Art & Photography Books
University of Minnesota Press The Lichen Museum
Book SynopsisA radical proposal for how a tiny organism can transform our understanding of human relations Serving as both a guide and companion publication to the conceptual art project of the same name, The Lichen Museum explores how the physiological characteristics of lichens provide a valuable template for reimagining human relations in an age of ecological and social precarity. Channeling between the personal, the scientific, the philosophical, and the poetic, A. Laurie Palmer employs a cross-disciplinary framework that artfully mirrors the collective relations of lichens, imploring us to envision alternative ways of living based on interdependence rather than individualism and competition.Lichens are composite organisms made up of a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria thriving in a mutually beneficial relationship. The Lichen Museum looks to these complex organisms, remarkable for their symbiosis, diversity, longevity, and adaptability, as models for relations rooted in collaboration and nonhierarchical structures. In their resistance to fast-paced growth and commodification, lichens also offer possibilities for humans to reconfigure their relationship to time and attention outside of the accelerated pace of capitalist accumulation.Drawing together a diverse set of voices, including personal encounters with lichenologists and lichens themselves, Palmer both imagines and embodies a radical new approach to human interconnection. Using this tiny organism as an emblem through which to navigate environmental and social concerns, this work narrows the gap between the human and natural worlds, emphasizing the notion of mutual dependence as a necessary means of survival and prosperity.Trade Review "The Lichen Museum is a deeply engaging, provocative, humorous, and moving account of why we should pay more attention to lichens. As lichens can be found anywhere, the entire surface of the earth becomes the lichen museum. A. Laurie Palmer weaves together personal anecdotes, theoretical interventions, photography, and detailed research to draw attention to how lichens can offer new ways to think through questions of relationality, life and death, and our mutual obligations to each other."—Heather Davis, author of Plastic Matter "Meditative and inquisitive, The Lichen Museum is an interdisciplinary work about learning from the most unassuming of species."—Foreword "Reading this work feels like taking a series of walks with a particularly curious and sensitive companion, consistently attentive to otherwise neglected facets of the actual environment. "—e-flux "As an environmentally engaged artist, Palmer introduces readers to lichens through personal observations, extensive research, and critical evaluation of past and current scientific study of this complex living organism and offers her musings on the potential philosophical and poetic implications of these symbiotic organisms."—CHOICE
£72.00
University of Minnesota Press Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of
Book SynopsisDelves deep into the archives that keep the history and work of AIDS activism alive Serving as a vital supplement to the existing scholarship on AIDS activism of the 1980s and 1990s, ViralCultures is the first book to critically examine the archives that have helped preserve and create the legacy of those radical activities. Marika Cifor charts the efforts activists, archivists, and curators have made to document the work of AIDS activism in the United States and the infrastructure developed to maintain it, safeguarding the material for future generations to remember these social movements and to revitalize the epidemic’s past in order to remake the present and future of AIDS. Drawing on large institutional archives such as the New York Public Library, as well as those developed by small, community-based organizations, this work of archival ethnography details how contemporary activists, artists, and curators use these records to build on the cultural legacy of AIDS activism to challenge the conditions of injustice that continue to undergird current AIDS crises. Cifor analyzes the various power structures through which these archives are mediated, demonstrating how ideology shapes the nature of archival material and how it is accessed and used. Positioning vital nostalgia as both a critical faculty and a generative practice, this book explores the act of saving this activist past and reanimating it in the digital age. While many books, popular films, and major exhibitions have contributed to a necessary awareness of HIV and AIDS activism, Viral Cultures provides a crucial missing link by highlighting the powerful role of archives in making those cultural moments possible. Trade Review "This is a timely, important project that adds to the conversations happening now about the early days of AIDS and AIDS activism in the United States and how we remember and document that period in the present and for the future. As we live through another pandemic, the questions Marika Cifor raises about how we document and archive illness and illness politics are especially urgent and necessary."—Lisa Diedrich, author of Indirect Action: Schizophrenia, Epilepsy, AIDS, and the Course of Health Activism "It may be that AIDS activism’s greatest legacy will have been its archival documentation. Marika Cifor runs with that legacy by offering the first full-length study of collections that now exist in institutional repositories. Through her provocative concept of ‘vital nostalgia,’ she explores the affective importance of AIDS activist archives for her queer generation. Viral Cultures itself is an act of curatorial caretaking that keeps HIV/AIDS archival activism alive to do its work in the present."—Ann Cvetkovich, director, Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies, Carleton University "We all have the lethal constraints of a human body; Cifor offers us a pathway to ensure that our most important work, the messy work of living, cannot so easily be erased."—The Atlantic "A particularly salient analysis, given the inequity exposed by COVID-19—and the systemic structures that made both [the AIDS and COVID-19] pandemics worse."—Fast Company "Viral Cultures honors the efforts of activist archivists and artists who built and continue to build archives as forms of respite, healing, and resistance for marginalized communities, even as it critiques the power dynamics and inequalities reflected within the AIDS activist movement and its documentation efforts."—The American Archivist "Cifor deftly demonstrates how activist archival and curatorial practices create a space from within which artists, activists, scholars, and others may productively resist the triumphalist impulse that undergirds so much contemporary AIDS coverage."—H-Net Review Table of ContentsIntroduction. For the Record: AIDS, Archives, and Vital Nostalgia1. “Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me!” ACT UP Nostalgia and the Meaning of HIV/AIDS2. How to ACT UP: AIDS Archival Temporalities and the (Anti-)Institutionalization of the ACT UP/New York Records3. An Archival Cure: Remedy, Care, and Curation with the Visual AIDS Archive4. Status = Undetectable: Liminality and Archival Exhibitions in the Age of Survivability5. Going Viral: Mobilizing AIDS Archives in Digital CulturesEpilogue: How to Survive Another PlagueAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£20.69
Metropolitan Museum of Art Sleeping Beauties Reawakening Fashion
Book Synopsis
£54.00
Getty Trust Publications Conserving Contemporary Art – Issues, Methods,
Book SynopsisThis is a thorough investigation of the material and philosophical aspects of conserving contemporary art. Since the advent of the avant-garde in the early 20th century, visual artists have adopted new techniques and materials, some of whose characteristics of aging and wear are still largely unknown today. The conservator's intervention has become increasingly delicate, problematic, and experimental and requires not only technical knowledge of these materials but also a greater awareness of the artist's intellectual universe. "Conserving Contemporary Art" is one of the first books to give a comprehensive overview of the many considerations faced by the conservator of modern and contemporary art.
£42.75
Getty Trust Publications A Knight for the Ages - Jacques de Lalaing and
Book SynopsisThe Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing (Book of the Deeds of Jacques de Lalaing), a famous Flemish illuminated manuscript, relays the audacious life of Jacques de Lalaing (1421-1453), a story that reads more like a fast-paced adventure novel. Produced in the tradition of chivalric biography, a genre developed in the mid-fifteenth century to celebrate the great personalities of the day, the manuscript's text and illuminations begin with a magnificent frontispiece by the most acclaimed Flemish illuminator of the sixteenth century, Simon Bening. A Knight for the Ages: Jacques de Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry presents a kaleidoscopic view of the manuscript with essays written by the world's leading medievalists, adding rich texture and providing a greater understanding of the many aspects of the manuscript's background, creation, and reception, revealing for the first time the full complexity of this illuminated romance. The texts are accompanied by stunning reproductions of all of the manuscripts' miniatures-never before published in colour-as well as a plot summary and translations, allowing the reader to follow Jacques de Lalaing on his knightly journeys and experience the thrilling triumphs of his legendary tournaments and battles.Table of ContentsForeword by Tim Potts Acknowledgments by Elizabeth Morrison Introduction by Elizabeth Morrison Timeline of the Life of Jacques de Lalaing by Alexandra Kaczenski Part 1: Text and Miniatures Plot Summary by Zrinka Stahuljak Illuminations and Translation (trans. by Zrinka Stahuljak) Part 2: Essays 1) Wim Blockmans: Jacques de Lalaing: The Vitality of the Chivalric Ideal in the Burgundian Netherlands 2) Rosalind Brown-Grant Jacques de Lalaing and Chivalric Biography 3) Zrinka Stahuljak The Long Middle Ages of Jacques de Lalaing: Medieval Genres and the Writing of History 4) Elizabeth Morrison Creating the Ideal Knight through Illumination: The Artists of the Getty Lalaing 5) Hanno Wijsman The Visual Tradition of the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing 6) Margaret Scott Clad in Crimson and Gold: Dress in the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing 7) Tobias Capwell Armor, Weapons and Combat in Getty Ms. 114 8) Anne-Marie Legare A Family Text: The Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing Appendix 1: Description of the Manuscript by Elizabeth Morrison Appendix 2: TK Appendix 3: Genealogy of the Lalaing Family Bibliography Index
£45.60
Getty Trust Publications Toward a Global Middle Ages - Encountering the
Book SynopsisIlluminated manuscripts and illustrated or decorated books - like today's museums - preserve a rich array of information about how premodern peoples conceived of and perceived the world, its many cultures and everyone's place in it. Often a Eurocentric field of study, manuscripts are prisms through which we can glimpse the interconnected global history of humanity. 'Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World through Illuminated Manuscripts' is the first publication to examine decorated books produced across the globe during the period traditionally known as medieval. Through essays and case studies, the volume's multidisciplinary contributors expand the historiography, chronology, and geography of manuscript studies to embrace a diversity of objects, individuals, narratives and materials from Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas - an approach that both engages with and contributes to the emerging field of scholarly inquiry known as the Global Middle Ages. Featuring over 160 colour illustrations, this wide-ranging and provocative collection is intended for all who are interested in engaging in a dialogue about how books and other textual objects contributed to world-making strategies from about 400 to 1600.
