Assignment 1 – Art Library Specialties

Catalogues Raisonnés

What is a catalogue raisonné:

·         A catalogue raisonné is a scholarly compilation of an artist's body of work — they are critical tools for researching the provenance and attribution of artwork[i]

·         They have long been considered the definitive source for attribution and provenance information on the work of a particular artist[ii]

·         Typically contain:

o   Provenance information for each work – an an unbroken history of ownership from the present owner back to the artist-creator

o   Complete bibliographic references and exhibition histories

o   Physical descriptions

o   Conservation and other technical information

o   May also contain critical essays concerning the artist's life and influences, the artist’s work and its development over his or her lifetime, and any questions of authenticity[iii]

·         Most are arranged chronologically with each work of art numbered for reference[iv]

History:

·         The biographies of artists have been a primary approach to documenting and understanding works of art since the beginnings of art history as a discipline

o   As early as Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists in 16^th century Italy[v]

·         When the sales of artworks began growing in the 17^th century, and with the founding of art museums in the 18^th century, the demand for stricter and more precise documentation developed[vi]

o   The development of catalogues raisonnés is closely linked to the growth of auction catalogs[vii]

o   This resulted in an improvement in the accuracy of information and the subsequent creation of catalogues raisonnés[viii]

·         The term “catalogue raisonné” is believed to have originated in Paris in the 1720s[ix]

o   Edme-Francois Gersaint, dealer and friend of the French Rococo artist Watteau, was the pioneer user of the term for catalogs of art collections

§  His first was titled: Catalogue raisonné de coquilles et autres curiosités naturelles[x]

o   In 18th century Paris, catalogues raisonnés were typically catalogs of single collections including many artists – There is a later movement in the history of catalogues raisonnés to begin including the works of a single artist across multiple collections[xi]

Why they are important:

·         An authoritative catalogue raisonné can greatly affect:

o   scholarly opinions about authenticity

o   the market value of a work of art[xii]

·         Distinctive and important elements of a catalogue raisonné:

o   Organizational order

o   Detailed information about the physical and contextual aspects of a work of art

o   Credibility

Primary users:

·         Academic researchers: an essential scholarly tool

·         Dealers and Collectors: source of authoritative provenance and authentication information[xiii]

Important issues:

·         Catalogues raisonnés are essential tools in an art library – however they are costly[xiv]

·         Digitizing catalogues raisonnés and making them available online raises several important issues (see section below)

Catalogues raisonnés and the online world:

·         Advantages of online catalogues raisonnés:

o   Greater accessibility

o   Updatability

o   Enhanced search functionalities

o   More flexible to interact with

§  Full text searching, hyper-linking, automated indexing or tagging[xv]

·         Concerns with online catalogues raisonnés:

o   Preservation – format and software obsolescence

o   Image quality

o   Legal issues – permissions and copyright[xvi]

o   Establishing authority in a digital medium[xvii]

·         The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. hosts the Gemini G.E.I. (Graphic Editions Limited) Online Catalogue Raisonné

o   The National Gallery of Art claims that their online accessible catalogue raisonné, which was launched in 2011, was the first of its kind[xviii]

o   “The Gemini G.E.L. online catalogue raisonné represents the works published by Gemini G.E.L. from 1966, the year it was established, through 2005. Because numerous works have been published by this thriving, energetic workshop since 2005, the catalogue should be seen as a work in progress, with further images and catalogue entries to be added as they are compiled.”[xix]

o   This is an example of an online catalogue raisonné that documents the body of works of a specific group of artists – in this case, the works produced by Gemini G.E.I.

·         The International Foundation of Art Research provides an online electronic resource for scholars and researchers to aid them in their search of an artist’s body of work

o   They provide their users with a searchable database of published catalogues raisonnés, as well as catalogues in preparation – these two databases can be searched separately or together and are updated regularly[xx]

Bibliography:

Atwater, Emily. “The Changing From of the Catalogue Raisonné: Hurdles of Transitioning from Print to Web.” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 31 (fall 2012): 186-198.

Currie, Gillian. “The Most Important Resource.” In Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship, edited by Joan M. Benedetti, 211-214. USA: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007.

Franklin, Jonathan “From Inventory to Virtual Catalog: Notes on the ‘Catalogue Raisonné’.” Art Documentation 22 (2003): 41–45.

Gemini G.E.I. Online Catalogue Raisonné: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. “Guide.” 2015. http://www.nga.gov/gemini/guide.htm.

Hill, Cheryl. “Useful Publications: Catalogues Raisonnés.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 34 (2008): 62-64.

