Research Guides: Latin American Art: Home

Getting started in researching Latin American Art

Try these resources first when beginning your research. This list will assist you with your class assignments, including study of the Mike Mansfield objects in Archives and Special Collections.

Latin American and Caribbean Artists of the Modern Era by Steve Shipp
ISBN: 9780786410576

Publication Date: 2003-01-22

Latin American Art books in our catalog
This link will take you to an index of Latin American Art books in our catalog. You can browse books by clicking on the subject heading links.

Anthropological Literature
Indexes articles, reports, commentaries, and obituaries in anthropology and archaeology, with a focus on Mesoamerican, Native American, and Andean studies. Includes content in English and European languages and is updated quarterly. Access limited to 5 users at a time.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Full text of current newspapers, magazines, and journals from ethnic and minority presses, along with historical archives of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American publications from 1959 to 1989. Coverage includes a wide range of ethnic groups such as African American, Caribbean, African, Arab/Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, European/Eastern European, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native American communities. See also the Diversity Collection to search Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch and Alt-PressWatch in one platform.
Hispanic-American Periodicals Index (HAPI)
Search for Latin American artists or related topics in this database.
JSTOR
Explore over 2,800 academic journals across more than 60 disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Access millions of primary sources from four unique collections: Global Plants, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, and World Heritage Sites: Africa. Discover over 3 million high-quality images from ARTstor, along with a growing library of 10,000+ open access books. Click more… for links to specific collections.

ARTstor on JSTOR
Existing ARTstor logins automatically work on JSTOR. The separate artstor.org platform will be available until Aug 1, 2024, when it is scheduled to be retired.

Open Access books on JSTOR
More than 10,000 open access (OA) books from 125+ publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, University College of London, and University of California Press.

19th Century British Pamphlets
Nearly 26,000 pamphlets from collections in seven universities spanning more than one million pages. Brings together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th-century Britain.

New Collections Added Aug 2023
Thematic Collections
Three collections focusing on emerging areas of research and containing multiple types of content, including journals and open research reports. Collections include:
•Lives of Literature - Academic journals devoted to the deep study of writers and texts associated with core literary movements.
•Security Studies - Academic and open policy research on international and national security problems and foreign policy issues.
•Sustainability - Academic and open policy research on environmental stresses and their impact on society. Looks at sustainability and resilience through a broad lens spanning more than 30 disciplines.

Primary Sources
Global Plants
A growing collection of nearly three million high-resolution type plant specimens and related materials from over 300 community contributors around the world.

Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa
27,000 objects and 190,000 pages of documents and images related to the liberation struggles and end of Apartheid in Southern Africa during the 20th Century, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

World Heritage Sites: Africa
More than 86,000 objects of visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage and rock art sites.
New York Times Historical
(1851-2021) Full text digitized newspaper offering complete, cover-to-cover access.
Washington Post Historical Archive
(1877-2009) Full text digitized newspaper offering complete, cover-to-cover access.

Art Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks

Oxford Art Online
You will need your NetID and password to access this from off-campus. Limited to 3 concurrent users; if you can't get into the database on the first try, then please check back later.

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998. by Chilvers, Ian.
Call Number: 709.04 C538d
North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: from prehistory to the present. NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. by Dubin, Lois Sherr.
Call Number: 739.2708997 D8146n
The Encyclopedia of Art Deco. NY: Knickerbocker Press, 1998.
Call Number: 709.04012 E5638
Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: themes depicted in works of art. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998.
Call Number: 704.903 E5639
American Architecture: an Illustrated Encyclopedia. NY: W.W. Norton, 1998. by Harris, Cyril M.
Call Number: 720.973 H3131a
The Language of Art from A to Z: writ in plain English. Terrebonne, OR: York Books, 1997. by Lahti, N.E.
Call Number: 703 L184L 1997
The Oxford Dictionary of Art. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997.
Call Number: 703 O982 1997
The Wilson Chronology of the Arts. NY: H.W. Wilson Company, 1998. by Ochoa, George.
Call Number: 701.0202 O16w
Art of the 20th Century. NY: Taschen, 1998. by Ruhrberg, Karl.
Call Number: 709.04 A7848

Indexes to Art Periodicals

If you're looking for articles related to art or art history, here is a list of databases to help you get started:

Academic Search Complete
Full text of thousands of academic journals, magazines, and other publications across a wide range of disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and more.
ARTbibliographies Modern
Covers scholarly literature in contemporary art and provides some links to the full text of articles. This resource can be very helpful for locating individual contemporary artists in exhibition catalogs, theses/dissertations, or books.
Art Index Retrospective
Covers art-related magazines and academic journals from 1929-1984. Specific topics range from graphic art to architecture to performing arts and television. Includes some links to full-text of articles.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic)
This is a very helpful resource to consult for locating information on contemporary and living artists. Sometimes, a newspaper article or other news item may be the only authoritative resource on a living artist because their careers are just beginning. In other cases, reading recent criticism or reviews of art exhibitions can be helpful for research as well.
WorldCat (FirstSearch)
Catalog of library resources held by institutions around the world. Find materials and place interlibrary loan requests for resources not owned locally.

Museums and other collections related to Latin American Art

Museum of Latin American Art
This is the home page for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA.
Latino Art Museum
Dedicated to contemporary Latin-American artists, this museum is located in Pomona, CA.
Mexican Museum
Located in San Francisco, CA, this museum houses nearly 16,000 art objects in its permanent collections from before the colonial period to contemporary times.
Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American Art (MoMA)
Have a look at this site that features research resources on Latin American art collections from around New York City.