<p>Having had to have learned most of what I’ve learned about most things on my own, I’ve realised that self education can, at times, be a largely tedious process. In the hope of making things a little easier on you guys who may not have access to the best teachers or educational resources, I decided to compile a list of books I found useful in pursuing my studies in art. Most of my recommendations are aimed at first year college students or college bound high school seniors though they should be accessible to almost everyone. Being a professed anglophile, a lot of the books I’m about to recommend are by European publishers and may not always be available at your neighbourhood library but you should be able to find most of them at any decent sized bookstore or central library. Also, my recommendations only reflect my interests in areas like fine art, graphic design and art history so feel free to add must-reads on anything I’ve left out. That said, here it goes:</p>
<p>Drawing and Painting
There aren’t really any books that can teach you how to paint well and I’ve found those “learn how to paint landscapes and porcelain like your grandmother” type books which profess to do so, for the most part, a waste of time. I tend to find drawing books more useful. I recommend:</p>
<p>New Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain by Betty Edwards - a must for anyone whos had crappy drawing classes in high school or weren’t able, for whatever reason, able to take art classes at all. Its designed as a series of fairly simple drawing exercises to teach you the basics of drawing. What distinguishes it from other drawing books, however, is that Edwards discusses extensively the objectives and rationale behind each of her prescribed exercises and it deals largely with the mental aspects involved in drawing or, rather, seeing so that the course becomes much more than just a series of arbitrary technical exercises. She also promises to have you drawing accurate portraits in a matter of weeks</p>
<p>A Foundation Course in Drawing by Peter Stanyer and Terry Rosenberg - Perhaps not entirely suited for the absolute beginner. Though the text does include a section of introductory drawing exercises, absolute beginners might be better off with Betty Edwards. The strength of this book is the variety and scope of drawing exercises. It features so many different models and methods of drawing and is aimed more towards expanding how you draw and think about drawing.</p>
<p>The Natural Way To Draw by Kimon Niccolaides - Perhaps only suited to those of us seriously committed to improving our drawing abilities. This book was long considered the only drawing book worth reading and many of the methods employed in this book were adopted by pretty much every major american art school at some point. That said the text is conceived as a carefully planned, year long intensive drawing course that requires its users to draw from a live model for at least 3 to 6 hours a day. Supposedly, when youre finished with this book (if, unlike me, you manage to), you wont need to be taught another thing about drawing for the rest of your life. Be warned though, if your sole objective in drawing is being able to produce accurate renderings that resemble those of Da Vinci or Sargent this book may not be for you.</p>
<p>The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Not really a how to draw book at all. Its a quite conservative little treatise on the formal principals of classical drawing. Hardly what you might call essential reading but I quite like it.</p>
<p>Art History
Until recently I thought all art history books were more or less the same. Most of the ones Ive read have been painfully boring (though occasionally well illustrated) chronologies with endless pages of formal descriptions and arbitrary biographical snippets. But, in the past few months, Ive come across one or two decent books which manage to avoid the usual stodginess </p>
<p>Mirror of The World by Julian Bell - Im currently in the middle of it and its definitely a contemporary history of art. It tries to give equal inclusion to non european/american art and challenges a few commonly held notions about the development of art over the ages. He focusses largely on the social conditions surrounding the production of various works of art in history (which is mostly what I was interested in) and its fair to say that, in general, hes not too interested in biography. It can be a little disjointed and shallow at points but thats to be expected given how much information hes trying to condense into a relatively short work. On top of it being more insightful than anything Ive previously read on the subject its managed to be an easy and accessible read so far. Id say a definite read for anyone interested in getting into art history.</p>
<p>The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich - Havent actually read this one yet but am currently trying to get my hands on a copy. Its supposed to be one of the best introductions available to the history of art. Its a little more academic than mirror to the world but isnt quite as accommodating of feminist revisions to art history nor is it particularly interested in global perspectives on the development of art. Nonetheless, Gombrichs writing is pretty good and its supposed to be remarkably insightful into the development of western art. Cant say much otherwise</p>
<p>After Modern Art by David Hopkins - This one deals specifically with the history art from 1945 to 2000 and is more for those of you who have a certain interest in contemporary art.
