2019's Best Art Books for Holiday Gifting

We’ve put together a list of our 25 favorite art books from 2019 that we hope will be favorites of those on your holiday gift list. Remember to put yourself on that list!

1. Cezanne’s Gravity by Carol Armstrong

Cezanne's gravity.jpg

Focusing on a single artwork by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), Carol Armstrong sheds new light on this Post-Impressionist artist, connecting him to artists and thinkers, including Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf, Albert Einstein, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

November 13, 2018

Yale University Press

296 pages, 8 x 10

108 color + 18 b/w illus.

ISBN: 9780300232714

2. Shirin Neshat: I Will Greet the Sun Again by Ed Schad, Farzaneh Milani, Godfrey Cheshire, and Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat - I will Greet the Sun again.jpg

Published in conjunction with the largest exhibition to date of internationally acclaimed artist, Shirin Neshat, this volume examines the artist’s 30-year career and artistic journey as she explores topics of exile, displacement, and identity through photography and video art.

[October 19, 2019 - February 16, 2020, The Broad, Los Angeles, CA]

October 15, 2019

Prestel

240 pages, 9.3 x 1 x 11.3

ISBN-13: 978-3791358758

3. Shunk-Kender: Art Through the Eye of the Camera: 1957–1983 by Jack Cowart, Marcella Lista, Florian Ebnerm Glenn Phillips, and Didier Schulmann

Shunk Kender - Art through the eye of the camera .jpg

Accompanying the first retrospective of photographic duo Shunk and Kender at the Centre Pompidou, this impressive volume focuses on the defining images of the international avant-garde of Paris of the 1960s and ‘70s candidly captured by two spirited and collaborative photographers.

May 21, 2019

Éditions Xavier Barral

484 pages, 8 x 1.5 x 10.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-2365112369

4. Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art by Michael Shnayerson

Boom - Mad Money, Mega Dealers and the rise of the contemporary art.jpg

Michael Shnayerson, longtime Vanity Fair contributing editor, chronicles the rise of the contemporary art market, the largest unregulated financial market in the world, and the mega-dealers who he says created it.

May 21, 2019

PublicAffairs

464 pages, 6.7 x 1.7 x 9.7 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1610398404

5. Black Lives 1900: W.E.B. Du Bois at the Paris Exposition by W.E.B. Du Bois, Jacqueline Francis, Stephen G. Hall, David Adjaye and Henry Louis Gates

Black Lives 1900.jpg

At the 1900 Paris Exposition, pioneering sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois presented an exhibition of hand-drawn charts, maps and graphs representing the progress of African Americans since the abolition of slavery, alongside photographs by anonymous photographers that depicted the changing status of newly emancipated people across America. This beautifully designed book, featuring an essay by celebrated art historians, Jacqueline Francis and Stephen G. Hall, reproduces these photographs and Du Bois’ graphic works for the first time

October 29, 2019

Redstone Press

144 Pages

10 x .8 x 13 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1942884538

6. Great Women Artists by Phaidon Editors

Great Women Artists.jpg

Featuring more than 400 artists from more than 50 countries and spanning 500 years of history, Great Women Artists is a compendium of the great female artists that shaped art history, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Lee Krasner, Yoko Ono, and Rachel Whiteread.

October 2, 2019

Phaidon Press

464 pages, 11.8 x 1.8 x 11.8 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0714878775

7. Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits by Jason Sharp, David Dawson, Joseph Koerner, Sebastian Smee, and Lucian Freud

Lucian Freud - Self-portraits.jpg

Published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits explores the artist’s biography and provides viewers with an insight into the development of his style through the artist’s portrayals of himself.

[October 27, 2019 - January 26, 2020, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK]

December 17, 2019

Royal Academy of Arts

160 pages, 9 x 10.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1912520060

8. Venetian Heritage by Toto Bergamo Rossi, foreword by Peter Marino

Venetian Heritage.jpg

Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Venetian Heritage--whose mission is to safeguard Venetian cultural legacy as manifested in architecture, music, and fine art--this stunning volume highlights the organization's work in restoring, preserving, and promoting the cultural heritage of Venice.

September 3, 2019

Rizzoli

176 pages, 12 x 12 inches

ISBN: 978-0-8478-6738-7

9. Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson

Metropolitan Stories.jpeg

Former longtime employee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Christine Coulson presents a novel that takes readers behind the scenes of the Met’s magnificent collections to the offices, conservation studios, and storerooms to learn about the private side of New York’s famous museum and its devoted staff of 2,200.

