Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917-2000 | In the North the Negro had better educational facilities | The Museum of Modern Art | © 2008 Estate of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Black history:

Image of the Black in Western Art A systematic investigation of how people of African descent have been perceived and represented in Western art spanning nearly 5,000 years.

Magnum Photos: Contemporary Photojournalism Some of the most celebrated and recognizable photographs of the 20^th century and contemporary life, documenting an astounding range of subjects, including hundreds of major figures and events in contemporary black history.

Eugene James Martin Vibrant abstract works by African American artist Eugene James Martin, including paintings on canvas, mixed media collages, and pencil and pen and ink drawings.

The Schlesinger History of Women in America Collection Professional and amateur photographs documenting  the full spectrum of activities and experiences of American women in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, including a significant amount of portraits of African American women.

Smithsonian American Art Museum Works of art spanning over 300 years of American art history, including selections from a collection of more than 2,000 works by African American artists.

African art and culture:

Richard F. Brush Art Gallery (St. Lawrence University) West African textiles from Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Cape Verde.

Herbert Cole: African Art, Architecture, and Culture (University of California, Santa Barbara) Field photography of African art, architecture, sites, and culture from Nigeria, Ghana, the Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Kenya, as well as photographs of African objects in private collections around the world.

James Conlon: Mali and Yemen Sites and Architecture Images of sites and architecture in Djenné, Mopti, Bamako, Segou, and the Dogon Region in Mali.

Fowler Museum (University of California, Los Angeles) The arts of many African nations, including Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mail, Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The museum also has significant holdings of African diaspora arts from Brazil, Haiti, and Suriname.

Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University Images of African art, such as textiles, costumes, basket and bead work, weapons, tools, and ritual objects.

Christopher Roy: African Art and Field Photography Images of West African art and culture, including ceremonial objects and documentation of their social context, use, and manufacture from the rural villages and towns of the Bobo, Bwa, Fulani, Lobi, Mossi, and Nuna peoples in West Africa—primarily in Burkina Faso, but also in Ghana, Nigeria, and Niger.

Thomas K. Seligman: Photographs of Liberia, New Guinea, Melanesia, and the Tuareg people Images of the Tuareg people, a nomadic people of the Sahara who live in countries such as Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, as well as photographs of sites and people in Liberia, New Guinea, and Melanesia.

Case studies:

Africa: People, Culture, and Art by  Julie Nanavati, Librarian, Loyola Notre Dame Library

James Conlon, Photographer | Dogon Dance of the masks (2008) | Sangha (Dogon Region), Mali

Upcoming collections:

Irving Rouse Archive of Caribbean Archaeology in the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University) 4,000 images documenting excavations undertaken on sites in Antigua, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and other Caribbean islands.

For more teaching ideas, visit the Digital Library and click on “Featured Groups,” where you will find Image Groups that include Art History Topic: African Art and Interdisciplinary Topics: African and African-American Studies, as well as a Travel Awards 2010-winning essay, “Sweet Fortunes: Sugar, Race, Art and Patronage in the Americas” by Katherine E. Manthorne, The City University of New York. Also, visit ARTstor’s Subject Guides page to download the African and African-American Studies Subject Guide.

Sir John Lavery | Lila Lancashire | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Image and data from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Two things have been tearing through the ARTstor staff recently – a nagging cold that seems to be felling us department by department, and a fascination with the British television show Downton Abbey.

Click to view slideshow.
The series follows the lives of an aristocratic family and their servants in a fictional Yorkshire country estate. The first season is set before the outbreak of World War I, beginning with news of the sinking of the Titanic, while the second series opens with the Great War. The ARTstor Digital Library has enough relevant images to keep us busy until the next episode: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an impressive collection of turn of the century furniture and household accessories, such as this mahogany desk designed by Mervyn Macartney, as well as dazzling examples of dresses, hats (including a “motoring” cap!), shoes, and accessories from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Brooklyn Museum Costumes, including these ever-so-tasteful satin evening shoes; the Foundation for Landscape Studies features images of Le Bois des Moutiers, an extraordinary Edwardian era-garden designed by English landscape architect Gertrude Jekyll and architect Edwin Lutyens; the Museum of Modern Art, Architecture and Design Collection gives us this beautiful printed fabric from William Morris; and of course there are countless examples of art from the period (we chose a painting of Lila Lancashire by Sir John Lavery from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston because it reminds us of Lady Edith Crawley).

Let us know if you find anything else in the ARTstor Digital Library that reminds you of Downton Abbey or its characters – but please, no spoilers!

