ARH297: Topics in Contemporary Art 

Hillyer Art Library Website
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Location of Art Library Materials
Browsing guide to the arrangement of the books, journals, and other resources in Hillyer Art Library.

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Dictionaires, directories, and encyclopedias are a good place to start your research for established contemporary artists. Entries provide basic facts, images, and a bibliography of articles and reviews to start your literature search.

Art Reference N6495.8 .Y68 2009
Younger Than Jesus Artist Directory: The Essential Handbook to a New Generation of Artists. London: Phaidon, 2009.
Each entry presents a very brief biography and several color illustrations of the artist's work. International scope.

Art Reference Oversize N6768  .B83 2006
Buckman, David. Artists in Britain since 1945. 2 vols. Bristol: Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006.

Art Reference N6536 .W5
Who's Who in American art. New York: R. R. Bowker, bi-annual.
Brief biographical entries and directory information for over 11,000 living American artists, art "administrators, conulstants, critics, curators, dealers, historians, educators, lecturers, collectors," etc.

Contemporary Arts Series, St. James Press
Each volume includes entries for 500 to 600 major artists, providing basic biographical information, lists of major commissions, bibliographies of publications by and about each subject, and brief critical and description essays on artists and their works. Titles include:

• Art Reference N6490 .C6567 1996
  Contemporary Artists. Edited by Joann Cerrito. 4th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996.
• Art Reference TR139 .C664 1995
  Contemporary Photographers. Edited by Martin Marix Evans and Amanda Hopkinson. 3rd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995.
• Art Reference N8354.C66 1999
  Contemporary Women Artists. Edited by Laurie Collier Hillstrom and Kevin Hillstrom. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999.

Oxford Art Online
Includes 45,000 articles on every aspect of the visual arts to the present -- individual artists (William Kentridge, Wilson), surveys of major issues, media (Performance Art, Video Art), movements, themes and subjects. Each article is supplemented by a bibliography of major primary and secondary sources and usually includes links to good quality illustrations available on the Internet and in the Art Resource databases. Be sure to consult the List of Abbreviations for titles cited in the bibliographies.