The Art Book

by Phaidon Press

The latest, thoroughly revised edition of Phaidon's  award-winning and globally-bestselling art survey, featuring works from more than 600 of the world's greatest artists The Art Book  is beloved throughout the world and has been translated into 20 languages,  introducing millions of readers to great art and artists. Each of the more than 600 artists included, dating from medieval to modern times, is represented by a key work and an informative, explanatory text on the piece and its creator. Breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book is organised by artist name, throwing together brilliant examples from all periods, schools, visions, and techniques in a vibrant A-Z sequence to create an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich, multifaceted culture.  This latest revised and updated edition includes 40 works new to this book and includes many overlooked historical and cutting-edge contemporary artists, Berenice Abbott, Hilma af Klint, El Anatsui, Romare Bearden, Mark Bradford, Cao Fei, Cecily Brown, Judy Chicago, John Currin, Guerrilla Girls, Lee Krasner, Jacob Lawrence, Kerry James Marshall, Joan Mitchell, Zanele Muholi, Takashi Murakami, Louise Nevelson, Clara Peeters, Jenny Saville, Wolfgang Tillmans, and more.

Genres: Art, Art and Photography

592 pages, Hardcover

Published September 23, 2020

About the author

Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional offices in Paris and Berlin. -wikipedia

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite art book hands down. The book is presented alphabetically and contains both classic artists as well as modern ones and contains different mediums from film to sculptures and paintings. Each entry has a large full color photo and contains information about the piece and the artist's style. I have yet to find another art book that gets me as excited about art as this one!

[Gareth Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great Christmas present this was! I spent an hour this morning just idly leafing through the book from start to finish, and was amazed at all the different approaches to art, and how detail and colour and the process of selecting what to present as art connect the oldest sculptures to the most modern Conceptual work. Presenting the works (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.) in alphabetical order makes for an unusual but valuable experience.

One work of art per page, and each work is accompanied by unobtrusive gallery-style text, so that most of each page is given to the art itself.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things I loved about this book: the arrangement. One artist and one piece per page, a short bio, and a tiny blurb about the piece. Arranging the artists alphabetically puts all sorts of different styles next to each other. It was nice to zoom out to a broader scope of art, rather than getting caught up in works from one particular person, place or time. This would be a handy reference in the classroom.

Things I did not love: the captions. The selected works did seem to have a lot of recurring themes (death, death, sex, death, sex, sex, death, sex, death, death). Nudes are obviously kinda sexy territory. Brash abstracts, maybe. HoweverI would argue some of the pieces were nothing of the sort. (For instance, the description of a portrait of the artist's 12 or so year old daughter, remarking how the artist captures the sensuality of her lips. Uhm... no 12 year old is trying for sexy lips, and no loving parent is going to portray their 12 year old as a sex object.) Whoever wrote the captions should go take a cold shower.

[Travis Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

600 or so paintings (or other pieces of art) by 600 or so different artists, accompanied by small blurbs. Skews a little toward 20th-21st century art, which stretches the limits of what most people would consider “art,” or at least “good” art. But that should be expected with the number of artists included, and it impresses on you what passes for art these days.

Great accompaniment to more proper art histories like Gombrich’s Story of Art.

[Fred Baerkircher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this and now I'm cultured AF.