History of art Books
Yale University Press Form and Fortification
Book Synopsis
£57.00
Yale University Press The World Atlas of Public Art
Book Synopsis
£31.50
MIT Press Ruth Asawa and the ArtistMother at Midcentury
Book SynopsisHow a group of artist-mothers in postwar San Francisco refused the centuries-old belief that a woman could not make art while also raising children.For most of modern history, to be an artist and a mother was to embody a contradiction in terms. This ?awful dichotomy,? as painter Alice Neel put it, pitted artmaking against caretaking and argued that the best art was made at the expense of family and futurity. But in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s, a group of artists gathered around Ruth Asawa (1926?2013) began to reject this dominant narrative. In Ruth Asawa and the Artist-Mother at Midcentury, Jordan Troeller analyzes this remarkable moment. Insisting that their labor as mothers fueled their labor as artists, these women redefined key aesthetic concerns of their era, including autonomy, medium specificity, and originality.Delving into the archive, where the traces of motherhood have not yet been erased from official history, Troeller reveals Ruth Asawa?s personal and professional dialogue with several other artist-mothers, including Merry Renk, Imogen Cunningham, and Sally Woodbridge. For these women, motherhood was not an essentialized identity, but rather a means to reimagine the terms of artmaking outside of the patriarchal policing of reproduction. This project unfolded in three broad areas, which also structure the book?s chapters: domesticity and decoration; metaphors for creativity; and maternal labor in the public sphere, especially in the public schools. Drawing on queer theory and feminist writings, Troeller argues that in belatedly accounting for the figure of the artist-mother, art history must reckon with an emergent paradigm of artmaking, one predicated on reciprocity, caretaking, and futurity.
£36.00
British Museum Press Sex on Show Seeing the Erotic in Greece and Rome
Book SynopsisThe Greeks and Romans were not shy about sex. In classical Greece, statues of erect penises served as boundary-stones and signposts. In Rome, marble satyrs and nymphs grappled in gardens. How are we to make sense of this abundance of sexual imagery? Were these images seductive, shocking, humorous? This title answers these questions.
£21.25
Insight Editions The White Lotus Sewn Notebook Collection Set of 3
Book SynopsisInspired by HBO's hit series The White Lotus, this stunning collection of three notebooks features beautiful designs inspired by each of The White Lotus resort locations Maui, Sicily, and Thailand.
£12.84
Yale University Press Walking Romes Waters
Book Synopsis
£23.75
Tara Books Night Life of Trees,The - Handmade
Book SynopsisThe Night Life of Trees is an exquisite hand-bound and screen-printed book of paintings by three of the finest artists of the Gond tribal art tradition. The Gonds, a tribe of central India, are traditionally forest dwellers. They believe that trees are hard at work during the day providing shelter and nourishment to all. Only when night falls can they finally rest, and their spirits reveal themselves. These luminous spirits are captured in The Night Life of Trees, a fascinating and haunting foray into the Gond imagination. Each painting is accompanied by its own poetic tale, myth or lore, narrated by the artists themselves, which recreate the familiarity and awe with which the Gond people view the natural world. Screen-printed by hand on black paper, every page of this book is an original print. Each book in this limited second edition of 1,000 is individually numbered.Trade ReviewThanks to the artisan bookmakers at Tara Publishing a beautiful handmade book looks set to help us all discover an enchantment in even the ropiest urban sapling... The Nightlife of Trees is a striking handbound and screen-printed ode to the legends, folklore and spirituality of the forest. The arboretum of illustrationsfound within The Night Life of Tree's pages are silkscreened onto black handmade stock, allowing each magical tree and its narrative to shine out of the dark - and offering a captivating foray into the Gond imagination, where trees intoxicate and embrace, peacocks dance and sore-eyed bullocks seek out healing sap. grafik The book is a charming and delightful read ... providing a glimpse into the rich storytelling tradition and imaginative world of Gond folklore. Time Out A book where the nightingale sings until morning. John Berger
£31.50
Phaidon Press Ltd Pop Art
Book SynopsisThorough survey of the Pop phenomenon of the 1960s and beyond.Trade Review"There are numerous books that survey Pop art […] what does Collins’ book add to the existing discussion? It’s a brave move by any publisher, but, in fact, Collins’ text skilfully moves through the different eras of Pop starting with its early emergence in 1952 and finishing in 1990... Critically aware, this book offers a historical overview."—Aesthetica On the Art & Ideas series "Art & Ideas has broken new ground in making accessible authoritative views on periods, movements and concepts in art. As a series it represents a real advance in publishing."—Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate London "The format is wonderful and offers what had long been missing in academic studies: usable manuals for specific themes or periods... I am definitely not alone in welcoming Art & Ideas as a precious set of teaching tools."—Joachim Pissarro, Yale University "Phaidon's series may prove to be the pick of the crop. It boasts expert but undogmatic texts and a wealth of illustrations."—The Sunday Telegraph
£16.16
S Q Publications,US Knock Outs By Elias Chatzoudis
Book SynopsisA shimmering showcase of pin-up wonders from professional heavyweight (artist!) Elias Chatzoudis. In this collection, Elias focuses his exquisite talents on the female form - letting the background to fend for itself. Its all about his ladies, and the outstanding attention to detail he lavishes on each and every curvy creation. Every portrait is a winner, every knock out a tribute to this VERY sweet science.
£12.34
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Eyes Mind Bridget Riley
Book SynopsisBridget Riley, one of the leading abstract painters of her generation, holds a unique position in contemporary art. She has developed and extended the range of her interests ever since her first success in the 1960s, creating a body of work which is both consistent and highly varied. This volume, now fully revised and updated, reveals the mind behind this remarkable achievement, drawing together the most important texts and interviews of the last fifty years. Riley's writings show a passionate engagement with her subjects and a great insight paired with a freshness of approach and an exceptional clarity of expression. Quite apart from providing a key to understanding her own work, this book is a fascinating document reflecting the issues and problems facing an artist in the 21st century.
