Books

Booksreview

How England's Civil War laid waste to the country's grandest private house

Book tells tale of how Oliver Cromwell wiped Basing House—which provided shelter to the famous classical architect Inigo Jones—off the map

Booksreview

Animal, vegetable, mineral: Swedish ironmaster dynasty's collection captures the natural world

Objects and documentation collected by the Timm family offer a unique insight into a past world

Book Clubfeature

Susan Sontag's influential 1977 book On Photography is reissued

New version published by The Folio Society includes new insights from curator Mia Fineman who has selected key accompanying images

Trigger Warning: a new column on censorship in art today, from must-read books to which algorithms are policing creative content

Our chief contributing editor Gareth Harris will examine attacks on freedom of artistic expression and issues like ‘cancel culture’, providing valuable insights and context

Scholar finds sketch of Michelangelo in margin of book

Fifteenth-century edition of The Divine Comedy includes witty drawing of Renaissance master at work on a sculpture, claims James Hall

Booksreview

New publication brings Norwegian medieval wooden church—an art history Sleeping Beauty—to ravishing life

It may lie in a remote fjord but the Viking-built stave structure sits within a far wider context

Booksreview

Innovative or elitist? A new book takes a close look at Latin American Modernism

A study of four 20th-century artists concentrates on close examination of works and intentions, rather than grand simplifying narratives.

Book Clubfeature

Tate collection's dalliance with the occult is explored in new book

A new publication picks out art, artefacts and ephemera from the institution's collection that deal with occult themes, many of which have never been seen publicly. Here, the book’s author selects some of the highlights

‘This show was in some way my own wake’: Solange Knowles on her Venice Biennale performance, the focus of a new book

The artist, musician and performer discusses ‘In Past Pupils and Smiles’, a performance she staged in Venice in 2019 that is chronicled in a new book

How partition divided a centuries-old manuscript between India and Pakistan—and continues to plague the region's heritage

Research on the Chandayan of Mulla Da’ud has suffered ever since 24 folios narrating the love story were split up across the border in 1947

Who is Octavia Butler and why is the art world obsessed with her writing?

The late author’s sci-fi stories have inspired artists such as Alberta Whittle, Candice Breitz, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Precious Okoyomon

Booksreview

Stolen by the Nazis and a talking point in Cold War Poland: the strange journey of Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine

Eden Collinsworth tells a breathless, flowery tale of the celebrated Cecilia Gallerani portrait

The best art books for summer 2022—as recommended by artists, curators, museum directors and dealers

From artist biographies and essay collections to a dystopian novel, surf culture and a rock’n’roll autobiography

Compiled by José da Silva and Gareth Harris
Booksinterview

Brendan Fernandes on the afterlives of dance performances that breathe new meanings into sculptures

The artist’s new book—the seventh in his career—chronicles his recent dance and sculpture-based projects at the Noguchi Museum, the Graham Foundation and the Whitney

Booksreview

Tales of tragedy and heroism: book of photographs bring England’s shipwrecks to vivid life

Volume comprises superb black-and-white images of 68 shipwrecks off the notoriously treacherous south-west coast, beginning in 1871

Book Clubfeature

The sensory language of paint, from Matisse banishing blue to Rococo’s love affair with pink

In her new book, Chloë Ashby explores the power of colour in art. Here, she takes us on a whirlwind tour and recommends four other fascinating new books on colour

Booksreview

Adam Dant’s on-the-nose political maps are delightfully vulgar—and merit a ‘Partygate’ update

New book collects the illustrator’s maps that range from UK political sleaze to the renaming of American states using cockney rhyming slang

An expert's guide to Raphael: five must-read books on the Italian Old Master

All you ever wanted to know about Raphael, from a page-turner monograph to a tome of his “irresistible” drawings—selected by the art historian David Ekserdjian

Booksreview

New book reveals how women artists in the 'Age of Revolutions' confound stereotypes

This statistics-driven investigation shows that many of the hundreds of women exhibiting in London and Paris between 1760 and 1830 eschewed the still-life

Booksreview

Rich volume examining knights and their shining armour goes beyond popular romantic notions

Book provides excellent overview of the history of and meaning behind orders, tournaments and armour

Booksreview

At long last, Indian art from the long 20th century gets the forensic treatment in gargantuan publication

Over more than 700 pages, and with a polyphony of contributors, this book charts more than 100 years of subcontinental art, from the 19th century to the present day

'Closer to Vincent': the secrets of everyday objects in Van Gogh’s paintings

A book and exhibition will reveal surprising facts about some of the artist’s best-loved motifs

a blog by Martin Bailey
Booksreview

Pioneering Parisian dealer Berthe Weill, who gave Modigliani his only show, is brought back to life in a new book

The first English translation of Weill’s 1933 memoir reveals a powerhouse of the Modern art world

Booksreview

Extravagant volume of post-war photography presents a snapshot of fast-changing British society

From street scenes to social media, this sweeping survey examines how documentary photography has made sense of the UK’s cultural and political climate

Book Clubinterview

Old Master meets YBAs: James Cahill tells us all about his debut novel

The author explains why his new coming-of-age novel is set against the backdrop of the 1990s art world and what drew him to the paintings of the titular Tiepolo

An expert's guide to Piet Mondrian: four must-read books on the Dutch artist

All you ever wanted to know about Mondrian, from a comprehensive biography to a book about his various studios—selected by the curator Ulf Küster