October 8, 2019

Other Press

256 pages, 5 x 7.5 inches

ISBN 9781590510582

10. Robert De Niro, Sr.: Paintings, Drawings, and Writings: 1942-1993 by Robert Storr, Charles Stuckey, Robert Kushner, and Susan Davidson, with an introduction by Robert De Niro, Jr.

Robert De Niro, Sr. .jpg

This lavishly illustrated monograph is the first to explore the work of American painter and poet, Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922–1993), bringing together the artist’s paintings, prints, and drawings, as well as a selection of his poetry and never-before-published writings. Authors present the innovation, creativity and conviction of the artist and the passion with which he lived his life.

October 8, 2019

Rizzoli Electa

256 pages, 9.5 x 12 inches

ISBN: 978-0-8478-6288-7

11. Vija Celamins: To Fix the Image in Memory by Gary Garrels, Ian Alteveer, Briony Fer, Russell Ferguson, Suzanne Hudson, Frances Jacobus-Parker, Meredith A. Brown, and Nancy Lim

Vija Celmins - To Fix the Image in Memory.jpg

The first major publication of the American visual artist, Vija Celmins, this beautiful catalogue accompanies the critically-acclaimed Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition. The exhibition and catalogue explore the full range of Celmins’s work since the 1960s, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, and prints.

[September 24, 2019 - January 12, 2020, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY]

December 11, 2018

Yale University Press

272 pages, 12 x 9.8 x 1.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0300234213

12. Leonardo by Leonardo by Martin Kemp

Leonardo by Leonardo.jpg

Written by one of the leading authorities on the immortal Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, to coincide with the artist’s 500th anniversary commemoration, Leonardo by Leonardo presents the master’s 27 existing paintings and preparatory drawings in a lavishly illustrated volume.

June 7, 2019

Callaway Arts & Entertainment

192 pages, 11 x .8 x 14 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0935112825

13. Ann Craven: Birds We Know by Christopher B. Crosman, Ann Craven and Suzette McAvoy

Ann Craven - Birds we know.jpg

American artist, Ann Craven, is well-known for her bold and lushly colored depictions of birds, drawn from enlargements of photographs from a single out-of print ornithology book, which were the subject of a survey exhibition at the Center of Maine for Contemporary Art. The exhibition and catalogue include the natural imagery that Craven is known for.

November 12, 2019

Karma Books, New York/Center for Maine Contemporary Art

112 pages, 11.5 x .8 x 11.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1949172300

14. Mike Kelley: Timeless Painting edited by Jenelle Porter

Mike Kelley - Timeless Painting.jpg

Timeless Painting, the catalogue of the exhibition curated by Jenelle Porter at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, NY, features paintings from series created over a 15-year period between 1994 and 2009. Porter’s introduction to the catalogue is joined by texts by visual artists responding to Kelley’s work. As much an “artist’s artist” now as he was in his lifetime, the texts reveal Kelley’s continued inspiration.

[November 12, 2019 - January 25, 2020, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, New York]

November 26, 2019

Hauser & Wirth Publishers, in collaboration with The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts

200 pages, 10.5 x 13 inches

ISBN-13: 978-3906915456

15. Surrounded by Art: Panoramic Views of America’s Museums by Thomas R. Schiff and Nina Rappaport

Surrounded by Art - Panoramic views of America's Museums.jpg

Photographer, Tom Schiff, presents America’s most important art museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. through a series of beautifully composed photographs that will compel viewers to revisit these historic and modern cultural institutions.

October 29, 2019

Rizzoli Elect

224 pages, 12 3/8 x 7 ¼ inches

ISBN: 978-0-8478-6688-5

16. MoMA NOW: Highlights from The Museum of Modern Art by Quentin Bajac, Christophe Cherix, Stuart Comer, Rajendra Roy, Martino Stierli, Ann Temkin, and Glenn Lowry

MOMA NOW.jpg

In October 2019, the Museum of Modern Art celebrated its 90th anniversary with the reopening of its extensively renovated and expanded Manhattan facility. Highlighting 375 artworks from MoMA’s permanent collection of almost 200,000 objects, MoMA NOW provides a chronological overview, celebrating both the museum’s iconic and lesser-known, but equally significant artworks.

October 22, 2019

The Museum of Modern Art

424 pages, 9.8 x 1.4 x 12.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1633451001

17. Lee Krasner edited by Eleanor Nairne

Lee Krasner.jpg

Coinciding with a major exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, Lee Krasner features an outstanding selection of the artist’s most important paintings, collages, and works on paper, and celebrates one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring female artists and pioneers in the field of abstract of expressionism whose work stands shoulder to shoulder to that of her male colleagues.

