Art history books
Art history books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The story of art
E. H. GombrichA long-running general survey, written for a broad readership, that set the model for accessible art-history narrative.
History of art
H. W. JansonA widely used university survey textbook, later extended by Anthony F. Janson, covering art from prehistory to the modern era with a large illustration program.
Art Through the Ages
Helen GardnerAn early and long-lived college survey; later editions were revised by Fred S. Kleiner and others.
Sozialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur
Arnold HauserA foundational social history of art that relates styles and works to the economic and class conditions of their periods. Published in German; the English version is The Social History of Art.
Lives of the Artists
Giorgio VasariThe first major biographical history of Italian artists from Cimabue to Michelangelo, and the origin of the idea of a developing tradition of art.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More art history books
- The Stones of Venice
The Stones of VeniceJohn Ruskin - Meaning in the Visual Arts
Meaning in the Visual ArtsErwin Panofsky - Ways of Seeing
Ways of SeeingJohn Berger - Color
ColorVictoria Finlay - WORLD HISTORY OF ART
WORLD HISTORY OF ARTJohn Fleming - The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Wes
The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western ArtGuerrilla Girls - What are you looking at?
What are you looking at?Will Gompertz - The 1930'sThe 1930'sWhitney Museum of American Art.1968
- AusstellungsautorschaftAusstellungsautorschaftSøren Grammel2005
- Abstraction
AbstractionPaul Klee2002 - Les promesses du passéLes promesses du passéChristine Macel2010
- The state of things =
The state of things =Luc Tuymans2010