The best contemporary art books to enjoy now

These sweeping volumes trace the human history of colour, from cave paintings to the digital age. The Book of Colour Concepts considers colour theory, looking at seminal works such as Isaac Newton’s Opticks and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Zur Farbenlehre, alongside less familiar contributions. Through 65 works and more than 1,000 images, this edition traces the universal yet elusive concept of colour, taking the reader on a chromatic odyssey across four centuries.

No list of great art books would be complete without Ernst Gombrich’s manual, The Story of Art, which has been published in more than 30 languages and has been a global bestseller for over half a century. This cornerstone of art history is regarded as both a seminal work of criticism and an accessible introduction to art; indeed, its enduring popularity can be attributed to the readability of Gombrich’s writing on a subject that has a tendency to lean towards the lofty and esoteric.

This tome has the benefit of serving as a beautiful adornment to your coffee table while also providing a fascinating glimpse into the world of Japanese art. It presents a visual history of woodblock paintings, which are credited with prompting the wave of Japonaiserie that engulfed Europe in the 19th century. On this, the book disrupts the perception of woodblock painting as an ‘exotic’ medium that inspired Western creativity, instead showing that some of the most disruptive ideas in modern art were invented in Japan by the likes of Hokusai, Utamaro and Hiroshige.

Women’s bodies have long been a focal point of art; this book focuses not on the women who have been passively beheld, but those who have taken matters into their own hands. This is a dazzlingly original reassessment of women's stories, exploring the ways in which feminist artists rail against the patriarchy by redefining the female aesthetic. It tells the truth about the experience of not only female bodies but queer, sick and racialised bodies, writing an alternative narrative for art.

This book grapples with the question of why we make art, specifically in the context of a capitalist society. Criticism duo The White Pube takes readers on a deep dive into the contemporary art world via the story of Quest Talukdar, whose art career aspirations teach her harsh truths about money and power, leading to her ultimately having to choose between success and integrity. By blending storytelling with dialogue from anonymised interviews with real artists – including a Turner Prize winner or two – Poor Artists presents a portrayal of the art world as you’ve never seen it before.

Subtitled ‘The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art’, Michael Petry’s monograph delves into all things shiny in modern creative practice. Originally a demonstration of a painter’s technical skills, the art of the reflection has been transformed by its role in sculpture and installation. In a self-obsessed culture that loves to look at itself, Mirror Mirror examines art that questions the place of the viewer.

Writer: Jonathan Bell

If you're going to buy one book on the pre-eminent French colourist, Isabelle Cahn's huge slip-cased monograph is the one to go for. Offering both the scale and quality needed to immerse yourself in Pierre Bonnard's copious output, from his thoughtful, if voyeuristic, vision of domesticity, with the more insalubrious fringes of the demimonde peeping through his layered, hazy palette.

Writer: Jonathan Bell

Filmmaker and gay activist Derek Jarman died, aged just 52, in London in 1994. He had been diagnosed with Aids in December 1986, a decade before radical antiretroviral treatment lifted life expectancy of those diagnosed with HIV up to a more general, expected level. This book by Gilbert McCarragher, a Dungeness local, friend and photographer, invites us to experience the world as Jarman saw it from within the house.

Writer: Caragh McKay

In 1987, the first ever art amusement park was born. More than 30 of the era’s most acclaimed artists – including David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dalí, and Keith Haring – designed unique and fully functional fairground attractions, from rides to interactive sculptures and games. Luna Luna: The Art Amusement Park chronicles the art-meets-amusement utopia, which had a revival in 2024, in the form of ‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Abstract Expressionism: the supercharged, ultra-gestural response to a changing world. Instead of documenting what they saw, artists looked inwards and used their feelings as raw material. We’ve all heard of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but what about their female counterparts? This book seeks to remedy this imbalance, spotlighting the (often unsung) heroines of Abstract Expressionism, including ​​Lee Krasner, Perle Fine, Dorothy Dehner, Helen Frankenthaler and Alma Thomas.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

In recent years, debates and scrutiny surrounding censorship have swelled to new levels of intensity, notably in the world of arts and culture. But in a globalised, digitised, subjective world, who are the censors, and what are the consequences of censoring ? These themes are at the heart of Gareth Harris’ engaging and timely analyses in Censored Art Today. From political censorship in China, Cuba and the Middle East to the suppression of LGBTQ+ artists, cancel culture and the algorithms policing art online, Harris’ superbly-researched book poses critical questions about the trajectory of free speech, free expression and who gets to decide.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

It’s been Dalí’s muse, Hitchcock’s nightmare, and for others, the most versatile of culinary ingredients. It turns out that the egg also makes a great ingredient for a book. With written contributions from Ruth Reichl and Jennifer Higgie, the sumptuously-illustrated The Gourmand’s Egg celebrates the long-running relationship between eggs and art, ranging from antiquity to now. This cracking read covers the full spectrum of egg potential: poached, scrambled, whipped into a cocktail, transformed into an art medium, or used as a tool for protest.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

This first English-language monograph on Adriana Varejão explores how the Brazilian artist has stretched the discipline of painting to its extremes as she reifies the legacy of Brazil's colonial past, pluralist identities, disparate cultures, religion, eroticism and modernism. From early paintings created in the 1990s to recent multimedia installations, pages explode with chaotic, pulsating red viscera rupturing with force from cold, domestic structures.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

The recorded history of painting is long and comprehensive; for the female pioneers, it’s less so. In her 1971 essay, Linda Nochlin asked Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? The answer, she found, is that there were great women artists, they had just been denied opportunities for greatness. Inspired by Nochlin's text, Great Women Painters explores the work of 300 artists born in 60 countries from the 16th to 21st centuries, framed as an A-Z of the key female players in painting history. Among those featured include Vanessa Bell, Etel Adnan, Rana Begum, Cecily Brown, Judy Chicago, Elaine de Kooning, Genieve Figgis, Katharina Grosse, Carmen Herrera, Luchita Hurtado, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Julie Mehretu.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

There’s a majestic quality to the artist’s studio; a sense of potential in the often-private to-and-fro of an artist as they wrestle with concept, form and execution. From the Sculptor’s Studio is a record of where the magic happens. Writer Ina Cole conducted conversations with 20 seminal sculptors, exploring the artists’ lives and work in their own words, in their own environments. The book features 165 images of studios and artworks, alongside portraits of each sculptor, which include Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Cornelia Parker, Marc Quinn, Eva Rothschild and Rachel Whiteread.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

These days, standing out in an image-saturated post-Instagram world is tough. In this comprehensive, authoritative and international book, writer and longtime Wallpaper* contributor Charlotte Jansen surveys the 50 most significant photographers working today, with high-quality reproductions of their work, commentary and interviews. Artists featured include Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans, Hassan Hajjaj, Andreas Gursky, Juno Calypso, Zanele Muholi, Shirin Neshat, Catherine Opie, Martin Parr, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Juergen Teller. It's an important book in an age when photography, and visual communication more broadly, faces increasingly heavy social responsibility.

Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith