LibGuides: Art History & Visual Arts: Internet sites

Tips

Select information from websites with care - open web information can be uploaded by anyone.

Academic subject databases are generally more reliable than internet sites - see databases listed under the articles tab.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Unisa OpenCourseWare
Unisa Open is a portal to help students, staff and any OER users and producers worldwide to source high-quality resources. It provides a space for conversation and a starting point for those just making their acquaintance with OER.
Find OER
These pages aim to provide you with markers to find the resources that suit your needs: African, South African and international OER sites and search engines.

African & South African internet sites

African and South African art related internet sites below. Contact me if you have sites you wish to share, i'd be happy to put them up here.

outoftheCUBE
virtual platform for contemporary visual art in South Africa. curated site holding between four and seven solo or group exhibitions that run concurrently for five to seven weeks. Curators' statements and archive of past exhibitions.
artthrob
leading contemporary visual arts publication, reporting on the national arts scene and the involvement of South African artists in the international art world.
South African Art Times
South Africa's first free art daily news broadcaster, produced by Global Art Information Directory.

Association and Institutes

The South African National Association for the Visual Arts
SANAVA is an overall administrative body, serving autonomous branches and affiliated organisations (art galleries, museums, educational institutions and corporate bodies providing for the promotion of the visual arts) country-wide.
South African Society of Artists
Aims to encourage art and artists in South Africa, and enjoys a membership of approximately 450 individuals, comprising a number of professional artists, although amateurs are also welcome.

International Art internet sites

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
the Timeline is an invaluable reference, research, and teaching tool: comprises 300 timelines, 930 essays, close to 7,000 objects, and a robust index, and is regularly updated and enriched to provide new scholarship and insights on the collection.
smarthistory
Smarthistory at Khan Academy is the leading open educational resource for art history, providing high-quality introductory art history content freely available to anyone.
Mother of All Art
Developed by the University of Michigan School of Art and Design, Mother of All is an extensive set of links to research resources, image collections, online digital art, art schools, art departments, and art museums.
art history unstuffed
Art History Unstuffed is written for Twenty-First century learners who prefer reading “text-bytes” and “sound-bytes” of targeted information.

International Art Image Databases

International art image sites below. Contact me if you have sites you wish to share, i'd be happy to put them up here

Web Gallery of Art
A virtual museum and searchable database of European fine arts from 11th to 19th centuries. The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service.
Google Art Project
Museums from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture. Some paintings are available in ‘gigapixel’ format, allowing you to zoom in at brushstroke level to examine incredible detail.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Digital images of many of the works of art in the Museum's collections are available for study or educational purposes in the Collections section of this website. Consult the Museum's Terms and Conditions for allowable uses.
Guggenheim Collections Online
The Collection Online features a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. The site currently contains more than 1100 artworks by over 450 artists from the Guggenheim’s overall permanent collection of over 7,000 artworks.
LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States. LACMA’s collections encompass the geographic world and virtually the entire history of art. Among the museum’s special strengths are its holdings of Asian art, Latin American art, and Islamic art, of which LACMA hosts one of the most significant collections in the world.
Rijksmuseum
The museum, whose collection includes masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Mondrian and van Gogh, has already made images of 125,000 of its works available through Rijksstudio, an interactive section of its Web site. The staff’s goal is to add 40,000 images a year until the entire collection of one million artworks spanning eight centuries is available.
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Based in Los Angeles MOCA is devoted exclusively to contemporary art. It is committed to the collection, presentation, and interpretation of work produced since 1940 in all media, and to preserving that work for future generations. MOCA identifies and supports the most significant and challenging art of its time, places it in historical context, and links the range of the visual arts to contemporary culture.