Books

Book Reviews

Martin Parr steps out from behind the camera lens in informal autobiography

An intimate and chatty biography gives the artist space to reflect on his career in photography and the practice’s evolution

Rowland Bagnall2 days ago

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

New book looks at how the movies shaped the way we think about artists

We speak to the author of a publication that dissects the way artists from Van Gogh to Frida Kahlo have been immortalised on the silver screen

Ultimate reading lists

Booksreview

A new publication explores how Renaissance Europe viewed and thought about skin

The detailed survey seeks to rethink how people understood, and gave meaning to, the body and its portrayal in the period

An expert’s guide to Robert Rauschenberg: five must-read books on the US artist

The best publications to learn all about Rauschenberg, from his own “humorous and profound” writings to a book about his fruitful relationships with other artists—selected by the curator Michelle White

Book Clubinterview

‘Ideas move through migration’: Charlotte Mullins tells us why she has taken a fresh look at art from the British Isles

The author's new publication charts the history of the UK and Ireland from the last Ice Age to today

Booksreview

In a new biography, Vanessa Bell is cast as the Bloomsbury Group's leading light—and as central to 20th-century visual culture

This evocative tale makes a compelling case Bell, who made inroads as an artist and designer at a time when this was rare for women

Museums and ethics, Fra Angelico in Florence, Cornelia Parker’s PsychoBarn—podcast

Unpacking the issues facing cultural institutions today, plus chats about a Renaissance blockbuster and a ”cut-up” architectural installation in Basel

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

We speak to Ben Luke about his book drawn from The Art Newspaper podcast, which 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

Booksreview

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

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

Book Clubfeature

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

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