After writing about my deep love of art in my publisher’s note, I want to take this opportunity to share some wonderful art related books in my monthly column. Art is such a broad topic. It continues to fascinate me, and there seems to be something to suit every taste. Whether describing a famous artist or a thrilling heist, books about art can provide insight and intrigue. Because art is one of my passions, culling my large list of recommendations was especially difficult. I grouped them by non-fiction and fiction, and I hope you will find something that speaks to you.

Here are a few of my non-fiction art reads:

• Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
• Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo
• Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess by Michael Bhaskar
• The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez
• Rogues’ Gallery: A History of Art and its Dealers by Philip Hook
• The Monument’s Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel (a great one to read in conjunction with The Nelson exhibit, Discriminating Thieves: Nazi-Looted Art & Restitution from January 26, 2019 to January 26, 2020)
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
• Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye by Rudolf Arnheim
• The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson
• What Great Paintings Say by Rose-Marie Hagen and Rainer Hagen

There have been so many fantastic novels during the years either based on a painting or choosing some way to incorporate art into the plot. Below are some of my fiction suggestions:

• The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein
• Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis
• Black Water Lilies by Michael Bussi
• The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro
• The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan
• The Art Lover by Carole Maso
• The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

As for me, I’m currently enjoying the art novel Girl Reading by Katie Ward, She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore and Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner. 

Happy Reading!