Database Highlight #35: We've got the Art for That
Art majors – hands up! This week’s database highlight, Oxford Art Online, is a combination of art history, biographies, form study, and extensive bibliographies. With a recently updated look, Oxford Art Online makes researching art intuitive and easy.
Grove Art Online is the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, covering both Western and non-Western art. First published as the landmark 34-volume Dictionary of Art, edited by Jane Turner, the content of Grove Art encompasses all aspects of visual culture. It features articles about topics as varied as Fauvism and Frida Kahlo, bibliographies for further research, and thousands of searchable images made available through Oxford's partnerships with museums, galleries, and other outstanding arts organizations. - from the vendor
Want to visit the national gallery but aren’t able to swing a trip to D.C.? No worries, the National Gallery of Art is this week’s open site. Browse exhibitions, download images, listen to artist interviews, and more. The site is a stunning example of how the web can bring visual experiences to everyone.
Action Steps
- Search for an artist in Oxford Art Online. You can either use keyword search or browse the People tab. List an interesting fact in the comments.
- “Tour” the National Gallery of Art. Did you find any eye-catching exhibits or collections?
- Is there an artist you’re particularly fond of?
First person to respond gets a set of bookmarks for their library!
Everyone else gets a little rubber ducky.
- Log in to post comments
Comments
Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese painter, grew up in Japan during World War II. She relocated to the US in the late 1950s. She liked to make art out of commonplace items, kind of like what Warhol did. It got a bit wild when she made sculptures 'based on Freudian concepts.' (Accumulations)
Yamamura, M. (2000-12-10). Kusama, Yayoi. Grove Art Online. Retrieved 19 Mar. 2018, from http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.0....
I generally like most art. But of the current exhibitions at the National Gallery, I like the folk art the best (Outliers and American Vanguard Art).
In Oxford Art Online, it said "Van Gogh was active as an artist for ten years, but as a full-fledged painter only five years, during which time he produced some 1000 watercolours, drawings, and sketches and about 1250 paintings ranging from a dark, Realist style to an intense, colourful expressionistic one."
I liked the acquisition highlights that were shown on the National Gallery site:
https://www.nga.gov/collection/recent_acquisitions.html
I am more of a landscape fan, so I liked the acquisition by Herman Saftleven, Imaginary Landscape, 1670.
It is interesting that Georges Seurat 1859-1891 created the art technique of Pointillism (employing a dot or small point of color to create maximum color intensity) in just 8 years from 1883-1891 with 2 of the most famous paintings from the period Bathers At Asnieres and Sunday afternoon On The Island Of the Gran Jatte and died at the very young age of 31 in Paris.
http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.0...
The National gallery is showing some of the lesser know portraits by Cezanne in an exhibition starting on March 25th through July 1st.
https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2018/cezanne-portraits.html
I do not have a favorite artist but prefer 19th art, especially by the Pre-Raphaelites.
Christine Bassett
Does anyone else remember the rhyme “Seurat knew a lot about dots?"