Books About Artists and Art

Updated June 13, 2023
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Girl with a pearl earring
Chevalier, Tracy.
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of A Single Thread and At the Edge of the Orchard Translated into thirty-nine languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film, starring Scarlett Johanson and Colin Firth Tracy Chevalier transports...
The birth of Venus : a novel
Dunant, Sarah.
Paper Book
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is...
The art forger : a novel
Shapiro, Barbara A.
Paper Book
"[A] highly entertaining literary thriller about fine art and foolish choices." --Parade  "[A] nimble mystery." --The New York Times Book Review "Gripping." --O, The Oprah Magazine Almost twenty-five years after the...
The lonely city : adventures in the art of being alone
Laing, Olivia
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism #1 Book of the Year from Brain Pickings Named a best book of the year by NPR, Newsweek, Slate, Pop Sugar, Marie Claire, Elle, Publishers Weekly, and Lit Hub<...
How to be both : a novel
Smith, Ali
Paper Book
SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER OF THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE 2014 GOLDSMITHS PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2014 COSTA NOVEL AWARD  WINNER OF THE SALTIRE LITERARY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD A Best Book of the Year: NPR, Financial...
Loving Frank : a novel
Horan, Nancy.
Paper Book
I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903,...
The swan thieves : a novel
Kostova, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret...
All the beauty in the world : the Metropolitan Museum of Art and me
Bringley, Patrick
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller Named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the Financial Times, the New York Post, Book Riot, and The Sunday Times (London). An "exquisite" (The Washington Post...
Your brain on art : how the arts transform us
Magsamen, Susan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A life-altering, science-backed exploration of the healing power of art, which has now been proven to help lower stress, supercharge learning and creativity, extend your lifespan, and combat loneliness. "This book blew my mind!"--Angela...
The 12-hour art expert : everything you need to know about art in a dozen masterpieces
Charney, Noah
Paper Book
"Brimming with examples from across the artistic spectrum, this is the perfect primer to hook future art enthusiasts." Publishers Weekly Interested in art but feel under-informed? Curious but afraid you might not "get" it? Already a fan and wishing to immerse yourself...
Art 21 : art in the 21st century
Golden, Thelma.
Paper Book
This companion to a new public television series on the contemporary visual arts introduces some of the most interesting artists working in America today. In four sections -- on Identity, Place, Consumption, and Spirituality -- the authors explore such provocative issues as how artists address...
Sister Wendy's Impressionist masterpieces
Beckett, Wendy.
Paper Book
A beautiful anthology of Impressionist paintings by a dazzling roll-call of artists. One of the world's best-loved art historians, Sister Wendy Beckett combines her deep knowledge of art history with her unique powers of observation to create a personal anthology of over 50 Impressionist...
The shock of the new
Hughes, Robert
Paper Book
A beautifully illustrated hundred-year history of modern art, from cubism to pop and avant-guard. More than 250 color photos. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Steal like an artist : 10 things nobody told you about being creative
Kleon, Austin
Paper Book
Celebrate the 10th anniversary of a groundbreaking book on creativity with this limited anniversary hardcover, with a new afterword, color endpapers pulled from Austin Kleon's sketchbooks, and a ribbon marker. Ten years after its initial publication, the message of Steal Like an Artist remains...
The secret lives of color
St. Clair, Kassia
Paper Book
A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume. "Beautifully written . . . Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers." --NPR, Best Books of 2017
Ways of seeing : based on the BBC television series with John Berger
Berger, John.
Paper Book
"Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. "But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but word can never undo the fact that we are...
The creative act : a way of being
Rubin, Rick
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller. "A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning...

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