Books like Drawings

Loved Drawings by Anish Kapoor? Here are 8 books with the same pull, and why each one fits.

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8 books

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1The Story of Art
The Story of Art
E. H. Gombrich
A widely read survey of art history that teaches readers how to look at images, which suits anyone reading a book of an artist's drawings.
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2Art and Illusion
Art and Illusion
E. H. Gombrich
A study of how pictures are made and perceived, which connects well with reading an artist's drawings as working images.
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3Ways of Seeing
Ways of Seeing
John Berger
A short, illustrated book about how images carry meaning, which suits readers who enjoy thinking about looking at art.
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4Art and Visual Perception
Art and Visual Perception
Rudolf Arnheim
A psychology of seeing applied to art, useful for readers who want to understand how drawings organise space and form.
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5Looking at Pictures
Looking at Pictures
Kenneth Clark
A set of essays on individual paintings and drawings, which suits readers who like close, descriptive writing about images.
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6The Art of Describing
The Art of Describing
Svetlana Alpers
A study of Dutch seventeenth-century painting that argues for looking at surfaces and description, a theme close to drawing practice.
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7The Shock of the New
The Shock of the New
Robert Hughes
A history of modern art from the late nineteenth century onward, useful context for a contemporary sculptor working in abstraction.
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8On Photography
On Photography
Susan Sontag
Essays on how images shape seeing and memory, which suit readers thinking about the difference between an image and the object it shows.
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