The Books canon

Sourced and shelved.

Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
3 volumes
SortEditorial Year Title
Genre·Art criticism✕clear
Nonfiction · Art criticism

The Shock of the New

The Hundred-Year History of Modern Art--Its Rise, Its Dazzling Achievement, Its Fall
Robert Hughes
1980 · 444 pages

Modern art's century, from the Eiffel Tower to the moment modernism became the official culture it once attacked. Hughes explains what Picasso and Pollock were after in plain, unhurried English.

★ 5.9
Nonfiction · Art criticism

The Painted Word

Tom Wolfe
1975 · 106 pages

Modern painting had become an illustration of theory, Wolfe argued, invisible without the words. He named the three critics who ruled taste in New York, and the art world came after him howling.

★ 5.1
Nonfiction · Aesthetics

Thoughts on Design

Paul Rand
1947 · 95 pages

Beauty and utility generate each other, Paul Rand argues, and the designer's job is fusing idea with image. He pulled European modernism into American advertising and made the trade take design seriously.

★ 4.5