LibGuides: Visual Arts: Home

Some of the art books in the ISU Library

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Art History by Dana Arnold
Call Number: 709 ARN
ISBN: 0192801813
Publication Date: 2004-04-08
Presents an introduction to the study of art history, considering the question of what art history is, and discussing how art history is written, the importance of the gallery or museum, the relationship between art and thought, the idea and meaning of art, and the different media and techniques used to produce art.
Art in China by Craig Clunas
Call Number: 709 CLU
ISBN: 9780199217342
Publication Date: 2009-04-15
An illustrated study of Chinese visual art, covering a period that ranges from the Neolithic age to the early twenty-first century, and examining the social and material circumstances in which objects of art were created and used.
From Monet to Cezanne by Jane Turner (Editor)
Call Number: 759.4 GRO
ISBN: 0195169034
Publication Date: 2003-03-15
Profiles more than three hundred famous and lesser-known French sculptors, painters, and graphic artists from the late nineteenth century, providing reproductions of artworks and selected bibliographies.
How to Look at Modern Art by Philip Yenawine
Call Number: 701.1 YEN
ISBN: 0810924854
Publication Date: 1991-09-10
Guide to appreciating the many forms of modern art with information on ideas, looking for meaning, and artistic motivations.
Latin American Art of the 20th Century by Edward Lucie-Smith
Call Number: 709.809 LUC
ISBN: 9780500203569
Publication Date: 2004-10-17
A survey and history of Latin American art of the twentieth century that includes discussions on Expressionism, magic realism, folk art, the interactions between politics and art, the work of women artists, and other related topics.
Vitamin P by Barry Schwabsky
Call Number: 759.06
ISBN: 0714844462
Publication Date: 2007-06-22
This highly illustrated overview of the state of painting documents concerns and ideas among contemporary painters. Often moving beyond the traditional image associated with this medium, this survey illustrates the richness, eclecticism, dynamism and contemporaneity of painting.

Citing sources--paintings

How do I cite a museum exhibit?
To cite a museum exhibit, follow the MLA template of core elements. Include the exhibit’s name as the title of your source, followed by the opening and closing dates of the exhibit and the museum and city as the location. Click on the link to see examples.
How do I cite an artwork from an exhibit?
To cite an artwork from an exhibit, follow the MLA template of core elements. Provide the name of the artist as the author and the title of the work. List the exhibit’s name as the title of the container, followed by the exhibit’s opening and closing dates. Then specify the place where the exhibit was held, including the city, as the location. Click on the link to see examples.
How do I cite a museum image that I viewed in person or online?
Page 49 of the MLA Handbook demonstrates how to create a works-cited-list entry for an artwork viewed firsthand at a museum. Include the name of the artist, the title of the work, the date of composition, and the name of the museum along with the city in which the museum is located. Click on the link to see examples of both.

MLA Handbook by The Modern Language Association of America
Call Number: TR 808.2 MLA
ISBN: 1603292624
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
The Modern Language Association, the authority on research and writing, takes a fresh look at documenting sources in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook.

Academic research sources in Visual Art

Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Create your account by logging from school.

Websites about art analysis and writing about art

Writing about art by Marjorie Munsterberg, PhD
The author created this online text when teaching at the City University of New York. The site includes sections about writing analysis, biography, iconographic analysis and more (including sample student work).
Student Art Guide: helping art students excel
The Student Art Guide helps students in a wide range of high school Art qualifications, such as IGCSE, GCSE, A Level, NCEA, AP Studio and IB Art. We compile new ideas, best practice and helpful learning strategies for high school Art students. Our resources are recommended by leading educational institutions and have been shared on social media over a million times.

ISU subscriptions and databases

ISU Library Subscriptions and Databases

The ISU Library subscribes to several databases that can help you quickly find reliable and relevant resources about art, artists, and art history. You can see the list of MYP databases here and the list of DP subscriptions and databases here. You must be logged into your ISU Google account in order to view this list.

Magazines

ISU subscribes to PressReader (connect while you're at school and login with your ISU Google account) which includes 23 art magazines published in English and a few more in French, Chinese, Spanish, Portugese, and Italian.

On Sora (login with your ISU Google account) you will find a few more magazines dedicated to art and artists.

Excellent sites to use when researching for art class

Google Arts & Culture
"Explore collections from around the world with Google Arts & Culture, created by Google Cultural Institute."
Search by Collections, Themes, Artists, Mediums, Art Movements, Historical Events, Historical Figures, Places and more.
The Art Story: Modern Art Insight
Modern Art - includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art created during that era.

Excellent sites for art history research

SmartHistory
"At Smarthistory, we’re on a mission to open museums and cultural sites up to the world, one video at a time. We’re creating world-class resources on art and cultural objects for learners from around the globe—for free.
Smarthistory is the most-visited art history website in the world. Our conversational videos and essays cover art and cultural objects that range from the paleolithic to the present."
Khan Academy: Art History
Start with the basics at Khan Academy's "Art history basics" site. Khan Academy and SmartHistory have combined forces to provide these lessons and video lectures on various topics in Art History.

Labeling and citing images

Captions: Illustrative visual material other than a table—for example, a photograph, map, drawing, graph, or chart—should be labeled Figure (usually abbreviated Fig.), assigned an Arabic numeral, and given a caption:

Image: Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, The National Gallery, London.

Fig. 1. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533, oil on oak, The National Gallery, London.

The label and caption ordinarily appear directly below an illustration and have the same one-inch margins as the text of the paper.

How to cite images in your Works Cited:

An item that you see in person will have this information in the citation:

Artist's name (last, first)
Title of the artwork in italics
Date of creation
Name of the institution that houses the artwork followed by the location of the institution - if the institution's location is not in its name.

Van Gogh, Vincent. The Starry Night. 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Photographic Reproductions of Artwork:

These are images that you can find in a book. Begin the citation just like you would for the original artwork, but also cite the bibliographic information for the source in which the photograph appears, including page or reference numbers (plate, figure, etc.).

Book:

Van Gogh, Vincent. Night Café. 1889, Yale University Gallery, New Haven. Gardener's Art Through the Ages v. II, 13 ed., by Fred S. Kleiner, Wardsworth, 1994, p. 666.

Journal Article:

Cox, George C. "Walt Whitman, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right, wearing hat." 1887, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. By Christian Winman, Atlantic, vol. 298, no. 5, Dec. 2006, p. 75.

Book with an Illustrator:

Litwin, Eric. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. Illustrated by James Dean, HarperCollins, 2010.

Comics or Graphic Novels:

Feyman. By Jim Ottavani, illustrated by Leland Myrick, First Second, 2011.

Source: "MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources." Purdue Online Writing Lab, 23 Aug. 2018, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_other_common_sources.html. Accessed 23 March 2023.