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Prepared by Prof. Barbara Buenger and Linda Duychak,
Kohler Art Research Librarian
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Start with the materials at hand or on-line.
1. Go to the UW
Library website to the "E-Resource Gateway", and call
up "G" to find the Grove Dictionary of Art. Check
under your artist or topic for a major article to see what is available,
generally a basic introduction to the life, works, and bibliography
of your artist or subject. Use the "Related Articles"
tab at the top of each article page to see what other topics are
pertinent and discussed in the dictionary; you can also use the
index to that same end (the dictionary is also available in hard-bound
form in the Kohler Reference Room).
2. In the Kohler Library reference computer, use the
following reference sources (hard-bound and on-line) to see if there
is good periodical literature on your artist. Start with Art
Abstracts/Art Index Retrospective, which are keyed principally
to English-speaking journals. Then go to the Bibliography of
the History of Art and ARTbibliographies Modern for entries
that will also include journals in most other languages. Don't shy
away from works in other languages, because many include articles
or summaries in English, many will have useful illustrations and
material even if you cannot read them immediately, and you should
be able to find someone to help you read in other languages.
3. Check MadCat
to find the books we have on your artist, and check the several
different locations in the Kohler and other libraries (including
the Madison Public Library) to find those books. Check especially
to see if we have useful complete or otherwise systematic, well-illustrated
catalogues of your artist's works (catalogue raisonné, or
oeuvre-catalogue, Verzeichnis); good recent monographs or exhibition
catalogues; and/or catalogues of good museums or collections that
would have good information on your individual work or works like
it. Make sure you can find enough work in English to work on your
subject. You will find help in monographs on the artist, monographs
on larger contemporary trends and movements, and catalogues of many
different sorts: catalogue raisonné or oeuvre-catalogue (a
systematic listing and illustration of an artist's complete works
or part of those works); museum and gallery exhibition catalogues
(the most recent catalogues often have excellent and full bibliographies);
and catalogues and articles on museums' permanent or private collections
(if the work is in a major museum, chances are that a curator or
major scholar might have written something on it).
N.B. IF THE BOOKS YOU WANT ARE CHECKED OUT, ASK THE
LIBRARIAN TO RECALL THE BOOK; IF THE BOOK IS LOST, LOOK IN THE NEIGHBORING
AREA OF THE SHELVES TO SEE IF IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY SHELVED,
THEN ASK THE LIBRARIAN TO START A SEARCH FOR IT. IN ANY CASE : DON'T
BE AFRAID TO CALL IN BOOKS; EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO AT LEAST TWO
WEEKS' USE OF A BOOK, BUT THEN THE BOOKS SHOULD MOVE ON TO OTHER
USERS. I will identify students working on the same artist in this
class so that you can share the books among you; you should not
have to compete with others for the basic books that should be available
to all of you.
4. Go to the Interlibrary Loan and WorldCat/CIC catalogues
to find other literature on your artist that you can order via ILL,
and order immediately so you may use it this semester.
5. Scholars find and take their leads from earlier
discussions of works, and by writing this paper you, too, join the
scholarly debate. As soon as you start to find some good literature
on your subject, note what previous scholars have chosen to discuss
-- which themes or topics have been the focus of scholarly investigations
-- and consider whether you might try one of those or go on to treat
another aspect they have handled less fully. Brainstorm about your
topic by reading a bit of the literature and discussing what you
might do with a classmate or friend. Proceed from the ideas and
observations that led you to this work (you liked it well enough
to choose it, why? and why did it seem so interesting?). Then proceed
from the clues, brilliant ideas, or erroneous conclusions in the
articles and footnotes of others. If you want to write on a highly
abstract work by a German expressionist, for instance, you should
find much good discussion of that artist and of different kinds
of expressionism in both the books held on reserve and in the more
specialized literature. If you find lots of general discussion about
expressionist abstraction, you should be able to forge ahead and
make some characterizations of and conclusions about what is done
in your own work.
6. Remember that you have many leads to good literature
and discussion in the course bibliography, the books held on reserve,
and in the many different texts, notes, and references in your basic
texts. These, and further discussion with me, should help you identify
the best basic literature on individuals or movements.
7. You will find much helpful orientation in the course
bibliography and in the bibliographies and footnotes of some of
the most recent literature. Major direction for your research and
writing is found in: Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing
About Art; Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M.
Williams, Craft of Research; and Henry M. Sayre, Writing
About Art.
