The best books on Understanding the Nude, recommended past Annebella Pollen

Nudity is not the same equally the nude. Nor is nudity the same as nudism, merely they tend to overlap quite a lot in people's minds. Annebella Pollen, an dominance on the many varied forms of British nudism in the twentieth century shares key influences on her own enquiry to aid us unpack (or undress?) the idea of nudity in western civilisation, showing the many ways in which nakedness tin can be a form of apparel.

The Best Art Books of 2021, recommended by Romas Viesulas

Which art, compages, design and photography books have we added to our library in 2021? Romas Viesulas, fine art & compages editor at Five Books, takes us through his personal selection of cute reference books to add visual and conceptual interest to whatsoever well-appointed bookshelf.

The Best Books for Graphic Designers, recommended by Linda Secondari

What does it take to be a good graphic designer in our media-saturated age? Linda Secondari, member of the Executive Board of the Graphic Artists Guild, gives us a glimpse of her reference library, five must-take volumes for every design aspirant and those whose work relies on effective visual communication. That she is a book designer by trade is, of class, grist to our mill hither at Five Books.

Best Books on the Fine art Museum, recommended past Charles Saumarez Smith

How has the architecture, vision, financing and public role of art museums around the earth been transformed in the last century? And what does the history of fine art museums presage for their future every bit contested sites of cultural significance in the context of the pandemic'due south claiming to public gathering places? Charles Saumarez Smith, one of the UK'due south leading museum figures, brings us v books that reveal both the celebrated, civic humanist mission of the fine art museum, and its antithesis in the confront of twenty first century challenges.

The best books on Goya and the art of biography, recommended by Janis Tomlinson

The art of Francisco de Goya reflects the social and political chaos of Spain in his twenty-four hours, leaving afterward generations to read into his prolific work—past turns formal and bizarre, official and fantastic—many oftentimes contradictory interpretations. Art historian Janis Tomlinson recommends books that disentangle Goya from the retroactive projections of later admirers and situates him in his own time. Nosotros also consider what makes for a compelling biography.

The best books on The Arts and Crafts Movement, recommended past Julia Griffin

Originating in 19th-century United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, the Arts and Crafts movement was an international miracle extending across many media to Europe, America and Japan. Julia Griffin, who has examined its affect in Poland, tells u.s. how information technology advanced notions of national identity and provided roots to modernism by establishing a sensitivity to materials, designs, and forms, a sensibility that is notwithstanding with united states today.

The Best Art Books of 2020, recommended past Romas Viesulas

Which art, architecture and photography books have we added to our library in 2020? Romas Viesulas, art & architecture editor at 5 Books, takes the states through his personal choice of beautiful reference books and biographies to add visual and conceptual interest to any well-appointed bookshelf.

The best books on Figurative Painting Today, recommended past Julien Delagrange

Collectors and curators have been clamouring for figurative fine art in recent years, equally a generation of painters take a more than traditional, representational approach to addressing major cultural themes in their work. But is figurative painting today merely a reactionary impulse, a kind of nostalgia for art that preceded modernism, postmodernism and the fragmentation in art-making that was ushered in by conceptual fine art? There is much more to it than that, argues painter and art historian Julien Delagrange.

The best books on Lucian Freud, recommended by William Feaver

Though ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke about painting, the fine art world and his life and loves to his confidante and frequent collaborator, William Feaver, on the telephone most weeks for many years. Feaver'due south transcript forms the cadre of his definitive two-book biography. He speaks with us about the best books for understanding the life and work of this renowned painter, and the very particular collaboration that led to this magisterial account of one of the finest painters of the last century.

The All-time Books by Artists, recommended by Michaela Unterdörfer

Why should we read what visual artists have written? Michaela Unterdörfer, head of publishing for the art gallery Hauser & Wirth, argues that the visual and creative language of artists makes archival cloth more immediate and compelling. Artists' testimonies refer not only to physical archives but higher up all to the mental athenaeum of artists, their cultural and historic inheritance, which books similar these bring to life.

