Art & Artist Books

Matthew Affron (Author) With contributions by Cécile Debray, Alexander Kauffman, Michael R. Taylor, and John Vick This book offers an engaging and accessible introduction to one of the twentieth century’s greatest and most enigmatic artists, Marcel...

First monograph of the African-American artist, renowned for her representations of black femininity, whose spectacular pop patchworks deconstruct and recompose the everyday feminine/masculine relationship in its domestic dimension, with seven essays and...

In 1874, a group of artists held their first groundbreaking exhibition in Paris. With their vibrant, loose brushwork and focus on capturing fleeting moments of light and colour, the Impressionists revolutionised the art world. Critics initially had...

An insightful and long overdue reassessment of the full scope of the career of Robert Indiana, who combined Pop Art, hard-edged abstraction, and language-based conceptualism The popularity of Robert Indiana’s LOVE works made the Pop artist a household...

The catalogue of the Swiss Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. At the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, artist duo Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz will transform the Swiss Pavilion into a...

Ten years of multimedia installations and performances from a Berlin-based duo. Berlin-based artist duo Pauline Boudry (born 1972) and Renate Lorenz (born 1963) work across film, installation, sculpture and dance to create their politically charged...

A celebration of the joyful power of African American quilts, featuring images of over 100 quilts, new research and essays The first publication dedicated to historical African American quilts in California, Routed West traces the flow and flourishing of...

This screen-printing kit and step-by-step guide has been developed by Luckies with Print Club London so that anyone can design their own t-shirts, tea towels, bags and banners, whether or not they’ve printed before. Includes reusable templates and...

From his early self-portraits to his site-specific installations, this volume underscores Rashid Johnson's fearless engagement with the central themes, questions and aesthetics of the contemporary era Co-organized by the Guggenheim New York and the...

A celebration of the rich twentieth and twenty-first-century tradition of screen-printing as a means of artistic expression, from its commercial origins in 1920s America to the limited-edition screenprints of the postwar period and today. Screenprints: A...

 A nonfiction graphic novel that tells the story of a century of revolutionary contemporary art. How did a urinal become art? And a can of tomato soup, a tent, a pickled shark. . . . How did what seemed like a prank at the New York Armory Show of...

 From New York street artist to pop culture sensation: the essential, accessible guide to KAWS The multidisciplinary artist KAWS is regarded as an emblem of postmodern art. Many consider him as the Andy Warhol of the 21st century. Throughout his...

A selection from the memoir of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, the renowned eighteenth-century French portraitist and one of the most important women painters in art history In her memoir, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun offers a candid and thoroughly...

This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality. In the artist’s only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting...

Alex Pilcher’s A Queer Little History of Art is a beautiful book that illustrates the wide variety of queer art from around the world exploring bodies and identity, love and desire, and prejudice and protest through drawing, painting, photography,...

The need-to-know names of Japanese graphic design from the late 19th century to the pre-digital decade, presented alongside more than 500 color images of vintage ephemera With Fracture, author Ian Lynam presents a survey of Japanese design across a...

As the companion to the exhibition, Fighting for Freedom places Black craftspeople at the forefront of American history, from before the Revolutionary War through the Civil War and beyond Reconstruction. Delving into diverse narratives of creativity,...

Diego Rivera’s America revisits a historical moment when the famed muralist and painter, more than any other artist of his time, helped forge Mexican national identity in visual terms and imagined a shared American future in which unity, rather than...

The authoritative and wide-ranging visual essay on the aesthetics of Japan, a classic volume now back in print with a stunning new cover design ‘Japan style’ is an aesthetic recognizable to everyone: a beautifully displayed flower, an elegant...

No longer a catalog, but an intimate window into how and why Nakashima Woodworkers do what Nakashima Woodworkers do. THe Process Book acts a first step in understanding our foundations and identifying what you hope to achieve in working with us. Defined...

More than four decades after the passing of Monuments Woman Captain Rose Valland (1898–1980), one of the great heroines of World War II, the Monuments Men and Women Foundation released the first-ever English translation of her 1961 memoir, The Art Front:...

No German painter evokes such strong emotions as Caspar David Friedrich: his evening skies remain icons of longing, his mountain vistas testaments to the grandeur of nature.  He inspired Samuel Beckett to write Waiting for Godot and Walt...

In early modern Japan, cultural salons were creative spaces for people of all ages and social levels to pursue painting, poetry, and other artistic endeavors as serious but amateur practitioners. All using a pen- or art-name, individuals were able to...

An omnibus edition collecting fifteen volumes of Hokusai's dedicated drawing manuals, also known as e-tehon. Best known for woodblock prints such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the ninteenth-century artist Hokusai was prolific in other media. Of...

