Books
When Artists Take the Law Into Their Own Hands
Novelist and scholar Yxta Maya Murray elucidates how the most rigorous critiques of the law often emerge from artistic practice.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Never-Ending Quest for Beauty
Natalie Dykstra meticulously combs through archival material to fashion a biography of the inimitable, complex arts patron, who ordered her private letters to be destroyed after her death.
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A Sympathetic if Incomplete Portrait of Alberto Giacometti
Though it glosses over his misogyny, Michael Peppiatt’s biography reflects Giacometti’s uncanny ability to capture the energy of ancient art in a modern format.
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Charting a Better World Through Malcolm X’s New York
A new essay collection contextualizes the activist’s life through the physical spaces that nurtured him, like Yuri Kochiyama’s apartment-turned-community center.
Art
An Artist Puts the Fossil Fuels Industry on Trial
Paolo Cirio sues the fossil fuel industry on behalf of the environment in his latest book and body of work.
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Challenging the Visual Story of Mass Incarceration
With The Warehouse, James Kilgore and Vic Liu counter the tendency to reduce people to stereotypes or mere statistics.
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18 Art Books to Read This Fall
Poems inspired by Hilma af Klint, a fictional account of Peggy Guggenheim’s life, and the first biography of Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine are among the titles we’re most excited about.
Books
How a Tarot Deck Led to a Revolution
What makes The Tarot of A. E. Waite and P. Colman Smith stand out is how much the book emphasizes the creative process and treats the cards like art.
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Debunking Myths About Meiji-Era Art in Japan
Rosina Buckland’s book dispels the whitewashed argument that Meiji-era art resulted from foreign influences that watered down local forms.
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A Big-Tent Vision of Feminist Art That’s Still a Bit Too Small
Mothers of Invention tells the story of how the movements, media, and styles of the past 50 years were inspired by feminism — through mostly White artists.
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Inside the Life of the Father of Modern Anatomy
A new book on Andreas Vesalius humanizes the 16th-century scientist by focusing on his creative approaches and small frustrations.
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Agnès Varda, Pragmatic Dreamer
The first major biography of the film director, screenwriter, artist, and photographer is scrupulous and affectionate.