£45.00
Getty Trust Publications The Renaissance Restored
Book SynopsisThis handsomely illustrated volume traces the intersections of art history and paintings restoration in nineteenth-century Europe. Repairing works of art and writing about them-the practices that became art conservation and art history-share a common ancestry. By the nineteenth century the two fields had become inseparably linked. While the art historical scholarship of this period has been widely studied, its restoration practices have received less scrutiny-until now. This book charts the intersections between art history and conservation in the treatment of Italian Renaissance paintings in nineteenth-century Europe. Initial chapters discuss the restoration of works by Giotto and Titian, framed by the contemporary scholarship of art historians such as Jacob Burckhardt, G. B. Cavalcaselle, and Joseph Crowe that was redefining the earlier age. Subsequent chapters recount how paintings conservation was integrated into museum settings. The narrative uses period texts, unpublished archival materials, and historical photographs in probing how paintings looked at a time when scholars were writing the foundational texts of art history, and how, simultaneously, contemporary restorers were negotiating the appearances of these works. The book proposes a model for a new conservation history, object focused yet enriched by consideration of a wider cultural horizon.Trade Review"An enjoyable book, full of new information and pertinent critical judgments. The central role of restoration in the history of museums has never been more visible."-Neville Rowley, curator at the Gemaldegalerie and Bode-Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; "Matthew Hayes's radical new study, written by a professional conservator, affords fascinating fresh insights into the complexity of conservation campaigns on Renaissance paintings in the nineteenth century, examining how successive interventions record and embody vital, but all too often neglected, knowledge. Re-situating the work of significant restorers within their historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, he elucidates their distinctive contributions to the interpretation of the art of the past within a network of diverse authorities, including owners and custodians, art historians, dealers, and museum professionals. Bringing to bear new conservation data as well as archival discoveries, Hayes argues that past restorations were never value-neutral but evidence instead their own complex art historical contexts. This rigorous yet highly readable study raises many questions relevant for contemporary practice and will be an indispensable, thought-provoking resource for art historians, conservators, and non-specialists alike."--Susanna Avery-Quash, Senior Research Curator (History of Collecting), National Gallery, London;; “This book explores the complex relationships between two disciplines that were in flux in nineteenth-century Europe: the history of art, in particular that of the Italian Renaissance, and the restoration of paintings. The author, a paintings conservator and art historian, is uniquely qualified to provide what is a fascinating historiographical deep dive into the period. Focusing on a series of thematically arranged case studies, Dr. Hayes explores the nature of restoration, highly specific to its time and place, and its connections to the people and ideas that shaped Europe’s great picture galleries. Important questions are threaded throughout: What did those early art historians, restorers, dealers, curators, and museum directors likely see when they looked at paintings? What was done to restore and preserve these works? How did this change their appearance? What traces of these activities exist today? And critically, how do these observations and interventions intersect with the contemporaneous art historical imaginations that were creating the concept of the Italian Renaissance? The answers make compelling scholarship.;; Familiar artists, paintings, and collections are viewed through a new lens. Using a wide range of sources— the nineteenth-century art historical literature of course, but also museum archival records, photographs, restorers’ accounts and letters, modern examination reports, and the material record of the paintings themselves—the author expertly creates a persuasive narrative of museum practice, art historical scholarship, and restoration in dialogue. This is a timely and important book; many of the traces of early restorations are disappearing as pictures are treated anew, just at a time when scholarly interest in the history of restoration is growing, and our scientific ability to study and understand the material history of a work of art becomes more accurate and less invasive. Elegantly written and amply illustrated, scholarly yet refreshingly jargon-free, this accessible book clearly explains both conservation activities (many no longer practiced) and the historiography of Italian Renaissance art. There are also concise biographies of the restorers who worked on pictures in Florence, Milan, Venice, and Berlin, giving welcome presence to the people so often overlooked in traditional art historical accounts. For all these reasons, The Renaissance Restored is essential reading for art historians, curators, conservators, and scholars of European intellectual history.” —Michele D. Marincola, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Conservation, Institute of Fine Arts, New York UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Finding Giotto in Florence Chapter 2: Titian and the Weight of Tradition Chapter 3: Charles Eastlake Directs Conservation Chapter 4: Bode, Hauser, and the Renaissance Museum Conclusion: Restoration and the Renaissance in the Nineteenth Century Notes Bibliography Index
£49.50
Getty Trust Publications The Absolute Realist: Collected Writings of
Book SynopsisThis annotated anthology presents the first English translation of German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch's collected writings. A towering figure in the history of photography, Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966) has come to epitomize New Objectivity, the neorealist movement in modernist literature, film, and the visual arts recognized as the signature artistic style of Germany's Weimar Republic. Today, his images are regularly exhibited and widely considered key influences on contemporary photographers. Whether they capture geometrically intricate cacti, flooded tidal landscapes, stacks of raw materials, or imposing blast furnace towers, Renger-Patzsch's photographs embody what his peer Hugo Sieker termed "absolute realism," an approach predicated upon the idea that photographers have one task: to exploit the camera's unique capacity to document with uncompromising detail. Not only a photographer, Renger-Patzsch was also an influential and lucid writer who advocated his unique brand of uncompromising realism in almost a half century's worth of articles, essays, lectures, brochures, and unpublished manuscripts addressing photography, technology, and modernity. Drawing on his papers at the Getty Research Institute and other archives, The Absolute Realist unites in one volume this skillful photographer's ideas about the defining visual medium of modernity.Trade Review"Daniel H. Magilow's careful translation and thorough annotation of Albert Renger-Patzsch's writings offer an invaluable invitation: For the very first time, we can discover one of the most influential photographers of the modern era as an eminent theorist and attentive critic. This excellent edition will undoubtedly advance our interest in a period when the art of photography became not just a subject for professionals but an affair for countless amateurs." -Steffen Siegel, editor of First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Photography; "Albert Renger-Patzsch has long been known as a giant of early twentieth-century photography. Thanks to Daniel Magilow's deft editing and translations, an English-speaking public can now learn what a savvy critic and theorist of photography he was as well."-Pepper Stetler, author of Stop Reading! Look!: Modern Vision and the Weimar Photographic Book; "As the first complete collection of Albert Renger-Patzsch's writings, The Absolute Realist brings one of the twentieth century's most significant photographers into focus as a writer and theorist. Gorgeously illustrated with Renger-Patzsch's photographs-which are by turns hauntingly beautiful, sublime, and downright funny-Daniel H. Magilow's crisp translations and insightful commentary shed new light on Renger-Patzsch's life and work during Germany's most tumultuous decades."-Elizabeth Otto, Professor of Art History, University at Buffalo (SUNY); "Daniel H. Magilow brings both a wealth of knowledge and precision to The Absolute Realist-qualities that Albert Renger-Patzsch himself prized. In addition to his astute translations, Magilow offers a fresh and nuanced reading of the photographer's most prominent years. He underscores the tension between consistency and breadth across almost a half century of thought in ways that make this collection of the German modernist's writings especially relevant for readers today." -Matthew S. Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator of Photography and Media Vice President for Strategic Art Initiatives, Art Institute of Chicago; "For photography lovers as well as researchers, The Absolute Realist: Collected Writings of Albert Renger-Patzsch, 1923-1967, edited and translated by Daniel H. Magilow, is undoubtedly a valuable addition to the bookshelf. Magilow's sensitive translation and knowledgeable scholarly introduction allow rare insight into the German photographer's work and thought during the explosive period of National Socialism, and ultimately make for an exceptionally exciting read. Highly recommended."-Gabriele Conrath-Scholl, Director, Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne
£42.75
Getty Trust Publications The Invention of the Colonial Americas: Data,
Book SynopsisThe Invention of the Colonial Americas is an architectural history and media-archaeological study of changing theories and practices of government archives in Enlightenment Spain. It centers on an archive created in Seville for storing Spain's pre-1760 documents about the New World. To fill this new archive, older archives elsewhere in Spain-spaces in which records about American history were stored together with records about European history-were dismembered. The Archive of the Indies thus constructed a scholarly apparatus that made it easier to imagine the history of the Americas as independent from the history of Europe, and vice versa. In this meticulously researched book, Byron Ellsworth Hamann explores how building layouts, systems of storage, and the arrangement of documents were designed to foster the creation of new knowledge. He draws on a rich collection of eighteenth-century architectural plans, descriptions, models, document catalogs, and surviving buildings to present a literal, materially precise account of archives as assemblages of spaces, humans, and data-assemblages that were understood circa 1800 as capable of actively generating scholarly innovation.Trade Review"This is a fascinating study of how the decision to establish a colonial archive required distinguishing European from colonial history and reimagining the role and place of the Americas in Spain, present and past. It demonstrates that the breakup of the Hispanic world was not unilateral, as not only creoles but also Spaniards, gradually moved to affirm that Spain and Spanish America were distinct. Hamann masterfully and convincingly shows that at the heart of the Archive of the Indies-an archive all historians of Spanish America use-is a hidden story about how our own field came to be and about what we have routinely seen but failed to notice."-Tamar Herzog, Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs, Harvard University; “The Invention of the Colonial Americas takes the reader on an illuminating reconstruction of Seville’s Archive of the Indies as a physical place, one whose organization and content allowed eighteenth-century writers to sever the histories of Europe and the Americas. Byron Ellsworth Hamann’s innovative study—intellectual, spatial, data-driven, and always human in its focus—offers a necessary contribution to our understanding of the Spanish Enlightenment.”—Jesús Escobar, Northwestern University
£45.00
Getty Trust Publications Rediscovering Black Portraiture
Book Synopsis"An inspiring makeshift ingenuity....These mirror images with their uncanny resemblances traverse space and time, spotlighting the black lives that have been silenced by the canon of western art, while also inviting us to interrogate the present." -Times (UK) Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peter Brathwaite has thoughtfully researched and reimagined more than one hundred artworks featuring portraits of Black sitters-all posted to social media with the caption "Rediscovering #blackportraiture through #gettymuseumchallenge." Rediscovering Black Portraiture collects more than fifty of Brathwaite's most intriguing re-creations. Introduced by Brathwaite and framed by contributions from experts in art history and visual culture, this fascinating book offers a nuanced look at the complexities and challenges of building identity within the African diaspora and how such forces have informed Black portraits over time. Artworks featured include The Adoration of the Magi by Georges Trubert, Portrait of an Unknown Man by Jan Mostaert, Rice n Peas by Sonia Boyce, and many more. This volume also invites readers behind the scenes, offering a glimpse of the elegant artifice of Brathwaite's props, setup, and process. An urgent and compelling exploration of embodiment, representation, and agency, Rediscovering Black Portraiture serves to remind us that Black subjects have been portrayed in art for nearly a millennium and that their stories demand to be told. An exhibition of Brathwaite's re-creations is on view at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery in Bristol, UK from April 14 to September September 3, 2023.Trade Review"Ever since I first stumbled across Peter's portraits on Twitter, I've been captivated by his sharp wit, innovative costuming, rich range of visual reference, and the sheer joy of each image. This is a book that will enchant and intrigue and educate. I'm thrilled by the beauty and fun and history on every page."--Samira Ahmed, BBC broadcaster; "Brathwaite brings a novel innovative way into considering the Black presence in art, creating another dimension to consider and reflect on the original work, helping us not just to engage more deeply with the composition and its subject but bringing the Black presence to life, re-creating it for us today in a thoroughly modern and highly relevant manner-an exciting Black visual tour de force!"-Michael I. Ohajuru FRSA; "Peter Brathwaite's oeuvre defies neat categorization: Is it art, performance, autobiography, or art historical essay? He has blended these modes to make work that is joyful, original, and poignant. It is important and timely. To restage Black portraiture, from the Domesday Book to Kehinde Wiley, Brathwaite gets inside the lives and worlds of each sitter and brilliantly rediscovers, reclaims, and re-presents Black (art) history for modern audiences. His empathetic performances give agency to the people portrayed and breathe warmth and life into what was previously frozen; he reminds us that Black historical lives matter too."-Lucy Peltz, Head of Collections Displays (Tudor to Regency) and Senior Curator, 18th Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery
£33.25
Getty Trust Publications Alfredo Boulton: Looking at Venezuela, 1928–1978
Book SynopsisAlfredo Boulton (1908–1995) is considered one of the most important champions of modern art in Venezuela and a key intellectual of twentieth-century modernism. He was a pioneer of modern photography, an art critic, a researcher and historian of Venezuelan art, a friend to many of the great artists and architects of the twentieth century, and an expert on the imagery of the heroes of his country’s independence. Yet, Boulton is shockingly underrecognized outside of his native land. The few exhibitions related to his work have been focused exclusively on his photographic production; never has there been a project that looks at the full range of Boulton’s efforts, foregrounding his influence on the shaping of Venezuelan art. This volume addresses these lacunae by analyzing Boulton’s groundbreaking photographic practice, his central role in the construction of a modern national artistic canon, and his influence in formalizing and developing art history and criticism in Venezuela. Based on the extensive materials held in Boulton’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, Alfredo Boulton brings together essays by leading scholars in the field to offer a commanding, original perspective on his contributions to the formation of a distinctive modernity at home and beyond.
£45.00
Reaktion Books Trees in Art
Book SynopsisIn this superbly illustrated book, Charles Watkins explores the myth and magic of arboreal art. Enter the groves of the classical world, from Daphne's metamorphosis into a laurel tree to the gardens of Pompeii. The tree in sacred art is represented in master works by Botticelli and Michelangelo. The oak as a symbol of nationhood and liberty across Europe is revealed. The mystery and drama of forest interiors, the formal beauty of avenues of trees, the representation of forestry over the ages and the world of `more than real' trees in the fantastic and surreal art of Arcimboldo, William Blake, Arthur Rackham and Salvador Dali are each illuminated in fascinating detail, coming right up to date with Giuseppe Penone and Ai Wei Wei. Watkins also elucidates the practice of genius in how artists learned to draw trees. Each thematic chapter takes a breathtaking journey through centuries of artists' engagement and fascination with a natural form that seems to allegorize or mirror the human journey through life. Drawing on the author's deep knowledge of the history and ecology of trees, Trees in Art shows that we can learn much about ourselves from the art of trees.
£38.00
GMC Publications Composition in the Landscape
Book SynopsisBestselling author Peter Watson provides the knowledge needed to compose stunning digital photographs. It guides the reader through picking the best viewpoint, using the light to one's advantage and creating depth and impact. It features a collection of inspiring photographs with captions that include all technical information. The landscape is not only endlessly varied it is also constantly changing, and this is what makes it such a fascinating and challenging subject. Using a fabulous collection of landscape photography shot in the UK, the USA and France, Peter Watson's latest book gives photographers of every ability the knowledge needed to compose stunning digital photographs. Starting with an explanation of what makes a good landscape for photography, the book guides you through picking the best viewpoint, using the light to your advantage and creating depth and impact. All pictures featured have captions that include all technical information, including post-processing instructions.
£14.44
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Medieval Clothing and Textiles 17
Book SynopsisThe best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a variety of angles and approaches. The essays here take us from the eleventh century, with an exploration of the Bayeux Tapestry, into an examination and reconstruction of an extant thirteenth-century sleeve in France which provides a rare and early example of medieval quilted armour, and finally on to late medieval Sweden and the reconstruction of gilt-leather intarsia coverlets. A study of construction techniques and the evolution of form of gable and French hoods in the late medieval and the early modern periods follows; and the volume also includes a study of the Great Wardrobe under Edward I of England, and what it can tell us about textiles at the time.Table of ContentsPreface Embroidered Beasts: Animals in the Bayeux Tapestry - Gale R. Owen-Crocker The Sleeve from Bussy-Saint-Martin: A Rare Example of Medieval Quilted Armor - Catherine Besson-Lagier The Administration of Cloth and Clothing in the Great Wardrobe of Edward I - Charles Farris Hanging Together: Furnishing Textiles in a Fifteenth-Century Book of Hours - Anne Kirkham Gilt-leather Embroideries from Medieval Sweden and Finland -Amica Sundström and Maria Neijman From Hennin to Hood: An Analysis of the Evolution of the English Hood Compared to the Evolution of the French Hood -Karen Margrethe Høskuldsson
£47.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Imagining Anglo-Saxon England: Utopia,
Book SynopsisA fresh approach to the construction of "Anglo-Saxon England" and its depiction in art and writing. This book explores the ways in which early medieval England was envisioned as an ideal, a placeless, and a conflicted geography in works of art and literature from the eighth to the eleventh century and in their modern scholarly and popular afterlives. It suggests that what came to be called "Anglo-Saxon England" has always been an imaginary place, an empty space into which ideas of what England was, or should have been, or should be, have been inserted from the arrival of peoples from the Continent in the fifth and sixth centuries to the arrival of the self-named "alt-right" in the twenty-first. It argues that the political and ideological violence that was a part of the origins of England as a place and the English as a people has never been fully acknowledged; instead, the island was reimagined as a chosen land home to a chosen people, the gens Anglorum. Unacknowledged violence, however, continued to haunt English history and culture. Through her examination here of the writings of Bede and King Alfred, the Franks Casket and the illuminated Wonders of the East, and the texts collected together to form the Beowulf manuscript, the author shows how this continues to haunt "Anglo-Saxon Studies" as a discipline and Anglo-Saxonism as an ideology, from the antiquarian studies of the sixteenth century through to the nationalistic and racist violence of today.Trade ReviewImportantly, Karkov has positioned her voice within a monograph, which enables her to develop a sustained and complex argument that asks her reader to think deeply and honestly about issues that have been the subject of much division and derisiveness. The importance of what Karkov has done for the field of early medieval studies by writing Imagining Anglo-Saxon England cannot be overstated. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *[O]ne of the most important studies of early medieval identity published in the past twenty years. . . . This monograph is not only impeccably researched and forcefully argued, but it also has the rare (and hopefully increasingly common) quality in medieval scholarship of being unequivocally important. As medieval studies (and Anglo-American society more broadly) attempts to confront its own colonial and racialized past, Catherine Karkov has identified a good place to start. * COMITATUS *Sharply incisive, unflinchingly direct, and the best kind of provocative, Catherine Karkov's Imagining Anglo-Saxon England provides one of the most cogent accounts to date of the fraught history of "Anglo-Saxon" studies. ...Imagining Anglo Saxon England takes important steps towards bridging the chasm between acknowledgment of the field's past harms and hope for its newly envisioned future. * SPECULUM *The book is uncompromising in its response to a turbulent world and changing field and is sure to be influential. -- TOEBI NEWSLETTER[E]ngaging and important points. -- Mary Cockray-Miller * Journal of English and Germanic Philology *Table of ContentsIntroduction A plan for utopia to come Utopia past and the heterotopia of origins Utopia/dystopia: humanity and its others in the Beowulf manuscript Retrotopia: Anglo-Saxonism, Anglo-Saxonists, and the myth of origins Bibliography
£25.64
Reaktion Books The Simple Truth: The Monochrome in Modern Art
Book SynopsisThe monochrome - a single-colour work of art - is highly ambiguous. For some it epitomizes purity, and is art reduced to its essence. For others it is just a stunt, the emperor's new clothes. Why are monochromes so admired, yet such an easy target of scorn? In this illuminating book Simon Morley unpacks the meanings of the monochrome as it developed internationally over the twentieth century to today. In doing so he explores more general questions such as how artists have understood what they make, how critics variously interpret it and how art is encountered by viewers.Trade Review"An indispensable introduction to the intriguing material, optical, and philosophical challenges posed by the monochrome. Morley writes with such tact and insight that anyone interested in the contemporary practice of painting, whether expert or novice, will find the book a delight."--Malcolm Bull, Professor of Art and the History of Ideas, University of Oxford "Brilliantly explores the labyrinthine complexities of this apparently simple form of abstract art."--David Batchelor, artistTable of Contents1 Introductions 2 Setting 3 Reception 4 Colour 5 Ground 6 Spiritual 7 Indefinable 8 Nothingness 9 Experiential 10 Zen 11 Material 12 Format 13 Sign 14 Idea 15 Allegorical 16 Expanded Field 17 East-Asia 18 Contemporary 19 Conclusion References
£23.75
Reaktion Books The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place
Book SynopsisEnglish art critic John Ruskin was one of the great visionaries of his time, and his influential books and letters on the power of art challenged the foundations of Victorian life. He loved looking. Sometimes it informed the things he wrote, but often it provided access to the many topographical and cultural topics he explored--rocks, plants, birds, Turner, Venice, the Alps. In The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place, John Dixon Hunt focuses for the first time on what Ruskin drew, rather than wrote, offering a new perspective on Ruskin's visual imagination. Through analysis of more than 150 drawings and sketches, many reproduced here, he shows how Ruskin's art shaped his writings, his thoughts, and his sense of place.Trade Review"Dixon contends that, far from being mere illustrations to his writings, Ruskin’s drawings were the first necessary step in his approach to beauty, words coming second. The aim of the book is to examine how Ruskin saw things, how he learnt to look at places, in particular, and how to represent them." * Cercles *"This beautifully produced book takes readers on a closely and sensitively observed grand tour of Ruskin’s pictorial imagination. In a moving return to an early subject, Hunt supplies this bibliographic equivalent of Ruskin’s restless journeying, a visual odyssey in honor not only of the places he cared about, but also of his sense of place, understood physically, emotionally, spiritually, chromatically. The images reproduced here are more than illustrations: thanks to Hunt’s hospitality and judgement as a guide, they take their place as staging-posts along a beguiling travelers’ road." -- Marcus Waithe, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
£38.00
Reaktion Books Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects
Book SynopsisBlending architecture, design, and technology, a visual tour through futures past via the objects we have replaced, left behind, and forgotten. So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused-superseded, unfashionable, or simply forgotten. Extinct gathers together an exceptional range of artists, curators, architects, critics, and academics, including Hal Foster, Barry Bergdoll, Deyan Sudjic, Tacita Dean, Emily Orr, Richard Wentworth, and many more. In eighty-five essays, contributors nominate "extinct" objects and address them in a series of short, vivid, sometimes personal accounts, speaking not only of obsolete technologies, but of other ways of thinking, making, and interacting with the world. Extinct is filled with curious, half-remembered objects, each one evoking a future that never came to pass. It is also a visual treat, full of interest and delight.Trade Review"A truly fascinating and consistently unexpected account of a forgotten landscape of lost futures. This richly original work chronicles the designed world of the undead and, at the same time, challenges today's easy consensus of progress and modernization. Entertaining, jolting, and scholarly, it is a superb counterblast to our own age of relentless upgrades and product improvements." -- Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London "Objects have come and gone from our lives throughout history, mostly because something new has been designed to fulfill their functions more efficiently, appealingly, economically, or sustainably. Never before has this happened with such speed or on the same scale as in the digital age. Extinct is both a thoughtful and incisive analysis of the phenomenon and an engaging tribute to some of the intriguing or eccentric objects we have lost in design's equivalent of natural selection." -- Alice Rawsthorn, author of "Design as an Attitude" "This is a wonderfully curious book about how the ghosts of extinct inventions live on, not just in our minds but in the world around us. It is strangely addictive to discover how the epitaphs of these technologies form the blueprints of our future." -- Mark Miodownik, author of "Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World" "Extinct is an intoxicating exploration of a host of objects, systems, and protocols that are no longer in use or never made it. They are design ghosts, actively haunting the present and conjuring up alternative nested futures. Each short story becomes epic. This brilliant book is a survey of the future rather than of the past." -- Beatriz Colomina, Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture, Princeton University, and author of "Are We Human?: Notes on an Archaeology of Design"
£33.25
Reaktion Books Kunstkammer: Early Modern Art and Curiosity
Book SynopsisKunstkammern, art and curiosity cabinets housed in a dedicated room or suite of chambers, were often filled with thousands of diverse and sometimes shocking objects reflecting the bounty of nature and human creativity. These could range from a cherry pit carved with dozens of faces to an intricate drinking cup fashioned from a rhinoceros horn. Whether as a setting for personal contemplation or as a manifestation of the wealth and prestige of its owners, these proto-museums dazzled visitors of the time. This book offers the first in-depth comparative examination of the history, theory, organization and character of the major Kunstkammern in the Holy Roman Empire.
£33.25
The Crowood Press Ltd Farm and Rural Building Conversions: A Guide to
Book SynopsisFarm and Rural Building Conversions provides a detailed record of types of rural buildings and advice for conversion , including retention of period features where appropriate. Sympathetic conversion that ensures this record of rural life is not lost forever.
£25.50
Bodleian Library Type is Beautiful: The Story of Fifty Remarkable
Book SynopsisBehind every typeface is a story – who designed it, and why? What are its distinctive characteristics, and what cultural baggage does it carry? This book explores fifty of the most remarkable typefaces, dating from the birth of European printing in the fifteenth century (and the type used in the Gutenberg Bible – the first significant book to be printed in Europe) to the present day. It features key examples in the aesthetic development of typography (Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni) and those fonts which have made a significant impact on the wider world. Many fonts have added style to something culturally important (such as Johnston Sans on the London Underground), or assumed a cultural significance of their own, sometimes by accident. The designer of Comic Sans, for example, created the typeface for use in speech bubbles for a Microsoft programme, never expecting it to become one of the world’s favourite – and also most maligned – fonts. Through the fonts this book also examines the often colourful lives of the key designers in the evolution of typography: Johannes Gutenberg, William Caslon, Nicolas Jenson, Stanley Morison and William Morris, among others – including one who threw his unique set of metal type into the Thames to prevent others from misusing it – and the enduring influence they have had on print culture. Of equal appeal to general readers, designers and typographers, this book is a vibrant cultural guide to the aesthetic choices we make in order to spread the word.Table of ContentsIntroduction Glossary 1. Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible 2. Nicolas Jenson 3. Aldine italics 4. Fraktur 5. Caslon 6. Caslon’s ‘English Arabick’ 7. Baskerville 8. Bodoni 9. Robert Thorne 10. Pouchée 11. Two Lines English 12. Braille 13. Robert Bell 14. Wild West 15. Typewriter 16. Golden 17. Doves 18. Arnold Böcklin 19. Cloister Black 20. Centaur 21. Souvenir 22. Goudy Old Style 23. Underground Railway 24. Cooper Black 25. Garamond 26. Arrighi 27. Neuland 28. Broadway 29. Futura 30. Gill 31. Times 32. Peignot 33. Stencil 34. SuperVeloz 35. Helvetica 36. Calypso 37. Transport 38. Antique Olive 39. Data 70 40. Bloody Horror 41. Arcadia 42. Mason 43. NatWest 44. Comic Sans 45. Amanar 46. Channel 4 47. Guardian Egyptian 48. Piel 49. Lushootseed 50. Zulia Further reading Index
£18.00
Bodleian Library Bodleian Library Treasures
Book SynopsisSince its foundation in 1602, the Bodleian Library has acquired manuscripts, printed books, maps, music and ephemera in all languages, from all ages and from all corners of the globe. From this huge collection David Vaisey, former Bodley’s Librarian and Keeper of the University Archives, has selected over one hundred treasures that have a story to tell. Many of these treasures are well-loved around the world and include Jane Austen’s manuscript for The Watsons, Shelley’s notebooks, a map of Narnia illustrated by C.S. Lewis and the original Wind in the Willows manuscript. Others are known for their beauty and historical value, such as the thirteenth-century Douce Apocalypse, the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. Many items hold poignant stories, like the little book hand-written by the eleven-year-old girl who would later become Queen Elizabeth I, given as a New Year present in 1545 to the third of her stepmothers, Katherine Parr. Using a simple and accessible chronological structure, together with detailed illustrations, this bibliophile’s delight, now available in a stunning hardback edition, showcases the beauty and knowledge contained within the Bodleian Library’s renowned collections.Trade Review'Lavish and informative, 'Bodleian Library Treasures' offers a generous sampling of the athenaem's riches, giving readers an in-depth look at some of history's finest literary works.' * Boston Globe *‘Undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous and lavish of such picture-book introductory guides to famous libraries’ collections the world over … the sheer variety of treasures is astonishing.’ * Library & Information History *
