Research Guides: Art and Art History: Web Resources

Websites for Art and Art History

There are excellent web resources for art and art history research and study. Many national museums and libraries have online collections, so you will find other relevant resources by searching the Internet for museums in specific countries. The resources linked below were chosen specifically for excellent visual content, but include only resources in English.

AccessCeramics
Excellent image database developed by staff at the Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College in Portland focuses on contemporary ceramic work. Search by method, material, artist name, object type, and even temperature! This is a beautiful site with great inspiration for ceramic artists.
ArtsJournal
A digest of some of the best arts and cultural journalism in the English-speaking world. Each day ArtsJournal features link to stories culled from around the internet, including blogs and more than 200 English-language newspapers, magazines and publications featuring writing about arts and culture.
Bibliography of the History of Art/International Bibliography of Art
A comprehensive tool for Western art history research, provided by the Getty Research Institute.
Chrysler Museum
Search over 30,000 works of art held by the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk.
Cooper Hewitt Museum
The Cooper-Hewitt collection is international in scope, includes both historic and contemporary design, and includes one-of-a-kind and mass-produced items. The collection focuses on drawings, prints and graphic works; product design, textiles, and wall coverings.
Google Arts & Culture
A unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to enable people to discover and view more than a thousand artworks online in extraordinary detail. Create and share your own "collections."
Guggenheim Museum – Online Collections
Excellent resource for the study of international contemporary art and artists.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Over 400,000 works of art, browsable and searchable by artist and collection, all in the public domain.
Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Outstanding resource for research on many art historical periods including ancient Egypt artifacts, Greek and Roman art, Byzantine, Renaissance, Asian and Central Asian art, 19th Century art movements, fashion, weaponry, and many other topics up to the early 20th century.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Excellent resource for contemporary art, artists, and thematic exhibits.
Museum of Modern Art – Online Learning
MoMA's Online Collection
The New Museum
Excellent resource on contemporary art, artists, and cutting-edge thematic exhibits.
Smithsonian Museum of American Art
Excellent collection of material about art and artists in the US from multiple national collections housed at the Smithsonian Institute.
Whitney Museum of American Art – Online Collections
Excellent resource for research on contemporary art and artists in the US.