Best Art History Books

A sweeping narrative history of Homo sapiens from the Cognitive Revolution to the present. Harari argues that what makes humans dominate the planet is not physical strength but collective myths: shared fictions like money, religion, and nations that allow millions of strangers to cooperate. The book moves fast through 70,000 years, making big, debatable claims about agriculture, empire, capitalism, and happiness. It is less a history textbook than a provocative essay in chronological form, and best read as an argument rather than a reference.

In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand?and, if possible, answer?the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To ...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, History, Art, Autobiography lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, History, Art lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

John Bergers Classic Text on ArtJohn Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eyeopener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at...

Historian and Pulitzer Prizewinning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to World War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and how it could have been stopped but wasn'...

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 millionIntriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why wer...

Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects takes a bold, original approach to human history, exploring past civilizations through the objects that defined them. Encompassing a grand sweep of human history, A History of the World in 100 Objects begins with one of the earliest surviving objects made by human hands, a chopping tool from th...

One of the last surviving members of the futurist generation, Bruno Munari's Design as Art is an illustrated journey into the artistic possibilities of modern design translated by Patrick Creagh published as part of the 'Penguin on Design' series in Penguin Modern Classics.'The designer of today reestablishes the longlost contact between art and ...

Packed with facts, attributions, and entertaining anecdotes about his contemporaries, Vasari's collection of biographical accounts also presents a highly influential theory of the development of Renaissance art.Beginning with Cimabue and Giotto, who represent the infancy of art, Vasari considers the period of youthful vigour, shaped by Donatello, B...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Children'sFiction, Fiction, Childrens, Art, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Vibrantly illustrated and truly inspirational, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls tells the stories of 100 heroic women from Elizabeth I to Serena Williams What if the princess didn't marry Prince Charming but instead went on to be an astronaut What if the jealous step sisters were supportive and kind And what if the queen was the one really in ch...

The English country house has flourished over the centuries because of its ability to adapt to the changes in English society. This book is an account of the ways in which the upperclass life style were reflected in the houses in which the wealthy and powerful lived. First published in 1978, this is a history of the English country house from the ...

One of Paul Graham's answers to "what should I read to learn more about history?"

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, History, Art, Architecture lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Started as a Twitter thread and quickly gained widespread popularity, this book perfectly captures those relatable moments when a man explains to a woman a subject about which he knows considerably less than she does. Situations include these men in art and antiquity sharing keen insight on the female anatomy, an eloquent defense of catcalling, or ...

Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always ...

Maya Angelou's poetic celebration of the courage within each person is matched by the daring vision of artist Basquiat, whose childlike style reveals the fanciful imaginings of childhood. In this introduction to poetry and contemporary art, brief biographies of Angelou and Basquiat accompany the text and artwork. Maya Angelou's poetic celebration o...

Since its U.S. debut a quartercentury ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.Rather than chronology, geography, or...

Now a special 30thanniversary edition in both hardcover and paperback, the classic bestselling history The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the s...

Françoise Gilot's candid memoir remains the most revealing portrait of Picasso written, and gives fascinating insight into the intense and creative life shared by two modern artists.Françoise Gilot was in her early twenties when, in 1943, she met the sixtyoneyearold Pablo Picasso. Brought up in uppermiddleclass comfort and educated at Cambridg...

Like a tiny bird in a big city, Frida Kahlo feels lost and lonely when she arrives in San Francisco with her husband, the famous artist Diego Rivera. But as Frida begins to explore San Francisco on her own, she discovers the inspiration she needs to become one of the most celebrated artists of all time. Me, Frida is an exhilarating true story that ...

A stunning story of love, sexual obsession, treachery, and tragedy, about an artist and her most famous muse in Paris between the World Wars.Paris, 1927. In the heady years before the crash, financiers drape their mistresses in Chanel, while expatriates flock to the avantgarde bookshop Shakespeare and Company. One day in July, a young American nam...

"Great art has dreadful manners," Simon Schama observes wryly at the start of his epic and explosive exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. "The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things; visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest...

This text is the 16th revised and updated edition of this introduction to art, from the earliest cave paintings to experimental art. Eight new artists from the modern period have been introduced. They are: Corot, Kollwitz, Nolde, de Chirico, Brancussi, Magritte, Nicolson and Morandi. A sequence of new endings have been added, and the captions are n...