£21.21
Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd Thomas Lawrence: Coming of Age
Book SynopsisThis survey of Lawrence’s first twenty-five years tells the story of an exceptional artist growing up at the end of the century as Britain created its own unique artistic voice. Like his Renaissance predecessors Raphael, Michelangelo and Dürer, the young Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was considered to be a boy genius. He first came to public attention when he was cited in a scientific paper on ‘early genius in children’; shortly afterwards his family moved to Bath where the eleven-year-old was kept busy making likenesses of the spa town’s fashionable visitors. By 1790, Lawrence's spectacular portraits were the most applauded works in the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition, which opened days before his twenty-first birthday. The book considers the young artist’s self-image as a prodigy, the impact of Bath’s rich cultural life on his formation, the rapid development of his painting technique following his move to London, and his use of celebrity, print media and the Royal Academy to grow his reputation. Particular attention is given to Lawrence’s perceptive depictions of old age and bold celebrations of youthful energy. His portraits from this time present a fascinating glimpse of British high society at the turn of a memorable century: they include celebrities such as the Duchess of Devonshire, Emma Hamilton and actresses Sarah Siddons and Elizabeth Farren, as well as political leaders, members of the Bluestocking circle and the Royal Family. The book accompanied a major exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath and includes previously unpublished works as well as some of Lawrence’s most brilliant masterpieces.Table of ContentsAuthor’s Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction 1. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Prodigy 2. Striking Likenesses 3. Old Masters and New Horizons 4. Risking my Reputation 5. The Most Hazardous Step 6. Gleams of Power Notes Select Bibliography Image Credits Index
£17.09
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Lives of Lucian Freud YOUTH 1922 1968
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2019SELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT AND SPECTATORA compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud's career and rackety life and loves Leaves the reader itching for more' SUNDAY TIMES, ART BOOK OF THE YEARThough ferociously private, Lucian Freud spoke every week for decades to his close confidante and collaborator William Feaver about painting and the art world, but also about his life and loves. The result is this a unique, electrifying biography.In Youth, Feaver conjures Freud's early childhood: Sigmund Freud's grandson, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Weimar Berlin, escaping Nazi Germany in 1934. Following Freud through art school, his time in the Navy during tTrade ReviewThe “reptile Freud” is laid bare in a biography that reads like fiction as it charts the painter’s wild, dangerous youth * The Times, Books of the Year *As entertaining, and full of twists and turns, as a picaresque novel … Its amazing zip and gusto leaves you wanting more -- CRAIG BROWN * Mail on Sunday *William Feaver has done a brilliant job -- LYNN BARBER * Daily Telegraph *Hard-edged, clear-eyed, as Freud would have relished. Much is recounted in the artist’s own sardonic words, buoyed by fantastic gossip; it flows fast and long, and you close it reluctantly * Financial Times, Books of the Year *This exceptional book is far from standard biography … A compendium of high-grade gossip about everyone from Princess Margaret to the Krays, a tour of the immediate post-war art world, a snapshot of grimy London and a narrative of Freud’s career and rackety life and loves … Leaves the ready itchy for volume two * Sunday Times, Art Book of the Year *Here’s a story to keep you stuck in that fireside seat … Follow the adrenaline-fuelled course of the first half of his fabulously unconventional, unscrupulously promiscuous, relentlessly ambitious and often fantastically scurrilous life as he swirls about in a milieu of grand society and riveting gossip. The second half of this biography is expected soon, so that’s next Christmas sorted * The Times, Picks of the Year *An exceptional level of fact… a robust and intricate evocation of the man at work * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *This is far from a standard biography. At times like a Jilly Cooper novel, at others a socio-economic spotlight on the times * Sunday Telegraph *A superb and engrossing book -- COLM TOIBIN * New Statesman, Books of the Year *This is a tremendous read. Anyone interested in British art needs it … An extraordinary book -- ANDREW MARR * New Statesman *The amoral antics of the painter, as reckless in life as he was fastidious in the studio, mesmerise in this lively account * Financial Times, Books of the Year *Superb, sparklingly intelligent * Daily Telegraph *As gripping as any novel, illuminating both about Freud’s work and about his fairly startling personal life -- INDIA KNIGHT * Sunday Times *The pleasure of this book is infernal -- FRANCES WILSON * Spectator, Books of the Year *Irresistible … Freud and Feaver seize you by the elbows, bundle you into a Bentley, haul you round the nightclubs, feed you oysters, Guinness and amphetamines and order you Russian tea and eggs the next morning. I didn’t know whether I’d been roughed up or ravished * The Times, Book of the Week *Not just a great art biography, but wonderful social commentary about London in particular and Britain in general in the postwar period -- ANDREW MARR * New Statesman Books of the Year *Sparkling … An extraordinary tranche of anecdote and apercu … Feaver’s wonderful biography comes close to Freud’s own definition of his art: “A picture should be a recreation of an event rather than an illustration of an object” -- MICHAEL PRODGER * Sunday Times *Superlative … Every page of this volume affirms his distinction … This is Lucian Freudian biography, packed with stories -- ALEXANDRA HARRIS * Guardian *While he has … filled his book to the brim with the excitement and strangeness of Freud’s life, he sees him as painter rather than playboy … He uses his extensive interviews with Freud subtly and judiciously … the paintings hold their strength, their mystery, their distance. Freud, too, in Feaver’s version, maintains his own strength, his mystery, his distance. His biographer makes no effort to delve into his inner being and explain his work accordingly. Freud’s outer being gives him more than enough to go on -- COLM TOIBIN * London Review of Books *Rich in gossip and written with effortless style -- ROBERT DOUGLAS FAIRHURST * Spectator, Books of the Year *Lucian Freud was unique; unique in intensity, in affection, in interest and in fun. This brilliant and compendious biography has the same qualities. It does justice to Lucian -- FRANK AUERBACHMesmerising, almost surreal in its headlong layering of detail, memory and gossip. Propelled by Freud's sardonic recollections, and lit throughout by William Feaver's impeccable, penetrating analysis of the work, this is a monstrously brilliant portrait -- JENNY UGLOWIn William Feaver’s The Lives of Lucian Freud, based upon decades of conversation with the painter, we hear Freud’s remarkable voice on almost every page. The result is a vivid, intimate biography of one of the 20th century’s most storied artists -- ANNALYN SWANN and MARK STEVENS, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of de Kooning: An American MasterHere, Freud gets to tell his version of events with panache * Spectator *Sensational … Rich with gossip and stories * Vogue *A rich and elaborate biography * Irish Times *A fascinatingly hybrid form of biography … An epic cultural history, seen through the prism of someone hypnotically fascinating in real life * Tablet *One of the most intimate biographies of an artist ever written … Full of pithy observations, with just enough historical and social background to open up individual paintings and drawings to analysis … A delight * Literary Review *
£11.24
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd Fidelia Bridges: Nature into Art
Book SynopsisFidelia Bridges (1834-1923) painted pictures that critics praised for their ability to exude the fragrance of field flowers and glow with the plumage of birds. Raised in Salem and long residing in Connecticut, she maintained a studio in New York City, where she exhibited her art for over forty years at the National Academy, American Watercolor Society and other prestigious venues. Transforming flower painting from a domestic outlet for female amateurs to a marketable commodity for professionals, she never wavered in her conviction that women had the right to shape independent careers on their own terms. She delineated both cultivated flowers and clumps of weeds with an intensity of focus unmatched by any other artist of her era. Often, she combined plants with local birds to convey a sophisticated understanding of their environmental interaction that encouraged others to appreciate and conserve nature. She made an extended European tour in the 1860s and regular trips to Great Britain in later years but preferred home nature.Assembling a cross-section of her stunning oil paintings, watercolours, chromolithographs and illustrated volumes for the first time, and analysing them against letters, diaries and periodical reviews, Fidelia Bridges combines a recovery of the artist’s biography with close readings of her artworks. Living an outwardly conventional life, she embraced the bicycle and later the automobile as vehicles of female liberation, cultivated her garden with the skill of a horticulturalist, and left a lasting pictorial legacy to be found in US public museums and private collections nationwide.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Preface; Introduction; 1. Apprenticeship, Ambition and Adventure, 1850s-1860s; 2. Becoming a Professional Artist: From Brooklyn to Europe; 3. Success in the ‘Seventies; 4. Travel, Birds and Holiday Cards, 1880s-1890s; 5. Gardens and Friendship Circles: Canaan, 1900-1923; Appendix: Library of Fidelia Bridges; Notes; Picture Credit; Select Bibliography; Index
£33.25
University of California Press Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art
Book SynopsisPresents thirty countries and more than one hundred contemporary artists.Trade Review"Capture[s] the vitality and global tenor of the contemporary art world... Indispensable for artists and art historians alike... Essential." -- A. Verplaetse, Naropa University ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition General Introduction to the Second Edition (Kristine Stiles) 1. Gestural Abstraction 2. Geometric Abstraction 3. Figuration 4. Material Culture and Everyday Life 5. Art and Technology 6. Installations, Environments, and Sites 7. Process 8. Performance Art 9. Language and Concepts Notes Index The Bibliography may be downloaded at www.ucpress.edu/go/theories.
