Jacqueline Riding
Contributing editor, Books
Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920, edited by Tabitha Barber (Tate Publishing)
Now You See Us…now you don’t? A challenge, or warning, not to return to business as usual. The lead curator and editor Tabitha Barber assembled an astonishing array of objects, beautifully reproduced here, with an equally impressive band of fellow scholars—mostly women—to reveal, yet again, that Old Mistresses, rather than being absent, were hiding in plain sight. Soon, I expect to see Mary Black displayed and reproduced alongside her contemporary William Hogarth. And no one batting an eyelid.
Guillaume Lethiere, edited by Esther Bell and Olivier Meslay (Clark Art Institute)
The extraordinary life and work of the Guadeloupe-born painter. Publications like this (as above) make life for the weary historian of 18th-century art worth living. Full review here.
Gareth Harris
Book Club co-editor and chief contributing editor
The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History of Art by Susan Owens (Yale University Press)
Drawing often flies under the radar of art historians. Susan Owens’s readable analysis begins with an exploration of ancient Egyptian drawings, such as a flock of pigeons rendered on the wall of the tomb chapel housing Neferherenptah, the king’s hairdresser. The author holds the reader’s hand throughout, such as when giving a fresh take on Andrea Mantegna’s technique in the Renaissance master’s studies for Christ at the Column (early 1460s).
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru (Scribner UK)
Describing the underbelly of the art world is no mean feat. Hari Kunzru gets to the heart of the matter in his novel, which convincingly tells the story of a failed contemporary artist chewed up and spat out by dealers, friends and peers.
José da Silva
Book Club co-editor and Exhibitions editor
Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman’s House, by Gilbert McCarragher (Thames & Hudson)
Shortly after the death of Keith Collins, the partner of the film-maker and artist Derek Jarman, the photographer Gilbert McCarragher began documenting their former house in Dungeness, Kent. A friend and neighbour, McCarragher, takes us through room by room, revealing the intimate details of a home created in the image of Jarman and Collins. The size of the book, a little larger than a hardback novel, lends itself perfectly to perusing the 160 photographs and comfortably reading the accompanying essay. Full review here.
Blue by Derek Jarman (David Zwirner Books)
A slight cheat, as this was published last year. But following on from the above, the script from Jarman’s 1993 film Blue—voiced over a blue screen to reflect his failing eyesight—is a moving and poignant read. It is part of a series of simply designed, compact books of rare texts, easily slipped into a jacket pocket.