June 25, 2019

Thames & Hudson

240 pages, 9 x 1 x 11.4 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0500094082

18. Robert Irwin: Untitled (Dawn to Dusk) edited by Rob Weiner

Robert Irwin - Untitled (Dawn to DusK).jpg

Inaugurated in July 2016 after 17 years of planning, Untitled (Dawn to Dusk) by San Diego-based artist Robert Irwin, is the most recent addition to the Chinati Foundation’s permanent collection in Marfa, Texas. This recently released publication documents the Irwin project and the effect that the changing seasons and times of day have on the experience of the work.

August 20, 2019

The Chinati Foundation

252 pages, 10 x 1.1 x 11 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1942884422

19. Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice edited by Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman

Tintoretto - Artist of Renaissance Venice.jpg

Published on the 500th Anniversary of Jacopo Tintoretto’s birth and in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art, Washington’s exhibition Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, this lavishly illustrated publication celebrates the great Italian Renaissance painter of regal portraits of the aristocracy, and religious and mythological narrative scenes. Contributing essays by leading scholars and curators and curators and scientific studies make this a groundbreaking publication on the Venetian master.

October 16, 2018

Yale University Press

336 Pages, 10 x 1.2 x 12 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0300230406

20. Bridget Riley: Dialogues on Art edited by Robert Kudielka

Bridget Riley - Dialogues on Art.jpg

In 1992, on the occasion of a major exhibition of Bridget Riley’s work at the Hayward Gallery, BBC Radio broadcasted a series of five dialogues, each between Riley and an art world personality. In honor of the current retrospective organized by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Hayward Gallery, the original BBC broadcasts have been collected and published in this expertly edited volume.

[October 23, 2019 - January 26, 2020, Hayward Gallery, London, UK]

October 22, 2019

The Bridget Riley Art Foundation

128 pages, 6.8 x .5 x 9.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1999853921

21. Warhol Women by Blake Gopnik, Lynne Tillman, Alison M. Gingeras, Corice Arman, Brett Gorvy, and John Giorno

Warhol Women.jpg

Published in conjunction with Lévy Gorvy Gallery’s exhibition Warhol Women, this volume is dedicated to Andy Warhol’s fascinating portraits of women from the early 1960s through the 1980s. This beautifully illustrated publication explores the artist’s female subjects and the complex relationship of the ideals of femininity, beauty, and power.

December 5, 2019

Lévy Gorvy

192 pages, 13 3/4 x 10 inches

ISBN: 978-1-944379-30-8

22. Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll by Jayson Kerr Dobney and Craig J. Inciardi

Play it Loud.jpg

Play It Loud, the Met’s wildly popular exhibition visited by over 500,000 was the first major museum exhibition to examine the instruments of rock and roll, one of the most important and influential artistic movements of the twentieth century. With iconic guitars owned by Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen and the incomparable bassist Tina Weymouth, Play It Loud is a Christmas essential.

April 23, 2019

Metropolitan Museum of Art

236 pages, 9.2 x 1.2 x 10.8 inches

ISBN-13: 978-1588396662

23. Marsden Hartley edited by Lærke Jørgensen

Marsden Hartley.jpg

Focusing on a defining protagonist in American modernism, Marsden Hartley is a concise survey of the painter and writer’s daring innovations in American painting, featuring commentaries on his work by contemporary artists.

[September 19, 2019 - January 19, 2020, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark]

January 21, 2020

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

144 pages, 9.5 x 10.2 inches

ISBN-13: 978-8793659230

24. Edith Halpert, the Downtown Gallery, and the Rise of American Art by Rebecca Shaykin

Edith Halpert.jpg

For over forty years, Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery gallery brought recognition and market success to many of the most important American artists of the 20th century. The fascinating story and legacy of Halpert as an art-world tastemaker who relentlessly championed nonwhite, female, and unknown artists is the subject of this richly illustrated book, which is published in association with the Jewish Museum, New York.

[October 18, 2019 - February 9, 2020, Jewish Museum, New York]

November 12, 2019

Yale University Press

232 pages, 9 x .9 x 11 inches

ISBN-13: 978-0300231007

25. Richard Diebenkorn: A Retrospective by Sasha Nicholas

Richard Diebenkorn.jpg

Featuring hundreds of paintings, drawings, and prints covering five decades of Richard Diebenkorn’s illustrious career as both a figurative and abstract painter, this book presents new scholarly research and firsthand reflections by fellow artists, friends and relatives, further cementing Diebenkorn’s place in postwar American painting.

September 10, 2019

Rizzoli

384 pages, 9 7/8 x 11 ¾ inches

ISBN: 978-0-8478-6621-2

Megan Kelly