Inspiring Books About Art That Every Artist Should Read

We all know the drill: Eat well, stay active, and get good sleep. But a crucial component is missing. In Art Cure, Daisy Fancourt, an award-winning scientist and the director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health, reveals how engaging in the arts is essential to leading a healthy life. Backed by rigorous research and real-world studies, Fancourt’s groundbreaking exposé details the many benefits of artistic practice and participation — from building defenses against dementia and creating new neural pathways to counteracting depression and loneliness. Art Cure skillfully lays out why art is a life necessity and provides the guidance you need to elevate your creative pursuits and achieve your health goals.

Struggling to balance your artistic dreams with the humdrum realities of everyday existence? You are far from alone. In Making Art and Making a Living, Mason Currey reveals the many surprising ways successful composers, writers, and painters throughout history have paid their rent while creating art. From Franz Kafka’s day job as an insurance man, Grace Hartigan’s temp positions, and James Joyce’s leaning on his relatives to Virginia Woolf’s determined efforts to profit from her writing, artists have a long history of making it work, one way or another. Currey’s Making Art and Making a Living is a celebration of creative drive and a heartening reminder that working to pay your bills doesn’t make you any less of an artist.

Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way has sold millions of copies since its publication in 1992. It’s an essential book about art that belongs on every creative’s bookshelf. Both a guide to finding your creative path and a helpful compendium of strategies to enhance the creative process, Cameron’s work is full of actionable advice and exercises designed to get you moving forward on your own artistic journey. 

According to legendary Broadway choreographer Twyla Tharp, creativity, like so many things, is all about developing a habit. Over the course of 32 exercises designed to hone your artistic routine, Tharp walks you through the challenging first steps of engaging your creative muscle and actualizing your artistic dreams. The New York Times Book Review calls The Creative Habit “[an] exuberant, philosophically ambitious self-help book for the creatively challenged.”

A New York Times bestseller, Big Magic by Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert is an extraordinary book about art that leads you toward a more joyful creative existence. With hard-earned wisdom and profound empathy, Gilbert offers readers a helpful push toward a life of increased curiosity, exploration, and artistic expression, encouraging everyone to pursue the dreams and journeys they’ve shelved for far too long. The Washington Post hails Big Magic as “a celebration of a creative life.”

How does an idea become a bestselling novel? Or a stunning painting? Or a feature film? In the lavishly crafted The Work of Art, former New York magazine editor Adam Moss breaks down the creative journey and presents a road map for how art is made. Drawing from a star-studded cast of accomplished artists, Moss interweaves insightful conversations with revealing artifacts from the creative process: napkin doodles, journal excerpts, scribbled ideas — pieces that together produced a finished work. A vivid feast for the eyes, Moss’s book about art is a mini work of art in itself, bringing the elusive act of creativity to life. 

From famed photographer and New York Times bestselling author Sally Mann, Art Work is a compelling work of prose and visuals that explores creativity through Mann’s refreshingly direct lens. Filled with stories, journal entries, photographs, and illustrations, Art Work considers the many influences that shape a creative life — from hard work, luck, and loss of focus, to the inevitability of rejection and the crucial importance of taking risks. The New York Times Book Review calls Mann’s work “profane, literary, adventuresome.”

Creating art, especially in the digital age, can feel like an uphill battle. In Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon lays out ten principles to unleash your creativity and nourish your artistic spirit. Kleon guides readers toward a more creative life, encouraging artists to embrace inspiration and influence, forget clichés, and learn from the works of others. While nothing is entirely original, art is always worth making.

Acclaimed music producer Rick Rubin shares his decades-in-the-making outlook on creativity in this bestseller. The Creative Act offers readers insight into Rubin’s worldview and approach to producing art. The author lays out a path toward connecting with one’s creative self and turning inspiration into creation. The Creative Act is “a gorgeous, delicious, and wildly practical interrogation of the creative process” (JJ Abrams).

In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz delivers a practical guide for aspiring artists and those in need of a creative boost. Helping readers turn passion into creation, Saltz offers hard-won insight and addresses common obstacles to making art, such as overcoming creative blocks, navigating career setbacks, and — perhaps most importantly — preserving the joy of creativity. An instant New York Times bestseller, How to Be an Artist is for everyone with a creative heart.