The sun has been shining in Edinburgh – now is the opportunity to sit in the Meadows and appear intellectual and mysterious as you read pensively on a bench. These art books importantly will radiate such an impression but they also will spark your interest and engage you in the world of art in fresh ways. Creative in subject matter and in thought, these are, in my opinion, some of the best published in the last few years:
Those Passions: On Art and Politics, T. J. Clark (2025)
Offered here is a fresh perspective on the age-old debate over the intersection of art and politics. Clark navigates the pressing questions of our time, when capitalist visual culture has lodged itself into daily life, where we are bombarded with Instagram dumps and promotions curated by influencers and their PR teams.
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, Laura Cumming (2023)
History and memoir blend like pigments on a canvas in this award-winning book, which attests to the life-changing nature of art and the way paintings deepen our connection to the people and world around us. Taking the explosion in 1654 which killed artist Carel Fabritius, the master behind The Goldfinch, art critic and journalist Cumming subsequently transports readers across time and space through the medium of art.
Poor Artists, The White Pube (Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente) (2024)
The two art critics Muhammad and de la Puente, known as “The White Pube”, engage with what it means to be an artist in capitalist society where creating art seems simply another cog in the money-making machine. Perceptive, direct, and unrestrained, this book rejects the view of the arts as an industry, instead restoring its status to a world of imaginative, radical possibilities.
The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel (2022)
Hessel brings to light the women artists whose mastery and influence has long been marginalised and alienated from the history of art. This is her retaliative response to E. H. Gombrich’s The Story of Art, whose heralding as “the history of art Bible” is shocking given its inclusion of only one woman.
Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?, Claire Dederer (2024)
Should the big names in the history of art be subject to the same type of “cancel culture” we witness in mainstream media? Or should we separate the art from the artist? Is it even possible to do so? Dederer answers these questions in this witty, provocative read, renegotiating the place and project of art criticism in the 21st Century.
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (2023)
Having one art experience per month extends our lives by ten years, Magsamen and Ross reveal in their book on neuroaesthetics, the study of how art and aesthetic experiences alter our brain chemistry and bodies for the better. Illuminating and inspiring, this read reconstructs our understanding of art and its significance to our lives.
“Image” by Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel is licensed under CC BY 2.0.