Open to OMA members, the Book Club gathers together each month to share their interests 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’s Book Club using the reading list below.
Current 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.
2022 Winter Theme: Photography
- Women Photographers: From Julia Margaret Cameron to Cindy Sherman,
Boris Friedewald - Terry O'Neill: Every Picture Tells a Story, Terry O'Neill
- The Bohemians: A Novel, Jasmin Darznik
Shelved
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
2021 Spring Theme: Women Artists
- Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama
- The Forest Lover, Susan Vreeland
- The Woman Who Says No: Francoise Gilot on Her Life With and Without Picasso, Malte Herwig
2021 Summer Theme: Landscape Artists
- Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies, Ross King
- An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, Cesar Aira
- Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe, Dawn Tripp
2021 Fall Theme: Museum Stories
- Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum, Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino
- Metropolitan Stories: A Novel, Christine Coulson
- The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel, Debra Dean
2020 Winter Theme: Art Crime
- The Art Forger, B.A. Shapiro
- Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, 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, 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
2020 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
2020 Summer Theme: Sculpture
- Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis, Jeannine Atkins
- Niki de Saint Phalle, Christiane Weidemann
- Remember Ben Clayton, Stephen Harrigan
2020 Fall 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, Susan Vreeland
- The Other Alcott, Elise Hooper
- The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St. Clair