How to Research Contemporary Art and/or Artists

Suggested Databases:

• ArtBibliographies Modern
• Art Abstracts
• Bibliography of the History of Art
• JSTOR (content until about five years ago)
• ProjectMUSE (for cultural criticism)
• New York Times (content until three years ago)
• LexisNexis Academic (for newspaper reviews in general, and for the NYTimes form the '90s to yesterday)

Finding Books: Check our catalog, ConnectNY and WorldCat for books, paying special attention to exhibition catalogs.

In our catalog and ConnectNY, always search the artist’s name as an author (last name first), as a subject heading (again, last name first) and as a keyword. A keyword search is important in our catalog and in ConnectNY because keywords search across the entire book description, including the contents and notes information. For a contemporary artist, there may not be a whole book devoted to his/her work, but there might be an essay in a book that is about a larger idea or movement or group exhibit, and so the artist’s name might appear in the Contents or Notes section, and nowhere else in the description.

WorldCat is a catalog of thousands of library catalogs, including all the major research libraries and many, many specialty art libraries. Repeat the searches you performed in our catalog and ConnectNY. If you find a book you want to read, come to the Reference Desk and talk to the librarian about an Interlibrary Loan.

Journal Articles: Try ArtBibliographies Modern, and Art Abstractsfor journal articles. Use the Advanced Search, and search on the artist’s name as a subject or a descriptor. If you get too many hits, try adding a keyword that might narrow your subject down. To see if we subscribe to a particular journal open up another window to our homepage and click on our AtoZ Journal List link. Type in the title of the journal, click on the Search button and then click on the links (if any) listed below. If there’s no link, see the librarian at the Reference Desk about an Interlibrary Loan.

Newspaper Articles: For information before three years ago, use the New York Times. We have the complete run of the Times from 1851 to three years ago online. This is a particularly nice database because the information is laid out in page image, and includes any photos or reproductions. If the photo is blocked because of copyright restrictions, click on the page image and enlarge. For other newspapers, use LexisNexis Academic. This database includes the New York Times and is current to yesterday.

Images: try ARTstor, but don’t be too surprised if you come up with nothing. ARTstor doesn’t include much contemporary art. Instead, do a Google Image search. Try, through this search, to ascertain the name of the gallery that represents the artist and go to their website. It might be worth trying to contact the gallery to see if they have further information or images.

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