FPA 367: Research Guide to Finding Information about Art and Artists

This guide is intended to help you identify visual arts and works that relate to a specific concept.   Examples on this page relate to the concept of FAILURE but you can use the steps to find research relating to other concepts.

If you do not find what you need, please Ask a Librarian or contact Sylvia Roberts, Liaison Librarian for Contemporary Arts, via email at sroberts@sfu.ca.

PowerPoint slides from January 27, 2011.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Generate a term paper topic that relates to your studio practice and your selected term or concept.

For example, my concept is FAILURE.  I might start by exploring different aspects of failure so I can consider how these might relate to my own work.  You may find the use of a dictionary or other background source helpful, for example:

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary

• Encyclopedia of aesthetics

GENERATING SEARCH TERMS

When beginning your research, you need to identify appropriate terminology to represent each of your topic concepts.  Computers are a literal technology so your set of results will include only exact matches for those search terms you use.

You can extend your reach by generating a list of alternative terms, whether synonyms, broader or narrower terms, or related conceptually.  Group related terms together.

The library catalogue and many article indexes use standard terminology (also called subject headings or descriptors) to describe the topics of books. These can be artists' names, theories, genres or other terms that group books dealing with similar themes.   When researching, note any additional terminology that can be used to find additional information on your topic.

BACKGROUND SOURCES

Use these sources to investigate visual arts contexts for your search terms, identifying works or artists that relate.

• Oxford Art Online  includes the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
  
• A dictionary of modern and contemporary art
• The Oxford companion to Western art
• The Oxford dictionary of American art and artists

• Contemporary artists
• Artspeak : a guide to contemporary ideas, movements, and buzzwords, 1945 to the present
• The contemporary art book
  

Use these sources for background on specific artists, including biographical details, nature of their practice, affiliations, etc.

• Tate Gallery Artists
• Wikipedia
• artnet

Entries may include leads for further research, such as the names of their dealers or commercial galleries who represent their work, significant exhibitions or prizes, most of which will likely have web sites with information about the artist and their work.

BOOKS

Documentation of artists tends to grow with the length of their practice and as their fame increases.

To find print or e-books on your artist, search the SFU Library catalogue. "Books" can include critical works by scholars, exhibition catalogues, critical biographies, etc. You can limit your search by media type to find only slides, sound recordings, films (see below for details).

Search the name of the person by keyword to find any catalogue record that refers to the artist as a author or creator of a work (books, slides, music), as the subject focus of the book, or if they're listed in a contents note as the focus of a chapter.

To focus your search, use the artist's name as a subject search.  

NOTE: If you do not find results for your artist's name in the library catalogue, use your background information to search for related books focused on artists from a particular country, engaged in a specific type of art practice or affiliated with a specific art movement or group.  Use the table of contents or back of the book index to find pages that make specific reference to your artist.

If SFU doesn't have books on your artist, you can check WorldCat to identify relevant writing. If you find something that you want, make an interlibrary loan request  and we'll borrow the book from another library on your behalf.

Alternatively, if you find it at another local library, you may be able to borrow it directly.

MEDIA

SFU Library has a large collection of videos and DVDs by and about artists.  To find these, search for the artist's name as a keyword search in the SFU Library catalogue, using the drop-down box to limit to "Movies (DVDs, videos, etc.).

One useful DVD series for your assignment is Art:21, profiles of contemporary art and artists produced by PBS.  There are accompanying books and a web site that provide additional information about the artists, including biographical information, images, interviews, etc.

IMAGES

SFU Library subscribes to several online databases that may provide examples of your artist's work.

• ARTStor
  
• Art Images
• Google Image Search

You can also search the SFU Library catalogue for slides of your artists' works.  Again, search for the artist's name and use the drop-down box to limit to "Slides".

JOURNAL ARTICLES

• Art Full Text [Art Index] 
  Scholarly and research journals on all aspects and periods of art & related topics. Many full text articles.
   
• Art Bibliographies Modern
  Index to journal articles, art exhibition catalogues and books on modern and contemporary art. Covers artists and movements beginning with the late 19th century, up to the present day.
   
• Project MUSE Search
  Searchable, online, full-text collection of over 110 humanities and social science journals
   
• JSTOR 
  Searchable, archival collection of core scholarly arts, humanities and social sciences journals.
   
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index
  Index to scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Good coverage of the performing arts (music, film, theatre, dance) and related topics.
   
• Google Scholar Searches for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. Be careful to evaluate what you find on the Internet.

Another strategy is to browse recent issues of Contemporary Arts journals and magazines.   Use this guide to find out which of these are held at the Belzberg Library, SFU Vancouver, and instructions for requesting articles from print journals held at the Bennett Library.

WRITING AND STYLE GUIDES

Consult the following sources for assistance in writing your paper and formatting your citations:

• Writing and Style Guides - Style guides for citing sources, using APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
• Citing Images - From SFU Library's Guide to Finding and Using Online Images 
   
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab guide to Annotated Bibliographies
• Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin Annotated Bibliographies guide
• University of Toronto Annotated Bibliographies

Additional notes about how to cite artworks & exhibition catalogues, based on Sylvia's interpretation of the official MLA and Turabian guides:

MLA style

Work of Visual Art in print publications, section 5.7.6

Artist’s name. Title of the work.  Date of composition. Medium of composition. Institution that houses the work (e.g. a museum) or name of the private collection (Collection of…), City where this institution or collection is located.   Complete publication information for the source in which the reproducation appears, including the slide, figure or plate number as appropriate.  Medium of reproduction.

If the collector is unknown or wishes to remain anonymous, use Private collection without the name.

For example, for an image taken from  Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century:

Bélanger, Sylvie.  He; She.  1991.  Colour photograph and sand-blasted glass.  Macdonald Steward Art Centre, University of Guelph, Guelph.  Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century.  Joan Murray. Toronto : Dundurn Press, 1999. Fig. 270. Print.

Exhibition catalogues

MLA treats exhibition catalogues like a book or edited book, with the inclusion of the document type and date of the exhibition.

For example, for an exhibition catalogue held at the SFU Library:

Ai, Weiwei and Mark Siemons.  Ai Weiwei :  So Sorry.  Munich ; New York:  Prestel,  2009. Exhibition catalogue,  Haus der Kunst,  Munich, October 12, 2009 - January 17, 2010.

Adapted from the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed. (2009) New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2008. PN 147 G444 2008

Chicago / Turabian style

Visual sources, section 17.8.1

Turabian says to cite visual artworks only in notes, including the name of the artist, title of the artwork, date of its creation, name of the institution housing it, with location.   Titles of paintings & sculptures are to be italicized but titles of photograph are to be set in roman type, enclosed in quotation marks. If the source was a published book, give the publication information in place of the institution name.

For example:

3.  Bélanger, Sylvie,  He; She,   1991, in  Joan Murray, Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century [Toronto : Dundurn Press, 1999], 125.

Texts in the Visual and Performing Arts, section 17.8:7: Art exhibition catalogues

Cite an exhibition catalogue as you would a book. In the bibliographic entry only (i.e. list of references), include the name and location of the exhibition, followed by the date.

For example,

Ai, Weiwei and Mark Siemons.  Ai Weiwei : So Sorry.  Munich ; New York:  Prestel,  2009. Published in conjunction with the exhibition “So sorry” shown at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, October 12, 2009 - January 17, 2010.

Adapted from A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations : Chicago style for students and researchers by Kate L. Turabian. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2007. LB 2369 T8 2007