9 Artists on the Books They're Reading this Summer Ali Banisadr

By Osman Can Yerebakan

Summer brings its own rhythm to the art world. Many galleries turn to group exhibitions, international shows draw audiences to scenic seasonal destinations, and the art fair calendar quiets until September. For artists, that change of pace can also create something increasingly rare: sustained time to read for pleasure.

Books, of course, are often inseparable from an artist’s practice. A memoir can offer a new way of thinking about a life; an unexpected case study can open up a line of research; a collection of essays can sharpen, complicate, or unsettle an idea already taking shape in the studio. Reading may be especially pleasurable in summer—on a beach, in a park, during a quiet stretch at home—but it is rarely only a diversion. Books can become sources, provocations, and points of departure, sometimes feeding directly into new bodies of work or exhibitions.

With that in mind, Artsy asked a group of artists with busy months ahead what they are reading this summer. As they prepare for solo and group exhibitions, biennial and fair participations, they share the books currently sitting on their desks, nightstands, and daybeds.

Ali Banisadr

B. Tehran, 1976. Lives and works in New York.
Reading: Frances Yates, The Art of Memory, 1966

“Books often become companions in my studio. This summer, I’ve been returning to Frances Yates’s The Art of Memory.

I’ve long admired Yates’s writing and have read her other books over the years, but this one has taken on a particular resonance while preparing for my upcoming exhibitions, ‘Talisman’ at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris and my exhibition at the Musée Gustave Moreau, also in Paris, opening this September.

“What fascinates me is her idea that memory images become ‘inner talismans’—images that are internalized and continue to shape how we see and understand the world. I’ve realized this is also how I read: I read, reflect, return to passages repeatedly, and then let them rest. During that process, ideas become images, connecting with memory, dreams, music, and lived experience until they eventually reappear in my paintings.

“Perhaps this is why I paint—to better understand the strange life of images, how they are remembered, transformed, and rediscovered across time. I am spending most of my time this summer in the Forest, Hudson Valley, New York.”