Search Tips

Search

Enter the full or partial name of the artist in the search box. An asterisk can be used for truncation of either the first name(s) or the surname. For example:

• Jean Paul Riopelle
• Riopelle, Jean Paul
• Riop*
• Riopelle, J*

Press the « Search » button. The search results will appear at the bottom of the page.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search has been designed to take advantage of the wealth of information which exists in the database to aid researchers who are attempting to compile a list of artists who meet specified criteria. For example, the database could be used to compile a preliminary list of female photographers working in Vancouver, of sculptors working in Canada after 1940 , or of artisans working in Saskatchewan in the 20th century.

The database contains records for over 55 000 artists. Each of these records may contain as many as 25 fields. The fields include: artist/maker, artist other names, citizenship, references, authority status, technique, gender, address date, address city, address province, address country, birth date, birth city, birth province, birth country, death date, death city, death province, death country, file location, contributors, remarks, record creation date, record update date, and record number. Many of these fields can be used to identify a group of artists who meet specific criteria.

For example, if a researcher is compiling a list of female photographers working in Vancouver they would enter the following search query using the Advanced Search form:

1. In the “Location” Search, select the field “Address Location” from the drop-down box. Enter “Vancouver” in the search box.
2. Find the “Gender” drop-down search, and select "Female”.
3. Find the "Technique" drop-down search, and select "Photography".
4. Click on the "Search" button.

As another example, if a researcher is compiling a list of files housed at the National Gallery of Canada on sculptors working in Canada after 1940 , they would use the following search strategy:

1. In the “Location” Search, select the field “Address Location” from the drop-down box. Enter “Canada” in the search box.
2. In the “Date” Search, select the field "Address Year" and the operator "greater than" from the drop-down boxes, and enter "1940".
3. Find the "Technique" drop-down search, and select "Sculpture".
4. Find the “File Location” drop-down search, and select “National Gallery of Canada".
5. Click on the "Search" button.

Display

Search results are presented in a list. To see the full record, click on the name of one of the artists in the list. To go back to the search results, click on “Back to List”.

Browse by Index

The Browse by Index allows you to see the contents of the index of the following fields:

• Artist/Maker name
• Citizenship

Viewing the index will allow you to see all variants of a name or citizenship, in order to ensure that your search is comprehensive. It also allows you to review all the data in the fields listed above.

Unlike the Search and Advanced Search in Artists in Canada, which provide you with a result list of artist names, the Index Browse provides you with a result list of terms from the index that you are browsing. For example, if you are browsing the Citizenship index, your results will be terms from the Citizenship index. Click on any of the Citizenship terms in your result set to launch a search for records containing the terms.