Modern Art 

Catalogues Raisonnés
"All the works of an artist".  A scholar or a group of scholars documents every work of an artist's career.  Each work is pictured, with scholarly opinions, provenance (where the work has been), and literature.  The first place to start when researching an artist or individual work. Not all artists have catalogues raisonnés.

Tàpies : the complete works / direction and cataloging, Anna Agustí ; foreword, Georges Raillard ; chronology, Miquel Tàpies. 
Published  New York : Rizzoli, 1989-2005.   Lilly Library  Locked Stacks N7113.T3 A4 1989   
 
 
Subject   Tàpies, Antoni, 1923- -- Catalogues raisonnés.

Permanent Holdings Catalogs (of museums)

Detailed catalogs of a period or genre of art in a particular museum.  Like a catalogue raisonné, it will contain a collection of scholar's opinion on an object, conservation reports, provenance and literature (written about it).  If you know of the location of a work of art, check for permanent holdings catalogs.

Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.) 
This is not to be looked at : highlights from the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles / foreword by Jeremy Strick ; essays by Ann Goldstein, Rebecca Morse, and Paul Schimmel.    Los Angeles : Museum of Contemporary Art, c2008.  
 
Lilly Library N6487.L67 M8864 2008   
  

Subject   Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Catalogs.

Modern art is blessed with great book series that examines artists in ways electronic sources don't.

Contemporary artists - the most contemporary of artists in books about 160 pages, many written by important writers

World of art - Thames and Hudson's series of small books on art topics