The Grove Dictionary of Art (
1996) is a 34-volume
encyclopedia of
art. Written
by 6,700 experts from around the world, its 32,600-pages cover over
45,000 topics about art, artists,
art
critics,
art collectors, or
anything else connected to the world of art. According to the
The New York Times
Book Review it is the "most ambitious art-publishing
venture of the late 20th century". Almost half the content covers
non-Western subjects, and contributors hail from 120 countries.
Topics
range from Julia Margaret
Cameron to Shoji Hamada, Korea
to Timbuktu
, the
Enlightenment to Marxism, and Yoruba
masks to Abstract
Expressionism. Entries include bibliographies and a vast
number of images. The dictionary is available either in a standard
hardcover edition or a 216-pound leather-bound version.
The
Grove Dictionary of Art is published by
Oxford University Press, who
acquired it from
Macmillan
Publishers in 2003. It is notable for retailing at close to
nine thousand dollars, or about two-hundred and sixty dollars per
volume, making it one of the most expensive reference works and
inaccessible to anyone but special patrons or institutions such as
libraries.
The online version, which is continually updated, is available to
use free of charge to many UK and International Library members
from the Grove website at http://www.groveart.com using your
Library membership number to login. OUP has however offered
occasional sales, as in 2006 when, to mark its tenth anniversary,
the dictionary was available for one thousand dollars.
The Grove Dictionary of Art was first offered online
through the
Grove Art Online web site in 1998. The site
was expanded and renamed as
Oxford Art Online.
Many UK residents can obtain free online access at home by
arranging to obtain a PIN from their local public library.
See also
References
- Jane Turner (Editor). The Dictionary of Art. 1996.
ISBN 1-884446-00-0 (Hardcover, First Edition). ISBN 0-19-517068-7
(Hardcover, New Edition). ISBN 0-333-74939-1 (Leather Bound).
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