£35.00
Bodleian Library Historic Heart of Oxford University, The
Book SynopsisOxford’s university buildings are world-famous. Over eight centuries, starting in the twelfth century, the University – the third oldest in Europe – gradually occupied a substantial portion of the city, creating in the process a unique townscape containing the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera. This book tells the story of the growth of the forum universitatis – as the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor called it – and relates it to the broader history of the University and the city. Based on up-to-date scholarship, and drawing upon the author’s own research into Oxford’s architectural history and the work of Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, James Gibbs and Giles Gilbert Scott, each of the eight chapters focuses on the gestation, creation and subsequent history of a single building, or pair of buildings, relating them to developments in the University’s intellectual and institutional life, and to broader themes in architectural and urban history. Accessible and well-illustrated with plans, archival prints and specially commissioned photography, this book will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand and enjoy Oxford’s matchless architectural heritage.Table of ContentsContents 1. THE UNIVERSITY CHURCH and the CONGREGATION HOUSE 2. THE DIVINITY SCHOOL and DUKE HUMFREY’S LIBRARY 3. THE SCHOOLS QUADRANGLE 4. THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE 5. THE OLD ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM 6. THE CLARENDON BUILDING 7. THE RADCLIFFE CAMERA AND RADCLIFFE SQUARE 8. THE NEW BODLEIAN AND THE WESTON LIBRARY Notes Further Reading Picture Credits Index
£29.75
Bodleian Library Temple of Science: The Pre-Raphaelites and Oxford
Book SynopsisBuilt between 1855 and 1860, Oxford University Museum of Natural History is the extraordinary result of close collaboration between artists and scientists. Inspired by John Ruskin, the architect Benjamin Woodward and the Oxford scientists worked with leading Pre-Raphaelite artists on the design and decoration of the building. The decorative art was modelled on the Pre-Raphaelite principle of meticulous observation of nature, itself indebted to science, while individual artists designed architectural details and carved portrait statues of influential scientists. The entire structure was an experiment in using architecture and art to communicate natural history, modern science and natural theology. 'Temple of Science' sets out the history of the campaign to build the museum before taking the reader on a tour of art in the museum itself. It looks at the façade and the central court, with their beautiful natural history carvings and marble columns illustrating different geological strata, and at the pantheon of scientists. Together they form the world’s finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite sculpture. The story of one of the most remarkable collaborations between scientists and artists in European art is told here with lavish illustrations.Trade Review“In this beautifully illustrated volume, John Holmes, the leading authority on the Pre-Raphaelites and science, equally at home with the visual arts and the written word, uncovers, with élan, the history, artistry, and wider significance of this quite extraordinary Gesamtkunstwerk.” * Liz Prettejohn, University of York *
£33.25
Bodleian Library Botanical Art Notebook Set: 3 A5 ruled notebooks
Book SynopsisJohann Wilhelm Weinmann was an apothecary who established a botanic garden in Regensburg and set about producing a highly detailed catalogue of plants and their uses, with illustrations commissioned from some of the finest engravers of the time. The resulting Phytanthoza Iconographia is an immense work, contained within several volumes published between 1737 and 1745. It features no fewer than 1,025 beautiful colour plates – including early examples of colour mezzotint – of all manner of fruit and vegetables. Three of the exquisite plates are reproduced in this lovely set of A5 softback notebooks: the perfect gift for gardeners and connoisseurs of botanical illustration.
£11.87
Bodleian Library The Kennicott Bible
Book SynopsisThe Kennicott Bible is among the most celebrated Hebrew Bibles that survive from the Middle Ages. Originating from La Coruña in northern Spain, it features lavish carpet pages, gold leaf silhouettes and abundant marginal decorations. This extraordinary manuscript is a treasure chest of history, culture, devotion, art and cross- cultural collaboration. The story of its survival is a remarkable one and its sumptuous images have delighted readers since its creation in 1476. This book features a collection of all of the decorated pages from this stunning manuscript – accompanied by four chapters authored by experts in the fields of Bible study, book history and medieval Jewish art. They discuss the main themes from several perspectives, including the Hebrew text of the Bible, the scribe who created the pages, the layout and palaeography, and the illuminator who produced the decoration and its imagery. There is also an analysis of the early medieval commentary on the Old Testament, the Masorah. Richly illustrated throughout, this beautiful book makes available the key pages from a treasure of Jewish book art together with the latest scholarship on its origins, provenance and creation.Table of ContentsFOREWORD vi Martin J. Gross INTRODUCTION 1 Katrin Kogman-Appel CONTENTS, STRUCTURE & ORGANIZATION 11 Javier del Barco MATERIAL DESCRIPTION & LAYOUT 23 Javier del Barco THE MASORAH 35 María Teresa Ortega-Monasterio ARTISTIC EMBELLISHMENTS 53 Katrin Kogman-Appel PLATES 77 captions to plates 241 notes 246 bibliography 252 contributors 255 picture credits 256 index 257
£40.00
Wallach Art Gallery Partisans of the Nude: An Arab Art Genre in an
Book Synopsis
£22.50
American Federation of Arts,U.S. African Modernism in America
Book Synopsis
£33.25
Princeton University Press The Organic Line
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Rydon Publishing Country House Secrets: Behind Closed Doors
Book SynopsisWith a foreword by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey who concludes that: `This is the world that Ruth Binney has brought so wonderfully to life in her book'. Inside the country house, what exactly were the duties of the master's valet and the lady's maid? How did these fit into the daily routine? And what were the protocols for visitors? The answers to these, and many more questions, are revealed in this entertaining and intimate guide to the self-contained world of the country house. Here you'll learn the rules of etiquette essential both upstairs and down -for both residents and visitors -marvel at the intricacies of housekeeping, and enter a bygone age of hunts, house parties and grand balls. All these aspects of country house life, and many more, are introduced here through the contemporary maxims used to instruct the members of the household and their guests, from running a large kitchen to entertaining royalty. Each is brought to life with both practical detail and direct, compelling quotes and illustrations from period manuals and advice books, giving every entry a totally authentic feel and `voice'. Rounding off the book is an informative list of houses to visit, stressing the features that relate directly to the descriptions included in the book.Table of Contents1 Foreword by Julian Fellowes 4 2 Introduction 6 3 Keeping House 8 4 The Daily Routine 44 5 The Country House Kitchen 78 6 A Matter of Manners 112 7 Entertainment, Leisure and Sport 150 8 Gardens and Grounds 176 9 Houses to Visit 216 10 Book Reference List 221
£12.74
ERIS Secrets of Beauty
Book Synopsis
£12.99
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art London's New Scene: Art and Culture in the 1960s
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking and extensively researched account of the 1960s London art scene In the 1960s, London became a vibrant hub of artistic production. Postwar reconstruction, jet air travel, television arts programs, new color supplements, a generation of young artists, dealers, and curators, the influx of international film companies, the projection of “creative Britain” as a national brand—all nurtured and promoted the emergence of London as “a new capital of art.” Extensively illustrated and researched, this book offers an unprecedented, rich account of the social field that constituted the lively London scene of the 1960s. In clear, fluent prose, Tickner presents an innovative sequence of critical case studies, each of which explores a particular institution or event in the cultural life of London between 1962 and 1968. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of an exuberant decade in the history of British art.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“[E]loquent moments are investigated and analysed in a style that reminds us of the author’s academic credentials, at the same time as showing a wide and warm immersion in her subject and a generous range of reference.”—Julia Sutherland, Financial Times “A scholarly, beautifully constructed survey of the London art scene of the 1960s that focuses on a fascinating cast of glamorous characters and gritty drama, with much that resonates with today's art world”—Hettie Judah, Art Newspaper“Tickner unpicks the myths of London’s Pop Art counterculture, investigating the transformational moments that allowed the avant-garde to flourish.”—Holly Black, Elephant magazine“[A] handsome new volume, well-illustrated…which tells of the emergence of London as an international art scene, during the years that followed World War II”—Edward Lucie-Smith, ArtLyst“Tickner’s case studies range across institutions and events, from films and exhibitions to books and even protests.”—Dance Gazette“Lisa Tickner takes an in-depth look at the conditions that made 1960s London such a vibrant cultural hub.”—The Arts Society Magazine, ‘Best Books for June’“The YBA years had nothing on the London art scene of the '60s…Tickner offers a fresh account…through a series of original case studies.”—Apollo Magazine“[A] comprehensive survey of the burgeoning art scene in London 60 years ago, taking in everyone from Gilbert & George to David Hockney”—The Herald“London’s New Scene is full of unfamiliar material and original ideas…packed with information and reflection, [it] will prove invaluable to students and scholars but is written with a lightness of touch that will also appeal to the general reader.”—Art Daily “Chapters include examinations of Ken Russell’s seminal TV documentary Pop Goes the Easel, the influence of the Kasmin Gallery (the original white cube) and Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow Up, which perfectly captured the look and feel of the times. Well written and copiously illustrated, this is about as perfect a biography of a decade as you could wish for.”—Henry Walt, The Artist “London's New Scene is thus at once a corrective and an act of reappropriation. Our current reading of the 1960s comes from the populism of its initial writing, or, perhaps, packaging. All this needs careful unpicking, and Tickner provides it.”—Charles Darwent, Times Literary Supplement“Collectively, the texts represent one of the most imaginative sources on the 1960s London art world.”—Anne Massey, The Burlington Magazine“This richly illustrated book about the emergence of London as an international art scene is as much social history as art book. Besides bringing very precise details and perspective to key moments and subjects of the period, what it demonstrates clearly is that Sixties London was the crucible from which the new notion of a creative Britain emerged.”—Charlotte Gould, Cercles“An exceptionally well-researched and extensive study.”—Paul Flux, Albion Magazine
