ARH101: Approaches to Visual Representation
Realism, the Desire to Record the World
Spring 2008 - Christine Andrews
Reference Contact: Barbara Polowy x2941

GETTING STARTED

Art & Architecture Library Subject Page
Provides links to online resources covering a wide variety of topics (some available only to members of the Smith College community).

Hillyer Art Library
Website provides information about art library collections and services including a browsing guide to the collections.

Barker, Joe. Critical Evaluation of Resources. University of California Berkeley Library. Last updated March 10, 2008.
Available at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Evaluation.html

Reference Sources

Art Reference N31.D5 1996 and Groveart.com, the online version
The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996.
Includes 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present -- on major art movements (Realism; Naturalism), media and materials (Engraving), themes and subjects (Landscape Painting; Still-life), individual artists (Pieter Bruegel I [the elder], Albrecht Dürer; Guo Xi, Gustave Courbet), specific places and monuments, and other topics (Perspective). The more than 20,000 artist entries include biographical, critical, and contextual information. Each article is supplemented by a bibliography of major primary and secondary sources and usually includes links to illustrations available on the Internet. The dictionary also includes excellent articles on individual artists.

FINDING BOOKS & CATALOGS

Five College Library Catalog
The online catalog provides access to the combined library holdings of Smith, Amherst, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Useful "subject begins with" headings for finding books and catalogs for ARH101 assignments are:

• Realism in Art | Perspective
• [artist's name], e.g., Bruegel, Pieter, ca. 1525-1569 | Courbet, Gustave, 1819-1877
  Vermeer, Johannes, 1632-1675
• [title of work(s) of art], e.g., Dürer, Albrecht, 1471-1528. Adam and Eve
• [subject matter/theme], e.g. Self-portaits | Still-life painting, Dutch
  Landscape painting -- Chinese
• [place and time], e.g., Art, Dutch -- 17th century | Engraving -- 16th century -- Germany

Museum Collection Documentation

Use these "subject begins with" headings in the Five College Library Catalog to find museum publications:

• Collection Catalogs: [museum name]--Catalogs, e.g.,
  Smith College. Museum of Art -- Catalogs
  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston -- Catalogs
• Exhibition Catalogs: [museum name]--Exhibitions, e.g.,
  Smith College. Museum of Art -- Exhibitions
  Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) -- Exhibitions

Many museums provide online illustrated collection handbooks and catalogs and present online exhibitions. Some examples include:

• Five College Museums & Historic Deerfield Collections Database includes the holdings of the Smith College Museum of Art, Mead Museum, Amherst College, and Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art. Works of Art, Collection Database
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Collections

FINDING ARTICLES IN JOURNALS & MAGAZINES

Scholarly & Popular Periodicals

Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals. Cornell University Library, Reference Department, CRIO (Collections, Reference, Instruction & Outreach). Last updated February 27, 2007.
Available at: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill20.html

Examples of guidelines for contributors to scholarly journals:
Art Bulletin, Submission and Style Guidelines
Art Journal, Submission and Style Guidlines

Indexing & Abstracting Services for the Visual Arts

Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective
These two databases cover all aspects of the visual arts providing access to articles, exhibition reviews, and reproductions published in over 400 art magazines, journals, and museum newsletters and bulletins published throughout the world. Art Abstracts covers 1984 to the present, Art Index Retrospective covers 1929 to 1984.

BHA: Bibliography of the History of Art
Provides access to literature on the post-classical western visual arts published in over 3,000 periodicals and in books, exhibition catalogues, doctoral dissertations, Festschriften and other collected essays, selected art dealers' catalogues, and conference publications from 1973 to the present.

WRITING YOUR PAPER

Open Reserve N7476 .B37 2003
Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing About Art. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 2003.
Earlier editions are available in the stacks at the same call number.

N380 .R438 2004
Reid, Donna. K. Thinking and Writing about Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Prentice Hall, 2004.

To find more guides to writing about art, search the Five College Library Catalog using the "subject begins with" heading: Art criticism -- Authorship

Citation Formats for Bibliographies and Notes

Style Manuals & Citation Guides. Smith College Libraries. February 26, 2008.
Links to online versions MLA, Chicago, and other popular manuals for writing papers, preparing manuscripts, and formatting footnote and bibliography citations.

Art Reference Z253 .U69 2003 Online Edition
The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Completely searchable online version of this important style manual, providing quick answers to style, editing, and citation format questions (for print and electronic sources).

Neilson Reference Desk PN171 .F56 W35 2006
Walker, Janice R., and Todd Taylor. The Columbia Guide to Online Style. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
"Presents a guide to locating, translating, and using the elements of citation for both a humanities style (i.e., MLA and Chicago) and a scientific style (APA and CBE) for electronically-accessed sources."

CONTACT THE REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

Contact Barbara Polowy, the art librarian and instructor for your library session: bpolowy@email.smith.edu, Hillyer Hall 121, X2941.

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS

Click here to provide feedback on this library session and follow up with any questions about topics covered in the class.

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