best art biographies 2022

The 10 Best Biographies and Memoirs of Artists to Read in 2023 (October)

The Art of Rivalry

Child of the Fire

Whether you’re an art history connoisseur or prefer the modern art scene, plenty of renowned artists have written biographies and memoirs.

When deciding which book are the best biographies of artists to read, I based my answers on these criteria:

• Personal connection
• Artist’s history
• Writing quality
• Unique information

Also, I have presented a few scenarios for each book. If you are on a budget or want to explore a specific portion of the art world, you can find the right memoir for you.

How to Choose a Biography or Memoir of Artists

When choosing the best biographies of artists to read, you will want to use these selection criteria. We have scored each of these metrics quantitatively on a scale from 1-10.

Personal Connection

While I cannot predict your connection to the artist, I can provide some pointers. A personal connection will directly impact your interest in the biography. Most likely, you will feel connected to someone whose work has inspired you. Perhaps you will relate to their personal lives and find inspiration in how they overcame shared adversity.

Artist’s History

You will want to select a biography based on the artist’s personal life. Someone with a vivid past will provide a far more interesting read than an artist with a mundane lifestyle.

By considering the artist’s history, I have narrowed the options to those that act as riveting reads. You will feel more committed to reading about someone whose life you relate to, find motivating, or think is interesting.

Writing Quality

Even the most fantastical story can seem boring if told poorly. Writing quality concerns the readability of the book. I have measured writing quality by performing a readability test on samples of each book.

Those on this list have reading levels above the 4th-grade level. The readability score that you want depends on your capabilities, but an 8th-grade level is considered ideal . However, something below the 4th-grade level will seem too elementary to be interesting.

Additionally, I have considered my perception of the writing and the reviews of others when coming to this conclusion.

Unique Information

If you are particularly interested in one artist, you won’t want to read the same backstory about them a million times. Instead, you would want one from a unique perspective with new information. For example, you might want to read a private diary, a biography from a family member, or one from someone who spent a significant amount of time with the individual.

The 10 Best Biographies of Artists

Here are ten of the best biographies about artists:

Best Biography Overall – Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

Best compilation biography – the art of rivalry: four friendships, betrayals, and breakthroughs in modern art, best biography about african american artists – child of the fire: mary edmonia lewis and the problem of art history’s black and indian subject, best biography about female artists – tamara de lempicka: a life of deco and decadence, best lgbtq+ biography – the isolation artist: scandal, deception, and the last days of robert indiana, best biography about a photographer – a choice of weapons, best autobiography – memoirs of a pet lamb, best diary of an artist – keith haring journals, best biography about a famous artist – interviews with francis bacon, best biography about a lesser-known artist – amazing grace: a life of beauford delaney.

Read on to see a breakdown of each of the choices:

• Personal Connection : 9
• Artist’s History : 10
• Writing Quality : 8
• Unique Information : 9

Frida remains one of the most comprehensive, well-researched, and sympathetic biographies about the artist. Instead of focusing on the facts about her life, this book analyzes her psyche, artwork, and motives throughout her colorful life.

Many people can relate to Frida Kahlo. These days, she serves as an icon for ethnic minorities, feminists, the LGBTQ+ community, those who suffer from chronic illness, and even modern communists.

I found this book deeply engrossing. It did not paint her in a heroic or critical light — it just told me about the woman behind the masterpiece. This book holds a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 9.4. The writing is imperfect, but it remains accessible to most individuals.

• Focuses on Kahlo’s artistic nature rather than the tragedies she experienced
• Remains the definitive biography of Frida Kahlo
• Sensitive account of Kahlo’s life and art
• Somewhat dramatized and romanticized

• Personal Connection : 7
• Writing Quality : 9
• Unique Information : 8

The Art of Rivalry compares the rivalries between four pairs of artists:

• Freud and Bacon
• Manet and Degas
• Matisse and Picasso
• Pollock and De Kooning

Some readers might relate to the stories of these renowned artists. They were quintessential frenemies, fluctuating between admiration and envy. This book delves into the strengths and weaknesses of these artists to give readers a better understanding of their motivations.

I have never been in a competitive situation with one of my peers, but many people have and will find themselves in this book.

Some of the greatest artists of all time are depicted in this book, and they have page-turning life stories. Since Smee delves into the artists’ relationships with each other rather than just their backgrounds, you will get a unique perspective on their work. He considers lesser-known aspects of their personalities and lives, making it more than just a biography.

Lastly, this book has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 7.9, making it accessible to most people. The text is not overly complex, and it gets the point across.

• Focuses on the relationships between artists
• Offers a unique perspective on the modern art scene
• Considers their strengths and weaknesses for balance
• More of a character study than a biography

• Artist’s History : 7

This biography explores how society treated Lewis in the past and present. It thoroughly analyzes her presence in art history and the flaws in her representation. Furthermore, Buick dives further into Lewis’s sculptures than most accounts of her life. Many people can relate to Edmonia Lewis’s treatment and belittlement in the art world during and after her life.

Interested in Art History? Check out our Buying Guide on the Best Art History Books !

Many historians focus on her African American and Indigenous heritage instead of her art. Author Kirsten Pai Buick flips the script by praising her talents and sculptures first and foremost. However, the book does not discuss her life story much.

A passage of this book resulted in a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 10.7. While that indicates a challenging read, the vocabulary used is not that complex. The score is primarily driven up by the presence of run-on sentences. I found it a comfortable read.

• Boldly criticizes art historians
• Explores society’s treatment of the sculptor
• Many run-on sentences
• Skims over Lewis’s background

• Personal Connection : 6
• Artist’s History : 9
• Unique Information : 10

Passion by Design looks intimately at Tamara de Lempicka’s personality, life, and work. Few can relate to de Lempicka’s massive success, riches, indulgence, and fame. However, her story proves an interesting read.

By combining Renaissance inspirations with cubism, de Lempicka crafted a style of her own. Furthermore, her bold expressions of sexuality, human form, and controversial politics make her ever-relevant today.

Author Laura Claridge worked with de Lempicka’s friends, family, and historical archives to get the whole story. This book is the most comprehensive account of the painter’s life as the archetypical new woman.

Nevertheless, the book tries to provide too much information. It attempts to cover her psychology, art history, social movements, and biography at once. Also, the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 16.4 means this book is not accessible for the average reader.

• Considers multiple perspectives of de Lempicka’s life
• Explores the artist’s life in past and present contexts
• Overly comprehensive

• Artist’s History : 8

Robert Indiana led a mysterious life, and he died in the middle of scandals, lawsuits, and fraud allegations. The Isolation Artist is the first biography about the gay contemporary artist. It details his life, work, business, and controversies in an objective manner. I didn’t relate much to him, but you might if you have hermit-like tendencies.

His history does tell the story of the business side of the art world. Overall, it provides a lot of unique information that you won’t find elsewhere. Also, it is an easy read. With a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 5.8, most people can read it comfortably.

• An authoritative account of his life
• Considers the ups and downs
• Not that relatable

You don’t always need to move to New York City to make your dreams come true. Gordon Parks moved to Minnesota, where he started his work as a photographer. Dazed Media Sites considers it one of the best artist biographies of all time.

Many readers can relate to his life. Parks battled homelessness, poverty, racism, and familial deaths. He turned to photography to aid in these struggles, which offered him many fortunes. His rags-to-riches story is very inspirational.

This book is easy to read as well. It has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 7.2, making it readable. I found it colorfully written and intriguing. Since it is an autobiography, you can get a firsthand account of this artist’s life. It is filled with information you won’t find elsewhere.

• Relatable and inspirational
• A firsthand account of his life
• Does not cover much after he becomes successful

• Personal Connection : 8
• Writing Quality : 7

Curator David Sylvester was a famous art critic who befriended many artists. He could get them to reveal intimate information, but he did not say much about himself until he released Memoirs of a Pet Lamb .

This book detailed his tumultuous childhood, family, friends, interests, romances, and disasters. He keeps a humorous tone that makes it easier to read, especially in the darker parts. While many of his life’s tragedies will seem out of touch for most readers, many will find themselves in his tales of family and friends, growing up, and finding love.

Memoirs of a Lamb gets convoluted in many points. It has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 10.3, meaning it is challenging to read for most people. I felt like I was back in high school taking a vocabulary test at times.

• Provides information you won’t find elsewhere
• Shows a side of history many people gloss over
• Not very readable

• Writing Quality : 5

Despite this book being a diary, Keith Haring explores his opinions on the modern art world more than his personal life. However, he kept this diary from his early teens until his death. You get to see more sides of him, from what he likes to read to his thoughts. It also has new artwork.

Keith Haring does not have the most interesting history. Nevertheless, fans of his work will enjoy reading his journals. It is not the best introductory book to him, and the writing is imperfect. With a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 4.4, most can read it easily.

• Provides insight into Haring’s interests and mindset
• Easy to read
• Only for big Keith Haring fans

David Sylvester had many artist friends, including Francis Bacon. He held several interviews with the artist over 25 years, giving insight into his life at different stages. I learned about Bacon’s vision, personal life, education, and shortcomings.

Many can relate to Bacon’s troublesome youth. He entertained grotesque images of the human form to create his art, and he had some mental health troubles.

