Below are listed resources to help you locate information on artists. The print resources are all located on the fourth floor of the Mansfield Library in call number order. The majority of them are library-use only due to their nature as reference resources.
Getting started:
Many of the encyclopedias or dictionaries listed here are great places to start your research- especially if you're unfamiliar with an artist and her or his works. Entries on artists cover salient points of their career. More importantly, they feature bibliographies which can lead to more discovery of sources; if you find a book or article that might lead to more information on the artist you are researching, look up the book title in our catalog or see if we subscribe to the journal by doing a journal title search (click on the "Journals" tab after going to the Mansfield Library's home page). You can also try a catalog search using the artist's name. Having trouble spelling an artist's name? Try the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist's Names.
Full text of the Grove Dictionary of Art, with over 30,000 peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of the visual arts. In addition, users can search and access Oxford art reference titles including the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd edition), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Note: The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is not part of the library’s license. Access limited to 3 users.
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