£27.00
Taylor & Francis Ltd Learning to Look at Paintings
Book SynopsisLearning to Look at Paintings is an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how you can develop visual, analytical and historical skills in learning to look at and understand an image by analysing how it works, what its pictorial elements are and how they relate to each other. This fully revised and updated new edition is illustrated with over 100 images by a wide range of Western European and American artists, ranging from Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Botticelli to Picasso, Matisse and Rothko, and now includes modern and contemporary artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Anselm Kiefer, Tacita Dean and Marlene Dumas. In addition, Mary Acton presents new examples highlighting the survival and revival of painting in recent years.A new introduction situates the book in the wider context of recent changes in the approach to Art History. A glossary of critical and technical terms used in the language of Art History is also included, with an updated but still selective reading list. Trade Review'Each of the six chapters has a succint introduction and a short but useful summary... Recommended.' - CHOICE'Each of the six chapters has a succint introduction and a short but useful summary... Recommended.' – CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction to the Second Edition List of Figures List of Plates Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Composition 2. Space 3. Form 4. Tone 5. Colour 6. Subject Matter 7. Drawing and its Purposes 8. Looking at Prints. Conclusion: The Use of Comparison as an Aid to Looking. Appendix 1: Some Questions to Ask Yourself When Standing in Front of a Painting Appendix 2: Glossary of Art Terms. References and Further Reading. Index
£26.99
Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH Yves Saint Laurent: Icons of Fashion Design
Book Synopsis
£27.20
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Rain Later Good
Book SynopsisRain Later, Good is the award winning story of Peter Collyer''s extraordinary journey around the Shipping Forecast areas. The Shipping Forecast is a national institution, relied upon by mariners but also strangely comforting and poetic to landlubbers. Published in 1998 to great acclaim, Rain Later, Good was chosen by the RNLI to celebrate their 175th anniversary, and has since sold over 25,000 copies. Fifteen years later, this gorgeous book will be available in paperback for the first time, completely revised and updated, with several new paintings.Peter Collyer''s brilliant and detailed paintings offer a series of images which help conjure up the most mythical locations, whilst his delightful idiosyncratic text provides a wealth of fascinating insights. He introduces us to the people who live and work in these areas, and passes on snippets of tantalising information to give a powerful impression of the place and convey a real feeling of being there. The beautiful paintiTrade ReviewPeter Collyer's brilliant and detailed paintings offer a series of images which help conjure up the most mythical locations, whilst his delightful idiosyncratic text provides a wealth of fascinating insights. ...This is a much-loved book celebrating an iconic broadcast, and its reissue will be welcomed by Peter's many admirers. * Yachting Life *Beautifully painted, engagingly written and ever so slightly forlorn in its celebration of a diminishing but much-loved national institution. * Sailing Today *a beautifully-produced tour of the sea areas in the UK Shipping Forecast. ...such a nice concept, and so well executed * The Telegraph *BOOK OF THE MONTH: Peter's idiosyncratic tales and evocative paintings help demystify a national institution. * Coast magazine *
£21.59
Hatje Cantz Daniel Richter: Paintings Then and Now
Book Synopsis"As a politically thinking person, I am not a morally thinking person.” While German painting of the postwar period essentially concerned itself with coming to terms with the past and presenting it in gestures ranging from the heroic to the ironic, Daniel Richter focuses on positioning himself in the present. Time and again he devises new ways of being “modern” in a medium that has long been labeled old-fashioned and anachronistic. His pictures constantly challenge the spectator by their painterly and contextually excessive demands, but they do not lecture on moral issues. In five chapters featuring more than 200 examples of his works, the author Eva Meyer-Hermann traces the chronological development of Richter’s artistic output for the first time. The turns from abstraction to figuration and back again that until now have been described as abrupt, prove on closer examination to be a logical consequence and a sign of conscious artistic action.
£55.50
Rizzoli International Publications Daniel Arsham
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive monograph on artist Daniel Arsham’s genre-bending world.Daniel Arsham mines lusted-after consumer goods and iconic imagery to create his conceptual objects and sculptures. The artist then casts and refinishes his work to imitate the effects of erosion and subsidence, creating monuments to our present obsessions, as if the objects were rescued from Pompeii. That same impulse toward excavation animates many of his installations,which range from layered broken walls to geodefilled caverns to melting portals. From room-collapsing environmental installations for today’s leading brands and museums to elaborate set design for classical dance, Arsham twists elements of architecture to create immersive aesthetic experiences that appeal to the divided attentions of a contemporary audience.Presented as an induction manual to Arsham’s covetable world, the book will provide a complete overview of his practice. Virgil Abloh discusses A
£999.99
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd The Museum and the Factory: The V&A, Elkington
Book SynopsisThis book reveals a great untold story of enterprise and innovation based on the relationship between the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Elkington & Co., the renowned industrial art and design manufacturer of the 19th-century. The Birmingham-based company pioneered and patented the industrial art of electro-metallurgy to create original artworks, perfect replicas, and mass-reproduced luxury consumer goods that used electricity to ‘grow’ metal into shape at a molecular level. This technological revolution created a profound legacy, which continues to influence the way modern material culture looks and operates today.Elkington’s syntheses of science and art into industrial manufacturing processes revolutionized the design and production, replication and reproduction of precious metalwork, metal sculpture, and ornamental art metalwork. Elkington & Co. gained huge public acclaim at the Great Exhibition of 1851. They subsequently produced artworks and luxury goods, including world-renowned sports trophies like the Wimbledon Singles Trophies, as well as luxury dining services for great steamships and railways, including tableware that sank with the Titanic.Elkington played a crucial role in shaping and building the V&A’s permanent collection from its foundation in 1852 (following the Great Exhibition) until the First World War. The V&A’s collections in turn had a profound influence on Elkington’s output. The great success of their relationship cemented both the museum’s status as a leading cultural institution, and the E&Co ‘makers-mark’ as one of the world’s first truly multinational designer brands. Elkington’s electrical alchemy helped spark the electrical revolution that founded the modern world.Trade Review‘This book has an engaging and carefully considered structure […] Packed with intriguing research, these richly documented essays widen the story across the industrial and art history of Victorian Britain.’ – Philippa Glanville, The Silver SocietyTable of ContentsDirector's Foreword; Series Editor's Foreword; Authors' Acknowledgements; Introduction: 'An Experimental Arrangement'; Key Terms; 1. An Early Electrotype Reproduction: The Bedford Tankard (1854); 2. Establishing a Luxury Designer Brand: The Electroplated Candlestick, Model No.2765 (1847); 3. Artistic Applications of the Electrotype: Eve's Hesitation (1851); 4. Unique Replicas: Electrotypes of the Temperantia Basin (1852-67); 5. A Global Artwork: The Milton Shield (1867-76); 6. Supplying 'The Art Wants of the World': Electrotypes of the Rosenborg Castle Lions (1885); 7. Diplomacy and Discovery in Russia: Electrotype of the Jerningham Wine Cooler (1884); 8. Expressions of Imperial Power: Electrotypes of the Perak Royal Regalia at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886); Conclusion: The Present Time - Child and Heir of All the Past Times; Notes; Further Reading; Image Credits; Index
£35.96
Prestel Hokusai: 22 Pull-Out Posters
Book SynopsisDuring his lifetime, Hokusai was one of the most revered artists working in the ukiyo-e school of painting and printmaking. This book gathers the finest examples of Hokusai's breathtaking prints, including his iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, views of Mt. Fuji, landscapes, domestic scenes, and painstakingly rendered flora and fauna. An introduction by Matthi Forrer offers a brief biography of Hokusai and commentary on his practice and influence. Each full color poster is backed with a substantial caption that provides insights into the piece's significance and notable characteristics. Printed on heavy coated paper, these detachable posters are suitable for framing, but also taken together create a lasting and illuminating introduction to Hokusai's extraordinary accomplishment.