Its a little more theoretically oriented than the previously mentioned texts but the writing remains clear and accessible for the most part, especially when compared to similar texts Ive tried to read on the subject. Most texts dealing with art history in that period tend to focus largely on the development of american art since its fair to say a lot more was going on across the pond at that time. This text however, is particular in that it attempts to chronicle the contemporaneous developments in European art alongside their american counterparts.</p>
<p>Graphic Design
I cant say with any certainty what should be on the reading lists of design students since Im studying fine art at the moment. These were just books that I found particularly useful when I began getting interested in design.</p>
<p>Non Designers Design Book by Robin Williams - Hands down the best introduction to graphic design Ive ever come across. Probably ideal, for someone nurturing an interest in graphic design. It covers, simply and practically, the basic principles of working with text and images. You cant help but make better work after reading this book.</p>
<p>Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller Brockmann - Probably the most seminal text on grids ever published. It should be particularly relevant to anyone interested in print design, page layout or web design. Its a thorough introduction to the theory and practice of using grids in page layout. The text is admittedly a bit old and some of the authors ideas are a little outdated. Nonetheless, its probably still the best introduction to grid systems on the market. </p>
<p>Graphic Design Manual by Arnim Hoffman - This is probably a little more advanced and better suited for someone whos had a little bit of practice laying out pages, magazines, posters, webpages etc. Its a little obscure and youre only likely to find it at an art book store. The book deals largely with formal composition and design methods. Like the previous book, its a little old and comes from the background of hardcore, Modernist, European design so you might not agree with all the ideas but still worth a look</p>
<p>Graphic Design: A Concise History by Richard Hollis - Exactly what it says. This book is short and text heavy. It would probably be best suited as an introductory reference text though it wouldnt be at all difficult to read the whole thing through if you were so inclined. Its gets you through the basics quickly and efficiently. </p>
<p>Contemporary Art and Design
I think most people interested in art and design should make an effort to know a bit about whats going on in their field. While the internet and magazines should do it for most folks, there are quite a few decent survey books available if youd like something comprehensive to hold onto. Since there arent specific books that would suit everyones interests, Im going to do this section by publisher.</p>
<p>Id strongly recommend Phaidon as a publisher for these sort of books. They tend to cater more for an art crowd though they do have quite a few good design books. Id recommend Area_2 from them as a good design survey. Painting Today was also quite good. It had a lot more text than your average survey book and, surprisingly, most of it was quite illuminating. Apart from those Id also recommend you look at their Vitamin series which covers painting, drawing, photography and sculpture. You should also take a look at Sculpture Today, Art Today and Younger Than Jesus but pretty much everything from them is good. Be warned though Phaidon books all tend to be very high quality and as such a little on the pricey side . Furthermore a lot of them are quite big so it makes sense to buy them hard cover since any paper back book at their sizes will fall apart. </p>
<p>Taschen is sort of a cheaper version of Phaidon. They have a wider selection of titles, especially for design, and they do a lot of good historical surveys of movements like expressionism, the Italian high renaissance, romanticism etc. As a publisher, theyre better in that respect. Their surveys are affordable, available pretty much everywhere and they should give you a general idea of what contemporary practice looks like. The texts in their books, however, are rarely useful and the quality of their books can sometimes be a bit poor. </p>
<p>Personally, I dont like Rockport too much but their strength is that they do a lot of survey books on specific design categories and themes like logo design, packaging, advertising, newspaper design, political advertising so on and so forth. Their books generally function as picture books and source books for designers so dont go to them expecting anything theoretical. Other than that, the books tend to be well bound and high quality though that also mean that theyre a little pricey.</p>
<p>Other general reading things for young artists
Artists need something to make work about, right?</p>
<p>History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell - I could write a 2 page commentary on this book but Ive already written far too much. Charming, witty and sometimes cruel, Its a great introductory text for folks with an interest in philosophy and general intellectual history though you should be pretty certain of that interest before committing yourself to the 800 or so odd pages that follow. His is by no means an exhaustive history of philosophy and has been criticised heavily for some of the things hes left out as well as his occasionally exclusive interest in epistemology and logic. But it makes up for these short comings by being probably the best written and most enjoyable book currently available on the subject. Russells writing is hands down some of the best Ive ever read.</p>
<p>A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich - Originally conceived as a childrens book, its probably best for those of you with an interest in world history but didnt manage to study it in high school. Once you manage to get over the occasionally patronising tone that sometimes comes with childrens literature, youll find it a short, simple and alarmingly well written summary of the major developments in western history. Whats commendable about this book is that, despite its brevity, it still manages to give a fair deal of insight into the various societies and personalities throughout western history. Im quite enjoying reading it alongside Russells History of Western Philosophy.</p>
<p>Art Theory for Beginners by Richard Osborne and Dan Sturgis - All artists should get some art theory in at some point. This book is a heavily illustrated and quite light hearted introduction to the various ways people have come to think about art over the ages. Havent gotten into it yet but its on the reading list.</p>
<p>The Oxford Very Short Introductions Series - This series is a masterwork of publishing by the Oxford University Press and is great for the general reader. Its a series of (you guessed it) very short introductory texts to various fields of study. Theres one for just about everything from literary theory and the Russian revolution to quantum physics and autism. With one exception, the few books that Ive read from this series have been, well written, engaging and, despite their length, largely fulfilling. Unfortunately theyre relatively pricey but you can get them second-hand for pebbles on amazon. Id recommend that anyone interested in anything take a look at them.</p>
<p>Everything by Adam Curtis - This is not the name of a particular book. I actually mean you should just look at everything Adam Curtis has ever made. Hes a british documentarian prone to making serialised films on various political themes. Apart from them simply being some of the most beautiful documentaries Ive ever seen, they manage to be largely accessible and engaging while dealing with some fairly complex issues. Some of my favourites from him include Century of The Self, The Trap and Pandoras Box. Century of The Self is about the way Freuds theories of the unconscious self shaped the face of western capitalism and identity. The Trap is the story of how british and american liberal democracy became quite undemocratic. And Pandoras Box is about… just watch it.</p>
<p>Hah. Im done. This is probably the longest post Ive ever written. Hope its been useful.</p>