Since it is a conversation between two people, the Flesch-Kincaid grade level varies drastically. I got an average score of 11, and I found the book challenging to read. It has many run-on sentences that would need revision to be more readable. However, it depicts Bacon’s personality better in its original form.

• Considered a modern art world classic
• Unedited insight into Francis Bacon’s mind
• Challenging to read

As one of the only biographies about Beauford Delaney, Amazing Grace possesses a swarm of unique information about this artist. People can connect to his hardworking nature, ability to rise above his social circumstances, deep spirituality, battles with sexuality, and struggles with mental illness.

Despite his influence and reach during his life, Delaney did not have lasting fame. Regardless, I found his intense backstory to be addictive to read above. However, this book uses some difficult language. The Flesch-Kincaid score is 12.1, making it inaccessible to many readers.

• Delicately depicts the highs and lows of Delaney’s life
• Immortalizes the artist when few others will
• Discusses James Baldwin too much

There are many riveting biographies about artists, and these are only a few of the best ones. If you have never read an artist biography before, I suggest reading Frida . Then, go for ones about artists you are interested in.

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The top art books of 2022—chosen by The Art Newspaper's books team

Struggling for christmas gifts take a look at the publications we enjoyed over the past year—from an exploration of art and motherhood to an interrogation of the culture wars.

The books team at The Art Newspaper has waded through the piles of art tomes published this year so you don't have too. Below, each editor has picked three publications that shone through in 2022.

Jacqueline Riding, contributing editor, books

A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France 1760-1830 by Paris A. Spies-Gans (Paul Mellon Centre/Yale)

The miniaturist Sarah Biffen (subject of the excellent Without Hands show at Philip Mould gallery in London, until 12 December, and accompanying publication), born with no arms or legs, was one of many professional women artists to exhibit in major venues in Paris and London between 1760 and 1830, beyond the few currently celebrated (Angelica Kauffman, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, etc.), as Spies-Gans’s exhaustive, groundbreaking research reveals in this beautifully produced book.

Käthe Kollwitz: A Survey of Her Works 1888-1942, edited by Hannelore Fischer (Hirmer/Käthe Kollwitz Museum)

This year has been a particularly good one for stand-alone publishing on historic and Modern women artists, and women’s significant influence within the international art world—fingers crossed this signals a shift (at last) from niche to mainstream. Honourable mention goes to Lund Humphries’s Illuminating Women Artists series, with two books in the bag (Luisa Roldán and Artemisia Gentileschi) and two more scheduled for 2023 (Elisabetta Sirani and Rosalba Carriera). It was a brutal selection process, but the first of my top three, from the many excellent books we reviewed over the last year, is Fischer’s Käthe Kollwitz . Kollwitz’s brilliance requires no introduction, but this exquisitely illustrated survey, while exploring her many iconic works, draws attention to lesser-known imagery including her subtly erotic subjects.

Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman Who Made Vincent Famous by Hans Luijten, translated by Lynne Richards (Bloomsbury)

Chicago University Press’s first English translation of the Parisian art dealer Berthe Weill’s 1933 memoir was pipped to the post by this superb biography of the equally extraordinary Jo van Gogh-Bonger. So much has been written on Vincent van Gogh that you wonder what more can be said. It turns out much more on the woman who was the early driving force behind the Dutch artist’s legacy.

Gareth Harris, book club co-editor and chief contributing editor

Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth About the Past by Robert Bevan (Verso)

More and more commentators are making their voices heard in the clamour around today’s so-called “culture wars”, outlining the ideologies behind the destruction of, for instance, historic statues. Bevan astutely argues that those who manipulate our cultural past are shaping our future, making the case that historic buildings have become battlegrounds for right-wing and nationalist political arguments. Interestingly, he also questions the authority of Unesco. In one of many polemics, he says: “At the same time as its role in protecting culture has become suffocated by national interests, Unesco now appears to operate on the premise that any wartime damage should be undone.”

The Value of Art by Michael Findlay (Prestel)

This updated version of The Value of Art , first published in 2012, features important new material, focusing on, for instance, the rise of NFTs. Findlay asks, “where are the NFT art critics?... there is little discourse on the relative aesthetic qualities of the images themselves”. He also has strong opinions on “protest art”, saying: “In very broad terms, artists represent the protesting class while collectors represent the museum trustee class, and while the cultural ecosystem needs both, on issues of social justice they are often on different sides of the barricades.”

The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art by Gregory Sholette (Lund Humphries)

As a key member of the activist group Gulf Labor Coalition, Gregory Sholette has a unique perspective. Sholette examines this fascinating subject “from the perspective of an artist and activist who has been active in the field since the 1980s,” writes the art historian Marcus Verhagen in the introduction. This informed analysis spans more than 60 years of art activism, from the Situationist International group of social revolutionaries (1957-72), which directly engaged with the student uprisings in Paris in May 1968, to Black Lives Matter today, which has “unquestionably set a new high bar for protest aesthetics”, Sholette says.

José da Silva, book club co-editor and exhibitions editor

Stop Tanks With Books by Mark Neville (Nazraeli Press)

Neville’s photobook of Ukrainian life before Russia’s invasion in February is both a call to arms—the photographer sent 750 free copies to influential people who might “have it in their power to help Ukraine”—and a stark reminder that Ukraine was already at war in its east, as depicted in the photographs of soldiers manning trenches and checkpoints. However, it is the tender portraits of everyday life—people at the beach, in school, at a rave, eating ice cream—that really bring home the tragedy that has unfolded in Ukraine.

The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips (W. W. Norton & Company)

While most of the case studies in this book are from the literary world, the opening section on Alice Neel is a searing account of the complexities of balancing (or not) being a mother and an artist—and the often heavy price women pay. Neel, for example, can sometimes come across as brutal and uncaring, but these labels would rarely be used to describe an artist father in the same situation. Neel said that for much of her life she felt she “didn’t have the right to paint because I had two sons”. The book explores the difficult issues around the subject with no judgment and or neat conclusions—and is all the richer for it.

Raphael by David Ekserdjian, Tom Henry et al. (National Gallery Global Ltd)

If you missed the standout Raphael show at London’s National Gallery earlier this year, its catalogue is the next best thing. The rich imagery and texts make it the perfect coffee table book for art history buffs to dip into over the holiday season. There are also tasty titbits to tell the family over Christmas lunch, such as the belief that the Vatican’s foundations began cracking at news of Raphael’s death. Or when Munich’s Alte Pinakothek sold Raphael’s masterpiece Bindo Altoviti because it was believed at the time to have been painted by his assistant Giulio Romano, to buy what turned out to be a discredited Matthias Grünewald...

The Best Biographies of 2022

Summer Loomis

Summer Loomis has been writing for Book Riot since 2019. She obsessively curates her library holds and somehow still manages to borrow too many books at once. She appreciates a good deadline and likes knowing if 164 other people are waiting for the same title. It's good peer pressure! She doesn't have a podcast but if she did, she hopes it would sound like Buddhability . The world could always use more people creating value with their lives everyday.

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The following are the best biographies 2022 had to offer, according to my brain and my tastes. And I know it might sound like something everyone says, but it was really hard to pick them this year. Like many people, I love “best of” lists for the year, even when I disagree with the titles that make the cut. There is something about narrowing the field to “the best” that makes me excited to read the list and see what I’ve read already and which gems I’ve missed that year. If you want to look back at some of the titles Book Riot chose in 2021, try this best books of 2021 by genre or best books for 2020 . Both will probably quadruple your TBR, but they’re super fun to read anyway.

For 2022 in particular, there were a ton of excellent titles to choose from, in both biographies and memoirs. I am not being polite here but let me just say that it was genuinely hard to choose. To make it easier on myself, I have included some memoirs to pair with the best biographies of 2022 below. If you don’t see your absolute favorite, it’s either because I didn’t like it (I don’t believe in spending time on books I don’t like) or because I ran out of space. And it was most likely the latter!

His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Samuels and Olorunnipa are two Washington Post journalists who meticulously researched Floyd’s personal history in order to better understand not only his life and experiences before his death, but also the systemic forces that eventually contributed to his murder. While very interesting, this is also a harder read and very frustrating at times as there is so much loss wrapped up into this story. Definitely one of the best biographies of 2022 and one that I think will be read for years to come.

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird by Gene Andrew Jarrett

This is one of those classic biographies that I think readers will just love diving into. Rich in detail and nuance, it drops readers into Dunbar’s life and times, offering a fascinating look at both the literary and personal life of this great American poet. If you are able to read on audio, you may want to check out actor Mirron E. Willis’s excellent narration.

Didn’t We Almost Have it All: In Defense of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy

Maybe you’re a huge fan or maybe you don’t know who Whitney Houston was, but either way, you can still read this and enjoy it. Kennedy is very clear that he didn’t set out to write a traditional biography. He wasn’t trying to dig up new “dirt” about the singer or to ask people in her life to reflect back on her now that she has been gone for 10 years. Instead, Kennedy tackles something deeper and possibly harder: to see and appreciate Houston as the fully-formed and talented human being that she was and to understand in full her influence over popular culture and music.

