“What are the best Art History books?” We looked at 17 lists and came away with over 280 unique titles.
Art is great. Unfortunately (fortunately) it has been around for hundreds of thousands of years and spans the entire earth in every city and location where humans and that dancing bird from Planet Earth live. Because there is so much art and it has been around from so long, it is impossible to see it all. Luckily there are individuals who dedicate their lives to documenting and recording the techniques, styles, and history of artists and cultures around the world.
Below you will find the top 18 non-fiction and fiction art history books with images, summaries, and links. At the bottom of the page the additional 268 books as well as the 17 sources we consulted can be found.
Happy Scrolling!
This popular anthology of twentieth-century art theoretical texts has now been expanded to take account of new research, and to include significant contributions to art theory from the 1990s.
Brunelleschi’s Dome is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius. He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes (among some of the most renowned machines of the Renaissance) to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers’ platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction–all the while defying those who said the dome would surely collapse and his own personal obstacles that at times threatened to overwhelm him. This drama was played out amid plagues, wars, political feuds, and the intellectual ferments of Renaissance Florence– events Ross King weaves into the story to great effect, from Brunelleschi’s bitter, ongoing rivalry with the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to the near catpure of Florence by the Duke of Milan. King also offers a wealth of fascinating detail that opens windows onto fifteenth-century life: the celebrated traditions of the brickmaker’s art, the daily routine of the artisans laboring hundreds of feet above the ground as the dome grew ever higher, the problems of transportation, the power of the guilds.
“In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father’s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father’s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet – a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time. “
The market-leading text for the art history survey course, GARDNER’S ART THROUGH THE AGES has served as a comprehensive and thoughtfully crafted guide to the defining phases of the world’s artistic tradition. With this book in hand, thousands of students have watched the story of art unfold in its full historical, social, religious, economic, and cultural context, and thus deepened their understanding of art, architecture, painting, and sculpture. By virtue of its comprehensive coverage, strong emphasis on context, and rich, accurate art reproductions, GARDNER’S ART THROUGH THE AGES has earned and sustained a reputation of excellence and authority.
History of Modern Art is a visual comprehensive overview of the modern art field. It traces the trends and influences in painting, sculpture, photography and architecture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The seventh edition deepens its discussions on social conditions that have affected the production and reception of modern and contemporary art.
This monumental new book explores the recent history of exhibition-making, looking at the radical shifts that have taken place in the practice of curating contemporary art over the last 20 years. Tracing a history of curating through its most innovative shows, renowned curator Jens Hoffmann selects the 50 key exhibitions that have most significantly shaped the practice of both artists and curators. Chosen from the plethora of exhibitions, biennials and art events that have sprung up across the world since the 1990s, each exhibition reviewed here has triggered profound changes in curatorial practice, and reanimated the potential of contemporary art. The book includes an international roster of curators, and exhibition venues that span the globe, from the USA, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and Spain.
The subject of John Singer Sargent’s most famous painting was twenty-three-year-old New Orleans Creole Virginie Gautreau, who moved to Paris and quickly became the “it girl” of her day. A relative unknown at the time, Sargent won the commission to paint her; the two must have recognized in each other a like-minded hunger for fame.
A masterpiece in its own right, this novel offers a compelling portrait of Michelangelo’s dangerous, impassioned loves, and the God-driven fury from which he wrested the greatest art the world has ever known.
From alchemy and anatomy to Warhol and windows, The Duchamp Dictionary offers a pithy and readable text that draws on in-depth scholarship and the very latest research. Thomas Girst includes close to 200 entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people, and ideas in Duchamp’s life—from The Bicycle Wheel and Fountain to Walter and Louise Arensberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine Dreier, and Arturo Schwarz. Delightful, newly commissioned illustrations introduce each letter of the alphabet and accompany select entries, capturing the irreverent spirit of the artist himself. 59 color illustrations
Wolfe’s style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. The Painted Word is Tom Wolfe “at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent”
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902–1983) was one of the twentieth century’s most learned and stimulating writers on art and architecture. He established his reputation with Pioneers of Modern Design, though he is probably best known for his celebrated series of guides, The Buildings of England, acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. He was also founding editor of The Pelican History of Art, the most comprehensive and scholarly history of art ever published in English.
