After years of silence, the enigmatic beings who have come to Earth to live among humanity decide to share with the humans their art--paintings and sculptures of such raw, visceral power that their unveiling plunges Earth into chaos. Reprint.
This is the most depressingly overlooked book I have ever read. It's science fiction centered around alien art and first contact, and it is brilliant and unique. My only gripe, which is a common gripe for me with scifi, is that the characters are shallow and flat, but the rest of the book more than makes up for it. I loved it, and it deserves a lot more attention than it gets.
I read it for the first time.. Maybe around 2014, though it's hard to remember exactly. In any case, I do not have nostalgia goggles, and I found it holds up for a modern reader impeccably well.