You may not be able to make it to every museum in the world in your lifetime, so these best art books we’ll be presenting to you are the next best thing! Allow yourself to step into the fanciful world of artistic masterpieces by picking up one of the best art books on the market today. Not all of them are about previously done art, but teach aspiring artists new techniques, put together by the greatest masters of our time. While good art might be a subjective term, these writers certainly reveal their own tastes in magnificent ways.
What Did These Art Books Do To Qualify For This List
Any time you are ranking the best of something the results are usually somewhat subjective but we have did our best to come up with a list the readers of the young adult genre will truly like. To come up with this list we took into account:
- quantity and quality of user reviews
- sales data
- public perception
- opinions of readers of this genres
- commercial success
- and of course personal opinion
Take a look at the best Art Books you can read right now:
• Best Art Books
Table of Contents
Best Art Books
Here are the best art books by the experts:
1) Art: The Definitive Visual Guide by
Book Summary: Truly comprehensive in scope, this bestselling book explores masterpieces by more than 700 artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, and Van Gogh. An invaluable art lover’s reference book, it showcases everything from Italian baroque painting and African Art to contemporary art history. Each artistic movement is clearly explained, with descriptions of origins and influences, characteristic styles and techniques, and typical subjects. A visual timeline of key works gives an overview of the scope of each major movement. Bold graphics, overlays, and detailed closeups show you how to “read” composition and subject matter, and explain the techniques and methods the artists used to create their masterpieces.
Book Reviews:
2) New York Hardcover -June 15,2015 by
Book Summary: Black-and-white urban photography has a unique effect: It can lend a historical feel or bring out perspectives and surfaces in a special way. Serge Ramelli’s New York photos do both–and much more. With his film director’s eye, he searches out locations using parameters that evoke a specific atmosphere and build tension. The New York skyline or typical New York street scenes are stylized into a stage–but a stage where nothing is required to happen. Their impressiveness is so heightened that a movie automatically plays in the viewer’s head. With New York boasting so much history and evocativeness, nothing more is needed. Although he is similar to Ansel Adams in technique and expression, Serge Ramelli is a contemporary photographer in every sense of the word, constantly experimenting with new technical options.
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3) Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists
Book Summary: In this day and age, when art has become more of a commodity and art school graduates are convinced that they can only make a living from their work by attaining gallery representation, it is more important than ever to show the reality of how a professional, contemporary artist sustains a creative practice over time. The forty essays collected in Living and Sustaining a Creative Life are written in the artists’ own voices and take the form of narratives, statements, and interviews. Each story is different and unique, but the common thread is an ongoing commitment to creativity, inside and outside the studio. Both day-to-day and big picture details are revealed, showing how it is possible to sustain a creative practice that contributes to the ongoing dialogue in contemporary art. These stories will inform and inspire any student, young artist, and art enthusiast and will help redefine what “success” means to a professional artist.
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4) Creative Block, by Danielle Krysa
Book Summary: Creative block presents the most crippling—and unfortunately universal—challenge for artists. No longer! This chunky blockbuster of a book is chock-full of solutions for overcoming all manner of artistic impediment. The blogger behind The Jealous Curator interviews 50 successful international artists working in different mediums and mines their insights on how to conquer self-doubt, stay motivated, and get new ideas to flow. Each artist offers a tried-and-true exercise—from road trips to 30-day challenges to cataloging the medicine cabinet— that will kick-start the creative process. Abundantly visual with more than 300 images showcasing these artists’ resulting work, Creative Block is a vital ally to students, artists, and creative professionals.
Book Reviews:
5) 100 Painters of Tomorrow by Kurt Beers
Book Summary: Painting is enjoying a remarkable creative renaissance in the twenty-first century, with many of the world’s leading artists now working in this most enduring and seductive of media. 100 Painters of Tomorrow is the culmination of a new project, initiated by curator Kurt Beers and Thames & Hudson, to find the 100 most exciting painters at work today. This major publication introduces and presents the work from a global cast of painters selected by an international panel featuring some of the most prominent names in contemporary art.
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6) Frida Kahlo: Fashion as the Art of Being by
7) The Art of Mondo by
Book Summary: Based in Austin, Texas, Mondo is an art gallery and online store devoted to the love of film, art, music, and collectibles. Over the years, the company has received global recognition for its incredible art posters that bring to life classic films, television shows, and comics in a refreshing and utterly striking new way, offering a unique perspective on everything from Star Wars to Robocop, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Game of Thrones, Godzilla, Kill Bill, and many, many more. For the first time, The Art of Mondo brings together this highly sought-after art in one deluxe volume that showcases the incredible ingenuity of the studio’s diverse stable of artists whose vastly different styles are united by one guiding principle: limitless passion for their subject matter.
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8) A Yorkshire Sketchbook by
Book Summary: In recent years renowned artist David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood in East Yorkshire. Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led him to develop a virtuosic drawing technique on the iPad, he has also traveled outdoors with a traditional sketchbook, an invaluable tool as he works quickly to capture the changing light and fleeting effects of the weather. Executed in watercolor and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings–the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land–yet convey the immediacy of Hockney’s impressions. For those who know the East Yorkshire Wolds, the location of the sketches is unmistakable; for those who don’t, its features will come to life in these pages.
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9) Art/Work by Jonathan Melber, Heather Darcy Bhandari
Book Summary: The definitive, must-have guide to pursuing an art career—the fully revised and updated edition of Art/Work, now in its fourteenth printing, shares the tools artists of all levels need to make it in this highly competitive field.
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10) The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love by Jackie Battenfield
Book Summary: A comprehensive guide for both emerging and mid-career artists to pursue a career in the visual arts.
Providing real-life examples, illustrations, and step-by-step exercises, Battenfield offers readily applicable advice on all aspects of the job. Along with tips on planning and assessment, she presents strategies for self-management, including marketing, online promotion, building professional relationships, grant writing, and portfolio development.
Each chapter ends with an insightful “Reality Check”
interview, featuring advice and useful information from high-profile artists and professionals.
The result is an inspiring, experiential guide brimming with field-tested techniques that readers can easily apply to their own career.
- Book Reviews:
Best Art Movies
1)Art and Copy
Starring: Jake Shimabukuro
Directed by: Doug Pray
Movie Summary: Art & Copy is a powerful film about advertising and inspiration. It reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time, people who’ve profoundly impacted our culture. Their work grabbed the attention of millions and truly moved them. The social and cultural impact of their ads are brought to light in this dynamic exploration of art and commerce.
Movie Reviews:
2)Art of the Steal
Starring: John Anderson , Colin B. Bailey , Julian Bond , et al.
Directed by: Don Argott
Movie Summary: A thrilling whodunit about the heist of the century and the fate of the world’s most valuable modern art collection.
Movie Reviews:
3)The painting life of Vincent van Gogh
Starring: Donald Bonnema
Directed by: Paul Molijn
Movie Summary: A unique documentary of the life and the works of Vincent van Gogh. We are travelling with Vincent in a geographical reconstruction of his life. It shows beautiful pictures of which Van Gogh has drawn his inspiration for his works. A lof the buildings still exist. Through modern digital techniques the current image changes into the painthing that was made by Van Gogh for over 100 years ago.
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4)The Price of Everything
Directed by: Not Specified
Movie Summary: An insiders’ look at today’s white-hot contemporary art market, as seen through the eyes of collectors, dealers, curators, and top artists.
Movie Reviews:
5)Art And Craft
Starring: Mark Landis and Matthew Leininger
Directed by: Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman
Movie Summary: A funny, fascinating, too-good-to-be-true documentary about Mark Landis, one of the world’s most prolific art forgers, who for over 30 years has duped museums across the country–until one determined registrar sets out to stop him.
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Best Art Audio Books
1)The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne
Book Summary: Since 2002, The War of Art has inspired people around the world to defeat “resistance”; to recognize and knock down dream-blocking barriers and to silence the naysayers within us. Resistance kicks everyone’s butt, and the desire to defeat it is equally as universal. The War of Art identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.
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2)Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orland
Book Summary:What is your art really about? Where is it going? What stands in the way of getting it there? These are questions that matter, questions that recur at each stage of artistic development – and they are the source for this volume of wonderfully incisive commentary.
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn’t get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing free will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.
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3)The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
Book Summary: The audio companion to the best-selling guide presents a twelve-week program designed to help listeners recover their creativity, overcome blocks and inhibiting forces, and develop true artistic confidence and productivity.
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4)Coaching the Artist Within: Advice from Writers, Actors, Visual Artists & Musicians from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach, by Eric Maisel
Book Summary: i>Creativity Coaching Essentials shows people how to become more effective creators by guiding them through 12 self-coaching lessons. Eric Maisel, a leading creativity coach, writes each lesson with a novelist’s flair, as a narrative complete with examples, exercises, and questions to help readers explore and reflect on underlying issues that may be keeping them from pursuing their urge to create. Topics include committing, planning and doing, generating mental energy, achieving a centered presence, becoming an anxiety expert, upholding your dream, and maintaining a creative life. Maisel has worked extensively with creative people — poets, filmmakers, novelists, dancers — and he revisits some of them in coaching sessions in San Francisco, Paris, London, and New York. Typical are the rock musician who wants to pursue a solo career and the screenwriter anxious to become a poet. Their examples both entertain and instruct, outlining how to discover one’s personal muse — and the motivation to keep creating.
Book Reviews:
5)Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
Book Summary: Unlock your creativity.
An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life.
Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you—what feels like a hobby may turn into you life’s work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch.
And finally, stay Smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring in the everyday world so that you have the space to be wild and daring in your imagination and your work.
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Conclusion
What do you think about our list of best art books? If you have another genre that you prefer to read we have probably compiled a list of our favorites for that genre too. So if you are looking for something other than the best art books you can find other genres here.
