Books on Art & Design
Thirty books to deepen your looking: art history and criticism, artists’ lives and letters, photography, and the ideas behind modern design.
30 books
-
1
Art historyThe Story of Art
The best-selling introduction to art history, from cave paintings to the modern era.
-
2
Criticism & theoryWays of Seeing
Berger’s influential essays on how we look at paintings, advertising and the nude.
-
3
Artists’ livesThe Lives of the Artists
Vasari’s Renaissance biographies of painters, sculptors and architects.
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
Criticism & theoryThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Benjamin’s essay on how photography and film changed the meaning of art.
-
9
Criticism & theoryConcerning the Spiritual in Art
Kandinsky’s manifesto for abstraction and the inner meaning of colour.
-
10
-
11
Criticism & theorySeven Days in the Art World
Behind the scenes at auctions, fairs, studios and art schools.
-
12
-
13
Art historyThe Power of Art
Simon Schama on eight masterpieces and the artists behind them, from Caravaggio to Rothko.
-
14
-
15
Criticism & theoryWhy Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
Nochlin’s landmark essay on the institutions that kept women out of art.
-
16
Artists’ livesLeonardo da Vinci
A biography drawing on Leonardo’s notebooks to explore his art and science.
-
17
Artists’ livesFrida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
The biography that brought Frida Kahlo’s life and work to a wide audience.
-
18
Artists’ livesJust Kids
Patti Smith’s memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe in 1970s New York.
-
19
-
20
-
21
-
22
PhotographyThe Decisive Moment
Cartier-Bresson’s landmark book of photographs and his ideas on capturing the moment.
-
23
PhotographyThe Americans
Robert Frank’s photographs of 1950s America, a turning point for photography.
-
24
-
25
-
26
-
27
Criticism & theoryKeeping an Eye Open
Julian Barnes’s essays on painters from Delacroix to Hodgkin.
-
28
Criticism & theoryThe Artist’s Reality
Mark Rothko’s own reflections on art, beauty and the artist in society, published after his death.
-
29
-
30
No books match those filters.