History of art Books

Book SynopsisA long overdue volume which re-establishesVivian Browne as an important and dynamic American artist with an expressivehand and expansive world view

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Book Synopsis120 vivid exquisite corpse drawings made by the outrageous artist, performer, and designer Leigh Bowery with friends and collaborators during the 1980s and 1990s.In the wild years of the 1980s and early 1990s, when central London was a clubbers? paradise, a circle of young, queer friends, including the celebrated Australian designer, performer, musician, and provocateur Leigh Bowery and his Minty bandmates would get together at Richard Torry''s Soho flat before hitting the town.To pass the time, the troupe would sometimes make ?exquisite corpses,? employing a technique popular with the Surrealists to create collaboratively-drawn compound images of often outrageous characters.The 120 images collected here, assembled from the Richard Torry archive, showcase the acerbic wit, lysergic absurdity, and sometimes cruel gaze of the young friends, while presenting an exaggerated snapshot of the era?s styles, fashions, and obsessions.

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Book SynopsisFrom Renoir to Monet to Gauguin – French Impressionism was not only appreciated by Western collectors at the beginning of the 20th century – it also found an early following in Japan. In 2022, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the Museum Folkwang will show its outstanding post-impressionist collection founded by Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874–1921). The museum collection will be supplemented by Impressionist highlights from the Kojiro Matsukata Collection (1865–1950), which laid the foundation for the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. This is the first time this collection will be presented comprehensively outside Japan since the 1950s. The catalog features a unique compilation of about 120 works and introduces two important collectors. Transnational collection history is combined with modern masterpieces. Featuring paintings, drawings and sculptures by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin, among others, as well as a new installation by Tabaimo and Chiharu Shiota and a selection of East Asian works from the former holdings of Matsukata and Osthaus. Accompanied by a short story by Japanese bestselling author Sayaka Murata.

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Book Synopsisdocumenta fifteen is no ordinary art exhibition. Envisioned under the guiding concept of lumbung, the Indonesian collective ruangrupa is less concerned with individual works than with models of collaborative practice. The Handbook offers insights and orientation to the processes that evolved in the creation of the exhibition. A comprehensive resource both for visitors of documenta in Kassel as well as people interested in collective practices, this Handbook presents all documenta fifteen collectives and artists through profiles by international authors familiar with their different artistic practices and cultural contexts. Using the pivotal question of “what is lumbung?” as a vantage point, the book is an introduction to the mindset and cultural background of documenta fifteen, featuring numerous documents and photographs that trace the collectives’ working process. A chapter gathering all of the show’s locations and venues in Kassel as well as a large fold-out city map and an introduction to the exhibition’s “Public Program” will prove to be especially useful for all visitors.

