Artrage! The Story of the Brit Art Revolution by Elizabeth Fullerton

For this vibrant account of how Hirst, Lucas, the Chapmans et al came to noisy prominence Elizabeth Fullerton interviewed 50 artists and observers. She pieces together what happened between the 1988 Freeze show that introduced the Young British Artists and the 2004 Momart fire that saw them flicker out as a group. What was it like to be part of it? “It felt,” says Sam Taylor-Johnson, “like we were a rock band on the road.” Thames & Hudson

Agnes Martin and Me by Donald Woodman

Donald Woodman met Agnes Martin – recluse and painter of delicate grids that formed a lovely show at Tate Modern last year – in New Mexico in the 1970s and became her assistant. The portrait he paints is not of an artist of contemplative calm, as her pictures suggest, but a rebarbative, domineering and self-centred character. Woodman overlooked these traits (despite his own suicide attempt) because he recognised they made her the painter she was. Lyon Artbooks

Quentin Blake: In the Theatre of the Imagination by Ghislaine Kenyon

Quentin Blake had his first cartoons published in Punch while still a schoolboy and went on to become Roald Dahl’s indispensable ally and Britain’s best loved illustrator. His scratchy penmanship and whimsically subversive humour are instantly recognisable, but the man himself isn’t: Kenyon’s study of the inimitable Blake, now 83, is richly illustrated and its revealing interviews give a welcome insight into this most distinctive artist. Bloomsbury

Six Facets of Light by Ann Wroe

Light – intangible, elusive, vital – is the very stuff of art. Here, during a series of walks along the Sussex Downs, Wroe meditates on its protean qualities and uses the insights of a series of painters – from Fra Angelico to Turner and Ravilious – to tease out its nature. She switches from thoughts about an English lane to Coleridge, Thoreau, Samuel Palmer, larks, ragwort and Ravilious’s taste in poetry, in effortless and beguiling succession. Jonathan Cape

Pretentiousness: Why it Matters by Dan Fox

Pretentiousness, not an alien concept in the art world, should not be despised but lauded, says Dan Fox, co-editor of frieze magazine. Yes, it has a downside – blather and second-rate thinking – but it is vital in pushing culture forwards and countering social conservatism. Fox’s lively essay lays out his case with references from Plato to Brian Eno and even a slice of autobiography. “Pretentiousness is always someone else’s crime,” he notes, but we should make it ours too. Fitzcarraldo