Celebrate Art in March!
"Even the common articles made for daily use become endowed with beauty when they are loved." --Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things
"A picture is worth a thousand words," so they say. These five books filled with incredible stories--personal and historical--are worth more than ten thousand words.
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
When a fatal cancer diagnosis is placed on his brother, Bringley finds himself wanting to escape day-to-day life and quits his job at The New Yorker. Then he finds himself working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art--with all the access to the incredible art that makes up the museum's treasure trove of beauty. Bringley takes himself, and readers, on a walk through history and art.
Creative, Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto by Ayun Halliday
Becoming famous off of art is a one-in-a-billion chance it feels like. For some artists, like Halliday, being creative just to be creative is the reward, not fame. As an activity book, this work aims to help creatives face the doubts within, and learn to succeed in whatever that means to each individual artist.
The Beauty of Everyday Things by Soetsu Yanagi
Every day, we use objects for the most everyday kind of tasks. Philosopher Yanagi writes that these every day items should be made with care, made to last, and treated with respect--like the work of art it is. This wonderful books inspires reading to slow down and take stock of the small things that were made to brighten our lives.
Black Art: A Cultural History by Richard J. Powell
This book studies the history of artistic movements--like blues and reggae, but also pioneer artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, and even music videos of Solange--from the African diaspora directly resulted from the slave trade and colonialism.
Modern Painting: A Concise History by Simon Morley
Travel with Morley as he traces the foundation of modern art through history, with points on individual artists and on artistic movements, and also through stylistic, historical, geographic, gender, and ethnic frames.