£16.99
University of California Press Mediums and Magical Things Statues Paintings and
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mediums and Magical Things makes a valuable contribution to the study of material religion, anthropology of religion, and religion in modernity. It is a timely volume that will no doubt fulfill Kendall’s hope that it ‘propel others down similar paths’." * Nova Religio *"Mediums and Magic Things contributes to the study of material religion and the anthropology of religion in a very readable and easily accessible way." * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Conventions 1. MacGuffins and Magical Things 2. Ensoulments 3. Materiality, Making, and Magic 4. Agency and Assemblage 5. The Ambiguities of the Unsacred 6. Afterlives Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
£27.00
Hardie Grant Books (UK) Pocket Frida Kahlo Wisdom: Inspirational Quotes
Book SynopsisPocket Frida Kahlo Wisdom is an inspiring collection of some of her best quotes on love, style, life, art and more, and celebrates the Mexican icon's immense legacy.Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential painters of the 20th century and is widely considered a style icon thanks to her eclectic taste and love for colour, print and hauls of jewellery. From a young age, Kahlo forged her own path, overcoming polio as a child, and stoically battling the after-effects of a tragic road accident that left her with lifelong injuries.Some quotes from Frida Kahlo:“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.”“The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”“I must fight with all my strength so that the little positive things that my health allows me to do might be pointed toward helping the revolution. The only real reason for living.”“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”
£7.59
JRP Ringier Vern Blosum: Planned Obsolescence
Book SynopsisVern Blosum does not exist. The story can be told simply: in 1961 an artist paints five canvases inspired by pages in a horticulture book; then came parking meters, water hydrants, and animals. Some of them were shown at Leo Castelli Gallery, sold to collectors and public institutions, included in seminal exhibitions or books on Pop arta seemingly normal progression in an artist''s career, were it not for a rumor that emerged regarding his true identity. Alfred H. Barr, the legendary director of MoMA, started to worry about the rumor sometime in 1964 and, after extensive inquiries, came to the conclusion that Vern Blosum did not exist. His paintings were taken down or sent back to storage, and the artist''s name fell into oblivion. Vern Blosum does not exist, but his work does. This book retrieves the oeuvre of this particularly elusive artist.
£8.22
Taschen GmbH Alfred Stieglitz. Camera Work
Book SynopsisPhotographer, writer, publisher, and curator Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) was a visionary far ahead of his time. Around the turn of the 20th century, he founded the Photo-Secession, a progressive movement concerned with advancing the creative possibilities of photography, and by 1903 began publishing Camera Work, an avant-garde magazine devoted to voicing the ideas, both in images and words, of the Photo-Secession. Camera Work was the first photo journal whose focus was visual, rather than technical, and its illustrations were of the highest quality hand-pulled photogravure printed on Japanese tissue. This book brings together all photographs from the journal’s 50 issues.Trade Review“Anyone interested in photographic history should have this book.” * Image Magazine *
£17.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the
Book SynopsisEighteenth-century fashion was cosmopolitan and varied. Whilst the wildly extravagant and colorful elite fashions parodied in contemporary satire had significant influence on wider dress habits, more austere garments produced in darker fabrics also reflected the ascendancy of a puritan middle class as well as a more practical approach to dress. With the rise of print culture and reading publics, fashions were more quickly disseminated and debated than ever, and the appetite for fashion periodicals went hand in hand with a preoccupation with the emerging concept of taste. Richly illustrated with over 100 images and drawing on pictorial, textual and object sources, A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in the Age of Enlightenment presents essays on textiles, production and distribution, the body, belief, gender and sexuality, status, ethnicity, and visual and literary representations to illustrate the diversity and cultural significance of dress and fashion in the Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction Peter McNeil (University of Technology Sydney, Australia) Chapter 1 – Textiles Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen (National Open Air Museum of Urban History and Culture, Denmark) Chapter 2 – Production and Distribution Beverly Lemire (University of Alberta, Canada) Chapter 3 – The Body Isabelle Paresys (Université de Lille, France) Chapter 4 – Belief Dagmar Freist (Carl von Ossietzky-University Oldenburg, Germany) Chapter 5 – Gender and Sexuality Dominic Janes (University of Keele, UK) Chapter 6 – Status Mikkel Venborg Pedersen (National Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark) Chapter 7 – Ethnicity Barbara Lasic (Sotheby's Institute of Art, UK) Chapter 8 – Visual Representations Christian Huck (University of Kiel, Germany) Chapter 9 – Literary Representations Alicia Kerfoot (State University of New York, USA) Notes Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index
£26.59
Profile Books Ltd The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals,
Book SynopsisThis is a story about rivalry among artists. Not the kind of rivalry that grows out of hatred and dislike, but rather, rivalry that emerges from admiration, friendship, love. The kind of rivalry that existed between Degas and Manet, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. These were some of the most famous and creative relationships in the history of art, driving each individual to heights of creativity and inspiration - and provoking them to despair, jealousy and betrayal. Matisse's success threatened Picasso so much that his friends would throw darts at a portrait of his rival's beloved daughter Marguerite, shouting 'there's one in the eye for Matisse!' And Willem de Kooning's twisted friendship with Jackson Pollock didn't stop him taking up with his friend's lover barely a year after Pollock's fatal car crash. In The Art of Rivalry, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee explores how, as both artists struggled to come into their own, they each played vital roles in provoking the other's creative breakthroughs - ultimately determining the course of modern art itself.Trade ReviewIntriguing ... Smee writes beautifully ... tantalising -- Lynn Barber * Sunday Times *Elegant ... accomplished -- Michael Prodger * The Times *Lively and engaging -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *A fascinating examination ... This is art history as human friction - one in the eye for those who think art is a high-minded enterprise. * Tatler *The keynotes of Sebastian Smee's criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art - he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye - and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art - the enigma of artist's personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other¹s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art. * Adam Gopnik *A magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most. * Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take *Modern art's major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it's strange to have a book on it only now - and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness. * Peter Schjeldahl, art critic of the New Yorker *One of those rare books that manages to show,convincingly, the exalted stuff of genius emerging from the low chaos of life * Economist *
£11.69
University of Minnesota Press Asemic: The Art of Writing