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Finding Me by Viola Davis

If you are also interested in reading a memoir from 2022, you could pair Whitney Houston’s biography with Viola Davis’s book. It was a title I saw everywhere in 2022, but didn’t pick up until the end of the year. My only two cents to add to this strong choice is that I was also just about the last person on earth who hadn’t heard about Davis’s childhood. Please don’t go into this without knowing at least something about what she had to overcome. However, despite all that, I still think it is an excellent and ultimately uplifting read. Content warnings include domestic violence, child endangerment, physical and sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, drug addiction, and animal death. And also the unrelentingly grinding nature of poverty.

Like Water: A Cultural History of Bruce Lee by Daryl Joji Maeda 

This is a much more academic presentation of Bruce Lee and the myriad of ways he can be “read” in his connections and contributions to American pop culture. If you or someone you know is itching to read an extremely detailed and deeply considered look at Lee’s life, then this is the book for you. If you read on audio, be sure to check out David Lee Huynh’s narration.

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu

If you want to read something much lighter but still connected to Asian representation in Western movies, you could do worse than Liu’s 2022 memoir. In comparison to other books on this list, this felt like a much lighter read to me, but it is not without some heavier moments. While I am not a superfan of Liu (because I’m not really a superfan of anyone), I did enjoy learning about Liu’s childhood and especially hearing little details like that his grandparents called him a nickname that basically translated to “little furry caterpillar” as a child. I mean, is there anything more adorable for a kid?

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya

This is another meaty biography that readers will just adore. Complex and fascinating, von Neumann’s curiosity was legendary and his contributions are so far-reaching that it is hard to imagine any one person undertaking them all. This is a good choice for readers who are fascinated by mathematics, big personalities, and intellectual puzzles.

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

This is another best biography of 2022 that many, many readers will want to sink into. The audio is also by the author so you may want to read it that way. Whether someone reads it with eyes or ears (or both!), this book is sure to interest many curious Christie fans. And if Worsley’s biography isn’t enough for you, you may also enjoy this breakdown of why Christie is one of the best-selling novelists of all time or these 8 audiobooks for Agatha Christie fans .

The School that Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler by Deborah Cadbury

Cadbury writes a fascinating biography of Anna Essinger, a schoolteacher who managed to smuggle her students out of a Germany succumbing to Hitler’s rise to power and all the horror that was to follow. Essinger’s bravery and clear-eyed understanding of what was happening around her is amazing. This is a thrilling and fascinating biography readers will no doubt find inspirational.

The Escape Artist: The Man who Broke out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland

Freedland is a British journalist who has written this thoroughly engrossing book about Rudolf Vrba, a man who managed to escape from Auschwitz. It’s no surprise that this is a very important but difficult read. For those who can manage it, I highly recommend immersing oneself in this historical nonfiction biography about a man who survived some of the darkest events of human history.

That is my list of the best biographies of 2022, with a few memoirs for those who are interested. And now of course, I need to mention several titles I have yet to get to from 2022: Hua Hsu’s Stay True , Zain Asher’s Where the Children Take Us , Fatima Ali’s Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More , and Dan Charnas and Jeff Peretz’s Dilla Time , to name a few!

Also Bernardine Evaristo published Manifesto: On Never Giving Up in 2022 and somehow it slipped through the cracks of my TBR. I will have to make time for that one soon.

If you still need more titles to explore, try these 50 best biographies or 20 biographies for kids . And to that latter list, I might add that a children’s biography came out about Octavia Butler in 2022 called Star Child by Haitian American author Ibi Zoboi, so you might want to check that out too!

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The best art books of 2022

PhD candidate in the History of Art, University of York

Disclosure statement

Eliza Goodpasture does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of York provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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The category of “art book” is vast, like art itself, but the best ones mix beautiful, interesting images with engaging and intelligent text. The books on this short list range from groundbreaking scholarly texts to dreamy, personal reflections, but all find that balance between image and narrative that makes an art book special. Each pushes the boundaries of scholarship, book design and ways of thinking about art and history in exhilarating ways.

1. Diane Arbus Documents

This book about the seminal and controversial 20th-century photographer Diane Arbus is remarkable and perhaps unique. It was published to accompany the rehang of the record-breaking 1972 MoMA Diane Arbus exhibition at David Zwirner and Fraenkel Galleries in New York, as they jointly took up representation of the artist’s estate.

But it is not a catalogue of the exhibition, and features hardly any of Arbus’s photographs. Instead, it is a collection of written essays, reviews, scholarly articles and a few letters by and about Arbus. The written works have been reproduced as they were originally published, which makes the book feel like a scrapbook.

Reviews of the original exhibition must be read on yellowed newsprint, surrounded by 1970s advertisements. The text itself becomes an object, almost a work of art. Here, Arbus’s photographs are reproductions of reproductions in articles. It’s an amazing visual feast that makes the case for the aesthetic value of ephemera.

Photography has always grappled with the meaning of reproductions and the importance of the authenticity of a work of art that can be printed over and over. Rather than resolving this debate, this book embraces the ambiguity. Rarely is the whole conversation about an artist gathered together in this way, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Very little interpretative text has been added, although the passages that are there to explain each section of collected texts do a succinct job of keeping the reader oriented on the journey through Arbus’s legacy from the 1970s to the present day.

2. Letters to Gwen John

Contemporary British painter Celia Paul’s exquisite encounter with the early 20th-century modernist English painter Gwen John evokes an imagined figure of the artist rather than a biographical one. In so doing, it also brings Paul herself into greater clarity as an artist and person.

Over the course of 18 months, Paul writes letters addressed to Gwen John, whom she has never met. Indeed, they were never even alive at the same time – Paul was born in 1959, 20 years after John’s death. Paul muses that she has always felt a connection to John, not just because of the similarities in the way they paint.

As the relationship between the two women builds through Paul’s one-way correspondence, the connections between them do seem to be uncanny. Both women had romantic relationships with famous older male artists (Paul with Lucian Freud, John with Auguste Rodin); both aggressively defended their solitary, ascetic homes; both made small and unfashionable work that eventually found acclaim; and both had close but conflicted relationships with their mothers and siblings.

Through Paul’s eyes, John comes to life in a way she never could to a historian. The way that she is able to critique and evoke the drama of being in a relationship with an older, powerful male artist, for example, is nuanced and vulnerable rather than objective. This strange and magical exercise in imagination and friendship across time and space is an utterly revelatory piece of art writing.

3. The Real and the Romantic: English Art Between the Two World Wars

Frances Spalding’s latest book continues her move towards a focus on networks and groups of artists, after several decades of writing notable biographies, such as her acclaimed 2016 work Vanessa Bell: Portrait of the Bloomsbury Artist .

Here she writes about the years between the two world wars, which have traditionally been overlooked in the history of English and British art, arguing that the dichotomy between the “real” and the “romantic” is not as clear-cut as it has been made out to be. Both qualities are generally excluded from narratives of modernism in favour of a focus on abstraction and conceptual innovation.

Spalding disrupts this traditional categorisation in a moment of reckoning with the boundaries of “English art” and “British art” – her book is distinctly concerned with English art, not with a far-reaching British art that is now understood in terms of Empire.

In this beautifully illustrated volume, she engages with a vast cast of artists, many of whom are rarely discussed, such as Anna Airy , or whose later careers are often forgotten, like Walter Sickert . She examines the retreat from modernism after world war one, the legacies of trauma, industrialised warfare and the changing gender roles caused by war.

Her analysis is not limited to individual artists, but also includes arts institutions: museums, government-run funding programmes (or lack of), and exhibiting bodies large and small. The book deftly weaves together visual analysis and social history to give the reader a thorough picture of the development of English art in this pivotal historical moment.

A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830

With this groundbreaking work, Paris A Spies-Gans confronts head-on the challenging questions about how to write a history of women artists. She uses a data-driven approach to counter assumptions made through the field of art history that women did not enter the artistic profession in significant numbers until the late 19th century.

Focusing on exhibition records from the Royal Academy in London, and the French Salon des Beaux-Arts , she demonstrates that more women were represented in these key venues in the 18th century than are represented in museum collections in the same cities today (7-12% then to about 5% now).

She avoids overly quantitative pitfalls by weaving individual stories and archival documents through her narrative, and by continuing to return to the big question: why has the success and prominence of women artists in this period been so completely forgotten? When we ask “why have there been no great women artists?” as Linda Nochlin famously did, how are we defining “great”?

The book is not only engrossing and stuffed with ravishing images, but also offers a truly pioneering rebuttal to “revisionist” art history by claiming that, in this case, no revision is needed: women artists were already great.

• Women artists
• Women in art

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Articles and Features

The 10 Best Art Books We Read in 2022

By Alice Godwin

From forgotten female artists of the past to Lucian Freud’s rollicking letters, there have been so many new titles and art coffee table books to delight art lovers this year. Here is our roundup of the inspiring, thought-provoking, and intriguing art books and publications that became our favorite 2022 reads.

For Artists In Their Own Words

What could be better than hearing an artist muse upon life and art…?

Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul (New York Review Books, 2022)

The ethereal painter Celia Paul reaches out through time and space to the British artist Gwen John with a series of tender letters that reveal the profound connection between two women. Both these marvelous artists’ lives have been defined by affairs with powerful older men — Paul with Lucian Freud and John with Auguste Rodin. Paul uses her letters to explore the legacy of loving Freud and the relationships with her family, as well as her creative life.

Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud (1939–1954) by David Dawson and Martin Gayford (Thames & Hudson, 2022)

Speaking of Freud, this series of letters by a young Lucian Freud before mainstream success came knocking, gives an insight into the artist’s famously impish sense of humor and irreverence. From the rebellious days of art school in East Anglia and adventures as a merchant seaman to sojourns in Paris through the 1940s, the letters paint an image of the extraordinary life that Freud led.

For Art Critics In The Making

Gain insight into the art world from the most exciting critics writing today…

The Story of Art without Men by Katy Hessel (Penguin, 2022)

Katy Hessel takes a swing at the art world’s definitive bible, E.H. Gombrich’s The Story of Art with a retelling of art history focused on women. Hessel’s ascent to artworld fame began in 2015 with the Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists and has since blossomed into an acclaimed podcast and now publication. With Hessel’s infectious joy, at its peak on the subject of painting, it’s hard not to feel galvanized by this ambitious reappraisal.

Art is Life: Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night by Jerry Saltz (Riverhead Books, 2022)

Senior art critic for New York Magazine Jerry Saltz prides himself on saying it how it is. The failed artist turned long-haul truck driver only started writing in his forties, but his frank, fearless, and openhearted voice earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 2018. The book brings together two decades of his writing, through the tumultuous years of 9/11, Obama, and Trump in America, all with Saltz’s typically wry brand of humor and get-up-and-go attitude.

For Young Art Lovers

Inspire budding artists and art critics with these art books for kids…

The Women Who Changed Art Forever: Feminist Art – The Graphic Novel by Valentina Grande and Eva Rossetti (Laurence King Publishing, 2021)

This graphic novel introduces young readers to four trailblazers of feminist art: Judy Chicago, who made the iconic installation The Dinner Party , with place settings named after famous women; Faith Ringgold, known for her woven narratives on racial and gender equality; the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta , who used her body in nature; and the anonymous Guerilla Girls who have held the art world to account over the lack of female representation.

Black Artists Shaping the World by Sharna Jackson and Zoé Whitley (Thames & Hudson, 2021)

Children’s author Sharna Jackson and Director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery, Zoé Whitley, who curated the magnificent Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power exhibition, combine forces in this celebration of Black artists for young readers. From Kerry James Marshall and Amy Sherald to Lubaina Himid and Chris Ofili , the book focuses on twenty-six artists from Africa and the African diaspora.

For Art History Lovers

Lose yourself in these exquisitely researched books…

The Real and the Romantic: English Art Between Two World Wars ​By Frances Spalding (Thames & Hudson, 2022)

Art historian Frances Spalding turns her attention to the tumultuous era between the world wars in England. The angular vistas of Paul Nash and idyllic meadows of Stanley Spencer speak to the importance of the landscape as a symbol of trauma and rejuvenation. Spalding examines the period through the framework of the ‘real’ and the ‘romantic,’ charting the road to recovery after World War I, the surge of new ideas and the pull of the past, and the shadow of another war.

A Life of Picasso Volume IV: The Minotaur Years: 1933–1943 by John Richardson (Knopf, 2021)

The much anticipated fourth volume of John Richardson’s biography of Pablo Picasso is finally here, centered upon the artist’s mythological alter ego – the half-bull, half-man Minotaur. The third volume left off with the collapse of Picasso’s marriage to Olga Khokhlova, and takes up here with the blossoming love affair with Surrealist photographer Dora Maar, the rise of fascism in Europe, and life in occupied Paris. Sadly, Richardson passed away before he could complete this herculean project, but this series of biographies is undoubtedly one of the finest on Picasso.

For Fashion Lovers

Be swept away by the best fashion books of the year…

Wonderland by Annie Leibovitz (Phaidon, 2021)

Annie Leibovitz first tumbled into the wonderland of fashion in the late 1990s, when she covered the Paris couture shows for Vogue at the behest of Anna Wintour, shooting Kate Moss and Puff Daddy. This anthology of fashion photographs charts Leibovitz’s magical journey through the world of fashion that is little known, from images of Serena Williams and Cate Blanchett to RuPaul and Nancy Pelosi.

Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech (DelMonico Books, 2022)

When Virgil Abloh , artistic director of Louis Vuitton and founder of the fashion label Off-White, passed away in 2021, there was a tremendous outpouring of grief from the worlds of fashion and art. This catalog accompanies the acclaimed exhibition of the same name that has traveled from Chicago to Doha to New York and attests to Abloh’s ability to combine the classic with the zeitgeist of the here and now.

Relevant sources to learn more

The Storytellers’ Stories: The Best Documentaries About Artists 10 Books Illustrated by Great Artists Lost in the Stacks: Art Bookstores Around the World

Wondering where to start?

15 Engrossing Artist Biographies and Memoirs to Read Now

We spotlight a selection of our favourite artists’ autobiographies and biographies, from the empowering to the scandalous, for your summer reading inspiration

Summer is upon us and this year, more than ever, it feels pertinent to pick holiday reads that will uplift and inspire. Where better to turn to, then, than artists’ memoirs and biographies – filled as they are with tales of overcoming life’s hardships, fights for justice and recognition in and outside of the art world, the quest to forge a legacy through art, and, more often than not, a juicy scandal or two to keep the reader’s interest piqued. Here, we’ve selected 15 of our favourites for your perusal, spanning the empowering, the ephemeral, the political and the downright provocative (Diego Rivera, we’re looking at you).

1.   We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold is one of America’s most renowned artists and activists, whose inherently political, exquisitely executed work – from “story quilts” to paintings – tackle civil rights and gender inequality head on. But Ringgold has had to fight hard for her successes, a story she shares in her stunning, illustrated memoir We Flew over the Bridge . In it, Ringgold details the many prejudices she’s battled and the challenges she’s faced in balancing her thriving artistic career with motherhood, sharing words of advice and empowerment along the way. It makes for magical reading; in the words of Maya Angelou: “Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American, and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully.”

2.  Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney by Beauford Delaney and David Leeming

Amazing Grace paints a poignant picture of the celebrated African American artist Beauford Delaney, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and later – following a move to Paris in the 1950s – a noted abstract expressionist. Delaney’s tale is both remarkable and heartbreaking: he was a much loved character, who counted Henry Miller and James Baldwin among his close friends, yet he often felt isolated and underappreciated, struggling with mental illness throughout his life. His wonderfully vibrant paintings boast an extraordinary psychological depth, betraying the hardships he faced and his determination to keep going no matter what. “He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer darkness,” Baldwin once wrote.

3.  Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann

A memoir quite unlike any other, this book by American photographer Sally Mann weaves together words and images to form a vivid personal history, revealing the ways in which Mann’s ancestry has informed the themes that dominate her work (namely “family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South”). Mann decided to write the book after unearthing a whole host of unexpected family secrets – “deceit and scandal ... clandestine affairs, dearly loved and disputed family land ... racial complications, vast sums of money made and lost, the return of the prodigal son, and maybe even bloody murder” – while sorting through boxes of old family papers and photographs. In gripping prose, she allows us to follow her on her resulting journey of self-discovery, shedding pertinent light on her image-making practice at every turn.

4.  Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz

David Wojnarowicz ’s beloved collection of creative essays, Close to the Knives , remains a vital work – “a scathing, sexy, sublimely humorous and honest personal testimony to the ‘Fear of Diversity in America’” (as per its inside flap). It’s an intensely powerful memoir that guides the reader across the American artist’s life – from his violent suburban childhood through a period of homelessness in New York City to his ascent to fame (and infamy) as one of America’s most provocative creators and queer icons – inciting action and self-examination on every page. In the words of Publishers Weekly : “ What Kerouac was to a generation of alienated youth, what Genet was to the gay demimonde in postwar Europe, Wojnarowicz may well be to a new cadre of artists compelled by circumstance to speak out in behalf of personal freedom.”

5.  Diane Arbus by Patricia Bosworth

Patricia Bosworth’s fantastic  Diane Arbus biography takes a deep dive into the turbulent life of the seminal American imagemaker, whose unflinching photographs of marginalised groups sought to challenge preconceived notions of “normality” and “abnormality” – with extraordinary results. Through Bosworth’s shrewd investigation, and interviews with Arbus’ friends, colleagues and family members, we learn of the ideas and inspirations that drove her, the fears and anguish that plagued her, her pampered childhood and passionate marriage, and the tragic turn her life took – in spite of growing artistic acclaim – resulting in her suicide in 1971.

6.  Ninth Street Women: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel  

This book is the brilliant tale of five brilliant women artists: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, who burst onto the male-dominated New York art scene in the 1950s, smashing down gender barriers along the way. Each was an indomitable force in their own right – Krasner, an assertive leader and hellraiser; de Kooning, a great thinker; Hartigan, a fiercely determined housewife-turned-painter; Mitchell, a vulnerable soul with a steely exterior and prodigious talent; Frankenthaler, a well-schooled New Yorker, who shunned a traditional career path to follow her dreams. But together, “from their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved”, they changed the face of postwar American art and society forever.

