Books

Book Reviews

Who really was John Soane? The man and manifesto behind the magnificent house museum

Former museum director Bruce Boucher’s room-by-room account of the architect’s collection takes far readers beyond the catalogue

Julius Bryant

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 using #TANbookclub

How a Persian manuscript was swapped for a Willem de Kooning owned by the Iranian government

Oliver Hoare's memoir details the story of the ambitious exchange of an Iranian masterpiece for a painting by the Abstract Expressionist

Ultimate reading lists

Booksreview

The arts should be recognised as a key part of what it means to be human, argues a new publication

An urgent treatise on the decommodification of culture by the professor of cultural economy Justin O’Connor

Booksreview

How Korean feminist art developed alongside the country’s move to democracy is explored in new book

An exploration of the driving force of so-called “K-feminism” and the connection between art and politics in Korea

Book Clubfeature

‘He laughed like a madman’: when Édouard Manet decided to touch up one of Berthe Morisot's paintings

An extract from a new book by Sebastian Smee—about the Impressionists during the Siege of Paris and Paris Commune—brings to life the peculiar episode of artistic intervention

Five must-read art history books for the under-fives

All you ever wanted to know about art (if you are little), from a cat that wanders round Tate Modern at night to why Louise Bourgeois made giant spiders—selected by The Art Newspaper's Anna Brady

Booksreview

Dealer’s memoir offers a wild ride through the 1960s New York art scene

Michael Findlay reveals his art world beginnings as a lucky 18-year-old Scot in the Big Apple

Booksreview

How American artist Charles J. Connick’s poetically reimagined Medieval stained glass

A new book shows how Connick harnessed the ancient medium as ‘a potent means of contemporary visual expression’

Booksreview

A sensitive portrait of collector Isabella Stewart Gardner—Boston's millionaire Bohémienne

A biography of Gardner captures her extraordinary life story with empathy

Booksreview

A new monograph highlights Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody as one of Britain's most important Modernists

Moody defied family expectations to pursue his art, and is now celebrated in an exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield

Frieze, UK critics The White Pube, Giuseppe Penone and Arte Povera — podcast

We find out how the London fair went this year, speak to Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad about their new book and to Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev about her new show at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris

Booksreview

In an epic new volume, Chris Killip captures an English community in the grip of industrial decline

Never straying from the documentary tradition, the image maker explores the gradual erosion of traditional forms of labour

Booksreview

The liberated lens: a chronicle of African cinema and photography

A new book celebrates the pioneering artists who took control of the post-colonial agenda

Book Clubfeature

‘The artist the critics love to hate’: the colourful life of sports star painter and Playboy illustrator LeRoy Neiman

We speak to the author of a new biography that reassesses the legacy of the “hustler” artist who rubbed shoulders with celebrities

In Pictures | Artist billboards across America tell a story of US politics today

Ahead of the November presidential election, a new book by the For Freedoms organisation brings together the topical and political posters that it has commissioned since 2016

An expert’s guide to Helen Frankenthaler: five must-read books on the Abstract Expressionist

All you ever wanted to know about Frankenthaler, from a seminal monograph to the story of the bohemian world that forged her—selected by the curator and writer Douglas Dreishpoon

Booksreview

'Understanding our things in action': innovative book gives new life to objects owned by 18th-century artists

We rarely consider the everyday items owned by artists—this volumes' authors aim to change that

The life and art of Mabel Nicholson: new volume tells of the career catastrophe of domestic bliss

How lovingly raising her artistic family cost an artist of “tensile strength” her own fame

Glenn Ligon in Cambridge, new Gauguin biography, Teresa Margolles’s Fourth Plinth commission — podcast

The American artist on his interventions at the Fitzwilliam Museum, a chat about a new publication exploring Gauguin’s complex character, and the details on a new London sculpture paying tribute to trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming communities

Van Gogh blockbuster, the birth of Impressionism, Juan Pablo Echeverri — podcast

A tour of the National Gallery’s landmark exhibition with our Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey, plus a new book zoning in on the Impressionists’ “Terrible Year” and a highlight from Museum Folkwang’s hair-themed show

Booksreview

Two publications show how, in Caspar David Friedrich's world, mankind is puny against nature’s power

The German artist's work is pored over in two hefty tomes, one a smart overview, the other a comprehensive guide

Book Clubfeature

My five-year-old could do that! The impact of childhood on the work of artists

A new book gathers together anecdotes from artists' early years and looks at how these formative experiences shaped their careers

An expert's guide to Impressionism: five must-read books on the art movement

All you ever wanted to know about the subject, from tomes on how society shaped Impressionism to a deep dive into how the paintings were actually made—selected by curators Kimberly Jones and Mary Morton

Booksreview

'Go, thou, and do likewise': a field guide to Britain’s stone circles delivers both scholarship and romance

An authoritative and engaging read for fans of the UK's mute monoliths—be they academic or sentimental

Booksreview

Five of the best art books hitting the shelves this autumn

Our literary editor Jacqueline Riding selects some of the tempting titles that are scheduled for publication over the coming months

Photographyinterview

Dark camera action: new photography book expands our understanding of the night

Night Fever features an international cohort of film and photography artists, including Malick Sidibé and Sohrab Hura

Book Clubinterview

The world’s oldest printed book and rare ancient manuscripts from the Mogao caves in China to go on show in London

We speak to the British Library exhibition curator Melodie Doumy about the Diamond Sutra and other treasures from the Library Cave

Booksreview

Although it is a ‘sumptuous’ tome, this survey of contemporary public art from around the world baffles at times

The self-proclaimed atlas gives voice to works from often overlooked global-majority cultures but tends to favour mainstream over more challenging works