Books

Booksreview

Otto Marseus van Schrieck: introducing the inventor of the 'forest-floor' still-life

This splendid book uncovers the Dutch painter who brought the lowliest creatures of the forest ecosystem to life

Booksreview

Prefab(ulous): the story of an 18th-century chapel made entirely in Rome for a church in Lisbon

This fascinating survey offers both detailed commentary and lavish illustrations

Booksreview

Telling us why and how: a groundbreaking study of Veronese’s techniques and paintings

These two books—very different in approach—analyse the process and works of the Italian Renaissance painter

Booksreview

Henry I of Haiti: the little-known story of a king and his amazing building spree

A short but fascinating book about a man immortalised through architecture

Booksreview

The tortuous story of Gustav Klimt’s Nazi-looted, 100ft-wide Beethoven Frieze uncovered

New book exploring work's provenance is a must-read for those interested in the contentious field of art restitution

Booksreview

Potty about pictures: ancient Athenian vases are an important historical resource—but this book fails to deliver

Large gaps in the material and a lack of thorough explanation make this volume less useful than it could be

Jasper Johns show and catalogue raisonné open Menil Collection’s new Drawing Institute

The 88-year-old artist, who gets the institute’s inaugural show, was deeply involved in the publication

Booksreview

Very much an acquired taste: how did so many Italian baroque paintings end up in US museums?

Book provides a sampling of personalities, acquisition strategies and collections that many Europeans may not know

Booksreview

Picture perfect: a 'sumptuous' book on Pre-Raphaelite stained glass

While its terminology is unsteady, the scholarship and production values of this sequel volume are exceptional

Booksreview

How to force historians to use their eyes: book urges academics to 'take art more seriously'

Princeton University's Theodore K. Rabb says more visual materials—not only written records—should be explored

Booksreview

Many pictures but no big picture: book struggles to capture the extraordinary life of Harald Szeemann

Volume on pioneering curator takes an admiring, rather than a critically analytical, approach

Booksreview

Pull up a pew: vast volume surveys church cabinetmaking in 17th- and 18th-century Austria

Illuminating historical overviews and a mass of documentary research covers an under-studied subject

Booksreview

Thinking with pictures: how images were used for philosophical thinking in the Early Modern period

A rich and fascinating book on what can rightly be called the art of philosophy

Booksreview

A Käthe Kollwitz renaissance is under way (and about time, too)

A pair of publications shed new light on profoundly socially committed artist

Booksreview

Before gardens had capabilities: book explores English landscaping in the 17th and early 18th centuries

After “Capability” Brown’s tercentenary in 2016, this volume looks at the places the landscape architect is often accused of destroying

Booksreview

Cottaging—an acquired taste? New book looks at England’s once-popular Cottage Orné style

An enlightening survey on the story of English architecture and the quintessential country house

Revealed: Van Gogh's failed attempt at art dealing

New book argues that artist bought Japanese prints “not for pleasure but to deal in them”

Booksreview

Drawing the mercurial mind: book poses Michelangelo’s draughtsmanship as the key to his life and works

Volume produced for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition of the artist is "a lasting contribution to scholarship"

‘Believing is seeing’: Tom Wolfe on Modern art

The novelist and journalist was also an outspoken art critic

The best new books to buy at the Frieze bookstore

For those looking for something a little more pocket-sized to take home from the fair

Modernist artist Paul Feiler’s legacy reassessed in new shows and publications

The German-born artist was a key member of the St Ives artistic community—but why does his work matter?

Booksreview

Rodin revealed as daring experimenter in centenary book

More than just bronzes, this collection of essays captures 100 years of scholarship on the 19th century's most famous sculptor

Booksreview

Books essay: naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian was a woman in a man’s world

Her work straddles the territories of art and science, bugs and flowers

Podcastspodcast

Podcast episode 24: Mural-gazing with the Dalai Lama, plus Michael Rakowitz

We speak to Thomas Laird about his new book on the murals of Tibet and to Michael Rakowitz about his fourth plinth commission unveiled next week

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
Booksreview

The commercial rape of Venice is the result of a moral failing in the Italians

This is the view of a former Getty chief, who says the problems of the Serenissima are a paradigm for other historic cities

Booksreview

Peter Wilson: The man who invented modern auctioneering

Buccaneering, brilliant, art-loving—he created the power of Sotheby’s (and Christie’s learned by imitation)