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Book SynopsisThe Kisokaidō route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country’s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous passage between Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Inns, shops, and restaurants were established to provide sustenance and lodging to weary travelers. In 1835, renowned woodblock print artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works to chart the Kisokaidō journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838. Both Eisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. In The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, we find the artists’ distinct styles as much as their shared expertise. From the busy starting post of Nihonbashi to the castle town of Iwamurata, Eisen opts for a more muted palette but excels in figuration, particularly of glamorous women, and relishes snapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape with grandiose and evocative scenes, whether it’s the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki. Taken as a whole, The Sixty-Nine Stations collection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, including bold compositions and an experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN XXL edition revives the series with due scale and splendor. Sourced from the only-known set of a near-complete run of the first edition of the series, this legendary publication is reproduced in the finest quality, bound in the Japanese tradition and with uncut paper. A perfect companion piece to TASCHEN’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, it is at once a visual delight and a major artifact from the bygone era of Imperial Japan.Trade Review“A masterpiece of Japanese woodblock prints, an exquisitely designed illustrated book.” * Kulturzeit *“An incredible ticket to travel.” * L’Express *“Spectacular views, local delicacies, hot spring baths, and other more carnal pursuits.” * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisMount Fuji has long been a centerpiece of Japanese cultural imagination, and nothing captures this with more virtuosity than the landmark woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The renowned printmaker documents 19th-century Japan with exceptional artistry and adoration, celebrating its countryside, cities, people, and serene natural beauty. Produced at the peak of Hokusai’s artistic ambition, the series is a quintessential work of ukiyo-e that earned the artist world-wide recognition as a leading master of his craft. The prints illustrate Hokusai’s own obsession with Mount Fuji as well as the flourishing domestic tourism of the late Edo period. Just as the mountain was a cherished view for travelers heading to the capital Edo (now Tokyo) along the Tōkaidō road, Mount Fuji is the infallible backdrop to each of the series’ unique scenes. Hokusai captures the distinctive landscape and provincial charm of each setting with a vivid palette and exquisite detail. Including the iconic Under the Great Wave off Kanagawa (also The Great Wave), this widely celebrated series is a treasure of international art history. Among only a few complete reprints of the series, this XXL edition pays homage to Hokusai’s striking colors and compositions with unprecedented care and magnitude. Bound in the Japanese tradition with uncut paper, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji presents the original 36 plates plus the additional 10 later added by the artist. The perfect companion piece to TASCHEN’s One Hundred Views of Edo and The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, this publication paints an enchanting picture of pre-industrial Japan and is itself a stunning monument to the art of woodblock printing.Trade Review“Shares the late great’s fascination with the dormant volcano through his original series of 36 prints.” * mymodernmet.com *“A visually stunning reproduction of the great Japanese printmaker’s most famous series.” * The Times *“The year’s most beautiful art volume celebrates Hokusai’s big wave, snow-capped peak, tourists on the bridge, not just as beloved images but for the exquisite craft of woodblock printing. An object of luxurious, tactile delight — Japanese traditional binding, uncut paper, silken box with wooden closures — enhanced by insightful commentary.” * The Financial Times *“From the age of five, I have had a mania for sketching the form of things.” * Hokusai *“ [Thirty-Six views of Mount Fuji] will enable you to get closer to Hokusai’s beauty and genius.” * creativeboom.com *

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Book SynopsisWhat can art and artists bring to researching the origins and biographies of objects? How do they shed new light on - or even unsettle - existing approaches to such questions? Proposing the new term - artistic provenance research - the contributors to this innovative book illuminate art's capacity to expand provenance research in critical and provocative ways. Artists, anthropologists and curators offer perspectives on a recent artwork that implicates human remains, potential histories and the politics of visibility. Through theorizing historical and contemporary examples, contributors explore knowledge-imagination dynamics, and the transformative potentials of artistic provenance research.

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Book SynopsisThe name Johann Joachim Kaendler (17061775) is closely entwined in the 18th century with the golden age of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. His exceptional artistic talent, coupled with craftsmanship, enabled him to capture the daily life of the nobility in their palaces and residences in numerous figures and groups. In doing so, he did not limit himself to official events but reflected tastes and aspirations as well as current trends. In the publication Magnificence of Rococo impressive porcelain figurines from top-class European private collections are brought together for the first time: on over 300 pages, these magnificent, often unique objects provide insights into courtly life of the Baroque and Rococo periods.

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Book SynopsisEmbark on an artistic journey spanning centuries. Each piece of this puzzle is a work of art in itself, depicting iconic moments and legendary artists that have shaped the course of art history. From early cave paintings and ancient Egyptian art, through the Renaissance, Realism and Impressionism, to the Modern era of Expressionism, Cubism and Pop Art, witness the evolution of creativity unfold piece by piece. Piece together some of history''s most iconic pieces of art, including Da Vinci''s Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch''s The Scream, Johannes Vermeer''s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Hokusai''s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Challenge your mind: This 1000-piece puzzle is a brain-teasing adventure that will test your attention to detail, and puzzlesolving skills. The Pieces of Art puzzle is a perfect gift: It''s not just a puzzle; it''s a captivating art history lesson waiting to be assembled. Share the joy of discovery with friends and family, young and old. The puzzle image in Pieces of Art

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Book SynopsisWith French as its working language, Cobra was pretty much the last truly European movement within Modernism. The group’s anarchic story is not just an important strand in art history — it remains as lively as ever and has inspired all sorts of artists who were never directly involved with Cobra. The work bequeathed to us by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Constant, Corneille and other kindred spirits is as fascinating as ever, both raw and confronting, poetic and moving. It is with the same spirit of artistic joyfulness and freedom that this book showcases the masterpieces of Cobra art belonging to The Phoebus Foundation. With text contributions by Paul Huvenne, Johan Pas, Hilde de Bruijn, Laura Stamps, Piet Thomas, Piet Boyens and Naomi Meulemans. The preface was written by Karine Huts-Van den Heuvel.Table of Contents1/ PREFACE:THE ART OFINTUITION_KARINE HUTS-VAN DEN HEUVEL11 2/ COBRA: INVITATION TO A DÉGUSTATION 3/ COBRA: NEVERWENT AWAY 4/ Cobra THE NAME 5/ THE COBRA’S FANGS:THE COBRA NETWORK IN PRINT, 1945–55 6/ COBRA: A HOSPITABLE NETWORK 7/ RESTLESS MATTER 8/ COBRA: THE BIRD MOTIF 9/ GOOD MORNING COCK 10/ THE AESTHETICS OF COBRA AND THE POETICS OF THE VIJFTIGERS 11/ THE ATELIERS DU MARAIS AN ARTISTIC HOTSPOT 12/ COBRA’S LEGACY 13/ A STRANGE BUSINESS… 14 / THE PLEASURE OF BEING HUMAN 15/ A NEW UNITY 16/ COBRA: BIOGRAPHIES 17/ COBRA: THE MILESTONES

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Book SynopsisAs one of Gotham City's most notorious criminal masterminds and Batman's archenemy, the Joker has shared lots of cracks and quips throughout his comic history. Now fans can enjoy his twisted wisdom in this collectible tiny book and pin set. NOVELTY TINY BOOK: Completely legible, printed in full color, and encased in a slipcase with a ribbon marker, the novelty tiny book compiles all of the Joker's cleverest quotes and wittiest banter along with classic artwork in an appealing mini package. COORDINATING PIN: The set includes a colorful, coordinating enamel pin of Gotham City's Clown Prince of Crime that can be worn or added to a tote bag or lanyard! ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION: Add more fun tiny book and pin sets from Insight Editions to your collection with Harry Potter: Dark Arts Tiny Book and Pin Set, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tiny Book and Pin Set, and DC Comics: Harley Quinn Tiny Book and Pin Set.

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Book SynopsisExamines the Hudson River School artists' practice of creating thematically related pairs and series of paintings. This volume reveals the subtleties of the works and discusses their shared iconography, the ways in which artists responded to one another's paintings, and how the paintings reflected 19th-century American cultural and social milieus.Trade ReviewAn expansive and beautifully presented anthology of the art and the artists who pioneered the first native style of American landscape painting...A perfect edition to personal, academic, and community library Art History collections, Different Views in Hudson River School Painting is very highly recommended and informative reading. -- Michael J. Carson The Midwest Book ReviewTable of ContentsPreface Introduction American Scenery Different Views I. Introductory Pair: Cole and Church II. Times of Day III. Weather Conditions, Atmosphere, and Mood IV. Seasons V.Nature without Man VI. Man's Activities in Nature: Pleasure VII. Man's Impact on Nature: The Machine in the Garden VIII. Interpretations of the Same Scene by Different Artists IX. Samplers Endnotes Selected Bibliography List of Paintings Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Grosz argues that art—especially architecture, music, and painting—is born from the disruptive forces of sexual selection. She approaches art as a form of erotic expression connecting sensory richness with primal desire, and finds that the meaning of art comes from the intensities and sensations it inspires.Trade ReviewThis wonderful and short book... continues her recent quest of recasting Darwinian biology within a Deleuzean and Nietzschean understanding of sexual difference. -- Arun Saldanha * Environment and Planning *Beautifully written. The sentences unfold and caress you like a plume of exhaled smoke, giving the book’s emphasis on sexual attraction and the eroticism of sensation a physical force. * Comparative Literature Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. Chaos. Cosmos, Territory, Architecture2. Vibration. Animal, Sex, Music3. Sensation. The Earth, a People, ArtBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThrough her wonder and her doubt Kristeva sets forth a compelling account of the sacred and of the intimate visionary capacity of the human soul. -- Joshua Paetkau The Ecclesial University Blog The Severed Head is a reminder that art can be the best teacher, particularly when the topic is an uncomfortable one. -- Patricia Contino New Pages.com This beautifully written and richly layered meditation on mortality and representation will undoubtedly appeal to those readers interested in semiotic and psychoanalytically informed readings of art. -- Jonathan Patkowski Library Journal XPress Reviews The Severed Head considers a remarkable a remarkable range of representations of the severed head in art historical, religious and mythological contexts. TLS

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Book SynopsisExamines a series of powerful artifacts traditionally associated with King Solomon, largely via extra-canonical textual sources--Solomon’s ring, bottles to contain evil forces, the so-called Solomon’s knot, a shamir, and a flying carpet--and traces their varying cultural resonances.Trade Review“Whether or not King Solomon was a real historical figure, he has left an imprint on the collective imagination of Jews, Christians, and Muslims—a physical imprint in the form of special rings, bottles, carpets, and other objects thought to manifest the king’s legendary magical powers. Iafrate’s study illumines the ancient and medieval history of these various magical objects, but more than that, it is a model of how to combine historical inquiry into the Bible's reception with sophisticated study of material religion. This book has much to teach those with an interest in the religious origins of magical symbols, but it is also a marvelously innovative study of the history of biblical interpretation that shows what we can learn by thinking of the Bible three-dimensionally.”—Steven Weitzman,author of Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom“Iafrate nimbly maneuvers among the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim literatures on Solomon as well as between the canonical and non-canonical texts of these three religions. She also expressly and sensitively considers the materiality of the objects taken from Solomon’s ‘cabinet,’ carefully tracing their literary emergence and transformations, allowing literary imaginations to develop material features, real in a quite different way. Through case studies in the polysemic appreciation of cultural objects, this work becomes a guidebook on how historical cultural objects sustain multiple meanings across time and cultures.”—David J. Collins, S.J.,editor of The Sacred and the Sinister: Studies in Medieval Religion and Magic“A pioneering attempt to write a material history of magical objects. Training her sights on a well-curated collection of items associated with the magical powers of King Solomon, Iafrate traces with exquisite care the ‘biographies’ of these devices as they move through time and between cultures. Beyond documenting the many symbolic and material permutations of these Solomonic objects across Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, she also demonstrates how integral—even essential—their material, morphological, and aesthetic properties are to their ritual efficacy.”—Ra‘anan Boustan,author of From Martyr to Mystic: Rabbinic Martyrology and the Making of Merkavah Mysticism“After her Wandering Throne of Solomon, Allegra Iafrate continues her exciting investigations by studying five ‘Solomonic magical objects’: the ring used to control demons; the bottles in which he was said to constrain them; the so-called Solomon’s knot; the shamir, a mythical object, known for its ability to cut through stone; and the flying carpet. This breathtaking study confirms the talent of one of the brightest historians of medieval art of her generation.”—Jean-Patrice Boudet,Université d'OrléansTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments Solomon’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Objects from an Uncanonical Collection1. Magical Objects and Where to Find Them2. The Signet Ring3. Bottles for the Demons4. Much Ado About Knotting5. The Metamorphic Shamir 6. Carpets and Other Flying DevicesConclusion: “Of the Cosmopolitan Destiny of Magical Objects”NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisExamines sixty-eight women artists in early modern Bologna, revealing how they obtained public commissions and expanded beyond the portrait subjects to which women were traditionally confined. Uses new methodological models for considering gender and art in early modern Italy.Trade Review“This book is a monumental contribution to a rapidly growing body of studies on pioneering women artists. It will galvanize this field with fresh topics of discussion and a rich harvest of new archival findings.”—Sheila Barker,Founding Director, Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists“This important study by Babette Bohn, a seasoned art historian and expert on early modern Bologna, presents a comprehensive, in-depth picture of ‘the Bolognese phenomenon,’ i.e., the unusual surge of successful women artists in that Renaissance city. Bohn’s book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of art history and gender studies, and it is likely to become a methodological model for the study of women artists in other Renaissance cities.”—Mary Garrard,author of Brunelleschi’s Egg: Nature, Art, and Gender in Renaissance Italy“There is no doubt that Babette Bohn’s much-anticipated book analyzing the place of creative women in early modern Bologna will change the way we understand and teach early modern art. Building on several decades of scholarship on Bolognese women artists, and women artists more broadly, as well as her own earlier publications on this and related topics, Bohn assembles the strongest evidence to date explaining why the city of Bologna was such a centre for these women.”—Jaqueline Marie Musacchio Renaissance and Reformation“Based on many years of archival research, Bohn’s book summarizes and completes her previous studies on the subject, while also providing new information and fresh interpretations.”—Patrizia Cavazzini Burlington Magazine“By not limiting herself to the famous and successful in making her basic census . . . and including many names to which no works are yet attached, [Bohn] aligns her approach with significant recent developments in the broader social history of Seicento Italian art. Effecting a quiet revolution, these approaches were unfamiliar even to feminist scholars searching for unknown women artists fifty years ago.”—Elizabeth Cropper Oxford Art Journal

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Book SynopsisExplores the history and meanings of ilanot, diagrammatic representations of the Divine as a Porphyrian tree in Jewish mysticism and kabbalistic manuscripts.Trade Review“A monumental achievement that will be valuable to scholars and general readers interested in Judaism, religion, and art history.”—starred review Library Journal“A superb accomplishment.”—Richard Smoley Quest“The Kabbalistic Tree is a carefully curated and richly interpreted visual resource.”—Avinoam J. Stillman Jewish Review of Books“A feast for the eyes and for the mind, The Kabbalistic Tree should be essential reading for all of us eager to imagine a Judaism for the future.”—Micha Odenheimer Haaretz“This beautifully produced work provides an unprecedented study of the pictorial representations of the ten sefirot, divine emanations, as imagined by the Kabbalists over the centuries. . . . This is a thoughtful, learned, and wise study.”—S. T. Katz Choice“The outcome of a decennial work by Yossi Chajes and his collaborators, this volume indeed constitutes the first collection and systematic study of a forgotten genre – the ilanot, or kabbalistic “trees” – and can therefore legitimately aspire to become a milestone of research in Jewish studies.”—Maurizio Mottolese Jewish Matter“Chajes’s book is bound to become a classic, not just because it is the first and most comprehensive survey of the history and development of kabbalistic trees but also because its attention to detail, both graphic and written, makes it an invaluable tool for further research and discoveries in this often neglected area of Jewish thought.”—Mordechai Beck The Christian Century“Chajes has made these trees of ink on parchment and paper sing out loud and clear, redeeming them from obscurity and thus simultaneously enriching the fields of the history of visual aesthetics and the history of Jewish culture.”—Marc Michael Epstein,author of Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts“J. H. Chajes’s spectacular book offers a comprehensive and fascinating study of the diagrammatic visualization of Kabbalistic knowledge. Chajes’s meticulous study of the arboreal Kabbalistic diagrams is an outstanding contribution to the study of Kabbalah, early modern and modern Jewish history, and Jewish visual culture.”—Boaz Huss,author of Mystifying Kabbalah: Academic Scholarship, National Theology, and New Age Spirituality“Until this volume there has been no work that endeavours to provide scholars and laypeople with a broad overall and particular description of the ilanot in all of their varieties, twists, and turns. This enterprise is fascinating and truly illuminating, and no one to this day has touched even a fraction of what the book has to offer.”—Richard I. Cohen,co-author of Samuel Hirszenberg, 1865–1908: A Polish Jewish Artist in Turmoil “A tour de force! A brilliant analysis of an astonishing object. Dense with texts and drawings, these Kabbalistic scrolls finally receive the scholarly attention they so deserve. In his analysis of these cosmological visualizations, Chajes treats image and text as an inseparable totality. The result is a model for the analysis of ‘iconotexts.’ A richly illustrated work of great erudition and intellectual imagination and a fascinating read.”—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews“Late in the Middle Ages—mysteriously, graphically, and in a strikingly abstract, yet concrete fashion—Kabbalistic trees began sprouting from Judaism’s alphabet-saturated ground. J. H. Chajes’s magnificent study takes us for the first time into the history of their emergence and burgeoning, where visual and verbal vectors align, and the ‘double-helix of Kabbalah’ is revealed. This is a path-breaking book, years in the making and thrilling to read.”—Peter Cole,author of The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish TraditionTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsAbbreviations and Notes to the ReaderIntroduction: A First History of a Forgotten Genre1. The Emergence of the Kabbalistic Tree2. Classical Ilanot3. Visualizing Lurianic Kabbalah4. Ilanot 2.0: The Emergence of the Lurianic Ilan5. Luria Compounded6. Ilan Amulets7. The Printed IlanConclusionAppendix: Catalogue of the Gross Family Ilanot CollectionCollector’s Afterword, by William GrossNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA full translation of Camillo Leonardi’s Speculum Lapidum, with an introduction and annotations. Examines the role that medical astrology and astral magic played in the life of an Italian court in the early modern period.

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Book SynopsisA revealing new look at modernist architecture, emphasizing its diversity, complexity, and broad inventivenessTrade Review“Showcases the breadth of architectural modernism while shining the spotlight on some truly exceptional buildings.”—Cajsa Carlson, V&A MagazineChoice Outstanding Academic Title 2022

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Horace Pippin shines in the midst of an overdue racial reckoning in the United States, to which it makes a substantial scholarly contribution.”—Clara Barnhart, caa.reviews“[T]his well-researched study challenges the continued classification of Pippin as a naïve outsider artist [and] expands our understanding of modern art in the United States.”—Rebecca VanDiver, Panorama: Journal of Historians of American Art“To resist a purely biographical reading, Monahan's book replaces historical teleology with a thematic structure arranged in chapters...Nothing is taken for granted, and Pippin cyclically emerges and re-emerges out of a narrative driven by forensic readings of specific works, both iconographically and as visual reference to contemporary lived experience.”—Colin Rhodes, The Burlington Magazine“Not only does Anne Monahan offer insights into the mind and methods of Horace Pippin, but she also gives us a rarely explored, comprehensive view into the inner workings of a burgeoning American art scene, an enterprise which relied upon this self-taught luminary for its own identity and advancement.”—Richard J. Powell, Duke University“Monahan has achieved such an impressive sense of Pippin's internal developments and career-long motifs that she can adeptly shuttle between works, genres, and themes to build complex arguments about the artist’s cumulative impact.”—Jennifer Jane Marshall, University of Minnesota“Monahan challenges the predominant narrative of Pippin’s life and work, convincingly demonstrating the problems of previous scholarship and providing sound evidence for her own.”—John P. Bowles, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Book SynopsisThe story of how plants and flowers have shaped interior design for over 200 yearsTrade Review“Highly accessible and a thoroughly good read”—Katie Dutton, Gardens Illustrated“Sparke is at her best speculating about plants’ associations with femininity and the domestic…Here the author is in her happy place—the gendered domestic interior...It is an area of design history she grabbed early for herself and has never been afraid of defending.”—Jane Audas, World of Interiors“At the heart of this beautifully produced and scholarly book is the exploration of our long, and often complex, relationship with indoor plants, from exotic specimens extravagantly displayed in specially commissioned buildings, to the tasteful touches of greenery adding background texture to domestic decor. I found it completely fascinating.”—Monty Don, author of American Gardens

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking insight into Gustave Courbet and his bold experiments in landscape paintingTrade Review“A brilliant and provocative tour-de-force that places these works on fertile new ground, with important consequences for following generations.”—James H. Rubin, author of Why Monet Matters: Meanings Among the Lily Pads“Highly original, engaging, and eloquent, Courbet’s Landscapes radically recasts our understanding of the painter of Ornans, offering a fresh insight into how one painted in nineteenth-century France.” – Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisBringing to life the world of Spanish royal tailor Mateo Aguado and his colleagues during the reign of Philip IV, and exploring the distinctive look of the court in seventeenth-century MadridTrade Review". . . full of diligent research and discovery, drawing a detailed portrait of a particular historical moment. . . . Velázquez painted the power and the pageantry of the court population. Here is an attempt to recognise 'the hidden hand of the tailor who stayed up all night, making their clothes'."—Shahidha Bari, V&A Magazine

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Book SynopsisA compelling introduction to the life and artistic output of a trailblazing Norwegian painter, printmaker, and horticulturist

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Book SynopsisThe comprehensive study of the Italian Renaissance altarpiece from the 13th to the early 17th centuryTrade Review“Ekserdijan has an impressive encyclopaedic knowledge of the byways of altarpiece development during the period. . . . He writes engagingly and wears his learning lightly, and, with its 250 illustrations, this handsome book is designed in the best Yale tradition.”—Peter Humfrey, Art Newspaper“The first in-depth study of the genre. . . . Mr. Ekserdjian nimbly addresses styles, patrons, artists, and history, as well as the three key categories of the Renaissance altarpiece: icons, narratives and mysteries. And he teaches how to read altarpieces, including their predellas, or related supporting panels. The book is beautifully illustrated with 250 plates; you’ll savor both image and text.”—Lance Esplund, Wall Street Journal (Holiday Gift Book selection)“Ekserdjian brilliantly outlines the broad picture, but the devil is in his details: how variously artists, famous and obscure, enlivened and energised this iconic structure, balancing narrative and invention, clarity and mystery.”—Jackie Wullschläger, Financial Times, “Best Books of 2021: Visual Arts”“David Ekserdjian’s book is a sumptuous and scholarly study of a form he sifts into categories — icons, narratives and mysteries — to reveal its development and subtleties.”—Michael Prodger, Sunday Times, “Books of the Year: Art”“[Ekserdijan] excels at shepherding us through the varieties of altarpiece and the terminology used to describe them . . . Peppered with new and surprising insights, this painstaking study will become an indispensable work.”—James Hall, Times Literary Supplement“The glorious art of the kind that Napoleon would have stolen if he could is on full display in David Ekserdijan’s The Italian Renaissance Altarpiece.”—Michael Glover, The Tablet“One of the most magnificent picture books I have ever handled...As David’s minute scholarship and acute observation draw you in deeper, to places and artists you have never heard of, you gain a fresh and startling sense of the breaktaking abundance of sixteenth-century Italy.”—Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement“Professor Ekserdijan has brought together a career’s worth of knowledge of Italian art to focus on a subject that, while widely commented on, has not received detailed analysis.”—Nicholas Cranfield, Church Times“The very superior product of a lifetime of thinking and writing about the subject...Peppered with new and surprising insights, this meticulous study will become an indispensable work.”—James Hall, Literary Review “Citing a wealth of examples that is unlikely to be surpassed, Ekserdijan’s text is certainly alive to the exceptions that emerge whenever one attempts to apply the rule of thumb...The broad genre of the Renaissance altarpiece is triumphantly reasserted here as an arena for artistic creativity and experimentation.”—Donal Cooper, Apollo Magazine“This beautiful volume's real claim to magisterial status rests on the author's ability to combine formidable erudition with pellucid prose, the elegance with which he organises his almost limitless material, and the originality of the entire enterprise. This book is the crowning achievement of a life's work.”—Daniel Johnson, The Critic“More comprehensive and detailed than any previous work devoted to this subject, David Ekserdjian’s The Italian Renaissance Altarpiece: Between Icon and Narrative both provides an authoritative history of altarpieces in Italy up to c.1600 and addresses fundamental questions about the nature of religious art in this period.”—Nicholas Penny, The Burlington MagazineCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2022

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Book SynopsisA fascinating journey through Western art from the 1910s to the 1960s, charting how artists wrestled with the headlong changes of a turbulent and conflict-ridden worldTrade Review"Brandon Taylor's new survey of Modern Art, packed with information and splendidly illustrated, is essential reading for all art-lovers, highlighting key trends from 1910s to 1960s." — Brian Cooper, Church Times“With admirable clarity and insight, Brandon Taylor takes his readers through the restless, revolutionary impulses of modernist art in all its daring complexity.”—Richard Cork, art historian, critic, curator and broadcaster“Wise, lucid and often revelatory, this is a masterful survey of modern art. It should be essential reading for any student of the subject.”—James Fox, author of The World According to Colour

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive overview of renowned Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work since 2014, inspired by the figure of the angel

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Book SynopsisTraces the history of lace in fashion from its sixteenth-century origins to the present

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