Book SynopsisThe first critical study of writing without language In recent years, asemic writing—writing without language—has exploded in popularity, with anthologies, a large-scale art exhibition, and flourishing interest on sites like tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. Yet this burgeoning, fascinating field has never received a dedicated critical study. Asemic fills that gap, proposing new ways of rethinking the nature of writing.Pioneered in the work of creators such as Henri Michaux, Roland Barthes, and Cy Twombly, asemic writing consolidated as a movement in the 1990s. Author Peter Schwenger first covers these “asemic ancestors” before moving to current practitioners such as Michael Jacobson, Rosaire Appel, and Christopher Skinner, exploring how asemic writing has evolved and gained importance in the contemporary era.Asemic includes intriguing revelations about the relation of asemic writing to Chinese characters, the possibility of asemic writing in nature, and explanations of how we can read without language. Written in a lively style, this book will engage scholars of contemporary art and literary theory, as well as anyone interested in what writing was and what it is now in the process of becoming.Trade Review"How does the noncommunicative communicate? This is the seemingly innocent question Peter Schwenger unpacks. At once storehouse and treatise, Asemic has the clarity of a dictionary entry, its sagacity delivered with deceptive ease, revealing a domain vaster than anyone would have thought: a Copernican marvel."—Jed Rasula, author of History of a Shiver: The Sublime Impudence of Modernism"Asemic is a long-overdue study of poetries that occupy liminal spaces between art, like Twombly's paintings, and recognizable words, like Michaux's poetry. Peter Schwenger offers an extended theory and an introductory survey of contemporary asemic writing by Michael Jacobson, Rosaire Appel, Christopher Skinner, and others. From this book one can learn to read and, by extension, teach a-semiological texts."—Craig Saper, co-editor of Readies for Bob Brown's Machine"This is the first full-length exploration of the history and meaning of asemic writing. Important figures such as Michaux, Twombly, Barthes, Jim Leftwich, and Rosaire Appel are included, as well as examples from Chinese culture. Well-chosen illustrations accompany Peter Schwenger's insightful text. This book is a solid first map of a territory previously unknown to academic study."—Tim Gaze, publisher of Asemic magazine"What emerges in Schwenger’s book is an aesthetics of language, and of reading in par- ticular, that draws attention to how asemic writing lets us dive into the untapped possibilities of incomprehension."—Literary Review of Canada"The Art of Writing,Peter Schwenger’s engaging and groundbreaking book focused on the asemic as a cultural phenomenon and ratified genre of modern and contemporary art."—Art in America"Peter Schwenger offers a history of the practice, linking modern era pioneers like Barthes, Henri Michaux, and Cy Twombly to lesser-known contemporary practitioners Michael Jacobson, Rosaire Appel, and Christopher Skinner. Pulling examples of asemic writing from a diversity of fields—across contemporary art, comics, notation, and even nature—he demonstrates poet Michael Jacobson’s fitting definition of his field: “Without words, asemic writing is able to relate to all words, colors, and even music, irrespective of the author or the reader’s original language.”"—The Brooklyn Rail"Peter Schwenger offers the first book-length academic study of this vibrant field; it is an important and valuable start to the formal study of asemic writing."—Rain Taxi Review of Books"Vital and fateful . . . engagingly international."—CAA Reviews"In a clear and in-depth way, Asemic: the Art of Writing can be seen as a first official notation of that dance, excelling in the ability to bring to a wider audience the intricacies of a subject often seen as a niche of encrypted doodles legible only to a few."—Electric Book Review
£999.99
Getty Trust Publications Medicine in Art
Book SynopsisThis is the latest volume in the acclaimed series that depicts medicine as depicted in art throughout history. This sumptuously illustrated volume offers a visual history of the depiction of illness and healing in Western culture, ranging from Egyptian wall carvings to medieval manuscripts and from paintings and sculpture by the great masters of the Renaissance to 20thC artists such as Matisse & Magritte. Thematic chapters cover the examination of patients and their maladies; healing and medical treatments; and the sufferings and hopes of patients awaiting cure and recovery. Psychological anguish, represented by Masaccio's "The Expulsion of Adam and Eve", and Munch's "The Scream", are also treated along with more obvious physical manifestations.Trade Review-A visual delight. . . . Get hold of a copy of Medicine in Art and look, learn, and enjoy.---Journal of the American Medical Association "A visual delight. . . . Get hold of a copy of Medicine in Art and look, learn, and enjoy."--Journal of the American Medical Association A visual delight. . . . Get hold of a copy of Medicine in Art and look, learn, and enjoy. Journal of the American Medical Association " A visual delight. . . . Get hold of a copy of "Medicine in Art "and look, learn, and enjoy. "Journal of the American Medical Association" """ "A visual delight. . . . Get hold of a copy of "Medicine in Art "and look, learn, and enjoy."--"Journal of the American Medical Association" ""
£20.89
Columbia University Press NotreDame of Amiens
Book SynopsisNotre-Dame of Amiens is one of the great Gothic cathedrals. In this beautifully illustrated magisterial chronicle, Stephen Murray tells the cathedral’s story from the overlapping perspectives of the social groups connected to it.Trade ReviewIn prose as finely wrought as the vaults and buttresses he describes, Stephen Murray teaches us how to look at a great building, combining commentary on the cathedral as it exists today and masterful insight into its history. Murray instructs, delights, and inspires deep longing to set out for Amiens. -- Robert E. Harrist Jr., Jane and Leopold Swergold Professor of Chinese Art History, Columbia UniversityThis lively, splendidly illustrated book demonstrates why its author is one of the most influential teachers of Gothic of his generation. Like the best medieval preachers, Murray deploys vivid language, gentle wit, and a well-controlled path forged of deep learning to guide his audience through complex content—the long, multilayered life of a particularly grand medieval church, encompassing daring architectural forms and a rich array of sculpture, furnishings, relics, and liturgical performances. It is a model of astute, humane analysis and a joy to read. -- Jacqueline E. Jung, author of Eloquent Bodies: Movement, Expression, and the Human Figure in Gothic SculptureCelebrating the eight hundredth anniversary of Gothic France’s greatest cathedral and animating its daring architecture with new discoveries and insights, Stephen Murray’s Notre-Dame of Amiens unlocks the secrets of its lithic fabric using close looking, measurement, digital modeling, and archival study. Lucidly written with a compelling narrative, the book offers an exemplary model for future studies of medieval cathedrals. -- Peter Fergusson, author of Canterbury Cathedral Priory in the Age of BecketWhat a wonderful book! This beautifully illustrated and elegantly written account of Amiens Cathedral makes the splendor and sophistication of its architecture, sculpture, funerary monuments, and furnishings clear to the scholar and general reader alike. Much more than this, Notre-Dame of Amiens offers a new paradigm for writing the history of the medieval cathedral that not only charts the building’s chronology but also implicates its various protagonists in the contract implicit in the creation of a great building. Written by the leading historian of French Gothic architecture, it is a stunning tribute to Amiens cathedral in its eight hundredth year and will be the last word on the subject for many years to come. -- Matthew M. Reeve, author of Gothic Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace WalpoleIn Notre-Dame of Amiens: Life of a Gothic Cathedral, Murray inverts the usual narrative applied to a cathedral: rather than clearing away later accretions and alterations in a search for the purity of an original vision, he presents the building in time as a product of intentional interventions and unanticipated consequences. Rather than frozen in a moment or brief period of time, the fabric of Amiens cathedral offers an unfolding chronicle of structural behavior, changing devotional attitudes and practices, and shifting taste. -- Michael T. Davis, Mount Holyoke CollegeMurray has done an excellent job of compiling an impressive amount of research into a readable and enjoyable book. * Comitatus *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrologue1. Visiting the Cathedral2. The Portals: Unscrambling the Plot3. Clergy, Artisans, and Laypeople: Makers and Users4. Telling the Story of the Great Enterprise, I, 1220–c. 1300: Incomplete Completion5. Telling the Story of the Great Enterprise, II, c. 1300–1530: Continuing Work, Immediate Danger, Triumphant End6. Liturgical Performance: Angels in the ArchitectureEpilogueGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex
£31.50
Oxford University Press The Virtues
Book SynopsisFrom the philosophy of Aristotle and Confucius, to Thomas Aquinas'' Summa Theologiae, to the paintings of Raphael, Botticelli and many more, fascination with the virtues has endured and evolved to fit a wide range of cultural, religious, and philosophical contexts through the centuries.This Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the various virtues: the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues, as well as the capital vices. It explores the role of the virtues in moral life, their cultivation, and how they offer ways of thinking and acting that are alternatives to mere rule-following. It also considers the relationship of the virtues to our own emotions, desires, and rational capacities.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsList of illustrations 1: Whose virtues, which vices? 2: The moral virtues: feeling good about being good 3: The intellectual virtues: being mindful 4: Whose culture? which virtues? Confucian and Islamic contributions to the virtues 5: The theological virtues: be good, by God! 6: The capital vices: good gone wrong, very wrong 7: Conclusion Further reading Index
£9.49
Phaidon Press Ltd Art
Book SynopsisA fresh and unconventional approach to exploring 6,000 years of art history through 800 masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of ArtTrade Review'The new book Art= is a stream of creative consciousness that leaps around the globe and across 6,000 years of art history.' – Artnet News'If you're too afraid to visit the Met, sit home and read Art=, the museum's enormous coffee table book.' – New York Magazine'Interesting categorisation in this engaging tribute to the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides a different way to think about and see art.' – Trebuchet Magazine'Big, bold, and interesting.' – The Art Newspaper
£47.96
Giles de la Mare Publishers Romanesque Churches of Spain: A Traveller's Guide
Book SynopsisThe widespead and numerous Romanesque churches in the northern half of Spain rival those of France for their distinctiveness and originality and for their remarkable sculpture. They were mainly built between about 1000 and 1200 and mirror the progressive rolling back of Islamic power in the long reconquista, first of all along the north coast and in Catalonia, which was only occupied by the Muslims for about a hundred years, and then in Leon and Castile. Their architectural styles vary greatly from region to region, and some of them contain fine frescoes as well. Romanesque style introduced the first revival of the art of sculpture since Roman times, and in Spain there good examples of decorative carving as far back as the seventh century. It was the age of pilgrimages and many of the churches were founded along the pilgrim routes from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, which are popular destinations for travellers in Spain today. Romanesque Churches of Spain, which covers a hundred and twenty churches in Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre and the Basque Country, Cantabria, Castile, Leon, Asturias and Galicia, and includes no less than twenty pre-Romanesque churches in the Visigothic, Asturian and Mozarabic styles of 600-1000, many with exotic features such as the horseshoe arch, is the first comprehensive book to be published on the subject. It is a perfect companion for travellers, with its ten maps and its regional arrangement, and will be a stimulus for the exploration of wild and remote areas that are unfamiliar to many people, especially across the Pyrenees and in the mountainous areas of Aragon, Cantabria and Asturias. It will also be invaluable as a reference book, with its 262 illustrations, for all those with a general interest in the history of Spanish architecture and sculpture, many of the churches possessing outstanding examples such as Santiago de Compostela, Jaca, Soria, Agramunt, Ripoll, Armentia, Estibaliz, Sanguesa, Santo Domingo de Silos and San Pedro de la Nave. Peter Strafford is a distinguished journalist who worked on the Times for more than three decades, including in Paris and Brussels, and was, among other things, the Times correspondent in New York for five years. His acclaimed Romanesque Churches of France has recently been reprinted.Table of ContentsAcknowledgement vi Place Names vi Glossary ix General Introduction 1 Historical background 12 Monasteries 21 Pilgrimages 25 Before Romanesque 32 Catalonia Introduction 33 Barcelona: Sant Pau del Camp 37 Besalu 40 Bossost and the Vall d'Aran: Bossost, Vielha, SalardA' 42 Cardona 44 Corbera 47 L'Estany 49 Frontanya 52 Gerri de la Sal 54 Girona 55 Lleida 60 Montserrat: Santa Cecilia 64 Poblet, Santes Creus, Vallbona de les Monges 65 Ponts and Agramunt 71 Ripoll 74 Sant Benet de Bages 80 Sant Cugat del Valles 83 Sant Joan de les Abadesses 86 Sant Pere de Casserres 89 Sant Pere de Rodes 91 La Seu d'Urgell 94 Tarragona 100 Taull and the Vall de Boi: Taull, Boi, Erill la Vall 102 Terrassa 111 La Tossa de Montbui 115 Aragon Introduction 117 Aguero 119 Alquezar 122 Huesca 126 Jaca 130 Larrede 135 Loarre 137 San Juan de la Pena 141 Siresa 146 Sos del Rey Catolico 147 Uncastillo 150 Navarre and the Basque Country Introduction 155 Armentia 156 Estella 162 Estibaliz 168 Eunate 172 Leyre 174 Sanguesa 180 San Vicentejo 186 Torres del Rio 188 Tudela 192 Cantabria Introduction 195 Castaneda 196 Cervatos 198 Santa Maria de Lebena 201 Santillana del Mar 203 Castile and La Rioja Introduction 209 Avila 211 Banos de Cerrato 217 Fromista 220 Quintanilla de las Vinas 223 Rebolledo de la Torre 225 San Baudelio de Berlanga 228 San Cebrian de Mazote 231 San Esteban de Gormaz 235 San Lorenzo de Vallejo 239 San Millan de la Cogolla 241 San Pantaleon de Losa 244 San Pedro de Tejada 247 San Quirce 251 Santa Maria de Wamba 253 Santo Domingo de Silos 258 Segovia 266 Sepulveda 283 Soria 284 Leon Introduction 293 Leon 295 Sahagun 302 Salamanca 305 San Miguel de Escalada 309 San Pedro de la Nave 313 San Pedro de las Duenas 316 Santa Marta de Tera 318 Santiago de Penalba 321 Toro 323 Zamora 326 Asturias Introduction 337 Oviedo: Camara Santa and Santullano 338 Oviedo: Santa Maria de Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo 342 San Salvador de Priesca 346 San Salvador de Valdedios 348 Santa Cristina de Lena 350 Galicia Introduction 353 Aciveiro 355 Cambre 358 Celanova 361 Mondonedo 362 Santa Comba de Bande 365 Santiago de Compostela: Cathedral 367 Santiago de Compostela: Santa Maria de Sar 380 Vilar de Donas 383 Index 386
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Jack Vettriano A Life
Book SynopsisEmerging from the unlikely background of the Scottish coalfields, unknown and untutored, Jack Vettriano became Scotland''s most successful and controversial contemporary artist.Appearing on posters and cards, mugs and umbrellas, prints of Vettriano''s work outsell van Gogh, Dali and Monet and his paintings have been acquired by celebrities around the world. Vettriano''s images are a gateway to an alluring yet sinister world; a timeless place where past and present intertwine. Daylight scenes of heady optimism, painted against backdrops of beaches and racetracks, are counterbalanced by more disquieting canvases of complex night-time liaisons in bars, clubs, bedrooms and ballrooms.His powerful canvases are beautifully captured in this edition of Jack Vettriano, which includes works from earlier in his career and more recent images, from exhibitions between 2006 and 2010.
