Books

Booksreview

Margaret Lowengrund: a woman who left her mark

Manhattan print studio The Contemporaries and its founder helped to establish a mid-century market

Booksreview

Ghosts of America’s ‘Street of Dreams’: a comprehensive book brings the history of New York’s Fifth Avenue to life

Established in the early 1800s, the street was once home to the city’s grandest houses, but many were soon replaced by towering apartment buildings, shops and hotels. A comprehensive book brings this history to life

Booksreview

Bring on Pierrot, the clumsy clown: new book explores the impact of a bumbling stock character on French art

Marika Takanishi Knowles's monograph focuses on Pierrot’s rise to ubiquity in French culture

‘Shining a light on the blind spots’: new book seeks to provide clearer picture of Mau Mau uprising

Max Pinckers worked together with Kenyan war veterans to bring records of 1950s colonial violence to the fore

Booksreview

Two catalogues reveal how circles of influence were the driving force behind the Northern Renaissance

The books explore the importance of artist and patronage networks centred on the Holbeins

Booksreview

The story of a newbie who took on the New York art world—then left it all behind

As a protégé of the international dealer Carla Panicali from 1989 to 1992, David Guenther took a crash course in the business of art. But his account of this heady time is ultimately unsatisfying

Book Clubfeature

A golden age for photobooks? As publishers join forces we find out what the future holds

The London-based publisher Mack is acquiring smaller firms and widening its visual culture coverage

Book Clubinterview

Former Tate Britain director Penelope Curtis on why she became a novelist

As the art historian makes the move into fiction writing, she tells us how learning about her family history inspired her

An expert's guide to Frank Auerbach: three must-read books (and a film) on the German-British painter

All you ever wanted to know about Auerbach, from a biography by one of his sitters to a collection of essays about his drawings—selected by the Courtauld Gallery curator Barnaby Wright

Four fake Van Gogh self-portraits that publishers put on their book covers

These works deceive readers, giving a false impression about the artist

Booksreview

New Wedgwood book traces author's intimate discovery of 18th-century Britain

The “experimental biography” offers fresh perspectives on the celebrated potter

Booksreview

New book reveals how art dealer Léonce Rosenberg trod the line between salesman and Modern art's great champion

He declared the auction to be art’s true benchmark, but Rosenberg was also a committed promoter of the avant-garde

Booksreview

An explosive cocktail of desire and betrayal in a novel set in the 1990s London art world

This entertaining satire combines liberal quantities of sex, violence, money and drugs with the Britart scene

Booksreview

A women’s art history that goes beyond the brush and is a call to action

A new publication offers a more inclusive approach that also honours the “unexceptional”

Book Clubfeature

‘Have you ever been sat on before?’ What it's like taking part in a (surprisingly) private view

An exclusive extract from a new book by Bianca Bosker that lifts the lid on the secret life of the art world

Bianca Bosker. With an introduction by Gareth Harris
Booksreview

New Keith Haring biography explores collective memory of New York's gay artistic past

Book on the US artist charts a life “propelled by unremitting determination”

Booksreview

New book explores work of underrepresented abstract artist who married portrait with place

Miyoko Ito’s intriguing merger of internal and external space gets proper recognition and a fresh look in this visual feast

Booksreview

Graphic memoir charts an ominous journey from Fidel Castro’s Cuba to Donald Trump’s America

Cuban American artist Edel Rodriguez, labelled a “worm” for fleeing Cold War Cuba in 1980, tells story of his progress from impoverished boyhood to creating alarming covers for Time magazine

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Missing Mona Lisa: the story behind the 1911 theft of Leonardo’s masterpiece

The author of a new book tells us why it was stolen and how Picasso got embroiled in the scandal

Booksreview

Cities are the heroes in an 'easy-going and unpreachy' publication that takes us on whirlwind tour of art history

Fifteen art capitals are captured at their brilliant apogee in Caroline Campbell's book

Booksreview

New book sees ‘outsider artists’ as part of a creative spectrum rather than a world apart

The publication also explores how artists on the periphery might interact with the art market

Book Clubfeature

Why Anthony van Dyck was summoned to paint a recently deceased noblewoman

This extract from a new book about works in the Dulwich Picture Gallery by Helen Hillyard and Jennifer Scott reveals the story behind the artist's 1663 portrait of Lady Digby

Helen Hillyard and Jennifer Scott. With an introduction by José da Silva

An expert's guide to Frans Hals: five must-read books on the Dutch Old Master

All you ever wanted to know about Hals, from an 18th-century biography to a 1994 novel of the artist's “lost diaries”—selected by the Rijksmuseum curator Friso Lammertse

Booksreview

The presence of death: new book highlights the existential anxieties of William Gillies

A taster ahead of a later publication explores the Scottish painter’s focus on mental frailty, family and war

Van Gogh 2024 highlights: London’s National Gallery takes the lead

There will be other exhibitions in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Taiwan—plus a topical book and a plethora of immersive experiences

Booksreview

Unpacking America’s psychology: a deep dive into the career of Arthur Tress

A new book, which accompanies a Getty Center retrospective, explores the photographer’s documentation of the nation’s more sinister side