Among the books in the photo are:
Gauguin – No doubt the man who reinvented colour.
British Idiosyncratic Artists – Self taught British Artists. I recommend this book highly. Have no idea whether it's in print. Mine is a second-hand copy found at Camden Lock market.
Paula Rego – Portuguese figurative painter. Strangely I’ve never seen her work – not even in Portugal.
Gustav Klimt – I like some of his work.
Gaudi – I intend to visit Barcelona when they finish the Sagrada Familia…
New Objectivity – German art of the early twentieth century. Includes my favourite German artist from that era - Otto Dix.
Otto Dix – The book is in German so I never read it but the art speaks for itself.
Saw quite a bit of his work in Cologne.
Diego Rivera – The Mexican giant.
Balthus – One of the artists I can never quite pigeonhole. Atmospheric and strange.
Egon Schiele – Definitely Austria’s major contribution to modern art and figurative painting.
Edvard Munch – World class Norwegian artist. At his best dark, foreboding and always a sense of looming tragedy. I was lucky to see most of his best work in Oslo.
Yoruba – Sculpture of West Africa. We have become insensitive to this great art because of the availability of mass produced African knick-knacks everywhere in the Western world – but this is the real thing.
Marino Marini – His horse and rider series and his bust sculptures are awesome.
Fernando Botero – Never caught up with this Colombian artist.
Goya – The Spanish giant. I missed out on his best work…groan.
Bruegel – Always fascinating and his paintings still look and feel fresh and original.
Picasso – Admittedly there’s a lot of work I don’t like but there is no doubt he was probably the best draughtsman the planet has ever seen.
Bosch – I’ve seen so little of his work. Again I blame the Prado strike.
My other bookshelf has about five books by Ralph Steadman, some Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, almost all the volumes of The Far Side and a volume by the great Italian illustrator Tullio Pericoli. And last but not least, a whole lot of Dilbert books.