Summer Reading For Artists

Posted On: Jun 17, 2012 In: Summer Reading

This year’s summer reading program is full of fun and food, games and prizes – but what about the books?  Not to worry, we still have scads of those, too!  Summer in the City just wouldn’t be complete without great reads to jog your mind on these lazy days.

 

 

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

Lacey Yeager is young, ambitious, and looking to take the NYC art world by storm. Hungry to climb the social ladder, her ascension parallels the soaring highs and lows of the art world.

 

I am Madame X by Gioia Diliberto

When John Singer Sargent unveiled Madame X at the 1884 Paris Salon, its subject’s provocative pose shocked the critics.  This is Madame X’s story, drawing on historical facts to re-create the captivating milieu of 19th-century Paris.

 

Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture
by Michael Kammen

Michael Kammen presents an analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their ability to both delight and provoke us.

 

The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe

“America’s nerviest journalist” addresses the scope of Modern Art from  Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual.

 

Rembrandt’s Eyes by Simon Schama

The great 17th-century Dutch artist left us so many arresting self-portraits that his distinctive face has become a familiar part of the 20th-century cultural landscape.  Nonetheless, the artist himself remains tantalizingly an enigma.