Collins Memorial Library: ARTH 325 The Cutting Edge: Modern and Contemporary Art and Global Contexts: Books & More

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Scholarly books can also be excellent sources for establishing historical and cultural issues, locating background information, or placing your topic in context with related issues.

Primo

Primo is a good starting point for finding books, articles, and other sources available through Collins Library and 39 Summit libraries.

Search Primo

Copy and paste the suggested search terms to find sources:

"Art American 20th Century"
"Art Modern 20th Century"
Art European 20th Century"

Search tip:

Search the artist's name and the phrase "criticism and interpretation" to find analytical sources.

Call Numbers to Browse

If you're interested in a broad art topic, or would like to browse for inspiration, try one of these Library of Congress call letters. The Ns are located on the third floor, while CC is on the lower level and TR is on the fourth floor.

N: Visual Arts
NA: Architecture
NB: Sculpture
NC: Drawing, Design, Illustration
ND: Painting
NE: Print media
NK: Decorative Arts
NX: Arts in general

CC: Archaeology
TR: Photography

Locations of books

Print Reference books are on the main floor across from the Learning Commons area.
Oversize books are on the lower level across from Technology Services.
Book stacks: Consult the library map; look for location posters; or ask any staff member for help!

Museum Bulletins

Museum bulletins, technically, aren't books but serials but they are useful sources about artworks. They generally feature articles about museum exhibitions, programs, operations, and may include lists of new acquisitions as well as in-depth articles about select pieces from the collection. They are useful for establishing provenance of artworks and establishing context for the acquisition of pieces in museums. Museum curators are scholars in their own right and can provide cultural, historical, and artistic context for artworks.

Bulletins for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston MFA), the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and the Art Institute of Chicago are available via JSTOR. A number of museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum, offer their bulletins online now through their institutional websites.

Catalogs

There are two types of catalogs found in Primo: exhibition catalogs and catalogues raisonnees.

Exhibition Catalogs Uses:

Introductory essays may provide current thinking and new discoveries on the topic
Excellent source for images and a bibliography of sources
May include artist biography and timeline

Catalogues Raisionnes Uses:

Reproductions
Authentication
Critical assessment
Scholarly essays
Bibliography

Suggested search terms for finding catalogs in Primo:

"Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Exhibitions"
"catalogues raisonnes"

Search tip for finding artists in group exhibition catalogs:

Contemporary Artists Index
Developed by the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Contemporary Artists Index indexes approximately 20,000 artists, artists groups, photographers, craftspeople, designers, and design firms whose work appears in group exhibition catalogs since 1991.

Below are a few examples of catalogs from the library collection.

Kara Walker by Kara Elizabeth Walker (Illustrator); Ian Berry (Editor); Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery Staff (Contribution by); Williams College Museum of Art Staff (Contribution by); Darby English (Editor); Vivian Patterson (Editor); Mark Reinhardt (Editor)
Call Number: Print Books NX512.W36 A4 2003
ISBN: 9780262025409
Publication Date: 2003-04-01
This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and the Williams College Museum of Art, presents a comprehensive overview of Walker's work, beginning with her first cut-paper wall installation, Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart(1994).
Antony Gormley by Antony Gormley (Illustrator); Michael Mack; Richard Noble (Text by)
Call Number: Print Books NB497.G65 A4 2007
ISBN: 9783865210296
Publication Date: 2007-07-01
Over the past 20 years, the sculptor Antony Gormley has created some of the most memorable and controversial public art installations in Britain, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Mexico, Australia and China. His work has focused on the human figure and each piece is either cast directly from his own body or one of his volunteer models. This catalogue raisonne is the definitive guide to Gormley's career.
Latin American and Caribbean Art by Miriam Basilio; Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Staff (Contribution by); Fatima Bercht; Deborah Cullen; Gary Garrels; Luis Enriq Perez-Oramas
Call Number: Print Books N6502.5 .L37 2004
ISBN: 0870704605
Publication Date: 2004-03-02
MoMA at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art is, as the title suggests, an exhibition highlighting artworks selected from this major collection. But it is so much more: A collaborative effort between the two New York museums, this exhibition and accompanying catalogue present over 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and illustrated books produced by artists from Latin America and the Caribbean, selected from MoMA. Notably, it is this very collection that has created the paradigm of "Latin American Art" and has helped shape the ever-burgeoning art historical and cultural studies in this area, both in the United States and abroad. The curators' introductory texts provide analyses of the collection within the broader context of modern art in Latin America; a history of the development of the collection focusing on major acquisitions, groundbreaking exhibitions, and influential curators and staff involved in the formation and study of the collection; and discuss the curatorial premises for MoMA at El Museo. Short essays follow on key works added in each phase of the collection's growth, examples of which include work by Diego Rivera, Jos Clemente Orozco, Antonio Berni, and David Alfaro Siqueiros in the 1930s; Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Matta, Roberto Berdecio, and Wifredo Lam in the 1940s; Rafael Montanez Ortiz, Jesus Raphael Soto, Marisol, and Fernando Botero in the 1960s; and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Los Carpinteros, and Vik Muniz today.

