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About the online collection

The online database contains records of more than 26,000 works in the Art Gallery of NSW collection, which dates back to the late 1800s. However, the amount of information varies considerably between records, often depending on when the work was acquired, whether it has featured in exhibitions and publications, and the amount of research that has been undertaken.

Images of the collection

Around 40% of the online records are accompanied by images.

These images, like all content on the Art Gallery of NSW website, are copyright. Images of artworks are for research purposes only. For any other uses, see Image reproduction.

Searching the collection

Our online database supports special search punctuation similar to other search engines such as Google.

You can use + in front of a word to find only records with that word. For example, +vase +green will only find works with the words green and vase.

You can use accents on letters; however, you will get the same results if you do not (eg Eugène or Eugene).

You can use either lowercase or uppercase letters (ie it is not case sensitive).

Spelling needs to match our records exactly; there will be no results for near-matches. For example, you will get no results if you type Tracy Moffat rather than Tracey Moffatt.

However, you can use part words but you must enter more than one word. For example, you can type in Trac* Mof* for Tracey Moffatt, but you will get no results if you type just Trac OR just Mof.

If you use more than one word or one field, by default you will get results that match any of the words you entered and the best matches will be sorted to the top. For example, if you enter sturt's pea in title, you will eight works, including four Margaret Preston works at the top: Sturt's pea; Aboriginal design, with Sturt's pea; Sturt's desert pea; Tea tray with Sturt's desert pea design. However, if you enter sturt's desert pea, you would 23 results, with the exact match listed first.

If you wish to search for an exact phrase, you can put multiple words together in double quotes. For example, "sturt's desert pea" will only find two works.

Artist name

Indigenous Australian spellings may vary considerably, and records for Aboriginal artists include known variations.

The order of family name and given name varies between cultures. In Western countries, the family name usually appears after the given name. In some Eastern cultures, such as those of China, Japan and Korea, the reverse is true, although names are sometimes given in Western order in a Western context. In the Gallery’s records, family names of artists from these Eastern cultures are usually capitalised (eg GUAN Wei).

As a general rule, Japanese people before 1868 are known by their given name, which comes second, and is capitalised (eg Katsushika HOKUSAI). After 1868, they are known by their family name, which comes first, and is capitalised (eg SUZUKI Osamu).

Artist country

This refers to the country or countries where an artist was born, lived and died.

You can enter more than one country if you wish to restrict your search.

Do not use abbreviations.

For USA, use United States of America or just America.

For UK, use United Kingdom.

For China, use People’s Republic of China from October 1949 or just China if wish to broaden the search.

Geographical origin

This is a more specialist field than ‘artist country’. As well as country of origin, it allows users to search at a more specific level for some locations. In particular, this applies to works originating in:

• China – by province, such as Hebei or Sichuan
• India – by area, such as Rajasthan or Gujarat
• Indonesia – by area, such as Bali, Java or Sumatra
• Papua New Guinea – by province, such as East Sepik or Southern Highlands

In a few cases, searches can be refined further to cities, towns or settlements such as Florence, Italy or Paris, France.

This is the case with Indigenous Australian art, which may be catalogued by the states and territories (spelt out in full eg New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory) and sometimes by region (such as Central and Western Desert or North-east Arnhem Land) and community (such as Papunya, Utopia or Yirrkala).