£33.25
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Darkness
Book SynopsisA revelatory study of one of the 18th century’s greatest artists, which places him in relation to the darker side of the English Enlightenment Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797), though conventionally known as a ‘painter of light’, returned repeatedly to nocturnal images. His essential preoccupations were dark and melancholy, and he had an enduring concern with death, ruin, old age, loss of innocence, isolation and tragedy. In this long-awaited book, Matthew Craske adopts a fresh approach to Wright, which takes seriously contemporary reports of his melancholia and nervous disposition, and goes on to question accepted understandings of the artist. Long seen as a quintessentially modern and progressive figure – one of the artistic icons of the English Enlightenment – Craske overturns this traditional view of the artist. He demonstrates the extent to which Wright, rather than being a spokesman for scientific progress, was actually a melancholic and sceptical outsider, who increasingly retreated into a solitary, rural world of philosophical and poetic reflection, and whose artistic vision was correspondingly dark and meditative. Craske offers a succession of new and powerful interpretations of the artist’s paintings, including some of his most famous masterpieces. In doing so, he recovers Wright’s deep engagement with the landscape, with the pleasures and sufferings of solitude, and with the themes of time, history and mortality. In this book, Joseph Wright of Derby emerges not only as one of Britain’s most ambitious and innovative artists, but also as one of its most profound.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“A bold, punchy thesis, sure to ruffle academic feathers, and one that Craske, a reader in art history at Oxford Brookes, has been mulling for some time”—Alistair Sooke, The Daily Telegraph“In this beautifully illustrated volume Matthew Craske takes a fresh approach to one of Britain’s most exceptional and profoundly thoughtful painters.”—Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times ‘Best Art Books of the Year 2020’ “The “darkness” identified in the subtitle of this perception-shifting book was in the artist’s personality as well as on the canvas.”—Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times 'Best Art Books of 2020' "Matthew Craske's fascinating biography of Joseph Wright looks afresh at the artist known as the 'painter of light' [and] provides an alternative reading of this 'self-professed melancholic', drawing on neglected sources to mine the motivations and forces behind the creation of Wright's oeuvre...Craske's ambitious and innovative book invites the reader to reconsider this melancholy mind, this painter of darkness."—Emily Knight, Apollo Magazine"In this beautifully illustrated new book Matthew Craske overturns this view of the artist as a spokesman for scientific progress and reveals him to be someone very different."—ArtMag"[Joseph Wright's] most famous works show experiments and create the sense of wonder that must have accompanied them. He was much more than that, though, and this magnificently thorough biography and analysis includes a wide range of other figurative and landscape works."—Henry Malt, Artbookreview.net “Matthew Craske’s analysis of Wright’s life and art is clear and ample, with a combative streak that is an echo of Wright’s own demeanour...Craske does not merely address current scholarship; he also shakes it.”—James Hamilton, Literary Review“Matthew Craske’s spectacular new book directly challenges...our understanding of this enigmatic 18-century artist.”—Christopher Masters, World of Interiors“It is good to read a book so intent on its argument about a British painter, so sure that there is much at stake, so determined to break free of both neutral surveys and theoretical schemes...This intricate study leaves little doubt that Wright is not an intriguing minor artist with an attractive line in candlelit drama but among the great European painters of the eighteenth century.”—Alexandra Harris, Times Literary Supplement“Meticulous and eye-catching, [Wright’s] work is justly celebrated, and Matthew Craske goes to great lengths to explore his mindset and way of life.”—Elizabeth Fitzherbert, The Lady“Craske sees in Wright a much more complex and multifaceted character than previously portrayed.”—Mark Jones, Albion Magazine
£42.75
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists
Book SynopsisThe first collective, critical historical study of women artists in Britain and France during the Revolutionary era In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hundreds of women in London and Paris became professional artists, exhibiting and selling their work in unprecedented numbers. Many rose to the top of their nations’ artistic spheres and earned substantial incomes from their work, regularly navigating institutional inequalities expressly designed to exclude members of their sex. In the first collective, critical history of women artists in Britain and France during the Revolutionary era, Paris Spies-Gans explores how they engaged with and influenced the mainstream cultural currents of their societies at pivotal moments of revolutionary change. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of the experiences of these narrative painters, portraitists, sculptors, and draughtswomen, this book challenges longstanding assumptions about women in the history of art. Importantly, it demonstrates that women built profitable artistic careers by creating works in nearly every genre practiced by men, in similar proportions and to aesthetic acclaim. It also reveals that hundreds of women studied with male artists, and even learned to draw from the nude. Where traditional histories have left a void, this generously illustrated book illuminates a lively world of artistic production. Featuring an extensive range of these artists’ paintings, drawings, sculptures, and writings, alongside contemporary prints, satires, and works by their male peers, A Revolution on Canvas transforms our understanding of the opportunities and identities of women artists of the past. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“Revelatory.”—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post“Exhaustive, groundbreaking research. . . . [A] beautifully produced book.”—Jacqueline Riding, Art Newspaper, “Top Art Books of 2022”“By making its points compellingly and driving the agenda forward, A Revolution on Canvas is an important contribution to the field.”—Tabitha Barber, Art Newspaper“This publication, which might be one of the most anticipated art history books of the year, draws heavily on new research and statistical analysis on the subject of women artists during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.”—Sothebys.com“A wave of women pursued public recognition and commercial reward for their art at this time. It was a surge of activity, as Spies-Gans thoughtfully charts, hitherto unprecedented in history.”—Royal Academy Magazine“A Revolution on Canvas is an important contribution to our understanding of the history of art in the 18th century.”—WSG BulletinWinner of the 2023 Stansky Book Prize, sponsored by NACBSShortlisted for the 2023 Berger Prize, sponsored by The British Art JournalReceived Honorable Mention from the Louis A. Gottschalk Prize, sponsored by American Society for Eighteenth-Century StudiesName One of the Top Art Books of 2022 by The Art NewspaperOn the 2022 Top Art Books List by The Conversation
£42.75
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Building Greater Britain: Architecture,
Book SynopsisThis innovative study reappraises the Edwardian Baroque movement in British architecture, placing it in its wider cultural, political, and imperial contexts The Edwardian Baroque was the closest British architecture ever came to achieving an "imperial" style. With the aim of articulating British global power and prestige, it adorned civic and commercial structures both in Britain and in the wider British world, especially in the "white settler" Dominions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. Evoking the contemporary and emotive idea of "Greater Britain," this new book by distinguished historian G. A. Bremner represents a major, groundbreaking study of this intriguing architectural movement in Britain and its empire. It explores the Edwardian Baroque’s significance as a response to the growing tide of anxiety over Britain’s place in the world, its widely perceived geopolitical decline, and its need to bolster confidence in the face of the Great Power rivalries of the period. Cross-disciplinary in nature, it combines architectural, political, and imperial history and theory, providing a more nuanced and intellectually wide-ranging understanding of the Edwardian Baroque movement from a material culture perspective, including its foundation in notions of race and gender.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review"Bremner’s wonderfully assured and richly illustrated Building Greater Britain is … a timely book. [He] proposes buildings as an overlooked source for the study of Edwardian angst, one which he suggests might lead us to ‘ponder afresh the dilemmas of our own age." —Michael Ledger-Lomas, Jocobin "Where the Empire goes, the historians will follow. G.A. Bremner’s recent book, Building Greater Britain, traces the development of a genre of architecture intended to give a common face to government institutions in the dominions and other settlements, where a visual display of British values was seen to be important."—Timothy Brittain-Catlin, Apollo Magazine "This significant gap in British architectural history has now been redressed … . Bremner’s achievement is to have recovered, in its complex diversity, a major architectural movement that was global in scope. The breadth of research required to bring this off, ranging across four continents, is an achievement in itself." —Ian Lochhead, The Burlington Magazine "As G. A. Bremner sets out in his luxuriously weighty new book, BuildingGreater Britain, the English Baroque … was for decades close to the official architectural style of the British Empire. There is growing interest … in the architecture of high imperialism. Much has changed … in how we view architectural history and the imperial, and Bremner’s focus on the toxic masculinity swirling around the Empire and its symbolism is well justified. … Building Greater Britain is … rich in detail, and absorbing." —Robert Bevan, Times Literary Supplement "This impressive book makes an excellent case for considering Edwardian Baroque part of the imperial project of building a Greater Britain. Thoroughly researched and splendidly illustrated, it covers an important period of history, with sensitive insights concerning the many uncertainties of the time, handled with intelligence and depth." —James Stevens Curl, The Critic "Building Greater Britain is an account of baroque revival architecture in Britain and the white settler areas of the British empire. It is an impressive, even formidable work. As well as the extent of its treatment (architecture in six countries beyond Britain is considered), it is monumental in its scholarship." - Mark Crinson, Architectural History "This is a challenging, thought-provoking book which deals with fascinating issues of the relationship between society and architecture. It confronts what is, on the face of it, the bewildering question of why what has been called 'bankers’ baroque' became the universal international architectural language of empire. [It] addresses in a mature and lucid way such difficult issues as colonialism, race and masculinity. The result [is] a mass of original research illuminated by high intelligence." - shortlist citation, William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History (2023)
