The catalogue raisonne has been the bedrock of art historical research since the late 18th century. It provides the broadest and most comprehensive record of an artist’s work and their historical context. One would think that the contours of the catalogue raisonné would be firmly established by now, and in some ways they are, but new developments in research, demand and publishing have created a moment of transition and rich dialogue concerning the future of this most traditional of art research publications. Changing attitudes toward authenticity, online access and publishing, digital citations and an evolving user base all affect the how a catalogue raisonné scholar completes and disseminates their research.

IAINBAXTER&raisonnE is an experimental catalogue raisonné of the conceptual artist IAIN BAXTER &, former President of the ‘critical company’ N.E. Thing Co. Ltd. (NETCO). NETCO creatively re-purposed the media ecology of Marshall McLuhan to challenge Conceptual art’s utilitarian ‘aesthetic of administration’ as well as the categorical assumptions informing library and information science that it mimicked. This article describes the main features of the prototype and argues in favour of an approach to developing catalogues raisonnés with artist-centred designs, for which the principles of linked data may be unduly restrictive or even incompatible.

A catalogue raisonné is the definitive, comprehensive, and annotated compilation of all the known works of an artist. Beyond the necessary, meticulous task of compilation of information, which typically takes years to complete, the need to keep the information updated is a perpetual concern. Because the lives of artworks continually evolve as ownership changes and exhibition and literature histories expand, publishing a catalogue raisonné in print presents a real challenge in keeping information current. This challenge is even more pronounced for active, living artists whose works completed subsequent to a published catalogue raisonné would require the publication of a new volume. A catalogue raisonné being ‘definitive’ actually evolves constandy, warranting a format that can accommodate that very flux. The Chuck Close catalogue raisonné, launched and maintained as an online publication, is used here to illustrate the advantages of digital publishing for catalogues raisonnés.

Launched at the end of 2012, the catalogue raisonné of American Abstract Expressionist painter Jack Tworkov, represents a major effort in preserving and promoting the legacy of the artist. This article describes the collaboration between the Tworkov Estate and panopticon, the software engineers who have developed an innovative web-based content management system specifically designed to catalogue cultural objects. The result of that collaboration is the first free online catalogue raisonné available to the public.

This article discusses the rationale and decision making processes involved in the construction of barryflanagan.com, the website developed by the Estate of the British artist to give access to an online catalogue raisonné of his work alongside a digitised archive. A central focus to the project was to develop a systematic representation of interconnectivity: from notation and documentation to realisation and subsequent exhibition.

This paper presents findings from interviews conducted with editors of catalogue raisonné projects in various stages of development combined with the author’s work on the Catalogue Raisonné of the Drawings of Jasper Johns. A summary is presented of the common mission and challenges in preparing the catalogue raisonné as well as the considerations for, and benefits of, publishing online. The result is a concise reference tool of best practices and suggestions for future catalogues raisonnés and online catalogue projects, including features available if publishing online; staff recommendations; workflow; database options; data migration; research; storage of research assets; and long-term maintenance.

There has been a dramatic shift in publication of scholarly art research materials from print to digital formats. In late 2013, the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) was awarded a two-year grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to address challenges of preservation and continued access for future researchers of these materials by implementing a web archiving programme. Due to the transition of many catalogues raisonnés to online from print, born-digital catalogues raisonnés are one of the five key collecting areas of focus for NYARC’s project. The intention of this article is to provide an introduction to the key components of the implementation of NYARC’s web archiving programme, to explore the far-flung implications of the digital shift, and to demonstrate the need for a community of collaboration in building curated web archive collections to benefit the future art historian.

What is a page in the digital age? The Getty Foundation’s Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (OSCI) was launched in 2009 to create new models for the publication of museum collection catalogues in the online environment. Five years later, all eight museums participating in the grant programme have published pioneering online catalogues. A final report on the initiative, which will share lessons learned and remaining challenges, as well as core information of value for any museum considering online publishing, will be presented by the Foundation later this year.