Philip Guston's work gathers strength with the passing of time. During his lifetime he seemed an outsider, but now the world of painting seems to have regrouped around him. This book captures the breadth and depth of his thinking, and also captures the feeling of an intensely lively era when artists like Cage, Feldman and Guston felt that making art was a branch of philosophy. I think everybody interested in the evolution of culture should read this thought-provoking and timely book

Vital in grasping Guston's contribution to post-war American art and his abiding significance to contemporary painters

An appealing little book ... A pocketsized portfolio of Philip Guston's writings, talks and interviews ... It includes a joyous appreciation of the Renaissance master Piero della Francesca ... advice to art students ... [and] insights into what makes a great artist tick

This expertly curated selection of Guston's writings, talks and interviews draws together the artist's most incisive reflections on iconography and abstraction, metaphysics and mysticism, and the nature of painting and drawing... If you've never heard of him, this is a great introduction; if you have, this book will deepen your knowledge and understanding

A brilliant book absolutely crammed with surprising stories. Muse flips the easel and brings the models and inspirations of famous works themselves into the spotlight, scraping away old coatings of myth, cliché and ignorance to reveal the true tales of these overlooked figures, and their place of power in the history of art. An essential read that should be on every bookshelf

Ruth Millington's Muse is an essential guide to the inspirational women and men who have shaped art over the centuries. Muse sheds new and persuasive light on a diverse array of models' stories - their lives, hopes and daring actions - restoring their voices in ways that change our perceptions of who they were, and who we are today as a result.

An excellent look at the artist's muse and demystifying the idea of them as merely a passive object of passion

A provocative tome

Ruth Millington's Muse adds another dimension...taking the women (and nine men) on the canvas as her subject...successfully fleshing out the lives behind some of art history's most famous faces

Muse by Ruth Millington is a fascinating book that aims, and one could even say succeeds, to establish a new status for the muse in art history

An Irish-born amateur historian appears to have solved one of the great mysteries of Western art. Bernadette Murphy includes the first-ever reproduction of the diagram in her book Van Gogh’s Ear. Another coup for Murphy is her debunking of the long-circulating story that had dozens, even a hundred or so, of Arles residents signing a petition in late February, 1889, urging the mayor to return the recovering van Gogh to his family or, failing that, put him in an asylum.

Her bit of 'research gold' — as one van Gogh specialist called it — came from a drawing in the collection of novelist Irving Stone. 'It’s really quite jarring, after 129 years to see something new come along,” says a van Gogh specialist. 'It’s not Bernadette having an opinion or some theories, it’s really concrete stuff she's uncovered...The really great thing about what she has done is that she has traced back this information to somebody who was standing next to Vincent van Gogh.'

The discovery of a drawing by the doctor who treated the artist in 1888 provides comprehensive evidence that Van Gogh sliced far deeper than scholars had thought.

Bernadette Murphy has investigated his grisly act with the forensic zeal of a latter-day Sherlock Holmes…no-one before has built up such a detailed picture of the people who surrounded this great artist during his short, unhappy but artistically fertile sojourn in Arles.

[It] is both intriguing and unexpected.

As meticulous and methodical as the finest fictional sleuth, Murphy studied… She allows for a version of his history in which her subject’s passion for life, art and humanity blooms like the sunflowers he painted.

[It] recounts her formidable detective work.

Van Gogh’s Ear is a compelling detective story and a journey of discovery. It is also a portrait of a painter creating his most iconic and revolutionary work, pushing himself ever closer to greatness even as he edged towards madness – and one fateful sweep of the blade that would resonate through the ages.

Bernadette Murphy… Is like a detective on the case of Van Gogh. And she’s excellent – she creates a vivid picture of this strange, troubled genius, and also of what it was like to be in Provence in 1888.

With the forensic zeal of a latter-day Sherlock Holmes, Murphy investigates Van Gogh’s grisly act of chopping off his own ear.

The results of her [Murphy's] tireless research to us reveals, too, a fascinating picture of life in the 19th-century Province... Murphy is terrier-like in her pursuit of the facts... and didn't stop digging until she'd found the whole story

The energy is infectious, but the tone is melancholic.

Blackburn captures the understated artist John Craske with elegance and precision.

A vibrant account of the life of Norfolk fisherman John Craske […] another maverick choice of subject by this always compelling writer.

Outsider art requires outsider biography, and Blackburn, an expert in finding new forms to fit odd lives, has managed her task magnificently.

Beautifully delicate.

Richly satisfying.

A gorgeous, dreamy quest, for a man named John Craske.

The book has an understated charm and is a beautifully rendered portrait of an artist’s life and landscape.

This tender biography is gossipy and philosophical by turns.

Executed with undeniable skill and the sense of an intimate acquaintance with life on the open seas.

Unusually moving.