Britannica Online provides information on a variety of art topics. These include Periods, Styles and Movements, Schools and Groups, and Decorative Arts and Crafts, among others. Each article includes bibliographies, a few images, and cross-references. The example below is taken from an artist's biography.

Another guide is the Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design since 1945. In the index, found in the back of each book, you may find your artist or the movement/style/concept he/she was associated with, such as 'new realism' or 'Black Mountain' or 'Harlem Renaissance' or 'hard-edged painting.'

The Oxford Companion to 20th Century Art may also be useful as it is very broad in scope. For more general art terminology, you may want to look at a book like Art Terms and Techniques. Search the UNC Library's online catalog by title for locations and call numbers.