Art

Writing About Art | Writing Artist Statements | Citing using Chicago Manual of Style | Citing using MLA Style | Citing Images | Annotated Bibliographies

Writing an artist statement? Here are some resources from around the web that you may find useful:

• Artist Statement, from ArtStudy.org
• Writing an Artist Statement, from The Writing Centre at Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Here are some writings on the topic that are available through the library's databases:

• Adamson, G. (2012). When artists write about their work. American Craft, 72(3), 22-23.
• Dailey, J. (2013). What Do They Want from Me and What Do I Want for Myself?. n.p.: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing.
• Goodwin, A. (1999). Writing an artist's statement. Ceramics Monthly, 47(5), 39-40.

Citation Guides

The Chicago Manual of Style is commonly used in the arts and humanities to create bibliographies and citations.  It is available in print in the library and online.   

• MLA Style Center - Search FAQs or ask the experts at MLA a question
• Citing Museum Exhibit in MLA
• Citing Artwork from an Exhibit in MLA
• How-to-Guide: Image Citation from Academy of Art University Library

Richard Misrach, Submerged Lampost, Salton Sea, 1985, printed 2005. Chromogenic print from a digital file. Art Institute Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191453/submerged-lamppost-salton-sea?q=photography&page=2

The main components to note when citing artworks are:

• Artist's name
• Title of work
• Date of composition
• Medium
• Name and location of owning institution
• Where you found the image

Chicago Manual of Style image citations

For Chicago Manual of Style image citations, consult the following sections of the manual:

• 14.235: Citing paintings, photographs, sculpture
• 14.235 Citing exhibition catalogs

MLA image citations

For MLA image citations, the general MLA image citation format should look like this:

Last Name, First Name. Title. Date, Institution, Location. Medium.

For images of artwork in a website, treat the book or website as a container.  For instance:

Misrach, Richard. Submerged Lamppost, Salton Sea. 1985, printed 2005, Art Institute Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191453/submerged-lamppost-salton-sea?q=photography&page=2. Chromogenic print from a digital file.

Consult the MLA citation style guide for more information.

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) with short paragraph about each source. An annotated bibliography is sometimes a useful step before drafting a research paper, or it can stand alone as an overview of the research available on a topic.

Each source in the annotated bibliography has a citation - the information a reader needs to find the original source, in a consistent format to make that easier. These consistent formats are called citation styles.  The most common citation styles are MLA (Modern Language Association) for humanities, and APA (American Psychological Association) for social sciences.

Annotations are about 4 to 6 sentences long (roughly 150 words), and address:

•     Main focus or purpose of the work
•     Usefulness or relevance to your research topic 
•     Special features of the work that were unique or helpful
•     Background and credibility of the author
•     Conclusions or observations reached by the author
•     Conclusions or observations reached by you

Annotations versus Abstracts

Many scholarly articles start with an abstract, which is the author's summary of the article to help you decide whether you should read the entire article.  This abstract is not the same thing as an annotation.  The annotation needs to be in your own words, to explain the relevance of the source to your particular assignment or research question.

More information about annotated bibliographies, including examples, can be found on the Research Strategies Guide.