Ultimate reading list
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
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
An expert's guide to sculpture: five must-read books on the art of the three dimensional
All you ever wanted to know about the topic, from the latest experimentations in contemporary art to some lesser-known Surrealist sculpture—selected by the head of the Henry Moore Institute, Laurence Sillars
An expert’s guide to Michelangelo: five must-read books on the Renaissance Old Master
All you ever wanted to know about Michelangelo, from a “masterly” catalogue of drawings to a collection of letters covering art, deliveries and the artist’s favourite wine—selected by the curator Grant Lewis
An expert's guide to colour: five must-read books on all things chromatic
All you ever wanted to know about the topic, from our difficult relationship with colour to a remarkable monochrome children’s book—selected by the colour historian Alexandra Loske
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
An expert's guide to Constantin Brâncuși: five must-read books on the Romanian sculptor
All you ever wanted to know about Brâncuși, from a landmark catalogue to a comic retelling of his run-in with US Customs—selected by the Centre Pompidou curator Ariane Coulondre
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
An expert's guide to Sandro Botticelli: four must-read books on the Florentine painter
All you ever wanted to know about Botticelli, from a monumental monograph of 1908 to a dynamic account of the artist’s workshop practices—selected by the curator Furio Rinaldi
An expert’s guide to Mark Rothko: five must-read books on the Abstract Expressionist
All you ever wanted to know about Rothko, from the artist's own writings to the most complete study of his famous Seagram Murals
An expert’s guide to Paula Rego: six must-read books on the Portuguese-British artist
All you ever wanted to know about Rego, from the best catalogues to a behind-the-scenes dive into her studio—selected by her son Nick Willing
An expert’s guide to Roy Lichtenstein: five must-read books on the American Pop artist
All you ever wanted to know about Lichtenstein, from an encyclopaedic career survey to a collection of his unexpectedly witty mirror paintings—selected by the art dealer Irving Blum
An expert's guide to Keith Haring: four must-read books on the popular US artist
All you ever wanted to know about Haring, from his personal journals to interviews with the likes of Roy Lichtenstein and Madonna—selected by the curator Sarah Loyer
An expert’s guide to Jean-Michel Basquiat: four must-read books on the American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Basquiat, from his best quotes to an “intimate insight” from his family—selected by the curator Dieter Buchhart
An expert’s guide to Hokusai: four must-read books on the Japanese artist
All you ever wanted to know about Hokusai, from a history of The Great Wave to a novel about the artist's daughter—selected by the curator Sarah E. Thompson
An expert’s guide to Johannes Vermeer: five must-read books (and a website) on the Dutch Old Master
All you ever wanted to know about Vermeer, from a “legendary” show catalogue to an illustrated book for kids—selected by the curators Pieter Roelofs and Gregor J. M. Weber
An expert's guide to Henri Matisse: four must-read books on the Modern master
All you ever wanted to know about Matisse, from a definitive two-volume biography to the writings of the artist himself—selected by the curator Dorthe Aagesen
An expert's guide to Tutankhamun: five must-read books on the Egyptian pharaoh
All you ever wanted to know about King Tut, from CT scans and DNA studies to the perfect book for “any little pharaohs that you might know”—selected by the biographer and journalist Garry Shaw
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
An expert's guide to Louise Bourgeois: five must-read books on the French-American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Bourgeois, from the artist in her own words to an illustrated book for children—selected by the Hayward Gallery’s Ralph Rugoff and Katie Guggenheim
Five of the best recently published art-inspired novels
Our pick of new fiction with an art theme, from seasoned writers to exciting newcomers
An expert's guide to Picasso's Blue Period: five must-read books on the Spanish painter's early career
All you ever wanted to know about Picasso’s Blue Period, from the definitive early biography to the journals of his “first great love”—selected by the curator Susan Behrends Frank
An expert’s guide to Georgia O’Keeffe: five must-read books on the American painter
All you ever wanted to know about O’Keeffe, including a comprehensive biography, the artist’s “perfect” novice recipe book, and her letters to photographer Alfred Stieglitz—selected by the curator Theodora Vischer
An expert’s guide to Albrecht Dürer: five must-read books on the Renaissance artist
All you ever wanted to know about Dürer, from the Old Master’s own accounts of his achievements and mishaps, to a recent creative take on his travels—selected by the art historian Susan Foister
An expert’s guide to Titian: five must-read books on the Venetian Old Master
All you ever wanted to know about Titian, from a biography fit for a king to an overlooked lecture essay from 1990—selected by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum curator Nathaniel Silver
An expert’s guide to Sophie Taeuber-Arp: five must-read books on the Swiss artist
All you ever wanted to know about Taeuber-Arp, from a children’s book full of inspiring projects to a publication exploring the dynamics of artist couples—selected by the Tate curator Natalia Sidlina
An expert’s guide to Nam June Paik: five must-read books on the Korean-American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Paik, from a “deep dive” into a single work to the best biography—selected by the curators Rudolf Frieling and Andrea Nitsche-Krupp
An expert’s guide to Barbara Hepworth: five must-read books on the British sculptor
All you ever wanted to know about Hepworth, from a pictorial autobiography to a collection of her poems, notes and transcripts—selected by the curator and biographer Eleanor Clayton
An expert’s guide to David Hockney: five must-read books on the British artist
All you ever wanted to know about Hockney, from the best biography to the artist's “radical” investigations into art history—selected by the critic (and longtime friend) Martin Gayford
An expert’s guide to Yayoi Kusama: six must-read books on the Japanese artist
All you ever wanted to know about Kusama, from a detailed study of her Infinity Mirror Room to illustrations for Alice in Wonderland—selected by the Gropius Bau director Stephanie Rosenthal