Historical Chicago Tribune
| Reference Sources |
| Dictionary of Art (N 31 .D5) Excellent source for getting your bearings when starting on a new area of research. |
| Encyclopedia of World Art (N31 E533) Tried and true, but not as up-to-the-minute as the Dictionary of Art. |
| Modern Arts Criticism (N 40 .M63) This useful work contains entries covering major modern figures. For example, the entry on Oskar Kokoschka contains an excerpt from an interview with him, an essay by him, an biographical/critical essay on him, a survey of the criticism about him, a bibliography of further reading about him. The bibliography is especially helpful because it makes looking for other information sources much easier. For example, the bibliography lists an article in the January 1980 issue of Arts Magazine on Kokoschka's Still Life with Cat, Rabbit, and Child. The Periodicals Holdings List (about which more in a moment) reveals that we have that issue of Arts Magazine. See below. So we could read that article. |
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| If your artist is British or closely associated with Britain, you might look him/her up in the Dictionary of National Biography (DA 28 .095). For example, Kokoschka has a three page, double columned entry with lots of biographical information (like where he went to high school). But wait, isn't he Austrian? By birth, but Kokoschka emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938. If your artist is American (or closely associated with America), try the American National Biography (CT 213 .A68) |
| Other Reference Sources may be found under the call letter N in the reference shelves. |
| WIU Catalog |
| Try a subject search (see below) first using the last name of your artist (if you are researching an artist). A subject search will lead you to works about the artist. An author search would lead you to books by the artist. |
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| Using Databases |
| Art Abstracts |
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| If the WIU Icon does not appear. |
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| Arts and Humanities Citation Index This search returns 31 records, many of which are not in Art Abstracts. |
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| JSTOR This search returns 141 records. |
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| Sometimes you need to search outside the box. For example, if you are researching "Hitler and art," then you might want to look at the relationship between "fascism and art" or "fascism and culture," etc. Likewise, you might do a search on "National Socialism and art" or "National Socialism and culture." Political Science is the discipline that studies politics. |
| Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This search returns 171 records. |
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Historical Chicago Tribune |
| This database reaches back into the 19th century--as does Readers Guide--and can provide a feeling for the reception a particular artist was having in America. Below is a search for articles about Alexander Calder written before 1960. |
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