Considered a great classic by all who seek for a meeting ground between science and the humanities, Art and Illusion examines the history and psychology of pictorial representation in light of present-day theories of visual perception information and learning. Searching for a rational explanation of the changing styles of art, Gombrich reexamines many ideas on the imitation of nature and the function of tradition. In testing his arguments he ranges over the history of art, noticing particularly the accomplishments of the ancient Greeks, and the visual discoveries of such masters as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as the impressionists and the cubists. Gombrich’s triumph in Art and Illusion arises from the fact that his main concern is less with the artists than with ourselves, the beholders.
Serving as both an introduction to fifteenth-century Italian painting and as a text on how to interpret social history from the style of pictures in a given historical period, this new edition to Baxandall’s pre-eminent scholarly volume examines early Renaissance painting, and explains how the style of painting in any society reflects the visual skills and habits that evolve out of daily life. Renaissance painting, for example, mirrors the experience of such activities as preaching, dancing, and gauging barrels. The volume includes discussions of a wide variety of painters, including Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Masaccio, Luca Signorelli, Boccaccio, and countless others. Baxandall also defines and illustrates sixteen concepts used by a contemporary critic of painting, thereby assembling the basic equipment needed to explore fifteenth-century art.
Written by some of today’s leading art historians and curators, this new collection provides an invaluable road map of the field by comparing and reexamining canonical works of art history. From Émile Mâle’s magisterial study of thirteenth-century French art, first published in 1898, to Hans Belting’s provocative Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, the book provides a concise and insightful overview of the history of art, told through its most enduring literature. Each of the essays looks at the impact of a single major book of art history, mapping the intellectual development of the writer under review, setting out the premises and argument of the book, considering its position within the broader field of art history, and analyzing its significance in the context of both its initial reception and its afterlife. An introduction by John-Paul Stonard explores how art history has been forged by outstanding contributions to scholarship, and by the dialogues and ruptures between them.
John Berger’s Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language.
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . . . even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term “Renaissance,” was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael.
The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject.
100 Artists’ Manifesto | Readings | |
100 Painters of Tomorrow | Country & Town House | |
A Brush with the Real: Figurative Painting Today | Margherita Dessanay and Marc Valli | Art news |
A Child’s Book of Art: Great Pictures First Words | Lucy Micklethwait | Art A GoGo |
A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance | J.R. Hale | King’s College |
A Concise History of Painting: From Giotto to Cézanne | Michael Levey | Questia |
A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE: SETTING AND RITUALS | SPIRO KOSTOF, GREGORY CASTILLO, RICHARD TOBIAS | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
A History of Western Architecture | D. Watkin | King’s College |
A History of Western Art | Laurie Schneider Adams | Art Books |
A Life of Picasso Volume I: 1881-1906 | John Richardson | The Wall Street Journal |
A Paradise Lost: The Neo-Romantic Imagination in Britain, 1938-1955 | David Mellor | The Guardian |
A SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING ABOUT ART | SYLVAN BARNET | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
A WORLD HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE | MICHAEL FAZIO, MARIAN MOFFETT, LAWRENCE WODEHOUSE | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
