IAIA - Institute of American Indian Arts

Studio Arts – Painting Research

Background Information: Selected Sources Available in the IAIA Library

100 Contemporary Artists REF 709.22 O584 (2 volumes)
Hidden Symbols in Art REF 704.9 C311h
How to Read a Modern Painting REF 759.06 T468h
How to Read a Painting : Lessons From the Old Masters REF 759 R995h
World Painting Index REF 016.75 H388w
American Indian painters; A Biographical Directory REF 709.22 S673a
Modern Arts Criticism REF 701.18 G151m (3 volumes)
St. James Guide to Native North American Artists REF 709.22 S143
The Dictionary of Art REF 703 D554 (34 volumes)

Books

Search the library catalog for books on your topic or thesis, using relevant keywords.

Visit the library’s stacks and browse call number areas:

  • 750- Painting  & paintings
  • 751- Techniques, equipment, forms
  • 752- Color
  • 753- Symbolism, allegory, mythology, legend
  • 754- Genre painting
  • 755- Religion & religious symbolism
  • 756- Human figures & their parts
  • 758- Other subjects
  • 759- Historical, areas, persons treatment

Also check the NC shelves (far right of collection stacks) for non-circulating books in the same call number ranges.

Selected List of Periodicals (located near the Library Study Rooms)

  • American Artist
  • Apollo
  • Art Book
  • Art Bulletin
  • Art in America
  • Art Journal
  • Art Times
  • ArtForum
  • The Artist’s Magazine
  • ARTnews
  • C: International Contemporary Art
  • Indian Artist
  • Raw Vision
  • Southwest Art
  • Surface
  • THE
  • Woman’s Art Journal
  • Works & Conversations

Library Databases (Newspaper & Journal articles)

  • Academic Search Premier: A multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for nearly 4,700 publications.
  • ARTstor: Contains approximately 300,000 images of art, architecture and archeology from a wide range of cultures and time periods.
  • Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA): Comprehensive bibliography of scholarly writing covering European and American visual arts from late antiquity to the present.
  • GALE Cengage —Expanded Academic ASAP: Includes research, reviews, full-text articles.
  • GALE Cengage- Academic OneFile: Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world’s leading journals and reference sources.
  • JSTOR: An electronic archive of full-text articles from Arts & Humanities journals.
  • Project Muse: Scholarly, full-text articles in the arts and humanities.

Search for the Artist’s Own Reflections

Some suggested subject headings to find material presented in the artist’s own words:

  • Use the artist’s name as an author search (last name, first name)
  • Use the artist’s name as a subject search (last name, first name)
  • Combine the artist’s name with these terms
    • correspondence
    • diaries
    • interviews
    • journals

    Note: When searching most databases, it is possible to search the singular and plural forms of terms by using an asterisk (*). For example: diar*, interview*, journal*.

Thinking & Writing About Art

A Short Guide to Writing About Art 808.0667 B261s 2008
Writing About Art 808.06 S275w
Writing for the Visual Arts 808.0667 M478w
The Critique Handbook : A Sourcebook and Survival Guide REF 701.18 B982c

Academics