Grove Dictionary of Art

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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.[1] [2] OUP has however offered occasional sales, as in 2006 when, to mark the occasion of 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.[3] 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 number from their local public library.

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ It is also available at most university libraries in the United States.
  3. ^ "Grove Art Online Reviews" <http://www.groveart.com/grove-owned/art/reviews.html> [Retrieved January 24, 2008]

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