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Fine Arts: Find Art Images, Video, and Music

This guide provides resources to help you research different forms of art, find images and write about a piece of art.

Holman Library LibGuides

Helpful and informative Holman Library LibGuides:

Videos and DVDs

The DVD cases are stored on the shelves at the south end of the library's second floor. They are arranged alphabetically by title. To find a VHS video, you must search in the Holman Library Catalog. Ask a librarian for assistance.

You can check out two (2) DVDs or VHS videos at a time.

Films on Demand - Art & Architecture

Finding films

Holman Library has 567 digital educational videos about Art & Architecture. You might also try finding films in the database Films on Demand, linked below

CDs

The music CDs are located on the first floor of the library near the Circulation Desk.

Search Widely: General Online Search Tools for Art

Online Collections from Museums


Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5th Ave. & 81st St. Image from the New York Public Library Flickr page. No known copyright restrictions.

Websites of art museums contain an online gallery of many works found in their collection. If you know the name or location of the museum or gallery that owns the artwork you need, it is helpful to access the website of that museum, and look for an image of the artwork there.

Online Collections from Libraries & Other Organizations

Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. 1936 Feb. or Mar. Image from the Library of Congress Flickr page. No known restrictions on publication.

Search Tip: Finding Free Use Images with Google

 Screenshots of Google Images' logoGoogle Images is a great tool to see the work of many photographers. For your presentations, however, the images may not be high enough resolution to project well. It's possible to find useful images with introductory information, and you can even use the advanced settings to limit to works that are in the public domain


Limit your results by Usage Rights

Use the build in tools in Google Images to narrow your search. You can limit by size, colors, type of image, date of image, and best yet, you can limit images by usage rights. By clicking on "Tools" from Google Images' search page, you can then see these advanced searching tools. Remember, all images need citations so don't forget to cite your sources! 

(Click on image to enlarge)

This image shows how to limit to the Usage Rights in Google Images using the Tools feature

Search Tip: Finding Art Images from Print Resources

For many art works, especially famous ones, the greatest assortment of images in one place is likely be a book devoted to the subject.

Artwork by Artist Name

If you know the name of the artist whose work you would like to see, a book about that artist would be a good place to start. 

Artwork by Movement

If you do not know the name of the artist, but you do know what type of artwork you would like to see, books written about specific art movements is a great place to find images.

Artwork by Region and/or Time Period

Sometimes you will need to access images that were created in a certain part of the world and/or artworks that were created during a specific time in history.

For example: