Art Courses & Research

Credible info for current artists and topics looks different

Pro Tip: Your artist or topic is current if they or it came to prominence in the last 10-20 years.

• Biographical info and examples of works:

  • Instagram or other website of the artist
  • Galleries exhibiting the artist's work
  • Agents representing the artist
  • Example (link):
    • 
      • Chiharu Shiota on Instagram

• Critical and other information:

  • Interviews with the artist on blogs, news sites, magazines, podcasts, YouTube, etc
  • Example (link to video):
    • 
    • Goshka Macuga in Conversation with...

Some "bad" sources are still not appropriate

Problem sites: Listicles--sites that simply list links or ideas on a subject, with no original ideas--and unqualified content--the information may educate you, but the author has no applicable experience or education

• Example (link): A listicle of illustrators with no original ideas:
  • 
  • You can certainly get ideas from this list, but there's no need to use it as a source--use it as a springboard to find better information.

• Solution: Go find the source of the items listed and use that source if appropriate instead

• Example (link): A history of t-shirt design from an unqualified source:
  • 
  • While informative, no sources are cited and no author's credentials are listed; info seems obviously culled from Wikipedia
  • Solution: Go find that information in a more reliable form--could be another website with better credentials or even a traditional type of source, such as an encyclopedia

What is it? Why do I care? What does it really say?

As you see above, what you learned in IS 101 about how credibility changes based on context is very true for ART 461. If you need to review how to answer these questions contextually, see the Foundations of Research guide

Sometimes traditional sources still apply!

Even when you are researching a current artist, more historical artists and movements will definitely have influenced their work--look up those historical topics in encyclopedias, books, and/or journal articles.