Arts books to give as gifts
Gift ideas for someone who reads arts. Every book starts a series or stands alone, and there's one book per author.
Out since 2025
Books in this genre first published last year or this year.
Sure bets
The books this genre's readers start from, for someone who hasn't read them yet.
- The Story of Art
The Story of Art
E. H. Gombrich488 pages · Out 1950
A widely read general survey of Western art from ancient times onward, written for non-specialists and often used as an introduction to the field.
- Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing
John Berger166 pages · Out 1972
A short, illustrated critical book on how images, especially European oil painting and advertising, carry meanings about ownership, gender and looking.
- Lives of the Artists
Lives of the Artists
Giorgio Vasari320 pages · Out 1965
Early collection of biographies of Italian artists from Cimabue to Michelangelo, and a foundation for later writing on artists' lives and the idea of a development of style.
- Art Through the Ages
Art Through the Ages
Helen Gardner984 pages · Out 1926
A long-running survey textbook covering art across many periods and cultures, and one of the standard introductions used in courses for decades.
- On Photography
On Photography
Susan Sontag224 pages · Out 1977
Essays on photography's relation to reality, memory and violence, and an influential early text in critical writing about images.
- Modern Painters
- Principles of Art History
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Notes on the sure bets are written with AI.
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How we choose
- Books come from the genre's page on BookSense, never from paid placement.
- No later books in a series: a gift should be one the person can start with.
- One book per author, and nothing flagged for sexual content or violence that suits only some readers.