Keywords can be combined with other keywords using the word AND to narrow your topic. For example:
Michelangelo AND architecture
portraiture AND painting
Keywords can be combined with synonyms using OR to broaden your search. For example:
Mona Lisa OR La Joconde OR La Gioconda
Before you begin your search, compile a list of potential keywords related to your topic. For example:
Artists such as Ed Ruscha or Michelangelo
Styles and movements such as Art Deco or the Arts and Crafts Movement
Works such as Urban Light or the Sistine Chapel
Subject matter such as still life or landscape
Search for Articles, Books, and Media.
Exhibition catalog:
Strictly speaking, an exhibition catalog is a work published to document an exhibition, and includes a list of works exhibited. It may or may not contain additional information, such as illustrations, introductory essays, analyses of the works of art, biographical information on the artists, etc.
(Cataloging Exhibition Publications: Best Practices: Title and Statement of Responsibility)
These can come in a couple of different flavors: solo and group.
Solo exhibition catalogs focus on the work of a single artist, whereas group exhibition catalogs document an exhibition that features more than one, sometimes several artists. While group exhibition catalogs may contain valuable information about a single artist, it will not likely be very comprehensive.
Example of an exhibition catalog:
Arts from the scholar's studio : catalogue of an exhibition by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong
Artist monograph:
Book publishers use the term "artist monograph" to indicate books dealing with a single artist, as opposed to broader surveys of art subjects.
As the name implies, artist monographs are books about a single artist. They usually highlight the major bodies of work by an artist and often include biographical information and critical essays about the artist. You may have a more difficult time finding artist monographs about younger or emerging photographers.
Example of an artist monograph:
Diane Arbus by Diane Arbus
Catalogue raisonné:
This is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified by third parties.
Catalog raisonnés provide the most comprehensive overview of an artist’s body of work because they seek to document every artwork an artist has ever made, either comprehensively or in a specific medium. For the most part, you will only find catalog raisonnes for very well established artists.
Example of a catalogue raisonné:
Richard Parkes Bonington : the complete paintings by Patrick J. Noon
Noon
N = Visual Art (as a whole)
NA = Architecture
NB = Sculpture
NC = Drawing, Design, Illustration
ND = Painting
NE = Print Media
NK = Decorative arts
NX = Arts in general
TR = Photography
TS = Manufactured products (industrial design, product design, etc.)
TT = Handicrafts, arts and crafts, fashion