Left: Callot Soeurs and Madame Marie Gerber | Evening Dress, 1914 | The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Right: Evening Dress, 1909-1911 | The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma, Alabama March, 1965 | Photograph by Bruce Davidson, image and original data provided by Magnum Photos | ©Bruce Davidson / Magnum Photos

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pivotal figure in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Among his many achievements, King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses; planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of African-Americans as voters; and directed the 1963 march on Washington of 250,000 people, to whom he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calling for racial equality and an end to discrimination.

King was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and the following year he became the youngest person (at the age of thirty-five) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination through nonviolent means. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee as he readied to lead a protest march in sympathy with the city’s striking garbage workers.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, near King’s birthday, January 15.

A search for Martin Luther King leads to hundreds of images in the ARTstor Digital Library, most notably dozens of photographs of King from Magnum Photos, including marches and speeches in Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, and Washington, DC. You will also find images of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington from the Contemporary Architecture, Urban Design, and Public Art (ART on FILE Collection).

Shi Rui, Greeting the New Year, 15th Century. Data from: The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Year of the Dragon begins January 23rd, marking the end of the winter season. The traditional Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements; the year begins with the night of the first new moon of the lunar New Year and ends on the 15^th day. This year is signified by the dragon, the bringer of rain and good luck, and the only mythical animal in the Chinese zodiac.

Great Luck in the New Year (Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller), late 19th—early 20th century, Zhengzhou, Henan Province. Muban Foundation Collection. Image and original data from Asian Art Photographic Distribution Project (AAPD), University of Michigan.

The Chinese New Year is a time for family unity and reconciliation. Chinese families gather on New Year’s Eve for a feast to celebrate harmony and honor the spirits of ancestors. Other traditions include cleaning the house to sweep away bad luck and make way for good luck, decorating windows and doors with red cut paper decorations, and giving family children money in red paper envelopes (red, corresponding with fire, symbolizes happiness and good fortune). The last day is celebrated with the Lantern Festival, a tradition that includes hanging lanterns outside each house to help the dead find their way home.

Li Shida, New Year's Day in a Village at Stone Lake, 1609. Data from: The Cleveland Museum of Art

The images illustrating this post include a woodblock print of Zhong Kui, the Demon Queller, called “Great Luck in the New Year,” from the Asian Art Photographic Distribution (AAPD) (University of Michigan), and a 17^th century painting of New Year’s Day in a village by Li Shida and a calligraphic 15^th century painting greeting the New Year by Shi Rui, both from the Cleveland Museum of Art. For more information on the ARTstor Digital Library’s extensive collections of Chinese art, architecture, and culture, view our ARTstor Is… Asian Studies post.

Henri Matisse, Striped Robe, Fruit, and Anemones, 1940 | Baltimore Museum of Art; The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland | © Succession H. Matisse, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Happy New Year!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Hope you’re off to a fabulous start for 2012! ARTstor Digital Library now makes available nearly 1.4 million images in the United States and nearly 1.2 million images internationally. In 2011, we launched over 123,000 new images in the United States and more than 91,000 new images internationally from 29 new collections and expanded the content in 19 existing collections. Highlights include: the renowned Cone Collection of modern art from the Baltimore Museum of Art; extraordinary images of Romanesque architecture from Via Lucis; stunning shots of public art and architecture in Shanghai and the United Arab Emirates from ART on FILE; historic documentation of urban development from the Museum of the City of New York; and iconic works of art from the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN).

We also reached agreements for 50 new collections last year, including the Guggenheim Museum’s permanent collection, exhibition installation photos, and museum architecture; Pre-Columbian Art from the Kerr Archive; new media art from Rhizome; African-American art from the Mott-Warsh Collection; master drawings from the Museo del Prado for the Gernsheim Corpus; and more. In addition, we are delighted to let you know that more institutions, such as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, have signed onto the Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) program in an effort to foster scholarly publishing by providing TIFF image files for free for academic publications.

Last but not least, special thanks to the extraordinary people who have worked with us to make their collections discoverable for teaching and research purposes through the ARTstor Digital Library. Collaboration can be challenging (even in the digital age) and we thank all of our colleagues for making these partnerships really happen! Your collections are making an impact at now more than 1,400 educational institutions in 47 countries. Thanks to all of our contributors, subscribers, and users for your continued support.

Wishing you a very productive and exciting New Year!

