I really love reading a good book about an artist or multiple artists. One of my all time favorites that I think I may have mentioned here before is Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis, though that just may have been given a run for its "top of my list" money with The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles by Martin Gayford. I especially love a book that details the minutiae of an artist's life: the stretching of canvasses and the mixing of paint. What others might consider tedious reading, I revel in. Not so long ago I also read a wonderful book about Klimt, though oddly enough, I can't for the life of me remember the title nor the author (go figure). I have as well just read several books that can be considered to be on the fringes of fine art, and a couple of them are: The Quilts of Gee's Bend, edited by a whole buttload of different folks, and a remarkably intriguing book about fashion as both an art form and as serious political machination, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber. This was a riveting read and full of an immense amount of information about not only the political demise of Marie Antoinette but the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries' fashion trends and textile industries. For older books, Edie: An American Biography by Jean Stein is great for getting the insider's take on Andy Warhol (who I met in 1984). I read the book for the first of countless times when it was first released back in 1982. And for sheer staying power after all these years, you can't go wrong with Off the Wall by Calvin Trillin. I wish I had been old enough in the 60's to have capped on that period in art and culture while it was happening.
