Guides: ARTH 438 Contemporary Art: Home

Welcome

For the Love of God (Damien Hirst, 2007): The platinum cast of an 18th-century skull features real human teeth and 8,601 diamonds. At the front of the cranium is a 52.4 carat pink diamond. Image available at http://www.damienhirst.com/for-the-love-of-god

Librarian

Elizabeth Parang

elizabeth.parang@pepperdine.edu

Contact:

Pepperdine University Libraries
24255 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, CA 90263

310-506-4046

Subjects: African American Studies, American Studies, Art, Art History, Creative Writing, Education, Humanities, Music, Theatre Arts

Getting Started

For background information, start with an exhaustive reference work such as Grove Art Online . Both the 'Guided Tour' and 'Tips for Users' (available from the Home page) provide useful information on searching Grove/Oxford Art Online.

Bibliographies located in books or at the end of journal articles can be very helpful. To learn if Pepperdine has access to a particular journal, search for the name of the journal in the library catalog, or use the 'Journals & Periodicals' search feature on the Library's Web site.

LACE

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibtions
LACE is a nonprofit venue that exhibits and advocates for innovations in art-making and public engagement. Uniquely positioned among commercial galleries and major art establishments at the heart of Hollywood as a free, open to the public experimental space, LACE has nurtured not only several generations of young artists, but also emerging art forms such as performance art, video art, digital art, and installations. LACE presents significant and timely exhibitions, performances, and public projects, which are complemented by education initiatives.

Specialized Online Encyclopedias

Grove Encyclopedia of American Art (GEAA) This link opens in a new window
GEAA deals with all aspects of American art and architecture from Native American art to Colonial art to contemporary American art. There are articles on all subject areas in American fine art including: biographies of major artists, architects and patrons, architecture, painting, new media, photography, sculpture, installation art, performance art, new media art, art education, and more.

A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (3rd ed.)
Contains around 2,000 clear and concise entries on all aspects of modern and contemporary art, including movements, styles, techniques, artists, critics, dealers, schools, and galleries.

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on more than 528,000 people throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts
Contains over 3,000 entries covering thousands of years of decorative arts production throughout western and non-western cultures including hundreds of entries on the qualities and historical uses of materials, concise definitions on art forms and styles, and in-depth articles discussing the history of armor, jewelry, furniture, textiles, and ceramics.
Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques
Historical and current uses of materials and techniques in a wide range of areas from painting and sculpture to non-traditional media such as digital and video art.
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Coverage includes materials in art practice (e.g. ink, enamel, digital materials); materials in conservation (e.g. adhesives); classes of artifacts (e.g. wallpaper, mosaic, ceramic); techniques and methods (e.g. book binding, gilding, printing, weaving), terms (e.g. rustication), tools (e.g. easel, laser), theory (e.g. technical examination, conservation controversies), fakes & forgeries, and conservation theorists and practitioners.
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Brings together a large range of disciplines related to the history and cultures of the United States, from pre-colonial days to the present.
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Click on 'Resources' and then on 'Arts and Literature'

ARTstor Images for Your Presentations

Paul Cézanne. 1890 - 1894. Woman with Coffeepot. Place: Musée d'Orsay. https://library.artstor.org/asset/SCALA_ARCHIVES_1039930400.

The best place to find images for your presentation is the database, ARTstor . Log on to ARTstor, create a personal account and create an image group. Then view information on how to Export of Power Point

You can search ARTstor by the name of an art work, by geography, by classification (for example, sculpture and instrallations), or by collection (for example, Detroit Institute of Arts Collection). Use the Advanced Search to limit by date.

Helpful videos on using ARTstor can be found on UTube

Course Description

Contemporary Art and Film from 1945 to the Present

This upper division art history course will trace visual culture from the end of World War II to the present. The focus will not be merely on conventional visual art (painting & sculpture), but will also explore new media (video and digital art) in order to offer a broad overview of postwar and postmodern artistic practices and culture in general and consider the way that various art forms have dissolved into one another.

Our discussions will be divided thematically and chronologically and will consider the social and historical contexts in which the works were created. Emphasis will be placed on experiencing and understanding the art as an extension of our everyday world. Issues in contemporary art to be examined will include Abstract Expressionism and Action painting, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, Process art, Performance art, Appropriation, popular culture, time and space, Earthworks and Land art, and Video art.