Fine and Decorative Arts  

If you feel you would benefit from a consultation with Bobst Library's art librarian, just send an email to:

tom.mcnulty@nyu.edu

-or-

call: 212.998.2519

This guide is intended for the beginning researcher in the fine and decorative arts. The resources listed below are the recommended starting points for general research. For specialized sources in art education and other arts-related professions, click on the relevant subject-specific tab above.

• Unlike practitioners in other disciplines, art historians continue to rely primarily upon print materials. Relative to that of other fields, for example, the professional and scholarly literature of art history remains undigitized.
• If you're researching a work of art by a known (named) artist, begin with the artist's catalogue raisonne. To find these indispensible research tools, simply do a keyword search in Bobcat and enter: <artist's surname> and raisonne. For example: Warhol and raisonne. The catalogue raisonne entry usually provides extensive bibliography of sources in which the sought-after work is illustrated and/or discussed.
• If you're really lost, don't hesitate to contact Tom McNulty, the art librarian! ( tom.mcnulty@nyu.edu )