A World History of Art | H. Honour & J. Fleming | King’s College |
AFRICAN COSMOS: STELLAR ARTS | NY Times | |
After Art | Readings | |
Afterimage | Helen Humphreys | Millsaps College |
Agatha’s Breast | Van Adler | Millsaps College |
Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth (novel about the New Kingdom Egyptian pharaoh by the Nobel Laureate Egyptian author) | Naguib Mahfouz | Millsaps College |
ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES: NEW YORK ART SPACES 1960 TO 2010 | Lauren Rosati and Mary Anne Staniszewski | NY Times |
American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America | Robert Hughes | Art A GoGo |
An Empathetic Lens | Country & Town House | |
Annotated Art (DK Annotated Guides) | Robert Cumming | Art A GoGo |
ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREEK ART (OXFORD HISTORY OF ART) | ROBIN OSBORNE | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 | J. Summerson | King’s College |
ART & TODAY | ELEANOR HEARTNEY | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Art for Dummies | Thomas Hoving | Art A GoGo |
Art History | Marilyn Stokstad and Bradford R. Collins | Art A GoGo |
Art History and Its Institutions: Foundations of a Discipline | Elizabeth Mansfield | Questia |
ART HISTORY PORTABLE, BOOK 4: 14TH – 17TH CENTURY ART | MARILYN STOKSTAD, MICHAEL W. COTHREN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
ART HISTORY, COMBINED VOLUME | MARILYN STOKSTAD, MICHAEL W. COTHREN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Art History: An Anthology of Modern Criticism | Wylie Sypher | Questia |
Art in America 1945-1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism | Jed Perl | The Wall Street Journal |
Art Kane | Country & Town House | |
Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s | Irving Sandler | Questia |
Art Power | Readings | |
Art: The Whole Story | Readings | |
Artemisia | Alexandra Lapierre | Millsaps College |
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI | MARY D. GARRARD | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
As Above | Rudy Rucker | Millsaps College |
ASIAN AMERICAN ART: A HISTORY, 1850- 1970 | GORDON CHANG, MARK JOHNSON, PAUL KARLSTROM | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
ASIAN ART NOW | CHUI MELISSA, GENOCCHIO BENJAMIN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
ASMARA: AFRICA’S SECRET MODERNIST CITY | EDWARD DENISON, GUANG YU REN, NAIGZY GEBREMEDHIN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
BAROQUE: THEATRUM MUNDI. THE WORLD AS A WORK OF ART | BARBARA BORNGASSER, ROLF TOMAN, ACHIM BEDNORZ | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
BECOMING VAN GOGH | Timothy J. Standring | NY Times |
Bernard Berenson: Formation and Heritage | Joseph Connors and Louis A. Waldman | Art news |
Bets and Scams: A Novel of the Art World | Gary Schwartz | Millsaps College |
Billy Name – The Silver Age | Country & Town House | |
Borrower of the Night: The First Vicky Bliss Mystery | Elizabeth Peters | Millsaps College |
BUILDING STORIES | Chris Ware’ | NY Times |
Burning Bright | Tracy Chevalier | Millsaps College |
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography | Roland Barthes | Widewalls |
CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH | Johannes Grave | NY Times |
Cézanne: a Study of his Development, London 1927 | R. Fry, | King’s College |
Chasing Cezanne | Peter Mayle | Millsaps College |
Child’s Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings | Lucy Micklethwait | Art A GoGo |
CHINESE SILKS | James C. Y. Watt | NY Times |
Clara and Mr | Susan Vreeland | Millsaps College |
CLASSICAL ART: FROM GREECE TO ROME (OXFORD HISTORY OF ART) | MARY BEARD, JOHN HENDERSON | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Collected Words | Richard Hamilton | The Guardian |
Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity toAbstraction, London 1993 | J. Gage | King’s College |
Concise History of Modern Sculpture (World of Art S.) | Herbert Read | Art Books |
CONSTRUCTING THE ANCIENT WORLD: ARCHITECTURAL TECHNIQUES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS | CARMELO MALACRINO | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
