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Georgia State University

40 Books Every Artist Should Check Out

ARTINFO.com recently published its list of 40 Books Every Artist Should Own. While we applaud the concept of artists creating robust personal collections, what budding artist can afford to buy all those books?!? Never fear! The Library has most of the books on the list (plus, like, a lot more… we have 1.5 million volumes).

Here’s the list, together with our call numbers and locations. What do you think of this list? What books do you think should be included?

Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim
N70 .A693 1997 | Library North 4

Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye by Rudolf Arnheim
N71 .A67 1974 | Library North 4

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
TR642 .B3713 1981 | Library North 3

Ways of Seeing by John Berger
N7430.5 .W39 | Library North 4

The Continental Aesthetics Reader, 2nd Edition Edited by Clive Cazeaux
We have the 1st edition: BH201 .C59 2000 | Library North 5

Art History by Marilyn Stokstad and Michael W. Cothren
We have the 3rd edition: N5300 .S923 2008 | Library North 4

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
BF575.H27 C85 1990 | Library North 5

History of Beauty by Umberto Eco
BH81 .S7513 2010 | Library North 5

On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
BH301.U5 S7613 2007 | Library North 5

Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students by James Elkins
N346.A1 E44 2001 | Library North 4

Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation by E.H. Gombrich
N70 .G615 1969 | Library North 4

Art in Theory: 1900 – 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, 2nd Edition Edited by Charles Harrison and Dr. Paul J. Wood, Wiley
N6490 .A7167 2003 | Library North 4

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin
PN37 .B4413 1986 | Library North 4

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 1: 1913-1926
PT2603.E455 A26 1996 | Library North 3

The Pink Glass Swan by Lucy Lippard
N72.F45 L56 1995 | Library North 4

Orientalism by Edward Said
DS12 .S24 1979 | Library North 5

Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists by Joseph Sheppard
NC760 .S53 1975 | Library South 5

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
N8600 .T485 2008 | Library North 4

The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari
N6922 .V492 | Library North 4

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin by Lawrence Weschler
N6537.I64 W4 2008 | Library North 4