When researching a new topic it is often necessary to get an overview, explanations of unfamiliar terms, or brief factual information.
The print and electronic resources listed below include selected reference materials (dictionaries, encyclopaedias, handbooks, guides, and standards) for the field of Fine Arts. To find additional reference materials, check our Reference Materials database.
Key Resources
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ARTstor
Artstor is a repository of approximately 300 collections composed of over 2.5 million digital images (and growing), related data and provides tools to actively use those images in a restricted usage environment that balances the rights of the content providers and the needs of the users. The images are drawn from different sources, such as museums, archaeological teams, photo archives, slide collections, and art reference publishers.
Scholars can examine wide-ranging material such as Native American art from the Smithsonian, treasures from the Louvre, and panoramic, 360-degree views of the Hagia Sophia in a single, easy-to-use resource. The artistic traditions across many cultures embraces architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.
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Dictionary of artists
[HIL-REF N40 .D5213 2006 vols. 1-14]
The first edition was published in 1911, and the most recent, the first to be computerized, in 1999. This sixth edition, the first in English, contains over 170,000 entries in 14 volumes. A team of 150 editors, art historians, and translators updated old entries and added new ones, thus continuing the monumental ongoing effort that makes this reference of inestimable value to anyone seeking information about artists from antiquity to the present. Entries are alphabetically arranged and include biographical information, museums and galleries displaying work, and auction records; some also include graphics (artist signatures, monograms and stamps of sale) and bibliographies of written works about the artist. Charts in the front matter indicate the changing purchasing power since the early 20th century of the US dollar, the British pound, the French Franc, and the Euro (since 2002). This essential reference was published in France by Editions Grund and is distributed in the United States by Omnigraphics. Annotation #169;2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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Routledge international handbook of intercultural arts research
The International Handbook of Intercultural Arts Research provides concise and comprehensive reviews and overviews of the convergences and divergences of intercultural arts practice and theory, offering a consolidation of the breadth of scholarship, practices and the contemporary research methodologies, methods and multi-disciplinary analyses that are emerging within this new field.
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Oxford Dictionary of Art, The (3 ed.)
"The Oxford Dictionary of Art is the first place to turn for accurate information about artists, schools, periods, techniques, critical terms, major museums, art historians, philosophers, and much more."
Collection limited to subscribed 5-user access -
Grove encyclopedia of American art
[HIL-REF N6505 .G76 2011]
Where is American art in the new millennium? At the heart of all cultural developments is diversity. Access through recent technology engenders interaction with artists from around the world. The visual arts in the United States are bold and pulsating with new ideas.
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Art history : the key concepts
[HIL-REF N5300 .H278 2006]
"Art History: The Key Concepts offers a systematic, reliable, accessible, and challenging reference guide to the disciplines of art history and visual culture. Containing entries on over 200 terms integral to the historical and theoretical study of art, design, and culture in general, Art History: The Key Concepts is an indispensable source of knowledge for all students, scholars, and teachers. Each entry contains a succinct definition, an exploration of its history, use, and significance, and suggestions for further reading. Entries include: abstract expressionism; epoch; hybridity; semiology; and zeitgeist." "Through extended cross-referencing, Art History: The Key Concepts builds a radical intellectual synthesis for understanding and teaching art, art history, and visual culture."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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Oxford Dictionary of Music
The Oxford Dictionary of Music offers broad coverage of a wide range of musical categories spanning many eras, including composers, librettists, singers, orchestras, important ballets and operas, and musical instruments and their history. Over 250 new entries have been added to this edition to expand coverage of popular music, ethnomusicology, modern and contemporary composers, music analysis, and recording technology.
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Oxford Dictionary of Dance, The (2 ed.)
"The Oxford Dictionary of Dance offers wide coverage of dancers, choreographers, teachers, composers, technical terms, major works, important films, and organizations involved in the dance world. It embraces the new activity within traditional forms like ballet as well as the stream of new dance languages invented by fresh generations of choreographers and the many dance forms imported from the rest of the world. There is information on classical ballet, Spanish flamenco, Indian Bharata Natyam, Japanese Butoh, and jazz. The volume also covers post-modern dance, examining everything from Balanchine to recent practitioners of Eurocrash, minimalism, and contact improvisation. Ranging from the history of music to the changing design of the ballet shoe, this is a comprehensive dictionary compiled by two leading authorities on dance."
