Subject Guides: Art and Design: Images & Multimedia

FInding Images of Works of Art

Artists, designers and historians often need visual information, such as images of artworks you can't visit in person. Through the library, you have access to online collections that provide photos of large gallery and museum collections.

These collections give you a couple of advantages:

the images are high-quality: you can zoom in to see brushstrokes, stitches, textures, et cetera.
the images include their metadata: information about their location, medium, dimensions, et cetera.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window The ARTstor Digital Library is a collection of digital images of art, architecture and design from a number of books (notably art history survey texts), museums, archives, and slide collections.
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Registering for ARTstor:
- At the first ARTstor page click on the orange "Go" icon (upper right of screen).
- Click on "Not registered?" (upper right). Include an email address (this can be a non-UofA email address if you've already keyed in a University of Alberta CCID and password).
- Confirm the email address, then select and confirm a password.
- Click on "Submit."
Canadian Art Database This link opens in a new window Also known as: |Internet Archive of Canadian Professional Artists| Contains images by Canadian artists
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Art and Architecture in Video This link opens in a new window This collection has documentaries and interviews illustrating the theory and practice of a variety of art forms. This includes fine arts, construction, artists, architecture, techniques, museums, sculpture, photography, exhibitions and criticisms.
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Visual Arts Data Service Contains images of product design, graphic design, fashion, and art.
Luna
A source for finding images in digital collections using the Luna platform.

Exhibition Catalogues

Exhibition catalogues can be among the best places to find images of an artist's work. We have thousands of catalogues in the library's collection.

To find catalogues, use the search box on the library homepage.

Include the name of the artist, plus words such as "exhibitions" and "exhibition catalogues," to discover whether we have catalogues that could be relevant for you.

If we don't have the catalogue you need, please contact me, or place an Interlibrary Loan to have the catalogue brought here for you.