Taschen Basic Art

{{Short description|Series of art books}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}

Taschen Basic Art is a best selling art collection books, published by Taschen, starting in 1985. Each book looks at a different artist, with a biography, and illustrations of their work. The books are published as affordable hardcover books of 21 x 26 cm. {{As of|2022}}, 78 titles had been published.{{Cite web |title=Basic Art Series: Art, Architecture and History. TASCHEN Books |url=https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/collection/basic-art-series |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=TASCHEN |language=en}} Similar series entitled Taschen Basic Architecture, Taschen Basic Cinema and Taschen Basic Photographies were started after the success of the Basic Art series.

In the spring of 2014, Taschen's Basic Art series received major criticism in Swedish media for its focus on male artists. The series then consisted of 95 books, only five of which were of female artists. The artists Ditte Ejlerskov and EvaMarie Lindahl highlighted the disparity with an art installation at Malmö Konsthall in Sweden.{{cite web |author=info@konsthall.malmo.se |url=http://www.konsthall.malmo.se/o.o.i.s/5373/ |title=Malmö Konsthall |publisher=Konsthall.malmo.se |accessdate=2014-05-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508030309/http://www.konsthall.malmo.se/o.o.i.s/5373 |archivedate=8 May 2014 |df=dmy-all }}{{cite web|author=NODE, André Pahl |url=http://www.kunstkritikk.com/nyheter/taschen-under-fire/?d=en |title=Kunstkritikk — Taschen under Fire |publisher=Kunstkritikk.com |date= 25 April 2014|accessdate=2014-05-17}}{{cite web|url=http://culturenordic.com/about-the-blank-pages-feminist-history-in-the-making-at-malmo-konsthall/ |title=About: Blank Pages – feminist history in the making at Malmö Konsthall |publisher=Culturenordic.com |date=2014-05-05 |accessdate=2014-05-17}}{{Cite web|title=Storverk av systerskapet|url=https://www.aftonbladet.se/a/yv9nVe|access-date=2022-01-23|website=www.aftonbladet.se|date=20 November 2014 |language=sv}}