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How to Find Information about a Work of Art My name is Sara Harrington and I am the Art Librarian at Rutgers University. I have prepared this guide to help students get started with their research, but I also encourage you to contact me at (732) 932-7739 or at saraharr@rci.rutgers.edu if you have any questions, concerns, or problems during your research. I'm here to help! This guide describes how to find information about a work of art when the work is not anonymous, in other words, when one knows the identity of the artist who created the work. This guide also describes how to construct bibliographic citations. It can sometimes be difficult to find information about a particular work of art, during the research process one may have to move from specific and narrowly defined searches to searches for more general types of information. For example, if one cannot find information about a particular work of art done by an artist, one can conduct searches about an artist's work in a particular medium, or a specific period or era in the artist's career. Try the following strategies for developing keywords for searches: The artist's name and the name of work, for example Manet and Luncheon on the Grass The artist's name and the medium of the work, for example Degas and sculpture The artist's name and the period in the artist's career, for example Rembrandt and early work This guide focuses on scholarly rather than popular sources. Scholarly sources are substantial academic works on a particular topic; they often have significant bibliographies as well as footnotes or endnotes. DictionariesTo gather background information on a work of art, first try to consult the following source.
This dictionary, commonly known as the Oxford (Grove) Art Online or Grove, is also available online to current Rutgers students, faculty and staff members. (Rutgers students, faculty, and staff members using the online dictionary off campus must log in for remote access, as described here). In order to find information about a specific work of art, look up the entry for the artist who created the work. If the work is well known, it will likely be discussed in the entry on the artist. You may also have to move on to monographic sources, or books. Books
To find books about an artist, consult
IRIS,
the catalog of the Rutgers University Libraries.
IRIS allows you to perform a variety of searches by choosing one of the following categories: To start with a simple search, at the search screen, enter the artist's last name and the title of the work of art, and leave the pull down menu on "Words Anywhere." This search may only be useful if the work is relatively well-known. For example, a search on "Picasso and Guernica" will produce an interesting list of results. However, in order to find further information about some works of art, you may have to examine books about the artist who created the work. In order to find books about an artist, conduct a search in IRIS using the artist's name. When you have found useful books about the artist, consult the index of the book to see if the work you are interested in is listed in the index. You might also want to see if a so-called "catalogue raisonné" has been produced on the work of the artist you are researching. Catalogue raisonnés generally include every known work produced by an artist; although there may be catalogue raisonnés dedicated specifically to an artist's work in one medium. If you examine the record for a particular book within IRIS, you may notice that at the bottom of the IRIS records subject headings may be listed. These subject headings are what the Library of Congress uses to categorize and catalogue the book. If you click on these subject headings, you will be lead to a list of related books that may be of interest to you. Please note that materials are held in multiple library locations throughout the Rutgers University Libraries system. The name of the library in which the item is held appears before the call number. Remember that if you are a current Rutgers student, faculty, or staff member you can request that items be delivered from one location to another by choosing the "Deliver/Recall Book" button. If you have not found any books of use to your research, please contact a reference librarian for more information. Periodical ArticlesScholarly articles constitute an important part of the research in the field of art and architectural history. In order to locate articles, you must use indexes. The following indexes are located off the home page of the libraries under Find Articles -> Indexes and Databases." The chief indexes for the study of art and art history include:
After opening the index, enter your keywords into the search screen. A successful search will return a list of results. The elements of an article citation are: Author last name, Author first name. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical. Volume, Issue (Year): Pages. The majority of the art historical indexes are citation based, that is, the full text of the article is not included in the index itself. In order to see if the Libraries own the periodical in question, you will have to click on the "library catalog holdings" link within the index IF THE LINK IS PRESENT OR return to IRIS to search for periodical holdings. To see if Rutgers owns a particular periodical, open IRIS, type in the periodical title and use the pull down menu to select "Periodical Title Begins With." Remember that Rutgers owns periodicals in both electronic and paper format. If Rutgers University Libraries do not hold the periodical in question, but you would still like to consult the item, you may place an interlibrary loan request for the item if you are a current Rutgers University student, faculty, or staff member. Bibliographic CitationsArt historians use the Chicago Manual of Style to construct their bibliographic entries, footnotes and endnotes. The Chicago Manual of Style can be found in the reference section of most Rutgers Libraries at the call number Ref Z253.U69 What follows is a sample bibliographic citation for book with one author and a typical journal article citation in the Chicago Manual of Style format. Book: Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Book. Publication Location: Publishing House, Publication Date. Journal Article: Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Volume Number (Date): Page Numbers. Conducting research on a particular work of art can be challenging. Please feel free to contact Sara Harrington, Art Librarian at (732) 932-7739 or email me at saraharr@rci.rutgers.edu, for personalized assistance and more information. 
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