Books

Book Reviews

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

Beth Williamson

1 July 2025

Why sociologists believe that culture might be bad for you

Robert Hewison

23 June 2025

No-holds-barred biography of dealer and collector Douglas Cooper paints a picture of a fearless, controlling and deceitful man

Matthew Gale

20 June 2025

The tale of a French psychiatric asylum that harboured Second World War resistance fighters—and where patients became artists

David D'Arcy

3 June 2025

A biography of Turner and Constable that goes beyond the stereotypes

Andrew Loukes

3 June 2025

Dan Hicks's new book is a personal take on the cultural politics of collecting

Roger Bowdler

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

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Book Club

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

Florence Hallett

1 July 2025

July Book Bag: from a monograph of Vincent Namatjira’s headline-grabbing portraits to a book of Chinese art heists

Gareth Harris

1 July 2025

Arshile Gorky’s experience as an immigrant to the US and the painting that defined it

Gareth Harris

1 July 2025

An expert’s guide to Edvard Munch: five must-read books on the Norwegian Expressionist

José da Silva

3 June 2025

‘Cultural innovation comes from the margins’—tales of artists pushing boundaries in 1960s New York

Dan Schindel

3 June 2025

June Book Bag: from the cool influence of Ice Age art to the story of Arshile Gorky’s early years in the US

Gareth Harris and Melissa Gronlund

Ultimate reading lists

Read all

1 July 2025

An expert’s guide to Edvard Munch: five must-read books on the Norwegian Expressionist

3 June 2025

An expert’s guide to Postmodernism: five must-read books on the movement

4 May 2025

An expert's guide to artists' books: four must-read publications on the genre

1 April 2025

An expert’s guide to Ruth Asawa: five must-read books on the Japanese American artist

11 March 2025

An expert’s guide to Vanessa Bell: five must-read books on the Bloomsbury Group artist

4 February 2025

An expert’s guide to Anselm Kiefer: five must-read books on the German artist

8 January 2025

An expert’s guide to Brazilian Modernism: five must-read books on the subject

3 December 2024

An expert’s guide to the Venetian Renaissance: five must-read books on the period

12 November 2024

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

1 October 2024

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

Book Reviewreview

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

Robert Hewison

Book Reviewreview

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

Beth Williamson

Book Clubblog

July Book Bag: from a monograph of Vincent Namatjira’s headline-grabbing portraits to a book of Chinese art heists

Our round-up of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris

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

Gareth Harris

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

Florence Hallett

Book Clubblog

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

José da Silva

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”

Matthew Gale

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

David D'Arcy

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

Dan Schindel

Book Clubblog

June Book Bag: from the cool influence of Ice Age art to the story of Arshile Gorky’s early years in the US

Our round-up of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris and Melissa Gronlund

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

Gareth Harris

Booksreview

A biography of Turner and Constable that goes beyond the stereotypes

New analysis considers the artists’ common cause as champions of landscape alongside their renowned differences

Andrew Loukes

Booksreview

Dan Hicks's new book is a personal take on the cultural politics of collecting

The often violent history of public statues and museum collections—including that of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum—is told in this biographical book that energises and exasperates in equal measure.

Roger Bowdler

Book Clubblog

An expert’s guide to Postmodernism: five must-read books on the movement

All you ever wanted to know about the subject, from a pivotal novel to a book on how Postmodernism “shapes all aspects of contemporary life”—selected by The Cosmic House director Eszter Steierhoffer

Gareth Harris

Korean Artists Today 2025preview

Must-see exhibitions and must-read books on Korean art

A round up of recent publications and upcoming events to deepen your knowledge

The Art Newspaper

In partnership with Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism & Korea Arts Management Service

Booksreview

New book explores how Rome’s ruins have resonated in art and literature over centuries

A survey tracing the city’s greatest ornaments from antiquity to the present day originated as a series of lectures

Bruce Boucher

Book Clubblog

May Book Bag: from a comic compendium inspired by MoMA to a turning point in the history of photography

Our round-up of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris and Tom Seymour

Book Clubfeature

The Voynich Manuscript revealed: five things you probably didn't know about the Medieval masterpiece

Scholars have speculated for centuries about the meaning behind the 15th-century codex and its peculiar illustrations

Garry Shaw

Booksreview

East meets West in Venice: the unlikely love affair between a Hermitage curator and a Cambridge don

A new volume details a chance meeting that liberated art scholars Francis Haskell and Larissa Salmina in very different ways

Christoph Irmscher

Booksreview

A new ‘anti-biography’ rips apart the myth of Leonardo as a solitary genius

The new study of the Da Vinci brand uses historical context to debunk the artist’s cult status and present him as a man of his time

Sarah McBryde

Book Clubfeature

Sex, beauty and the body: how Helen Chadwick shaped British contemporary art

The “provocative, punky, perverse” artist died far too young but her work’s influence endures, argues a new biography

Millen Brown-Ewens

Book Clubblog

An expert's guide to artists' books: four must-read publications on the genre

All you ever wanted to know about artists' books on the eve of a major exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute—selected by the show's co-curator Arnaud Desjardin

José da Silva

Booksreview

Edward Gorey’s surreal back-of-the-envelope illustrations tell a moving story

The writer and artist’s delightful illustrated correspondence chronicle a long friendship

Tobias Carroll

Booksreview

Former Sotheby's chairman recounts the birth of the London art market as we know it

James Stourton's new book explores changes from the power shift to the auction houses in the mid-20th century to the excesses of the 1980s and 90s

Cyrus Naji

Booksreview

New book explores the complex history of Jewish country houses

A large-scale study of the stories behind these buildings, their architecture and collections

Claudia Barbieri Childs and Brian Childs

Art Dubai 2025interview

New book tells the story of a century of Middle Eastern art

Arab art expert Saeb Eigner explores the work of more than 250 Modern and contemporary artists spanning diverse art movements across 22 countries in the Middle East

Gareth Harris

Booksreview

The life story of Francesca Alexander—the American artist in tune with Italy—is told in new book

New biography of Boston-born Alexander, who made her name in Florence with her delicate illustrations of Italian folk ballads, brings her out of the shadow of her friendship with John Ruskin

Charlotte Gere

Booksreview

Publication reveals there was more to photographer Weegee than his grim crime scene images

A comprehensive overview explores the “paradox” of Weegee’s work and how he went from taking tabloid photos of murder to making distorted celebrity portraits

Rowland Bagnall

Book Clubblog

April Book Bag: from a new angle on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to the re-issuing of bell hooks’s art essays

Our round-up of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris

Book Clubfeature

The trials and tribulations of putting together Lucian Freud’s catalogue raisonné

The forensically researched volume on the British artist's oil paintings offers a depth of scrutiny that he himself was famous for

Matthew Holman

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