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Art & the History of Art Research Guide

Primary Sources

Find primary sources for Art and the History of Art in the following collections:

Artist Interviews and Talks

Artist Interviews and Talks Online:

  • ICA Boston Artists' Talks
    Audio and video recordings of artists' talks and exhibitions from 2012. Includes performance art and film.
  • Audio Arts at the Tate
    Established in 1972 by Bill Furlong as an audio cassette-magazine, Audio Arts includes 30 years worth of recorded interviews with world famous artists, andd is available here digitally for the first time.
  • MoMA Multimedia Lab
    Audio and video recordings of artist talks, exhibitions and programming. Includes detailed interactive walk through of museum exhibitions.

Tip: What are primary sources?

A primary source is essentially any record or artifact from a given era that provides original documentary evidence of the time—like a snapshot of a given experience, taken by someone who was there. Secondary sources, such as books or articles, often draw heavily from primary sources, such as letters, diaries, or interviews, to make representations or interpretations of a period under study.

A few examples of primary sources include diaries, photographs, letters, government documents, and newspaper and magazine articles (from the period under study).

Want to learn more? Visit the Primary Sources Research Guide.