National Year of Reading – Interview with Jo Baring

What was the first non-fiction/arts book you remember reading, and what was its impact on you? 

The first non-fiction book I remember reading was ‘The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn’ by Retha M. Warnicke. I had asked for it for Christmas one year when I was little! It was published in 1989, so I was young, but it had a big impact on me. The way that her story is told and re-told according to different codes of power still fascinates me today. And I am not alone, it’s been centuries since she lived and we are still reading and writing about her. 

What’s the latest art book you’ve read? 

I recently re-read ‘Unquiet Landscape: Places and Ideas in 20th Century British Painting’ by Christopher Neve. I love ‘Unquiet Landscape’ because it approaches art as an imaginative act of discovery rather than a set of explanations, opening up new ways of thinking about landscape, painting, and the mind. I also enjoyed Laura Freeman’s wonderful biography of Jim Ede, ‘Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle's Yard Artists’. 'Ways of Life' beautifully conveys Jim Ede’s belief that art belongs everywhere - in a room, in a gesture, in a pebble - and that learning to look can change how we live. I highly recommend both! 

What is your favourite Lund Humphries book?   

I love the Hot Topics in the Art World series, and have a number of favourites on that list! I particularly enjoyed ‘The Art Fair Story’ by Melanie Gerlis, ‘Commercial Galleries’ by Henry Little, and ‘How Not to Exclude Artist Mothers’ by Hettie Judah. 

What is currently on your to-read list? 

So many things! I have different piles of books in different parts of my house, ready for whatever mood I am in! Top of my to-read pile is Alexandra Harris’s book 'Rising Down', which is about West Sussex, where I also grew up. 'Rising Down' reminds us that landscape is never singular or static, but a dense weave of stories, losses, and connections that continue to shape how we see and belong. I am also re-reading Harriet Baker’s wonderful book ‘Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann’. I love 'Rural Hours' for its quiet, attentive portrait of how rural life nurtures creative freedom and renewal. I dip into it for inspiration. 

If you were starting a star-studded (art/architecture) book club, who, from any era, would you like to invite?   

I’d invite women artists and thinkers across history - from Hildegard of Bingen and Artemisia Gentileschi to Barbara Hepworth, Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin. We’d have a great time putting the world to rights! 

Jo Baring is currently Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, and a former Director of Christie’s. Author for arts publications and a regular speaker at institutions, art fairs and galleries, Jo is also the co-presenter and co-writer of the critically acclaimed podcast, Sculpting Lives. Her book Revisiting Modern British Art was published by Lund Humphries in 2022.