If you’re like us, few things make a better gift than an amazing coffee table book with lush pages that are overflowing with art. Well, ‘tis the season for giving, so we put together a list of some stellar 2017 releases that you may want to consider for that special art lover on your holiday gift list. You may just want to add a few of these titles to your wish list as well!
1) Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art
This image-heavy book celebrates and showcases the resurgence of ceramics and clay as an elevated art form. “Vitamin C” is a survey of 100 ceramic artists, as chosen by curators, critics and art professionals from around the world.
2) David LaChapelle: Good News Part II
“Good News, Part II” is a two-volume project presented on its publisher Taschen’s website as “an illuminated manuscript for the time we live in.” The final publication in LaChapelle’s five-book narrative, which began in 1996, features never-before-published images. Make your gift extra special by getting a signed copy at Taschen’s store in New York on December 14 and in Beverly Hills on December 17.
3) The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look At Art
Today’s most influential contemporary artists discuss specific works that inspire them from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection. Commentary from each of the 120 artists also contains one of the artists’ artworks alongside the inspirational work from The Met that is being discussed.
4) Cy Twombly
This book catalogued the expansive retrospective of the artist’s works at the Centre Pompidou earlier this year. “Cy Twombly” looks at the span of this artist’s career through 200 works, as well as essays that reflect on his creative evolution, from contemporary artists like Katharina Grosse to Twombly’s assistant Nicola Del Roscio.
“The Art of the Erotic” highlights human sexuality throughout time by featuring 170 nude and erotic works by noteworthy artists, from Edgar Degas and Michelangelo to Louise Bourgeois and Anish Kapoor.
6) Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985
More than 500 color illustrations and a series of essays give cultural, political and artistic context to the works of more than 100 female Latin American artists from 1960-1985.
7) Yayoi Kusama (Revised and Expanded Edition)
With Kusama craze recently taking over New York City and Washington DC, this study of the artist’s work (an expanded edition of the 2000 book) is the perfect gift for someone who went to infinity and beyond at her gallery show or loves the compellingly obsessive nature of her work.
8) Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005-2016
This collection of never-before-seen portraits by one of today’s most celebrated photographers features personal, delicate depictions of popular subjects like Carrie Fisher and Marina Abramovic.
If you want a sense of someone’s personality, just look down… at their shoes! High-fashion, totally personal and works of art in their own right, shoes can tell a story all their own. In this book, they do so with the help of street style photographer Suzanne Middlemass, whose photos capture footwear styles from around the world.
We’re throwing in one beautiful paperback onto this list for good measure: Kerry James Marshall, one of the most significant living American artists in the art world today. His body of work is a rich commentary on how black history fits into, and helps to shape, American culture.
top image // from “David LaChapelle: Good News Part II”
