Best Art Resources On-line

Often 'clever', usually entertaining and accessible, always informative, the Artchive is a huge virtual 'museum' with multiple galleries and an extensive arts library. Mark Harden has collected a list of most of the most important critical theory in one section and in another section you will find good quality images of most of the most important works from art history in a well-organized set of galleries with accompanying notes that often qualify as essays. In the 'Juxtapositions' section you will find reviews and some thoughts expressed in various modes of post-modern cross-referencing...

ArtLex is a dictionary of art for everyone interested in art production, collection, or history. You will find articles on thousands of art terms, along with images, pronunciation notes, great quotations, and links to other resources on the Web. Michael Delahunt is at the hub of this extensive resource and has woven a web of meaning that spills beyond the pages he administrates, making ArtLex a portal to the arts on the internet.

Both of these inspiring websites have headed the reading lists I have been handing out to students for years now. They are well designed and the writing is clear. Both sites are run by people who know what they are talking about and the content is well-validated. I suggest these as 'first-ports-of-call' for any web-based research into art and artists.

Another really useful on-line resource is Olga's abc Gallery. Here you will find basic biographies of many important artists along with many good quality scans of their keyworks. The best thing about Olga's is the layout of the galleries: thumbnails arranged in chronological order. So what you get, 'at-a-glance', is a visual history of an artist's work and its development through their careers. They claim to have more than 10,000 images on-line...

The blog to accompany my history of art textbook, Evolution of Western Art, is also a good 'stand-alone' resource that provides a visual chronology of the major developments in western art over several millennia from pre-historic to the twenty-first century!

EVOLUTION OF WESTERN 

ART

To keep up with contemporary art as it happens I like to visit MocoLoco - a lively and continually up-dated blog-style resource that covers contemporary arts, crafts, design, architecture and media. Most of the features are image-based, making this a feast for the eye, but when you see something you like, there are ready made connections to other articles for you to follow along with links to relevant web-sites and resources. There are also well-selected international exhibitions listings with sample pictures.  The MocoLoco layout can be unorthodox - hint: scroll sideways, get lost, enjoy

...and if that is not enough, there is plenty of current arts content at 

 The Guardian | Culture ...