philosophy

After consulting with fellow artists, professors, historians and college syllabi, ARTINFO has put together this list of books all artists should own. With an eye toward a balance of theory, history, reference, and practical guides this list includes over 22 books covering a multitude of subjects surrounding art.

• A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907-1916 by John Richardson
• Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition, Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin by Lawrence Weschler
• The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari
• Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
• Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists by Joseph Sheppard
• Orientalism by Edward Said
• The Art Museum edited by Phaidon
• The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art by Lucy Lippard
• Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin
• Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 1: 1913-1926 by Walter Benjamin
• Art in Theory 1900 – 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas edited by Charles Harrison and Dr. Paul J. Wood, Wiley
• Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E.H. Gombrich
• Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students by James Elkins, University of Illinois Press
• History of Beauty by Umberto Eco
• On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Art History, Combined Volume (4th Edition) by Marilyn Stokstad and Michael W. Cothren
• The Continental Aesthetics Reader edited by Clive Cazeaux
• ART/WORK: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber
• Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series by John Berger
• Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes
• Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim