Ask us!

Design Drawing I - INTR110 - Smith

Research Techniques

Start with a broad search, like "Abstract Expressionism" to learn more about the topic and help you choose an artist to focus on.
Keywords - Instead of typing in a full sentence, use only the most important terms from your question or thesis.
- Example: "When was Mark Rothko born?" vs. Mark Rothko biography, or even just Mark Rothko
Advanced search techniques - Strategies to focus or broaden your search
- AND: Combines both/all of your search terms or phrases
- "Quotation marks": Searches for a phrase in the exact order you type
- Example: "Mark Rothko" AND "New York"

Library Resources

Your assignment requires you to find three different types of information or content:

a brief history and overview of Abstract Expressionism
a brief overview and analysis of your chosen Abstract Expressionist artist
gathering 10-20 high resolution images

Each may be found in different types of sources and different databases.

High-resolution images

Locating high quality digital images with info about the original artwork that are licensed for use by others is harder than you think! The library database Artstor contains over 2.5 million images that have been rights-cleared for educational use.

ArtStor This link opens in a new window
An image database with images from some of the world’s leading museums, photo archives, scholars and artists including many rare and important collections. (Please be aware Artstor will be retired on August 1, 2024. All content will be moved to JSTOR.)
All images have comprehensive metadata and all content is rights-cleared for educational use. Images can be found for topics such as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, fashion & costume, literature, religion, theater, and world history.

Overview of Abstract Expressionism and artist

Background information is found in reference sources like encyclopedias. RVCC has online "research starter" databases that will provide you with background info:

Biography In Context This link opens in a new window
A Gale database that covers historically significant figures to present-day newsmakers by offering authoritative reference content alongside magazine and journal articles, primary sources, videos, audio podcasts, and images.
It contains more than 650,000 biographical entries covering more than 400,000 international figures from all time periods and areas of study The database is continuously updated with full-text articles are drawn from hundreds of periodicals and newspapers, including The New York Times, USA Today, Daily Mail (London), and Globe and Mail (Canada).
Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedic resource with full-text, non-scholarly articles.
Articles are from Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and Britannica Book of the Year. Great for overview information, access to current statistics, a world atlas and current news plus links to primary sources such as world treaties, doctrines and official documents.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
If you receive a "Connection refused by search.credoreference.com, please try again later" error message, please refresh your browswer to continue to Credo Reference.To avoid seeing this error, it is best to clear your browser's cache.

This is an online collection of over 950 titles with particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks as well as short reference videos, art images, and additional images across all subject areas. As subject coverage is diverse, this is a good place to begin a topic search before formal research.

Analysis and Critique

Critical discussions of an artist and their work can be found in a variety of types of resources:

Magazine and news articles will provide a commentary meant for the general public.
Scholarly articles, written by experts in a field of study, will contain advanced analyses intended for others who are knowledgeable about a topic.
Books can provide a broad look at a topic or person, or offer in-depth information on a particular aspect.

The following RVCC Library resources are recommended for analytical and critical art research:

RVOneSearch This link opens in a new window
RVOneSearch provides access to most of the information contained in many of the library's databases plus the RVCC library catalog.
It is a great place to begin your research with select key words to obtain a list of articles available throughout multiple databases as well as books, ebooks and websites accessible through RVCC’s library. Many limiters are available to modify your search such as full-text only, peer reviewed (scholarly), specific date ranges, or a specific database or source type.
Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
An EBSCO database for art students and art historians featuring full-text articles, indexing and abstracts from many publications covering topics from fine, decorative and commercial art to photography, folk art, film and architecture.
In addition to providing full-text articles from periodicals, this database provides 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.
Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
A ProQuest database covering subjects within the arts.
Subjects include contemporary art, design, crafts, photography, archaeology, anthropology and classical studies, architecture, interior design, urban planning, history, philosophy, geography, religion, modern languages and literature, music, theater, film studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

This database is supportive of studio art and design courses and students can access images and other information about contemporary art practice as well as resources on art from history, sociology, philosophy and cultural studies journals. The database includes over 500 titles, with mostly full-text access from the 1970s to present from both scholarly peer-reviewed journals and selected trade and consumer titles relevant to applied arts and cultural studies.
Fine Arts & Music Collection This link opens in a new window
A Gale database that provides access to scholarly journals and magazines that support research in areas including drama, music, art history, and filmmaking with many arts related topics such as art therapy, dance, elementary music education, advanced music theory, and the feminist film movement.
The database emphasizes full-text content for publications included in the Wilson Art Index and Repertoire International de Lietterature Musicale (RILM) bibliography. This is a good resource for studio art and visual arts students, art history students, dance, film and music students.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary, scholarly database containing digitized back issues of academic journals, books, primary sources, and current issues of journals.
It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals on a variety of subjects including history, science, literature, music, philosophy, world culture and business.
New York Times Digital This link opens in a new window
Access the New York Times online for 24/7 individual mobile access to nytimes.com, including the historical archives back to 1851. Individual accounts are available for all faculty, students, and staff at Raritan Valley Community College.
Instructional Resources for Faculty- In addition to campus-wide access to nytimes.com,RVCC has campus-wide access to the value-added InEducation academic resources available at www.nytimesineducation.com Please create your account and log in to access the features available from NYTimes In Education.
Proquest Newsstand (US Newsstream) This link opens in a new window
This ProQuest database contains news content including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune.
This is a ProQuest database entitled U.S. Newsstream that enables users to search current U.S. news content, as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s. It features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, and news sites in full-text format. It provides key national and regional news sources from the U.S. and includes exclusive and preferred access to top titles, All titles are cross searchable on the ProQuest platform.

Abstract Expressionist books and streaming video in RVCC Catalog
Books and videos in the RVCC Books & Media Catalog on the subject Abstract Expressionism.