All categories / Art
Free Art eBooks
Browse art books in the Public Pages library. Compare titles and authors, explore each book’s description, and choose an online reading edition or an available download.
30 books · Page 1 of 2
Women and Migration: Responses in Art and History
The essays in this book chart how women’s profound and turbulent experiences of migration have been articulated in writing, photography, art and film. As a whole, the volume gives an impression of a wide range of migratory events from women’s perspectives, covering the Caribbean Diaspora, refugees and slavery through the various lenses of politics and war, love and family.
Character of Renaissance Architecture
Character of Renaissance Architecture by Charles Herbert Moore, an English-language classic.
Historic doorways of Old Salem
Historic doorways of Old Salem by Northend, Mary Harrod explores architecture, buildings, structures, colonial architecture.
The Decoration of Houses
The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton explores interior decoration.
A Text-Book of the History of Painting
A survey of painting from ancient traditions through the principal European schools. Van Dyke considers artists, techniques and the changing aims of painters across successive periods.
Building Narratives: Instances from the Architecture of Dialogue
Architects examine how shared narratives shape complex building projects. Three Amsterdam case studies—SPOT, the New Amsterdam Courthouse and Schiphol Terminal—connect drawings, models and conversations with the negotiations involved in architectural practice.
Lines Through Time: GLH Architects 1945 – 2025
2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of GLH Architects, a Johannesburg-based architectural firm whose longevity and enduring legacy place it amongst a handful of firms in the South African context to have survived the vicissitudes of shifting political regimes, economic downturns, urban transformation and…
Children Reinventing Cinema: Snapshots from the Early 21st Century
Children today discover a new digital drawing tool, the camera-crayon, at a very young age. They appropriate devices such as compact cameras and mobile phones and make their own media artifacts in their play. Expanding on a media-archaeological approach to film history, this book maps children’s playful…
Impressionist painting: its genesis and development
Wynford Dewhurst examines the origins and development of Impressionist painting, considering landscape, light and the work of individual artists. Original reproductions accompany his account of the movement.
Real Space-Virtual Space. Aesthetics, Architecture, and Immersive Environments
Essays examine the relationship between physical architecture and virtual environments. The contributors consider immersive media, digital spatial experiences and the ways that virtual reality changes architectural design, perception and the use of built spaces.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
John Ruskin examines architecture through seven governing ideas, including truth, beauty, memory and the life expressed in a building’s workmanship. Illustrated examples accompany his discussion. This collected edition also contains his lectures on architecture and painting and his study of architectural education.
Rem Before Koolhaas: Journalism by an Architect
Antonio Cantero examines Rem Koolhaas’s work for the Dutch weekly Haagse Post between 1963 and 1967. Interviews, journalistic pieces and a later conversation with Koolhaas trace connections between his early reporting and his approach to architecture.
The science of beauty, as developed in nature and applied in art
D. R. Hay examines proportion and form in the natural world and in works of art. Diagrams and geometric constructions accompany his account of the relationships he finds between visual beauty, number and design.
Greasy luck
Gordon Grant’s whaling sketchbook brings together drawings and accompanying accounts of ships, crews and work at sea. The volume follows the equipment, routines and encounters associated with a maritime trade.
Laocoon
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing considers the different means available to painting and poetry. Taking the Laocoön sculpture and literary examples as starting points, he examines description, action and the ways an artwork presents its subject.
Ways of Seeing Mancoba's Art
An introduction to the art of Ernest Mancoba, with attention to the ideas, forms and cultural experiences behind his work. The book considers ways of looking at his paintings and sculptures and their place in South African and international art.
The Two Paths
John Ruskin’s lectures examine art, design and the relationship between workmanship and observation. Examples from nature, architecture and decoration accompany his discussions of how artists learn and how useful objects acquire their form.
3rd Conference of Planning Students and Young Graduates: Spatial Planning, Urban Development Challenges / Opportunities, Resilience and Smart Cities With Focus on 4IR
Proceedings of a conference for planning students and recent graduates. Research contributions examine urban development, resilience, spatial planning and the use of emerging technologies in cities.
Art, A Magical Motor That Keeps Society Together
An illustrated study of Charles Nkosi’s art, tracing the artist’s career and the relationship between his work and South African society. The discussion draws on exhibitions, artworks and the experiences that shaped his visual practice.
Ihubo Lengabadi/The Song of the Soil
An illustrated collection of S’bonelo Tau Luthuli’s ceramic work, accompanied by interpretations in isiZulu and English. Artist and curatorial statements connect the objects with memory, creative practice and the experiences behind them.
Romeo Montague Behind Bars: A Shakespeare Prison Theatre Workshop led by Mariacristina Cavecchi, Lisa Mazoni, Margaret Rose, Giuseppe Scutellà
An account of a Shakespeare theatre workshop held in prison. The volume documents the workshop’s approach and reflects on the experience of bringing dramatic texts, performance and collaborative learning into that setting.
Platforms and the Moving Image
Essays on the circulation of film and video through digital platforms. Studies of streaming, gaming, social media and video-sharing services examine changing relationships between production, distribution and audiences.
Dealing with Heritage: Assessment and Conservation
A guide to assessing and conserving built heritage. It explains approaches to understanding the history, materials and significance of existing buildings and to using that knowledge when planning interventions.
Small Museums Change: Volunteers for Social Engagement
A study of small museums whose work depends largely on volunteers. It considers organisation, local involvement and the everyday practices through which these museums maintain collections and connect with their communities.