Artsy Holiday Gifts According to Yours Truly

I know, my friends, how busy you are, readying yourselves for the holidays. So, I want to share with you a secret of avoiding the headache of holiday shopping. Are you ready? Here it comes a list of a few amazing art books that you should buy for your friends, and maybe yourself as well.

1. The splendid catalog for The Gettys current exhibition, Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas, features gilded burial masks, nose ornaments, breastplates, headdresses, and more from about 1000 BC to the early 16th century.
2. The newly published biography of Caravaggio, A Life Sacred and Profane , by Andrew Graham Dixon. Its particularly timely, considering the current Getty Museum exhibition of three extremely rare Caravaggio paintings from the Borghese Gallery, Rome, Italy.

3. The catalog for the fascinating international traveling exhibition Chagall and Music , which is in Los Angeles at LACMA through January 7. Costumes, set designs, and paintings by Chagall for operas and ballet productions grace the pages of this catalog, bringing his artwork to life.

4. Another catalog for recently closed eye-catching exhibition at LA County Museum is Playing with Fire: Paintings by Carlos Almaraz , devoted to works by one of the most famous Los Angeles Chicano artists, Carlos Almaraz (1941-1989).

5. Unpacking the Marciano Collection is a catalog for the inaugural exhibition of the recently opened Marciano Art Foundation. After years passing the former Masonic Temple on Wilshire Boulevard, we are invited to step inside and enjoy not only the collection of the Marciano brothers, but also the amazing renovation of the building by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture.

6. As part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, USC Fisher Museum of Art presents a solo exhibition of American artist James hd Brown who has lived and worked in Mexico for the last two decades. The catalog for this exhibition, James hd Brown: Life and Work in Mexico , was made by his own publishing company, Carpe Diem Press, and only 1000 copies were produced of this high quality, exquisitely printed limited edition.

7. A monumental coffee-table-crushing monograph of work of Enrique Martnez Celaya , the well-known Cuban-American artist who is based in Los Angeles. His figurative paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in museums around the world.

8. John Nava. Sacred Material: The Art of the Tapestries of Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels . Ojai-based artist John Nava was commissioned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to create a series of monumental tapestries for the Cathedral, including more than 100 portraits of Catholic saints.

Of course, there are hundreds of other books that you can choose from, but these art books represent highlights of this years cultural scene in our City of Angels. So, happy holidays to all of you, smart and beautiful art aficionados.

Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM. To listen to the complete show and hear Edwards charming Russian accent, click here.

To join Edwards Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website . You can read more about his classes in the New York Times here and in Artillery Magazine .