10 Free Art Books to Read while Social Distancing

Theodore Lebrun (French, active ca. 1819). Woman in Pink Reclining on a Canape, 1819. Watercolor, 10 x 14 5/8 in. (25.4 x 37.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Anne and Carl Stern Gift, 1979 (1979.510)

Have you burned through your book stack already? Is Anna Karenina wearing you down? Over the last five decades, The Met has published over 1,500 titles, hundreds of which are available online, free to read right now. Here are ten picks to get you started.

Following the Stars: Images of the Zodiac in Islamic Art

By Stefano Carboni (1997)

Long before apps like Co-Star put divination of the stars in your pocket, medieval Islamic astronomers studied how planets and stars influenced our lives. This book shows how what we call "astrology" today has guided Islamic art for centuries, from royal horoscopes to cosmological sketches and more.

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh

Edited by Catharine H. Roehrig (2005)

You've heard of Cleopatra, but do you know Hatshepsut? She was the second woman pharaoh, reigning 1,500 years before Cleopatra was born. In this book Egyptologists reveal the life of the figure who ruled during a period of incredible artistic creativity.

Netsuke: Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Barbra Teri Okada (1982)

Netsuke are tiny gems—toggles once used to attach pouches or cases to kimono sashes, often carved from ivory or wood. This marvelous catalogue of one hundred netsuke from The Met collection will enchant novice and expert alike, with depictions of intricately wrought Buddhist and Taoist saints, and beloved characters from folklore and myth.

Art and Love in Renaissance Italy

Edited by Andrea Bayer (2008)

Many of our most famous Renaissance artworks were made to commemorate betrothal, marriage, or childbirth. Featuring some of the greatest names of the Renaissance, like Titian and Lorenzo Lotto, this wide-ranging book looks at how Italian artists celebrated love, eros, and marriage.

Italian Renaissance Frames

By Timothy J. Newbery, George Bisacca, and Laurence B. Kanter (1990)

Who doesn't love hearing the story through the eyes of a supporting character? If you couldn't get enough of Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, take a deep dive on frames—yes, frames!—in this book on Renaissance craftsmanship. This brisk and informative read honors eighty-four frames as beautiful as the works of art they showcased.

Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination

By Alisa LaGamma (2000)

Across cultures and time, people have searched for a connection to the divine. This book explores the fascinating relationship between artistic creation and divine inspiration by drawing together over two hundred works from sub-Saharan Africa, such as the remarkable Senufo oracle figure pictured on the cover.

The Academy of the Sword: Illustrated Fencing Books 1500–1800

By Donald J. LaRocca (1998)

Fencing is all about the art of distancing—which makes this book perfect reading for right now. Although it assembles rare illustrated manuscripts on self-defense, it also emphasizes another (surprising) aspect of the sport: swords, rapiers, daggers, and other accoutrements were considered the height of fashion.

Kerry James Marshall: A Creative Convening

Edited by Sandra Jackson-Dumont (2018)

Over 160,000 people visited the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: Mastry when it traveled to The Met Breuer in 2016. This volume accompanies a special symposium held at The Met, which brought together an extraordinary range of artists and thought leaders—including Arthur Jafa, Alondra Nelson, Thelma Golden, Greg Tate, and Helen Molesworth—to consider questions of creativity, labor, and social justice in the work of Kerry James Marshall.

Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island

By Eric Kjellgren, with Jo Anne Van Tilburg and Adrienne L. Kaeppler (2001)

Easter Island's colossal stone heads are some of the most iconic works of art in the world. But the remote Polynesian island is home to many more artistic traditions. This book dives into the wooden sculptures that represent gods, spirits, and ancestors, and is a wonderful look at art made in relative isolation.

Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures

By A. Hyatt Mayor (1971)

This delightfully unconventional social history of prints begins with the invention of paper in China and extends through modernity, exploring the medium's intersections with rising literacy, global commerce, science, fashion, religion, and politics. Today—when pictures circulate with the tap of a button—this survey of over seven hundred prints reveals the history of image-sharing.

These ten books should be enough to get you started, but there are hundreds more. Browse them all on MetPublications!