academic libraries in Illinois.
• Please view our Interlibrary Loan guide for more information on searching in I-Share and requesting books.

Finding Images on the Internet

Remember to be conscious of copyright because many people on the Internet aren't.

• Begin with an Internet search to see if the artist has his/her own homepage.
• Next, to find images of your artist's works that are online, choose a search engine that provides an Internet image search such as Google Images.
• Try a search first for just the artist's name. For less well-known artists, you may try putting the name in quotations. If you receive too many results that are not about your artist, add an explanatory word such as "painting" or "artist."
• Find images of a specific work by using the name of the work as a search term.
• Select an image, and then check out the site that it originates from. If the image is from an online gallery or image database, you will most likely be able to learn more about the work.

Sometimes knowing what was happening in the world during the time your artist was creating his/her works can help you better interpret or understand the work in a larger context.

As you choose a specific work or time period, first research to discover "everything" that was happening during the time period, and then find more information through books and articles about those specific events if you desire.

Reference Books about U.S. and World History

• Millennium Year by Year - REF. D 11 .M56 2000
• Day by Day: The 1940's - REF. D 427 .L4
• Day by Day: The 1950's - REF. D 427 .M44
• Day by Day: The 1960's - REF. D 427 .P27
• Day by Day: The 1970's - REF. D 848 .L4
• Day by Day: The 1980's - REF. D 848 .M45 1995
• Day by Day: The 1990's - REF. D 856 .A93 2003
• Chronicle of the 20th Century - REF. D 422 .C53 1987
• American Decades Series - REF. E 169.12 .A419 1994
• The Sixties Chronicle - REF. E 841 .S59 2004
• Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History - REF. D 23 .B45 2005
• Dictionary of American History - REF. E 174 .D52 2003

Using a search engine (like Google) is one of the most effective ways to find digital art collections and online content sites for galleries.

You can either search for a specific museum or university, or you can try doing a search for "art collections database" to search for various types of online art related databases.

Adding words to your search from above such as "university," "college," "Holland," "Greek," "Byzantine," "Chemistry," etc. will make your search more specific.

Your searches will get you to websites like the following:

You might begin searching for your movement at one of these sites:

• Art Movements Directory - For each art movement, this website provides a brief description and a listing of notorious artists from that time. Be sure to click on the More Movements link to see the additions to the complete list.
• Artcyclopedia - This web page lists each art movement. Clicking on the movement brings you to a brief description and a listing of famous artists from that movement.

For more information on the movement that you have found, try one of these reference books:

• The Dictionary of Art (REF. N 31 .D5 1996)
• Prager Encyclopedia of Art (REF. N 33 .P68)

Also, try searching in Millikin Library Discovery  to find more books on the movement.

• In the search box, just type the name of the movement, for example "Byzantine Art," then click search.
• You can also try a subject heading search. Go the the Advanced Search, change the "Any field" drop down to "Subject," and then type in the name of the movement. At the results screen, use the links on the left under Subject to narrow your search to specific subtopics.

For Items at Millikin

Videos can be located via Millikin Library Discovery.

• Search in the catalog as you normally would and then at the results screen, choose Movie in the Format section on the right.
• You can also browse the A/V collection on the main floor of the library. Remember that Fine Arts can be found in the N section.

Sound Recordings can also be located via Millikin Library Discovery.

• Search in the catalog as you normally would and then at the results screen, choose Music Recording in the Format section on the right.
• You can also browse the music collection on the third floor of the library. We have both compact discs and records.

Other Places to Search for Video & Sound

The Internet has a lot of available multimedia resources, please just be conscious of copyright since many of the people who post the information aren't.

• Search the Internet for the artist's official homepage, if she/he has one. Sometimes these are great sources for sound and video.
• Check Wikipedia for your artist and then scroll all of the way down to the bottom for the External links section. Sometimes if there are online movies, interviews, or audio clips from your artist, someone will have linked them from here.
• Try an online video hosting site such as YouTube or Vimeo.
• ArtBabble is a well-organized collection of videos about art and artists from the Indianapolis Museum of Art.