7.  Voices in the Mirror: An Autobiography by Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks ’ autobiography Voices in the Mirror is a compelling and empowering read. It traces the American photographer’s difficult early life in Minnesota – where he became homeless, following his mother’s death – through his groundbreaking and meteoric rise as an image-maker (the first Black photographer at Vogue and Life , no less) and thereafter as a Hollywood screenwriter, director and novelist. Parks was a man of great compassion and courageous vision, whose work spanned “intimate portrayals of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini; of the Muslim and African American icons Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali; of the young militants of the civil rights and black power movements; and of the tragic experiences of the less famous, like the Brazilian youngster Flavio”. Suffice to say that incredible stories and  words of wisdom abound.

8.  Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Barnaby Martin

Ai Weiwei  has spent his entire career creating very beautiful, deeply political works that challenge and confront his country’s totalitarian regime – to global acclaim. But rising the ranks to become China’s most famous living artist and activist has come at a price. In April of 2011, just six months after his vast, thought-provoking sculpture Sunflower Seeds was installed in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall , Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing Capital International Airport and detained illegally for over two months in dire conditions. Shortly after his release, Barnaby Martin travelled to Beijing to interview the artist about his imprisonment and to discover more about “what is really going on behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party”. Hanging Man is the result – a highly informative and stirring account of “Weiwei’s life, art, and activism”, as well as “a meditation on the creative process, and on the history of art in modern China”.

9.  Gluck: Her Biography  by Diana Souhami

In Gluck , author Diana Souhami examines the radical life and work of British painter Hannah Gluckstein (1895-1978), who took on the name Gluck, with “no prefix, suffix, or quotes”, in her twenties to reflect her gender non-conforming identity. Famed for her masculine, undeniably chic style of dress, her passionate affairs with society women, and her emotive portraits, flower paintings and landscapes, Gluck was provocative and tender, fierce and gifted in equal measure – and decades ahead of her time. This excellent biography “captures this paradoxical ... woman in all her complexity”, to page-turning effect.

10.  Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester

As its title suggests, this book is not a biography as such, but a series of nine interviews with the inimitable figurative painter, Francis Bacon . They were conducted by the late art critic and curator David Sylvester over the course of 25 years, from 1962 to 1986, and thereafter compiled into what has long been heralded a classic, offering an illuminating glimpse into one of the great creative minds of the 20th century. In it, the British painter contemplates the fundamental problems involved in making art, as well as his own “obsessive thinking about how to remake the human form in paint” (to quote the book’s back cover), revealing a great deal about his radical practice and storied past in the process. Cited by David Bowie as one of his all-time favourite books, it is essential reading not just for Bacon fans, but for anyone in search of creative impetus.

11.  My Art, My Life: An Autobiography Novel by Diego Rivera and Gladys March

My Art, My Life by Diego Rivera is a wild read, offering juicy first-person insight into the world of the larger-than-life Mexican painter. Rivera recounted his life’s story to the young American writer Gladys March over the course of 13 years, leading up to his death in 1957. The book sheds fascinating light on Rivera’s radical approach to modern mural painting, his strong political ideology and his equally unerring devotion to women (he married  Frida Kahlo not once but twice, you’ll remember). In the words of the San Francisco Chronicle : “There is no lack of exciting material. A lover at nine, a cannibal at 18, by his own account, Rivera was prodigiously productive of art and controversy.”

12.  Sophie Calle: True Stories by Sophie Calle

First published in French in 1994, and since expanded and printed in English, True Stories , by the French conceptual artist Sophie Calle , is a real gem. Calle’s idiosyncratic oeuvre comprises controversial explorations of “the tensions between the observed, the reported, the secret and the unsaid,” in the words of the book’s cover, spanning photography, film, and text. Many of her pieces revolve around the documentation of other people’s lives, and the insertion of herself into them (think: her 1980 work Suite Vénitienne , where she followed a stranger from Venice to Paris), but True Stories is entirely focused on Calle herself. Through a montage of typically poetic and fragmented autobiographical texts, and photographs, the artist “offers up her own story – childhood, marriage, sex, death – with brilliant humour, insight and pleasure”.

13.  Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase

This book centres on the late Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa – best known for her breathtaking hanging-wire sculptures and bold, urban installations and fountains. Asawa survived an adolescence spent in World War Two Japanese-American internment camps, before securing a place at the revolutionary art school Black Mountain College. There she discovered her signature medium as a lyrical means of challenging the conventions of material and form. Later, Asawa would become a pioneering advocate for arts education in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, while raising six children, battling lupus and continuing to work. By incorporating Asawa’s own writing and sketches, photographs, and interviews with her loved ones, Marilyn Chase conjures up a fully rounded image of a visionary creator, who “wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and transformed everything she touched into art”.

14.  Hannah H öch : Life Portrait: A Collaged Autobiography by Hannah Höch and Alma-Elisa Kittner

German Dadaist and collage artist Hannah Höch’s esteemed career spanned two world wars and most of the 20th century, and by the age of 83, she was ready to reflect. The result was her final, largest photo-collage, Life Portrait (1972-3), comprising 38 sections and measuring nearly four by five feet. It is a self portrait-cum-memoir, alluding to the different periods of Höch’s life and work, while “ironically and poetically commenting on key political, social and artistic events from the previous 50 years.” It also includes imagery of her favoured themes and inspirations (“fashion imagery, news photographs, African art and pictures of plants and animals”) as well as multiple pictures of herself, identifiable by her signature bob haircut. This unique book presents the collage section by section, alongside relevant quotes and explanatory texts by Alma-Elisa Kittner, acting as a brilliant meditation on “Höch’s final masterpiece, and the life’s work it represents”.

15.  Georgia O’Keeffe by Roxana Robinson

Roxana Robinson’s acclaimed  Georgia O’Keeffe biography is a sensitive and enthralling investigation into the life and work of the so-called “mother of American Modernism”. It takes an in-depth look at O’Keeffe’s influences, from abstraction and photography to Asian art, and how she assimilated these into her singular painting practice – “the red hills, the magnified flowers, the great crosses and white bones”. It also shines a light on the many intense relationships the artist forged throughout her life, from her marriage to the revered photographer Alfred Stieglitz to her scandalous relationship with Juan Hamilton, a man six decades her junior. Best of all, it includes plenty of O’Keeffe’s own words – in the form of her letters and writings – allowing the artist herself to play a key role in the telling of her own multifaceted, infinitely inspiring story.

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The Best Reviewed Memoirs and Biographies of 2022

Featuring buster keaton, jean rhys, bernardine evaristo, kate beaton, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Memoir and Biography .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Liveright) 17 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span … it is not a memoir, nor is it an absolute history, nor is it entirely a personal reflection or a crepuscular credo. It is, in fact, all of these things helixed together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his misgivings, his anger, his pride, his doubt, all of them belonging, eventually, to us … O’Toole, an agile cultural commentator, considers himself to be a representative of the blank slate on which the experiment of change was undertaken, but it’s a tribute to him that he maintains his humility, his sharpness and his enlightened distrust …

O’Toole writes brilliantly and compellingly of the dark times, but he is graceful enough to know that there is humor and light in the cracks. There is a touch of Eduardo Galeano in the way he can settle on a telling phrase … But the real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time. O’Toole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.”

–Colum McCann ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (Milkweed)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Assured and affecting … A powerful and bracing memoir … This is a book that will make you see the world differently: it asks you to reconsider the animals and insects we often view as pests – the rat, for example, and the moth. It asks you to look at the sea and the sky and the trees anew; to wonder, when you are somewhere beautiful, whether you might be in a thin place, and what your responsibilities are to your location.It asks you to show compassion for people you think are difficult, to cultivate empathy, to try to understand the trauma that made them the way they are.”

–Lynn Enright ( The Irish Times )

3. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

14 Rave • 4 Positive

“It could hardly be more different in tone from [Beaton’s] popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant … Yes, it’s funny at moments; Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction; it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment …

There are some gorgeous drawings in Ducks of the snow and the starry sky at night. But the human terrain, in her hands, is never only black and white … And it’s this that gives her story not only its richness and depth, but also its astonishing grace. Life is complex, she tell us, quietly, and we are all in it together; each one of us is only trying to survive. What a difficult, gorgeous and abidingly humane book. It really does deserve to win all the prizes.”

–Rachel Cooke ( The Guardian )

4. Stay True by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 3 Positive

“… quietly wrenching … To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. Hsu captures the past by conveying both its mood and specificity … This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life … Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

5.  Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo (Grove)

13 Rave • 4 Positive

“Part coming-of-age story and part how-to manual, the book is, above all, one of the most down-to-earth and least self-aggrandizing works of self-reflection you could hope to read. Evaristo’s guilelessness is refreshing, even unsettling … With ribald humour and admirable candour, Evaristo takes us on a tour of her sexual history … Characterized by the resilience of its author, it is replete with stories about the communities and connections Evaristo has cultivated over forty years … Invigoratingly disruptive as an artist, Evaristo is a bridge-builder as a human being.”