CONTEMPORARY ART: WORLD CURRENTS | TERRY SMITH | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Cupid and the Silent Goddess | Alan Fisk | Millsaps College |
Dancing for Degas | Kathryn Wagner | Millsaps College |
Deadly Illumination: A Gilded Age Mystery | Serena Stier | Millsaps College |
Death and Restoration | Iain Pears | Millsaps College |
Depths of Glory | Irving Stone | The Week |
Design as Art (Penguin Modern Classics) | Bruno Munari | Widewalls |
Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp | Pierre Cabanne | The Guardian |
Dictionary of Art & Artists | Peter & Linda Murray | King’s College |
Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art | James Hall | King’s College |
Discourses on Art, ed. R. Wark (several eds.) | J. Reynolds | King’s College |
DRAWING SURREALISM | NY Times | |
Edie: An American Biography | Jean Stein and George Plimpton | The Guardian |
Edmund de Waal | Edmund de Waal and Emma Crichton-Miller | Art news |
Essential Art: The History of Western Art | Art Books | |
False Impression | Jeffrey Archer | Millsaps College |
Feint of Art | Hailey Lind | Millsaps College |
Frida’s Bed | Slavenka Drakulic | Millsaps College |
Fundraising the Dead | Sheila Connolly | Millsaps College |
Girl in Hyacinth Blue | Millsaps College | |
Girl Reading | Katie Ward | Bustle |
Gould’s Book of Fish | Richard Flanagan | Millsaps College |
Great Artists (DK Annotated Guides) | Robert Cumming | Art A GoGo |
HAJJ: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ISLAM | NY Times | |
Headlong | Michael Frayn | Millsaps College |
HERCULANEUM: ART OF A BURIED CITY | MARIA PAOLA GUIDOBALDI, DOMENICO ESPOSITO, LUCIANO PEDICINI | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
HIROSHIGE: ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO | MELANIE TREADE, LORENZ BICHLER | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
History of Art | H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson | Art A GoGo |
History of Beauty | Umberto Eco | Widewalls |
History of Classic Painting | Marc Logé; André Leclerc; M. De Gesne; Frederick Moss; S. Béguin; Rosamund | Questia |
HISTORY OF FAR ASIAN ART | SHERMAN LEE | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
HISTORY OF JAPANESE ART | PENELOPE MASON | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Horst – Photographer of Style | Country & Town House | |
I Always Loved You | Robin Oliveira | The Week |
I am Madame X | Gioia Diliberto | Millsaps College |
I, Juan de Pareja | Elizabeth Borton de Treviño | Bustle |
IMPRESSIONISM: ART, LEISURE, AND PARISIAN SOCIETY | ROBERT L. HERBERT | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
IN EXTREMIS: DEATH AND LIFE IN 21ST-CENTURY HAITIAN ART | NY Times | |
In the Shadow of Velázquez: A Life in Art History | Jonathan Brown | Art news |
including Deceptive Clarity (1987) | Millsaps College | |
including Old Bones (1995) | Millsaps College | |
INDIAN ART (WORLD ART) | ROY C. CRAVEN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
INK ART: PAST AS PRESENT IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA | MAXWELL K. HEARN, WU HUNG | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Innocent Eye | Philip Hook | Millsaps College |
Instant Art History: From Cave Art to Pop Art | Walter Robinson | Art A GoGo |
ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE | ROBERT HILLENBRAND | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Italian Painters: Critical Studies of their Works, London 1892 | G. Morelli, | King’s College |
JESS: O! TRICKY CAD & OTHER JESSOTERICA | NY Times | |
Journal of Eugène Delacroix | Eugène Delacroix | The Wall Street Journal |
Just Kids | Patti Smith | Millsaps College |
KEN PRICE SCULPTURE: A RETROSPECTIVE | Stephanie Barron | NY Times |
Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century | Chris Murray | Questia |
Landscape of Lies | Peter Watson | Millsaps College |
Landscape with Fragmented Figures | Jeff Van de Zande | Millsaps College |
Lazarus | Nicholas Kilmer | Millsaps College |
Lectures | F. Saxl | King’s College |
Leonardo’s Swans | Karen Essex | Millsaps College |
Life Studies | Millsaps College | |
LIFE WITH PICASSO | FRANCOISE GILOT | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Likeness and Presence | Readings | |
Loot | Aaron Elkins | Millsaps College |
LUCIAN FREUD PORTRAITS | Sarah Howgate, with Michael Auping and John Richardson | NY Times |
Luncheon of the Boating Party | Millsaps College | |
Lust for Life | Irving Stone | The Week |
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper | Harriet Scott Chessman | Millsaps College |
M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio | Peter Robb | Millsaps College |
Madame Picasso | Anne Girard | Bustle |
Mademoiselle Victorine | Debra Finerman | Millsaps College |
Mapping It Out: An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies | Hans Ulrich Obrist; Introduction by Tom McCarthy | Art news |
Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden | Country & Town House | |
Masterpiece of Deception | Judy Lester | Millsaps College |
MATERIALIZING “SIX YEARS”: LUCY R. LIPPARD AND THE EMERGENCE OF CONCEPTUAL ART | NY Times | |
Medieval Art | Marilyn Stokstad | Questia |
Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling | Millsaps College | |
Miss Garnet’s Angel | Sally Vickers | Millsaps College |
MODERN ARCHITECTURE SINCE 1900 | WILLIAM J. R. CURTIS | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
MODERN ARCHITECTURE: A CRITICAL HISTORY | KENNETH FRAMPTON | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
MODERN ART 1851 – 1929: CAPITALISM AND REPRESENTATION (OXFORD HISTORY OF ART) | RICHARD R. BRETTELL | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Mona Lisa | Jeanne Kalogridis | Millsaps College |
Murder at the National Gallery | Millsaps College | |
Murder in the Smithsonian | Margaret Truman | Millsaps College |
New Zealand Painting: A Concise History | Michael Dunn | Art Books |
NOA NOA: THE TAHITIAN JOURNAL | PAUL GAUGUIN | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
On Photography | Readings | |
One Man Show | Michael Innes | Millsaps College |
OVERLAY: CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE ART OF PREHISTORY | LUCY LIPPARD | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Perspectives on Western Art | Linnea H. Wren | Questia |
Picasso and the Model: Sylvette, Sylvette, Sylvette | Christoph Grunenberg and Astrid Becker | Art news |
Pictures at an Exhibition | Sara Houghteling | Millsaps College |
Pop Art and the Origins of Post-Modernism | Sylvia Harrison | Questia |
Principles of Art History (several eds.) | H. Wölfflin | King’s College |
Quattrocento | James McKean | Millsaps College |
Rembrandt’s Ghost | Paul Christopher | Millsaps College |
Rembrandt’s Whore | Sylvia Matton | Millsaps College |
Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, Stockholm 1960 | E. Panofsky | King’s College |
Rodin’s Lover | Heather Webb | Bustle |
ROMAN ART: ROMULUS TO CONSTANTINE | NANCY H. RAMAGE, ANDREW RAMAGE | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Sacre Bleu | Christopher Moore | Millsaps College |
SALON TO BIENNIAL: EXHIBITIONS THAT MADE ART HISTORY, VOLUME 1: 1863-1959 | BRUCE ALTSHULER | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Shamrock Tea | Ciaran Carson | Millsaps College |
Simpson’s Homer | John Malcolm | Millsaps College |
Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting | Sister Wendy Beckett | Art A GoGo |
SKYSCRAPERS: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST EXTRAORDINARY BUILDINGS – REVISED AND UPDATED | JUDITH DUPRE, ADRIAN SMITH | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
Stealing Athena | Karen Essex | Millsaps College |
Studies in Iconology, (several eds.) | E. Panofsky | King’s College |
Styles, Schools and Movements | Amy Dempsey | Lavinia Goes |
Sunflowers: A Novel of Vincent Van Gogh | Sheramy D Bundrick | Millsaps College |
Taste and the Antique, New Haven & London, 1981 | F. Haskell & N. Penny, | King’s College |
TEMPLES OF CAMBODIA: THE HEART OF ANGKOR | HELEN IBBITSON JESSUP, BARRY BRUKOFF | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
THE $12 MILLION STUFFED SHARK: THE CURIOUS ECONOMICS OF CONTEMPORARY ART | DON THOMPSON | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
The Art Forger | Shapiro | Millsaps College |
