ReviewBooks
Three books about Lucian Freud's life and work offer insights that do not always paint a pretty picture
Eccentricity and singled-mindedness were part of the great painter's character, but he had many unappealing traits
ReviewBooks
Lucian Freud the anti-hero: book relaying artist's philandering and impetuous behaviour is heavy on incident, light on insight
Second and last instalment of this two-part biography on the painter’s life fails to satisfy—but it does supply valuable first-hand records
NewsBeauford Delaney
Covid-19 delays long-planned documentary on Black Abstract Expressionist painter Beauford Delaney
The Tennessee-born artist, part of the Harlem Renaissance before settling in Paris, was largely neglected during his lifetime
ReviewBooks
Bryan Robertson: an engrossing book on a brilliant—but forgotten—maverick curator
This is the first publication about the man who put London's Whitechapel Gallery on the international map, but never gained the recognition he deserved
FeatureBook Club
Extract | Philip Guston’s fascination with the ‘funnies’ was key to developing his distinctive later style
An exclusive excerpt from a forthcoming biography by art historian Robert Storr looks at the influence of comics as well as caricatures that the American-Canadian artist made of his contemporaries
FeatureBook Club
Extract | The story of Ruth Asawa and the secret gift from her teacher Josef Albers
An excerpt and images from a new biography on the sculptor who studied at the famous Black Mountain College and was interned during the Second World War
ReviewBook Shorts
The relationships of artists and their gardens are well illustrated in this book
Gardens have inspired artists in many ways, not least directly in the case of those who painted their own plots, as this new book shows
ReviewBooks
This was the most prolific year for Leonardo scholarship in history—here is a detailed guide to the best books
At least 250 volumes in European languages have been published in 2019, the year that saw the world commemorate 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci's death
ReviewBook Shorts
From Rivera and Kahlo to Ulay and Abramović—this story book tells the tales of art world couples
Famous and not-so-famous pairs of artists from Picasso and Gilot to Idris Khan and Annie Morris are quoted about how relationships work
ArchiveBooks
Books: Lambert Krahe as a collector for instruction, rather than pleasure
A biography of a perceptive 18th century collector
ArchiveBooks
Portrait of Prince Nicholas II Esterházy as an avid collector, a bankrupt, and a womaniser
The Prince's passions cost him his fortune but gave Hungary a fine collection of art
ArchiveBooks
Books: Raphael—all things to all ages
Three new monographs show the artist is still the equal of Leonardo and Michelangelo, if not so popular
ArchiveFeatures
Anthony Haden-Guest’s New York: Gallerist Eli Klein, Restoin Roitfeld's "Hue and Cry" at Sotheby's, Catherine Johnson's Warhol biography, and Steinway's artist-in-residence
“I think it’s interesting the way Warhol polarises people,” says Catherine Johnson. “Some people love to hate Andy”
ArchiveLee Krasner
Books: Lee Krasner biography shows her at the centre of her own life, for once
Krasner was more than Pollock’s acolyte, argues Gail Levin
ArchiveBooks
Books: The amazing and flamboyant career of the US collector Norton Simon
Collecting outside of the box
ArchiveKazimir Malevich
"Painting the Absolute": Four volumes on Kazimir Malevich, the pioneering painter-priest of abstraction
Andréi Nakov, a leading expert on Malevich, has produced a large-scale study of the Russian avant-garde's art and life
ArchiveJean-Michel Basquiat
A new film on Jean-Michel Basquiat ticks all the boxes
Archive interviews? Check. Cool soundtrack? Famous faces? Boost to the market? Check, check and check
ArchiveFilms
Art on the big screen: When Dalí and Lorca were lovers—perhaps
"Little Ashes" tells one side of a very contentious story
ArchiveBooks
Nazi crime revelations raise questions about the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
The late collector Heini Thyssen forced himself to forget his family’s Nazi involvement, but so did the countries that vied for his and his father’s pictures in the 1980s. This well documented book gives the details
ArchivePablo Picasso
Contrary to expectation, these books provide new information about and expand our understanding of Picasso and his art
Was Picasso gay?
ArchiveBooks
The art world’s Christmas reading
Artists, collectors, critics, museum directors and auction house executives pick their holiday books
ArchiveBooks
The new Dictionary of National Biography is much more comprehensive than the Victorian original it replaces
More artists, more women, more sex
ArchiveEdouard Vuillard
Three-part Vuillard catalogue compiled by Montreal Museum of Fine Arts published after 50 years in production
The volume aims to be totally immersive, images rooted in their biographical context with detailed annotations
ArchiveBooks
The story of the great Augustan collectors of antiquities
An explanation, an adoration and a lament
ArchiveBooks
A story of politics and class in a new biography of Henry Cole
An exhaustive treatment of the man behind the Great Exhibition, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prince Albert and much, much more
ArchiveBooks
William R. Johnston, William and Henry Walters, the reticent collectors
A compelling biography of the father and son who founded the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
ArchiveBooks
The lives of the collectors: J. Pierpont Morgan. Everything but the art
This blockbuster biography records the life of the American financier in exhaustive and exhausting detail, but fails to tell the story of his collecting
ArchiveJoseph Beuys
Books: Caroline Tisdall's new book is the way to go on anything Beuys
This substantial volume, predominantly photographic, is the comprehensive account of Joseph Beuys’s life and work
ArchiveBooks
Lives of the collectors: Norton Simon and Hans Berggruen. Culture clash
Similar in many ways, the subjects of these two biographies present contrasting styles of operation in the art market
ArchiveBooks
Lives of collectors: a faux Frick biography
This biography of Henry Clay Frick takes a psychological approach that leaves much to be desired
ArchiveBooks
Timothy Mowl's William Beckford biography casts the famed collector as "a sexual and architectural Lucifer"
The story of the Regency dilettante, eccentric and collector is told in all its scandalous detail
ArchiveBooks
Janet Myles, L.N. Cottingham, 1787-1874: architect of the Gothic Revival
Restoring a pioneer of the Gothic Revival to his rightful position
ArchiveAntique dealers
The life of Goro Sakamoto part IV
The distinguished antique dealer recounts how he became a black marketeer
ArchiveSalvador Dalí
Books: Shame, shyness and self-obsession in new Dalí monograph
Ian Gibson on Surrealism as an escape and the façade of eccentricity
ArchiveBooks
Books: Small revelations only on lives of Duchamp, Johns, and Bacon
The recent biographies of these art-world giants promise much but aside from anecdotes little is shown of the subjects’ inner lives
ArchiveAlberto Giacometti
In honour of the Royal Academy hosting the Giacometti retrospective, Giorgio Soavi remembers his close friendship with the sculptor
A profile of a figure at once diffident, self-critical and restless, beholden to few vanities
ArchiveAlberto Giacometti
David Sylvester's matter-of-fact sagacity in "Looking at Giacometti"
To his credit, Sylvester avoids dwelling on the artist's private life and bears down on the art
ArchiveBooks
Books: Tracing Francis Bacon and his lost Bohemia
Farson's biography of the tortured artist is a pub crawl around Fifties Soho
ArchiveJoseph Beuys
Books: New 'comprehensive biography' fails to go beyond the public face of Joseph Beuys
Heiner Stachelhaus' book on the German artist leaves a lot to be desired
ArchiveBooks
Books: Modigliani and Hébuternein in bohemia
Semi-scandalous biographies of artists are all the rage