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