Open to OMA members only, the Book Club gathers together each month to share their interest in art, the lives of artists who populate the pages of art history, and their love of a good story—you can too! Read along with OMA’ Book Club using the reading list below. 

Book Club Reading List

OMA Book Club’s reading list is always evolving with the aim to further members’ understanding of artists and various art forms through literature. Selected books are art-related and, whenever possible, chosen to complement current OMA exhibitions. Click on the titles below for links to read online—in some cases for free. 

2021

Winter Theme: California Art

• Yosemite: Art of an American Icon, Amy Scott (Editor)
• State of the Arts, Barbara Isenberg
• A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, Martin Gayford

2020

Winter Theme: Art Crime  

• The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
• Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo
  “This book surprised me.  It tells the story of audacious 20th-century con man John Drewe and the people who were drawn into his web of deceit.  It will keep you turning the pages…just like a crime thriller novel but without the blood”
  —Teri Ellis, OMA Book Club member
• The Irish Game by Matthew S. Hart
  “Matthew Hart’s The Irish Game is the well-told story of the theft of famous paintings from Russborough House in Ireland in 1986 and the quest to find and return the valuable objects safely to their owners. Readers will follow the convoluted journeys of the stolen paintings, including works by Goya, Rubens, and Vermeer, as depicted through the personalities and actions of the thieves and the many investigators who worked tirelessly to protect and return the irreplaceable paintings.”
  —Beverly Walsh, OMA Book Club member  

Spring Theme: Fiber Arts

• Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad,
  Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard     
• The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier  
• Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle, Clare Hunter  

Summer Theme:  Sculpture

• Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis, Jeannine Atkins    
• Niki de Saint Phalle, Christianne Weidemann    
• Remember Ben Clayton, Stephen Harrigan   

Autumn  Theme: Portraiture

• Girl Reading: A Novel, Katie Ward    
• The Obama Portraits, Taina Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard Powell and Kim Sajet   
• The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey 

2019

• The Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
• The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper
• The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

JOIN THE BOOK CLUB WAIT LIST

Book Club is currently full. If you’d like to get on the waitlist, email bookclub@oma-online.org.

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