–Emily Bernard ( The Times Literary Supplement )

1. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

14 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Rundell is right that Donne…must never be forgotten, and she is the ideal person to evangelise him for our age. She shares his linguistic dexterity, his pleasure in what TS Eliot called ‘felt thought’, his ability to bestow physicality on the abstract … It’s a biography filled with gaps and Rundell brings a zest for imaginative speculation to these. We know so little about Donne’s wife, but Rundell brings her alive as never before … Rundell confronts the difficult issue of Donne’s misogyny head-on … This is a determinedly deft book, and I would have liked it to billow a little more, making room for more extensive readings of the poems and larger arguments about the Renaissance. But if there is an overarching argument, then it’s about Donne as an ‘infinity merchant’ … To read Donne is to grapple with a vision of the eternal that is startlingly reinvented in the here and now, and Rundell captures this vision alive in all its power, eloquence and strangeness”

–Laura Feigel ( The Guardian )

2. The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (Harper)

12 Rave • 3 Positive

“Compelling … We know about Auschwitz. We know what happened there. But Freedland, with his strong, clear prose and vivid details, makes us feel it, and the first half of this book is not an easy read. The chillingly efficient mass murder of thousands of people is harrowing enough, but Freedland tells us stories of individual evils as well that are almost harder to take … His matter-of-fact tone makes it bearable for us to continue to read … The Escape Artist is riveting history, eloquently written and scrupulously researched. Rosenberg’s brilliance, courage and fortitude are nothing short of amazing.”

–Laurie Hertzel ( The Star Tribune )

3. I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour (W. W. Norton & Company)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Pan

“…illuminating and meticulously researched … paints a deft portrait of a flawed, complex, yet endlessly fascinating woman who, though repeatedly bowed, refused to be broken … Following dismal reviews of her fourth novel, Rhys drifted into obscurity. Ms. Seymour’s book could have lost momentum here. Instead, it compellingly charts turbulent, drink-fueled years of wild moods and reckless acts before building to a cathartic climax with Rhys’s rescue, renewed lease on life and late-career triumph … is at its most powerful when Ms. Seymour, clear-eyed but also with empathy, elaborates on Rhys’s woes …

Ms. Seymour is less convincing with her bold claim that Rhys was ‘perhaps the finest English woman novelist of the twentieth century.’ However, she does expertly demonstrate that Rhys led a challenging yet remarkable life and that her slim but substantial novels about beleaguered women were ahead of their time … This insightful biography brilliantly shows how her many battles were lost and won.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Wall Street Journal )

4. The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

9 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Grisly yet inspiring … Fitzharris depicts her hero as irrepressibly dedicated and unfailingly likable. The suspense of her narrative comes not from any interpersonal drama but from the formidable challenges posed by the physical world … The Facemaker is mostly a story of medical progress and extraordinary achievement, but as Gillies himself well knew—grappling daily with the unbearable suffering that people willingly inflicted on one another—failure was never far behind.”

5. Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis (Knopf)

8 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Keaton fans have often complained that nearly all biographies of him suffer from a questionable slant or a cursory treatment of key events. With Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life —at more than 800 pages dense with research and facts—Mr. Curtis rectifies that situation, and how. He digs deep into Keaton’s process and shows how something like the brilliant two-reeler Cops went from a storyline conceived from necessity—construction on the movie lot encouraged shooting outdoors—to a masterpiece … This will doubtless be the primary reference on Keaton’s life for a long time to come … the worse Keaton’s life gets, the more engrossing Mr. Curtis’s book becomes.”

–Farran Smith Nehme ( The Wall Street Journal )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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The Best New Biographies and Memoirs to Read in 2024

This year sees some riveting and remarkable lives—from artist ai weiwei to singer-songwriter joni mitchell—captured on the page..

A life story can be read for escapist pleasure. But at other times, reading a memoir or biography can be an expansive exercise, opening us up to broader truths about our world. Often, it’s an edifying experience that reminds us of our universal human vulnerability and the common quest for purpose in life.

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Biographies and memoirs charting remarkable lives—whether because of fame, fortune or simply fascination—have the power to inspire us for their depth, curiosity or challenges. This year sees a bumper calendar of personal histories enter bookshops, grappling with enigmatic public figures like singer Joni Mitchell and writer Ian Fleming , to nuanced analysis of how motherhood or sociopathy shape our lives—for better and for worse.

Here we compile some of the most rewarding biographies and memoirs out in 2024. There are stories of trauma and recovery, art as politics and politics as art, and sentences as single life lessons spread across books that will make you rethink much about personal life stories. After all, understanding the triumphs and trials of others can help us see how we can change our own lives to create something different or even better.

Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei and illustrated by Gianluca Costantini

Ai Weiwei , the iconoclastic artist and fierce critic of his homeland China, mixes fairy tales with moral lessons to evocatively retrace the story of his life in graphic form. Illustrations are by Italian artist Gianluca Costantini . “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist,” Weiwei writes in Zodiac , as he embraces everything from animals found in the Chinese zodiac to mystical folklore tales with anamorphic animals to argue the necessity of art as politics incarnate. The meditative exercise uses pithy anecdotes alongside striking visuals to sketch out a remarkable life story marked by struggle. It’s one weaving political manifesto, philosophy and personal memoir to engage readers on the necessity of art and agitation against authority in a world where we sometimes must resist and fight back.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

Already well-known for her experimental writings, Sheila Heti takes a decade of diary entries and maps sentences against the alphabet, from A to Z. The project is a subversive rethink of our relationship to introspection—which often asks for order and clarity, like in diary writing—that maps new patterns and themes in its disjointed form. Heti plays with both her confessionals and her sometimes formulaic writing style (like knowingly using “Of course” in entries) to retrace the changes made (and unmade) across ten years of her life. Alphabetical Diaries is a sometimes demanding book given the incoherence of its entries, but remains an illuminating project in thinking about efforts at self-documentation.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

Unlike her previous work The Empathy Exams , which examined how we relate to one another and on human suffering, writer Leslie Jamison wrestles today with her own failed marriage and the grief of surviving single parenting. After the birth of her daughter, Jamison divorces her partner “C,” traverses the trials and tribulations of rebound relationships (including with “an ex-philosopher”) and confronts unresolved emotional pains born of her own life living under the divorce of her parents. In her intimate retelling—paired with her superb prose—Jamison charts a personal history that acknowledges the unending divide mothers (and others) face dividing themselves between partners, children and their own lives.

Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch

Whether dancing figures or a “radiant baby,” the recognizable cartoonish symbols in Keith Haring ’s art endure today as shorthand signs representing both his playfulness and politicking. Haring (1958-1990) is the subject of writer Brad Gooch ’s deft biography, Radiant , a book that mines new material from the archive along with interviews with contemporaries to reappraise the influential quasi-celebrity artist. From rough beginnings tagging graffiti on New York City walls to cavorting with Andy Warhol and Madonna on art pieces, Haring battled everything from claims of selling out to over-simplicity. But he persisted with work that leveraged catchy quotes and colorful imagery to advance unsavory political messages—from AIDS to crack cocaine. A life tragically cut short at 31 is one powerfully celebrated in this new noble portrait.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul Charles

In The House of Hidden Meaning , celebrated drag queen, RuPaul , reckons with a murky inner world that has shaped—and hindered—a lifetime of gender-bending theatricality. The figurative house at the center of the story is his “ego,” a plaguing barrier that apparently long inhibited the performer from realizing dreams of greatness. Now as the world’s most recognizable drag queen—having popularized the art form for mainstream audiences with the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race —RuPaul reflects on the power that drag and self-love have long offered across his difficult, and sometimes tortured, life. Readers expecting dishy stories may be disappointed, but the psychological self-assessment in the pages of this memoir is far more edifying than Hollywood gossip could ever be.

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Patric Gagne is an unlikely subject for a memoir on sociopaths. Especially since she is a former therapist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Still, Gagne makes the case that after a troubled childhood of antisocial behavior (like stealing trinkets and cursing teachers) and a difficult adulthood (now stealing credit cards and fighting authority figures), she receives a diagnosis of sociopathy. Her memoir recounts many episodes of bad behavior—deeds often marked by a lack of empathy, guilt or even common decency—where her great antipathy mars any ability for her to connect with others. Sociopath is a rewarding personal exposé that demystifies one vilified psychological condition so often seen as entirely untreatable or irreparable. Only now there’s a familiar face and a real story linked to the prognosis.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare is an acclaimed novelist and an astute biographer, delivering tales that wield a discerning eye to subjects and embrace a robust attention to detail. Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the legendary creator of James Bond, is the latest to receive Shakespeare’s treatment. With access to new family materials from the Fleming estate, the seemingly contradictory Fleming is seen anew as a totally “different person” from his popular image. Taking cues from Fleming’s life story—from a refined upbringing spent in expensive private schools to working for Reuters as a journalist in the Soviet Union—Shakespeare reveals how these experiences shaped the elusive world of espionage and intrigue created in Fleming’s novels. Other insights include how Bond was likely informed by Fleming’s cavalier father, a major who fought in WWI. A martini (shaken, not stirred) is best enjoyed with this bio.

Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie , while giving a rare public lecture in New York in August 2022, was violently stabbed by an assailant brandishing a knife . The attack saw Rushdie lose his left hand and his sight in one eye. Speaking to The New Yorker a year later , he confirmed a memoir was in the works that would confront this harrowing existential experience: “When somebody sticks a knife into you, that’s a first-person story. That’s an ‘I’ story.” Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder is promised to be his raw, revelatory and deeply psychological confrontation with the violent incident. Like the sword of Damocles, brutality has long stalked Rushdie ever since the 1989 fatwa issued against the author, following the publication of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses . The answer to such barbarity, Rushdie is poised to argue, is by finding the strength to stand up again.

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019–2022 by Peter Schjeldahl (Release: May 14)

Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022), longstanding art critic of The New Yorker , confronted his mortality when he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2019. The resulting essay collection he then penned, The Art of Dying , is a masterful meditation on one life preoccupied entirely with aesthetics and criticism. It’s a discursive tactic for a memoir that avoids discussing Schjeldahl’s coming demise while equally confirming its impending visit by avoiding it. Acknowledging that he finds himself “thinking about death less than I used to,” Schjeldahl spends most of the pages revisiting familiar art subjects—from Edward Hopper ’s output to Peter Saul ’s Pop Art—as vehicles to re-examine his own remarkable life. With a life that began in the humble Midwest, Schjeldahl says his birthplace was one that ultimately availed him to write so plainly and cogently on art throughout his career. Such posthumous musings prove illuminating lessons on the potency of American art, with whispered asides on the tragedy of death that will come for all of us.

Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers (Release: June 11)

Joni Mitchell has enjoyed a remarkable revival recently, even already being one of the most acclaimed and enduring singer/songwriters. After retiring from public appearances for health reasons in the 2010s, Mitchell, 80, has returned to the spotlight with a 2021 Kennedy Centers honor , an appearance accepting the 2023 Gershwin Prize and even a live performance at this year’s Grammy Awards . It’s against this backdrop of public celebration of Mitchell that NPR music critic Ann Powers retraces the life story and musical (re)evolution of the singer, from folk to jazz genres and rock to soul music, across five decades for the American songbook. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell,” she writes in the introduction. Instead, Powers’ project is one showing how Mitchell’s many journeys—from literal road trips inspiring tracks like “All I Want” to inner probings of Mitchell’s psyche, such as the song “Both Sides Now”—have always inspired Mitchell’s enduring, emotive and palpable output. These travels hold the key, Powers says, to understanding an enigmatic artist.

• SEE ALSO : ‘Under the Bridge’ Review: A Miniseries That Interrogates the True Crime Genre

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Best Biographies

Award winning biographies of 2022, recommended by sophie roell.

Five Books Expert Recommendations

In telling stories of lives that are often very different from our own and yet connected to us by our common humanity, biographies are some of the most compelling nonfiction books around. Five Books editor Sophie Roell rounds up some of the biographies that have won or been shortlisted for prizes in 2022.

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane by Paul Auster

The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell

Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert

1 All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner

2 the last king of america: the misunderstood reign of george iii by andrew roberts, 3 burning boy: the life and work of stephen crane by paul auster, 4 the escape artist: the man who broke out of auschwitz to warn the world by jonathan freedland, 5 super-infinite: the transformations of john donne by katherine rundell, 6 chasing me to my grave: an artist's memoir of the jim crow south by winfred rembert.

The National Book Critics Circle award for biography and the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography

The LA Times book prize for biography

Biographies Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography

The 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography (which also includes works of autobiography) went to Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by the late Winfred Rembert (1945-2021) . Rembert was from a family of field labourers in Cuthbert, Georgia and taught himself to paint at the age of 51 using leather tooling skills he learned in prison. In the preface, he writes that he had been scared to draw attention to what happened to him in Cuthbert during his lifetime, and so he only composed his memoir as he was dying. It’s a wrenching tale told in a very direct and touching way. The book also includes pictures of his paintings—of cotton fields, of his mother giving him away as a baby.

December 17, 2022

Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]

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Best Biographies of 2022

OCT. 18, 2022

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An essential, eminently readable volume for anyone interested in Lincoln and his era. Full review >

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An exemplary study of a life of public service with more than its share of tragedies and controversies. Full review >

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An outstanding addition to the groaning bookshelves on one of the world’s most recognizable leaders. Full review >

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A sweeping, insightful, richly detailed family and American history. Full review >

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A wide-ranging biography that fully captures the subject’s ingenuity, originality, and musical genius. Full review >

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SPECIAL FEATURE: 8th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art

Artists: Stephan Balkenhol, Georg Baselitz, Alexander Brodsky, Evgenia Buravleva, VALIE EXPORT, Harm Weistra & Eddi Bal, Sonja Gangl, Evgeny Granilshchikov, Alex Katz, Andrey Kuzkin, Maria Kulagina, Halla bint Khalid, Rashid al Khalifa, Mohammed Khoja, Maria Lassnig, Leyla, Alexey Luka, Orhan Mammadov, Tony Matelli, Muntean / Rosenblum, Hermann Nitsch, Pavel Otdelnov, Paola Pivi, Egor Plotnikov, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Neo Rauch, Gerhard Richter, Natalia Sitnikova, Maria Suvorova, Lijun Fang, Xenia Hausner, Zhang Huan

Exhibition title: The Main Project “Orienteering And Positioning”

Venue: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Date: October 31, 2019 – January 22, 2020

Curator: Dmitri Tcherniakov

Architects : Sergei Tchoban, Agniya Sterligova

Designer : Igor Gurovich

Photography: Kiki Petratou / All images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art

Moscow Biennale aims to be not only a particular powerful event, but also a new institutional project that strengthens relationships between curators, art historians, managers, federal authorities, sponsors and trustees, mass media and public opinion on contemporary art both in and outside Russia itself. It is the organisers’ intention that the Moscow Biennale will be a reproducible strong structure that finds its place in the network of other major international art forums.

The Main Project of the 8th Moscow Biennale consists of more than 50 works of 34 artists from 11 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the USA.

For the first time one of the world’s leading museums – Albertina (Vienna, Austria) – became a partner of the Moscow Biennale. The masterpieces of 11 artists of the XX century will come from the collection of Albertina Museum.

Dmitri Tcherniakov, the curator Main Project of the 8th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art:

«This is my first experience of curatorial work in such a large project. I am very glad that something like this happened in my life. This experience connects a lot of things in my life, because, as I said, the visual is a very important part of what I do and what I love in the theater. Therefore, this is the main motivation. As I always say, I am in favor of expanding the boundaries between hermetic arts, which are usually rarely interested in each other.

In General, what is creativity? Creativity, if we talk simly – is the creation of something new, so we all do it in its own way and in different genres. Therefore, I am very grateful that all this happened, and thank you to Sergei Tchoban, who made a great project, and the organization of the Moscow Biennale, Julia Muzikiantskaya, and all the artists who is participating in the Main Project. Unfortunately, many artists who planned to take part in this project couldn’t do it and I express them my apologies. The exhibition, I hope, will impress visitors. The Project will be opened on October 31st»

Julia Muzikantskaya, the president of the Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art:

«The main project of the 8th Moscow Biennale is the extraordinary and bright exhibition. It seems to me that no one has ever done something of this kind, which is not surprising. I would like to thank the unique team of curators: Dmitri Tcherniakov, architects Sergei Tchoban and Agniya Sterligova and, of course, one of the leading world’s museums – Albertina. The main idea of any Biennale is the dialogue of artists, the creative interaction. It was important for us that Russian artists would have the opportunity for this dialogue with the recognized celebrities of the world and their best art works. Of course, this was made possible mainly because our partners and trustees. I would like to emphasize that for many years the creation of the new pieces for Moscow Biennale has become possible due to the support of Leonard Blavatnik.

Let me express my gratitude to our constant partners – Transneft, Gazprombank, Ingosstrakh, Metropol and Azimut hotels and new and, I hope, also constant – MTS and Aeroflot.

I would like to thank the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia O.U. Golodets and the Minister of Culture V.R. Medinsky, the Moscow government for the support provided.

Special thanks to Zelfira Tregulova and the team of State Tretyakov Gallery.»

Klaus Albrecht Schröder, general director of Albertina

«For many years the Albertina Museum has had close partnerships with renowned Russian museums.

Exhibitions at the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg as well as co-operations with the Pushkin Museum are now followed for the first time by a co-operation with the Tretyakow Gallery.

In the Main project of the 8th Moscow Biennale, the Albertina Museum is presenting important positions of contemporary art from their rich collections. Many of these artists will be presented for the first time in Russia»

Zelfira Tregulova, the general director of the State Tretyakov Gallery:

“I think it is very important that such a significant event as the Moscow Biennale should continue to live and be held regularly. Russia, which is not presented often at international art exhibitions and fairs, should indicate that contemporary art is interesting, lively and relevant in our country.

It is very important that the participation of the contemporary art collection from the famous Albertina Museum in Vienna and the exhibiting of the most important contemporary artists’ works are planned during the Moscow Biennale in 2019. Most of those artists have become classics, and it is very important that their works will be shown in the space, where during the late 1980s-early 1990s the breakthrough exhibitions of the great artists, including Rauschenberg, Tinguely, Gilbert&George, Rosenquist, and many others were held. The presentation of works created in recent years by Russian artists is also very important. It emphasizes the continuity of the tradition of the presence of contemporary art – both International and Russian, in the space of the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val.”

