Art Biographical Dictionaries

Short biographical information on artists, architects, or designers can be a helpful way to learn about them. In addition to a short overview of their careers, these often list select some readings on the individual, or list some of their major works and exhibitions. Sometimes they also provide a statement by the artist. Hundreds of specialized biographical dictionaries contain these types of short bios for artists, but you don’t need to check them all!

Follow these steps to find a short biography of an artist, architect, or designer in a biographical dictionary:

Oxford Art Online (database)

• Try this first. This huge electronic encyclopedia of art contains thousands of authoritative and well-documented biographies of artists, architects, and designers of all eras and cultures. Often links to illustrations.

Since there are so many biographical dictionaries too choose from, indexes have been designed to show you exactly which dictionary will contain a biography of your artist. There are 2 indexes that cover arts people. Try them in this order:

Biography and Genealogy Master Index. (database)

• Type someone’s name and get the name of a paper biographical dictionary. Then check The Cat to see if we have that particular biographical dictionary.
  

Artists of the World: Bio-Bibliographical Index A-Z, 1999. (book)

• Contains artists, designers, architects, etc., but mostly historical – few living people. A bit trick to use because of the abbreviations but it is shelved right next to the Arts and Humanities Library Service Desk, where you can get help with it.

Of course you can often find short bios by entering an artist’s name in a search engine. In general, the biographies posted by museums, art galleries, and artists themselves, are of a higher quality than those provided by the many commercial sites such as Artcyclopedia, AskArt, Artnet, etc.

While the general approaches above often work well, please don’t hesitate to ask for help with this type of search. The type of artist, nationality, era, and other factors could suggest other sources.

Katherine Staab
Arts & Humanities Library
W320 Pattee Library
Penn State University
Phone: 814-865-6778
Fax: 814-863-7502
kes304@psu.edu

or Your Campus Librarian.