• The best books on Modern British Painting - Modern Life & Modern Subjects: British Art in the Early Twentieth Century by Lisa Tickner
  • The best books on Modern British Painting - A Paradise Lost: The Neo-Romantic Imagination in Britain 1935-55 by David Alan Mellor
  • The best books on Modern British Painting - Francis Bacon by John Russell
  • The best books on Modern British Painting - David Hockney By David Hockney by David Hockney
  • The best books on Modern British Painting - Richard Smith Artworks 1956-2016 by Alex Massouras, Chris Stephens, David Alan Mellor & Martin Harrison

The best books on Modern British Painting, recommended by Chris Stephens

Artists the world over interpreted Modernism in very distinctive ways, explains the expert curator Chris Stephens. In Britain, painters like David Hockney and Francis Bacon worked in transatlantic dialogue with their contemporaries in the US, producing “English-accented echoes.” Here, Stephens selects five of the best books on Modern British painting that illuminate its place within a global movement.

  • Best Books on the Art Museum - The Art Museum: From Boullee to Bilbao by Andrew McClellan
  • Best Books on the Art Museum - A View from the Pacific: Re-Envisioning the Art Museum by Michael Govan
  • Best Books on the Art Museum - Anti-Museum by Adrian Franklin
  • Best Books on the Art Museum - Closed on Mondays: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Dinah Casson
  • Best Books on the Art Museum - Living Museums: Conversations with Leading Museum Directors by Donatien Grau

Best Books on the Art Museum, recommended by Charles Saumarez Smith

How has the architecture, vision, financing and public role of art museums around the world been transformed in the last century? And what does the history of art museums presage for their future as contested sites of cultural significance in the context of the pandemic’s challenge to public gathering places? Charles Saumarez Smith, one of the UK’s leading museum figures, brings us five books that reveal both the historic, civic humanist mission of the art museum, and its antithesis in the face of twenty first century challenges.

  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Emil and the Detectives by Eileen Hall (translator) & Erich Kästner
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Private View: The Lively World of British Art by Antony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon), Bryan Robertson & John Russell
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - A Free House!: Or, The Artist as Craftsman by Walter Richard Sickert
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Memoirs of the Life of John Constable: Composed Chiefly of His Letters by C.R. Leslie
  • The best books on Lucian Freud - Nollekens and his Times: Comprehending A Life Of That Celebrated Sculptor, And Memoirs Of Several Contemporary Artists

The best books on Lucian Freud, recommended by William Feaver

Though ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke about painting, the art world and his life and loves to his confidante and frequent collaborator, William Feaver, on the phone most weeks for many years. Feaver’s transcript forms the core of his definitive two-volume biography. He speaks with us about the best books for understanding the life and work of this renowned painter, and the very particular collaboration that led to this magisterial account of one of the finest painters of the last century.