Research Artworks & Themes - ARTH495 - Curating an Exhibition (Fall 2024)

Strategies for Researching an Artwork

Books & Exhibition Catalogs
Research Journals & Databases

Tips for researching an artwork:

Rather than searching for your specific artwork, search with keywords or subject terms that relate to the themes of your painting (e.g., "krishna devotion," "bikaner painting", "gopis") and terms like "painting" or "artworks".
- Because books aren't described in our catalog with a list of every painting, this might help to identify publications that are likely to include your work or similar works.
Check the Smithsonian Museum website, which may include an exhibit history or bibliography for your artwork.
- Search with the exhibit title in Mason Libraries or Worldcat to see if an exhibit catalog is available.
Look at the bibliographies or works cited of articles and books you've already found.
Take note of any recurring scholar or curator names

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust includes scans of public domain content and can be useful for finding early translations of Hindu texts.
A&AePortal – Yale Art & Architecture eBooks This link opens in a new window
E-books and museum catalogs from major galleries and university presses, covering scholarship in the history of art, architecture, decorative arts, photography, and design.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides English language abstracts of scholarly literature from 1955 to present (journal articles, articles in collections, dissertations, book reviews) on world history from 1450, excluding North America. Note: with full-text links to 420,000 journals.
WorldCat Discovery This link opens in a new window
Worldcat is a catalog of library collections from across the globe. Search in Worldcat to identify books, articles, or other materials that may not be available at Mason. After searching, use Interlibrary Loan to request the item.

Research articles may provide more direct analysis of a specific work, or an emerging issue/theme in scholarship.

You can find scholarly articles by searching in the library catalog, but you can also search directly in specialized journals and databases related to South Asian art history and religion.

Artibus Asiae
Original scholarly articles, research notes, and book reviews devoted to the history of art and archaeology of Asia.
Ars Orientalis
Peer reviewed journal covering the history of the art and archaeology of the Middle East and Asia. Issues through 2014 are available online; most recent issues available in print at Fenwick Library.
MĀRG
Information on arts and architecture in India and related civilizations
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Features significant original scholarship from specialists in the literatures and civilizations of the Near East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Inner Asia, the Far East and the Islamic World. Available through multiple databases for different date ranges: use JSTOR for articles published from 1843-2020 and Proquest Central for articles published after 2020.
South Asian Studies
Publishes high-quality, original research in the arts and humanities of South Asia and from across the South Asian Diaspora.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a collection of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences digitized in most cases back to the first date of issue. Includes selected books, primary sources and other materials for academic work.
Cambridge Core This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Cambridge University Press journals and ebooks across all academic disciplines.

Recommended subject headings/keywords for searching:

NOTE: These links will search for items at Mason and our regional library consortium, the WRLC. You may see titles that aren't available at Mason, but which you can have delivered to you by logging in and using the "Request" link on the record.

Love Song of the Dark Lord by Barbara S. Miller (Editor)
Call Number: PK3794.J3 G4xM
ISBN: 9780231040280
Publication Date: 1977
This is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism.
Vishnu: Hinduism's Blue-Skinned Savior by Joan Cummins (Editor)
Call Number: N8195.3.V3 V57 2011
ISBN: 9781935677093
Publication Date: 2011
This exhibition focuses on works of art from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and is organized by theme, with objects in radically different forms, styles, and media appearing together. It offers an introduction to the sophisticated artisanal practices that developed in varied regions over the course of about 1,600 years while revealing the many ways that one of Hinduism's most important deities was portrayed and celebrated.
Climate Change and the Art of Devotion by Sugata Ray; Padma Kaimal (Series edited by); K. Sivaramakrishnan (Series edited by); Anand A. Yang (Series edited by)
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780295745374
Publication Date: 2019
Examines architecture, paintings, photography, and prints created in Braj alongside theological treatises and devotional poetry to foreground seepages between the natural ecosystem and cultural production.

Recommended subject headings & keywords:

Rajput painting (also covers "Rajasthani painting")
Rajput art
Miniature painting, Indic
Painting, Mughal empire
Painting, Mogul empire (older subject heading, updated in 2024 to "Mughal empire")
Pahari painting
Mewar painting
Kangra painting

The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting by Molly Emma Aitken
Call Number: ND1337 .I5 A38 2010
Print book - available in Fenwick Library. Additional copies available through WRLC. Chapter 1 ("Structures of Desire") discusses the role of the painter in interpreting memories and mood, as well as adherence to tradition.
Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills by Archer, W.G.
Call Number: ND1337 .I5 A7 I6 vols. 1-2
Publication Date: 1973
Available in Fenwick Library. If you are working on Pahari paintings, the short introductions to individual courts will be indispensable.
Masters of Indian Painting by B. N. Goswamy; Milo C. Beach (Editor); Eberhard Fischer
Call Number: ND1001 .M37 2015
ISBN: 9789383098682
Publication Date: 2016
One of the most comprehensive surveys of Indian painting in English, spanning 800 years and including some 600 artworks by more than 40 artists. Chronologically structured, rather than arranged by dynastic or court style.
Monsoon Feelings by Imke Rajamani; Margrit Pernau; Katherine Butler Schofield
ISBN: 9789386906472
Publication Date: 2018
See the chapter "Dark, Overwhelming, yet Joyful: The Monsoon in Rajput Painting," by Katherine Schofield.
The Brush of Insight: Artists and Agency at the Mughal Court by Yael Rice
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780295751085
Publication Date: 2023
Over the course of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Mughal court painters evolved from illustrators of manuscripts and albums to active mediators of imperial visionary experience, cultivating their patrons' earthly and spiritual authority. The Brush of Insight probes how pictures and illustrated books became central to imperial modes of seeing and being in early modern Mughal South Asia.
Rajput Painting by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
Call Number: ND1001.C6 R3 & ebook
ISBN: 0878171185
Publication Date: 1975
Reprint of Coomaraswamy's 1916 text. Also available online through HathiTrust here.