Examples of Books on 20th Century Art

Conceptual Art by Michael Corris (Editor)
Call Number: Print Books N6768.5.C63 C66 2004
ISBN: 9780521823883
Publication Date: 2003-12-15
Conceptual art was a loose collection of related practices that emerged worldwide during the 1960s and 1970s. It continues to be relevant to contemporary art and remains a lively topic of debate. The most striking features of conceptual art are its de-emphasis on the importance of the art object and its understanding of the role of language in shaping our knowledge of the world and our conception of art. This collection of essays deals with the issues that animated Conceptual art in the anglophone world. It offers readers a wealth of research on the earliest international exhibitions of Conceptual art, interpretation of some of its most important practitioners, and a consideration of the relationship between conceptual art and the intellectual and social context of the 1960s and 1970s. Of special note are the contributions focusing on the explicitly social and political aspirations of this influential avant-garde artistic practice.
Women of Abstract Expressionism by Joan Marter (Editor); Gwen F. Chanzit (Introduction by); Robert Hobbs (Contribution by); Ellen G. Landau (Contribution by); Susan Landauer (Contribution by); Irving Sandler (Other Primary Creator)
Call Number: Print Books ND212.5.A25 W66 2016
ISBN: 9780300208429
Publication Date: 2016-06-14
The celebrated survey of female Abstract Expressionist artists revealing the richness and lasting influence of their work The artists Jay DeFeo, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and many other women played major roles in the development of Abstract Expressionism, which flourished in New York and San Francisco in the 1940s and 1950s and has been recognized as the first fully American modern art movement. Though the contributions of these women were central to American art of the twentieth century, their work has not received the same critical attention as that of their male counterparts. Women of Abstract Expressionism is a long-overdue survey. Lavishly illustrated with full-color plates emphasizing the expressive freedom of direct gesture and process at the core of the movement, this book features biographies of more than forty artists, offering insight into their lives and work. Essays by noted scholars explore the techniques, concerns, and legacies of women in Abstract Expressionism, shedding light on their unique experiences. This groundbreaking book reveals the richness of the careers of these important artists and offers keen new reflections on their work and the movement as a whole.
Dada and Surrealism by Matthew Gale; Etienne Menanteau (Translator); Dagmar Welle-Skitt (Translator)
Call Number: Print Books NX456.5.D3 G35 1997
ISBN: 9780714832616
Publication Date: 1997
This stimulating introductory survey traces the origins and development of these two roughly parallel revolutionary twentieth-century art movements, exploring the full range of artistic production, including film, photography, collage, painting, graphics and object making.
Iridescent Light by Deloris Tarzan Ament; Mary Randlett (Photographer)
Call Number: Pacific Northwest Room N6530.W2 A43 2002
ISBN: 9780295981475
Publication Date: 2003-12-01
In and around Seattle in the 1930s and 1940s, there emerged a group of artists who came to be known informally as the Northwest School. With no manifesto and no sense of group identity, they had little in common beyond poverty and the drive to make art in a way that was true to their inner being and their environment.