The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (Oxford History of Art S.) | Donald Preziosi | Art Books |
The Art of Describing: Dutch art in the Seventeenth Century | Readings | |
THE ART OF TIBET | ROBERT E. FISHER | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
The Bellini Madonna | Elizabeth Lowry | Millsaps College |
The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space (several eds.) | J. White | King’s College |
The Birth of Venus | Sarah Dunant | Millsaps College |
The Bone Vault | Linda Fairstein | Millsaps College |
The Botticelli Secret | Marina Fiorato | Millsaps College |
The Bowl is Already Broken | Mary Kay Zuravleff | Millsaps College |
The Cheese Monkeys | Chip Kidd | Millsaps College |
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy | J. Burckhardt | King’s College |
The Classical Language of Architecture (several eds.) | John Summerson | King’s College |
THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD | Ron Padgett | NY Times |
The Colors of the New World: Artists, Materials, and the Creation of the Florentine Codex | Diana Magaloni Kerpel | Art news |
The Creation of Eve | Lynn Cullen | Millsaps College |
The Critical Historians of Art (several eds.) | M. Podro | King’s College |
The Curatorial Avant-Garde: Surrealism and Exhibition Practice in France, 1925–1941 | Adam Jolles | Art news |
The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Millsaps College |
The Dark Clue | James Wilson | Millsaps College |
The Death Artist: A Novel of Suspense | Jonathan Santlofer | Millsaps College |
The Deftness of Da Vinci | Country & Town House | |
The Enchantress of Florence | Salman Rushdie | Millsaps College |
The Eye’s Mind: Bridget Riley – Collected Writings, 1965-2009 | The Guardian | |
THE FERTILE CRESCENT: GENDER, ART, AND SOCIETY | Judith K. Brodsky and Ferris Olin | NY Times |
The Final Faberge: A Novel of Suspense | Thomas Swan | Millsaps College |
The Flanders Panel | Arturo Perez-Reverte | Millsaps College |
The Forger | Paul Watkins | Millsaps College |
The Fountain of St | Sena Jeter Naslund | Millsaps College |
The Girl in the Green Glass Mirror (about an art evaluator and a painting by the Victorian painter Richard Dadd) | Elizabeth McGregor | Millsaps College |
The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds | Readings | |
The Gothic Image, London 1961 | E. Mâle | King’s College |
The History of Art for Young People | H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson | Art A GoGo |
The History of Art History | Udo Kultermann | Questia |
The Horse’s Mouth | Joyce Cary | Millsaps College |
The House Girl | Tara Conklin | Millsaps College |
THE IMAGE OF THE BLACK IN WESTERN ART | NY Times | |
The Immaculate Deception | Iain Pears | Millsaps College |
THE ISLANDS OF BENOÎT MANDELBROT: FRACTALS, CHAOS, AND THE MATERIALITY OF THINKING | Nina Samuel | NY Times |
The Italian Painters of the Renaissance | B. Berenson | King’s College |
THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS: THE REVOLUTIONARY DECADE THAT GAVE THE WORLD IMPRESSIONISM | ROSS KING | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
The Killing Art | Millsaps College | |
The Lady and the Unicorn | Tracy Chevalier | Millsaps College |
The Last Nude | Ellis Avery | Bustle |
THE LETTERS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH | VINCENT VAN GOGH, ARNOLD J. POMERANS (TRANSLATOR) | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DAVID WOJNAROWICZ: FIRE IN THE BELLY | Cynthia Carr | NY Times |
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece | Jonathan Harr | Millsaps College |
The Madonnas of Leningrad | Debra Dean | The Week |
The Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa (mystery about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre) | Martin Page | Millsaps College |
The Matisse Stories | A Byatt | Millsaps College |
The Moon and Sixpence | W. Somerset Maugham | Bustle |
The New Art History: A Critical Introduction | Jonathan Harris | Questia |
The Originality of the Avantgarde and Other Modernist Myths | Readings | |
The Painted Kiss | Elizabeth Hickey | Millsaps College |
The Painter | Will Davenport | Millsaps College |
