Fifteen art books for your library

Here are fifteen of our favorite art-related books to explore (in no particular order). You’ll find books on general history and theory, along with significant moments in time, how art relates to other disciplines, art criticism, and character studies, and of course, plenty of eye candy. Enjoy!

1. Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

2. But Is It Art? An Introduction to Art Theory
Cynthia A. Freeland

3. Double Vision: The Unerring Eye of Art World Avatars Dominique and John de Menil
William Middleton

4. Art: The Definitive Visual Guide
Andrew Graham‑Dixon

5. Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler
Mary Gabriel

6. For Art’s Sake: Inside the Homes of Art Dealers
Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian & Jean‑François Jaussaud

7. Artful Partners: Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen
Colin Simpson

8. Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light
Leonard Shlain

9. What Great Paintings Say: Masterpieces in Detail
Rainer Hagen & Rose‑Marie Hagen

10. Ways of Seeing
John Berger

11. Art Annotated: The World’s 500 Greatest Paintings Explained
DK Annotated

12. The Power of Myth
Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers

13. Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse and the Birth of Modern Art
Dan Franck

14. Notes from the Woodshed
Jack Whitten

15. Art Is Life: Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
Jerry Saltz