Books That Every Artist Should Own
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