ART 241 - Researching Modern Art: Books

You can locate books on your artist in Hope Primo and also easily jump from what we have at Van Wylen to what we can get you from other libraries through MeLCat.

Searching Tips

• If you are looking for a book about or created by a particular artist, search their name (Last Name, First Name) as a Subject or Author search
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• If your artist is less well known they may not have a whole book dedicated to them.  Try browsing for them in anthologies of modern art generally or in a particular medium or artistic movement (Example: Giacomo Balla vs Futurism). 
• If you spot a relevant subject heading inside a record, follow the link, as it might lead you to other related books.
• If you don't find a book on your artist in Primo, look for the "MeLCat" link to do the same search in MeLCat a joint catalog for libraries in Michigan. You can request books from other libraries and they will arrive in about a week.

There are two good strategies for searching in Primo for text-based primary sources related to your artwork or topic.

1. Search your artists name in Advanced Search as an Author/Creator. While the results will still include some secondary sources that include works of art that they have created, it should also highlight if we have collections of their writings (letters, journals, published essays, etc.)

2. Create a keyword search for your artist or any movements that they were involved with and then also include the following set of terms in the second search box: (correspondence OR interview OR sources OR diaries). Change the dropdown menu from "any field" to "Genre." This will bring back books that have been identified as containing these types of primary sources.