The Painter From Shanghai | Jennifer Cody Epstein | Bustle |
The Painter of Modern Life & other Essays | C. Baudelaire | King’s College |
The Passion of Artemisia | Millsaps College | |
The Penguin Dictionary ofArchitecture | John Fleming, Hugh Honour, Nikolaus Pevsner | King’s College |
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again | The Guardian | |
The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett | Millsaps College |
The Pound Era | Hugh Kenner | The Guardian |
THE PRIVATE LIVES OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS | SUE ROE | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
The Rembrandt Panel | Oliver Banks | Millsaps College |
The Renaissance Portrait | Readings | |
The Rich and the Profane | Jonathan Gash | Millsaps College |
The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art fromBrunelleschi to Seurat, New Haven & London, (several eds.) | M. Kemp | King’s College |
The Secret Supper | Javier Sierra | Millsaps College |
The Social Lives of Artistic Property | Pablo Helguera, Michael Mandiberg, William Powhida, Amy Whitaker, and Caroline Woolard | Art news |
The Swan Thieves | Elizabeth Kostova | Bustle |
The Unknown Masterpiece | Honoré de Balzac | The Guardian |
The Voyages of Alfred Wallis | Peter Everett | Millsaps College |
The Way to Paradise | Mario Vargas Llosa | Millsaps College |
The Wayward Muse | Millsaps College | |
The Women | T Boyle | Millsaps College |
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction | Walter Benjamin | Widewalls |
Theft | Peter Carey | Millsaps College |
Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book | Herschel B. Chipp | Lavinia Goes |
Tulip Fever | Deborah Moggach | Millsaps College |
Turner’s Sketchbooks | Country & Town House | |
Twentieth-Century American Art (Oxford History of Art) | Widewalls | |
Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West | Lucy Lippard | Art news |
Vision and difference: femininity, feminism and the histories of art, London, 1988 | Griselda Pollock | King’s College |
Voodoo Salon | Country & Town House | |
Waking Raphael | Leslie Forbes | Millsaps College |
WARI: LORDS OF THE ANCIENT ANDES | NY Times | |
Warpaint | Stephanie Smith | Millsaps College |
What’s Bred in the Bone? 1985 (about fictional artist and collector in Toronto) | Robertson Davies | Millsaps College |
WHY BUILDINGS FALL DOWN: WHY STRUCTURES FAIL | MATTHYS LEVY, MARIO SALVADORI, KEVIN WOEST | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
With Violets | Elizabeth Robards | Millsaps College |
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties | Teresa A. Carbone and Kellie Jones; Contributions by Connie Choi, Dalila Scruggs, and Cynthia Young | Art news |
Woodstock | Country & Town House | |
Word and Image, Leyden 1972 | M. Schapiro | King’s College |
WORLD ARCHITECTURE: A CROSS-CULTURAL HISTORY | RICHARD INGERSOLL, SPIRO KOSTOF | Best liberal Arts Colleges |
World Without End (centered on the life of a fictional 14th-century English architect) | Millsaps College | |
Wycliffe and the Guild of Nine | W Burley | Millsaps College |
Source | Article |
Art A GoGo | How to Learn More About Art Part One: Books |
Art Books | Art History Books |
Art news | 14 NEW ART-HISTORY BOOKS TO CHANGE YOUR MIND |
Best liberal Arts Colleges | 50 INSPIRING BOOKS ABOUT ART HISTORY |
Bustle | 11 Novels Every Art History-Lover Should Pick Up |
Concordia University | Selected Art History Books in the Concordia Library Collection |
Country & Town House | Ten best art books of all time |
King’s College | History of Art reading list |
Lavinia Goes | 3 ESSENTIAL ART HISTORY BOOKS THAT I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU TO READ |
Millsaps College | Art History Novels and Films |
NY Times | Between Two Covers, Wide Worlds of Art |
Questia | Art History: Selected full-text books and articles |
The Guardian | Michael Bracewell’s top 10 art books |
The Wall Street Journal | Five Essential Books on Art History |
The Week | Susan Vreeland’s 6 favorite books that blend fiction and art history |
Widewalls | ART HISTORY BOOKS YOU MUST READ |
Readings | The Books That Shaped Art History |
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