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Art History and Visual Arts

Exhibition & collection catalogs

Locate exhibition and collection catalogs, as well as handbooks, using a variety of searching strategies.  

 
Museum catalogs
  • Search as an author using the name of the museum or gallery.

Handbooks
  • Use a keyword search adding "handbook," "guide" or "collection" to the name of the museum.

example: Smart Museum of Art collection
 

Exhibition catalogs
  • For catalogs that  feature the works of individual artists, search for the artist's name as a keyword or subject with the word "exhibitions"
  • Exhibition venues are often named in subject terms, for example, Musee du Louvre.
     
  • Try searching by publisher for gallery catalogs, for example, Gagosian Gallery
     
  • Find thematic exhibition catalogs using a combination of subject and key word terms, for example:
    World War, 1914-1918  and posters and exhibitions

Catalogues raisonnes

A catalogue raisonne is a comprehensive catalog of an artist's work.

  • To cast the widest net for catalogues raisonnes, do a keyword search for the artist's name plus the word "raisonne".

example: picasso raisonnes

  • If a catalogue raisonne doesn't exist for your artist, try a keyword search using complete works to find the most comprehensive catalog or monograph on the artist.

example: duchamp complete works

  • Browse by artist (last name, first name) as subject to see a list of our holdings broken down by date, topic and format.