
Book Club
The Art Newspaper’s Book Club shines a light on art books in their myriad forms and brings you exclusive extracts, interviews and recommendations from leading art world figures. Sign up to our monthly newsletter above
Illustrator Clive Hicks-Jenkins on dealing with violent imagery and finding ways of ‘showing the impossible’
Ahead of the publication of a new edition of Homer’s epics—which he has illustrated—the artist also explains why he switches mediums for different books
Ultimate reading lists
Interviews with writers
Features
Rain, insomnia and finding a model: how Morocco challenged and changed Matisse
The author of a new book, Jeff Koehler, tells us about the French artist’s fruitful but sometimes tricky sojourns in Tangier
Sex, beauty and the body: how Helen Chadwick shaped British contemporary art
The “provocative, punky, perverse” artist died far too young but her work’s influence endures, argues a new biography
The trials and tribulations of putting together Lucian Freud’s catalogue raisonné
The forensically researched volume on the British artist's oil paintings offers a depth of scrutiny that he himself was famous for
What is the art world reading?
Book extracts
In Pictures
July Book Bag: from a monograph of Vincent Namatjira’s headline-grabbing portraits to a book of Chinese art heists
Our round-up of the latest art publications
Arshile Gorky’s experience as an immigrant to the US and the painting that defined it
An exclusive extract by Adam Gopnik on the Armenian American painter, taken from a collection of essays about the artist’s time in New York City
An expert’s guide to Edvard Munch: five must-read books on the Norwegian Expressionist
The best publications to learn all about the artist, from a renowned novelist's essay to a comprehensive catalogue raisonné—selected by the Munch museum curator Trine Otte Bak Nielsen
‘Cultural innovation comes from the margins’—tales of artists pushing boundaries in 1960s New York
The critic J. Hoberman’s take on Manhattan counterculture charts the rise of artists such as Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono
June Book Bag: from the cool influence of Ice Age art to the story of Arshile Gorky’s early years in the US
Our round-up of the latest art publications
An expert’s guide to Postmodernism: five must-read books on the movement
All you ever wanted to know about the subject, from a pivotal novel to a book on how Postmodernism “shapes all aspects of contemporary life”—selected by The Cosmic House director Eszter Steierhoffer
May Book Bag: from a comic compendium inspired by MoMA to a turning point in the history of photography
Our round-up of the latest art publications
The Voynich Manuscript revealed: five things you probably didn't know about the Medieval masterpiece
Scholars have speculated for centuries about the meaning behind the 15th-century codex and its peculiar illustrations
An expert's guide to artists' books: four must-read publications on the genre
All you ever wanted to know about artists' books on the eve of a major exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute—selected by the show's co-curator Arnaud Desjardin
April Book Bag: from a new angle on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to the re-issuing of bell hooks’s art essays
Our round-up of the latest art publications
New book looks at the shaping of Modern art in the Middle East beyond politics and war
The Arab art specialist Saeb Eigner talks about his comprehensive new biography spanning from 1900 to today
An expert’s guide to Ruth Asawa: five must-read books on the Japanese American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Asawa, from a graphic novel biography to tales from her time at the celebrated Black Mountain College—selected by the curator Janet Bishop
March Book Bag: from a compilation of artist love stories to a polemic questioning morality in art
Our round-up of the latest art publications
Tacita Dean on why she has made a book about her night in a museum with Cy Twombly’s art
The British artist has published a new book of detailed photographs of her hero’s work
‘He could be grotesquely, wildly intemperate’: biographer Blake Gopnik tells us about the great collector Albert C. Barnes
A new biography on the renowned businessman, who amassed one of the most important collections of Modern art in the US, looks at what made him tick
An expert’s guide to Vanessa Bell: five must-read books on the Bloomsbury Group artist
All you ever wanted to know about Bell, from a comprehensive biography to a controversial memoir by her daughter—selected by Charleston’s head of collections Darren Clarke
‘I thought I would be trampled to death’: travelling with Gilbert & George to put on a show in 1990s Beijing
An exclusive extract from a new book by James Birch who helped organise exhibitions for the artist duo in Communist Russia and China
February Book Bag: from a history of Māori art to T.J. Clark’s essays on politics and art
Our round-up of the latest art publications
An expert’s guide to Anselm Kiefer: five must-read books on the German artist
All you ever wanted to know about Kiefer, from a deep dive into his studios to the poetry that inspires him—selected by the curators Emilie Gordenker, Edwin Becker and Leontine Coelewij
Don McCullin on swapping war zones for museums and why his ‘printing days are over’
The revered photojournalist has turned his focus to ancient statues for a new photography book
An expert’s guide to Brazilian Modernism: five must-read books on the subject
All you ever wanted to know about the topic, from its impact on global Modernist art to a novel capturing the “atmosphere of heady excitement”—selected by the curator Rebecca Bray
‘An impossible stillness that artists have chased’: Alvaro Barrington on Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ
In this exclusive extract from a new book, the London-based artist explains why Piero’s painting is his favourite in the National Gallery collection
‘The painter in me did not die’: novelist Orhan Pamuk turns his hand to art
Notebooks filled with the Turkish author's drawings reflect events spanning the past decade
December Book Bag: from Nick Cave’s devilish works to an analysis of Rembrandt’s competition with his star pupil
Our round-up of the latest art publications
Some of our favourite books of 2024—picked by The Art Newspaper’s books team
Our literary editors share what has delighted them this year, from art-themed novels to edifying histories
An expert’s guide to the Venetian Renaissance: five must-read books on the period
All you ever wanted to know about the subject, from the story of Carpaccio and Bellini's narrative painting to a Venice guide for little explorers—selected by the curators Annette Hojer and Christine Follmann
Magnum’s opus of America: a new photography compendium reveals the many sides of the US
The publication’s co-editor Peter van Agtmael chooses seven key images from legendary agency’s new book
November Book Bag: from fashion ‘outlaws’ to interviews with the auto-destructive artist Gustav Metzger
Our round-up of the latest art publications
How a Persian manuscript was swapped for a Willem de Kooning owned by the Iranian government
Oliver Hoare's memoir details the story of the ambitious exchange of an Iranian masterpiece for a painting by the Abstract Expressionist
‘He laughed like a madman’: when Édouard Manet decided to touch up one of Berthe Morisot's paintings
An extract from a new book by Sebastian Smee—about the Impressionists during the Siege of Paris and Paris Commune—brings to life the peculiar episode of artistic intervention