Summer reading enters its final stretch as six exciting new books hit the shelves in August. Spanning centuries from Renaissance theories of vision to contemporary debates over morality, inequality, and the future of art, this month’s offerings promise a rich and varied exploration.

A new biography by Devon Cox delves into the secret lives of John Singer Sargent, the queer Gilded Age society painter whose dazzling surfaces concealed a more guarded inner world. Meanwhile, Metahaven’s manifesto questions the role of art in an age where AI challenges our attention spans and climate change dampens our capacity for imagination.

Hettie Judah's guide to navigating the opaque creature that is the art world offers practical advice while puncturing its myths. Daisy Dixon’s Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art traces anxieties around obscenity, taste, and public offense back to prehistoric times, making a timely and timeless examination.

Andrew Moisey's historical exploration, The Photographic World Picture, looks all the way back to the Renaissance, arguing that proto-photographic ideas first appeared in painting before showing how photography indelibly altered modernist canvases. Finally, a new collection of writings by Harmony Hammond provides insight into her tireless fight for feminist causes and structural inclusion.