International Foundation of Art Research. “Catalogues Raisonnés.” 1998-2015. https://www.ifar.or g/cat_rais.php.

Montero, Gustavo Grandal. “Catalogues Raisonnes.” Art Resources Online, December 9, 2012. Accessed September 30, 2015. https://artresourcesonline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/catalogues-raisonnes/.

 Weidman, Jeffery. “Auction Catalogs in Art Museum Libraries.” In Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship, edited by Joan M. Benedetti, 105-113. USA: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007.

---

[i] International Foundation of Art Research, “Catalogues Raisonnés,” 1998-2015, https://www.ifar.org/cat_rais.php.

[ii] Emily Atwater “The Changing From of the Catalogue Raisonné: Hurdles of Transitioning from Print to Web,” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 31 (fall 2012): 186.

[iii] Cheryl Hill “Useful Publications: Catalogues Raisonnés,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 34 (2008): 62.

[iv] Hill, 64.

[v] Hill, 62.

[vi] Jeffery Weidman, “Auction Catalogs in Art Museum Libraries,” In Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship, ed. Joan M. Benedetti (USA: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007), 106.

[vii] Jonathan Franklin, “From Inventory to Virtual Catalog: Notes on the ‘Catalogue Raisonné’,” Art Documentation 22 (2003): 41.

[viii] Weidman, 106.

[ix] Franklin, 41.

[x] Ibid, 41-42.

[xi] Ibid, 43.

[xii] Hill, 64.

[xiii]Gustavo Grandal Montero, “Catalogues Raisonnes,” Art Resources Online, December 9, 2012, accessed September 30, 2015, https://artresourcesonline.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/catalogues-raisonnes/.

[xiv] Gillian Currie, “The Most Important Resource,” In Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship, ed. Joan M. Benedetti (USA: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007), 213.

[xv] Montero, “Catalogues Raisonnes.”

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] Atwater, 186

[xviii] Curie, 213.

[xix] Gemini G.E.I. Online Catalogue Raisonné: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. “Guide.” 2015. http://www.nga.gov/gemini/guide.htm.

[xx] “Catalogues Raisonnés,” https://www.ifar.org/cat_rais.php.

Museum world in the news

Max Anderson has surprised the art world with his sudden announcement of his departure from the Dallas Museum of Art where he has been the Director for about four years. See more here.

Lee Rosenbaum (aka Culture Grrl) is someone whose blog you might be interested in following. A few days ago she wrote a very interesting article in the WSJ about technology in museums - do take a look at it! The result has been a flurry of angry tweets - you can see her summary here.

Blog Entry #1: Digital Image Resources

"It can be expected that when iconographical research collections are transformed from manual, card-based files to online databases, users will have to become familiar with many different online retrieval system interfaces and access techniques, especially in view of the proliferation of separate, specialized databases" (Markey, 1988, p. 173). Such was the prediction of Karen Markey when she wrote in 1988 about the idiosyncrasies of iconographical research collections, as she referred to them, and the challenges that arose with any attempt to standardize information about their holdings across institutions. As she intuited, new and unforeseen challenges would present themselves when these image resource databases went digital.

The term "digital image resources" may seem obvious and unnecessary to define, but it is worth noting a distinction made on the website of the Visual Resources Association. When users search for digital image resources, they are looking for "high quality images with accurate colors and trustworthy metadata" (Schoen, 2013). The users in question are students, professors, information professionals, and any other parties whose work would depend on digital surrogates of an object represented as accurately as possible. These are not tourists' vacation snapshots of a famous painting, but photography of the highest possible caliber, with thorough metadata to match.

So what do these digital image resources look like? In 2011, an article by Teresa Slobuski appeared in Art Documentation that gave a brief background of the resources that began to appear in the late 1990s, when cultural heritage organizations systematically began to digitize their collections and put them online. As Slobuski noted, the impetus was financial for both subscription databases that had already been around in the days that Markey was writing, and for new subscription databases that were founded in the digital days (Slobuski, 2011, p. 49). In response to commercial databases, libraries and museums followed, determined to make their collections available to the world with the best possible metadata and organization. Slobuski focused on two commercial databases that are major resources for art history students in universities, Bridgeman Art Library and ARTstor. Bridgeman is an offshoot of an earlier, pre-digital program, but ARTstor has existed since the switch. Both work with universities and art collections to provide the accurate, high-quality images and metadata that the VRA recommends.