An authoritative, balanced, and enlightening history of world art, this new Sixth Edition of The Visual Arts: A History is a worthy successor to the critically acclaimed earlier editions. From a 30,000yearold statuette to digital art of the 21st century, this book offers the most uptodate and wideranging history of art available in a single vo...

Now available in an updated edition, this attractive, useful, and entertaining collection of great artists and great art is a course in art history for readers of all ages. This bestselling reference guide profiles 50 major artists alongside their representative works. The entries are presented in an eyecatching format that features superb illustr...

The most widely read and respected history of art and Architecture, in the English language for over 85 years, GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES: THE WESTERN PERSPECTIVE presents an engaging approach that discusses the most significant artworks and monuments in their full historical and cultural contexts. In addition, a highly comprehensive and integra...

GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES, 14e, BACKPACK EDITION, VOLUME D: RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE ART, is part of a sixbook set that provides you with a comprehensive, beautifullyillustrated tour of the world's great artistic traditions! Easy to read and understand, the fourteenth edition of the most widelyread art history book in the English language co...

The redesigned AP Art History Framework contains a challenging list of 250 required works of art. The units on Africa, West and Central Asia, South, East, and Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Global Contemporary pose a particular problem. Existing textbooks and review books provide limited coverage that includes either short paragraphs or a list of...

With a novelist's skill and the insight of an historian, bestselling author Ross King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and the rivalry between Meissonier and Manet.While the Civil War raged in America, another revolution took shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impr...

City lights and cherry trees: The woodblock prints of Tokyo that captured Europe's imagination Utagawa Hiroshige (1797?1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyoe tradition. Literally meaning ?pictures of the floating world,? ukiyoe was a particular genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries and came to characteriz...

In this mighty first volume, Jens Müller traces 70 years of graphic design, designers, and developments from the late 19th century through the economic boom after World War II, spanning designs that would form the basis for further revolutions. Yearbyyear spreads are combined with indepth features on hundreds of landmark projects, industryleade...

From how to look at works by great masters to explaining key movements, styles, and techniques, this monumental book is the quintessential visual guide to more than 2,500 of the world's most revered paintings and sculptures.DK...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Fiction, Art, History, Children's lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A picture, says David Hockney, is the only way that we can communicate what we see. Here, in a collaboration with art critic Martin Gayford, he explores the many ways that artists have pictured the world, sharing sparkling insights and ideas that will delight every art lover and art maker. Readers who thrilled to Hockney?s Secret Knowledge know tha...

The Art Museum offers the museum experience without the boundaries of space and time. The unique structure of the book has been created by specialists in all fields of art, from institutions worldwide, who have collected together important and innovative works as they might be displayed in the ideal museum for the art lover.As any great museum the ...

If you thought these paintings were familiar, look again, and look closer. Part art history, part detective work, this fascinating collection explores 100 worldfamous works of art through enlarged details, revealing the fashions and lifestyles, the loves and intrigues, politics and people that truly make a masterpiece.This important addition to ou...

Illustrated profiles of 50 pioneering female artistsfrom the 11th century to todayfrom the author of the New York Times bestseller Women in Science.A charmingly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Art highlights the achievements and stories of 50 notable women in the artsfrom wellknown figures like painters Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Kee...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, History, Art lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A revelation' Owen Jones'Afropean seizes the blur of contradictions that have obscured Europe's relationship with blackness and paints it into something new, confident and lyrical' Afua Hirsch A Guardian, New Statesman and BBC History Magazine Best Book of 2019 'Afropean. Here was a space where blackness was taking part in shaping European identit...

"Art That Changed the World" tells the story of every major art style, movement by movement, giving art lovers a visual timeline showing key paintings that sparked each transition and explaining major events that shaped their evolution.Each section features a lavish doublepage image of an influential painting that defines each artistic style. Semi...

This handy, pocketsized volume includes 900 illustrations and takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the most spectacular works of art around the world and throughout time....

Historically, major women artists have been excluded from the mainstream art canon. Aligned with the resurgence of feminism in pop culture, Broad Strokes offers an entertaining corrective to that omission. Art historian Bridget Quinn delves into the lives and careers of 15 brilliant female artists in text that's smart, feisty, educational, and an e...

This artful first colors book introduces children to 9 basic colors and 20 shades of each. Readers will immerse themselves in the concept that one color name actually refers to a variety of dark, light, and inbetween tones. Young children will begin by simply naming the colors of the monochromatic images and will soon grow to select their favorite...