All the best,

- Christine Kuan

ARTstor Collections Summary 2011

New collections released:

1. ART on FILE: Contemporary Architecture: Shanghai and World Expo
2. ART on FILE: Contemporary Architecture: United Arab Emirates
3. Baltimore Museum of Art
4. Baltimore Museum of Art Archives
5. David Boggett: Art, Architecture, and Festivals in Japan
6. Dmitry Borshch
7. Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (Library of Congress)
8. Colby College Museum of Art
9. Columbia University: Architecture
10. Fowler Museum (University of California, Los Angeles)
11. Freedman Gallery (Albright College)
12. Gazette du Bon Ton (Minneapolis College of Art and Design)
13. Aida Laleian: Architecture in Romania and Armenia
14. Allan Langdale: Cyprus Archive
15. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: William Keighley
16. Tom Muir
17. Museum of the City of New York
18. Rescue Public Murals (Heritage Preservation)
19. Réunion des Musées Nationaux
20. Mark Rogovin: Mexican Murals
21. Thomas K. Seligman: Photographs of Liberia, New Guinea, Melanesia, and the Tuareg people
22. Smith College Museum of Art
23. Andrew Spence 
24. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: University Library
25. Via Lucis
26. Beverly Willis
27. Robert Winter: Architecture of California (Occidental College)
28. World Monuments Fund
29. Yao Ceremonial Artifacts (Ohio University)

Expanded collections:

1. American Institute of Indian Studies
2. Architecture of Venice (Sarah Quill)
3. Contemporary Art (Franklin Furnace Archives)
4. Contemporary Art (Larry Qualls Archive)
5. Dura-Europos and Gerasa Archives (Yale University)
6. Image of the Black in Western Art (Harvard University)
7. Islamic Art and Architecture Collection (Sheila Blair, Jonathan Bloom, Walter Denny)
8. Minneapolis College of Art and Design Faculty Artists
9. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (Harvard University)
10. Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University)
11. QTVR Panoramas of World Architecture (Columbia University)
12. Mark Rothko
13. Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
14. The Warburg Institute

New agreements signed:

1. Ackland Art Museum (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
2. American Institute of Indian Studies (additional images)
3. ART on FILE: Contemporary architecture in Paris
4. ART on FILE: Contemporary architecture in Venice
5. Asian Art Collection (Connecticut College) (additional images)
6. Dmitry Borshch
7. Eduardo Carrillo Museum
8. Classical Sculptures (Berlin State Museums) (additional images)
9. Contemporary Art (Larry Qualls Archive) (additional images)
10. European Architecture and Sculpture (Sara N. James) (additional images)
11. Flint Institute of Arts
12. Foundation for Landscape Studies (additional images)
13. Frank Cancian: University of California, Irvine
14. Frank Cancian: University of California, Irvine (Images for Academic Publishing)
15. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
16. Rebecca Hackemann
17. Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection (additional images)
18. Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection (Images for Academic Publishing)
19. Istituzione Biblioteca Classense (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
20. Maya Pre-Columbian vases and artifacts (Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr)
21. Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
22. Kunstmuseum Bern (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
23. Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
24. Latin American Art (Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros)
25. Ralph Lieberman: Architectural Photography (additional images)
26. Rob Linrothe: Tibetan and Buddhist Art (additional images)
27. Majolica International Society
28. Mott-Warsh Collection
29. Musée des Beaux-Arts Rennes (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
30. Museo Nacional del Prado (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
31. Museum Boijmans (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
32. Museum of the City of New York (additional images: Reginald Marsh materials)
33. Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
34. National Gallery of Canada (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
35. Northwestern University Library: Ramon Casas
36. Northwestern University Library: Ramon Casas (Images for Academic Publishing)
37. The Phillips Collection (additional images)
38. John Pinto: Rome (Princeton University)
39. Renaissance Society: University of Chicago
40. Rhizome
41. Irving Rouse Archive of Caribbean Archaeology (Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University)
42. Jon Schueler
43. Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
44. Statens Museum for Kunst (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
45. Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
46. Universidade do Porto (Gernsheim Photographic Corpus of Drawings)
47. Cedric Van Eenoo
48. Via Lucis
49. The Walters Art Museum (additional images)
50. Jingfan Wang

André Derain | Untitled, pg. 16, in the book Pantagruel by François Rabelais, 1943 | Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

André Derain | Plaideurs, pg. 70, in the book Pantagruel by François Rabelais, 1943 | Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua (better known as simply Pantagruel) was the first in a series of five satirical books by the Franciscan monk and physician François Rabelais chronicling the outrageous adventures of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel and friends. Published around 1532, Pantagruel is rife with vulgarity, scatological humor, and violence. In spite (or possibly because) of being condemned by the church and deemed obscene by the censors of the Sorbonne, the books proved very popular. In testimony to the author’s continuing influence, Merriam-Webster defines Rabelaisianas “marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism.”

In the late 1930s, André Derain was commissioned by Swiss publisher Skira to illustrate Pantagruel. Inspired by medieval hand-colored playing cards, the artist created more than 128 woodcuts to illustrate the story. Derain, who by this time was painting in a traditional realist vein, returned to the exuberant colors of Fauvism, the movement he had co-founded decades earlier. Instead of using separate blocks for individual colors, each illustration was printed from a single block with all colors applied simultaneously (a process known as à la poupée), a method so rigorous that it took two years to print an edition of 275. The book was released in 1943 and became a highlight in the history of modern illustrated books.