Collection limited to subscribed 5-user access -
A companion to contemporary art since 1945
[HIL-REF N6490 .C65615 2006]
This ambitious reference work charts the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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A to Z of Canadian art : artists & art terms
[HIL-REF N33 .M15 1997]
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A dictionary of Canadian artists
[HIL-REF N6548 .M27 1997 v.1]
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Biographical index of artists in Canada
see also [HIL-REF N6548 .M29 2003]"This index has been compiled as a quick reference guide to biographies of almost 8,800 professional and amateur artists active in Canada from the seventeenth century to the present. The artists represent 42 professional categories, from animation to topography. In addition to Canadian artists, the index has entries on more than 800 British, American, and European artists, all of whom spent part of their careers in Canada." "Each entry provides the artist's name, date and place of birth and death (or years the artist flourished, if birth and death dates are unavailable), nationality (if not Canadian), type of artist (major medium/media used), and sources in which biographical information may be found. Several hundred cross-references link the various names used by some artists during the course of their careers."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Additional Resources
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The Beaverbrook Art Gallery collection : selected works
[HIL-REF N910 .F7 A8 2000]
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Styles, schools and movements : the essential encyclopaedic guide to modern art
[HIL-REF N6490.4 .D45 2004]
A profusely illustrated, cross-referenced guide to more than a century of stylistic and conceptual revolution in art. The three hundred styles, schools, and movements discussed here provide an introduction and a guide to the major developments in Modern Art.
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Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art, The
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.
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Visual culture : the reader
[HIL-REF NX456 .V57 1999]
`This collection of classic essays in the study of visual culture fills a major gap in this new and expanding intellectual field. Its major strength is its insistence on the importance of three central aspects of the study of visual culture: the sign, the institution and the viewing subject. It will provide readers, teachers and students with an essential text in visual and cultural studies' - Janet Wolff, University of RochesterVisual Culture provides an invaluable resource of over 30 key statements from a wide range of disciplines, including four editorial essays which place the readings in their historical and theoretical context. Although underpinned by a focus on contemporary cultural theory, this Reader puts the study of visual culture and the rhetoric of the image at centre stage.Divided into three parts: Cultures of the Visual; Regulating Photographic Meaning; and Looking and Subjectivity, the Reader enables students to make hitherto unmade connections between art, film and photography history and theory, history, semiotics and communications, media studies, and cultural theory.Visual Culture sets the agenda for the study of Visual Culture and will be essential reading for researchers and students alike. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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North American women artists of the twentieth century : a biographical dictionary
[HIL-REF N6503 .N67 1995]
An illustrated reference that provides accurate, concise, and accessible biographical and bibliographic information on women artists from Canada, Mexico, and the US. Some 1,500 alphabetical entries cover widely recognized professional artists born before 1960 who work in a broad range of fields: painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, fibers, metals, and performance art. A particularly noteworthy feature is the inclusion of Mexican and Inuit artists. Some 100 bandw illustrations--many of which have seldom been reproduced--represent the contributions of the artists Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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Oxford Companion to Western Art, The
The Oxford Companion to Western Art, written by over 100 distinguished art historians and specialists, provides in-depth coverage of Westrern 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. Edited by Hugh Brigstocke.
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Concise Oxford dictionary of art and artists, The
"Based on the highly praised Oxford Dictionary of Art, this is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to Western Art from ancient Greece to the present day. Written in clear, lively prose, this invaluable reference maintains a careful balance between fact and appraisal. In its pages, we encounter artists ranging from Polyclitus of Argos to Andy Warhol, with entries on younger contemporary artists, such as, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, and Rachel Whiteread. Here also are periods and movements, including the Classical period, the Renaissance, Impressionism, the Ashcan School, and Cubism, as well as techniques and styles such as encaustic painting, encarnado, lithography, cabinet painting, and blot drawing".
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Oxford companion to the American musical : theatre, film, and television
An authoritative reference for this highly popular genre, covering Broadway, Hollywood, and television in one volume. With more than two thousand entries, this book offers a wealth of information on musicals, performers, composers, lyricists, producers, choreographers, and much more.
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The dictionary of art
[HIL-REF N31 .D5 1996 vols. 1-34]
Vol. 33 includes Appendix A, List of locations; Appendix B, List of periodical titles; Appendix C, List of standard reference books and series.
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American art to 1900 : a documentary history
[HIL-REF N6505 .B87 2009]
American Art to 1900 presents an astonishing variety of unknown, little-known, or undervalued documents to convey the story of American art through the many voices of its contemporary practitioners, consumers, and commentators. The volume highlights such critically important themes as women artists, African American representation and expression, regional and itinerant artists, Native Americans and the frontier, and more.
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Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online
Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online "is a vast new online library giving instant access to the most authoritative and up-to-date scholarship across the humanities and social sciences. With more than 350 reference volumes to be published in Blackwell Reference Online by the end of 2008, it is the largest academic reference collection available online and includes the critically-acclaimed Blackwell Companions and Handbooks, major reference works such as the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management and the Companion to Syntax, and a whole host of other valuable reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and concise companions."
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Oxford Reference
Multi-part database of the online versions of Oxford University Press texts. Each topical division contains the searchable version of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias. Additionally, information about Oxford University Press is provided. Online texts will be updated after new editions of the print monographs are published.Covers the humanities and social sciences.
Collection limited to subscribed 5-user access -
The Chicago manual of style (17th & 18th editions)
The Chicago Manual of Style Online is a guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 17th & 18th editions -
Timeline of Art History: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Online resource: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
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Artcyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine
Online resource: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/