Art and Design

Recent movers and shakers in Art and Design.
Updated April 15, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Paris in ruins : love, war, and the birth of Impressionism
Smee, Sebastian
Paper Book
From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans--then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army...
Family romance : John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
Strouse, Jean
Paper Book
Jean Strouse captures the dramas, mysteries, intrigues, and tragedies surrounding John Singer Sargent's portraits of the Wertheimer family. Jean Strouse's Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers looks at twelve portraits of one English family painted by...
All that glitters : a story of friendship, fraud, and fine art
Whitfield, Orlando
Paper Book
A NEW YORKER, ECONOMIST, AND TOWN & COUNTRY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A dazzling insider's account of the contemporary art world and the stunning rise and fall of the charismatic American art dealer Inigo Philbrick, as seen through the eyes of his friend and fellow dealer ...
Acts of Resistance : The Power of Art to Create a Better World
Massie-bloomfield, Eleanor Amber.
Paper Book
What is the purpose of art in a world on fire? In this exhilarating and deeply inspiring work, Amber Massie-Blomfield considers the work of artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers--such as Gran Fury, Billie Holiday, Alexis Wright, Claude Cahun, Rick Lowe, and Joseph Beuys--alongside...
The Story of Drawing : An Alternative History of Art
Owens, Susan.
Paper Book
Winner of the Apollo Book of the Year Award 2024 Drawing is at the heart of human creativity. The most democratic form of art-making, it requires nothing more than a plain surface and a stub of pencil, a piece of chalk or an inky brush. Our prehistoric ancestors...
How Painting Happens (And Why It Matters)
Gayford, Martin.
Paper Book
A Times Book of the Year 'This is as clear a piece of writing about the experience of looking at a great painting as I have ever read ... Gayford seems to have seen everything and thought deeply about all of it' Andrew Marr, New Statesman 'If you...
How Banksy Saved Art History
Grovier, Kelly.
Paper Book
Few would dispute that Banksy is the most famous urban artist in the world today. That he is also a perceptive art historian might come as a surprise to many. Taken together, the myriad memorable works the street artist has created over the course of the past thirty years, constitute an audacious...
Mondrian : his life, his art, and the quest of the absolute
Weber, Nicholas Fox
Paper Book
The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, whose unprecedented geometric art revolutionized modern painting, architecture, graphic art, fashion design, and more-from acclaimed cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber "As fastidiously passionate as his subject's paintings....
Great Women Sculptors
Phaidon (EDT)/ Le Feuvre, Lisa (INT).
Paper Book
As seen in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and ELLE Decoration A celebration of more than 300 groundbreaking women sculptors that surveys 500 years of creative ingenuity from around the world Presenting a more expansive and...
Tree: exploring the arboreal world
Kirkham, Tony.
Paper Book
As seen in The Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, and Wall Street Journal 'It's no secret that I adore trees. This book is a most glorious cornucopia celebrating our enduring love affair with trees - an uplifting and eye-opening tribute to the way they enrich our lives.' -...
Art Heist : 50 Artworks You Will Never See
Hodge, Susie.
Paper Book
Art Heist is a gallery of the most famous stolen artworks that have never been recovered and an examination of the heists and their subsequent investigations.
Vitamin Txt: words in contemporary art
Moffitt, Evan.
Paper Book
A ground-breaking global survey of today's most innovative artists working with text The inclusion of text in works of art was a revolutionary creative advancement of the twentieth century, with artists subverting traditional conceptions of 'art' and 'writing.' Younger generations...
Wild Thing : A Life of Paul Gauguin
Prideaux, Sue.
Paper Book
Paul Gauguin's legend as a transgressive genius arises as much from his biography as his aesthetically daring Polynesian paintings. Gauguin is chiefly known for his pictures that eschewed convention, to celebrate the beauty of an indigenous people and their culture. In this gorgeously illustrated...
Giacometti in Paris
Peppiatt, Michael
Paper Book
THE TIMES AND WATERSTONES BEST ART BOOK OF 2023 'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux A portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historians...
I. M. Pei : Life Is Architecture
Surya, Shirley/ Chen, Aric.
Paper Book
The story of internationally renowned architect I. M. Pei's life and work, including such instantly recognisable buildings as the glass pyramid at the Louvre, Paris, and the National Gallery of Art's extension in Washington, D.C. I. M. Pei (1917-2019) was one of the world's...
Elements of Art : Ten Ways to Decode the Masterpieces
Hodge, Susie.
Paper Book
Packed with useful tips for gallery browsing, The Elements of Art takes the worlds greatest artworks and makes them easy for anyone to understand.
Building culture : sixteen architects on how museums are shaping the future of art, architecture, and public space
Rose, Julian
Paper Book
An insider's look at art museums and how they shape the ways we view art, through the eyes of the architects who design them. Architects and art lovers everywhere will enjoy this remarkable collection of interviews from sixteen...
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood
Judah, Hettie.
Paper Book
'Hettie Judah's enthralling and important book expands a male-centred art history to include mothers as subjects and symbols, makers and myths' Jennifer Higgie 'One of the most electrifying and important books I have ever read. Hettie Judah takes us on a rich, comprehensive...
Fragile Beauty : Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection
Forbes, Duncan (EDT)/ Harbin, Newell (EDT)/ Caston, Lydia (EDT)/ Taylor-Johnson, Sam (AFT).
Paper Book
A who's who of photographer and subject featuring 150 of the most striking images from Fragile Beauty: The Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection. Over the past three decades, Sir Elton John and David Furnish have carefully built an...
Van Gogh and the end of nature
Lobel, Michael
Paper Book
A groundbreaking reassessment that foregrounds Van Gogh's profound engagement with the industrial age while making his work newly relevant for our world today   "Van Gogh has never seemed more relevant. This stands as my favorite book of the year in any genre...
Home Matters : How Our Homes Shape Us, and We Shape Them
Penny, Wincer.
Paper Book
As an interiors photographer, Penny Wincer found that walking through a stranger's home, listening to them explaining the history of the space, and the meaning of precious objects, was one of most joyful aspects of her work. And in Home Matters Penny does exactly that, taking us through the houses...
The lies of the artists : essays on Italian art, 1450-1750
Rowland, Ingrid D.
Paper Book
Luminous essays on artists of the Italian Renaissance by one of our most inspired writers on the history and making of art. In the three centuries from 1450 to 1750 painters, sculptors, and architects emerged from the medieval craft guilds of Italy to claim a new social...
Photography : a queer history
Dunster, Flora
Paper Book
From Robert Mapplethorpe to Deborah Bright, this is the essential guide to queer photography. Best Photography Books of 2024 - WIRED "...an essential resource for anyone interested in art, identity, and politics--or the intersection of all three."
The long run : a creative inquiry
D'Erasmo, Stacey
Paper Book
The author of The Art of Intimacy asks eight legendary artists: What has sustained you in the long run? How do we keep doing this--making art? Stacey D'Erasmo had been writing for twenty years and had published three novels when she asked herself this question. She was...
World According To David Hockney (The World According To, 6)
Hockney, David.
Paper Book
A collection of legendary British artist David Hockney's insights into art, life, nature, creativity and much more. 'I've always been a looker ... that's what artists do' This anthology of quotations by David Hockney follows in the successful format of 'The World...
National Geographic world from above
Kerby, Jeffrey.
Paper Book
Go on a global aerial odyssey with this photographic compendium of more than 200 full-color images from on high, by the world's most innovative photographers at National Geographic. See the world from a unique perspective with this gorgeous, oversized coffee table book-the perfect...
The Slow Down : For the Love of Home
Ford, Leanne.
Paper Book
Designer and HGTV personality Leanne Ford shares design secrets and personal reflections on how she creates her warm, chic, and easy-going aesthetic--and how you can do the same Leanne Ford's imperfectly perfect designs inspire more than half a million social media fans daily....

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.