White Girls and the Global South

Books Newsletter

Welcome to spring! If you’re like me and have been unable to pick up a book lately, your search ends here.

Welcome to spring! If you’re like me and have been unable to pick up a book lately, your search ends here. This season, explore the captivating self-portraits of a Swedish painter as she ages, indulge in the elegance of French poster design, and delve into a fascinating alchemical manuscript. Additionally, discover insights from Associate Editor Lisa Yin Zhang on a new art-world novel centered around disenchanted White women, as well as Nageen Shaikh’s exploration of Indian modernist painters who envisioned global solidarity long before the term “Global South” gained popularity.

—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor

7 Art Books for Your March Reading List

Explore the hidden history of occult influences on modernism, the craft of French sign painters, the defiance of a Finnish painter against norms, the creativity of incarcerated artists, and more.

Haroutiun Galentz: The Form of Colour

A new English-language monograph repositions the Armenian–Lebanese painter as a cosmopolitan modernist whose work demands to be read beyond national canons.

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From Our Critics

Please, No More Disaffected White Girls

Anika Jade Levy’s Flat Earth offers a self-indulgent, circular narrative, fitting for the Dimes Square scene. | Lisa Yin Zhang

Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy (2025)

Before the “Global South,” Indian Modernists Dreamed of Solidarity

Historian Atreyee Gupta examines how Indian painters connected with anticolonial figures like Frantz Fanon, unraveling the complexities behind terms like “Global South.” | Nageen Shaikh

Non-Aligned: Art, Decolonization and the Third World Project in India (2025) by Atreyee Gupta

From the Archive

The Early-20th-Century Photographer Who Magnified the Alien Beauty of Plants

With a homemade camera, Karl Blossfeldt captured the intricate forms of plants, such as the geometric patterns of seed pods and the unusual curls of ferns. | Allison Meier

A Fresh Look at Flowers in Photography

Can photographers convey the vibrant essence of flowers in an innovative and beautiful way? A new book confirms that they can. | Lauren Moya Ford

A Pioneering Photographer’s Legacy In Algae

In 1843, Anna Atkins published the first book illustrated with photographs. Her groundbreaking work took over a century to gain the recognition it deserves. | Allison Meier