Shortlist

The Age of Undress: Art, Fashion and the Classical Ideal in the 1790s Amelia Rauser Yale University Press

This thought-provoking book looks at the vogue for ‘Grecian dress’ prevalent in Europe in the last decade of the 18th century. Rauser argues that in performances as ‘living statues’, women were making an important contribution to the aesthetic and intellectual debates of the time.

Sofonisba’s Lesson: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work Michael W. Cole Princeton University Press

In this succinct study, Cole champions the painter as one of the most important artists of her time. He discusses Sofonisba’s long life and career and in a complete illustrated catalogue evaluates the attribution of works associated with the artist.

Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape Susan Owens Thames & Hudson

In a survey that wears its learning lightly Owens considers how writers and artists, from the ‘Gawain Poet’ to Thomas Gray and from Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash, have not only looked at the landscape but also shaped how we have viewed it since.

Warhol: A Life as Art Blake Gopnik Allen Lane

There have been several biographies and memoirs of Warhol, but Gopnik’s contribution may be the most comprehensive and cleareyed. Warhol was an obsessive archivist and selfmythologist, but the author manages to wade through the evidence without being bogged down, and argues the case for Warhol as a genius of his own making.

A Rare Treatise on Interior Decoration and Architecture: Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz’s Presentation and History of the Taste of the Leading Nations Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz; Simon Swynfen Jervis (ed./trans.) Getty Research Institute

Completed in 1799, this German aristocrat’s compendium of the design predilections of 24 cultures ancient and modern has been translated into English for the first time. The treatise tells us much about the intellectual climate in which it was written, and is accompanied here by a commentary and full-colour reproductions of the original plates.