A visual journey through Zen’s influence on Japanese life, from calligraphy to the martial arts Formed by a convergence of the Buddha’s teachings with Taoism and local tradition, Zen has had a profound impact on the art and culture of Japan...

Five centuries of fascinating female creativity presented in more than 400 compelling artworks and one comprehensive volume The most extensive fully illustrated book of women artists ever published, Great Women Artists reflects an era where art made by...

Drawing on thousands of never-before-translated letters and unpublished sources, this biography reveals dramatic new information about the life and work of one of the late nineteenth century’s most important painters. Despite being mocked at the...

A window into the world of functional everyday design The designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of “super normal design”: alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable...

Examining aesthetic connections between the works of more than 50 Black artists from throughout the global diaspora This book was born out of frustration with art histories that emphasize Black artists’ resilience over the aesthetic impact of their...

The Arena Chapel in Padua was completed in 1303; Giotto, then considered the preeminent painter in Italy, was commissioned to paint it in 1306. The resulting fresco cycle, detailing the history, birth, life, and death of Christ, ranks among the greatest...

Selections from Romaine Brooks’s unpublished memoir No Pleasant Memories expose the psyche and practice of this underrecognized queer, female artist.   Most known for her bold and darkly painted portraits, Brooks was revolutionary in her...

Charles Baudelaire, considered a father of modern poetry, wrote some of the most daring and influential prose of the nineteenth century. Prior to publishing the international bestseller Les Fleurs du mal (1857), he was already notable as a forthright...

Written between 1913 and 1929, revolutionary years in art history, Dix Portraits conveys the deep human engagement between an artist and her subject. The artist book unites Stein’s ten portraits in prose with sketches by five artists: Pablo...

Derek Jarman's Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love.   “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman   Originally...

“Criticism is our censorship . . .” So begins one of the greatest invectives against criticism ever written by an artist. Paul Gauguin wrote “Racontars de rapin” only months before he died in 1903, but the essay remained...

Long overlooked in Proust’s posthumously published writings, Chardin and Rembrandt, written when he was only twenty-four years old, not only reemphasizes the importance of visual art to his development, but contains the seeds of his later work...

Translated into English for the first time, On Contemporary Art, a speech by the renowned novelist César Aira, was delivered at a 2010 colloquium in Madrid dedicated to bridging the gap between writing and the visual arts.   On...

Showcases some of the most stunning treasures from the dynasty that created the Taj Mahal The Great Mughals presents, for the first time, the opulent, internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan in the age of its greatest emperors: Akbar (r...

A sweeping overview of poetic compositions from the beloved American postwar painter known for her groundbreaking and inventive approach to abstraction. Celebrated among the second generation of postwar American abstract painters, Helen Frankenthaler...

In this exploration of contemporary photography, David Levi Strauss questions the concept that “seeing is believing”. Identifying a recent shift in the dominance of photography, David Levi Strauss looks at the power of the medium in the age of...

An accessible, inspirational, and engaging introductory survey of LGBTQIA+ photography, as told through the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Drawing on one of the oldest and largest photography collections in the world, Calling the...

This expanded and revised edition celebrates the work of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui by exploring the artist's life and the trajectory of his remarkable career. El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Mullin Vogel is the essential resource on the Ghanaian...

The product of more than 30 years of research, this astounding and authoritative volume reveals the political metaphors underpinning El Anatsui’s magnificent abstract sculpture Authored by two acclaimed scholars, Okwui Enwezor and Chika...

Vincent van Gogh boarded the last train from The Hague to Hoogeveen on Tuesday, September 11, 1883. He stays there for several weeks, then moves to Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord and visits Zweeloo. The landscape makes a deep impression on him. Everywhere...

This is the first book about Hokuei - one of the most intriguing artists ever in kabuki-actor prints Lavishly illustrated with over 300 images, it brings the world of kabuki alive in fascinating detail The book includes a fully illustrated and annotated...

A celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Women Pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement is a celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the most influential...

Afterglow brings together the known memorial paintings by Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) for the first time, unveiling how Church returned to the medium of landscape throughout his career to create solace in times of loss. This book presents new...

In a world of infinite images here is a guide to 65 of the best ever taken. From early experiments with light and form through Leica masterpieces and now artificially generated images, take it or leave it, this is our opinion as to why these particular...

For as long as there’s been paint, there have been women painters – these are the painters you may not have heard of who have shaped the way we see. From artists at the forefront of the Dutch Golden Age to avant-garde radicals in Soviet Russia and...

'An encyclopedic necessity for anyone interested in contemporary art.' - Vanity Fair 'We want people to see themselves… We want you to see the giants on whose shoulders we stand.' - Alicia Keys Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz...

