Smarthistory is one of the most-visited art history websites in the world. It offers a mix of essays and videos from knowledgeable contributors that will appeal to both novices and experts.
UbuWeb has a singular focus: avant-garde material. It has been online since way back in 1996.For the unfamiliar, the term avant-garde refers to any artists, writers, and composers whose work opposes regular mainstream cultural norms. Typically, it will have a political or social theme. UbuWeb covers visual art, sound, poetry, and film. It only publishes out-of-print work. The site looks a bit dated, but the easy-to-navigate categories are packed with material.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the largest art museum in the United States, but its website is a fantastic resource for people who are interested in the history of art.
Art history news is a one-man blog that covers all the latest stories in the world of art history. The stories encompass everything from news about new exhibitions to information about some of the world’s most famous historical artwork. The editor, Bendor Grosvenor, also offers a fair number of research and opinion pieces.
WikiArt features images of more than 250,000 pieces of art by over 3,000 artists. Much of the art is not on public display; it has stored in vaults or displayed in universities, town halls, and other civic buildings which are not accessible to the general population.
The Web Gallery of Art specializes in European fine arts. It covers time spanning from the 8th to the 19th centuries.
The Museum with No Frontiers is the planet’s largest online museum. It is a collaborative project between the E.U. and dozens of galleries and museums around the world.
The ThoughtCo Art History Guide offers a great mix of articles, many of which offer a more modern twist on what can be quite a dry subject matter for newcomers.
The National Art Museum of China, which was opened by Chairman Mao in 1963, displays the best Chinese works from ancient times through to the modern day.
The site covers 3000 years’ worth of Indian art across a wide range of categories. You’ll find essays on several styles and themes, a vast repository of digitized paintings, and biographies on some of India’s best-known artists.