(6 October 2016) The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)—the leading organization addressing critical art-world issues regarding attribution, authenticity, and provenance—announced today the launch of new enhancements to its online Catalogues Raisonnés Database. New features and functionality include external links to the complete or partial digitized text of published catalogues raisonnés available on Google Books, HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and other online platforms. Additionally, Database users will now be able to link to WorldCat to locate the library nearest to them that holds a print copy of a particular catalogue. IFAR’s comprehensive resource—the only one of its kind—is regularly updated and available free of charge at www.ifar.org.
Launched in 2008, along with IFAR’s Art Law & Cultural Property Database, the Catalogues Raisonnés Database features annotated bibliographic information and links to additional resources regarding over 3,800 published catalogues raisonnés and approximately 350 catalogues-in-preparation concerning 2,580 artists. Both completed publications and those in preparation can be searched separately or together by the author’s name, or the artist’s name, place of birth or death, or period of activity.
Scholarly compilations of an artist’s body of work, catalogues raisonnés and information about them are essential research tools for academics, students, museum curators and administrators, collectors, appraisers, dealers, provenance researchers, and other art professionals and enthusiasts.
IFAR’s Executive Director Dr. Sharon Flescher said, “Catalogues raisonnés are integral to IFAR’s educational and research mission, and the Catalogues Raisonnés Database stems from that mission. Because catalogues raisonnés document all the known works of an artist, they are essential reference tools for researching the attribution and provenance of a work of art. This is a crucial element in promoting integrity in the visual arts. We hope that these new features will further serve the art community worldwide and bring new users to explore this already popular and singular resource.”
Dr. Flescher serves as the project’s co-director with Dr. Lisa Duffy-Zeballos, IFAR’s Art Research Director.
Before IFAR created the Database, information about catalogues raisonnés was difficult to find. Catalogues still in preparation were even more challenging to track because they can take years to be completed. This Database and the organization’s other trusted online tools, award-winning IFAR Journal, and public programs, advance IFAR’s position as a respected leader and vital resource in the art community.
The improvements were made possible by a Planning Grant awarded to IFAR by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2015. Additional funding was generously provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Foundation, and the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation.
Numerous libraries, museums, and other institutions provide links from their websites to IFAR’s Database. In 2012, the New York Public Library partnered with IFAR to regularly inform the organization of newly published catalogues thereby facilitating the Database’s ongoing expansion.
The announcement is here.
