Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic takes a break from exhibitions to recommend his best art books to read. Each comes with a concise review to help you decide whether it’s for you.
The Artist’s Roadmap: Practical Strategies for a Career in Art by Delphian, published by Thames & Hudson.
This is a highly useful book that outlines the hurdles and challenges artists will face and how to tackle them. It’s a practical handbook that every early-career artist should read. I’d also recommend their previous book, ‘Navigating the Art World’.
The Cultural Tutor: Forty-Nine Lessons You Wish You’d Learned at School by Sheehan Quirke, published by Penguin.
I’m a subscriber to the Cultural Tutor newsletter, and this book is very much in a similar style. His passion for all things cultural is infectious, and I love how it makes everything accessible without talking down to his readership, whether that’s art, architecture, or politics.
World of Art: Impressionism by Belinda Thomson, published by Thames & Hudson
This is a comprehensive look back at the much-loved art movement, how the artists came together, the feuds and correcting the myths – such as the belief they were critically panned, when in fact most reviews were favourable or mixed.
The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker, published by Canongate Books
A fascinating tale of the man dubbed ‘the secret Lowry’, who died, and only after his death did his family discover all the paintings he had made of working-class people and life in Northern England. It’s written by his nephew, and also covers his uncle’s personal life, though it’s the artistic development that I found the most riveting.
Ghosts of the British Museum: A True Story of Colonial Loot and Restless Objects by Noah Angell, published by Monoray
This book is a collection of ghost stories relating to the museum, told by those who worked there. It’s all hearsay, and involving psychics to help investigate makes it less believable. However, it serves as a helpful jumping-off point to examine the objects’ history and their connection to colonial violence, which are far more interesting.
The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art by John Paul Stonard, published by Old Street Publishing
When the Nazis came to power, they labelled all Modernism and art made by Jewish artists and those who opposed the Nazis as ‘degenerate’. They decided to put on an exhibition to showcase this art, and this book tells the story of how record numbers came to see it out of fascination. It ended up exposing these works to more people than would have seen them otherwise, and many admired them, even if they weren’t allowed to publicly say so. Plus, there are photographs from the exhibition so we can see what it looked like, in a look back at this historically important exhibition.
Almuth Tebbenhoff by Amy Dempsey, published by Unicorn
This monograph of sculptor Almuth Tebbenhoff covers a decades-long career working across materials, including clay, bronze, marble, paper and steel. I’m familiar with her work, but I hadn’t realised how varied her practice is, and it’s great to thumb through this book and see how her work has developed, evolved and continues to take new directions.
All images courtesy the author and publisher.
