Two recent art books shed light on the provenance—history of ownership and exhibition—of many important artworks of the late 19th and 20th centuries, including some that are held by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

One of the most enjoyable publications of the year is The Home of the Surrealists (Frances Lincoln, 2008) by Anthony Penrose. Penrose is the son of important American-born photographer Lee Miller and British artist Roland Penrose. Penrose has crafted a thoroughly entertaining, beautifully illustrated record of his parent’s lives.

Miller, a former fashion model born in upstate New York, traveled to Paris in the late 1920s and became muse to avant-garde photographer Man Ray. She married the somewhat historically overlooked British painter Roland Penrose, who later gained recognition as an author and supporter of modern art.

Penrose’s account of growing up in Sussex, England provides a first-hand view as the family hosted some of the most important artists of the day.

For such a quick and succinct read, there is a remarkable amount of detail and insight provided. The photographs, many especially shot for the book, also put the reader right inside the family home. These images appear alongside several historically important photos, including some of Miller’s notable Second World War works.

The real “Where’s Waldo?” moment for local readers comes in spotting Joan Miro’s painting Carnival of Harlequin in situ in a photograph from the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition. One of the artist’s most important works, it now resides in the permanent collection of the Albright-Knox.

Salon to Biennial: Exhibitions That Made Art History (Phaidon, 2008) provides a comprehensive documentation of what are widely considered the most groundbreaking group-art exhibits in modern history.

And another Albright-owned work, Paul Gauguin’s Spirit of the Dead Watching, appears in the book; the painting was shown in the important 1910 London exhibit “Manet and the Post-Impressionists.”

The book is a monumental achievement. Each section contains rare and never-before-published archival photos, original catalog excerpts, and reviews. The book covers all the essential art “isms” and the landmark shows that empowered those movements.

This encyclopedic reference begins with the decisive “Salon des Refusés” of Paris in 1863, an exhibition that set the political stage for the artist-organized Impressionist exhibitions that followed. The celebrated “Armory Show” of 1913 and Hitler’s notorious “Degenerate Art” exhibition of 1937 are also highlighted.