A concise history of modern painting (original: 1959; edição: 1974)

I don't remember a lot about this one, beyond the fact that I definitely read it as a teenager.
( )

Read's eye for art is almost identical to my own, so this book is a total joy to skim through. Not to mention a total validation of the quality of so-called "modern art" against critics who would call it amateurish. Read has a knack for choosing the most vibrant and striking works by each painter. I can't emphasize enough how much better this book is than the standard rote art history book. The real jaw-dropper is the closing section, "Pictorial Survey Of Modern Painting" (pg. 292-341). Though this section is all in black & white and the 332 reproductions are tiny, the paintings are so amazing and avant-garde that you'll be scrambling to go online and look up large color images of them. I've posted many paintings from this section on my Tumblr site, in fact.
The only drawback of the book is that it ends at 1967. (And you might dispute Read's definition of "modern," since it begins in 1892.) ( )

Wonderful introduction to modern painting with a clear and lucid writing style that will draw the uninitiated into the world of visual art. A perfect overview. ( )