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Our art books

Every Thursday, ArtoftheDay weekly reviews an art book recently published in French. All subjects are covered, whether it is primitive arts or design or even the most contemporary works.

The books we present are not necessarily best sellers or beautiful coffee table objects. Our critics may sometimes be scathing in their comments and if need be will point out any flaw or deficiency. But they only review works which by their originality, novelty and seriousness deserve your attention. Of course this small list is far from being exhaustive.

 We do not sell books… In fact, some of the ones we mention are already out of print and only available in second hand copies. But if one of these books should tempt you, we provide whenever possible, a link to an online bookshop that has indicated they can supply it, new or second hand.

Here are the books reviewed for you during the last weeks

Léonard de Vinci - Walter Isaacson

Léonard de Vinci

Walter Isaacson

It must not be very easy to skip from Steve Jobs and Einstein to Leonardo da Vinci. Grant you, they are all inventors, “disruptors” who have more than one thing in common: their curiosity, their tenacity and their genius. The biographer of the first two dedicated himself to the life of the third. Thanks to the label of “Best-seller of the New York Times” we know [...]

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La demeure en France. L’art de vivre heureux - Collective work

La demeure en France. L’art de vivre heureux

Collective work

There are other means than partying to be happy. Some choose to travel, but others prefer being home. As the poet du Bellay wrote, our home is our province, and so much more. He would have liked this book. Fie hundred years after his demise, he could still find in it traces form his time in the castle sin the middle of wine countries, manors and country homes [...]

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Jean Fournier, un galeriste amoureux de la couleur - Catherine Francblin

Jean Fournier, un galeriste amoureux de la couleur

Catherine Francblin

His name was rather common, but his career was definitely not: Jean Fournier was one of the most influential gallery owner sin Paris during the second half of the XXth century. This biography, which is the first of a series commissioned by the Comité professionnel des galeries d’art, describes with many details his professional life, that took him from being [...]

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Sur les murs. Histoire(s) de graffitis -

Sur les murs. Histoire(s) de graffitis

Can we express ourselves on walls? No way! The famous law of 29 July 1881 on the freedom of the press dictates strict rules for all urban posters or writing on walls. No doubt this was the reaction to the tendency of all citizens, throughout time, who have not hesitated to engrave their opinions on the stone of our walls. We have clear examples that go from Pompey [...]

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And the list, organised by subjects, of all those we have reviewed since March 2006

