Reference Sources
Reference sources are designed to provide users with quick and authoritative background information on a given subject. They are the ideal place to familiarize yourself with a subject and its existing literature, although they should never be the culmination of your research process. On this page, learn about important reference databases like Oxford Art Online, explore specific entries, and view recommended reference books.
Online Reference Databases
Oxford Art Online is the primary reference source for visual arts research. Its scholarly, peer-reviewed entries on major artists, patrons, styles, movements, and more make it the best place for you to begin your research. Oxford Art Online allows users to simultaneously search the most up-to-date versions of two classic reference works: the Grove Dictionary of Art and Benezit Dictionary of Artists. It also links to other volumes housed in Oxford Reference Online. Grove offers extensive research articles and bibliographies, while Benezit specializes in auction records—ideal for those studying or working in the art trade. Oxford Art Online also includes images and links to additional resources.
To search Oxford Art Online, type the name of an artist, style, medium, or another term into the main search bar near the top of your screen. You can also browse entries by clicking "Browse" and selecting from one of the categories provided. Narrow down your results by selecting filters to your left. Be aware that many terms will have multiple entries due to Oxford's incorporation of two distinct reference works. Before opening an entry, notice that either Grove or Benezit is identified as the "Collection." Select the entry which best suits your needs.
Because Oxford entries are designed for reference and not for continuous reading, you might wish to read only sections of longer entries. Notice the pane titled Article Navigation to the left of your screen and use it to navigate to relevant sections. Also use it to jump ahead to various lists at the end of each entry, including the "Bibliography," "See also," and "External resources" sections. These can each be vital tools as you expand your research outward to additional scholarly writings and linked artwork.
Although Oxford Art Online is the most comprehensive reference work in the visual arts, other databases and websites offer more specialized information within their subdisciplines. Among these, Oxford Reference Online includes publications on eras, geographical regions, and fields like photography and design. Gale eBooks also includes several encyclopedias on photography and fashion. Keep these resources in mind as you are expanding your research.
Reference Databases and Resources:
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A Dictionary of Modern Design From the Arts and Crafts Movement to Postmodernism, Apple to Frank Lloyd Wright, this fascinating dictionary covers the past 160 years of international design, with accessible entries on branding, graphics, industrial design, functionalism, and fashion. New entries on digital design and sustainable design bring the coverage up to date.
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Gale eBooks Gale eBooks is a collection of searchable subject encyclopedias and reference books from Gale Publishing and many other publishers, including nearly 500 specialized background sources in a wide variety of subjects. Choose your field of study under the "Subjects" heading to see the titles in your area. For music books, look under the subject "Arts."
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Oxford Art Online Oxford Art Online contains background information on art and artists. It allows you to cross search five Oxford art titles as well as subject guides, timelines, and resources for educators.
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The Oxford Companion to the Photograph Compiled by an international team of over 140 contributors, this is the first Oxford Companion to deal with the subject of photography. It appears at a watershed in the medium's history, as digital imaging increasingly dominates the global photography scene. Providing a wide range of technical information, the Companion also presents, in a concise and readily accessible form, the mass of recent scholarship on photography as a social and artistic practice.
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Oxford Reference Online Searchable collection of more than 200 reference books and specialized subject works in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Contains: The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art, and many others.
Also be sure to consult librarian-designed research guides and specialized bibliographies and catalogs.
Print and Digital Reference Books
The recommended reference works below are sorted by title. Click on the info icon to see a description of the book. Most print reference works on visual arts can be found on Bracken Library's Third Floor East shelved with other books about the fine arts. Also explore the two series Art Essentials and World of Art which include numerous titles about specific artists, movements, and topics within art research.
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African-American Art (Print and eBook)
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African-American art has made an increasingly vital contribution to the art of the United States from the time of its origins in early-eighteenth-century slave communities. New evidence has provided an exciting myriad of perspectives about African-American art, confirming that it represents the culture and society from which it emerges. Professor Patton explores significant issues such as the relationship of art and politics, the influence of galleries and museums, the growth of black universities, critical theory, the impact of artists'' collectives, and the assortment of art practices since the 1960s. African-American Art shows that in its cultural diversity and synthesis of cultures it mirrors those in American society as a whole.
Call Number: N6538.N5 P38 1998 and EBSCOhost EbooksPublication Date: 1998 -
A Dictionary of Modern Design, Second Edition (eBook)
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From the Arts and Crafts Movement to Postmodernism, Apple to Frank Lloyd Wright, this fascinating dictionary covers the past 160 years of international design, with accessible entries on branding, graphics, industrial design, functionalism, and fashion. New entries on digital design and sustainable design bring the coverage up to date. The dictionary’s international focus takes in major movements, key concepts, design terminology, and important design institutions, museums, and heritage sites.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2016 -
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Second Edition (eBook)
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Featuring 815 articles by distinguished scholars from many fields and countries, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics is a comprehensive survey of major concepts, thinkers, and debates about the meaning, uses, and value of all the arts—from painting and sculpture to literature, music, theater, dance, television, film, and popular culture.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2014 -
The Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Art
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Over 1,400 articles in this volume cover all the major artistic developments in Central and South America and the Caribbean from the colonial period to the present. From 16th-century Spanish colonial architects such as Fray Andres San Miguel to European explorers such as Alexander von Humboldt to contemporary artists such as Debora Arango, the entries chart the adaptations of European artistic traditions and the evolution of individual national cultures in this area of burgeoning importance in history and the visual arts.
