Art Appreciation and Techniques/Course guide/Links to art resources

Many learning activities and assignments in this course ask you to visit various websites, including artist home pages and online galleries. You will find links to these resources throughout the course. To support your coursework, use these links and others you find on your own, and do some research locally. For example, in your community, you can visit a gallery, go to an exhibition, and/or attend an art opening.

To incorporate images in your assignments, please check the associated rights on the website or web page where you located the image. Also, you may want to find out the rules, where you live, regarding copyright of materials used for private research and study. A local public, school, or university librarian may be able to assist you with your questions about copyright and whether you can reuse, in your own work, the images you find online.

Suggestions for new resources that broaden the scope and cultural content of the links are especially welcome. You can contact the course redevelopment team at Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning, by writing your suggestions on the discussion for this page (click the discussion tab, above).

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Images available under Creative Commons

 * Using Creative Commons Licensed Images: Information about Creative Commons and how to attribute works under such licenses
 * WikiMedia Commons: Millions of images under CC licenses or public domain
 * Public Domain Images: Links to numerous collections of public domain images from the WikiMedia Commons
 * Creative Commons image search: Links to CC images in multiple repositories

General collections

 * Google images: A comprehensive search engine for images
 * Artcyclopedia: Good general art site, with mostly image links to museums

Africa

 * African Art: Death and Rebirth: Sculpture images and text describing ritual beliefs from African cultures; includes themes other than African
 * Art of Burkina Faso Africa: Information and links to images of unique African masks, costumes, and decorations from tribes in the Burkina Faso region of Africa

Architecture

 * Cities and Buildings Collection: Over 5000 architectural images maintained by the architecture department at the University of Washington.
 * Frank Gehry sketches: Initial sketches of building design ideas by architect Frank Gehry.
 * Green Architecture and Environmental Design: A good resource from University of Missouri.
 * Digital Archives of American Architecture: 1,500 digitized images of American Architecture, styles and descriptions. From Boston College.
 * Campus Center for Appropriate Technology: Resource for sustainable technologies. From Humboldt State University.
 * Modern Architecture in the Middle East: “Two Cities, Four Architects” offers four short interviews with contemporary architects working on building projects in Doha and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. From the New York Times webpage.

Art History

 * Bradshaw Foundation: Excellent source for images and information on prehistoric rock art, Cycladic figures, the Pyramids, ancient temples, and geometric signs
 * Art History Links: An amazing collection of links specific to sites related to the practice of art history; many contain written, not visual, information
 * Web Gallery of Art: Good reference for lots of art history images
 * Smarthistory: A free and open, not-for-profit, art history textbook that uses multimedia to deliver unscripted conversations between art historians about the history of art
 * The Art Story: Movements, artists, theory, and the progression of art history

Asia

 * Book of the Dead: Literature and artwork on prayer, ritual, and meditation from the religious traditions of Tibet, India, and Nepal, from the Special Collections Department at the University of Virginia Library.

Contemporary

 * ART 21: Includes interviews with major contemporary artists, studio visits and explanations of their work.
 * Mark Hardin's Artchive: Great link with alphabetical listing of artists, mostly contemporary and historical European.
 * Saatchi Gallery, London: Cutting edge contemporary art, plus a site where any artist can post their work.
 * The Starn Studio: Website of contemporary American artists Mike and Doug Starn. Photographs and installations.
 * The Berardo Collection: Extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.

Europe

 * National Galleries of Scotland: Extensive collection of artwork from many cultures and time periods.
 * Edvard Munch Museum: Image database for many of Munch’s paintings and prints.
 * Francis Bacon Estate: A website devoted to the images and explanations of the important and idiosyncratic English painter.
 * Galleria Borghese: Rome. Images from the collection, including Giolorenzo Bernini’s sculpture of David.
 * Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice: Home page for the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice, Italy. Good collection of modern art.
 * The Louvre Museum: One of the world’s great museums. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa resides here.
 * Claremont Colleges Digital Library:Includes prints by Goya and other important works of art.

Islamic Art

 * Islamic art collection: An extensive collection of Islamic art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Library databases
For access to these sites, please check with your campus library or public library
 * ARTstor: Nearly one million images here.
 * CAMIO: 95,000 images of all kinds.
 * JStor: Includes more than a thousand academic journals and over 1 million images, letters, and other primary sources, a trusted source for academic content.

Middle East

 * Modern Architecture in the Middle East: “Two Cities, Four Architects” offers four short interviews with contemporary architects working on building projects in Doha and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. From the New York Times webpage.

North America

 * Day of the Dead Celebration: History and images from the Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” celebration.
 * Mayan Temples: An excellent site for historical information about the Temples of Palenque in Mexico.
 * Nuxalk Sun Mask: Image and context for the Mask of the Sun from British Columbia Nuxalk culture.
 * The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: U.S. National art museum.
 * Seattle Art Museum:
 * Museum of Modern Art New York: A treasure trove of modern art.
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art: Extensive collection database from many cultures and time periods.
 * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: An extensive digital collection with text information.
 * Currier Museum of Art: A smaller museum in Manchester, NH with a fantastic collection, much of it online.
 * Henry Art Gallery: The art repository of the University of Washington. An extensive image database and excellent search system.
 * Burke Museum: Artwork database from their ethnology collections. Administered through the University of Washington.
 * Traditional Fine Arts Organization Resource Library: Online publication and categories for American representational art.
 * Milwaukee Art Museum: O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes]: Paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe from her personal collection.
 * Maya Lin Storm King Wavefield NYT: New York Times article with slideshow of Maya Lin’s earthwork Wave Field.
 * Architectural Styles of America: From Colonial to Post Modern. Northern Arizona University website.
 * Albright - Knox Art Gallery: Collections database and more. Buffalo, New York.
 * University of Washington Libraries: Digital collections.
 * The Wadsworth Atheneum: Official website of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Search their collection from here.
 * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Access to the museum’s collection.
 * The Getty Research Institute: Digital database for works of art, photographs and art related research.
 * Brooklyn Museum: Digital database from one of the country’s oldest and largest museums.
 * Sandy Skoglund Studio: The official site with source information, images and installation works categorized by date. An important American photographer and installation artist.
 * The Estate of Eva Hesse: The authoritative site for biographical information and extensive number of works of this groundbreaking artist. Works include drawings, paintings and sculpture.

Photography

 * History of Photography: Offers an overview of photography and links to 30 specific photographs from 1827 to 1991.
 * Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation: Source for biography and selections from the portfolio of this American photographer’s work.

Miscellaneous

 * Design Notes: Gestalt: Gestalt theory explained with examples for 2-D design applications.
 * Beverly Buchanan Artworks: Oil stick drawings by American Beverly Buchanan.
 * All Together Now: A digital collaborative and interactive music project.
 * AIDS Quilt Information Website
 * What is a Print?: Interactive tutorial on printmaking processes, with images. Created by the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
 * Gee's Bend Quilts: This site is maintained by Auburn University and contains extensive information on the quilts and quilt makers from a rural community in Alabama, United States.