Interestingly, Slobuski reports on collection access and maintenance issues that probably would not have surprised Markey at all. Her study shows that the interfaces for these two databases are not always easy to use and do not help researchers return the greatest number of accurate results possible. Additionally, as in the pre-digital days, students in particular do not know how to use the best search terms that the databases require for accurate results. The most troubling issue she raises, however, is that commercial databases use incomplete or ambiguous metadata in ways that information professionals would never do (p. 55). Slobubski notes that cataloging needs to be done comprehensively and in standard fashion, which is something the VRA has already worked on intensively, even before 2011. Maintenance will be difficult, however, in creating better metadata and access terms for images that are already online, especially if they are protected by commercial rather than educational interests. Art librarians and other information professionals must be vigilant, and ready to contribute and collaborate.

Where can these digital image resources be found? While there are certainly a plethora of paid subscription databases, including the two already mentioned, there are also many effective open access resources. Two very recent and prominent ones are the Google Art Project and the Digital Public Library of America. Beyond the massive organizations and companies, it is also worth noting the digital resources provided by art museums. The Rijksmuseum is a supreme example, having digitized over 300,000 images of works from its collections. Its collections website is also notable for its unique interface and many ways of searching.

This list of resources from the University of Michigan Visual Resources Collections, used on the VRA website, gives a much more thorough list of digital image resources, with descriptions and active links.

Bibliography:

Green, H. E., & Courtney, A. (2015). Beyond the Scanned Image: A Needs Assessment of Scholarly Users of Digital Collections. College & Research Libraries, 76(5), 690–707. http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.5.690

Markey, K. (1988). Access to Iconographical Research Collections. Library Trends, 37(2), 154–74. Retrieved from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7597/librarytrendsv37i2f_opt.pdf?sequence=1

Schoen, M. (2013, August 31). Digital Image Resources. Retrieved 26 September 2015, from http://vraweb.org/digital-image-resources/

Slobuski, T. (2011). Digital Image Databases: A Study from the Undergraduate Point of View. Art Documentation: Bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 30(2), 49–55.

Group 8+9 answers

A current blog of interest to art historians: Manuscript Road Trip

This blog follows the author's trip around the country as she collects data on manuscripts in collections around the US. She focuses on classification and digital resources for accessing these manuscripts, and the pictures are beautiful!

A museum podcast suitable for an introductory art history class: National Gallery of Art | Audio

This free podcast produced by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, provides recordings of gallery talks, interviews with artists, and historical lectures about artworks in the gallery. You can also coordinate your listening experience with the National Gallery's website, which has digital images and information about the artworks mentioned in the podcasts.

An example of an art museum library's web page: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Archives

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/24/criminal-investigation-into-misplaced-artwork-boston-public-library-quietly-ends/bXp7upmWdO7ujaFNu9pVGO/story.html

"The two prints were discovered June 4 — the day after Ryan resigned — on a shelf, 80 feet from where they should have been filed. Library officials said the prints were misfiled.

Despite the discovery, Evans said at the time the criminal probe would go on.

'The anti-corruption unit will continue trying to determine if anything else is missing,'Evans said. 'We will be examining what they have there. The investigation is not over.'

The police closed the case that same day without notice to the public."

NCIS: Los Angeles

Last night, I was watching the premiere of the new season of NCIS: LA. I do not want to spoil anything but they did mention a couple of things that I thought you guys would like to know. They mentioned a painting and a certain museum that we love.

The Painting: The Concert by Vermeer. It was stolen from The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum!

Chris O'Donnell kindly provided his fans the link via Instagram: The Concert.

Pretty Neat, right?! :)

Google Art - NY Times Article

Hey All!
Here is the link for the recent NY times article on the Google Art project we talked about yesterday in class: The Google Art Heist

Group 1 Scavenger Hunt Results

Hello all! Our group found some great things for you!

For the current blog of interest to art historians, we found Art History News, which is run by an art history PhD and is a collaborative effort that takes submissions of interesting stories relevant to art history from across the world.

For the Museum Library, we found the Library and Digital Collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For the podcast, we found Arts and Ideas by BBC Radio 3, which is described as "The best of BBC Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme Free Thinking - featuring in-depth interviews and debates with artists, scientists and public figures." The link on the iTunes site: Arts and Ideas by BBC Radio 3 on iTunes and the link on the BBC website: BBC Radio 3 - Arts and Ideas - Downloads.

Thanks and hope you enjoy!
Group 1

Group 2 Scavenger Hunt Responses

Apologies for the lateness of this!

Current blog of interest: SAFE: Saving Antiquities for Everyone

Museum podcast: Smithsonian American Art Museum Podcast

Art Museum Library: Peabody Essex Museum Library

Thanks!

Group 5 Answers

A current blog of interest to art historians:

Daily Art Fixx is personally one of my favorite art history blogs as it really provides the viewer with a much needed daily dose of everything art! The articles and postings cover all genres and mediums of art from both historical and contemporary artists.