Call Number: N6502 .E53 2000Publication Date: 2000 -
The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art (eBook)
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The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art (GEAA) deals with all aspects of American art and architecture from Native American art to Colonial art to contemporary American art. GEAA is a comprehensive and current reference resource for information on this important area for students, researchers, and the general public. There are articles on all subject areas in American fine art including: biographies of major artists, architects and patrons, architecture, painting, new media, photography, sculpture, installation art, performance art, new media art, art education, and more.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2011 -
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture (eBook)
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The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture is the most comprehensive reference work in this complex and diverse area of art history. Built on the acclaimed scholarship of the Grove Dictionary of Art, this work offers over 1,600 up-to-date entries on Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, Africa, and Europe and spans over a thousand years of history. Recent changes in Islamic art in areas such as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq are elucidated here by distinguished scholars. Entries provide in-depth art historical and cultural information about dynasties, art forms, artists, architecture, rulers, monuments, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. In addition, over 500 illustrations of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ceramics, architecture, metalwork and calligraphy illuminate the rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world. With the fundamental understanding that Islamic art is not limited to a particular region, or to a defined period of time, the Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture offers pathways into Islamic culture through its art.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2009 -
The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art (eBook)
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The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art offers the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on all aspects of this fundamental area of the visual arts. This reference work provides fascinating historical and current uses of materials and techniques in a wide range of areas from painting and sculpture to non-traditional media such as digital and video art. For anyone who studies, creates, collects, or deals in works of art, this book is an indispensable resource. Coverage includes materials in art practice (e.g. ink, enamel, digital materials); materials in conservation (e.g. adhesives); classes of artifacts (e.g. wallpaper, mosaic, ceramic); techniques and methods (e.g. book binding, gilding, printing, weaving), terms (e.g. rustication), tools (e.g. easel, laser), theory (e.g. technical examination, conservation controversies), fakes & forgeries, and conservation theorists and practitioners.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2008 -
The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art (eBook)
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The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art offers the most current and comprehensive scholarly information on the visual arts of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. Unparalleled in scope and depth, it covers a wide range of subject areas, addressing people and subjects specific to all areas of Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe, including the diverse geographical regions that now encompass the modern nations of Germany, Austria, France, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia, Poland, and Russia. Featuring rich and engaging articles on artists, artisans, patrons, painting, architecture, sculpture, cities, centres of production, theory, criticism, and more, this reference work is an indispensable resource for scholars, collectors, and students alike.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2009 -
Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Art
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The Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Art illuminates important artists, styles, and movements of the past 70 years. Beginning with the immediate post-World War II period, it encompasses earlier 20th century masters, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Jean Dubuffet, Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keeffe, and other well-known figures, who remained creatively productive, while also inspiring younger generations. The book covers subsequent developments, including abstract expressionism, happenings, pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, arte povera, feminist art, photorealism, neo-expressionism, and postmodernism, as well as the contributions of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Lucio Fontana, Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Joseph Beuys, Christo, Anselm Kiefer, Judy Chicago, Ai Weiwei, and Jeff Koons. Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Art contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography, including more than 900 cross-referenced entries on important artists, styles, terms, and movements.
Call Number: N6490 .M6758 2017Publication Date: 2017 -
Michelangelo: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works (eBook)
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Michelangelo: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works covers the life and works of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Michelangelo is considered to be one of the greatest masters in history and he produced some of the most notable icons of civilization, including the Sistine Ceiling frescoes, the Moses, and the Pietà at St. Peter's. Includes a detailed chronology of Michelangelo's life, family, and work.
Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralPublication Date: 2020 -
The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Print and eBook)
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Compiled by an international team of over 140 contributors, this is the first Oxford Companion to deal with the subject of photography. It appears at a watershed in the medium's history, as digital imaging increasingly dominates the global photography scene. Providing a wide range of technical information, the Companion also presents, in a concise and readily accessible form, the mass of recent scholarship on photography as a social and artistic practice. There are over 800 biographical entries, both on photographers and on others who have influenced photographic culture from the 19th century to the present. The Companion is stunningly illustrated, with many pictures published here for the first time.
Call Number: TR9 .O94 2005 and Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2005 -
The Oxford Companion to Western Art (eBook)
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The Oxford Companion to Western Art, written by over 100 distinguished art historians and specialists, provides in-depth coverage of Western Art with entries on artists and their works, styles and movements, art forms and art terms, combined with more modern methodologies, focused on patronage, taste, theory, and criticism, and the scientific examination of materials and techniques. Critical appreciation and factual information on over 1700 artists from classical times to the 20th century are included with 49 feature articles covering a broad spectrum of topics from art history and its methods to wall painting.
Call Number: Oxford Reference OnlinePublication Date: 2003
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via Art Full Text and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.