African Studies Portal - UW-Madison Libraries : Art

Art Full Text provides high-quality indexing and abstracts for peer-reviewed journals and art dissertations and indexing for hundreds of thousands of art reproductions. With full-text coverage dating back to 1977, this database also contains resources such as books by and about artists, artist materials and methods, artist interviews and profiles and a database-specific thesaurus. Beyond art studies, Art Full Text rounds out the research experience for those engaged in a multitude of related fields including women's studies, media studies, cultural studies, history and more. (Updated monthly)

ABM covers most aspects of modern and contemporary art, including the design and history of photography. Artists and movements from late nineteenth century Impressionism to the present are included, with an emphasis placed on adding new and lesser-known artists. In addition to traditional media, other media are also covered, including performance art, body art, graffiti, crafts, and calligraphy. The history of photography is covered from its invention in 1839 to the present. ABM abstracts journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, dissertations, and exhibition reviews. (Updated monthly)

ARTstor provides over 1.5 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, along with a suite of software tools for teaching and research. Collections include image contributions from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates. Users can search for images by keyword or browse images by geography, classification or collection. Search results can be sorted or narrowed. Images can be viewed using zoom and pan features. Registered users may print or download images. In addition, images may be organized and saved into groups; and image groups can be shared with other ARTstor users or batch downloaded for use in PowerPoint, KeyNote, or ARTstor's Offline Image Viewer (OIV). NOTE: registered users must be logged in to download images.

The Avery Index is the primary architectural periodical index published in North America. It indexes a broad range of articles on architecture from such diverse fields as archaeology, decorative arts, interior design, landscape architecture, city planning, and housing. Coverage reaches from the 1930s (with selective coverage dating back to the 1860s) to the present. The number of periodicals covered varies from 300-500 annually. (Updated weekly)

Oxford Art Online provides searchable full text for five resources. (1) Grove Art Online contains the searchable full text of the original 34-volume Dictionary of Art (1996), with ongoing revisions and updates. Encyclopedic articles cover all aspects of the visual arts (painting, sculpture, graphics, contemporary art forms such as performance and installation, architecture, decorative arts, and photography) from prehistory to the present. History of film-making is excluded. (2) Benezit Dictionary of Artists is a searchable database including biographical entries and additional information for over 170,000 artists. (3) The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics contains over 600 searchable articles surveying major concepts, thinkers, and debates about the meaning, uses, and value of the arts. Also included in Oxford Art Online are full text of (4) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms and (5) The Oxford Companion to Western Art. (Updates vary)

JSTOR is a full-text journal database which provides access to more than 1,200 titles in the fields of African-American studies, anthropology, architecture, Asian studies, biological sciences, botany, ecology, economics, education, film, finance, folklore, history, language, literature, mathematics, middle east studies, music, philosophy, political science, population/demography, religion, sociology, and statistics. Coverage begins with volume one of each title and continues to within 3 to 5 years of the most current issue, depending on the title. The "moving wall" represents the time period between the last issue available in JSTOR and the most recently published issue of a journal; it is specified by publishers in their license agreements with JSTOR. Graphs, photographs, and other images are included. UW-Madison Libraries have acquired the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XIV; Biological Sciences; Business; Ecology & Botany I-II; Health & General Sciences; Ireland; Language & Literature; Music. (Updated irregularly)

The Art & Life in Africa website, hosted by the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA), is a freely accessible educational resource that is the product of the collaborative efforts of more than fifty scholars, technicians, collectors and institutions around the world.

The organization exists to facilitate communication among scholars, teachers, students, artists, museum specialists, collectors, and all others interested in the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. Its goals are to promote greater understanding of African material and expressive culture in all its many forms, and to encourage contact and collaboration with African and Diaspora artists and scholars.

Commemorative Fabrics from Africa is a collection of machine-made commemorative textiles from various African countries. This collection provides researchers access to digitized fabrics that are printed with images and text documenting events and individuals of historical, political, religious, economic, educational, and sociological significance to African societies. Throughout the continent, fabric serves multiple functions in people’s daily lives. It is used for clothing, shelter, storage, and packing material. The type of African fabric found in this collection also serves as a communication device. When used as a textual and visual document, the fabric becomes a vehicle to commemorate an event or to celebrate a person’s life or achievement. One does not need to know how to read in order to understand the messages found in these textiles. In societies where a large portion of the population cannot read, the visual elements enable everyone to share in the reception and transmission of the message that is being conveyed. In this way, the fabric also serves to preserve historical narratives that are important to the community. The pieces in this collection were graciously donated by UW faculty, staff, students, alumni, and other individuals outside the UW.

This reading list is intended to dispel the notion that nothing has been published on modern African art. It consists primarily of books and exhibition catalogs. It does not include publications on individual artists, but one should be aware that there is a growing body of literature on individual African artists.* This reading list should be used as an entrée into the literature, as a point of departure into a much broader field. It should not be viewed in any way as comprehensive.