An Art Lover’s Book List 

The Art Book for Children (Phaidon, 2024) is serious about art and assumes the parents or grandparents or other adults who buy this book for their kids are also dedicated to the subject. Phaidon, one of the most esteemed publishers of books on art, has released a newly revised edition of this popular series, which first published 20 years ago. It includes beautiful reproductions of iconic works of art like self-portraits by Frida Kahlo (1907–54) and Botticelli’s Primavera (1482). This is a book intended for adults and kids to read together. The publisher targets the content toward 7– to 12-year-olds, but adults will also find it fascinating and informative. It’s a gift under $25 that can make a lasting impact on a child’s imagination.

Dot, Scribble, Go (Chronicle Books, 2024) is a new hands-on activity book for kids by Herv Tullet, who has authored more than 80 books on art. Tullet starts with the premise that it’s part of human nature to want to make marks on paper (or any other surface for that matter), and that those marks, dots and scribbles can be a gateway to the imagination. His lighthearted and whimsical approach, while targeting the kindergarten and preschool age group, might also encourage adults to think about what it means to make art. At under $20, this gift is both fun and affordable.  

What Is Color? The Global and Sometimes Gross Story of Pigments, Paint, and the Wondrous World of Art (Roaring Brook Press, 2024), by noted author and illustrator Steven Weinberg, is a delightful and educational mash-up of science, art, history, geology and anthropology, all in the service of helping us understand and appreciate the origins and meaning of color in our lives. Although targeted to 6- to 10-year-olds, you may want a copy to keep for yourself. 

Traditionally art history has been taught chronologically, and most often from a European, male-dominated perspective. Thematically arranged by the staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, Art = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Phaidon, 2020) uses more than 800 objects from the museum’s own collection to shake up our thinking about what art is and how it’s integrated in our lives. At $75, this is a high-end gift book that can be passed on and used as reference for years to come.  

Women, Art and Society (Thames & Hudson, 2020), by author Whitney Chadwick, was one of the first books to present art history from a woman’s point of view. Now in its sixth revised edition, it reexamines the impact that new feminism has had on the way art history is taught and the way art is collected and exhibited in museums. It includes lots of color images of work by women artists from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to today. Curator and professor Flavia Frigeri, a rising star in art history circles and a curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London, is an important contributor. A paperback edition is available for under $25. 

Giorgio Vasari (1511–74) was an Italian Renaissance artist and biographer best known for the publication of The Lives of the Artists (Oxford World’s Classics), which is considered the bedrock reference for all art historical writing that has followed. This translation, re-issued in 1998, is a must-read for anyone interested in the way some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance period lived and worked. It includes details of the lives of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Michelangelo (1475–1564), among others. Now also available in kindle, audio and paperback editions for as little as $5, it could make a useful gift for the budding art historian in your life. 

Become a Great Artist: Gain Confidence in Your Art, Find Your Creative Voice and Launch a Thriving Career (Page Street Publishing, 2024) is a new book by Kristy Gordon, an accomplished painter and adjunct professor at New York Academy of Art. With a goal of helping artists overcome some of most challenging issues blocking their path to success, this is a guidebook for practicing creatives in all media. Learn how to develop long-lasting habits, incorporate techniques from prolific artists into your craft, pitch to art galleries, make a career from your art, and more! Available in kindle and paperback for under $25, this gift could be a game-changer for artists who want to grow. 

Artists Lynn Sures and Michelle Samour partnered up to write Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp (The Legacy Press, 2024), a 440-page hardcover presentation of the many ways paper pulp has been used in art-making over the years. It includes intimate looks at the studio practice of many artists who’ve explored the varied uses of paper as a surface and as a medium, inventing new methods of art-making. It’s a pricey book, at $75, but includes more than 200 works of art by 73 groundbreaking visual artists, making it an exciting resource for artists, curators, collectors, art historians, and anyone who finds inspiration in the endless possibilities offered by paper.  

Drawing has been an expressive outlet and a path of creativity for humans since we first traced our hands on cave walls. In Drawing Thought: How Drawing Helps Us Observe, Discover, and Invent (Penguin Random House, 2022), author Andrea Kantrowitz, who holds an MFA in Painting from Yale and was a teaching-artist in the New York City public schools for many years, encourages readers to explore the development of their own ideas through the exercise of drawing. A paperback edition is available and priced under $25. 

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood (Thames and Hudson, 2024), by author/critic Hettie Judah, explores the image of motherhood created by artists throughout art history, while also delving into the real-life issues artists face in becoming parents. Judah includes the thoughts and work of modern and contemporary artists, such as Berthe Morisot (1841–95), Barbara Hepworth (1903–75), Jenny Saville (b. 1970), Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), Betye Saar (b. 1926), Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938), Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953), and many other artists whose views of motherhood (positive, ambivalent or outright hostile) infused their work. Mothers and fathers alike who are juggling creative careers while raising a family will find much to ponder in this groundbreaking book. A hardcover edition is available for under $40.  

The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World (Pegasus Books, 2024), by Australian writer Jennifer Higgie, explores the lives of previously marginalized women, like the early 20^th-century Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), who has recently seen a surge of new interest, causing her work to be reevaluated by museums and collectors alike. Higgie, who also wrote The Mirror and the Pallette: Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience–Five Hundred Years of Women’s Self Portraits, is an author whose work has changed the way I perceive the history of art. The Other Side discusses the solace of ritual, the impact of myth and the relationship of spiritualism to feminism in art, giving readers much to ponder. A hardcover version is available for under $20.  

In The Artist’s Studio: A Cultural History (Thames and Hudson, 2023), author James Hall traces the history of art-making from the Renaissance to the present day by taking readers inside that mythical place, an artist’s most private domain—their studio. A color photo of the nearly unimaginable chaos of Francis Bacon’s (1909-1992) London studio, taken in 1998, precedes the introduction—a hint to the many surprises to come. The book provides a unique way to think about the way artists live in their own time. A hardcover edition is priced under $25.