Researching an Artist
Books / Articles & Databases
Books
Sample Searches / Catalogues raisonnés
Orbis
Entire books are rarely dedicated to single works of art. Finding a book on a particular artist is typically the the best way to find on a specific work of art. Yale University Library has over 12 million volumes in 22 different libraries across campus, including the Art & Architecture Library. Orbis is the central catalogue for these materials and searches all the libraries except the Law Library, which has its own catalog, Morris.
Sample Orbis Searches
To find books on a specific artist, search the artist's name as an AUTHOR or SUBJECT using the advanced search. The artist is often listed as the "author" for exhibition or collection catalogs but is also listed as "subject" for books about the artist. Searching both simulataneously broadens your results.
Author search: pollock jackson (~39 entries)
Subject search: pollock jackson (~64 entries total)
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Subject index has 13 headings for Jackson Pollock
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Notice that the results screen from the subject search has subdivisions like "Exhibitions," "Criticism and Interpretation," and "Themes, Motives." These subdivisions can help you narrow down your search.
Results for Subject OR Author search: 68 entries
Keyword search: "jackson pollock" (76 entries with the phrase "Jackson Pollock")
Keyword search: jackson pollock (no quotation marks - 103 entries)
Library of Congress call numbers:
N Visual Arts (General)
NA Architecture
NB Sculpture
NC Illustration, Design, Drawing.
ND Painting
NE Printing
NK Decorative Arts, Applied Arts
NX Arts in General
Catalogues raisonnés
A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive listing of an artist's entire work, or work in a particular medium, and generally includes the date, history, provenance, location, and other critical information about each work. To find catalogues raisonnés on an artist, search the artist's name followed by catalogues raisonnés as a subject. For example, "Ruscha Edward Catalogues Raisonné". Please note that not all artists have catalogues raisonnés. Sometimes they will be called "collected works" or simply "catalogue". With German art history texts or when searching German library catalogs, try using "werkverzeichnis" as a search term in lieu of catalogue raisonné.
Example:
Title: The paintings of Paul Cézanne : a catalogue raisonné / John Rewald in collaboration with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Jayne Warman.
Subjects (Library of Congress): Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906 --Catalogues raisonnés. <-- identified as a catalogue raisonné
It is a good idea to follow the linked subject headings found at the bottom of Orbis records. These will take you to additional works with the same heading.
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Articles & Databases
Orbis allows you to search for a journal title and to see if Yale has a specific issue, but Orbis does not index the contents of journals. Instead, you must search one of the many databases and idexes Yale subscribes to for article searching.
Art Full Text (1984-present)
Citations to articles from American and foreign periodicals and museum bulletins dealing with the arts and related disciplines such as archaeology, architecture, art history, city planning, fine arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, photography, films and museums.Full-text coverage for selected periodicals is also included. In addition to articles, Art Full Text indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. For complete list of indexed journals, click here.
Art Index Retrosepctive (1929-1984)
Cumulates citations to Art Index volumes 1-32 of the printed index published between 1929-1984. Features citations to articles from American and foreign periodicals and museum bulletins dealing with the arts and related disciplines such as archaeology, architecture, art history, city planning, fine arts, industrial design, interior design, landscape architecture, photography, films and museums.
ARTbibliographies Modern on the Web (1974-present)
Covers modern and contemporary art, including performance art and installation works, video art, computer and electronic art, body art, graffiti, artists' books, theater arts, crafts, jewelry, illustration, and more, as well as the traditional fine arts of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing.
Bibliography of the History of Art (1973-present)
Citations and abstracts of art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer's catalogs, and articles from more than 2,500 periodicals covering current writing on Western fine arts (architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing, and prints), decorative and applied arts, industrial design and architecture, popular and folk art, and material culture of interest to art historians.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodical Literature (1930s-present, selective coverage from 1860s)
Indexes articles published worldwide on architecture and design, archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation. Avery indexes not only the international scholarly and popular periodical literature, but also the publications of professional associations, US state and regional periodicals, and the major serial publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia.
DAAI: Design and Applied Art Index (1973-present)
Covers annotated references to articles in design and craft journals. It focuses primarily on research articles but also includes references to some feature articles, brief articles and news items, conference and seminar reports, book and video reviews, obituaries and illustrations.
Design Abstracts Retrospective (1903-1986)
DAR provides coverage of more than 100 design and design-related journals most of which have ceased publication, but which are distinctly important to the development of design concepts in the early 20th century. Provides historical coverge for the DAAI.
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Index Islamicus (approx. 1906-present)
Indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim world. Records included in the database cover almost a century of publications, with some going back to 1906. The print edition extends coverage back to 1605.
Index to 19th Century American Art Periodicals
The Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals indexes 42 art journals published in the US during the 19th century, providing nearly complete coverage of journals from this period.
Medieval Encyclopaedias & Bibliographies (Brepolis) - Lexikon des Mittelalters
The Lexikon des Mittelalters is the standard encyclopaedia for medieval studies. It deals with all branches of Medieval Studies and covers the period from 300 to 1500 AD/CE for the whole of Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. The ancient roots of Western Culture, as well as neighbouring cultures, such as the Byzantine, the Arabic and the Jewish, occupy a prominent position in the encyclopaedia.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present)
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (via Web of Science) is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.
Humanities Full Text (1984-present)
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ibliographic database that cites articles from more than 350 English-language periodicals, plus the full text of over 95 of those periodicals. Coverage inlcudes archaeology, classical studies, art and photography.
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