£45.00
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post-Reformation
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking approach to the problem of realism in Tudor art In Tudor and Jacobean England, visual art was often termed “lively.” This word was used to describe the full range of visual and material culture—from portraits to funeral monuments, book illustrations to tapestry. To a modern viewer, this claim seems perplexing: what could “liveliness” have meant in a culture with seemingly little appreciation for illusionistic naturalism? And in a period supposedly characterised by fear of idolatry, how could “liveliness” have been a good thing? In this wide-ranging and innovative book, Christina Faraday excavates a uniquely Tudor model of vividness: one grounded in rhetorical techniques for creating powerful mental images for audiences. By drawing parallels with the dominant communicative framework of the day, Tudor Liveliness sheds new light on a lost mode of Tudor art criticism and appreciation, revealing how objects across a vast range of genres and contexts were taking part in the same intellectual and aesthetic conversations. By resurrecting a lost model for art theory, Faraday re-enlivens the vivid visual and material culture of Tudor and Jacobean England, recovering its original power to move, impress and delight. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“The achievement of this wonderfully illustrated and bountifully referenced book is to make us question how we should look at post-Reformation art, and to find delight in its eccentricities.”—Brett Dolman, History Today
£42.75
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art The Rainbow's Gravity: Colour, Materiality and
Book SynopsisFrom Victorian breakthroughs in synthesising pigments to the BBC’s conversion to chromatic broadcasting, the story of colour’s technological development is inseparable from wider processes of modernisation that transformed Britain. This revolutionary history brings to light how new colour technologies informed ideas about national identity during a period of profound social change, when the challenges of industrialisation, decolonisation of the Empire and evolving attitudes to race and gender reshaped the nation. Offering a compelling new account of modern British visual culture that reveals colour to be central to its aesthetic trajectories and political formations, this chromatic lens deepens our understanding of how British art is made and what it means, offering a new way to assess the visual landscape of the period and interpret its colourful objects. Across a kaleidoscopic array of materials, from radiant paintings by major Victorian artists, vivid print advertisements and vibrant interwar fashion photographs, to glorious Technicolor films and the prismatic programmes of the BBC’s early years of colour television, The Rainbow’s Gravity reveals how Britain modernised colour and how colour, in turn, modernised Britain. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
£42.75
Princeton University Press Keith Haring/Jean–Michel Basquiat – Crossing
Book SynopsisAn exploration of the personal and artistic connections between two icons of twentieth-century art Keith Haring (1958–1990) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) changed the art world of the 1980s through their idiosyncratic imagery, radical ideas, and complex sociopolitical commentary. Each artist invented a distinct visual language, employing signs, symbols, and words to convey strong messages in unconventional ways, and each left an indelible legacy that remains a force in contemporary visual and popular culture. Offering fascinating new insights into the artists’ work, Keith Haring Jean-Michel Basquiat reveals the many intersections among Haring and Basquiat’s lives, ideas, and practices.This lavishly illustrated volume brings together more than two hundred images—works created in public spaces, paintings, sculptures, objects, works on paper, photographs, and more. These rich visuals are accompanied by essays and interviews from renowned scholars, artists, and art critics, exploring the reach and range of Haring and Basquiat’s influence.Keith Haring Jean-Michel Basquiat provides a valuable look at two artistic peers and boundary breakers whose tragically short but prolific careers left their marks on the art world and beyond.Distributed for the National Gallery of Victoria in association with No More RulersTrade Review"A big, beautiful coffee-table book. . . . [Crossing Lines] is for art lovers. . . . a book to be treasured and enjoyed again and again."---Jonah Raskin, New York Journal of Books
£37.80
Cornell University Press Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings
Book SynopsisXuanhe Catalogue of Paintings is the first complete translation of the well-known document produced at the court of Emperor Huizong (r. 1100–1125). Dated to 1120, the Catalogue is divided into ten categories of subject matter. Under Daoist and Buddhist Subjects, Figural Subjects, Architecture, Barbarian Tribes, Dragons and Fish, Landscape, Domestic and Wild Animals, Flowers and Birds, Ink Bamboo, and Vegetables and Fruit are biographies of 231 painters, ranging from famous early masters, such as Wu Daozi (ca. 685-758) and Li Cheng (919-967), to otherwise unknown artists of the Song-dynasty court, including fourteen eunuch officials and sixteen male and female members of the royal family. Titles of their pictures held in the palace collection are listed for each artist. These 6,396 paintings testify to the visual culture experienced by viewers of the twelfth century. The author's Introduction analyzes the Catalogue as a source of evidence about the formation of the Song-dynasty palace collection and argues that the majority of its pictures were already in the collection before Huizong's reign, as a result of conquest, confiscation, tribute, gift culture, collecting by earlier emperors, and the production of academy artists and regular officials at the Song court. Under Huizong's reign, around a thousand other pictures were added to the Catalogue through acquisition and reattribution. Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
£23.74
Columbia Books on Architecture and the City Nights of the Dispossessed – Riots Unbound
Book SynopsisRiots are extraordinary events that have been recurring with increasing frequency and occupy a highly controversial space in the political imagination. Despite their often negative portrayals, it is undeniable that riots have played a pivotal role in the confrontation between authority and dissent. Recently, with the deepening crises of capitalism, racial violence, and communal tension, an “age of riots” has powerfully begun. As master fictions of the sovereign nation-state implode, and the hegemonic silencing of the dispossessed reveals the cracks in governability, Nights of the Dispossessed: Riots Unbound brings together artistic works, political texts, critical urban analyses, and research projects from across the world in an endeavor to “sense,” chronicle, and think through recent riots and uprisings—evoking a phenomenology of the multitude and surplus population.With contributions from Asef Bayat, Joshua Clover, Vaginal Davis, Keller Easterling, Zena Edwards, Nadine El-Enany, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, Gauri Gill, Natasha Ginwala, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Louis Henderson, Satch Hoyt, Hamid Khan, Gal Kirn, Josh Kun, Léopold Lambert, Margit Mayer, Vivek Narayanan, Ai Ogawa, Oana Pârvan, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, SAHMAT, Thomas Seibert, Niloufar Tajeri, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Dariouche Tehrani, and Ala Younis.Table of Contents1. Shake the Ground: A Foreword Keller Easterling2. A Slow Cancellation of the Future and the Fires Next Time Natasha Ginwala, Gal Kirn, and Niloufar Tajeri3. The Manifesto Unwritten Satch HoytTrouble with Riots: Alternative Definitions and Political Histories4. Introduction Gal Kirn5. Demos Noir: Riot after Riot Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar6. Revolts, Resentment, Resignation: Five Theses on the Negative Dialectics of Post-Marxist Socialism Thomas Seibert7. No One Leaves Delila–A (W)rap on Riots Natasha Ginwala in conversation with Vaginal Davis8. Ideologies of Riot and Strike Joshua Clover9. “They Been Jealous, Must Be”–Toxic Sovereignty, Dispossession, and the Extimacy of Riots Elizabeth A. Povinelli10. Riot Act, April 29, 1992 Ai Ogawa11. Pat–Riot–Against the Slow Cancellation of the Future Ala YounisMnemonic Spatiality of Violence12. IntroductionNiloufar Tajeri13. Riots as Contestations of Neoliberal Urbanism Margit Mayer14. Built to Be Torn Down, Fed to Be Starved, Resurrected to Be Disposed Of: Capitalism is a Riot, a Riot from Above Gal Kirn and Niloufar Tajeri15. Revolving Anger & The Tarot Banksy Zena Edwards16. A Night of the Dispossessed: The Imaginable Violence of the Grenfell Tower Fire Nadine El-Enany17. Chrono-Cartography of the October 17, 1961, Massacre of Algerians in Paris Léopold Lambert18. 15 Years After 2005: Anticolonial Reflections on the Concept of “Riots” in the French Context Dariouche Tehrani19. Cities of Dissent Asef Bayat20. 1984 Gauri GillFiguration/Disfiguration: Racial Logic and Representation21. Introduction Natasha Ginwala22. In Search of 1949 Vivek Narayanan23. Unruly Life: Subverting “Surplus” Existence in Tunisia Oana Pârvan24. Evidence of Things Unseen But Heard Louis Henderson25. Re-looking at Riots in Contemporary Sri Lanka Chandraguptha Thenuwara 26. Black Side of the Hidden MoonUnthreading Thoughts on the Riot in My Head Satch Hoyt27. SAHMAT: Cultures of Dissent and Collective Memory28. The Time is Still, Always, Now! Josh KunBiographiesAcknowledgments
£19.80
Columbia Books on Architecture and the City Preservation and Social Inclusion
Book SynopsisThe preservation enterprise helps fashion the physical contours of memory in public space, and thus has the power to curate a multidimensional and inclusive representation of societal values and narratives. Increasingly, the field of preservation is being challenged to consider questions of social inclusion, of how multiple publics are—or are not—represented in heritage decision-making, geographies, and governance structures. Community engagement is increasingly being integrated into project-based preservation practice, but the policy toolbox has been slower to evolve. Recognizing how preservation and other land use decisions can both empower and marginalize publics compels greater reflection on preservation’s past and future and collective action beyond the project level. This requires professionals and institutions to consider systemic policy change with integrity, sensitivity, and intentionality. Bringing together a broad range of academics, historians, and practitioners, this second volume in the Issues in Preservation Policy series documents historic preservation’s progress toward inclusivity and explores further steps to be taken.
