Books

Book Reviews

New book offers a suitably poetic vision of Blake and his legacy

Philip Hoare has created his “version of a Blake print”, a complex book to dive into and get lost in

Book Club

The Art Newspaper’s Book Club shines a light on art books in their myriad forms and brings you exclusive extracts, interviews, picture galleries and recommendations from leading art world figures. Sign up to our newsletter and follow us on social media

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

Booksfeature

Larry Gagosian on his latest acquisition, a bookstore in the Hamptons

The world’s most powerful art dealer hopes BookHampton will remain a community gathering place

Lawnews

Trial of Gérard Lhéritier, once dubbed ‘the king of manuscripts’, gets underway in Paris

Lhéritier was charged with fraud by French authorities in 2015, and his company, Aristophil, has since been liquidated

Book Clubfeature

What is art for? A brush with… publication reveals artists’ favourite things

Book drawn from The Art Newspaper podcast includes 25 insightful interviews with key figures such as Doris Salcedo and Ragnar Kjartansson

Booksreview

The 19th-century heiress whose avid collecting was just part of a rich, scholarly life

The exceptional legacy of Lady Charlotte Schreiber, best known for her scholarly collecting of ceramics, is explored in a new biography

Booksreview

Euan Uglow monograph offers a fresh perspective through memoirs, papers and contributions

The book also includes myriad accounts of the British artist's inspirational teaching techniques

Book Clubfeature

Cameras, creativity and kids: Sally Mann on her ‘kind of how-to book’ that mixes memoir with advice for artists

The US photographer, whose images of her naked children sparked controversy, reflects on her life and practice

An expert’s guide to Indigenous Australian art: five must-read books on the subject

The best publications to learn all about the topic, from a concise overview to a ‘stunning illustrated publication’—selected by the curator Kelli Cole and the academic Jennifer Green

Booksreview

A tome accompanying the Lahore Biennale is a celebration of authenticity

This comprehensive reader on the second edition in 2020 considers how the independent-minded institution is placing Pakistan’s artists in an international context as well as helping them thrive in a complex political environment

Comment | From restitution to confronting authoritarian regimes, here are five ways museums can be more ethical

Gareth Harris, author of ‘Towards the Ethical Art Museum’, shares advice on how museums can ethically navigate increasingly tumultuous times

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Thomas Neurath, who brought single-minded energy and intellectual bravura to leading the publishers Thames & Hudson

The managing director of one of the most admired imprints for illustrated art books, who has died aged 84, was a master of the integration of text and pictures with a beatnik streak and a desire to democratise access to the arts

Why sociologists believe that culture might be bad for you

A revised edition of a 2020 book looks at the problems associated with a "white, male and middle class" cultural arena in the UK

An expansive monograph of Celia Paul paints a portrait of a single-minded, singular artist

The book explores how the British artist's mother was her most trusted sitter and Paul's thoughts on Lucian Freud’s depictions of her during their relationship

Book Clubfeature

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

Booksreview

No-holds-barred biography of dealer and collector Douglas Cooper paints a picture of a fearless, controlling and deceitful man

Objectionable Cubist collector used skills developed in an elite network to become a tenacious “Monuments Man”

Booksreview

The tale of a French psychiatric asylum that harboured Second World War resistance fighters—and where patients became artists

Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles’s treatment of mental illness at the institution included art—and was championed by Jean Dubuffet

Book Clubfeature

‘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

Book Clubfeature

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

Booksreview

A biography of Turner and Constable that goes beyond the stereotypes

New analysis considers the artists’ common cause as champions of landscape alongside their renowned differences

Booksreview

Dan Hicks's new book is a personal take on the cultural politics of collecting

The often violent history of public statues and museum collections—including that of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum—is told in this biographical book that energises and exasperates in equal measure.

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

Must-see exhibitions and must-read books on Korean art

A round up of recent publications and upcoming events to deepen your knowledge

In partnership withMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism & Korea Arts Management Service
Booksreview

New book explores how Rome’s ruins have resonated in art and literature over centuries

A survey tracing the city’s greatest ornaments from antiquity to the present day originated as a series of lectures

Book Clubfeature

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

Booksreview

East meets West in Venice: the unlikely love affair between a Hermitage curator and a Cambridge don

A new volume details a chance meeting that liberated art scholars Francis Haskell and Larissa Salmina in very different ways