Left: André Derain | Grangousier, pg. 10, in the book Pantagruel by François Rabelais, 1943 | Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Right: André Derain | Untitled, pg. 161, in the book Pantagruel by François Rabelais, 1943 | Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

The ARTstor Digital Library is the only place online that features all 128 illustrations, the cover, and a hand-drawn frontispiece, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Collection; search for Pantagruel and Derain to find them. From the same collection, you may also be interested in Gustave Doré’s fulsome illustrations for a 19^th century edition of Oeuvres de Rabelais (search for Dore and Rabelais), or Derain’s primitivist woodcut illustrations for L’Enchanteur Pourrissant, Guillaume Apollinaire’s first collection of poetry from 1909 (search for Derain and Apollinaire).

- Giovanni Garcia-Fenech

Yas Hotel & Marina (Asymptote Architecture), Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. Image and original data provided by ART on FILE

The top posting for the year was about the ARTstor-sponsored photography campaign in Abu Dhabi and Dubai by ART ON FILE. We’re very pleased to see that the announcement has received so much traffic, as the images are stunning. But we must admit we were surprised by the second most viewed entry this year: our Halloween/Day of the Dead post. Is it due to the popularity of the holiday, or are our readers a little ghoulish?

Katsukawa Shunsho | The actors Ichikawa Danjuro V as a skeleton, spirit of the renegade monk Seigen... , Edo period, 1783 | The Art Institute of Chicago | Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago

Female Figure, possibly Korewori, early to mid-20th century. Image and original data provided by Saint Louis Art Museum

The ARTstor Is…series has proven very popular, so you can expect more topics in 2011, including African and African-American Studies, Fashion and Costume, Languages and Literature, and Women’s Studies. What other subjects would you like to see? Let us know in the comments, we welcome your suggestions.

Also well received was Teaching with ARTstor, thanks to the great material provided by ARTstor users. We encourage you to share how you use the Digital Library to enhance your classes – email us your stories; we’d love to read them, and, hopefully, share them on the Blog.

We’re grateful for your attention, if there’s anything you would like to see in the ARTStor Blog next year, please feel free to let us know.

Top Ten Posts of 2011:

1. ARTstor Features Contemporary Architecture in the United Arab Emirates
2. Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the scary side of ARTstor
3. ARTstor Is… Asian Studies
4. Now available: French museum collections from the Réunion des Musées Nationaux
5. The “competition panels” of Brunelleschi and Ghiberti from the Bargello (Florence, Italy)
6. ARTstor Is… American Studies
7. ARTstor Is… Middle Eastern Studies
8. Teaching with ARTstor: Re-historicizing Contemporary Pacific Island Art
9. Teaching with ARTstor: Trajan’s Column
10. Focus On the Great Depression

ARTstor Digital Library and the Baltimore Museum of Art have released nearly 100 photographs of exhibition installations, including archival photographs of works from the permanent collection and from the celebrated Cone Collection. This material documents the visual history of the museum, and provides valuable documentation of the pivotal exhibitions held there.

The Baltimore Museum of Art  has an internationally recognized collection of 19^th-century, modern, and contemporary art. It is best known for the Cone Collection of 3,000 objects bequeathed by Claribel and Etta Cone, two Baltimore sisters who collected 500 works by Henri Matisse, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh. The museum’s impressive collection of contemporary art includes important examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol, as well as major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker. The museum also boasts an internationally renowned collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15^th century to the present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Sir Anthony van Dyck; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The BMA’s Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city.

For more detailed information about this collection, visit the Baltimore Museum of Art: Archives page.

Other collections from the Baltimore Museum of Art:

• New Museum of Contemporary Art Exhibitions
• Contemporary Art (Franklin Furnace Archives)
• Contemporary Art (Larry Qualls Archive)
• Exhibition Installation Photograph Collection (Photographic Archive, The Museum of Modern Art, New York)

ARTstor and the Baltimore Museum of Art are sharing nearly 900 images of works from the permanent collection, including the world-renowned Cone Collection, in the Digital Library.

The Baltimore Museum of Art has an internationally recognized collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. It is best known for the Cone Collection of 3,000 objects bequeathed by Claribel and Etta Cone, two Baltimore sisters who collected 500 works by Henri Matisse, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh. The museum’s impressive collection of contemporary art includes important examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol, as well as major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker. The museum also boasts an internationally celebrated collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15th century to the present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Sir Anthony van Dyck; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The BMA’s Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city.

View the collection: http://library.artstor.org/library/collection/artbma

For more detailed information, visit the Baltimore Museum of Art page.

Related collections:

• Baltimore Museum of Art: Archives
• Roy Lichtenstein
• The Museum of Modern Art: Painting and Sculpture
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art