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 : 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<...
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." -...
How to be both /
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...
The age of light :
Scharer, Whitney
Paper Book
One of the Best Books of the Year: Parade, Glamour, Real Simple, Refinery29, Yahoo! Lifestyle. "A startlingly modern love story and a mesmerizing portrait of a woman's self-transformation from muse to artist." --Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere<...
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
A best book of the year from New York Public Library, NPR, the Financial Times, Book Riot, and the Sunday Times (London). A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent...
Your brain on art : how the arts transform us
Magsamen, Susan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * 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
Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows like The Walking Dead have become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize-winning...
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.   ...
Luster
Leilani, Raven
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book of the Year WINNER of the NBCC John Leonard Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award...
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
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 exhilarating mind and life" (The New...
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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