Art equivalent to dewey decimal system?
Peter H.M. Brooks
photographs and sculpture, but some are from other artists.
I would like to give a unique, but meaningful, catalogue number to each
piece.
My thinking has been to have a code like:
type of art - medium - size - date of creation - backing - unique
number - artist
With the first six fields numeric and the final one initials [maybe with
a number if there are two artists with the same initials].
I am sure that this problem has been solved before and I would like to
use an existing method rather than re-invent the wheel.
--
non illegitimi te carborundum
Norma J. Bruce
"Peter H.M. Brooks" <pe...@new.co.za> wrote in message
news:a6f5pj$9ei$1...@ctb-nnrp1.saix.net...
> I am about to catalogue all my art works. Most are my own paintings,
> photographs and sculpture, but some are from other artists.
>
> I would like to give a unique, but meaningful, catalogue number to each
> piece.
I'm a librarian and a former cataloguer. My husband and I both paint, and
we buy works of other artists. The most efficient way is by accession
number. That's a dirty little secret since most libraries used either Dewey
or LC so the books are happy standing with other books with which they have
something in common. But that doesn't make sense with paintings. Nor does
sophisticated cataloging software.
Here's my advice, and if it is one thing we librarians know how to do, it is
give advice. The only questions that really took me some time were the guy
who got a heart infection from snogging his dog, and the New York chef who
wanted to know how to safely cook blackbirds for a gourmet cook-off
(veterinary library).
Storage is a huge problem, as we discovered after we moved our art work to
our condo. So 1) first shelve/store them by size, little to big, to
maximize your available shelf space. Protect your unframed in firm folders
and shelve with the others. 2) Then number them. It won't matter if that
wonderful slender little watercolor is next to a fat framed oil. 3) After
they've been sized and numbered, use any database program you have on your
computer (I use Works since it came with my XP) Maybe field 1 is the title
you've given it; field 2 is the medium; field 3 is the size; field 4 is
whatever show you've put it in; field 5 is the location it was painted and
so forth.
Then if you want to enter the Jackson Co. Ladies Art Guild Show and you're
not sure what you put in last year, sort your database on field 4 and you'll
see immediately it is time to find a new place to show. Each new painting
just gets a number in the continuing list.
You can even display them with the number. Here's how it goes:
A friend drops by.
"Oh I love this #34, . . .uh, um, the colors are so well, . . . colorful. I
didn't know you could paint. What, . . .er, where did you do this?"
You rush to your computer, sort by field 5, find out you copied it from a
calendar, and make something up.
Now, I don't use this method--haven't catalogued our paintings. But my
husband is an architect and he likes to see all those different levels and
forms when he opens the art closet. It is still a good plan, and if I ever
get the time. . .
Norma
Hugh Watkins
"Norma J. Bruce" <bru...@osu.edu> wrote in message news:a6fg4a$4ph$1...@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu...
all the great libraries and museums use a similar system and practical collections like band number each item as acquired. . . .
lets play no 72.
As long as you can find the stuff at will after putting it away, shelf mark is used for permanent collections of books, if you ask
for a certain bassoon fingering chart the answer comes back "destroyed by enemy action" . . when a bomb came through the roof of
the British library.
But they know where it should be :-0)
Hugh W
bassoon
Your Search has found 1538 items.
fagot
Your Search has found 74 items.
>>
a.. Reference Material records contain references to items destroyed during World War II. These items are identified by a "D-"
prefix to the shelfmark. A large proportion of these items have been replaced over the years and where a replacement has been
obtained an alternative shelfmark will be shown. <<
this was what I was looking for in 1957
Title: Chromatic Scale for the Heckel Bassoon. (Table of Shake or Trill Fingerings.)
Main heading: MODESS. Oscar
Publication details: [Carl Fischer: New York, 1924.] s. sh. obl. fol.
Shelfmark: 1879.cc.13.(30.)
William Penrose
<pe...@new.co.za> wrote:
>I am about to catalogue all my art works. Most are my own paintings,
>photographs and sculpture, but some are from other artists.
>
>I would like to give a unique, but meaningful, catalogue number to each
>piece.
Look at how Yahoo! has categorized art websites.
Bill Penrose