The first monograph on the work of celebrated and influential Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu's remarkable body of work touches on such issues as sexuality, ecology, politics, and the rhythms and chaos that govern the world. Her...

African American art in the era of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers In the period of radical change that was 1963–83, young black artists at the beginning of their careers confronted difficult questions about art, politics and racial identity. How...

This is the first comprehensive monograph on acclaimed painter Amy Sherald, whose distinctive style of simplified realist portraiture features African American subjects rendered against colorful monochrome backdrops or in everyday settings. Sherald rose...

Tender yet compelling, Johnson's portraits of herself, her friends and her relatives are touchstones of Black figuration. A founding member of the Black British Arts Movement, Claudette Johnson (born 1959) creates large-scale drawings of Black people...

This deluxe hardcover survey, featuring profiles of 50 artists on the rise, is the definitive guide to contemporary African art. With African artists attracting sizable audience numbers to museums, setting sky-high auction records, and appearing in...

A new introductory guide to the art of looking at and engaging with photography. Photographs, even the most iconic, often have something seemingly obvious about them. They appear to represent the "real" world and our first instinct is that they can be...

Portrayals of James Baldwin and others in his circle highlight the iconic writer’s activism The American writer and activist James Baldwin (1924–87) considered himself a “witness” as he challenged perspectives on America and its history through his work...

 Showcases the exceptionally diverse photographic work of Latinx artists Whether at UFW picket lines in California's Central Valley or capturing summertime street life in East Harlem Latinx photographers have documented fights for dignity and...

The essential survey showcasing the work of more than 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Latin America Latin American artists have gained increasing international prominence as the art world awakens to the area’s extraordinary art...

 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 inclusive history of sculpture, Great Women Sculptors surveys the work of more than 300...

In “Latinx,” Carribean Fragoza traces Laura Aguilar’s influence on queer artmaking. Joiri Minaya remixes postcards from the Dominican Republic to unveil the fantasy of tourism. Christina Catherine Martinez profiles Reynaldo Rivera, who chronicled...

This visual gift book introduces readers to the field of Black figuration by highlighting key works from the National Portrait Gallery exhibition The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure. The selections included in this brief introduction...

The first installation in the Bauhausbücher facsimile series: Gropius' overview of mid-1920s architecture defined the International Style When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1924, it was finally possible to publish the first of the Bauhausbücher that...

The second installation in the Bauhausbücher facsimile series, presenting Paul Klee’s legendary Pedagogical Sketchbook Active at the Bauhaus between 1920 and 1931, teaching in the bookbinding, stained glass and mural-painting workshops, Paul Klee...

A facsimile of the gorgeous Bauhaus edition of Malevich's classic treatise on Suprematism Kasimir Malevich (1879–1935) debuted his new creative theory of basic geometric shapes with the publication of his Suprematist manifesto in 1915. He later published...

"It is these authentic writings, the Bauhaus' original publications, that illuminate its legacy in the most accurate way."–Daniellaondesign Offered a position at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923, László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) soon belonged to the inner circle...

The fifth installation in the Bauhausbücher facsimile series, revisiting Piet Mondrian’s influential essays on art theory Although Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was not an active member of the Bauhaus, his name is often mentioned in...

A facsimile edition of the Russian abstractionist’s legendary text on form and its emotional effects on the viewer In 1911, Russian painter and theorist Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) published his seminal treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art; over a...

The definitive collection of Robert Mapplethorpe’s flower photographs in a sophisticated new edition. Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the twentieth century’s most important artists, known for his ground-breaking and provocative work. He studied painting,...

 A unique survey of 350 artworks by a global and diverse array of LGBTQ+ artists – many underrecognized and overlooked – from the last 50 years Though the Stonewall Riots might now be shorthand for the start of the gay rights movement, so much of...

As Art Director for Muji since 2002, Japanese graphic designer Kenya Hara (born 1958) and his aesthetic of pared-back, beautifully functional objects have taken the world by (quiet) storm. With Kenya Hara: Designing Japan, the designer presents his...

Larry Neal, a poet, dramatist, and critic, was a founding figure of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s in New York. Writing as the arts editor for Liberator magazine, a radical journal published in Harlem, Neal called for Black artists to...

“I exaggerate, I sometimes make changes to the subject, but I still don’t invent the whole of painting; on the contrary, I find it ready-made—but to be untangled—in the real world.” —Vincent van Gogh to Émile...

A new study of Mary Cassatt that explores the centrality of work to both her inventive technical practice and her distinctive approach to modern subjects.    In her sensitive depictions of the social, intellectual, and professional lives of...

