History of art Books
Penguin Books Ltd Ornament and Crime
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Yale University Press Dorothea Tanning
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£27.00
Verso Books Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the
Book SynopsisThe award-winning, highly acclaimed Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as "social practice." In recent decades, the art gallery and the museum have become a place for participatory art, where an audience is encouraged to take part in the artwork. This has been heralded as a revolutionary practise that can promote new emancipatory social relations. What was it is really? In this fully updated edition, Claire Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic. This itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina and Paris; the 1970s Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawel Althamer and Paul Chan.Bishop challenges the political and aesthetic ambitions of participatory art this practise. She not only scrutinizes the emancipatory claims, but also provides an alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by such artworks. In response Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling and bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.Trade ReviewClaire Bishop has articulated an important historical overview of the global emergence of participatory art ... Her controversial and thought-provoking conclusions courageously trouble our assumptions about the effectiveness of political artworks, questioning their oppositional quality, their effects on the audiences they reach, and their relation to the institutions that promote them. * Frank Jewett Mather Award, 2013 *Bishop's arguments are convincingly supported and potentially very contentious...A critically challenging work of vital scholarship. * Publishers Weekly *An essential title for contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who has witnessed a participatory art 'happening' and thought, 'Now that's art!' or 'That's art?' * Library Journal *Bishop seeks a standard for judging participatory works...She draws on the writings of French philosopher Jacques Rancière to argue that art must maintain a degree of autonomy and unreadability in order to resist co-option by the political and economic forces intent on imposing a false social consensus. -- Eleanor Heartney * Art in America *Pellucid -- Alexander Provan * New York Observer *The good intentions of contemporary artists frequently pave a road to hell. Claire Bishop follows their descent into the inferno and invites her readers to share her fascination with what she finds along the way. Artificial Hells combines vast historical knowledge with a precise analysis of individual artistic practices. So much so that at the end of her new book we have begun to fall in love with hell-under the condition that it remains artificial. -- Boris Groys, author of Art Power
£17.99
Prestel Vermeer
Book SynopsisFilled with brilliant reproductions and engaging new texts and reflecting the latest scholarship, this portable and attractively priced volume is the perfect introduction to the most celebrated painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Highlighted by domestic scenes and witty allegories that fuse the ordinary with the extraordinary, Vermeer's luminous paintings have captivated and inspired art enthusiasts for centuries. This book spotlights dozens of his works with stunning reproductions that enable readers to appreciate his mastery of light and shadow, meticulous brushwork, his extraordinary gift for capturing human emotion on canvas, and his innovative use of optical devices. An introductory essay provides biographical background, examines Vermeer's work in the context of the Dutch Golden Age of painting, and explores his enormous influence on modern artists and popular culture.
£9.49
Verso Books Permanent Red
Book SynopsisWhy should an artist's way of looking at the world have any meaning for us? Any artwork reflects the artist's intentions, but also its times: therefore all art is political
£14.96
Insight Editions The Art of Destiny Volume 3
Book SynopsisImmerse yourself in the stunning, dynamic world of Destiny with never-before-seen art and exclusive interviews from the Bungie team.The Art of Destiny, Volume 3 is a celebration of the stunning, dynamic visual style beloved by Destiny fans. Featuring hundreds of pieces of concept art, the book picks up where the previous volume left off in 2017. It features everything from early sketches and illustrations of characters, to paintings of sweeping vistas used to shape the in-game worlds. With stunning imagery, interviews with the development team, and more, The Art of Destiny, Volume 3 is a must-have for Guardians everywhere! ORIGINAL CONCEPT ART: Includes many never-before-seen concept art of the various Alien tribes, including: the Fallen, the Hive, the Vex, the Cabal, and the Taken. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: Hear from the development team and creators of Destiny as they delve deeper into the Light and Darkness saga. PEOPLE, PLACES, AND WEAPONS: Experience an in-depth look at the compelling characters, detailed environments, and incredible weaponry that brings the war to save our solar system to life. A STUNNING COMPANION: This exquisitely crafted hardcover book is perfect for all Guardians and fans of Destiny. Complete your collection with this gorgeous third volume in the Art of Destiny series.
£36.00
Faber & Faber Hidden Portraits
Book Synopsis''Insightful and original'' - Lisa Hilton''Roe has a deep knowledge of the period and the milieu.'' - Sue PrideauxLong overdue . . . [Roe] brings Picasso's lovers and muses from the shadows into the limelight.' - Herald''A compelling tale . . . Brilliantly insightful and well-written.'' - TimesFernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Therese Walter, Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. These six extraordinary women shared Pablo Picasso's life and were instrumental in his career, yet they have long been dismissed as simply passive models or muses.Hidden Portraits reveals that their lives were - without exception - remarkable. All six were unconventional, independent and talented. All six were tested, both by Picasso's subterfuges and betrayals, and the wider social turbulence they lived through. The extent to which each influenced Picasso's art in major new directions has never been fully acknowledged.Sue Roe delves deeply into the truth of the women's experiences for the first time, to tell the story of Picasso's women from their point of view. Her enthralling book spans seventy years, from Bohemian early twentieth century Montmartre to the glittering Riviera in the 1920s, through Paris under Nazi occupation and beyond Picasso's final years of seclusion.The result is a riveting, atmospheric read about six fascinating and charismatic women, outstanding in their own time, whose individual stories have up to now been glossed over or hidden from view.
£21.25
Taschen GmbH Modern Art. A History from Impressionism to Today
Book SynopsisMost art historians agree that the modern art adventure first developed in the 1860s in Paris. A circle of painters, whom we now know as Impressionists, began painting pictures with rapid, loose brushwork. They turned to everyday street life for subjects, instead of overblown heroic scenes, and they escaped the power of the Salon by organizing their own independent exhibitions. After this first assault on the artistic establishment, there was no holding back. In a constant desire to challenge, innovate, and inspire, one modernist style supplanted the next: Symbolism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, abstract art, renewed Realism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimal and conceptual practice. This indispensable overview traces the restless energy of modern art with a year-by-year succession of the groundbreaking artworks that shook standards and broke down barriers. Introductory essays outline the most significant and influential movements alongside explanatory texts for each major work and its artist.Trade Review“Groundbreaking works by pioneers of modernism.” * art *
£18.00
Taschen GmbH Hopper
Book SynopsisEdward Hopper (1882–1967) is something of an American success story, if only his success had come swifter. At the age of 40, he was a failing artist who struggled to sell a single painting. As he approached 80, Time magazine featured him on its cover. Today, Hopper is considered a giant of modern expression, with an uncanny, unforgettable, and utterly distinct sense for mood and place. Much of Hopper's work excavates modern city experience. In canvas after canvas, he depicts diners, cafes, shopfronts, street lights, gas stations, rail stations, and hotel rooms. The scenes are marked by vivid color juxtapositions and stark, theatrical lighting, as well as by harshly contoured figures, who appear at once part of, and alien to, their surroundings. The ambiance throughout his repertoire is of an eerie disquiet, alienation, loneliness and psychological tension, although his rural or coastal scenes can offer a counterpoint of tranquility or optimism. This book presents major works from Hopper's œuvre to introduce a key player not only in American art history but also in the American psyche.
£13.50
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Dressing the Man
Book SynopsisThis illustrated guide to men's fashion introduces men to the timeless elements of fashion and personal style.Trade Review"A Hoyle's, a Fowler's, a Webster's, a Baedeker's, a Machiavelli's, a von Clausewitz's guide to men's dress." -- Tom Wolfe "If it's male elegance and sophistication you aspire to, DRESSING THE MAN will suit you perfectly." -- Art Cooper, Editor in Chief, GQ
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Treasures of Ukraine
Book SynopsisA celebration of Ukraineâs rich cultural heritage, drawing on over 100 of the countryâs most important works of art and architectural monuments from prehistory to the present. Showcasing more than one hundred objects and buildings â from Byzantine icons and wooden churches to gold-domed cathedrals, folk art, and avant-garde masterpieces â Treasures of Ukraine chronicles the rich arts and heritage of a country currently facing destruction and devastation. The significance of the pieces is explained by renowned artists, curators, and critics, revealing the nationâs complex history and its impact on the present. From the development of ancient cultures like Trypillia and Scythia to early states such as Kyivan Rus and the Cossack Hetmanate, to the dawn of Modernism and the striking contemporary paintings and political artworks being produced today, Treasures of Ukraine reminds us that art and monuments represent powerful sources of collective memory and identity. All proceeds will Trade Review'Timely and poignant … perfectly chronicles and captures the rich artistic and cultural heritage of a country facing destruction and devastation. A forceful reminder of the importance of art and monuments as powerful sources of collective memory and identity' - Luxury London'Impactful' - Citizen Femme'Current events have taught us a great deal about Ukraine. We have all become aware that it has an entirely distinct identity from Russia – historically, socially and also artistically, as TREASURES OF UKRAINE makes clear … This handsomely illustrated volume demonstrates that there is a great deal to see there, which one hopes will still exist when the war is over' - Martin Gayford, The Spectator'A timely reminder of how much is at stake in the ongoing war with Russia ... Features a broad range of Ukrainian art ... Much of Ukraine's art is tied to religion ... but as this book shows, Ukraine is no stranger to Modernism, Art Nouveau or the Avant-garde' - NPR'A corrective to Putin's version of history, in which Ukraine has been nothing more than a part of Russia... Introduced by the novelist Andrey Kurkov, the book features eight Ukrainian academics, curators and art critics writing about works of art created inhabitants of the region, from Scythian stone stelae of the 6th century B.C. to recent videos made by graduates of the National University of Cinema in Kyiv' - The Washington Post'This gorgeous book documents the history of Ukrainian art and culture through more than 220 photographs of the country’s religious buildings, masterpieces, architectural monuments, and more' - The Washingtonian'Timely and attractive … With this fairly compact book covering such a long sweep of history, the texts on each specific subject are brief, but offer enough information to give an easily comprehensible introduction to a period and a flavour of some of Ukraine’s diverse cultural riches, from Scythian stone figures and medieval castles to experimental theatre and New Brutalism, showcased by abundant illustrations' - Minerva'With chapters on Orthodox icons and Catholic cathedrals, Soviet avant-gardism and nationalist folk crafts, this book illustrates a culture whose very diversity now puts it in danger' - New York Times'Engaging and enlightening... Tells Ukraine’s broader history through a survey of its art' - New York Journal of Books'Stunning … a rich, rewarding and ultimately moving celebration of the country’s long history' - All About History'A corrective to the destruction of war … highly readable' - Studio international'An utterly exceptional edition that reveals a panoramic representation of Ukrainian art within the intricate fabric of European culture' - ChytomoTable of ContentsIntroduction: Andrey Kurkov Map of Ukraine 1. Pre-history to Early History Andriy Puchkov 2. Kyivan Rus Christian A. Raffensperger 3. The Lithuanian–Ruthenian State Diana Klochko 4. The Ukrainian Baroque Era Maksym Yaremenko 5. The Nineteenth Century and the Fin-de-Siecle Alisa Lozhkina 6. Avant-Garde Art and Theatre Myroslava M. Mudrak 7. Soviet Rule, the Ukrainian SSR and Non-conformist Art Oleksandr Soloviev 8. Postmodern and Contemporary Art Victoria Burlaka Appendix: Folk arts Alisa Lozhkina Timeline of Ukrainian History
£21.25
Scala Publishers Ltd Toward Joy
Book Synopsis Groundbreaking book that explores the collection of the Brooklyn Museum to reframe the narrative of American Art from a Black Feminist perspective. How mightAmerican art beexperiencedat this moment? Disrupting traditional presentations and offering a new approach seen through a variety of different historical and cultural lenses, this groundbreaking new publication reframes the narrative of American Art from 4,000 BC to the contemporary moment. Drawn from the world-renowned holdings of the Brooklyn Museum, this beautifully illustrated book is organized in a series of frameworks including content from the museum's Black Feminist Roundtable, presenting concepts such as Rest as Resistance, Black and White Show, and To Give Flowers. Iconic favorite images are grouped alongside never-before-seen-works, to highlight the unique transdisciplinary conversations that can occur between objects. The approach used seeks to prioritize dialogue and engagement that shifts the focus to create an accessible and inclusive, interdisciplinary story of American Art.
£32.00
Unbound Magic Realms
Book SynopsisMagic Realms celebrates the incredible art of the brilliant and highly respected fantasy and science fiction artists who, over the years, worked with the Fighting Fantasy authors to bring their interactive adventures to vivid life. Each artist is profiled along with select examples of their best work in vibrant full colour, the astonishing detail on display in all its glory. It features the work some of the world's best fantasy artists including Chris Achilléos, John Blanche, Jim Burns, Les Edwards, Karl Kopinski, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Ian Miller and Russ Nicholson, among others. Written by Fighting Fantasy co-creator Ian Livingstone and Fighting Fantasy historian Jonathan Green, Magic Realms is a Who's Who of fantasy art an absolutely essential collector''s item for any Fighting Fantasy fan.
£24.00
Taschen GmbH David Hockney. A Chronology. 40th Ed.
Book SynopsisPop artist, painter of modern life, landscape painter, master of color, explorer of image and perception—for six decades, David Hockney has been known as an artist who always finds new ways of exploring the world and its representational possibilities. He has consistently created unforgettable images: works with graphic lines and integrated text in the Swinging Sixties in London; the famous swimming pool series as a representation of the 1970s California lifestyle; closely observed portraits and brightly colored, oversized landscapes after his eventual return to his native Yorkshire. In addition to drawings in which he transfers what he sees directly onto paper, there are multiperspective Polaroid collages that open up the space into a myriad of detailed views, and iPad drawings in which he captures light using a most modern medium—testaments to Hockney’s enduring delight in experimentation. This special edition has been newly assembled from the two volumes of the David Hockney: A Bigger Book monograph to celebrate TASCHEN’s 40th anniversary. Hockney’s life and work is presented year by year as a dialogue between his works and voices from the time period, alongside reviews and reflections by the artist in a chronological text, supplemented by portrait photographs and exhibition views. Together they open up new perspectives, page after page, revealing how Hockney undertakes his artistic research, how his painting develops, and where he finds inspiration for his multifaceted work.Trade Review“That’s the way I see it.” * David Hockney *“This is not your average art book.” * The Guardian *“David Hockney has written – or rather, painted – a real piece of art history.” * Deutsche Welle *
£999.99
Thames & Hudson Constables Year
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£21.25
Penguin Books Ltd Bring No Clothes
Book Synopsis''He makes us see a subject we thought we knew so well from a completely different angle; in writing that is deeply researched, but inviting, warm, and full of personality'' Katy Hessel''Charlie Porter is a magician'' Olivia Laing Why do we wear what we wear? To answer this question, we must go back and unlock the wardrobes of the early twentieth century, when fashion as we know it was born.In Bring No Clothes, acclaimed fashion writer Charlie Porter brings us face to face with six members of the Bloomsbury Group-the collective of creatives and thinkers who were in the vanguard of a social and sartorial revolution. Each of them offers fresh insight into the constraints and possibilities of fashion today: from the stifling repression of E. M. Forster''s top buttons to the creativity of Vanessa Bell''s wayward hems; from the sheer pleasure of Ottoline Morrell''s lavish dresses to the clashing self-consciousness of Virginia Woolf''s orange stockin
£11.69
Profile Books Ltd Da Vinci Notebooks
Book SynopsisA dazzling array of invention, insight and observation from perhaps the greatest genius of Western civilisation. Towering across time as the painter of the Mona Lisa, forever famous as a sculptor and an inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of both the Italian Renaissance and Western civilisation. His celebrated notebooks display the astonishing range of his genius. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in Leonardo and his complex and enquiring intelligence. This brand-new selection of sketches, diagrams and writings from the notebooks is a beautiful and varied record of Leonardo's theories and observations, embracing not only art but also architecture, town planning, engineering, naval warfare, music, medicine, mathematics, science and philosophy. Complete with a short biographical essay describing Leonardo's life and achievements, this is the perfect introduction to a mysterious and endlessly fascinating genius.
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Wicked Official Coloring Book
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£10.44
Taschen GmbH Pop Art
Book SynopsisPeaking in the 1960s, Pop Art began as a revolt against mainstream approaches to art and culture and evolved into a wholesale interrogation of modern society, consumer culture, the role of the artist, and of what constituted an artwork. Focusing on issues of materialism, celebrity, and media, Pop Art drew on mass-market sources, from advertising imagery to comic books, from Hollywood's most famous faces to the packaging of consumer products, the latter epitomized by Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans. As well as challenging the establishment with the elevation of such popular, banal, and kitschy images, Pop Art also deployed methods of mass-production, reducing the role of the individual artist with mechanized techniques such as screen printing. With featured artists including Andy Warhol, Allen Jones, Ed Ruscha, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein, this book introduces the full reach and influence of a defining modernist movement.
£13.50
Wooden Books Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe: The World's First
Book SynopsisWhat is the earliest temple complex on Earth? Who built it? Is it really 7000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids How did such a sophisticated civilisation evade detection for so long? In this groundbreaking little book, packed with original reseach and illustrations, megalithomaniac Hugh Newman tells the story of Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Nevali Çori and other temples in Turkey, which are so old that their very existence challenges history as we know it.Trade ReviewWooden Books are: "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.
£8.18
Hoxton Mini Press An Opinionated Guide to Folk Art
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£13.50
Aurora Metro Publications Unlocking Women's Art: Pioneers, Visionaries &
Book SynopsisWho were the pioneering female painters? Who are the best contemporary women painters around today? Offers a perceptive journey through Western art history, highlighting artists from Gentileschi to Kahlo, from Amrita Sher-gil to Jenny Saville, exploring the fascinating lives of diverse female painters and their artworks within often-challenging cultural contexts. In chapters which consider identity, muses and models, the domestic space, the avant-garde, in addition to war, peace and protest, the world of women who paint is intriguingly unlocked. Includes over 20 interviews with contemporary women artists, providing unique insights into their practices, themes and personal motivation.Trade Review“From the personal to the political, a brilliant book and significant addition to feminist art history.” – Ruth Millington, art historian and author of MUSE; “P.L Henderson’s writing is essential and key to the always unfolding story of the impact of women on art. And of art on women.” – Bonnie Greer, novelist, critic and broadcasterTable of ContentsAuthor bio Introduction Chapters 1 -8 Index
£17.99
Aurora Metro Publications Reframing Women Printmakers
Book SynopsisFrom Cassatt to Kollwitz and Kruger to Kusama, the art of printmaking has been a catalyst for revolution in women's artistic expression. The fascinating lives of diverse and historic women artists, and their use of a range of printmaking techniques from engraving to digital art, are revisited and reframed.
£17.99
Oxford University Press The Lives of the Artists
Book SynopsisTranslation of: Vite de' piu eccellenti architettori, pittori et scultori italiani.Trade Review`...a book which has come to be recognised as the single most important contemporary source of information on hundreds of artists of the Italian Renaissance period.' Irish IndependentTable of ContentsIncludes: Cimabue; Giotto; Duccio; Luca della Robbia; Paolo Uccello; Ghiberti; Masaccio; Filippo Brunelleschi; Donatello; Piero della Francesca; Fra Angelico; Fra Filippo Lippi; Domenico Ghirlandaio; Sandro Botticelli; Andrea del Verrocchio; Mantegna; Leonardo da Vinci; Giorgione; Raphael; Titian; Michelangelo
£999.99
Penguin Books Ltd For Art and for Life
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£5.99
The Mainstone Press Ravilious in Pictures Sussex and the Downs
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£22.50
Manchester University Press Deco Dandy: Designing Masculinity in 1920s Paris
Book SynopsisDeco dandy contests the supposedly exclusive feminine aspect of the style moderne (art deco) by exploring how alternative, parallel and overlapping experiences of decorative modernism, nationalism, gender and sexuality in the years surrounding World War I converge in the protean figure of the 'deco dandy'. The book suggests a broader view of art deco by claiming a greater place for the male body, masculinity and the dandy in this history than has been given to date. Important and productive moments in the history of the cultural life of Paris presented in the book provide insights into the changing role performed by consumerism, masculinity, design history and national identity.Trade Review'Beautifully produced and elegantly written, to say Deco Dandy is an important book is an understatement. It is an instant classic.'Joseph McBrinn, Journal of Design History'Copiously illustrated, Potvin’s six chapters allow us to observe how the films of L’Herbier, the paintings of Dardel, and the dances of Börlin, along with the pages of Monsieur and a few other journals of the time, disseminated a fascinating array of images that register overlapping notions of modern style, movement, interior design, sartorial elegance, masculinity, effeminacy, androgyny, and same-sex eroticism...'Michael Lucey, French Studies'A truly important book about a critically formative period in modern times, this book is highly recommended.'Sun News Tucson -- .Table of Contents1 Deco, the ensemble and Einfühlung2 Shame and melancholia 3 Silhouette and movement 4 Décor and sobriety5 Elegance and civilization 6 Industry and luxury Index
£26.00
Blue Crow Media Brutalist London Map: Guide to Brutalist
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£10.88
Promopress Palette Perfect: Color Combinations Inspired by
Book SynopsisAimed to fashion students and designers, Palette Perfect is both a practical guide and an inspirational book that proposes a reflection on the universe of colour combinations, the moods and atmospheres they evoke and how we associate particular places and emotions to special colours. Each chapter explores a particular mood and describes the corresponding feelings and colour combinations, using as examples exquisite photographs of objects, still-lives, landscapes, interiors and fashion. At the end of each chapter, a wide variety of palettes representing the chapter’s particular mood or atmosphere is included.
£16.99
Taschen GmbH Matisse
Book SynopsisThe work of Henri Matisse (1869–1954) reflects an ongoing belief in the power of brilliant colors and simple forms. Though famed in particular for his paintings, Matisse also worked with drawing, sculpture, lithography, stained glass, and collage, developing his unique cut-out medium when old age left him unable to stand and paint. Matisse’s subjects were often conventional: nudes, portraits, and figures in landscapes, Oriental scenes, and interior views, but in his handling of bold color and fluid draftsmanship, he secured his place as a 20th-century master. It was Matisse’s palette that particularly thrilled the modern imagination. With vivid blue, amethyst purple, egg-yolk yellow, and many shades beyond he liberated his work from a meticulous representation of reality and sought instead a “vital harmony,” often referring to music as an inspiration or analogy for his work. A comprehensive and informative source, this lavishly illustrated publication includes preparatory studies, full-page reproductions, and enlarged details. Discover the artist's adventurous path, from the chromatic brilliance of his Fauve period, right through to his invention of gouache cut-outs at the ripe age of 80. Each image has been reproduced with painstaking care to create a viewing experience worthy of the expressionist par excellence. The bard of color deserves no less.
£13.50
Taschen GmbH Mucha
Book SynopsisWith his instantly recognizable decorative style, Czech artist and Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) defined the look of the fin-de-siècle. In evocative shades of peach, gold, ochre, and olive, his seductive compositions of patterns, flowers, and beautiful women became paradigms of the Belle Époque years. Mucha’s work permeated illustration, posters, postcards, and the advertising designs of his day. His striking posters of star actress Sarah Bernhardt were particularly famous. Alongside this delicate decorative work, Mucha also harbored strongly felt political ideas. With his monumental cycle The Slav Epic, he expressed his staunch support for Pan-Slavism, promoting the political independence of the Czech and Slavic nations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Compiled in association with the Mucha Foundation, this book presents key works and introduces the full reach of Mucha’s œuvre from patterned decoration to his book illustrations, posters, photographs and monumental paintings.
£14.25
Thames and Hudson Ltd PopUp Surrealism
Book SynopsisIn this magical book, pop-up engineer Gérard Lo Monaco brings to life eight works of art by leading surrealists: Salvador Dalí, Victor Brauner, Jean Arp, Man Ray, Joseph Cornell, Dora Maar, René Magritte, and André Breton. Short texts introduce each work and its historical context, while hand-painted illustrations bring a new dimension to this revolutionary period in modern art.Pop-Up Surrealism
£17.00
David Zwirner Blue
Book SynopsisDerek Jarman’s Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book’s text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman’s text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life––getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk––escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth’s compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman’s visual paintings as never before.
£10.40
Wordwell Books Medieval Dublin
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.09
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art
Book SynopsisNow available in paperback, this book remains the definitive survey of the life and work of Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Carrington burst onto the Surrealist scene in 1936, when, as a precocious nineteen-year-old debutante, she escaped the stultifying demands of her wealthy English family by running away to Paris with her lover Max Ernst. She was immediately championed by Andre Breton, who responded enthusiastically to her fantastical, dark and satirical writing style and her interest in fairy tales and the occult. Her stories were included in Surrealist publications, and her paintings in the Surrealists' exhibitions. After the dramas and tragic separations of the Second World War, Carrington ended up in the 1940s as part of the circle of Surrealist European emigres living in Mexico City. Close friends with Luis Bunuel, Benjamin Peret, Octavio Paz and a host of both expatriate Surrealists and Mexican modernists, Carrington was at the centre of Mexican cultural life, while still maintaining her European connections. Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art provides a fascinating overview of this intriguing artist's rich body of work. The author considers Carrington's preoccupation with alchemy and the occult, and explores the influence of indigenous Mexican culture and beliefs on her production.Trade Review'full of stunning colour reproductions of Carrington's visionary art, whose hybrid forms borrow from nature, culture and religion in order to take themselves beyond all three. A beautiful book.' Ali Smith, The Sunday TelegraphTable of ContentsIntroduction: The magikal art of painting; The reluctant debutante; Ernst, Surrealism and the femme sorciere; Heaven and hell: wartime experiences; The alchemical kitchen: Domestic space as sacred space; Esoteric interests; Bibliography; Index.
£26.99
Taschen GmbH Turner
Book SynopsisIn the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) lies an impact akin to a sudden acquisition of sight. His landscapes and seascapes scorch the eye with such ravishing light and color, with such elemental force, it is as if the sun itself were gleaming out of the frame. Appropriately known as “the painter of light,” Turner worked in print, watercolor, and oils to transform landscape from serene contemplative scenes to pictures pulsating with life. He anchored his work to the River Thames and to the sea, but in the historical context of the Industrial Revolution, also integrated boats, trains, and other markers of human activity, which juxtaposes the thrust of civilization against the forces of nature. This book covers Turner’s illustrious, wide-ranging repertoire to introduce an artist who combined a traditional genre with a radical modernism.
£13.50
Profile Books Ltd Cult of Progress
Book SynopsisOscar Wilde said, 'Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.' Was he right? In Cult of Progress, David Olusoga travels the world to piece together the shared histories that link nations. We discover what happened to art in the great Age of Discovery, when civilisations encountered each other for the first time. Although undoubtedly a period of conquest and destruction, it was also one of mutual curiosity, global trade and the exchange of ideas. A few hundred years on, we see how the Industrial Revolution transformed the world, impacting every corner and every civilisation from the cotton mills of the Midlands to Napoleon's conquest of Egypt, the decimation of both Native American and Maori populations, and the advent of photography in Paris in 1839. Incredible art - both looted and created - relays the key events and their outcomes throughout the world.Trade ReviewOlusoga is a smart and inventive narrator, with a keen historical curiosity and effortless style -- Faramerz Dabhoiwala * Guardian *Told with great fluency and clarity of style ... a highly readable and engaging account -- Kwasi Kwarteng * Sunday Times *An insightful take from a great writer * History Revealed *Praise for Black and British: A Forgotten History You could not ask for a more judicious, comprehensive and highly readable survey of a part of British history that has been so long overlooked or denied. David Olusoga is a superb guide -- Adam HochschildGroundbreaking * Observer *[A] comprehensive and important history of black Britain ... Written with a wonderful clarity of style and with great force and passion -- Kwasi Kwarteng * Sunday Times *A radical reappraisal of the parameters of history, exposing lacunae in the nation's version of its past -- Arifa Akbar * Guardian *Praise for The Kaiser's Holocaust [A] haunting book ... an unforgettable and unflinching account of a neglected atrocity * Sunday Telegraph *[A] provocative and uncomfortably absorbing book ... Impressively researched ... Olusoga and Erichsen, with their novelist's flair for narrative, provide a grimly readable history ... Deserves to be read widely -- Ian Thomson * Daily Telegraph *
£13.49
Paul Holberton Publishing Ltd Islam in Europe
Book SynopsisThis illuminating exhibition catalogue interrogates the entanglement of the Islamic world with European visual culture during the medieval period and Renaissance, from the 9th century to the end of the 17th. It traces and reveals this interconnectedness through works of art that reflect the intense environment of contact, influence and exchange which developed over centuries between the two cultures. It also explores the reception of the image of ‘Islam’ in Europe, as highlighted by an important painting of the Supper at Emmaus, painted in the so-called ‘Oriental Mode’ by the Venetian artist Giovanni Mansueti (c. 1465–1527) in the last decade of the 15th century. Islam in Europe presents a survey of artistic production in the medieval Islamic world and the many ways it altered the trajectory of European visual culture. Opening with earlymedieval objects produced by Muslim artisans and known to have been exported in large numbers to medieval Europe, the catalogue explores the crosscurrents of visual culture at the nexus of Islam and Christendom which were already well developed by the 10th century. It continues with artworks produced under the aegis of the Umayyads (711–1031) and later Islamic dynasties which ruled large swathes of the Iberian Peninsula until 1492, and the influence of Islamic rule on the development of a distinctive visual culture in medieval Spain.A central group of objects traces the breathtaking force with which refined export wares from Mamluk Egypt and Syria, Central Asia and Anatolia flooded the Italian market during the 14th to 16th centuries, revolutionizing European aesthetics as well as the taste for (and very definition of) luxury goods. This section of the catalogue includes objects that chart the rise of European textiles, metalwork, ceramics and other arts specifically emulating Islamic designs.The catalogue concludes with a group of important early textiles spanning the 13th to 17th centuries. It explores how and why European artists started to incorporate lavish Ilkhanid silks into their imagery, and how Italian weavers began to imitate both these early imports, and later also Ottoman velvets flooding the market in the 15th century, with voracious appetite. One of the catalogue’s key foci is an important group of rare Anatolian carpets woven between the 15th and 17th centuries and richly imitated both by European painters including Titian and Holbein, and by local weavers vying for control of the market in luxury furnishings.The catalogue presents 60 works of art, which have taken a decade to bring together and are presented in this way for the first time. Together the works elucidate the complete integration of Islamic art and artisanal technology into European visual culture during a period of extraordinary efflorescence. A brief introductory essay explores questions of entanglement in the medieval world and proposes a new lens through which to examine the artistic production of the period. The catalogue closes with a new essay by Michael Franses analyzing the importance of the only firmly dateable ‘Lotto’ Arabesque carpet still in existence, acquired by The David Collection, Copenhagen, in 2022.
£28.50
Constellations Press The Endurance of Things
Book Synopsis
£17.00
Blue Crow Media Brutalist Interiors
Book Synopsis
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Photograph as Contemporary Art 1 World of Art
Book SynopsisA new edition of the definitive affordable title for students and teachers in the field of contemporary art photography.Table of ContentsIntroduction • 1. If This Is Art • 2. Once Upon a Time • 3. Deadpan • 4. Something and Nothing • 5. Intimate Life • 6. Moments in History • 7. Revived and Remade 8. Physical and Material
£13.49
National Gallery Company Ltd Siena
Book SynopsisAn exploration of a crucial turning point in Italian art.
£36.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Vinyl
Book SynopsisThe complete catalogue of seminal design collective Hipgnosis, showcasing ground-breaking cover art created for the all-time greatest rock & roll bands, including the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.Trade Review'Beautifully crafted and presented … everything you need to know abou this astonishing creative team' - The Afterword'Beautifully produced … stunning full-colour reproductions of every single cover' - Lancashire Evening Post'A fun trip down memory lane' - FQ Magazine'With their blend of surrealism, sex and suburban ennui, Hipgnosis defined album cover art in the prog-rock era' - Guardian'Some of the most memorable record covers of the 60s, 70s and 80s' - PORT'Thrillingly recalls those many happy hours spent flipping through album racks in record shops … how endlessly inventive yet consistently dazzling Hipgnosis covers were' - The Spectator'Anyone who has an interest in music, art or visual culture should pick up a copy of this book … sublime' - .Cent Magazine'Beautiful' - Amateur Photographer
£24.00
Taschen GmbH Redouté. The Book of Flowers. 40th Ed.
Book SynopsisFlower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) devoted himself exclusively to capturing the diversity of flowering plants in watercolor paintings which were then published as copper engravings, with careful botanical descriptions. The darling of wealthy Parisian patrons including Napoleon’s wife Josephine, he was dubbed “the Raphael of flowers,” and is regarded to this day as a master of botanical illustration. This collection brings our best-selling XL-sized edition to a smaller, more convenient format, still gathering some of the finest color engravings from Redouté’s illustrations of Roses, Lilies, and Choix des plus belles fleurs et quelques branches des plus beaux fruits (Selection of the Most Beautiful Blooms and Branches with the Finest Fruits). Offering a vibrant overview of Redouté’s admixture of accuracy and beauty, it is also a privileged glimpse into the magnificent gardens and greenhouses of a bygone Paris.Trade Review“The magic of his art still has an almost meditative effect today. A magnificent volume.” * Victoria Magazine *“One of the most gifted botanical artists in history.” * Victoria Magazine *
£20.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc All about Love The Deluxe Collectors Edition
£15.29
The Mainstone Press Ravilious in Pictures Country Life 3 Ravilious in
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Floris Books Carl Larsson's Home, Family and Farm: Paintings
Book Synopsis-- Stunning watercolour paintings by one of Sweden's best-loved artists-- Fascinating insight into Swedish rural and artistic life in the late nineteenth century-- Accompanied by an explanatory text giving more detail about his life and techniquesCarl Larsson is one of Sweden's best-loved artists. His stunning watercolours of his home and family from the end of the nineteenth century are acclaimed as one of the richest records of life at that time.The paintings in this book are a combined collection which depict Larsson's family -- his wife Karin and their eight children -- his home in the village of Sundborn, and his farm, Spadarvet. The accompanying text provides a fascinating insight into Larsson's family and farm life, and his painting techniques.Today, over 60,000 tourists a year visit Sundborn to admire Larsson's home and work.Also published as three separate volumes: A Home, A Family, and A Farm.
£17.00
Insight Editions Harry Potter: An Official Hogwarts Coloring Book
Book Synopsis
£9.49
