futurism (manifesto of and general practices)
in praise of shadows
da vinci notebooks
surrealist manifestos (de chiricos writings)
basic semiotics (mythologies by barthes)
archetypal symbolism
the situationists
the symbolists
rilke
odilon redon
arnold bocklin
kathe kollowitz
more things to look into. also u gotta hit the “cliche” stuff. most people have never actually looked at mucha, escher, etc... hiroshige is also tight. many good classic painters are not well known like barocci, parmigianino