Books about art

Whether you feel you have little talent and you doubt you could ever learn, or you enjoy drawing, but have not been able to get much beyond a childlike level, this book aims to give you the skill you have always wanted.

Griet, the daughter of a tilemaker in 17th century Holland, obtains her first job, as a servant in Vermeer's household. This book shows the reader, through Griet's eyes, the family, the society of the town of Delft, and life with an obsessive genius. Griet loves being drawn into his artistic life, but the cost to her own survival may be high.

Using an art program, five-color illustrations, and student-friendly pedagogy, this text introduces readers to the vast world of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and the minor arts. It presents art as a succession of styles - from Prehistory through the 20th century. It is useful for two-semester survey courses in Art History.

Harvard Professor Robert Langton, visiting Paris, is called in when the curator of the Louvre is murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langton and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are amazed to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and beyond.

This is a pocket-sized A-Z guide to 500 great painters and sculptors from medieval to modern times. Each artist is represented by a full-page colour plate of typical work, accompanied by information on each image and its creator. Artists, styles and subject matter are cross referenced.

This work provides a 12-week course that guides the reader through the process of recovering their creative self. It aims to dispel the I'm not talented enough conditioning that tends to hamper the creativity of many people.

Based on a BBC television series, this is a book on art in any language, concentrating on how we look at paintings.

The 16th revised and updated edition of this introduction to art, from the earliest cave paintings to experimental art. New artists have been incorporated such as Corot, Kollwitz and Nolde, and six fold-outs present large-scale works such as Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece.

A novel in colorful postcards and letters depicts the enigmatic relationship between British artist Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem, a mysterious woman living on a Pacific island who can see Griffin as he works in London.

'What is a self, and how can a self come out of inaminate matter?' This book examines this riddle. Linking together the music of J S Bach, the graphic art of Escher and the mathematical theorems of Godel, as well as ideas drawn from logic, biology, psychology, physics and linguistics, it reveals the mysteries of human thought processes.

This title presents the work of M.C. Escher, an architect of perfectly impossible worlds who presents the structurally unthinkable as though it were a law of nature. The resulting dimensional and perspectival illusions bring us into confrontation with the limitations of our sensory perception.

Extraordinary confessions from ordinary lives from the PostSecret website that receives 3 million visitors a month

Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics. This monograph presents the infamous Surrealist in full color and in his own words. It features his provocative imagery, from the soft watches to the notorious burning giraffe.

The Pictish School of Celtic art from pagan symbols to monumental sculptures, thoroughly covered and illustrated.

A look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning. Using comics to examine the medium itself, the author takes the form of a cartoon character and explains the structure, meaning, and appeal of comics, and provides a running analysis of comics as art, literature, and communication.