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
Q&A | New children’s book delves behind the scenes of the art world
Doro Globus, the managing director of David Zwirner Books, tells us why she decided to write a book highlighting the many jobs that make a great exhibition
Who read what in 2021? The art world shares its top tips
Leading directors, curators and artists reveal their favourite books of the past year
December Book Bag: Ai Weiwei spills the beans, a short history of Black British art and all of Leon Kossoff’s paintings
Our roundup of the latest art publications
Marcel Duchamp monograph released more than 60 years after it first appeared in print
Historic texts by critic Robert Lebel in facsimile edition explore how the conceptual art pioneer adopted his female alter ego and cemented his reputation in America
Highs and lows of humanity reflected in new book that began on Facebook
The Book of Change includes almost 300 works, highlighting environmental challenges but giving glimpses of a better world
An expert's guide to Land Art: five must-read books on art and the environment
Books that make connections between art and the current climate crisis, chosen by the curator and author Ben Tufnell
November Book Bag: from Bridget Riley's insightful drawings and a Light and Space trailblazer to critic Robert Storr's latest musings
Our roundup of the latest art publications
Last photograph of Lucian Freud’s stolen Francis Bacon portrait published for first time
Image taken at Neue Nationalgalerie moments before the 1988 theft features in a new book of the artist’s copper paintings
October Book Bag: from a history of colour to how portraits of ‘murderous autocrats’ have shaped art
Our roundup of the latest art publications
How the Beano encouraged generations of artists to break the rules
We asked eight artists about the comic's influence ahead of a new exhibition exploring the publication's history and featuring contemporary art with that "Beano sensibility"
An expert’s guide to Albrecht Dürer: five must-read books on the Renaissance artist
All you ever wanted to know about Dürer, from the Old Master’s own accounts of his achievements and mishaps, to a recent creative take on his travels—selected by the art historian Susan Foister
In Pictures | How Gianfranco Gorgoni captured the mysticism of the Land Art movement
More than 150 rarely-seen photographs chronicle the history of seminal earthworks in the landscape
In Pictures | Behind the scenes of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work wrapping the Arc de Triomphe
A new book looks at the detailed preparations and 60 years of planning behind the work being unveiled in Paris
‘Caravaggio was a major-league asshole’: the long tradition of scandal in art
According to Noah Charney’s new book, infamy in the art world—be it contrived drama to drum up publicity or genuine artistic rivalry—is as old as art itself
Extract | How the colours in ancient Pompeian frescoes ‘spoke’ to Mark Rothko
A new book by the art historian Ben Street attempts to demystify how we look at art and argues for reacting instinctively to what we see
September’s book bag: US land protests, English country houses and a feminist history of photography
Our roundup of the latest art publications
An expert’s guide to Titian: five must-read books on the Venetian Old Master
All you ever wanted to know about Titian, from a biography fit for a king to an overlooked lecture essay from 1990—selected by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum curator Nathaniel Silver
Extract | How Mayor Rudy Giuliani went from ‘patting on the back’ to trying to pull the plug on Sensation show
Two decades after one of the most controversial exhibitions of recent times, Arnold Lehman, the former director of the Brooklyn Museum, reveals all in a new book
The best art books for summer—as recommended by curators, directors and dealers
As we enter the final weeks of the season, check out these riveting reads, from “the best novel about painting” to a book with no words at all
August’s book bag: from Polaroids and chats with trailblazing women artists to new insights into Indigenous Australian treasures
Our roundup of the latest art publications
Extract | A rare pamphlet from a historic Black art exhibition by the Spiral collective
The text accompanied the group's only show and is now one of several texts about Black art brought together in a new book The Soul of Nation Reader
An expert’s guide to Sophie Taeuber-Arp: five must-read books on the Swiss artist
All you ever wanted to know about Taeuber-Arp, from a children’s book full of inspiring projects to a publication exploring the dynamics of artist couples—selected by the Tate curator Natalia Sidlina
July’s book bag: from paranormal American art to a history of Stuart architecture
A roundup of the latest art publications
The best art books to dive into this summer—as recommended by artists
Whether you are lying on a beach or next to a paddling pool, sit back and let your mind soak up these inspiring reads
Extract | William Blake’s famous flop of an exhibition and the critic who described him as ‘an unfortunate lunatic’
A new book by John Higgs paints a picture of the mixed reviews that the 18th-century artist received and touches upon the “Holy Grail of his lost works”
The birth of auto-destructive art and how Gustav Metzger’s early works lay hidden in his auntie’s attic for decades
Three takeaways from a new book about the early career of the radical artist
An expert’s guide to Nam June Paik: five must-read books on the Korean-American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Paik, from a “deep dive” into a single work to the best biography—selected by the curators Rudolf Frieling and Andrea Nitsche-Krupp
In Pictures | Barkley L. Hendricks unseen photographs gathered in new publication
The US artist’s images are joined by an extract from the book looking at how aspects of his painting and photography overlapped
June’s book bag: from Peter Blake’s collages to artists’ solutions to the climate emergency
A roundup of the latest art publications
Q&A | What artists wear and why it matters
A new book by the fashion critic Charlie Porter explores how what artists choose to wear can tell us about the multiple roles of clothing in society