For the 11th installment of Don’t Take Pictures’ recommended reading, I have compiled a Winter reading list of art-related fiction and memoir to read by the fire or add to your holiday wish list. I have chosen to limit this list to printed books and not include online content or periodicals. I have read each book on this list, and selected titles that I have found helpful in my own art and practices. This list is not intended to be a review of each book, nor is it focused on new releases, as there are so many great books that remain relevant today.
Self-Portrait With Boy: A Novel
Rachel Lyon
Publisher: Scribner (2018)
Pages: 400
This eloquent, riveting novel about great art based on tragedy presents questions of art and morality, opportunism and betrayal. Lu Rile, a recent art school graduate lives in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood in the early 1990s. Struggling to pay her bills and find her artistic voice, she makes a self-portrait every day. While photographing herself leaping in front of the large windows of her loft, Lu accidently captures her neighbor’s young son falling from the roof to his death. The startling revelation in her contact sheets—him, falling to his death outside the window, her mid-air in front of it—throws her into an ethical dilemma. As an artist, she knows that the photograph could make her career. But as a friend to the boy’s parents, she questions whether or not to exhibit the piece. Purchase from McNally Jackson
Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
Deborah Davis
Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin (2003)
Pages: 320
For over a century, art enthusiasts have admired the woman in John Singer Sargent’s most famous painting, Madame X. The book examines the rise and fall of his subject, Virginie Gautreau, who at 23 was Paris’ “it girl” of the time. The book is a quasi-biography of Madame X and the savvy career of Sargent who was as adept at marketing and business as he was at painting.
The New Orleans-born socialite celebrity collaborated with Sargent to create a portrait that would elevate her already astonishing celebrity to new heights. When Sargent unveiled her portrait at the 1884 Paris Salon, the strap of her black evening gown dangling from her shoulder sent shock waves through Parisian society. While Gautreau had never before shied away from attention, her reputation took a hit from which she never recovered, eventually retiring from public life and covering all mirrors in her home. This book is a fascinating dive into the connections between celebrity culture and art.
Purchase from McNally Jackson
Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War
Deborah Copaken Kogan
Publisher: Random House (2001)
Pages: 336
In 1988, newly minted college graduate Deborah Copaken Kogan moved from Boston to Paris to begin a career as a photojournalist. In her exciting and thoughtful memoir, Kogan provides insight into the world of photojournalism in the 1990s. As a young woman in a male-dominated industry, Kogan shares her experiences with sexism and assault as she travels to Russia, Romania, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Haiti, and other places around the globe photographing wars, orphanages, and other events of human suffering.
Purchase from McNally Jackson
The Spirit Photographer: A Novel
Jon Michael Varese
Publisher: Overlook Press (2018)
Pages: 320
Jon Michael Varese’s expertly researched novel is a fictionalized story of William H. Mumler, America’s most notorious spirit photographer. In the book, Mumler is represented by the character Edward Moody who runs a successful spirit photography business, photographing people with the ghosts of their loved ones. The images are, of course, fake, but during one portrait session Moody is shocked to see not the ghostly image of a boy that he had prepared, but instead the figure of a woman—a woman he once loved. The novel follows Moody and his apprentice as they search for the woman in the photograph, along with a parallel story of the portrait sitter’s relationship to the woman. Like the real Mumler, Moody is later put on trial for fraud. The novel is a thrilling tale of America at the turn of the last century, the spiritualist movement, and how photography changed society.
Purchase from McNally Jackson
Van Gogh’s Ear: The True Story
Bernadette Murphy
Publisher: Random House (2016)
Pages: 336
The story of Vincent Van Gogh’s fit of madness in which he cut off his ear has become mythologized over a century-and-a-half of re-telling. But little is known about the events that took place that night in Arles and rumors and legend have become favorable over fact. Part detective story, part artist biography, Bernadette Murphy’s thoroughly-researched account is unlike any other artist biography. Using primary source documents, Murphy’s research into Van Gogh’s life in Arles determines the exact sequence of events the night that he famously severed his ear. A compelling read for those interested in Van Gogh, mysteries, and the way that mental illness is viewed, and even celebrated, in the arts.
Purchase from Amazon
On the High Wire
Philippe Petit
Publisher: Random House (1985) Reprint Edition: New Directions (2019)
Pages: 128
In 1972, Philippe Petit walked on a wire suspended between the twin towers in New York City a quarter mile in the air. With this performance, the French high wire artist made headlines for the second time, following his famed performances walking between the towers of Notre Dame and over Niagra Falls. In this slim volume, the world’s most famous high wire artist presents a masterful handbook that is essential reading for artists of any discipline. Written when he was only 23, Petit poetically discusses the rigging of the wire, first steps, the pursuit of perfection, and conquering one’s fears.
Purchase from Brookline Booksmith
