Is it too early to think about summer reading? We don’t think so!

Get a head start

We’ve taken our reading list of art-related books from the past three summers (links below) and compiled this master list. Books by artists, for artists, about artists, and even about fictional artists are all included.

Of course, we’re always open to new suggestions — and new books are always being released! If you have something to add to our reading list, please leave us a comment below.

Here are the original blog posts/reading lists:

• 2017: 12 Art Books We Want to Read This Summer
• 2016: 22 Art Books For Summer Reading
• 2015: Our Summer Art Reading List

The big list

Here’s everything we’ve recommended in the past three years, along with the author, a link to the Amazon page, and a (very general) subject.

• Cat’s Eye
  Margaret Atwood | fiction
• Art & Fear
  David Bayles & Ted Orland | motivational
• The Horse’s Mouth
  Joyce Cary | fiction
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper
  Harriet Scott Chessman | fiction
• The Vanishing Velázquez
  Laura Cumming | art history
• Les Dîners de Gala
  Salvador Dalí | cookbook
• The Madonnas of Leningrad
  Debra Dean | fiction
• I, Juan de Pareja
  Elizabeth Borton De Trevino | fiction
• The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
  Edmund de Waal | art history
• Nothing and Everything
  Douglas Dreishpoon | art history
• The Painter From Shanghai
  Jennifer Cody Epstein | fiction
• The Yellow House
  Martin Gayford | art history
• A Bigger Message
  Martin Gayford | art history
• Madame Picasso
  Anne Girard | fiction
• A Book of Surrealist Games
  ed. Mel Gooding | reference
• Breakfast with Lucian
  Geordie Greig | art history
• The Art Spirit
  Robert Henri | instructional
• A History of Pictures
  David Hockney and Martin Gayford | art history
• Why Your Five-Year-Old Could Not Have Done That
  Susie Hodge | art history
• Making the Mummies Dance
  by Thomas Hoving | memoir
• An Artist of the Floating World
  Kazuo Ishiguro | fiction
• The Diary of Frida Kahlo
  Frida Kahlo | memoir
• Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk
  Danielle Krysa | motivational
• Da Vinci’s Ghost
  Toby Lester | art history
• Catching the Big Fish 
  David Lynch | motivational
• Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs
  Sally Mann | memoir
• The Anthropology of Turquoise
  Ellen Meloy | nonfiction
• Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’Art
  Christopher Moore | fiction
• Broad Strokes
  Bridget Quinn | art history
• As Above, So Below
  Rudy Rucker | fiction
• Provenance
  Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo | nonfiction
• How to See
  David Salle | instructional
• Identity Unknown
  Donna Seaman | art history
• The Art Forger
  B.A. Shapiro | fiction
• The Art of Rivalry
  Sebastian Smee | art history
• The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
  Dominic Smith | fiction
• Eye of the Sixties
  Judith Stein | the art world
• de Kooning: An American Master
  Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan | art history
• Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art
  ed. Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz | nonfiction
• The Goldfinch
  by Donna Tartt | fiction
• Art Travel Guide
  Connie Terwilliger | reference
• Off the Wall
  Calvin Tomkins | art history
• Girl Reading
  Katie Ward | fiction
• Travels in Vermeer: A Memoir
  Michael White | art history
• The Painted Word
  Tom Wolfe | nonfiction
• The Masterpiece
  Émile Zola | fiction