Artists Magazine asked, “What’s an art book that’s on your reading list this year?” Seven artists answered, including Costa Vavagiakis.
During this challenging time, I chose to return to two enduring classic essays: Junichiro Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows” and John Ruskin’s “On Art and Life.” Both delve into the desire to maintain cultural identity and aesthetic values in the transition to the modern age—one from an Eastern perspective, the other from a Western sensibility.