The best books on Minimalism, recommended past Kyle Chayka

In times of political or personal turmoil, at that place's a tendency to seek solace in stripping dorsum life to its bare essentials. Minimalist thought is threaded through Stoicism and Zen Buddhism; absence and space became major preoccupations of 1960s US art. Kyle Chayka, the art critic and author of The Longing for Less, recommends five books on the philosophy that underpins the nowadays fad for minimalist self-aid.

The best books on Andy Warhol, recommended past Blake Gopnik

Andy Warhol's ubiquitous soup cans – and his willingness to play the naïf – eclipse the leading Pop Art effigy'south depth, as Blake Gopnik reveals in his magisterial new biography. Here, Gopnik discusses five key books that offer crucial insight into Warhol the man.

The all-time books on Northern Renaissance, recommended by Christopher S. Forest

The Renaissance had quite singled-out manifestations in Northern Europe and Italia: if the Southern Renaissance was all about abundance and positivity, the ascendant theme of the Northern Renaissance was negativity, says New York University Professor Christopher Due south. Wood. He recommends what to read to acquire more most the Northern Renaissance, from Bosch's fantasy bestiary of the demonic and the grotesque, to Bruegel's comic and desperately proportioned peasants.

The best books on Drawing and Painting, recommended by Juliette Aristides

Geniuses may only be born once a century or so, but neat art gets fabricated all the time. Some of it follows atelier methods inspired by an apprenticeship model that has been handed downward through the centuries. Juliette Aristides, an artist at the forefront of the atelier revival movement, discusses five books that are 'core curriculum' for anyone who wants to learn how to paint and depict, and thereby explore the virtues of sustained attention and close observation that come with making representational art.

The all-time books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp

Every generation has its own Leonardo, and for many he remains a man of mystery. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor in Art History at Oxford and the author of the recently published Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting, helps us identify the non-mythical Leonardo. What might Leonardo be doing were he alive today, in our own digital age?

The best books on Rembrandt, recommended past Onno Blom

Though he left more self-portraits to posterity than practically any Onetime Primary, there remains an air of mystery effectually Rembrandt the human being—fifty-fifty on the 350th anniversary of his death. Piecing together the very few personal letters and documents left behind, Onno Blom has now reconstructed Rembrandt's formative years in Young Rembrandt. Here he guides usa through 5 of the most administrative—and imaginative—accounts of the creative person.

The All-time Art History Books for Teenagers, recommended past John Harrison

Which are the best books to become a teenager excited about art history? Nosotros turned to veteran fine art history teacher John Harrison, formerly head of the art history department at Eton College, for his summit five picks of the about illuminating and attainable books for getting a broad overview of the history of art.

The best books on John Ruskin, recommended past Michael Glover

Every bit a laic in the humanising nature of proper piece of work, the virtues of sustained attention and the value of aesthetics equally the keystone to ideals for a truly prosperous order, John Ruskin's abiding concerns are even so very much with the states today. On the bicentenary of this eminent Victorian's birth, Michael Glover, author of the idiosyncratic Ruskin Dictionary, explains why nosotros should still be reading Ruskin closely in the twenty first century.

The best books on Bohemian Living, recommended past Darren Coffield

The bohemian world of London and Paris in the 20th century was a fabled country, where people could get to get lost, reinvent themselves and alive life equally they wanted. Poverty, alcoholism and misery were often the frequent travelling companions on this journeying but, Darren Coffield argues, these marginalised areas of social club allowed for a freedom that is almost unimaginable in our own earth. He picks the best books on bohemian living.

    The best books on Time to come Cities, recommended by Davina Jackson

  • The best books on Future Cities - City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn by William J. Mitchell

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    Metropolis of Bits: Infinite, Place and the Infobahn
    by William J. Mitchell

  • The best books on Future Cities - The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture: City, Technology and Society in the Information Age by Federico Soriano, Fernando Porras, José Morales, Manuel Gausa, Vicente Guallart & Willy Müller

    2

    The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture: Metropolis, Technology and Society in the Information Age
    past Federico Soriano, Fernando Porras, José Morales, Manuel Gausa, Vicente Guallart & Willy Müller

  • 3

    Cities In Culture
    by Peter Hall

  • The best books on Future Cities - The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers and the Future of Urban Life by Carlo Ratti & Matthew Claudel

