War art, art whose subject matter is war and or conflict, is one of the oldest and most influential art genres in human history. Since it has been with humanity since the very beginning, it has naturally become a very broad genre, united only by the thing it is a reaction to. So, while I might have centered my research on how artists use their work to try and understand war, you might choose to focus your studies on an entirely different aspect of war art. Because of this, instead of taking you through a specific aspect of war art, this research guide seeks to give you the tools to go off and research your own specific aspect of war art, whether you choose to focus on a specific war, medium, or artist.
Théodore Géricault. (salon of 1812). Officer of the Imperial Guard on Horseback [Oil on canvas]. Musée du Louvre, INV. 4885. https://jstor.org/stable/community.18128710
Search Strategy:
The keywords you use in your search strategy will vary based on how you choose to focus your research, so instead of giving you a list of the keywords I used, I'll instead give you a basic strategy you can adjust to fit your research's needs. Generally, you will always start your searches from the framework:
(War*) AND (Art*)
Make sure to include the (*) so that you also search for words that use those words as prefixes like Wars or Artists.
Once you have that basic skeleton you can start customizing it to fit your needs. For instance, if you wanted to research a specific war, you'd replace (War*) in general with that war to limit your searches to that war. So, if you wanted to research the Second World War specifically, you might search:
(WWII*) AND (Art*)
Though the world wars are somewhat unique as they can either be written like (WWI) or (First World War), so it might help to include both spellings in your search:
(WWII* OR Second World War*) AND (Art*)
If you wanted to research a specific medium of war art, like painting, you would include that with the (Art*) search to make sure you don't miss sources that don't use the specific word you have for your medium:
(WWII* OR Second World War*) AND (Art* OR Paint*)
Lastly, if you wanted to research a specific artist, you'd most likely include their name at the end of your search, in addition to the other terms. So, if you wanted to learn more about Otto Dix, you might search:
(WWII* OR Second World War*) AND (Art* OR Paint*) AND (Otto Dix*)
Keep in mind that this search strategy was made to be used in scholarly databases like Jstor or Academia.edu, so it might not work as well if you try to use it with non-scholarly search engines like Google Scholar or DuckDuckGo.
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, November 2). Military art. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:04, May 18, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Military_art&oldid=1183190364
This Wikipedia page provides a broad overview of military art, an important sub-genre of war art. From this source you can gain some general understanding of military art which you can use to select a more specific aspect of war art you can focus on in your research, such as a specific time period or art form. In addition to this, because this source is a Wikipedia article, it comes with many good sources you can use to jump-start your research.
Diego Velázquez. (1635). The Surrender of Breda, June 2, 1625 [Oil on canvas]. Museo del Prado. https://jstor.org/stable/community.18122220
Meyer I. (2023). Famous paintings about war and battles - Best war artwork. Art in context. https://artincontext.org/famous-paintings-about-war-and-battles/
This source will give you a wide range of artworks and artists you can focus on more deeply during your research. One good thing about this source is how concise it is, all of the paragraphs in it describing its top ten war artworks are short and efficient, reading this article will quickly give you a decent starting point for your research on war art. However, unlike Wikipedia, this article does not feature a wide variety of sources along with its body, so finding sources on the artworks and artists mentioned in it might be a little harder.
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, European, & French, 1767 - 1824, (artist),. (c. 1810). The Revolt of Cairo, 1798 [Oil on paper mounted on canvas]. The Cleveland Museum of Art; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Gift of Eugene Victor Thaw; 1965.310; <a href="http://www.clemusart.com/">The Cleveland Museum of Art</a>. https://jstor.org/stable/community.15051138
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