Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Book Club
blog

What has the Goldsmiths CCA director Sarah McCrory been reading this year?

The curator's interests have ranged from artist interviews and books on race, to crime fiction and a biography revealing what Walter Gropius really thought of the English

José da Silva
1 October 2020
Share
Sarah McCrory

Sarah McCrory

Book Club

The Art Newspaper’s Book Club shines a light on art books in their myriad forms and brings you exclusive extracts, interviews and recommendations from leading art world figures. Sign up to our monthly newsletter

“I like artist interviews, which cut through much art-speak bluster”

Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World (2020) by Layla F. Saad; The Fire Next Time (1963) by James Baldwin; and The Good Immigrant (2016) by Nikesh Shukla

“For many people, lockdown didn’t make reading a breeze, and I felt the same. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, I have been reading a lot of the useful suggestions shared online. I read Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy, and The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, and picked through parts of The Good Immigrant, a series of 21 perspectives on the deeply ingrained racist attitudes in the UK.”

Mohamed Bourouissa (2017) by Mohamed Bourouissa and Mapa: The Airmail Paintings of Eugenio Dittborn 1984-1992 (1993) by Eugenio Dittborn et al.

“I have been reading the monographs of [Goldsmiths CCA’s] forthcoming artists—including an eponymous publication on Mohamed Bourouissa, and Mapa: The Airmail Paintings of Eugenio Dittborn 1984-1992, who we are extremely pleased to be showing in summer 2021.”

The Kitchen Table (2018) by Eugenia P. Butler

“I like artist interviews, which cut through much art-speak bluster. I loved The Kitchen Table by Eugenia Butler, a book arising from a project in 1993. Butler hosted [26 meals] and recorded the conversations. It was, as she says, ‘conversations as works of art’. The project, transcribed by Leila Hamidi, and published by The Box gallery in LA, was finished 25 years after the event. It includes conversations with artists like Joan Jonas, Allan Kaprow and Suzanne Lacy, and other social activists, architects and writers. Interviews are a perfect format to dip into during lockdown when perhaps, more than usual, the mind may regularly wander.”

Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus (2019) by Fiona McCarthy

“I am reading Fiona McCarthy’s biography of Walter Gropius. After some time in London, Gropius described England as ‘an a-cultural country’ and later mentioned that the fundamentally conservative nature of the British meant that they couldn’t appreciate anything new.”

March Violets: A Bernie Gunther Novel (2004) by Philip Kerr

“I like crime fiction, but sadly it’s mostly all terrible. I’m on an ongoing quest to find good literary crime fiction. I’m open to suggestions. I have just read Philip Kerr’s March Violets which was hammy and almost entirely formed of back-to-back metaphors as some kind of pastiche of noir.”

The Food of Sichuan (2019) by Fuchsia Dunlop; Real Life Dressage: Training Advice from Novice to Grand Prix (2004) by Carl Hester and Polly Ellison; and the Jeeves series of books (1915-74) by P.G. Wodehouse

“Outside of art reads, some lockdown-specific treats included Fuchsia Dunlop’s incredible The Food of Sichuan, Carl Hester’s Real Life Dressage, and finally, without fail, I regularly dip back into any of Wodehouse’s Jeeves books. They are unfailingly hilarious, and after a long day, reading anything about Aunt Agatha is a total tonic; ‘In Society circles, I believe, my Aunt Agatha has a fairly fruity reputation as a hostess. But then, I take it she doesn't ballyrag her other guests the way she does me’.”

Sign up to our monthly Book Club newsletter and follow us on social media using #TANbookclub

Book ClubBooksWhat the art world is readingGoldsmiths CCA
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Book Clubblog
6 February 2024

An expert's guide to Frans Hals: five must-read books on the Dutch Old Master

All you ever wanted to know about Hals, from an 18th-century biography to a 1994 novel of the artist's “lost diaries”—selected by the Rijksmuseum curator Friso Lammertse

José da Silva
Book Clubblog
10 January 2023

January book bag: from Californian counterculture to intimate artist portraits by the likes of Tacita Dean

Our roundup of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris
Book Clubblog
8 April 2021

April’s book bag: how four lesbians shaped Modernism, why we love to hate biennials, and a photographic history of African women

A roundup of the latest art publications

Gareth Harris
Book Clubblog
7 December 2021

Who read what in 2021? The art world shares its top tips

Leading directors, curators and artists reveal their favourite books of the past year

Compiled by Gareth Harris