AIS-R LibGuides: HS and IB Art: Home

Online Museums

Looking for some artworks to compare? Visit these online galleries.

Abu Dhabi Art
A list of regional galleries.
Google Art Project - Art Works
Virtual collections from around the world with artworks photographed in high resolution. Create and share collections of masterpieces.
The Louvre Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
National Gallery of Art in London
National Gallery of Art in Washington
National Gallery of Canada
The Prado Museum in Madrid
Tate Galleries

Databases

Click for database USERNAMES and PASSWORDS
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Ebscohost Research Databases This link opens in a new window Ebscohost provides access to a variety of academic databases which each hold thousands of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles. An excellent source of reliable information for student research projects.
History Reference Center This link opens in a new window Designed for academic research, this database features full text for more than 1,990 reference books, encyclopedias, and non-fiction books. This content comes from leading history publishers such as Branden Publishing, Compass Point Books, Houghton Mifflin, Lerner Publishing Group, Mason Crest Publishers, Morgan Reynolds Inc., Oliver Press, Oxford University Press, Rourke Publishing LLC, Salem Press, Stackpole Books, and Toucan Valley Publications.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window Combining information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals, and original content from EBSCO, Literary Reference Center features an expansive collection of author biographies, plot summaries and work overviews, full-text essays from leading publishers, literary reference books and monographs, cover-to-cover full text for literary magazines and journals, book reviews from the most prestigious publications, poems from hundreds of sources, short stories, classic texts, author interviews, and much more.
Student Resources in Context This link opens in a new window Student Resources In Context offers cross-curricular content aligned to national, state, and Common Core State Standards, and presents that material in the way most useful for students. This unique database provides stellar support for papers, projects, and presentations while reinforcing the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation.

Art Appreciation and Criticism

How do you analyse or appreciate art? Check out these links for some helpful tips and step-by-step explanations for evaluating art.

Analyzing the Elements of Art: Four Ways to Think About Value
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art: Six Ways to Think About Shape
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art | Five Ways to Think About Color
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art | Five Ways to Think About Line
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art | Five Ways to Think About Space
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art | Four Ways to Think About Form
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Analyzing the Elements of Art | Seven Ways to Think About Texture
From the New York Times Learning Center to help students make connections between formal art instruction and our daily visual culture.
Art 21 - Explore Artists
Find information about the life and works of contemporary artists.
Art 21 - Explore Films
Explore all seven seasons of the program "Art in the Twenty-First Century."
Art Appreciation, Art Criticism, and the IB Diploma and Common Core
This article seeks to answer the question "Why is Art Appreciation and Art Criticism important?"
Art Appreciation - Art Factory
Art Appreciation is the knowledge and understanding of the universal and timeless qualities that identify all great art. The more you appreciate and understand the art of different eras, movements, styles and techniques, the better you can develop, evaluate and improve your own artwork. There are some ads on this site, but it is offers useful information.
Art Evaluation - How to Appreciate Art?
A description of a very useful set of steps for appreciating and evaluating art.
Art History Resources
Lots of links about art history organized by era and geography.
Image Comparisons - The Art Story
This section of The Art Story website takes a different approach to learning about art. The modern artists we discuss here are analyzed using comparisons to famous artworks by classical artists to point out the exact, modern, achievements.
MoMA Learning
MoMA Learning is your destination for tools and strategies for engaging with modern and contemporary art. Download and customize slideshows, worksheets, and other resources for use in the classroom or for independent study.
Tools for understanding art - Khan Academy
Discover the elements of art as seen in such masterpieces as The Dream of Pope Sergius by van der Weyden and others.

General Reference

Click on the links below to see some quality general reference websites (encyclopedias, biographies, etc.) to gather background information about your topic, movement, historical era, or artist.

Art 1010 - Khan Academy
Art 1010 is a short series of fun (and funny) animations created for the Utah System of Higher Education that introduce the history of Western art.
Artcyclopedia
Artists, art movements, everything art.
Art Encyclopedia
Artist biographies, art movements, art history, and art criticism. This is an excellent art education website.
Art History Basics - Khan Academy
The Art Story
The Art Story aims to sort through all the noise of the art world and shed light on modern and contemporary art. Every one of our topic pages is meant to be an analysis that would convince the most ardent skeptic in the value of the particular artist, movement, or idea. This is the mission that we strive for in every single logical argument, artist quote, or supporting resource.
Famous Artists - Biography.com
Notable Artists Biographies

In the Library

We have lots of books on art, artists, art movements, and art history in the Learning Commons. Here is a sample of what we have.

19th-Century Art by Laurie Schneider Adams
ISBN: 9781780745428
Publication Date: 2014-10-14
This is an EBOOK
Art by Laurie Schneider Adams
ISBN: 9781780740225
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
This is an EBOOK
Art by Elke Linda Buchholz; Karoline Hille; Susanne Kaeppele; Irina Stotland; Gerhard Buhler
ISBN: 9780810994423
Publication Date: 2007-11-01
Art Theory by Cynthia A. Freeland
ISBN: 9780192804631
Publication Date: 2007-12-15
But Is It Art? by Cynthia Freeland
ISBN: 9780192853677
Publication Date: 2002-04-04
This is an EBOOK
Conceptual Art by Michael Corris (Editor)
ISBN: 9780521530873
Publication Date: 2003-12-15
Since 1950 by Charles Harrison
ISBN: 9780300151862
Publication Date: 2009-08-25

IB Resources

What is the Comparative Study?
A PDF slideshow from InThinking
Comparative Study Example
An example of a Comparative Study for IB Art HL.
Comparative Study guide
Created by a non-AISR teacher. There are some useful prompts to get you thinking about your analysis.
Basic Guidelines for Comparing
A basic list of how to do a comparison of artworks.