The best arts books for Christmas

Hauaga: The Art of John Pule. Photo / Supplied.

Contemporary Asian Art
by Melissa Chiu & Benjamin Genocchio
(Thames & Hudson $84)

The 21st century will be the "Asian century", assert the writers in the introduction to this rich survey of Asian art today, saying that as the balance of economic and military power shifts away from the United States and Europe, those changes are reflected in the art and imaginative freedom of the region. Accompanied by a dazzling and provocative range of images, the book is ordered into chapters looking at "Rethinking Tradition", "Politics, Society and the State", "Asian Pop, Consumerism and Stereotypes" and "Urban Nature", then takes a peep into the future. It also includes useful artist biographies and a bibliography.

Street Fight in Naples
by Peter Robb
(Allen & Unwin $59.99)

Australian writer Peter Robb completes his trilogy (after Midnight in Sicily and A Death in Brazil) with this lively study of 3000 years of Neapolitan history and culture, from the earliest Greek landings to his own arrival in the city 30 years ago. The title refers to Caravaggio, who took refuge in Naples in 1606, when hefled Rome after a fatal street brawl. It's art history-memoir-travel wrapped into one, vividly written and illustrated.

What Makes a Masterpiece? Encounters with Great Works of Art
edited by Christopher Dell
(Thames & Hudson $84)

A definitive collection of the great works of art from prehistory (the Chauvet Cave in southern France) to the end of the 19th century (Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi's Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams), with essays on each selected work by the likes of Antony Gormley, Martin Kemp, Grayson Perry, Germaine Greer, Marina Warner, Quentin Blake and Philip Pullman. Handsomely illustrated, as you'd expect; an education within 300 pages.

Street Knowledge
by King Adz
(HarperCollins $54.99)

Former advertising exec turned film-maker and street culture aficionado King Adz's guide to "urban cool" across the globe, with the help of his trusty Canon camera, iMac, camcorder, notebook and pen. "I flew around the world thrice times and had the honour of getting down with many of my heroes" sets the too-cool-for-school tone of the text, an A-Z of artists from Iran to South Africa, Banksy to David LaChappelle. A good one for fans of graf-art and what Adz calls "street-related culture". Think on that as you pass the miles of rubbish graffiti along Auckland's railway routes.

Hauaga: The Art of John Pule
edited by Nicholas Thomas
(University of Otago Press $120)

The ideal artist's monograph - generous in scale, copious reproductions of good quality in full colour, intelligent essays, a comprehensive interview, the whole package intelligently overseen by Pule's friend andchampion, Nicolas Thomas. Twenty years ago, seemingly out of the blue, Pule created a style - based loosely on Niuean barkcloth, combined with modern materials (canvas, oil paints) - that deftly married tradition and the contemporary; it proved endlessly repeatable and open to continuous change, which is what an artist needs to stake a successful claim in the art economy these days.

Expressionist Portraits
by Alan Pearson
(Alexander Stewart Press $125)

Whether fairly or not, this giant book gives the impression of being "self-published" - the text is by the artist's wife, the publisher is unheard of and none of the normal commercial constraints over length and cost, for instance, seem to have applied. The generous scale - nearly 300 works are reproduced - shows Pearson's development in great and fascinating detail. If laying on emotion in spades, and paint by the trowel, is to your liking (he does it very well), Pearson's lively portraits and self-portraits will excite you, though tipping over into melodrama at times.

Unnerved: The New Zealand Project
edited by Maud Page
(Queensland Art Gallery $45)

This Australian gallery collects New Zealand art with more enthusiasm and purpose than most of our own institutions. An offshore perspective puts a different spin on things and makes our art look more lively. Certain major practitioners - Parekowhai, Pule, Pardington, Aberhart, Reihana, Noble and co - are seen alongside less familiar names: Peter Madden, Alex Monteith, Sriwhana Spong, Lorene Taurerewa and others. There are short essays on all 35 contributors.

Angels & Aristocrats
by Mary Kisler
(Godwit $75)

Mary Kisler's bright idea of amalgamating the best European art from all the country's major art institutions makes the most of solid (and sometimes brilliant) collections. Her book reminds us that the stars of art - Titian, Botticelli, Durer, Rembrandt, Poussin & co - arise from a rich matrix of art practice among lesser but still accomplished figures (their teachers, their pupils, their rivals) all speaking eloquently in the art languages of their day. It is among such lesser stars that our collections abound and they come to life when an engaging scholar such as Kisler uncovers their stories, connections and trade secrets.

Five books jostled for recognition as my fifth title. I decided to leave the decision of which is best to the reader. All five - well made, worth reading and good to look at - will find keen advocates. They are:

- Towards a Promised Land: The Life and Art of Colin McCahon, by Gordon H. Brown (Auckland University Press $79.99), a gathering of essays on his favourite subject by the veteran writer.

- Artists@Work, by Richard Wolfe (Penguin $72), in which photographer and interviewer sympathetically invade artists' studios.

- Waitakere Coast Drawings, by Don Binney (Random House $45): veteran artist and writer walks the Waitakere coast armed with coloured pencils and a notebook, with lovely results.

- Mary McIntyre, Painter, by Robin Woodward (Whitespace $49.95), quirky portraits by a veteran practitioner.

- New Zealand Photographs, by Alan Miller (Anglesea House $70), the emergence of a top talent.