Electronic Resources
The following is a list of some of the art databases that can be of assistance when looking up an artist. They can be found under Articles & Databases from the Library’s website. Please keep in mind that not all will be available outside the Library.
- Interested in what resources you can access from home?
- View our guide: Art Resources from Home
- Interested in a more comprehensive guide to our Electronic Resources?
- View our guide: Electronic Resources at the New York Public Library
- Academic Search PremierA multi-disciplinary database of more than 4,600 magazines and journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. In addition to the full-text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 8,470 journals.
- Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon (AKL)Allgemeines Kunstlerlexikon Online (Artists of the World Online) is a biographical reference guide to artists. It contains up-to-date, authoritative information on over one million artists.
- Ancestry Library EditionAccess billions of names in thousands of genealogical databases including Census and Vital Records, birth, marriage and death notices, the Social Security Death Index, Passenger lists and naturalizations, Military and Holocaust Records, City Directories, New York Emigrant Savings Bank records, and African American and Native American Records. Library version of Ancestry.com.
- Art & Architecture SourceIndexes and abstracts articles from an international selection of periodicals including French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, and English-language journals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Dates of Coverage: Indexing 1984-present, Abstracting 1994-present, Full-text 1997-present.
- ARTbibliographies ModernProvides full abstracts of journal articles, books, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art. Dates of Coverage: 1974-present.
- Artforum ArchiveThe backfile of Artforum contains all issues from 1962 to 2020 reporting on art in all media, featuring reviews, and interviews relating to artists, exhibitions, publications, and other art world events and trends.
- Art Index RetrospectiveIndexes articles in periodicals, yearbooks, and museum publications from 1929 to 1984.
- ARTstorARTstor is a nonprofit resource that provides access to more than one million images in the arts, architecture, and other fields in the humanities and sciences.
- AskARTAskArt covers American artists providing biography, images, citations, museums owning their work, and galleries representing the artist's work. AskART also provides access to auction results.
- Avery Index to Architectural PeriodicalsIndexes articles on architecture in its broadest sense, including archaeology, decorative arts, interior design, furniture, landscape architecture, and city planning and historic preservation from the 1930s to the present.
- Biography and Genealogy Master IndexIndexes biographical listings in print dictionaries and encyclopedias covering millions of individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world. A good resource for researching those who are less well-known or famous. Listings are from English-language biographical dictionaries, subject encyclopedias, and related works. Listings often provide birth and death years, as well as giving the source of the biographical listing, publisher, year of publication, and other pertinent data.
- Biography in ContextProvides biographical information on 650,000+ people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines.
- Credo ReferenceProvides full-text online access to hundreds of multidisciplinary reference book collections, including art, history, law, medicine, psychology, technology, bilingual dictionaries and encyclopedias.
- Frick Art Reference Library Periodicals IndexIndexes more than 150 prominent art history periodicals held by the Frick Art Reference Library, covering Western European and American fine arts and some decorative arts from the 4th-19th centuries.
- JSTORA searchable, digitized archive -- from the first date of publication to the last three to five years -- of major scholarly journals in many academic fields. Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of JSTOR.
- Oxford Art OnlineOxford Art Online offers users the ability to access the vast content of Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms all in one interface.
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersSearchable full-text and page images of all ProQuest Historical Newspaper databases, which include titles related to New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., the American Jewish Newspaper Series, and the United Kingdom. The coverage for certain titles extends up to the present, but does not include the most recent 6-12 weeks, depending on the title.
Get Help
For further assistance in using any of these resources you can contact the Art & Architecture staff by visiting us in Room 300 of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building or through email at art@nypl.org.