This is a key book for the study and enjoyment of Western art. This seventh edition has been revised and expanded and six new authors have been selected. Every image from the previous edition has been enhanced/refreshed using modern imaging Technology,....

Accept Hervé Tullet's irresistible invitation to mix it up in a dazzling adventure of whimsy and wonder. Follow the artist's simple instructions, and suddenly colors appear, mix, splatter, and vanish in a world powered only by the reader's imagination. Tullet?who joins such greats as Eric Carle and Leo Lionni as a master of his craft?sets readers o...

"What is abstract art good for What's the usefor us as individuals, or for any societyof pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator o...

Now in fullcolor comes a witty and engaging look at Europe's history and art, from America's European travel expert, Rick Steves.Rick Steves' Europe 101 helps you make the most of your sightseeing. A fun but informative guide, this "professor in your pocket" features chronologically organized chaptersfrom the pyramids to Picassothat explain the ...

An indepth analysis of the works of 110 of the world's most important artists from the early renaissance to the present. Over 400 color illustrations show how each developed their own style and techniques....

The one book your family needs to understand the world of art. A beautiful, unusual and engaging compendium of art history, providing an accessible entree into the world of art for everyone, regardless of their experience.From cave paintings to the Renaissance, Impressionism to Pop Art, The Collins Big Book of Art takes you on a journey through the...

?This is the history of the gay and lesbian movement that we?ve been waiting for.? ?The Washington Post The sweeping story of the struggle for gay and lesbian rights?based on amazing interviews with politicians, military figures, and members of the entire LGBT community who face these challenges every day.The fight for gay and lesbian civil rights?...

Awardwinning author and illustrator Ashley Spires has created a charming picture book about an unnamed girl and her very best friend, who happens to be a dog. The girl has a wonderful idea. She is going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. All she has to do is make it, and she makes ...

The Story of Film presents the history of the movies in a way never told before. Mark Cousins?s chronological journey through the worldwide history of film is told from the point of view of filmmakers and moviegoers. Weaving personalities, film Technology,, and production with engaging descriptions of groundbreaking scenes, Cousins uses his experien...

In the tradition of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, art history with a sense of humorEvery year, millions of museum and gallery visitors ponder the modern art on display and secretly ask themselves, "Is this art" A former director at London's Tate Gallery and now the BBC arts editor, Will Gompertz made it his mission to bring modern art's exciting history ...

Presents various developments in archeology and art historical research. This book offers a fresh perspective on various developments shaping our cultural history....

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Art, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

In his fresh take on abstract art, noted art historian Pepe Karmel chronicles the movement from a global perspective, while embedding abstraction in a recognizable reality. Moving beyond the canonical terrain of abstract art, the author demonstrates how artists from around the world have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural, and spirit...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Art, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Exceptional in its scholarship and stunning in its beauty, this is the art history book of choice for a new generation. Balancing both the traditions of art history and the new trends of the present. Art History is the most comprehensive, accessible, and magnificently illustrated work of its kind....

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Art, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A picture book biography of sculptor Louise Bourgeois focusing on how her childhood family life influenced her later works....

From the Ice Age to the Cold War, from Reykjavik to the Volga, from Minos to Margaret Thatcher, Norman Davies here tells the entire story of Europe in a single volume. It is the most ambitious history of the continent ever undertaken....

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Fiction, Art, History, Children's lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Art in the modern era has come to be defined by its styles, schools, and movements. The more than three hundred collected here provide an essential introduction to the major developments in Western painting, sculpture, Architecture,, and design during one of the most dynamic and exciting periods in art history.More than one hundred main entries are ...

A perfect introduction to art for children everywhere, The Art Book for Children brings the clarity and innovation of Phaidon?s bestselling The Art Book to our youngest readers ever. A guide to 30 great artists and their most famous works, designed for both parent and child to enjoy together. The book encourages children to look closely and use the...

The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an allstar cast of characters, eyeopening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery. Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, w...

With a simple, witty story and freespirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark and follow where it takes us.Her teacher smiled. "Just make a mark and see where it takes you."Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of he...

In this exuberant celebration of creativity, Barb Rosenstock and Mary Grandpre tell the fascinating story of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the very first painters of abstract art. Throughout his life, Kandinsky experienced colors as sounds, and sounds as colorsand bold, groundbreaking works burst forth from his noisy paint box....

The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventyfive fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to im...

