Art journal databases are specialized - they're by authorities ("peer reviewed") and have special ways to get at art topics.
Comprehensive Art Search (Art & Architecture Complete, Art Index Retrospective, Art Abstracts) - the major journal article source for art; 1929-present. A suite of databases including Art Full Text, Art Index Retrospective, Avery Index (architecture), Cinema Gallery (stills from films and movie posters) and Art Museum Image Gallery. This link works only for Duke IP-adress authenticated computers. For off-site validation users, use Art & Architecture Complete.
Artbibliographices Modern - just 19th-21st-century art. Indexes down to essays in exhibition catalogs. Multi-lingual.
International Index to the Performing Arts - includes dance and performance art; art reviews
Bibliography of the History of Art - Broadest coverage, before 1970's strong French coverage. Wilson Art Suite will also search this if requested.
Jstor - limit to "Art History" in area content
Auction Catalogs
Artnet.com Price Database - Duke subscribes to the auction ("Price Database") component. Click "Search Database". Fields to limit include artist, medium, auction house, etc. Individual prices must be downloaded serparately; there is no way to download a group. Extensive auction information, dating back to the 1990s.
Art Sales Index - Duncan Hislop's online auction results. Indexed over 3.5 million auction records for paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, works on paper, and miniatures dating back to the 1920s. Over 200,000 artists from more than 500 auction houses worldwide are represented.
Newspapers - newspapers are very important for reading exhibition reviews, tracing media coverage of art or artists, popular reception to art and tracing works of art.
Lexis/Nexis Academic - newspaper articles from the late 1980s onward (depending on the newspaper). Separate search for European dailies is also excellent.
America's Newspapers - search American newspapers by region of the country or individual newspaper. Great for seeing how an art show was reviewed in rural America.
Frequently historic newspaper accounts can be primary sources for exhibitions and other reception documentation. Also good for patronage verification and biographical/obituary accounts. Both pdf scans of the actual column.
Times Digital Archive - the Times (London), 1785-1985
New York Times Digital Index - 1851 until three years ago.