£19.80
Zone Books Into the White: The Renaissance Arctic and the
Book Synopsis
£28.50
Zone Books Transfixed by Prehistory – An Inquiry into Modern
Book Synopsis
£27.00
Random House USA Inc Soul of the Woodland
Book SynopsisFor the nature lover, comes Soul of the Woodland.Renowned illustrator Suzanne Joyner brings 34 calming, earthy images inspired by flora and fauna from forests around the world. Colouring pages features trees, pine cones, birds, and forest creatures illustrated by Suzy Joyner, ready for your inspired interpretation! Soul of the Woodlands includes: Forest colouring pages Fall colouring pages Woodland colouring pages Trees and Flora Forest Creatures and many more!This special Celebration Edition boasts heavy-weight, artist-grade paper that provides an unmatched colouring experience and allows for experimentation with different media.
£16.18
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Imagine Math 8: Dreaming Venice
Book SynopsisThis eighth volume of Imagine Math is different from all the previous ones. The reason is very clear: in the last two years, the world changed, and we still do not know what the world of tomorrow will look like. Difficult to make predictions. This volume has a subtitle Dreaming Venice. Venice, the dream city of dreams, that miraculous image of a city on water that resisted for hundreds of years, has become in the last two years truly unreachable. Many things tie this book to the previous ones. Once again, this volume also starts like Imagine Math 7, with a homage to the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino who created exclusively for the Imagine Math 8 volume a new series of ten original and unique works of art dedicated to Piero della Francesca. Many artists, art historians, designers and musicians are involved in the new book, including Linda D. Henderson and Marco Pierini, Claudio Ambrosini and Davide Amodio. Space also for comics and mathematics in a Disney key. Many applications, from Origami to mathematical models for world hunger. Particular attention to classical and modern architecture, with Tullia Iori.As usual, the topics are treated in a way that is rigorous but captivating, detailed and full of evocations. This is an all-embracing look at the world of mathematics and culture.Table of ContentsPart I Homage to Mimmo Paladino: 1 Michele Emmer, 8 Works by Mimmo Paladino.- Part II Dreaming in Venice: 2 Michele Emmer, Dreaming Venice.- 3 Sandro G. Franchini, The Napoleonic Fresco in Palazzo Loredan, Thinking of the Bicentennial.- 4 Giovanni Zarotti, MOSE, the Defence System to Safeguard Venice and its Lagoon.- Part III Art and Mathematics: 5 Marco Andreatta, The Rise of Abstractionism: Art and Mathematics.- 6 Clemena Antonova, Aestheticizing an Einsteinian World: The Idea of Space-time in Russian Literary Theory and in Art Criticism.- 7 Michele Emmer, Cagli, Olson, Coxeter.- 8 Emanuela Fiorelli, A Fault in the Order: Thoughts on Frayed Wires.- 9 Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Multivalent Fourth Dimension and the Impact of Claude Bragdon’s A Primer of Higher Space on Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Art.- 10 Martin Kemp, “Where Natural Law Holds No Sway”. Geometrical Optics and Divine Light in Dante, Michelangelo and Raphael.- 11 Marco Pierini, On The Classification and Recording of Colours According to the Methods of the Painter Adolfo Ferraris: A Brief Note.- 12 Anthony Phillips, Colored Figurative Tilings in Pre-Incan Textiles.- 13 Tony Robbin, The Artistic (and Practical) Utility of Hyperspace.- 14 Carla Scagliosi, From Vision to Perception: Chardin’s Eighteenth Century Cultural and Scientific Approach to Painting (and Soap Bubbles).- Part IV Architecture and Mathematics: 15 Michele Emmer and Fulvio Wirz, Andrea Palladio and Zaha Hadid.- Tullia Iori, 16 Sergio Musmeci and the Calculation of the Form.- 17 Enrico Giusti, Twenty Years of Il Giardino di Archimede.- Part V Design and Mathematics: 18 George W. Hart, The Multifaceted Abraham Sharp.- 19 Giordano Bruno, Massimo Ciafrei, Claudia Iannilli, Giacomo Fabbri, and Marzia Lupi, Learning by Metadesigning.- Part VI Homage to Roger Penrose: 20 Michele Emmer, A Little Homage to Roger Penrose.- Part VII Mathematics and Physics: 21 Amaury Mouchet, Identity and Difference: How Topology Helps to Understand Quantum Indiscernability.- 22 Denis Weaire, Stefan Hutzler, Ali Irannezhad and Kym Cox, Physics in a Small Bedroom.- Part VIII Mathematics and Applications: 23 Maurizio Falcone, The Train of Artificial Intelligence.- 24 Paolo Marcellini and Emanuele Paolini, Origami and Fractal Solutions of Differential Systems.- 25 Gian Marco Todesco, The Tangled Allure of Recursion.- 26 Marcela Villarreal, Desert Locusts: Can Mathematical Models Help to Control Them?.- Part IX Literature and Mathematics: 27 Marco Abate, Soul Searchin’.- 28 Francesca M. Dovetto, Geometric Metaphors and Linguistic Genealogy.- 29 Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, A Mathematical Physicist in Hell. Galileo on the Geometry of Dante's Inferno.- 30 Luca Viganò, Don’t Tell Me the Cybersecurity Moon is Shining... Cybersecurity Show and Tell.- Part X Music and Mathematics: 31 Claudio Ambrosini, Sounds, Numbers and Other Fancies.- 32 Davide Amodio, Euler and Music Musing Euler’s Identity.- 33 Francesco Ciccone, The Shapes of Violin.- Part XI Women and Mathematics: 34 Chiara de Fabritiis, Women, Academia, Math: an Ephemeral Golden Braid.- 35 Elisabetta Strickland, Women in Charge of Mathematics.- Part XII Comics and Mathematics: 36 Valerio Held , Without Title.- 37 Roberto Natalini and Andrea Plazzi, A Comics & Science Experience.- 38 Alberto Saracco, Is Math Useful?.
£31.99
Lars Muller Publishers Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out
Book SynopsisLike few others, Louis Kahn cultivated the craft of drawing as a means to architecture. His personal design drawings - seen either as a method of discovery or for themselves - are unique in the twentieth century. Over two hundred - mostly unpublished - drawings by Kahn and his associates are woven together with a lively and informed commentary into an intimate biography of an architectural idea. Unfolding around the iconic project for the Dominican Motherhouse (1965 - 69) the drawings form a narrative which not only reveals the richness and hidden dimensions of this unbuilt masterpiece, but provides compelling insights into Louis Kahn's mature culture of designing. Kahn - long considered an architects' architectA" - emerges as a vivid and instructive guide, provoking reflection on questions which continue to remain relevant: on how works are conceived, on how they might be perceived, on how they become part of human experience. Fascinating not only in their beauty, the drawings open a new and stimulating perspective on one of the past century's great architects.
£51.75
Prestel The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Painting
Book SynopsisThe Golden Age in Holland and Flanders roughly spanned the 17th century and was a period of enormous advances in the fields of commerce, scienceand art. Still lifes, landscape paintings, and romantic depictions of everyday life became valued by the increasingly wealthy merchant classes in the Dutch provinces, while religious and historic paintings as well as portraits continued to appeal to the Flemish patronage. The Golden Age brought us Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, and Van Dyck, but it was also the period of Frans Hals' revolutionary portraiture, Adriaen Brouwer's depictions of the working class at play, Jan Brueghel's velvety miniatures, and Hendrick Avercamp's lively winter landscapes. Norbert Wolf applies his vast understanding of the interplay between history, culture, and art to explore the forces that led to the Golden Age in Holland and Flanders and how this period influenced later generations of artists. Accompanied by luminous color illustrations, Wolf's acce
£32.00
Prestel Textiles of Japan: The Thomas Murray Collection
Book SynopsisFrom rugged Japanese firemen's ceremonial robes and austere rural work-wear to colorful, delicately-patterned cotton kimonos, this lavishly illustrated volume explores Japan's rich tradition of textiles. Textiles are an eloquent form of cultural expression and of great importance in the daily life of a people, as well as in their rituals and ceremonies. The traditional clothing and fabrics featured in this book were made and used in the islands of the Japanese archipelago between the late 18th and the mid 20th century. The Thomas Murray collection featured in this book includes daily dress, work-wear, and festival garb and follows the Arts and Crafts philosophy of the Mingei Movement, which saw that modernization would leave behind traditional art forms such as the hand-made textiles used by country people, farmers, and fisherman. It presents subtly patterned cotton fabrics, often indigo dyed from the main islands of Honshu and Kyushu, along with garments of the more remote islands: the graphic bark cloth, nettle fiber, and fish skin robes of the aboriginal Ainu in Hokkaido and Sakhalin to the north, and the brilliantly colored cotton kimonos of Okinawa to the far south. Numerous examples of these fabrics, photographed in exquisite detail, offer insight into Japan's complex textile history as well as inspiration for today's designers and artists. This volume explores the range and artistry of the country's tradition of fiber arts and is an essential resource for anyone captivated by the Japanese aesthetic.
£63.75