National Year of Reading – Interview with Gareth Harris
Our first interview for the National Year of Reading is with author, journalist and Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper, Gareth Harris...
What was the first non-fiction/arts book you remember reading, and what was its impact on you?
At school, I loved the World of Art series published by Thames & Hudson. RoseLee Goldberg’s Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, first published in 1979, was an education, spanning Dada to digital developments. On a more personal level, I remember being scandalised by The Orton Diaries which cover the last months of Joe Orton's life, from late 1966 until his death in August 1967. Aside from exposing the strange, repressed dynamics of 1960s anti-gay Britain, the diaries also touch on Orton’s entertaining, acerbic friendship with the actor Kenneth Williams.
What’s the latest art book you’ve read?
I’ve just finished reading two books—the author Olivia Laing and the painter Chantal Joffe collaborated on a publication, Painting Writing Texting, detailing their creative exchanges. It’s an enjoyable format—ten essays by Laing intersperse with a chronological sequence of paintings by Joffe dating from 2016 to 2025. The text and images dovetail, reflecting the people, places and milestones in both of their lives. I’ve also enjoyed Oliver Sacks-Letters (edited by Kate Edgar), which includes correspondence between the polymath described as “the poet laureate of medicine” and various artists and writers such as Susan Sontag and Björk. The scope and scale of his ruminations on life, the universe and everything are (frankly) astonishing.
What is your favourite Lund Humphries book?
It is hard to whittle this down. I’ll state the obvious and single out a few Hot Topics books (hats off to Enid Tsui for her clever and considered overview of the Hong Kong art scene —Art in Hong Kong—and Annabel Keenan’s call to action to the art world to initiate sustainable practices in Climate Action in the Art World). But the book that still sets the high bar is Georgina Adam’s Dark Side of the Boom: The Excesses of the Art Market in the 21st Century (2018). This account of art market shenanigans is such a clever and accessible read (Adam, a colleague at The Art Newspaper, even makes topics such as tax evasion and money laundering appealing).
What is currently on your to-read list?
The bedside pile is mounting… Alan Bowness, director of Tate from 1980 to 1988, is under recognised to a degree so it’s fascinating to read his musings and how art world scholars, such as Dawn Ades, view him in Alan Bowness: Writings 1950–2016 (Art Publishing Inc.). Few other podcasts have managed to probe and penetrate as brilliantly as A Brush With… (Heni Publishing), presented by Ben Luke, another Art Newspaper colleague. The book comprises 25 conversations with artists such as Ragnar Kjartansson, Michael Armitage and Julie Mehretu (the research is meticulous and the discoveries never end on the podcast and in the pages of the publication).
If you were starting a star-studded (art/architecture) book club, who, from any era, would you like to invite?
Caravaggio might be a handful but the 16th-century maverick would certainly spice up Book Club meetings (I’d ask him if’s he keen on Andrew Graham Dixon’s 2011 biography and also how he conceived and executed my favourite painting, The Taking of Christ, 1602). Another key Book Club member should be the hugely underrated Italian Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni—we could discuss whether he felt the Futurist Manifesto of 1909 really sparked a revolution (in art). James Baldwin is an essential attendee (we could pore over the latest superb biography on this literary genius by Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: A Love Story). Publications on Middle Eastern art would also need to be on the reading list so scholars in the field such as Nada Shabout, Myrna Ayad and Saeb Eigner should also sign up to my dream Book Club.
Gareth Harris is Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper, and was previously Deputy Editor (2005-09). His book Censored Art Today (Lund Humphries 2022) was selected as one of Wallpaper* magazine's Best Contemporary Art Books of 2022. He has written numerous articles for the Financial Times on the visual arts and the art market, and has also written for The New York Times, The Times, Apollo Magazine and Frieze. His doctoral thesis from the University of London focused on the artist Umberto Boccioni and the poet Blaise Cendrars.
Picture: Gareth Harris at the Beatriz González exhibition at the Barbican, London. February 2026.