Books About Artists and Art

Updated June 13, 2023
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Girl with a pearl earring
Chevalier, Tracy
Paper Book
In seventeenth-century Delft, there's a strict social order -rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant -and all know their place. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry, and the care of his six...
The birth of venus
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
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
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<...
Georgia : a novel of Georgia O'Keeffe
Tripp, Dawn Clifton
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * In a dazzling work of historical fiction in the vein of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, Dawn Tripp brings to life Georgia O'Keeffe, her love affair with photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and her quest to become an independent artist. This is not a love...
The god of endings
Holland, Jakki
Paper Book
"A new kind of vampire story, and the result is a surprising and spellbinding tale." --Laura Moriarty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chaperone "Great for fans of Interview with a Vampire and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue." -...
Super host : a novel
Russo, Kate
Paper Book
"Get ready to smile....[A] sweet story and the perfect antidote to the chaos that's been 2021." -the Skimm  A deeply funny and shrewdly observed debut novel about being lost in the very place you know by heart. Bennett Driscoll is a Turner...
How to be both
Smith, Ali
Paper Book
Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith's novels are like nothing else. How to be both is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre...
The age of light
Scharer, Whitney
Paper Book
'Scharer captures the thrill of artistic creation and the swirling hedonism of Paris's beautiful people.' The Times Model. Muse. Lover. Artist. 'I'd rather take a picture than be one,' Lee Miller declares, as she arrives in Paris one cool day in 1929....
The colour storm
Dibben, Damian
Paper Book
The new spellbinding and enchanting story set in Renaissance Venice, from the internationally acclaimed author of Tomorrow 'A glorious, exuberant summer read; Damian Dibben's triumph is the character of Zorzo, a buoyant, loveable guide to the grandeur...
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
Kostova, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life - solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient.
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
A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts - and how this knowledge can improve our health, enable us to flourish, and build stronger communities
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...
American comics : a history
Dauber, Jeremy Asher
Paper Book
Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, author Jeremy Dauber whizzes readers through comics' progress in the twentieth century and beyond: from the golden age of newspaper comic strips (Krazy Kat, Yellow Kid, Dick Tracy)...
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 : art and the century of change
Hughes, Robert
Paper Book
This legendary book has been universally hailed as the best, the most readable and the most provocative account of modern art ever written. Through each of the thematic chapters Hughes keeps his story grounded in the history of the 20th century, demonstrating how modernism sought to...
Steal like an artist : 10 things nobody told you about being creative
Kleon, Austin.
Paper Book
Unlock your creativity. An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life.   ...
The secret lives of color
St. Clair, Kassia
Paper Book
One of USA Today's "100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis"  A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume. "Beautifully...
Ways of seeing
Berger, John.
Paper Book
"The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled" -- so opens John Berger's revolutionary million-copy bestseller on how to look at art John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language....
Luster
Leilani, Raven
Paper Book
'A taut, sharp, funny book about being young now. It's brutal-and brilliant.' Zadie SmithWINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021Meet Edie. Edie is not okay. She's messing up in her dead-end admin job in her all white office, is sleeping with all...
The woman who stole Vermeer : the true story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House art heist
Amore, Anthony M.
Paper Book
The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist. In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost...
Leonardo da Vinci
Isaacson, Walter
Paper Book
Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is "a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it...Most important, it is a powerful story of an...
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...
The art book
Bugler, Caroline
Paper Book
Learn about key movements like impressionism, cubism and symbolism in The Art Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Art in this overview guide to the subject, great for...

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