A museum podcast suitable for an introductory art history class:

National Portrait Gallery's Podcast Series - Face-to-face

An example of an art museum library/archives's web page:

Art Institute of Chicago Archival Collections

Group Three Scavenger Hunt Questions

A current blog of interest to art historians 

Art History News 


A museum podcast suitable for an introductory art history class

V&A Podcast

An example of an art museum library's web page

Library|Freer and Sackler Galleries, The Smithsonian's Museums of Art

Slightly delayed response to Scavenger Hunt Team 4/Question 3:

The challenge was to find 2 recent journal articles, published between 2010 and 2014, that examined the current practice by museums of providing museum tour podcasts:

The two representative articles I selected are:

1. Reynolds, Rebecca (2010). Museum audios for design students: Auditory wallpaper or effective learning support? Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, 9(2), 151-166. doi: 10.1386/adch.9.2.151_1 Beatley Library provides full-text access via Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
2. Buffington, Melanie L. (2010). Podcasting possibilities for art education. Art Education, 63)(1), 11-16. Retrieved from: 

http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=arte_pubs

The first resulted from a combination of basic and advanced OPAC searches of Simmons' library collection but I had difficulties finding other articles that treated museum tour podcasts as their main topic. In fact, after having performed many advanced searches using a wide array of search terms and Boolean permutations, most of the returns on the first several screens/pages of results seemed to have nothing to do with my topic despite being ranked by relevance. 

So for my second article example -- not to mention, instant gratification -- I turned to Google Scholar.  

Regarding the third bullet general challenge on the Scavenger Hunt:

My choice is the Thomas J. Watson Library (http://libmma.org/portal/); the main library associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The Research tab on the Met homepage main menu (http://www.metmuseum.org/research/libraries-and-study-centers) provides links to the individual profiles of its large network of affiliated libraries. In addition to the Watson, other notable libraries include: 

Asian Art Library

Cloisters Library and Archives

Islamic Art Library

Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library

Nolen Library

Onassis Library

Ratti Textile Center Library

Robert Goldwater Library

Robert Lehmann Collection Library

and

Textile Conservation Library 

The Watson Library maintains the OPAC WATSONLINE (http://library.metmuseum.org/), whose record holdings encompass the entire combined collections of all 12 libraries.

Group 4 Scavenger Hunt Results

Current Blog for Art Historians:

Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art Blog has some great articles that detail exhibition design, new acquisitions, research, etc.  http://blog.aaa.si.edu/

Museum Pod cast for an introductory art history class:

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a number of podcasts available on exhibitions, lectures and tours of permanent exhibitions: http://www.philamuseum.org/podcast/

Art Museum Library page:

The Victoria and Albert/National Art Library, here online visitors can access information about the library catalog, library news, services, and their own blog: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/n/national-art-library/


Lisa, Teresa and Eliana

Group 7 Scavenger Hunt

Here are the examples we found for the first 3 questions, as well as links for the mobile apps / guides and crowdsourcing examples we mentioned in class:

a current blog of interest to art historians

The British Library's Medieval manuscripts blog featuring images from their digitized manuscripts

a museum podcast suitable for an introductory art history class

Face-to-Face podcasts from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

an example of an art museum library's web page

Libraries and Archives, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

mobile apps

The MoMA iPhone App 

The Met App 

MFA Guide 

crowdsourcing based in museums

Brooklyn Museum: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition

Smithsonian Digital Volunteers: Transcription Center

MicroPasts

-- Kelsey and Maren

Group 6 Scavenger Hunt Results

• Current blog for art historians
• "Grumpy Art Historian" (grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.com)
• museum podcast
• University of Oxford podcasts
• podcasts.ox.ac.uk/units/department-history-art
• web page
• mfa.org

--Kady and Nicole 

Welcome to the class blog for LIS 446 Fall 2015. I use the blog to post articles of interest that I come across during the semester and we will use it to post your assignments.  There is a link to the blog from the Moodle page in case you forget the address (446fall15.blogspot.com).

Several assignments during the semester will require you to post your work on this site. This enables you to see each other's work and also means that you can write in a slightly less than academic idiom - but you will still need to do things like include footnotes and proper citations as required, check spelling and grammar accuracy, and write clearly and concisely.

It feels like we are getting a late start to the semester but I know once  we get started it will go by very fast. I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know you through the semester. I hope that the class will give you a new understanding of the complexities of the documentation of works of art, whether in the context of a museum library or archive, an academic or a public
library, or any of the many other venues where art is cared for.