36 of Your Favorite Books About Art

This week’s Riot Recommendation is sponsored by The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro. The Muralist — the new novel from B. A. Shapiro, the bestselling author of The Art Forger —traces the life and disappearance of a brilliant young artist, the fictitious Alizée Benoit, on the eve of World War II. She paints murals for the U.S. government’s WPA alongside Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner — and her lover Mark Rothko. When her paintings catch Eleanor Roosevelt’s eye, Alizée enlists the First Lady in her desperate attempt to get her Jewish family out of occupied France. Then Alizée vanishes. Seventy years later, her great-niece discovers hidden scraps of paintings and begins to unravel the mystery.       ____________________ Art can be subjective, analytical, dramatic, conflicted, and controversial, making it the perfect subject for fiction and non-fiction alike. We asked you to share your favorite books about art — from painting to dancing to crafting and more — and you delivered. Here are 36 of your favorite art reads. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry Ana of California by Andi Teran Apollo’s Angels by Jennifer Homans Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon Dancers Among Us by Jordan Matters The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt The History of Jazz by Ted Goia The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer Just Kids by Patti Smith The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier Life in Motion by Misty Copeland The Lives of Artists by Giorgio Vasari The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr The Monuments Men by Bret Witter and Robert M. Edsel My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan Pointe by Brandy Colbert Reading Pictures by Alberto Manguel The Sculptor by Scott McCloud Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older She Bop by Lucy O’Brien Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon Stealing the Mystic Lamb:The True Story of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece by Noah Charney That Summer by Lauren Willig Theater Geek: The Real-Life Drama of a Summer at Stagedoor Manor, the Famous Performing Arts Camp by Mickey Rapkin Tiny Pretty Things by by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton Twisted by Bert Ashe We are Water by Wally Lamb What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud