Research Guides: ART HISTORY: Home

When Researching and Writing About Art

Look at the Art:

Take time to observe the object and make notes about its formal properties

Learn more about it:

Look at introductory resources such as museum or gallery websites or art encyclopedias to find biographical information about the artist and/or contextual information about your object

Collect Sources through Research:

Find Books: search the BCC Library's OneSearch database for your artist's name, art movements, and other related concepts to your object
Find Articles: Search journal databases for your artists' name, movement, period, style, medium and other context keywords for articles related to your object
Find Images: Include images of your object or subject matter in your paper or presentation. Look at other works by your artist, objects of the same style/period, or pieces containing similar subject matter to strengthen your argument by comparing related objects

Write and Cite:

Include a formal analysis describing the physical properties and visual experience of your object
Provide contextual analysis of your object by examining its subject matter, function, and cultural / historical significance
Cite all quotes, paraphrased references and images used in your paper or presentation; Ask your instructor about what style to use

What is Art Historical Research?

Art historical analysis is an investigation art historians do to understand and give meaning to works of art. They do this by describing formal properties, examining content or subject matter and placing works of art in their historical context.

Attribution

SmartHistory: The Center for Public Art History: https://smarthistory.org/

What is Visual Analysis

A visual or formal analysis examines an artwork's elements that we can see such as scale, composition, space, form, line, color, light, tone, texture, and pattern. The purpose of a visual analysis is to recognize and understand the choices made by the artist in creating the artwork.

Attribution

SmartHistory: The Center for Public Art History: https://smarthistory.org/

Web Resources for Finding and Writing About Art

LaRoi Lawton

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Finding Images in the BCC Library Database

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
This is a comprehensive database of art images to view, analyze, and save for use in presentations.
Note: You will need to create a personal user account to access Artstor. If you have an existing JSTOR account, you can use that by linking it to Artstor.

JSTOR opens in a new window This database contains an "Image collection" of 1,465 collections where you can search by 'type', as well as full text scholarly journal articles in Arts & Sciences, Biological Sciences, Business, Health and General Sciences. .

Images from Museum Collections

Many museums offer online access to their collections. Try these if you are looking for a particular work from a particular museum:

American Folk Art Museum e Museum Collection
American Folk Art Museum collection includes more than eight thousand works of art from self-taught artist from around the world.
Museum of Modern Art The Collection
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world. The evolving collection contains almost 200,000 works of modern and contemporary art. More than 89,000 works are currently available online.
Penn Museum Online Collections
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is home to Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Mediterranean, from the very first cities of the Middle East to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt; from early Mexico to the lives of Native American communities today.
PMA Online Collection Search
The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a wide overview of art and objects from around the world, from ancient times to today.