What are good questions to ask about your subject;
which are worth researching and can be pursued in the course of
the semester? Which themes, historical aspects, or stylistic features
seem interesting and worthy of further investigation? What is your
plan for research? What is your methodology? How will you discuss
style, and what is its importance in relation to your other questions?
How will you find a sufficient number of illustrations of the works
of your artist and contemporaries in order to assess their stylistic
practices and contexts? What evidence will you present and how will
you document it?
Sylvan Barnet makes excellent distinctions between
research and critical writing even as he notes their necessary overlap.
Good writing of both types involves research and demands personal,
critical input. You can proceed "from subject to thesis"
only after a responsible investigation of the critical literature
and musing about what is interesting about the topic and what still
needs to be done. You have to narrow down your subject and pick
a focus, but you will be able to do so only after you have done
research, identified the works with which you want to work, and
decided where you want to go with the subject. Read carefully:
be precise as you differentiate between what an author has said
and what an artist has done.
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(also browse the vicinity of these LC call numbers
in the Art reference room)
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Prepared
by Linda Duychak, Reference Librarian, Kohler Art Library, University
of Wisconsin-Madison:
askart@library.wisc.edu, Hours:
Mon-Thurs 1-5pm and also Wed. 8am-noon
Dictionaries
for word definitions--
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Oxford Concise Dictionary
of Art Terms (Art Ref, Regular, N33 C575 2001)
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The Thames and Hudson
Dictionary of Art Terms (Art Ref, Regular, N33 L8 1984)
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A Dictionary of Art
Terms and Techniques (Art Ref, Regular, N33 M36)
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From Abacus to Zeus
(Art Ref, Regular, N33 P5 2001)
Dictionaries for art movements--
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Art Spoke (Art
Ref, Regular, N6447 A85 1993)
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Art Speak (Art
Ref, Regular, N6490 A87 1990)
Dictionaries for iconography--
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Hall's Dictionary of
Subjects and Symbols in Art (Art Ref, Regular, N7560 H34
1979)
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The Dictionary of Symbols
in Western Art (Art Ref, Regular, N7740 C29 1995)
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Illustrated Dictionary
of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art (Art Ref, Regular,
N7740 H35 1994)
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Gods and Heroes of
Classical Antiquity (Art Ref, Regular, N7760 A34 1996)
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Buddhism: Flammarion
Iconographic Guides (Art Ref, Regular, N8193 F7 1995)
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The Bible and the Saints
(Art Ref, Regular, BS 513.2 D8313 1994)
Books on writing about art--
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Looking and Writing
(Art Ref, Regular, N5303 W97 2003)
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A Short Guide to Writing
About Art (Art Ref, Regular, N7476 B37 2000)
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Writing About Art
(Art Ref, Regular, N7476 S29 1999)
Books about art reference
books--
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Art Information: Research
Methods and Resources (Art Ref, Table, N85 J64 1990)
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Art Information and
the Internet (Art Ref, Table, N59 J66 1998)
Art encyclopedias --
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Dictionary of Art
(online as "Grove
Dictionary of Art") (Art Ref, Table, N31 D5 1996)
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Encyclopedia of World
Art (Art Ref, Table, N31 E533)
Elvehjem Museum publications--(Search
MadCat for exhibit catalogs)
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Handbook of the Collection
(Art Ref, Regular, N582 M22 A6 1990)
Edward Burr Van Vleck
Collection of Japanese Prints (Art Ref, Oversize, NE1321.8
E48 1990)
Subject index to Elvehjem
Bulletin (Art Ref, Table, uncataloged)
Elvehjem Bulletins
are in Art Regular-shelving (NOT Ref), N582 M23 or N582 M231
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Elvehjem website:
http://www.lvm.wisc.edu/
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Major art journal indexes--
Online art encyclopedia:
Create a list of "arts & humanities"
online resources:
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Start at the UW Libraries
homepage http://www.library.wisc.edu
Choose "Subject Guides"
From the left/green bar,
choose "Build Resource Lists by Subject"
Choose some or all of
the check boxes
Use the pull-down menu
to "Select a Subject Area"--choose "Arts &
Humanities"
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Click the "Create
a List" button
Depending on your specific research project, you may find many additional
useful reference resources. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia,
Encyclopedia Judaica, and ATLAS Full-text Plus, a religion
database, could all be useful for iconography research.Search
MadCat for books,
exhibit catalogs, journal titles, and more.
If you need materials that can't be obtained on campus, use Interlibrary
Loan--You can borrow materials directly using:
For more information, see http://www.library.wisc.edu/services/ill.htm
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