There are so many websites about art that looking up art online can turn into information overload. Here are a select few websites with a wealth of information on art, presented in a straightforward and often entertaining way.

• Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/. This incredibly detailed site combines detailed explanations of art movements and styles with explanations of specific works of art held in the museum’s collection. It is a great resource for Western and non-Western art alike. If you can’t make it to New York, looking at the Met Museum’s Timeline of Art History is the next best thing.
• Google Art Project, http://www.googleartproject.com/. A visit to Google Art Project is like stepping into a virtual museum. Roam the halls of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, or the Tate Britain in London. Dozens of museums opened their doors to Google in 2011, allowing cameras to film their interiors in a manner similar to Google StreetView. After broadening the project’s scope in 2012, tens of thousands of works of art from around the world can be seen online through the Google Art Project.
• Smarthistory presented by the Khan Academy, http://smarthistory.khanacademy .org/. Smarthistory is a great place to learn more about art movements and specific works of art. The site provides written essays, and video and audio guides to some of the most famous paintings, sculptures, and works of architecture around the world. Recently, Smarthistory has made an effort to include nonWestern art. Smarthistory multimedia presentations are engaging and highly informative.