Art and Art History: Articles

You can use these searching tips for your other classes too.

• Article databases and the catalog don't recognize phrase searching, so break your topic into the main keywords or concepts.  For example, if your topic is Rembrandt's painting Night Watch, don't type "Rembrandt's painting Night Watch" in the search box.  Instead, type in Rembrandt AND "Night Watch" or something similarly structured.
   
• When you find a good article, look at the footnotes or endnotes to see what articles the author read--you might find a few good ones that you can use.  See the box below for how to find articles when you have a citation. 
   
• Use truncation to expand your search results, for example, if you type in "environ*" it will capture environment, environmental, etc.  Some databases do this automatically, but many do not. 
   
• Click on linked author names, subject headings, or any other descriptive terms in book and article descriptions.

A collection of art journals and magazines is available to art students for use by appointment in the Visual Resources Center, 326A CAC.  Contact the Art Dept to make an appointment to view these journals available in the VRC.  The VRC collection complements the journals and magazines available in the library.

The Getty provides free access to indexes covering art history literature from 1975 to 2007

Art and Art History historical indexing:

• Répertoire d’Art et d’Archéologie (RAA) 1910-1972 - no public online access
• Répertoire international de la littérature de l'art (RILA) 1975-1989 - free access through Getty BHA-RILA
• Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) 1990-2007 - free access through Getty BHA-RILA
• International Bibliography of Art (IBA) 2007 and after - WSU does not have access to this subsequent subscription-only index

RILA was produced at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.  In 1990 the Getty began to collaborate with INIST-CNRS to produce BHA, a merger of RILA and the Répertoire d'art et d'archéologie.  The BHA covers 1,200 journals indexing only those articles within the scope of art and art history. (See list) 

Google Scholar works even better when you have it connected to your library. Set up your library link and get results that are available through the University Libraries.

1. Click Library Link
2. Type Wright State in the Library Access Links search Bar
3. Click Search 
4. Check the box next to Wright State University-Full Text
5. Click Save and start searching!

Oxford Art Online is a database that has the full text for several good-quality art encyclopedias, including the scholarly Grove Dictionary of Art.  A great place to get an overview of an artist or method.

Related research guides:

Tips for Database Searching

Database Search Strategies