Sergei Tchoban, the architect and author of the exposition design of the Main Project of the 8th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art:

«My participation in the 8th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art as the author of the exhibition design is a great honor for me and a very interesting creative challenge, and I am highly grateful to the organizers for their trust. The design of the exhibition, which was developed together with Agniya Sterligova, is based on the idea of the city of artists. Various parts are interpreted as separate “buildings” and “squares”, the content and form of which are dictated by the intentions of the artists participating in the exhibition. I hope that the visitors will see the space of the exhibition as a series of successively shown large-scale spaces, and each of them is full of bright and unexpected works of modern art.»

Harm Weistra & Eddi Bal, Requiem for a Falling Man , 2019, Dibond, mounting scarf, video

The Main Project “Orienteering And Positioning” , 2019, exhibition view, State Tretyakov Gallery, 8th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art

Herman Nitsch, Actions , 1962 – 2005

Stephan Balkenhol, Six standing men with black trousers and white shirts , 2013, Painted cedar of Lebanon, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Tony Matelli, Couple , 2015, Polyester, silicone, polyurethane, wood, steel, oil paints, hair, Collection of Ekaterina & Vladimir Semenikhin

Alexey Luka, Shelter , 2019, wood, plywood, banner fabric, found objects, metal, acrylic

Valery Koshlyakov, Angel castle , 1994, Corrugated cardboard, tempera, mixed media, Collection of Ekaterina & Vladimir Semenikhin

Zhang Huan, CPR foundation day is 1984 , 2011, Ashes of incense on canvas

Egor Plotnikov, A minute for awake , 2019, Wood, paper, acrylic

Alexander Brodsky, 1992, Roads , 2019, Installation

Rashid al Khalifa, Maze , 2018, Enamel on Stainless Steel

Gerhard Richter, Abstract Picture, Nr. 611 – 1 ., 1986, Oil on canvas, The ALBERINA Museum, Vienna, The Batliner Collection

Evgeny Granilshchikov, Tactics , 2019, Video Installation

Maria Kulagina, Catcher , 2019, Mixed media

Neo Rauch, Let’s move on to the next , 2015, Oil on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Muntean / Rosenblum, Untitled (Before we know it…) , 2000, Acrylic on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Vitaly Pushnitsky, Forest , 2019, & Character 2019, Oil on Canvas, wood

Alex Katz, Roses 2. , 1998, Oil on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Alex Katz, Jessica , 2017, Oil on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The Batliner Collection

Lijun Fang, 2014.9.30 ., 2004, Acrylic on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Lijun Fang, Untitled , 2005, Acrylic on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The ESSL Collection

Orhan Mammadov, The Idea of Saving Aesthetics , 2019, Multimedia Installation

Orhan Mammadov, The Idea of Saving Aesthetics, 2019, Multimedia Installation

Halla bint Khalid, Punching Bag , 2019, Leather, filling

Halla bint Khalid, Housekeeping , 2019, Broom, mop, duster and resin bucket

Mohammed Khoja, The Driving Jacket , 2018, Satin

Paola Pivi, 2019, installation view

Andrey Kuzkin, Prayers and Heroes , 2016 – 2019, Bread, salt, wood, acrylic, metal, pva

Georg Baselitz, My parents by Dix (Remix) , 2005, Oil on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – Permanent loan of the Viehof Collection

Georg Baselitz, Larry (Remix) , 2006, Oil on canvas, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – Permanent loan of the Viehof Collection

Evgeniya Buravleva, Midday , 2019, Oil on canvas

Pavel Otdelnov, MSW ‘Timokhovo’ , 2019, Oil on canvas

Leyla, All is sacred , 2019, Multimedia installation

Xenia Hausner, Scorpio Night , 1995, Acrylic and varnish on pressboard, The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna – The Batliner Collection

Natalia Sitnikova, Prometheus , 2019, Oil on Canvas, tempera / Apostle Peter, 2019, Oil on Canvas, tempera

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2022 Endangered species art exhibition

The Arlington Ecological Services Field Office is pleased to announce its fifth annual endangered species art show! The purpose of the exhibition is to raise awareness about the nation's threatened and endangered species and highlight the nexus between art and science. The exhibition is not a contest, and no awards are given. By submitting your artwork to the Endangered Species Art Exhibition, you agree to have a photo of your art published on the Arlington Ecological Services Field Office’s website ( https://www.fws.gov/office/arlington-ecological-services ), along with your first name and school. The show is open to all students K-12 and submissions should follow the guidelines below.

Subject matter

Artwork should celebrate an organism that lives or migrates through the United States and its waters. The main subject of the artwork should be an organism that is on the threatened and endangered species list, is a recovered species, or is a candidate species. Inspiration for subject matter can be found at https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/endangered-species .

• Artwork must be original.
• No lettering, words, signatures, or other markings can be visible on submitted artwork.
• Email a high-resolution image of your artwork to [email protected] by Friday, July 15, 2022. Accepted file formats include jpg, jpeg, tiff, png, and pdf.
• Include your name, school, and a brief description of your artwork.  

Accepted submissions will be available for download from our office webpage by August 15, 2022. We look forward to seeing your amazing works of art!

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Ukraine War Helped Push World Military Spending to 35-Year High, Study Says

The outlay reached $2.4 trillion last year, a research group found, 6.8 percent up on 2022. Tensions in Asia and the Middle East also contributed.

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By Lara Jakes

Lara Jakes writes about weapons and military aid for Ukraine.

The world spent more on military costs and weapons in 2023 than it had in 35 years, driven in part by the war in Ukraine and the threat of an expanded Russian invasion, according to an independent analysis released on Monday.

The study, by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, concluded that global military spending reached $2.4 trillion last year — a 6.8 percent increase from 2022. Growing tensions in Asia and across the Middle East also contributed to the rise, analysts found, while the United States alone spent $916 billion — more than one-third of the total — as the world’s largest military spender and weapons supplier.

“The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security,” said Nan Tian, a senior researcher at the institute, which has tracked military expenditures since at least 1988.

He described an “increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.”

Ukraine, in its first full year of war with Russia, devoted $64.8 billion to its military in 2023. That accounted for 58 percent of the government’s overall spending last year and 37 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Only seven other countries spent more on military and defense costs than Ukraine in 2023, analysts found.

One was Russia, which Mr. Tian estimated spent $109 billion last year — more than any other country except the United States and China. That projection was based on the $75 billion that Moscow announced last September it had already spent for 2023, Mr. Tian said, who added that Russia’s military spending could rise to $127 billion this year, depending on the value of the ruble.

Either way, and despite the secrecy and disinformation surrounding Moscow’s defense investments, the institute concluded that Russia had spent about 16 percent of its total government spending, or 5.9 percent of its gross domestic product, on its military in 2023 — the highest since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ukraine has so far fended off Russia with the help of American and European military aid that in 2023 amounted to at least $35 billion in weapons and other materiel that has already been delivered. (The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which also tracks military aid to Ukraine , puts the number at more than $100 billion from Canada, Europe and the United States since February 2022, but that includes support that has been committed and not yet delivered.)

At least some American aid to Ukraine includes funding to bolster NATO allies, American bases in Europe and domestic arms manufacturers that are replenishing weapons and ammunition stockpiles largely depleted in the West’s defense against Russia. Of a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine that the House of Representatives passed this past weekend, for example, at least $37 billion is expected to go to American weapons producers. In all, the Biden administration says it has given Ukraine more than $44 billion in security assistance since February 2022.

The war has also spurred European countries to step up military spending, which increased last year by about 16 percent across the continent, to $588 billion, according to the institute’s report. While some of the money went to Ukraine, leaders across Europe raised spending on their own national forces, most significantly in Eastern Europe, where military spending increased by 31 percent last year.

Twenty of NATO’s 32 member nations are expected to spend at least 2 percent of their G.D.P. on national defense this year; a decade ago, only three hit that benchmark.

“The cost of insecurity, the cost of a Russian victory, is far greater than any saving we could make now,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, told arms industry executives last week in Brussels.

“The cost of facing multiple threats and conflicts without being prepared is far greater than we can afford,” she said. “This is why it is time for Europe to step up on defense and security.”

Lara Jakes , based in Rome, reports on diplomatic and military efforts by the West to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. She has been a journalist for nearly 30 years. More about Lara Jakes

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Chasiv Yar, a small Ukrainian town, has been under relentless attack by Russian forces. Controlling the town  would put them in striking distance of key Ukrainian operational and supply centers.

The United States secretly shipped a new long-range missile system  to Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces immediately used the weapons to attack a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in the country’s southeast.

For residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city, daily Russian attacks have escalated fears  but have not brought life to a standstill. Here’s how a battered city  carries on.

Images From Year Three of the War: For all that time, photographers with The New York Times and other news organizations have chronicled the war , capturing a slice of how soldiers and civilians have experienced it. Some images will never leave them.

Nato’s Show of Force: About 90,000 NATO troops have been training in Europe for the Great Power war that most hope will never come : a clash between Russia and the West with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Resuming U.S. Military Aid: Weapons from the support package, considered “a lifeline” for Ukraine’s military , could be arriving on the battlefield within days . But experts say it could take weeks before there is a direct impact on the war . What would $60 billion buy ?

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .