History of art Books

Book SynopsisOurs is a culture defined by marketing and acquiring. Virtually every activity in our lives is experienced through purchases, from layettes to caskets. The landscape is studded with logos, brand names, and billboards. Branded and On Display examines the work of artists who explore specific strategies of branding and presentation in their response to this pervasively commoditized environment. Representing a range of media - sculpture, video, installation, sound, painting, and photography - the work is compelling and provocative, nudging us to "re-view" our culture with an appraising eye. There is an exhilarating range of concerns and media represented by artists Ai Weiwei, Conrad Bakker, Amy Barkow, Ashley Bickerton, Michael Blum, Louis Cameron, Diller + Scofidio, Terence Gower, Laurie Hogin, Pierre Huyghe, Clay Ketter, Ryan McGinness, Donna Nield, Haim Steinbach, Tempi & Wolf, Yuken Teruya, Hank Willis Thomas, Brian Ulrich, Siebren Versteeg, and Zhao Bandi.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Branded and On Display / Judith Hoos Fox The Branded Lifestyle / Ginger Gregg Dugan Children of the Brand / Daniel Thomas Cook O Brand, Where Art Thou? The Rituals of Branded Shopping / Cele C. Otnes Under the Sign of the Brand: Images, Language, and Material Culture / Linda M. Scott Works in the Exhibition Contributors Notes on Stories Photography Credits Colophon

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Book SynopsisKrannert Art Museum: Selected Works is the creation of a wonderfully diverse group: graduate students of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois faculty from multiple disciplines; curators, educators, and volunteer docents from Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion; and specialists from other museums and universities. Their rich range of voices and backgrounds speaks to the vibrancy of the museum as a campus and community resource. Through its active exhibition and acquisitions programs, the museum has grown from a small colleciton of plaster casts into a breathing, evolving arts institution with a vision focused on the contemporary moment. 161 pieces from the collection are discussed and illustrated in color, from Asia, Africa, the ancient Mediterranean, Europe, and the Americas, including works by Robert Indiana, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Robert Arneson, Judy Chicago, and Carrie Mae Weems.Table of ContentsAuthors Acknowledgments The Collection Asia Africa Ancient Mediterranean Europe Americas Art Donors and Funding Sources Index of Artists Notes Copyright and Photography Credits

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Book SynopsisBuilt by the Boulton family between 1817 and 1820, the Grange is Toronto''s oldest remaining brick house. During the nineteenth century, the Grange was at the centre of the city''s social and political activity. Today, with its collection of furniture, artifacts, and art, it is an historic house museum and part of the Art Gallery of Ontario. In her fascinating essay, award-winning Canadian historian Charlotte Gray brings to life the saga of the Grange, the home of the Boultons and of Goldwin Smith in the 19th century. Devoting as much attention to the formidable women who ran the household as to the men who were key figures in the development of the city, she offers a fascinating portrait of a place and a time. Complementing Gray''s essay are shorter essays and reproductions of works commissioned from artists Rebecca Belmore, Luis Jacob, Elizabeth LeMoine, Josiah McElheny, Elaine Reichek, and Christy Thompson that offer inventive responses to a complicated past.

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Book SynopsisEvery. Now. Then: Rethinking Nationhood embraces the fundamental belief that Canada is a dynamic work-in-progress that has, is, and will continue to be defined by movements and migrations across shifting terrain and within a variable, often unstable, environment. As cultural space, political state, ecosystem, and geography, the space of Canada (even over its short history) has been a place of shifting borders and boundaries; a place constantly being reimagined and redefined. Every. Now. Then. starts from the position that the land known as Canada is Indigenous territory. It emphasizes Indigenous perspectives along with Black viewpoints and a diversity of voices offering distinct approaches to history, time, and narrative. It includes reproductions of extraordinary works by more than two dozen talented artists as well as writings by Quill Christie-Peters, Rachelle Dickenson, Anique Jordan, Srimoyee Mitra, Charmaine A. Nelson, and Rosie Spooner that consider a past we cannot lose, of a present we must comprehend, and of a future to which we must be accountable.

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Book SynopsisA century of landscape art inspired by the Mount Assiniboine area of the Canadian Rockies from 1899 to 2006. Jane Lytton Gooch''s Mount Assiniboine: Images in Art is a stunning collection of 42 colour plates, only seven of which have been previously published. They represent a wide variety of styles and media from 23 artists, including: A.P. Coleman Carl Rungius James Simpson Belmore Browne Barbara and A.C. Leighton Catharine and Peter Whyte W.J. Phillips A.Y. Jackson Colour plates are divided into three sections: approaching Assiniboine from the northwest; east of Assiniboine; and Mount Assiniboine itself. Each section is introduced with a black-and-white archival photograph and a quotation. In addition, four black-and-white archival photographs, along with five colour reproductions of Mary Vaux Walcott''s stunning watercolours of wildflowers sketched in the Assiniboine area, complement Gooch''s introduction. Gooch also discusses the history of exploration of the region, early ascents of Mount Assiniboine , the development of tourism and the significant artistic activity this majestic peak has inspired.

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Book SynopsisIllustrated with lush reproductions of Grant and Nixie''s art and photographs of their amazing garden, The Romance Continues is a love story, an art-appreciation adventure and a garden tour, all wrapped up in one gorgeous volume. Nationally known artists Grant Leier and Nixie Barton are also husband and wife, parents and the creators of an astonishing and whimsical garden on Vancouver Island. Their paintings differ greatly, though both artists make extensive use of rich, luminous and vibrant colours, and both are widely admired and collected. Over their long careers, Grant and Nixie have experimented with subjects and styles, and observing the growth and change in their work is fascinating. When they moved to a rural, seven-acre property, they turned their love of colour and sense of fun onto the land, and the rambling, witty garden they created is a visual spectacle that draws thousands of delighted visitors every year.

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Book SynopsisVictoria''s Chinatown is Canada''s oldest Chinese neighbourhood and has a lineage unbroken since 1858. With large-format colour photos and photocollages, Robert Amos and Kileasa Wong take you behind the doors of the 29 private clubs that make up the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, where you''ll see the gilded altars, antique art and ornate furniture that grace the meeting halls. Through stunning pictures and text in both Chinese and English, you will meet the club members and take an inside look at the culture of this complex community. Inside Chinatown is sure to become a landmark publication chronicling the vibrant heritage of Chinese Canadians. Inside Chinatown was voted Monday Magazine''s Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and authors Robert Amos and Kileasa Wong were presented with a 2010 Outstanding Achievement Award from BC Heritage for their work on Inside Chinatown.

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Book SynopsisOne of Canada''s most evocative modern painters, Cree artist Dale Auger was a gifted interpreter of First Nations culture, using the cross-cultural medium of art to portray scenes from the everyday to the sacred and dissemble stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. Medicine Paint is a collection of Auger''s best work, reproduced in glorious full colour and reflecting the evolution of the artist''s distinctive style. Including a revealing look back at his life and professional development, the book is a stunning tribute to the master Aboriginal artist. Auger uses bold, bright colours in his oil paintings to explore the intricate links between spirituality and the natural laws of the land. Birds, beasts and human forms are carried from the dreamworld onto canvas, their spirits channeled through his paintbrush and presented in brilliant yellows, mystic blues, vibrant reds and swirls of black. Infusing his subjects with energy, life and colour, Dale Auger masterfully presents scenes that are powerful, spiritual and inspiring. A bald eagle is majestic in flight against a bright blue sky. An elder makes a solemn offering to the Sky Being. Horses dance playfully in the frame for a sweat lodge. A warrior draws his bow and points it skyward. "Dale Auger''s artwork is stunningly beautiful." --Globe and Mail "To show expression through your brush that comes directly from the Creator''s creative source is powerful. I truly feel blessed." --Dale Auger

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Book Synopsis'DAMP: Contemporary Vancouver Media Arts', is a singular effort, a visually exuberant work that is also on the vanguard of theoretical engagement, a symbiosis of form and content, in full-colour throughout, inclusive of extensive imagery, graphic intrigues and typographical accent-a rare and desirable art-infused statement of the city's media art scene-now. 'DAMP' is a long overdue critical engagement regarding the specificities of contemporary Vancouver media arts. The editors' effortis not so much to look to the past, nor to confine themselves within the borders of a collective of one sort or another. Their intent is to examine and speak to the now and the future of practice in Vancouver, its relationship to world art-media, and to the strategies of artists in this particular region. Origins of thought-from First Nations source code onwards-create a framework and starting point from which to study this mediacity. By re-focussing on the relative unknowns of this scene-the hidden and supressed histories, the city's internal and external mythologies and imaginary futures-they are revealing a plainly visible but unacknowledged praxis. 'DAMP' will act as a catalyst for discussion that stretches well beyond this locale, as it creates response and reaction from points east, internal, and beyond nation borders. 'DAMP' includes over 25 contributions from such artists as Laiwan, Fiona Bowie, Ann Marie Fleming, David Rimmer, Warren Arcan, and Yum Lam Li, and critical essays by such well respected Vancouver theorists as Clint Burnham, Jayce Salloum, and Randy Lee Cutler.

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Book SynopsisClaude Monet spent most of his life painting his own spontaneous impressions of nature and the world that was closest to him. His works provoked the description 'Impressionist', the name given to the style of art that he created together with Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley.

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Book SynopsisThe fascinus, or phallus, was at the heart of classical Roman art and life. No god was more represented in ancient Rome than the phallic deity Priapus, and the fescennine verses, one of the earliest forms of Roman poetry, accompanied the celebrations of Priapus, the harvest, and fertility. But with this emphasis on virility also came an emphasis on power and ideas of possession and protection. In "Sex and Terror", Pascal Quignard looks closely at this delicate interplay of celebration and terror. In startling and original readings of myths, satires, memoirs, and works of ancient philosophy and visual art, Quignard locates moments of both playful, aesthetic commemoration and outward cruelty. Through these examples, he describes a colossal cultural shift within Western civilization that occurred two millennia ago, as Augustus shaped the Roman world into an empire and the joyous, precise eroticism of the Greeks turned into a terror-stricken melancholy. The details of this revolution in thinking are revealed through Quignard's astute analysis of classical literary sources and Roman art. This powerful transformation from celebration to fear is a change whose consequences, Quignard argues, we are still dealing with today, making "Sex and Terror" an intriguing reconsideration of ancient Rome that transcends its history.

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Book SynopsisFor many people Dionysos is an obscure Greek god of wine and theatre. For others he is so much more. The Dionysian Spirit examines, in an easy and accessible form, the essence of what Dionysos is all about, both as a deity and as a cultural and social force. It looks at the relation of Dionysos with his opposite number Apollo. The twin gifts of Apollos and Dionysos are ekstasis (ecstasy) and entheos (enthusiasm) and have informed and enlivened our lives and cultures from ancient times right to the present day and beyond. The Dionysian Spirit like the art of a good party has always been with us and now, in many ways, we need it more than ever.

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Book SynopsisPierre-Auguste Renoir's famous painting Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81) portrays an informal gathering of real people he knew: fellow artists, journalists, critics, collectors, models and actors. Renoir and Friends deconstructs the painting, revealing the stories behind those he painted and explaining his working methods. Extraordinary details, photographs and contextual works - by Renoir and his contemporaries including Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Leon Bonnat and Edouard Manet, draw out information about who these people were. Essays by leading academics focus on Renoir's models and look at how the artist created a painting with universal appeal whilst remaining convincingly specific. AUTHOR: Eliza Rathbone is chief curator emerita at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. SELLING POINTS: . The first volume to look in depth at Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party . Features over 100 colour images of works by Renoir and his contemporaries, from international museum and private collections 102 colour illustrations

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Book SynopsisAir explores the tradition in British art of finding inspiration in the air around us and skies above us. The book weaves its way through British art. Contemporary work introduces new environmental issues to the narrative.

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Book SynopsisPaul Gough examines the aftermath of the Great war and the impact of terrain militaria on contemporary British and Australian painters, photographers and writers.

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Book SynopsisAn artist examines the plethora of Europe Squares, Europa Places, Places de l''Europe, and Europaplatzes and what they tell us about the ideality of “Europe.”If the built environment is a record of our modes of organization and the compromises we make in order to live together, then what are we to make of the plethora of Europe Squares, Europa Places, Places de l''Europe, and Europaplatzes? Public spaces that connect numerous disparate towns and cities through a “supersite” called Europe, they may appear as avatars of an idea in crisis, as “eurocentric values” and the concept of Europe as a unified political space are attacked and eroded from all sides.Atlas Europe Square documents a body of work by Swiss artist Yves Mettler who, since 2003, has engaged in an ongoing mapping and documentation of these sites, along with a series of projects triangulating between particular squares, interrogating their differing architectural, e

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the outsized influence of the Mod subculture on key figures of the 1960s London art scene Bonding over matters of taste and style, the ‘Mods’ of late 1950s London recognised in one another shared affinities for Italian-style suits, tidy haircuts, espresso bars, Vespa scooters and the latest American jazz. In this groundbreaking book, leading art historian Thomas Crow argues that the figure of the Mod exerted an influence beyond its assumed social boundaries by exemplifying the postwar metropolis in all of its excitement and complexity. Crow examines the works of key figures in the London art scene of the 1960s, including Robyn Denny, David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean, who shared and heightened aspects of this new and youthful urbanity. The triumphant arrival of the international counterculture forced both young Mods and established artists to reassess and regroup in novel, revealing formations. Understanding the London Mod brings with it a needed, up-to-date reckoning with the legacies of Situationism, Social Art History and Cultural Studies.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“[An] expert running commentary throughout...with many more references and pictures that explain and sequence their relevance in today’s modern culture”—Matt Mead, Gigslutz [Online Music Site]“In this groundbreaking book, leading art historian Thomas Crow argues that the figure of the Mod exerted an influence beyond its assumed social boundaries by exemplifying the postwar metropolis in all of its excitement and complexity.”—paulineboty.org“[An] elegantly counterintuitive account”—J. J. Charlesworth, ArtReview“A meticulous account of the imbrications between artmaking and stylemaking in postwar London...Crow recovers the figure of the mod...[and] forges a new canon, reimagining the art of the time in a fine-tuned, deeply aesthetic mise-en-scène...His prose is scrupulous, just so, and the many glossy full-color illustrations exalt his wide array of objects.”—Alex Kitnick, Artforum“[Crow] is wary of any Cultural Studies-style attempt to elevate ‘the model over the agency of its objects (that is, the Mods/Stylists themselves)’. This book is a testament— itself aptly crisp and understated — to that agency.”—James Cahill, The London Journal

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Book SynopsisConceptualizes “graft”— the violent and creative processes of suturing arts as a method of empire building in western eighteenth-century IndiaGrafted Arts focuses on Maratha military rulers and British East India Company officials who used the arts to engage in diplomacy, wage war, compete for prestige, and generate devotion as they allied with (or fought against) each other to control western India in the eighteenth century. This book conceptualizes the artistic combinations that resulted as ones of “graft”—a term that acknowledges the violent and creative processes of suturing arts, and losing and gaining goods, as well as the shifting dynamics among agents who assembled such materials. By tracing grafted arts from multiple perspectives—Maratha and British, artist and patron, soldier and collector—this book charts the methods of empire-building that recast artistic production and collection in western India and from there across India and in Britain. This mercenary method of artistry propagated mixed, fractured, and plundered arts. Indeed, these “grafted arts”—disseminated across India and Britain over the nineteenth century to aid in consolidating empire or revolting against it entirely—remain instigators of nationalist agitation today.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

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Book SynopsisWe know that celebrities can make great muses: think of the work of Richard Phillips, who has painted an entire series of works inspired by Lindsay Lohan, Robert Pattinson, and Miley Cyrus, or of Urs Fischer, who recently showed a life-sized candle in the shape of Leonardo DiCaprio. Notoriously, the art collector Peter Brant commissioned the wickedly satirical Italian American artist Maurizio Cattelan to make a sculpture of his wife, the supermodel Stephanie Seymour. The work was technically called Stephanie, but became known in the industry as 'Trophy Wife'. With the sculpture valued at 1.5 million dollars, while Seymour herself is purportedly worth one hundred million dollars, you might be tempted to wonder which has the claim to be the 'better' work of art. In this illustrated essay, critic Philippa Snow asks whether all great, or iconic, celebrities can be considered technically self-authored artworks in and of themselves. Drawing on a wide range of cultural references from the past two decades, she proposes that increasingly - as celebrities' private lives become more visible and thus more art-directed, and especially as plastic surgery becomes de rigueur for even the most minor public figures - celebrity itself can be a medium for contemporary art, a form of mythmaking and image-making that is every bit as complex, conceptual, and compelling as the work of a traditional artist.

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Book SynopsisIn 1939 a group of artists, designers, architects, scientists and military experts met in Sydney, Australia, to discuss the impending war. Convinced that the need for regional innovations in the military science of concealment and deception was urgent, they nominated a zoologist to lead a campaign to camouflage Australia.Camouflage Australia tells a once secret and little known story of how the Australian government accepted the advice of zoologist William John Dakin and seconded the country's leading artists and designers, including Max Dupain and Frank Hinder, to deploy optical tricks and visual illusions for civilian and military protection. Their work was an array of ingenious constructions for the purpose of disguise and subterfuge. Drawing on previously unpublished photographs and documents, Camouflage Australia exposes the story of fraught collaborations between civilian and military personnel who disagreed over camouflage's value to wartime operations and the usefulness of artists to warfare. In this engrossing book, Ann Elias provides international context for the historical circumstances and events of the organisation of camouflage in World War II in Australia and the Pacific region. She elaborates on the parallel involvement of British and American artists in the field of concealment and deception, and reveals the widespread interest shown by western naturalists and scientists in the application to warfare of the behaviours and aesthetics of animals.Camouflage Australia, by redressing the near invisible contribution of Australian artists and designers to defence in World War II, makes a major contribution to the history of art and to the history of Australia. Importantly, by discussing how citizens dutifully transformed themselves into servants of the war enterprise as camouflage labourers, camouflage designers and camouflage field officers, the author provides a valuable historical perspective for the 21st century, when ethical conflicts and moral struggles dominate debates on war participation. And camouflage itself, even in an age of nuclear warfare, retains many of its historical methods and controversies.Trade Review'Elias's cross-disciplinary approach of bringing together art, science and psychology in the pursuit of disguise and concealment in the military context is refreshing.' -- Catherine Speck * Australian Historical Studies *'Camouflage Australia is an eloquent work. But Ann Elias gives us much more than a hidden history of artists, scientists and soldiers. She tells us about the contest of knowledge in modern Australia, and provides an insight into the contested domain of civil–military relations.' -- Ben Wadham * Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsPreface Roy R. Behrens Acknowledgements Abbreviations IntroductionPart 1: the art community 1. Darwin 2. Sydney 3. Sydney experimentsPart 2: the science community 4. William Dakin 5. Animal camouflagePart 3: the military context 6. Policy and status 7. Image 8. ConsciencePart 4: the field – New Guinea and Papua 9. Jungle 10. Goodenough Island Part 5: the edge of modernism 11. Max Dupain 12. Frank HinderConclusion Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBow Lake in the Canadian Rockies has inspired artists for almost a century. An early explorer who recognized the beauty of this alpine landscape was Jimmy Simpson, a legendary guide and outfitter who also collected art and painted in watercolours. He welcomed artists such as Carl Rungius, Belmore Browne and Peter and Catharine Whyte to his camp beside Bow Lake, which eventually became the storied Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. A.C. Leighton and his wife, Barbara, along with Walter J. Phillips were among the early artists at Bow Lake. This artistic tradition has been carried on with the current artist-in-residence program at Num-Ti-Jah, attracting many contemporary artists to paint the spectacular landscape. This volume includes an introduction describing the history of exploration and the early artistic activity generated by Jimmy Simpson, followed by brief biographies of 18 contemporary artists whose works are also included in the 47 colour plates, all documented and described, of which only 6 have ever been published before.

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Book SynopsisThis is a lively and moving memoir that chronicles Pnina Granirers life as an artist, wife and mother. Conceived as a play in three acts, it begins in her hometown in Romania, moves to its second act in Israel, and concludes with her life in North America. It encompasses her years in Israel, the USA, France and Canada, and her travels to Japan, Spain and Mexico, all of which inform her understanding of the world which is then reflected in her art.

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Book SynopsisA Delicate Art highlights the paintings and photography of six artists in Alberta who with passion and long moments of observation have made an inspired contribution to wildflower art. Covering a period of one hundred years to the present, the story behind these creators Mary Schäffer Warren, Mary Vaux Walcott, William Copeland McCalla, Annora Brown, Robert Sinclair and Carole Harmon is also told. A blend of biography, botanical and regional art history and commentary by the artists themselves about their treasured subject, A Delicate Art is intended for the lay reader and is accompanied by sumptuous reproductions of the artwork and an alluring overall design that will appeal to anyone interested in art, mountain-life and gardening.

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Book SynopsisWhen Jane Gooch first camped at Lake O''Hara in 1975, she could not have foreseen how important the Rockies would become in her life. She travelled from her home in Vancouver many times during the summer months to hike in the mountains, and her love of the alpine landscape eventually inspired her to study the artists who have painted in the Rockies. Her great enjoyment of the outdoors and a lifelong interest in art were combined with her academic background in writing and research. Mount Robson: Spiral Road of Art celebrates the centennial of Mount Robson Provincial Park with over a century of remarkable landscape paintings inspired by the Robson region in the Canadian Rockies. This volume includes an extensive introduction with historical and cultural background to the 50 colour plates, all documented and described, illustrating artists'' works in a variety of styles and media from 1907 to 2012. Early artists include A.P. Coleman, the first explorer, and Group of Seven members A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. In addition, the works of 17 contemporary artists show that the Mount Robson area continues to stimulate landscape art up to the present. Only ten of the images have been published before.

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Book SynopsisAuthor Julie Fowler began a quest to find out more about an artist from the Cariboo named Sonia Cornwall (19192006). Through interviews, letters, original artworks, articles, exhibition catalogues, imaginings of conversations and occurrences, along with her own reflections on the experience, she pieced together a story of pioneering, love and the pursuit of art. But in searching for Sonia, Fowler found an unanticipated new friend in Sonia''s mother, Vivien Cowan (18931990). Vivien became a larger part of the story than Fowler could possibly have imagined. Fowler had discovered a hidden gem. In 1945, Vivien Cowan spearheaded the Cariboo Art Society with noted Canadian Group of Seven painter A Y Jackson. She had met A.Y. Jackson earlier that year at the Banff School, as well as another Canadian artist of note, Joseph Plaskett. Both painters, along with many others, would visit Vivien and her daughters, Sonia and Dru, at their property near 150 Mile House, the Onward Ranch. Vivien became the Grande Dame of the Cariboo, hosting some of Canada''s greatest talent and at the same time promoting the work of local artists and creators. In this genre-bending work, Fowler expertly and creatively weaves her search for an understanding of her own passion for art and her love of the Cariboo with a mesmerising story of creative life in one of BC''s earliest pioneer communities.

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