This landmark volume is a gathering of Native North American  contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, architects,  writers, photographers, designers and more. Conceived by Jeffrey  Gibson, a renowned artist of...

Berthe Morisot won over the Impressionists with her talent and became the first woman of the group alongside Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley. Likewise, she was heralded by the greatest writers of her time; in this tribute to her, an anthology...

Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months offers a unique and impressive overview of the paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh created during the last seventy days of his life. He produced no fewer than seventy-four paintings and over thirty...

In freewheeling 1920s Paris, Kiki de Montparnasse captivated as a nightclub performer, sold out gallery showings of her paintings, starred in Surrealist films, and shared drinks and ideas with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp. Her...

One hundred and fifty years ago, Vincent van Gogh fell under the enticing spell of Japanese printmaking while working in Paris. He bought over six hundred Japanese prints and displayed them in his studio as inspiration.Van Gogh admired the prints’...

Exquisite Dreams is the first full account of the art and life of Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012). Rather than only focusing on her well-known surrealist paintings, this book gives equal weight to Tanning’s lesser-known but equally powerful sculptures,...

This indispensable introductory guide explores the art of the African continent from its early origins over 75,000 years ago to the contemporary, set in the context of postcolonial debates, the restitution of cultural objects and artifacts, and the...

Focusing on the work of 33 artists, this volume examines the ways contemporary Korean art reflects the dynamic changes in the country following the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and 1988 Seoul Olympics, when a newly democratic South Korea opened up to the rest...

In The Critic as Artist, arguably the most complete exploration of his aesthetic thinking, and certainly the most entertaining, Oscar Wilde harnesses his famous wit to demolish the supposed boundary between art and criticism...

There are many myths about the artist Edgar Degas—from Degas the misanthrope to Degas the deviant, to Degas the obsessive. But there is no single text that better stokes the fire than Degas and His Model, a short memoir published by Alice...

Photography is now more popular than ever thanks to the rapid development of digital cameras. Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs is ideal for this new wave of snap shooters using DSLR, compact system and bridge cameras. It contains no...

Mad about Painting collects beautiful new translations of Hokusai’s painting tutorials and related essays written by the artist and his peers—a selection made available in English for the first time.   Best known for his iconic print...

A compilation of esoteric musings, Kandinsky: Incarnating Beauty explores Alexandre Kojève’s philosophical approach to the relationship between art and beauty.   A teacher to Jacques Lacan, André Breton, and Albert Camus,...

Master sculptor Auguste Rodin’s illuminating writings on cathedrals in France are especially relevant and significant following the recent fire at Notre Dame.    In this volume, the writer and Rodin scholar Rachel Corbett selects...

Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully...

Bill Traylor (ca. 1853–1949) came to art-making on his own and found his creative voice without guidance; today he is remembered as a renowned American artist. Traylor was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation, and his experiences spanned multiple...

Photography has a complex relationship to art. This volume uses an innovative framework to help readers appreciate photography as its own modern art form. In his unique and insightful approach, professor of photography David Bate presents iconic...

Exploring the art and life of this important American artist whose work bridged the gaps between abstraction, feminism, and Blackness Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction is a fascinating examination of the multifaceted career of artist, activist,...

Sonia Delaunay was a true pioneer of modernist abstraction; breaking with the figurative vocabulary that subordinated color to subject matter, she placed dynamic color interaction at the core of her vision, whether expressed through painting, book...

Though she was widely known for her supernatural fictions, Lee hasn’t gained the recognition she so clearly deserves for her contributions in the fields of aesthetics, philosophy of empathy, and art criticism. An early follower of Walter Pater, her...

Presenting recently rediscovered drawings, Life and Death explores what it means for an artist to picture their own death, in both the context of Wyeth’s late career and contemporary American art. This volume presents for the first time a recently...

Bringing together more than forty works from the United States and Europe, this exhibition examines Barbara Chase-Riboud’s artistic career, focusing primarily on her important Malcolm X sculptures. Five works from that series—among them the...

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) was a radical sculptor whose unorthodox approach to multiplication, assemblage, industrial production, and serial repetition challenged classical sculptural traditions and provided a definitive break in the history of art...

Discover the audacious futurism of Zaha Hadid. As the first woman to win both the Pritzker Prize for architecture and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal,  Hadid broke the rules and re-defined the game, despite some saying her  designs were unbuildable...

It was a dappled and daubed harbor scene that gave Impressionism its name. When Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet was exhibited in April 1874, critics seized upon the work’s title and its loose stylistic rendering of light and motion upon water...

Meet Vincent van Gogh, one of the most famed tragic figures of 19th‑century art. This lush tome collects all his 871 paintings, alongside writings and essays, charting the life and work of a master who continues to tower over art. Today, the works of...