The Short Story of Art is a pocket guide to key movements, works, themes and techniques ? a new and innovative introduction to the subject of art. Simply constructed, the book explores 50 key works, from the wall paintings of Lascaux to Damien Hirst installations, and then links these to sections on art movements, themes and techniques.The design o...

What is art for In the engaging, lively, and controversial new book, bestselling philosopher Alain de Botton, with art historian John Armstrong, proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting that it can be useful, relevant, and above all else therapeutic for its audiences.De Botton argues that certain great works of art offer clues on manag...

The stunning masterpieces of Ancient Greece and Rome are fundamental to the story of art in Western culture and to the origins of art history. The expanding Greek world of Alexander the Great had an enormous impact on the Mediterranean superpower of Rome. Generals, rulers, and artists seized, imitated, and rethought the stunning legacy of Greek pa...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Fiction, Art, History, Children's lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A Comprehensive Overview available in digital and print formats History of Modern Art is a visual comprehensive overview of the modern art field. KEY TOPICS: Traces the trends and influences in painting, sculpture, photography and Architecture, from the midnineteenth century to the present day. MARKET: For those interested in an analysis of artw...

Josef Albers?s Interaction of Color is a masterwork in twentiethcentury art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers?s unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience.Originally published by Yale Univ...

A new selection of postimpressionist painter Vincent Van Gough's letters, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh put a human face on one of the most haunting figures in modern Western culture. In this Penguin Classics edition, the letters are selected and edited by Ronald de Leeuw, and translated by Arnold Pomerans in Penguin Classics.Few artists' letter...

Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends, but one day they can?t find each other. When they finally do, they give each other such a big hug that they turn green! How they find their true colors again concludes a wonderfully satisfying story told with colorful pieces of torn paper and very few words. Leo Lionni launched his children?s book car...

Since its first publication in 1982, Modern Architecture, Since 1900 has become established as a contemporary classic. Worldwide in scope, it combines a clear historical outline with masterly analysis and interpretation. Technical, economic, social and intellectual developments are brought together in a comprehensive narrative which provides a setti...

Ringgold recounts the dream adventure of eightyearold Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who flies above her apartmentbuilding rooftop, the 'tar beach' of the title, looking down on 1939 Harlem. Part autobiographical, part fictional, this allegorical tale sparkles with symbolic and historical references central to AfricanAmerican culture. The spectacular...

Among the most influential artists of the last hundred years, Marcel Duchamp holds great allure for many contemporary artists worldwide and is largely considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern art. Despite this popularity, books on Duchamp are often hypertheoretical, rarely presenting the artist in an accessible way. This new book exp...

You can always recognize a painting by Kahlo because she is in nearly allwith her black braided hair and colorful Mexican outfits. A brave woman who was an invalid most of her life, she transformed herself into a living work of art. As famous for her selfportraits and haunting imagery as she was for her marriage to another famous artist, Diego R...

This popular anthology of twentiethcentury art theoretical texts has now been expanded to take account of new research, and to include significant contributions to art theory from the 1990s.New edition of this popular anthology of twentiethcentury arttheoretical texts. Now updated to include the results of new research, together with significant...

Grayson Perry?s book will overturn everything you thought you knew about ?art? Now Grayson Perry is a fully paidup member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he?s called this book Playing to the Gallery and not Sucking Up to the Academic Elite). This funny, personal journey thr...

Little Suzette and her nursemaid enjoy daily walks in the handsome park near their home. Often, they see a tall, elegant lady strolling in the park with her tiny puppy. Then, a comical incident transforms Suzette and the puppy into friends. The time and place of this gentle story is Paris in the 1870s, when many fine artists were creating the excit...

An illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to contemporary world art, from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media in an easytounderstand format. This heavily illustrated crash course in art history is revised and updated from the second edition published in 2007, including a new chapter about recent artists and moveme...

Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for the works of these artists, whose paintings are celebrated for their ability to capture the moment, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape but in sc...

From prehistoric cave art to graffiti, this beautiful compendium introduces children to the world of paintings. Get ready to feast your eyes on an exhibition of fantastic art! Kids can timetravel through the centuries and learn all about 39 paintings, from a galloping horse drawn in the Lascaux Caves during the Stone Age, to Botticelli?s The Birth...

This acclaimed study challenges the assumption that great women artists are exceptions to the rule who transcended their sex to produce major works of art. While acknowledging the many women whose contributions to visual culture since the Middle Ages have often been neglected, Whitney Chadwick's survey reexamines the works themselves and the ways i...