  • • André Gide et André Malraux. L’amitié à l’œuvre (1922-1951) - Jean-Pierre Prévost
  • 100 chefs-d’œuvre du Louvre - Adrien Goetz
  • A l’Est, la guerre sans fin. 1918-1923
  • Air in Time - Collective
  • Alexandre Séon, la beauté idéale
  • Alexandre Zinoview, un peintre russe sur le front français - Directed by Cécile Pichon-Bonin and Alexandre Sumpf
  • André Robillard, la fleur au fusil - Interviews with Françoise Monnin
  • Antoni Clavé, printed work - Collective
  • Art et liberté. Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt 1938-1948 - Directed by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath
  • Art et religion - de Chauvet à Lascaux - Alain Testart
  • Art for All - Directed by Tobias G. Natter, Max Hollein, Klaus Albrecht-Schröder
  • Arthur Cravan. Maintenant ? - Directed by Emmanuel Guigon
  • Aurès, 1935 - Photographs by Thérèse Rivière and Germaine Tillion, text by Christian Phéline
  • Autophoto - Under the direction of Xavier Barral and Philippe Séclier
  • Beat Generation New York San Francisco Paris - Directed by Philippe Alain Michaud
  • Bernard Pras - Colin Lemoine
  • Bibliothèques insolites - Alex Johnson
  • Bistrot ! De Baudelaire à Picasso - Directed by Stéphane Guégan
  • Bruno Moinard, du trait à la lumière - Serge Gleizes
  • Chaplin Personal, 1952-1973 - Yves Debraine
  • Color Line - Directed by Daniel Soutif,
  • Daniel Boudinet. Le temps de la couleur - Collective
  • Daniel Templon, une histoire d’art contemporain - Julie Verlaine
  • Des voyageurs à l’épreuve du terrain - Collective
  • Des(t)ins de guerre - Véronique Koehler
  • Dictionnaire du cubisme - Brigitte Leal
  • Dufy, le bonheur de vivre - Directed by Olivier Le Bihan
  • Édouard Pignon, Ostende (1946-1953) - Under the direction of Philippe Bouchet
  • Egon Schiele. The Complete Paintings 1909-1918 - Directed by Tobias G. Natter
  • Enfants de Paris 1939-1945 - Philippe Apeloig
  • Entre art des fous et art brut. La Collection Sainte-Anne - Anne-Marie Dubois
  • Fernell Franco, Cali clair-obscur
  • François Pinault, artiste, by José Alvarez - José Alvarez
  • Fromanger, de toutes les couleurs - Laurent Greilsamer
  • Gauguin, voyage au bout de la terre - Stéphane Guégan
  • George Desvallières, catalogue raisonné of the complete work - Directed by Catherine Ambroselli de Bayser
  • Guillaume Apollinaire/Paul Guillaume, Correspondance (1913-1918) - Directed by Laurence Campa and Peter Read
  • Hans Hartung, peintre et légionnaire
  • Helmar Lerski, pionnier de la lumière - Directed by Nicolas Feuille
  • Histoire de la critique d’art - Gérard-Georges Lemaire
  • Histoires d’œils - Philippe Costamagna
  • Icons of Modern Art. The Shchukin Collection - Directed by Anne Baldassari
  • Jacques-Henri Lartigue, un dandy à la plage - Bernard Toulier
  • Jean Fournier, un galeriste amoureux de la couleur - Catherine Francblin
  • Jean Jacques Lequeu. Dessinateur en architecture - Philippe Duboÿ
  • Kandinsky, 1933-1944, les années parisiennes - Collective
  • Katarzyna Kobro, Wladyslaw Strzeminski, une avant-garde polonaise
  • Kiefer Rodin - Collective
  • La demeure en France. L’art de vivre heureux - Collective work
  • La face cachée du marché de l’art - Georgina Adam
  • La Manufacture du meurtre - Alexandra Midal
  • La photographie, histoire et contre-histoire - François Brunet
  • La Phrase, une expérience de poésie urbaine - Karelle Ménine and Ruedi Baur
  • La valse des arbres et du ciel - Jean-Michel Guenassia
  • Le catalogue Goering - Archives diplomatiques and Jean-Marc Dreyfus
  • Le corps tatoué au Japon - Philippe Pons
  • Le droit à la beauté, chroniques de L’Express (1960-1992) - Pierre Schneider
  • Le Louvre de Clara Baum
  • Le Louvre de Clara Baum
  • Le monde selon Topor - Collective
  • Le musée de maquettes Claude-Nicolas Ledoux - Dominique Massounie
  • Le musée intime de Monet à Giverny - Sylvie Patin
  • Le mystère Clouzot - Under the direction of Noël Herpe
  • Le portrait d’un jeune homme de Rembrandt - Jan Six
  • Léonard de Vinci - Walter Isaacson
  • Les cafés littéraires - Gérard-Georges Lemaire
  • Les Pionnières, dans les ateliers de femmes artistes du XXe siècle - Texts by Elisabeth Védrenne and Valérie de Maulmin, photos by Catherine Panchout
  • Les pyramides imaginaires de René Burri
  • Les théoriciens de l’art - Directed by Carole Talon-Hugon
  • Liberty in Italia - Directed by Francesco Parisi and Anna Villari
  • Lumière, rire du ciel, Yahne Le Toumelin - Matthieu Ricard
  • L’art du canard - Interduck Collective
  • L’école enchantée de Raylambert - Daniel Durandet et Yves Frémion
  • L’Expressionnisme - Itzhak Goldberg
  • L’Histoire de France expliquée par la peinture - Guillaume Picon
  • L’Opéra de Charles Garnier, une œuvre d’art total - Gérard Fontaine, photographs by Jean-Pierre Delagarde
  • L’univers comme alphabet - Florian Rodari
  • Masterworks of Industrial Photography
  • Michel-Ange - Hector Obalk
  • Millet - Collective work
  • Mondes tsiganes - Directed by Ilsen About, Mathieu Pernot, and Adèle Sutre
  • Monet collectionneur - Marianne Mathieu and Dominique Lobstein
  • Né(e)s de l’écume et des rêves, les artistes et la mer - Collective
  • Nicolas Régnier, l’homme libre - Directed by Annick Lemoine and Adeline Collange-Perugi
  • Night Games - Photo Stefano Cerio, texts by Gabriel Bauret and Angela Madesani
  • No Photo - Pierrick Bourgault
  • Pastels du 16e au 21e siècle - Directed by Sylvie Wuhrmann and Aurélie Couvreur
  • Petite anthologie du dessin politique - Honoré
  • Philippe Comar. Dessin contre nature
  • Philippe Prost, leçon inaugurale de l’école de Chaillot
  • Picasso primitif - Directed by Yves Le Fur
  • Picasso, ce volcan jamais éteint - Conversations between Roland Dumas and Thierry Savatier
  • Pierre et Gilles, 40
  • Plant - Collective
  • Polyphonies - Alain Rey and Fabienne Verdier
  • Qui veut la peau de Vénus ? - Bruno Nassim Aboudrar
  • Ralph Gibson, Trilogie - Directed by Gilles Mora
  • Raoul Hausmann, photographies, 1927-1936 - Texts by Cécile Bargues
  • Rivages - Harry Gruyaert
  • Rodin, dessiner, découper - Sophie Biass-Fabiani
  • Roue libre - Pierre Alechinsky
  • Splendeurs & misères, Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910 - Collective
  • Sur les murs. Histoire(s) de graffitis
  • Temps suspendu, exploration urbaine - Under the direction of Céline Neveux
  • The Dutch in Paris, 1789-1914 - Collective
  • The Lost City of the Monkey God - Douglas Preston
  • The Train, June 8, 1968 - Paul Fusco, Rein Jelle Terpstra and Philippe Parreno
  • This Brutal World - Peter Chadwick
  • Tout sur l’archéologie - Directed by Paul Bahn
  • Un art écologique. Création plasticienne et anthropocène - Paul Ardenne
  • Un musée révolutionnaire, le musée des Monuments français d’Alexandre Lenoir - Directed by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier and Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot
  • Une maternité rouge - Christian Lax
  • Universe - Collective
  • Vanished Spain - Carlos Saura
  • Vermeer - Karl Schütz
  • Victor Hugo, choses nocturnes - Gérard Pouchain
  • Visiteurs de Versailles - Directed by Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide and Bertrand Rondot
  • Vitamin P3. New Perspectives in Painting, - Collective
  • Walter Sickert - Delphine Lévy
  • Wim Delvoye - Directed by Enrico Lunghi
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