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Primary Sources - Art History
About Primary Sources
- Primary sources are first-hand information
- They are sources as close as possible to the information you are studying
Examples of Primary Sources
- A work of art, itself, is a primary source
- Items written by the artist, such as journals, a diary, an autobiography and letters
- Government documents
- Memoirs
- Oral histories
- Newspaper or magazine articles, written by someone who attended an opening, exhibition or talk by the artist are primary sources
Finding Primary Sources
- In the library catalog, try an author search for the artist - Ex: Jenny Holzer -
- NY Times Historical Database - New York Times, Historical Tip: Try filtering by Document type - Review in the facets on the left margin
- Other newspapers
- Artist's web presence
- Alma mater archives
- Clues/Bibliographies in Encyclopedia articles
- Web search - artist's name +archives +sources
- Interviews can be primary sources if they have not been edited.