We have a lovely multi-cultural crop of monographs this summer and here we’re highlighting six of our favourites.

Across the mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, film, performance and installation, there’s plenty of inspiration to be shared through these beautiful books celebrating the work of some important artists.

John Hoyland: The Last Paintings (Ridinghouse)

“Painting is acting purely; you can’t hide anything. You can’t pretend to be a tough guy if you’re not. Everything shows; it’s a seismograph of the mind and the body.” – John Hoyland

Yayoi Kusama: I Want Your Tears to Flow with the Words I Wrote (Victoria Miro)

“I am determined to create Kusama world.” – Yayoi Kusama

James Barnor: Accra/London. A Retrospective (Koenig Books)

“Every walk of life needs photography. You need to use it to teach and in order to record an instance. People and portraiture are the most important thing: when you go to a place it’s the people you meet that will be the thing you remember.” – James Barnor 

Veronica Ryan: Along a Spectrum (Spike Island)

“..I was born somewhere else, and I’ve inherited customs and belief systems from my family, mostly through my mother. Recently I’ve been thinking about what I do – about art – as a kind of protection, a talisman.” – Veronica Ryan

Hélio Oiticica (Lisson Gallery)

“I had the idea of appropriating those places I liked, real places, where I felt alive.” – Hélio Oiticica

Sutapa Biswas: Lumen (Ridinghouse)

“…researching the role of street theatre, particularly in colonial contexts, the possibilities of using performance as a means of expression to challenge existing normative power structures was of considerable interest to me.” – Sutapa Biswas

Image credit: Yayoi Kusama, 2021, 'On Hearing the Sunset Afterglows Message of Love My Heart Shed Tears' (detail)