    4

    The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers and the Time to come of Urban Life
    past Carlo Ratti & Matthew Claudel

  • The best books on Future Cities - Local Code: 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design and the Nature of Cities by Nicholas de Monchaux

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    Local Lawmaking: three,659 Proposals virtually Information, Blueprint and the Nature of Cities
    past Nicholas de Monchaux

The best books on Future Cities, recommended past Davina Jackson

We are a city-dwelling species. Our urban existence creates both opportunities and challenges, as the recent pandemic has illustrated. One thing seems clear, however. Understanding the way we interact with our built environs is condign an increasingly data-driven enterprise, as Davina Jackson argues compellingly in her volume, Data Cities. Here, she shares the five books that all-time explicate the technology backside the urban planning of the future.

Books on Social Housing in the U.k., recommended by Mark Swenarton

How did the UK end upward in a housing crunch? More than than a century on from the 1919 Housing Act, a look back at the history of social housing with architectural historian Mark Swenarton provides some clues, and insights into the ennobling event of architecture on peoples' everyday lives.

The best books on The Dutch Masters, recommended past Adam Eaker

The past may exist a foreign country, simply the world portrayed in the art of the Dutch Masters is not and so very far from our ain, says Adam Eaker of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For a society that struggles with materialism and consumption, in that location are a lot of lessons to be learnt from the 17th century Golden Age.

Andrew Graham-Dixon on His Favourite Fine art Books

Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon takes us through his favourite fine art books, 1 of which is the best thing he has ever read about art. He contends that Monet is a follower of Turner, reflects on how the purpose of history of art has inverse, and introduces u.s. to the diaries of an "astonishingly bad" painter which reveal him to be one of the nineteenth century's greatest prose writers.

The all-time books on The Renaissance, recommended by Jerry Brotton

A century-and-a-half ago the Swiss art historian, Jacob Burckhardt, popularized the idea of a 'Renaissance' in 14th century Italy. For most people, the term still conjures up works of art by the likes of Michelangelo or Leonardo. But in that location is much, much more to information technology than that. Professor of Renaissance studies, Jerry Brotton, picks the best books to read for a more than consummate understanding of the Renaissance.

The all-time books on The Lives of Artists, recommended by Maria Loh

We live in an age obsessed with self-image. Applied science has made the 'selfie' a ubiquitous form of social currency. Renaissance means may have been very different, but celebrity artists in Medici Florence dealt with many of the issues relating to identity and authorship that nosotros grapple with today. Maria Loh, author of Notwithstanding Lives: Decease, Desire, and the Portrait of the Old Master, talks to V Books most the curated self.

The all-time books on Architecture and Aesthetics, recommended by Timothy Hyde

What'due south at stake when we call a building beautiful or denounce information technology as ugly? MIT professor Timothy Hyde, author of Ugliness and Judgment, explores 5 books about the social, political and economic dimensions behind debates that often masquerade as arguments about style, but which deal with matters at the very middle of ceremonious society.

The best books on Vermeer and Studio Method, recommended by Jane Jelley

Painting is non what it used to be. With materials and photography close to hand, it's easy to forget the sheer labour involved in producing an Old Chief canvas. What does studio method – the making of masterpieces – tell us near artistic genius, then and at present? Painter Jane Jelley considers the question using Johannes Vermeer every bit her starting point.

Kayla Rae Whitaker on Stories about Women Artists

Kayla Rae Whitaker composes an ode to 'women who make things', from wooden dolls to indie music, and post-modern triptychs to the best candy bar you'll ever gustatory modality. These are tales about what happens when the muse becomes the creative person

Rachel Cohen on Writing Most Art

Good writing nearly visual feel allows us to see things we otherwise wouldn't, says Rachel Cohen. The writer picks some of her ain favourite books virtually art.

The best books on British Buildings, recommended by Harry Mount

Bestselling author Harry Mountain thinks that the British sell themselves curt when they neglect to appreciate their architecture. He also expresses his cheers that Christopher Wren didn't redesign London on a Parisian/New York grid organization following the 1666 fire.