Is it a coincidence that National Book Month and curl-up-with-a-book weather arrive at the same time? Probably. Am I delusional enough to believe otherwise? Without a doubt. Accordingly, our editorial team compiled invigorating art books to read before the month’s end, and I hope each of these can be a beacon during the dimmer season ahead.
Our reviewers tackle crucial questions of the day: Is the art world more corrupt than ever? Critic Jasmine Weber argues this point in a review of Battle for the Museum, which cites much of Hyperallergic’s reporting on art museum protests. Why do we keep asking if artists can also be mothers? Sophia Stewart discusses this and Hettie Judah’s latest book. More below, including our Senior Marketing Manager Alex Bowditch on Emily Nussbaum’s history of reality TV and Ed Simon on Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo.
Finally, I wanted to share a nugget from my own bookshelf: Scholar Imani Perry’s South to America, aside from reshaping my understanding of a richly layered region, intersected with a visit to the Whitney Museum’s exhibition on the late dancer Alvin Ailey. Perry mused on the work of artist Romare Bearden and his concern with “the poetry of Black life. Both the thing and the way you said, showed, or sang it.” Her words echoed in my head at the Ailey show later that day, where an array of his collages complement the late dancer’s homages to Black diasporic creativity. What titles are sustaining you this month? — Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Associate Editor
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Keep spooky season at bay with books on a philosophy of birth in art, Debi Cornwall’s photography, Paul Kane’s myth-making paintings, light and paper, and more. | Hrag Vartanian, Lakshmi Rivera Amin, and Hakim Bishara
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SPONSORED
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Explore an anthology of writings by Glenn Ligon, a collection of interviews with Gustav Metzger and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and a facsimile sketchbook by Jason Rhoades. Learn more
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Though more interested in taxonomy than analysis, the critic’s new book is most exhilarating when it maps a timeline of childrearing’s influence on artists. | Sophia Stewart
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In Cue the Sun!, Emily Nussbaum pulls nuggets of truth from the history of the notorious genre to illuminate what keeps viewers coming back for more. | Alex Bowditch
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Rachel Spence succinctly explicates the power struggles that brought us to this point, though her insistence that the art ecosystem is at an all-time low left me unconvinced. | Jasmine Weber
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The photographer’s autobiography takes us on a long voyage from East to West and back again without smoothing over the potholes in the road. | Julia Curl
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A new book provides an ideal introduction to a Renaissance painter largely known only to specialists, but who was counted among the most important of his generation. | Ed Simon
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Reflecting on her own reactions to Chantal Akerman’s namesake film, Christine Smallwood muses on the personal baggage we inevitably bring to the art we consume. | Hannah Bonner
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FROM THE ARCHIVE
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As a free, powerful, and unpredictable woman, the witch has long been a crucible for mainstream society’s darkest fears. | Lauren Moya Ford
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