13 Art and Photography Monographs to Gift This Season

From prolific artists such as Kerry James Marshall to surrealist photographers such as Yuriko Takagi, this year brought scores of lavishly illustrated tomes that are sure to inspire. Many of these recent titles were released in conjunction with monumental surveys, showcasing the careers of pioneering art-world figures and highlighting the year’s most impressive exhibitions. These tomes each make for a stunning addition to elevate any enthusiast’s library, bookshelf, or coffee table.

1. Dior by Yuriko Takagi (Rizzoli)

This new tome reveals how Japanese photographer and artist Yuriko Takagi honed her lens on Dior. It features legendary designs such as Christian Dior’s 1947 Colette dinner-party dress, Yves Saint Laurent for Dior’s Spring/Summer 1959 rose rouge dress, and a John Galliano for Dior evening gown from Autumn/Winter 2006, showcasing the range of the illustrious maison’s visionary design talents through the ages.

2. Ruth Asawa: The Tamarind Prints (The Museum of Modern Art)

This new tome is the first publication to showcase Ruth Asawa’s stunning lithographs together, highlighting the late modernist artist’s fascination with organic form.

3. David Armstrong: Fashion (Matte Editions)

This gorgeous new monograph, edited by Vince Aletti and Matthew Leifheit, includes never-before-seen outtakes found in 18 boxes marked “Fashion” from the late photographer’s archive in Brooklyn. Each image in the collection is lovely, tender, and intimate, made with a tremendous amount of sensitivity and more of a humanistic emphasis on the models over the fashion itself.

4. Man Ray: When Objects Dream (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The American Dada and Surrealist artist, Man Ray, who spent most of his career in Paris, invented the camera-less technique he called the “rayograph” in which compositions were created by exposing objects on photosensitive paper directly. The first in-depth survey of these experimental, lyrical works are on view at The Met Fifth Avenue—and this new corresponding catalogue is a fantastic addition to any photo library.

5. Dalí. BABY SUMO (Taschen)

A new limited-edition tome of Salvador Dalí’s works includes two volumes, one showcasing his key works with incredible attention to detail, and another that includes writings by Montse Aguer and Carme Ruiz, chronologically recounting the artist’s fascinating life story and philosophies using his writings, letters, and reviews.

6. Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World (Guggenheim Museum)

Often overlooked in comparison to her peers, Gabriel Münter’s work gets its due at a Guggenheim Museum retrospective surveying her experimental work inspired by daily life, travel, and community. This corresponding title showcases over 90 pioneering paintings, drawings, and photographs made between 1908 and 1920.

7. Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter (Aperture)

This survey of Carrie Mae Weems’s work provides new insight into the spiritual image maker’s mind and core, and the central tenet of love palpable in many of her works, especially in her landmark Kitchen Table Series.

8. Christopher Le Brun: The Speech of Light, Paintings 2013-2024 (Rizzoli)

Celebrated contemporary British artist Christopher Le Brun writes of his inspirations in this new book, which showcases his vibrant lyrical approach to his work and celebrates the expressive potential of the medium itself.

9. Coreen Simpson: A Monograph (Aperture)

A stylish new monograph of photographer, jeweler, and writer Coreen Simpson surveys her multifaceted five-decade career. The book was edited by Drs. Sarah Lewis, Leigh Raiford, and Deborah Willis, and includes several powerful meditations on Simpson’s exemplary life and work.

10. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting (National Portrait Gallery)

Earlier this year, the National Portrait Gallery in London held the largest museum exhibition showcasing figurative painter Jenny Saville’s work in the U.K. to date. This new title, published to accompany the exhibition, includes both the nude paintings made in the 1990s that helped establish her as a prominent contemporary artist and new works published for the first time.

11. Kerry James Marshall: The Histories (Royal Academy of Arts)

The Royal Academy of Arts in London is currently exhibiting the largest survey of Kerry James Marshall to date, showcasing many of his incredible, thought-provoking, large-scale paintings informed by a mix of art history, Afrofuturism, and today’s culture, focusing on the lives of Black Americans. The catalogue accompanying the retrospective is the most extensive publication on Marshall’s work, spanning half a century of his illustrious career.

12. Iván Tovar Masterpieces (Assouline)

Dominican Surrealist Iván Tovar’s work, which spans painting, sculpture, and illustrations, has been surveyed into a vibrant and luxurious collectible monograph for the first time. This title comes as a long-overdue recognition of Tovar’s brilliance and revolutionary vision.

13. Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers (Guggenheim Museum)

This corresponding title to a major survey of Rashid Johnson’s career at The Guggenheim Museum in New York is beautifully printed with gold block edges, and includes over 200 images and several excerpts by Toni Morrison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jean Genet, Paul Beatty, and Amiri Baraka.