W20: Cooks - Contemporary African American Art - Art History - Research Guides at University of California Irvine

FREE WEB SOURCES

Artist Websites & Gallery/Museum Sites - what to look for:

Artist biographies
Artist statements
Detailed artist CV (often lists: awards, education, group/solo exhibitions, residencies, and sometimes bibliographies)
Press releases
High resolution photos of artist works

Online Platforms & Blogs - what to look for:

Artist interviews
Reviews
Columns
Art sales

A full list of various websites & blogs that cover areas of contemporary art is available here. A few that may be of interest are below:

Arts.Black
Arts.Black is a forum for art criticism from Black perspectives predicated on the belief that art criticism should be an accessible dialogue – a tool through which we question, celebrate, and talk back to the global world of contemporary art. The journal is edited by Taylor Renee and Jessica Lynne. Includes essays, reviews, and interviews.
ArtSy
An online platform for collecting and discovering contemporary art. Artsy's search engine and database draw connections and map relationships among works of art.
Arts for LA
Major contemporary art destination and the leading provider of premium artist, artisan and photographers websites. The mission of Artspan is to serve the entire visual arts community.
HyperAllergic
Hyperallergic is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking."

ARTICLES & EXHIBITION REVIEWS

Exhibition reviews and artist interviews are excellent sources for researching emerging artists who are not yet represented in peer-reviewed scholarly literature. You'll be able to find these in many of the library's online newspaper and art databases. For help with navigating and effective searching, please don't hesitate to make an appointment with the visual arts librarian. It's what I'm here for!

News Databases

AltPress Watch (2000-Current)
Alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Ethnic Newswatch
Articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America.
Los Angeles Times* (1986-Present)
Access to the full text of the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times* (Historical, 1881-1986)
If you're researching an artist who was active in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, try searching here.

Article Databases

Art Source* (1929-Present)
Over 640 full-text journals and more than 225 full-text books.
ARTbibliographies Modern* (1974-Present)
ARTbibliographies Modern contains abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews from 1974 on. The scope ranges from Impressionism in the late 19th century up to current works and trends.
Black Studies Center*
Black Studies Center combines several resources: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), historic black newspapers, and the Black Literature Index.
International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text (IIBP)*
Part of the Black Studies Center. IIBP includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from scholarly journals and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean, and full-text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. Coverage is international in scope and multidisciplinary, spanning cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues of vital importance to the Black Studies discipline.
Independent Voices (1960s-1980s)
Ongoing digitization project. Will include 1,000 alternative magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers. Coverage: 1960s-1980s

BOOKS & EXHIBITION CATALOGS

Exhibition Catalogs

Exhibition catalogs are books published to compliment a gallery or museum exhibition. They often include introductory essays, footnotes, a bibliography, and other critical discourse. For more information, visit the Exhibition Catalogs page on this guide. When searching in the Library Search or Melvyl: type the artist name (or collective) and the keyword "exhibitions" to narrow down your search results.