In your Art Research Paper, you'll relate your work to that of an artist or designer and do research on their art. Look for an artist whose work has something in common with your own. Their work doesn't necessarily have to resemble yours in a visual way but can focus on a similar theme or issue. For example, if you made a painting dealing with climate change, you could pick an artist who also addresses the climate crisis but uses the medium of installation or photography.
If you don't already have an artist or designer in mind, it's not hard to get ideas.
You can use Google, but don't overlook your network of people at MassArt. You can ask your professors for suggestions or your friendly MassArt librarians, who have studio art or art history backgrounds to draw on. Last but not least, you can talk to other students who may have great ideas on comparison artists or designers to research.
It's easy to get overwhelmed if you are researching a famous artist because there are too many sources. If that's the case, consider narrowing your topic to focus on a phase or subset of their work (examples: Picasso's Blue Period or Frida Kahlo's still lifes). If you pick an artist that you find on Instagram and there is not enough information on them to write a research paper, maybe you can interview them (you're then conducting original research) or you can combine them with an artist who is better documented.
Image: Joana Vasconcelos, Valkyrie Mumbet, MAAM, 2020
Most people start their art research on the internet, using Wikipedia to get general background information on their topic.
When researching art online, you probably won't come across outright disinformation but look out for bias and hype (especially on artists' and gallery websites, which are a form of PR) and you may also run into a lot of very short artist bios that don't really give you enough material to work with for your paper.
Museum websites in particular can have excellent content on artists and movements. Exhibition reviews and feature articles in general news sources (NY Times) or art news sites (Artsy, Hyperallergic, etc.) can give you insights that you can incorporate into your paper. Artist interviews and videos on sites like Art 21 can expose you to their creative process.
Here are a few online sources to try when looking for information about artists:
When doing research make sure you use sources that pass the CRAAP test. These datapoints will help you determine if a source is scholarly enough to cite.
ACT UP Source Evaluation by Dawn Stahura from UCSB Library on Vimeo.
Library sources like books and journal articles can sometimes give you more in-depth information on your topic than you might find using Google. They can provide you with more than basic factual info (names, dates, etc.) by offering essays featuring analysis, explanation, and interpretation, which you can use in your paper.
The simplest way to search for library sources is to use Search Everything on the library website. Search Everything gives you access to print and e-books and articles from databases like Art Source and JSTOR. (There are a few online resources, mostly in fashion, that have to be used separately.)
Different from regular Google. Use Google Scholar to find academic sources like peer-reviewed articles, especially if your topic is not well covered by library sources. If an article is not freely available full-text on Google Scholar, it might be accessible using Search Everything on the library website or through interlibrary loan.
If you'd like a thoughtful overview on the research process, check out this mini course with Elsa Loftis. Covers using the web v. the library, primary v. secondary sources, coming up with search terms, citing sources, etc. You can watch the whole video (1:47:00) or just sections. (Login with your MassArt username and password.)