Recommended Art Books

Here's a few art books I can recommend for anyone interested in color and abstract art.

Stanley Baron, Sonia Delaunay: The Life of an Artist, Harry N. Abrams, 1995.
A monograph on an artist who focused intensely on color relationships.

Amber Creswell Bell, Abstract Art: Contemporary Painters, Thames & Hudson, 2023.
A nice sampling of contemporary abstract artists from Australia.

Leah Dickerman, Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art, MoMA, 2012.
A history of all the interrelated modern art movements from the early twentieth century.

David Scott Kaftan, On Color, Yale University Press, 2018.
A breezy survey of color with an emphasis on cultural and literary associations.

Pepe Karmel, Abstract Art: A Global History, Thames & Hudson, 2020.
A survey of common themes in the global world of abstract art.

Margaret Livingstone, Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing, Abrams, 2014.
A scientific text on how the eye and brain allow us to perceive color in artworks.

Simon Morley, Modern Painting: A Concise History, Thames & Hudson, 2023.
A history of modern painting emphasizing how art movements related to politics of the day.

Michel Pastoureau, Blue: The History of a Color, Princeton University Press, 2001.
The first of a six volume work that focuses on the history of the color blue.

Patricia Sloane, The Visual Nature of Color, Design Press, 1989.
A densely written philosophical work on the interplay between color theory and language.

Frank Stella, Working Space, Harvard University Press, 1986.
An erudite exploration of art from the Renaissance masters to contemporary abstraction.