£24.00
Manchester University Press Gee Vaucher: Beyond Punk, Feminism and the
Book SynopsisAs one of the people who defined punk’s protest art in the 1970s and 1980s, Gee Vaucher (b. 1945) deserves to be much better-known. She produced confrontational album covers for the legendary anarchist band Crass and later went on to do the same for Northern indie legends the Charlatans, among others. More recently, her work was recognised the day after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, when the front page of the Daily Mirror ran her 1989 painting Oh America, which shows the Statue of Liberty, head in hands. This is the first book to critically assess an extensive range of Vaucher’s work. It examines her unique position connecting avant-garde art movements, counterculture, punk and even contemporary street art. While Vaucher rejects all ‘isms’, her work offers a unique take on the history of feminist art.Trade Review'Binns’s book is meticulously researched and well written, covering an area of punk history that deserves a full spotlight all of its own. Equal parts informing, accessible and compelling, this is the story of a woman whose talent and beliefs have made a huge contribution to conveying punk’s revolutionary message.'Molly Tie, Punktuation!‘A compelling documentation of an important figure in the postwar British counterculture: the stubbornly unpositionable Gee Vaucher. Binns traces the life and work of this uncompromising artist not only in the short high years of Crass and the anarcho-punk movement – dominated by Vaucher’s aesthetic – but also the decades before and after when she defined, refined and extended her powerful practice. Read this book for a brilliant and engaged creative life.’George McKay, Professor in Media Studies, University of East Anglia‘This is a long overdue contribution to an important history. Binns shines new light on Gee Vaucher's significance, showing how her method of photorealism-presented-as-montage can help us make sense of the “skewed reality” around us.’Lucy Robinson, Professor in Collaborative History, University of Sussex‘Gee Vaucher’s artwork was crucial to Crass: thought-provoking and confrontational always.’Adrian Sherwood, music producer'Gee’s indescribable artwork has been an inspiration for multiple generations of artists and art appreciators. Gee is proof that Art changes people's lives — and for the better!'Winston Smith, artist and illustrator (www.winstonsmith.com)‘Binns’s book is an expert feminist reading of the life and work of political graphic artist Gee Vaucher that adeptly writes this unsung heroine into a history of punk design. A must-read for these fractured times.’Teal Triggs, Professor of Graphic Design, Royal College of Art'An essential book, giving due attention to one of the most influential artists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Gee Vaucher's artwork has been much copied but never bettered. Her influence is here captured expertly by Rebecca Binns's well-researched critical analysis.'Matt Worley, Professor of Modern History, University of Reading‘Finally! What those in the know have been waiting for: a comprehensive, revealing and long overdue analysis of the creative importance of Gee Vaucher. Set against the backdrop of recent socio-economic, political and cultural events, via (but not limited to) punk, this book confirms Vaucher as the trailblazing innovator that she is, and charts her artistic influence to-date. Rebecca Binns thoughtfully surveys over fifty years of Vaucher’s collage, photo-montage, painting, drawing, sculpture, film and installation, rightfully positioning her as a key player within art history, while refusing to restrict this uncategorisable artist to any particular movement. If you are familiar with Vaucher’s work, you have been vindicated. And if you are not, prepare to be amazed.’Marie-France Kittler, co-curator Gee Vaucher: Introspective (Firstsite, 2016) -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction1 The changing face of British arts, politics and culture during Vaucher’s art school years2 Radical art collectives and the free festivals movement 3 New York, political photomontage and the underground press 4 Towards the definition of a punk aesthetic 5 Crass art and the birth of anarcho-punk 6 Post-punk, hardcore, and the dissolution of the dream 7 Post Crass introspection: postmodernism and the anti-rationalist avant-garde 8 Beyond the art world: political agitation and public intervention in the new millennium Index
£19.00
Michael O'Mara Books Ltd The Impressionists
Book SynopsisRecreate some of the most famous masterpieces from the Impressionist movement in this colourful and challenging book.Have fun recognizing the works hidden in these mystery colouring pages as, using pencils, felt-tip pens or pastels, you add the colour shown and begin to reveal the masterpiece beneath. And if you need a helping hand, all of the complete paintings are included in the back!Allow yourself to become completely absorbed in the famous artworks as you carefully fill in each page and watch as the painting slowly reveals itself. Take time to rediscover your own creativity - all in the footsteps of these masters of the Impressionist movement.
£9.49
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic
Book Synopsis
£45.00
Smith Street Books Vincent van Gogh
Book SynopsisExplore the works of one of the greatest artists of all time.Vincent Van Gogh: 50 Masterpieces Explored is a stunning collection of 50 cards featuring some of the most iconic paintings of this legendary artist.Each card explores a different masterpiece in intricate detail, offering a deep dive into Van Gogh’s creative process, artistic technique, and personal life.From the vibrant swirls of Starry Night to the delicate blooms of Almond Blossom, these cards offer a unique perspective on the life and work of one of the greatest artists of all time.Whether you’re an art lover, a Van Gogh aficionado, or simply looking for a beautiful and informative deck of cards, Vincent Van Gogh: 50 Masterpieces Explored is sure to captivate and inspire.
£16.31
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Hidden Patrons
Book SynopsisAn enduring myth of Georgian architecture is that it was purely the pursuit of male architects and their wealthy male patrons. History states that it was men who owned grand estates and houses, who commissioned famous architects, and who embarked upon elaborate architectural schemes. Hidden Patrons dismantles this myth - revealing instead that women were at the heart of the architectural patronage of the day, exerting far more influence and agency than has previously been recognised. Architectural drawing and design, discourse, and patronage were interests shared by many women in the eighteenth century. Far from being the preserve of elite men, architecture was a passion shared by both sexes, intellectually and practically, as long as they possessed sufficient wealth and autonomy.In an accessible, readable account, Hidden Patrons uncovers the role of women as important patrons and designers of architecture and interiors in eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland. ExplorinTrade ReviewThis excellent book … is a rich and meticulous study on why and how British elite women of the later-Stuart and Georgian eras engaged in architecture-related schemes … A joy to read, as well as an education. -- Jacqueline Riding * Country Life *A sumptuous visual feast combined with deep archival research. With authority and flair, Amy Boyington shows that women have been hiding in plain sight all along in the story of how glamorous Georgian architecture got made. * Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, and author of Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman and Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court *A must read for anyone interested in women’s place in the past. * Janina Ramirez , University of Oxford, and author of Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It *Hidden Patrons is a complete revelation . . . a scholarly, yet engagingly-written study which celebrates the considerable contribution of aristocratic women to the architecture of country houses, villas, town houses and garden buildings in the eighteenth century. Everyone with an interest in Georgian architectures and interiors should read this book. * Jeremy Musson, University of Cambridge, and author of English Country House Interiors *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note on Text List of Abbreviations Introduction 1.The Country House 2.The Town House 3.The Villa 4.The Wider Estate, Garden Design & Ornamental Buildings Conclusions Bibliography Index
£18.99
Abrams Elysium
Book SynopsisElysium: A Visual History of Angelology is a gloriously illustrated overview of angels across art, religion, and literature from scholar Ed Simon, writer for The Millions. Ineffable, invisible, inscrutable—angels are enduring creatures across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and human experiences of the divine as mediated by spiritual emissaries are an aspect of almost every religious tradition. In popular culture, angels are often reduced to the most gauzy, sentimental, and saccharine of images: fat babies with wings and guardians with robes, halos, and harps. By contrast, in scripture whenever one of the heavenly choirs appears before a prophet or patriarch, they first declare, “Fear not!” for terror would be the most appropriate initial reaction to these otherworldly beings. Angels are often not what we’d expect, but it’s precisely in that transcendent encounter that something of the strangeness of existence can be conv
£28.00
Duke University Press Beyond the Sovereign Self
Book SynopsisIn Beyond the Sovereign Self Grant H. Kester continues the critique of aesthetic autonomy begun in The Sovereign Self, showing how socially engaged art provides an alternative aesthetic with greater possibilities for critical practice. Instead of grounding art in its distance from the social, Kester shows how socially engaged art, developed in conjunction with forms of social or political resistance, encourages the creative capacity required for collective political transformation. Among others, Kester analyzes the work of conceptual artist Adrian Piper, experimental practices associated with the escrache tradition in Argentina, and indigenous Canadian artists such as Nadia Myre and Michèle Taïna Audette, showing how socially engaged art catalyzes forms of resistance that operate beyond the institutional art world. From the Americas and Europe to Iran and South Africa, Kester presents a historical genealogy of recent engaged art practices rooted in a deep histTrade Review“In a superlative demonstration of a hypothesis in action, Grant H. Kester’s definitive study Beyond the Sovereign Self effectively melts down, then reimagines our stagnated concepts of aesthetic autonomy and avant-gardism in a dauntless bid to retheorize the increasingly entangled, if not indistinguishable, realms of twenty-first-century social activism and art.” -- Gregory Sholette, author of * The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art *“With characteristic thoroughness, Grant H. Kester articulates the radical potential in challenging the cherished notion of art’s autonomy. Centering dialogic and activist art practices, he insightfully argues that the social labor of cultural resistance necessarily operates in generative forms of collectivity and dissensus.” -- Jennifer A. González, coeditor of * Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 I. Within and Beyond the Canon 1. The Incommensurablity of Socially Engaged Art 33 2. Escrache and Autonomy 54 II. From Object to Event 3. Dematerialization and Aesthetics in Real Time 85 4. The Aesthetic of Answerability 105 III. A Dialogical Aesthetic 5. Social Labor and Communicative Action 137 6. Our Pernicious Temporality 171 7. Being Human as Praxis 202 Conclusion. Beyond the White Wall 229 Notes 235 Works Cited 255 Index 271
£19.79
Insight Editions House of the Dragon: Targaryen Fire & Blood
Book Synopsis
£21.12
Editions Norma Art Déco & Egyptomanie
Book SynopsisPublished on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the 200th anniversary of the deciphering of the Rosetta stone, this book responds to the ever-growing enthusiasm and curiosity for Egyptomania. This concept refers to a collective imagination which was nurtured throughout the 19th and 20th centuries by archaeological digs and exploratory trips. These key discoveries were crucial for creation and particularly for the Art Deco artists who found their inspiration in Egyptian lines and patterns. Art Déco & Egyptomanie explores the origins and functioning of this cultural and artistic movement shaped by many fields: architecture, cinema, sculpture, popular art, theatre and fashion. Art Déco & Egyptomanie comes with an explicit and previously unseen iconography. Text in French.
£44.10
Paul Holberton Publishing Ltd Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the
Book SynopsisThis catalogue accompanies an exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts that will shine a spotlight on Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 – 1637/38), an artist who was hugely successful in his lifetime but whose later reputation has been overshadowed by that of his famous father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525 – 1569).Peasants and Proverbs: Pieter Brueghel the Younger as Moralist and Entrepreneur shares recent research into the Barber’s comical yet enigmatic little painting, Two Peasants Binding Firewood, setting out fresh insights and offering a new appreciation of a figure whose prodigious output and business skills firmly established and popularised the distinctive ‘Brueghelian’ look of Netherlandish peasant life.Born in Brussels, Pieter Brueghel the Younger was just five years old when his renowned father died prematurely. Clearly talented, by the time he was around 20 years old, Brueghel the Younger was already registered as a master in Antwerp’s Guild of Saint Luke. Between 1588, the year of his marriage, and 1626, he took on nine apprentices, demonstrating that he had established a successful studio. His workshop produced an abundance of paintings, ranging from exact copies of famous compositions by his father, to pastiches and more inventive compositions that further promoted the distinctive Bruegelian ‘family style’, usually focused on scenes of peasant life. He was, as a consequence, later deemed a second-rate painter, capable of only producing derivative works.This exhibition and book highlight how a more sophisticated understanding is now emerging of a creative and capable artist, and a savvy entrepreneur, who exploited favourable market conditions from his base in cosmopolitan Antwerp. From this deeper understanding of his practice, his favoured subjects and the market for them, we gain a more profound and compelling insight into the society in which he operated and its preoccupations and passions.A dozen other versions of Two Peasants Binding Firewood exist and, by examining some of them alongside the Barber painting, and using the insights gleaned from recent conservation work and technical analysis, the exhibition and book will explore how Brueghel the Younger operated his studio to produce and reproduce paintings, and the extent to which the entire enterprise was motivated by trends in the contemporary art market.
£16.62
National Portrait Gallery Publications PreRaphaelite Sisters
Book SynopsisFor far too long the male protagonists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement have dominated accounts of this revolution in British art. This book aims to redress the balance in showing just how engaged and central women were to the endeavour as the subjects of the images themselves, certainly, but also in their production. When the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (the PRB') exhibited their first works in 1849 it heralded a revolution in British art. Styling themselves the Young Painters of England' this group of young men aimed to overturn stale Victorian artistic conventions and challenge the previous generation with their startling colours and compositions. Think of the images created by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others in their circle, however, and it is not men but pale-faced young women with lustrous, tumbling locks that spring to mind, gazing soulfully from the picture frame or in dramatic scenes painted in glowing colours. Who were these women?
£21.21
Abrams Hieronymus Bosch the Other Renaissance
Book Synopsis A marvelous art book that reveals the unknown face of the Renaissance and the craze for monsters Hieronymous Bosch is known throughout the world as a painter of monstrous creatures and fantastic scenes that seem the output of dreamlike visions. His fame did not begin in the Netherlands, where the artist was born, but in 16th-century southern Europe, which was artistically dominated by themes and styles typical of Renaissance classicism, very far from those of the Flemish painter. This book, in addition to presenting Bosch, aims to illustrate the success of his art in the high societies of Italy, Spain, and the Americas in the period between the 16th and early 17th centuries, with particular reference to the collecting trends of the time in these two countries, where the works of Bosch and his followers were in great demand (by the Spanish Habsburgs, the Grimani in Venice, etc.). These works, in turn, inspired a large number of painters, draftsmen, en
£63.00
David Zwirner Hilma af Klint: Tree of Knowledge
Book Synopsis“Revelatory and sublime…Her work remains conceptually open enough for viewers to draw their own conclusions, insert their own meaning and feel transported to other glorious worlds.” —The New York Times One of the most inventive artists of the twentieth century, Hilma af Klint was a pioneer of abstraction. Her first forays into her imaginative non-objective painting long preceded the work of Kandinsky and Mondrian and radically mined the fields of science and religion. Deeply interested in spiritualism and philosophy, af Klint developed an iconography that explores esoteric concepts in metaphysics, as demonstrated in Tree of Knowledge. This rarely seen series of watercolors renders orbital, enigmatic forms, visual allegories of unification and separateness, darkness and light, beginning and end, life and death, and spirit and matter. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Tree of Knowledge at David Zwirner New York in 2021 and David Zwirner London in 2022, this catalogue features a text by the art historian Susan Aberth examining af Klint’s spiritual and anthroposophical influences. With a conversation between the curator Helen Molesworth and the US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo discussing connections between Tree of Knowledge and native theories about plant knowledge, the publication broadens the scope of philosophical interpretations of af Klint's timeless work. Also included is a newly commissioned essay by the celebrated af Klint scholar Julia Voss, a contribution by the artist Suzan Frecon, and a text by art historian Max Rosenberg that further develops the conversation around why af Klint’s work was not recognized in its time.
£36.00
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Shock City: Image and Architecture in Industrial
Book SynopsisA bold reassessment of the major architectural monuments and urban forms of the world’s first industrial city: Manchester From the mid-eighteenth century to the nineteen-twenties, from the birth of the Industrial Revolution to the height of Manchester’s global significance and the beginning of its decline, Shock City challenges the idea that Paris was the "capital of the nineteenth century." Mark Crinson reorients this issue around the development of industrial production, particularly cotton and its manufacture by means of steam power, offering a fascinating and accessibly written account of how new relations in the industrial economy were manifested through the spaces and representations of the first industrial city. Focusing on Manchester’s mills and warehouses, its main trading institution (the Royal Exchange), its magnificent Gothic Revival Town Hall, and its late Gothic Revival Rylands Library, this book explores these iconic buildings alongside paintings, prints, maps, and photographs of the city throughout the period. Crinson interweaves analysis of buildings and images, urban spaces and new institutions, technology and industrial pollution to show how these were all the products of Manchester’s newly emergent industrial middle classes, who remade the city in their image. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
£33.25
