Unique Literary Treasures for the Discerning Art Enthusiast

There’s still time to wrap up a great gift for your art-obsessed family and friends.\n\nArt books make excellent gifts for art lovers. Whether it’s because you enjoy the slow pleasure of perusing images of art at home or you love the cultural cache of a new coffee table object, receiving an art book is very often an exciting experience. An art tome can set creativity ablaze while adding breadth and depth to someone’s book collection.\n\nSign Up For Our Daily Newsletter\n\nSign Up\n\nThank you for signing up!\n\nBy clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.\n\nSee all of our newsletters\n\nWe’ve taken some of the best recent releases, from a rollicking tale of breaking into the New York art world to a charged visual history of the male erotic magazine Playgirl.\n\n### 1. The Commonality of Humans Through Art: How Art Connects Mankind Through the Ages\n\n#### edited by Stuart Handler\n\nThe Commonality of Humans Through Art is a comprehensive exploration of how the language of art has unified diverse cultures over the past 30,000 years. This book is organized thematically and takes readers on a journey of universal human experiences from birth through to death via 400 color photos of ancient and tribal art in museums and private collections worldwide paired with essays by ten leading scholars.\n\n### 2. The Art of the Literary Poster\n\n#### retraces the early start of poster advertisements that celebrated new literary works in a highly artistic way, adopting bold typographies and colorful illustrations\n\nThe works featured in this coffee table book include those by a veritable vanguard of illustrators and graphic designers, such as Florence Lundborg and Edward Penfield. The posters were first featured in high-end periodicals like Harper’s and Lippincott’s.\n\n### 3. Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism\n\n#### by Sebastian Smee\n\nSebastian Smee re-examines the birth of Impressionism, a movement characterized by its looser depiction of reality and emphasis on sensory feeling. In Paris in Ruins, Smee argues that this new style emerged in the aftermath of military and civil conflict in Paris in 1870 owing to the “existential fragility” of life in a city totally ravaged and a nation unsettled.\n\n### 4. How Banksy Saved Art History\n\n#### by Kelly Grovier\n\nKelly Grovier makes an impassioned case on the power of Banksy’s intertextual artworks—drawing on everyone from Claude Monet to Damien Hirst—that reanimate bygone paintings for a contemporary audience.\n\n### 5. The Lies of the Artists: Essays on Italian Art, 1450–1750\n\n#### by Ingrid D. Rowland\n\nFor the more well-read art lover, consider this riveting new essay collection rethinking the impulses of Renaissance art. From art scholar Ingrid D. Rowland, The Lies of the Artists examines the “lies” of Renaissance masters: showing reality so brilliantly, they gave us the sublime.\n\n### 6. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining\n\n#### A new mammoth red(rum) compendium from Taschen proves the definitive book of the unsettling classic 1980 horror film\n\nThe two-book box set features extensive and exclusive new interviews with the cast and crew; never-before-seen production photographs; rare documents and correspondence; and even an exclusive look at deleted scenes from the film.\n\n### 7. Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See\n\n#### by Bianca Bosker\n\nThis immersive ride into the modern art world is perfect for those game for a journey. Get the Picture sees writer Bianca Bosker exploring the inspired artists and obsessive art fiends who taught her how to see.\n\n### 8. Love, Joe: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard\n\n#### by Daniel Kane\n\nJoe Brainard’s artwork was intimate and small-scale and would usually carry either a sincerity in tone or bawdy humor. His writing is far more magnetic, especially his postmodern memoir I Remember.\n\n### Best Art Books for the Holiday Season\n\n#### Introduction\n\n#### Art Books as Gifts\n\nAn art tome can set creativity ablaze while adding breadth and depth to someone’s book collection.\n\n#### Recommended Art Books\n\nThis book is organized thematically and takes readers on a journey of universal human experiences from birth through to death via 400 color photos of ancient and tribal art in museums and private collections worldwide paired with essays by ten leading scholars writing on topics such as creation myths, family, conflict, and ritual.\n\nBanksy, the single-name artist and modern specter, is a moniker that excites some and perhaps bores others. The polarizing U.K. street artist has been scrawling across the urban landscape for three decades with distinct bold murals and stenciled illustrations, with his works now attracting one pretty penny.\n\nStanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a new mammoth red(rum) compendium from Taschen that proves the definitive book of the unsettling classic 1980 horror film, The Shining.\n\n##### 4. Get the Picture\n\nBosker shares her own story of learning to see art in a new light, from discovering the works of artists like Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe to exploring the world of street art and graffiti.\n\n#### Conclusion\n\nThese are just a few of the best recent releases that make excellent gifts for art lovers. Whether you’re looking for something to add to your own collection or want to give a thoughtful gift to someone special, these books are sure to delight.