History of art Books

Book Synopsis"My work is largely concerned with relations between seeing and knowing, seeing and saying, seeing and believing."-Jasper Johns, 1965

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Book SynopsisHenri Matisse created an oeuvre that is unparalleled in its brilliance and originality. His colorfully luminescent paintings are a sweeping affirmation of joie - de - vivre, levity and sensitivity. Featuring well - researched texts and numerous illustrations, this volume offers fascinating insights into the life and artistic development of Henri Matisse Henri Matisse, one of the preeminent pioneers of modern art. When people think of Matisse’s art, they tend to remember above all the famous cut - o uts from the last years of his life. He created these at a time when he was already confined to his bed and traded his brush for scissors. In the new volume of the The Great Masters of Art series, Markus Müller knowledgeably and vividly describes how Matis se’s artistic oeuvre developed towards these color - intensive and near - abstract works. An illustrated biography, as well as archive finds the author was able to include thanks to his close connection to the artist’s estate, present Matisse as an artist whos e works are a feast of colors and forms.

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Book SynopsisExplore the nuanced storytelling and inner-workings of the hit first-person shooter Borderlands video game series through a funny, self-reflexive, bold, and inclusive critical lens. The latest in ECW's acclaimed Pop Classics collection.

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Book SynopsisIn a world filled with great museums and great paintings, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the reigning queen. Her portrait rules over a carefully designed salon, one that was made especially for her in a museum that may seem intended for no other purpose than to showcase her virtues. What has made this portrait so renowned, commanding such adoration? And what of other works of art that continue to enthrall spectators: What makes the Great Sphinx so great? Why do iterations of The Scream and American Gothic permeate nearly all aspects of popular culture? Is it because of the mastery of the artists who created them? Or can something else account for their popularity? In Famous Works of Art—And How They Got That Way, John B. Nici looks at twenty well-known paintings, sculptures, and photographs that have left lasting impressions on the general public. As Nici notes, there are many reasons why works of art become famous; few have anything to do with quality. The author explains why the reputations of some creations have grown over the years, some disproportionate to their artistic value. Written in a style that is both entertaining and informative, this book explains how fame is achieved, and ultimately how a work either retains that fame, or passes from the public consciousness. From ancient artifacts to a can of soup, this book raises the question: Did the talent to promote and publicize a work exceed the skills employed to create that object of worship? Or are some masterpieces truly worth the admiration they receive? The creations covered in this book include the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, El Greco’s The Burial of Count Orgaz, Rodin’s The Thinker, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and Picasso’s Guernica. Featuring more than sixty images, including color reproductions, Famous Works of Art—And How They Got That Way will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered if a great painting, sculpture, or photograph, really deserves to be called “great.”Trade ReviewArt historian Nici considers some of the world’s most revered pieces of art and the 'peculiar—and often inexplicable' circumstances that contributed to their current significance. These include the 1922 discovery of the ancient Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamun, which benefited from press coverage stimulating the public’s interest, and the steady rise in prominence of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa over centuries, further enhanced by its 1911 theft. The statue Winged Victory sat in the Louvre 'friendless and unnoticed' before a mere change in location to the grand central staircase made it a visitor favorite. Nici outlines the controversy surrounding Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, criticized by the stodgy French Salon, but lauded by more liberal impressionists. Van Gogh is lionized for his cult of personality and tortured history boldly on display in Starry Night, and Grant Wood’s American Gothic is noted for its 'ambiguity of form and interpretation,' evident in arguments over the artist’s sincerity. Nici also recalls Andy Warhol’s explosion into celebrity via the Campbell’s soup prints and the multiple controversies surrounding the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by 21-year-old Yale undergraduate Maya Lin. Viewing the artistic material through the angle of fame is a unique approach and Nici provides ample and accessible theory, interpretation, and historical context to make this an interesting and educational read. * Publishers Weekly *'Why do certain works of art sustain or lose their fame?' asks Nici (professor of art history at Queens College, in Flushing, New York) in the introduction to his study of 20 iconic photographs, paintings, and sculptures. The answer makes for a fascinating look at the content and context of such works as the Great Sphinx, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup, and the rest. For each work examined, there is a detailed description and a thorough accounting of its contemporary reception and subsequent reputation. Among the more than 60 images included are a number of color reproductions. Over and over, we read that the reputation of a particular 'masterpiece' often has less to do with its artistic quality and more to do with the success of its publicity and promotion. Any one of these 20 chapters would make a lively and engaging lecture in art history; all of them should be required reading for anyone who has ever visited an art museum. * Booklist *True adventures in art history—who knew that wanton destruction, theft, forgery and the contempt of critics were prime ingredients for making works of art famous? John Nici’s book is a terrific read, entertaining and erudite. -- Michael Findlay, author of The Value of ArtThis is not just another art history book! Well-researched and accessible to a broad readership, Famous Works of Art—And How They Got That Way examines 4500 years of fine art, sculpture and photography. Far from a dry read, Nici’s twenty case studies vividly capture the post-creation life of each object by exploring the triangulation among the works, their meanings, and their cultural reception. The text further problematizes the notion of the masterpiece amid genius, fame, reputation, and value. After reading it, you may (even) think again before taking a selfie in front of a masterpiece and posting it to social media! -- Juilee Decker, Associate Professor, Museum Studies, Rochester Institute of TechnologyWell crafted and highly readable. John Nici gives an insightful overview of many factors impacting the fame of works of art throughout the ages. The “masterpieces” range from a long span of history and reflect changing attitudes over the broad spectrum of time. Famous Works of Art will cause you to think deeply about the many paths to fame. This book provides an intriguing exploration of the fickle nature of perseverance vs. obscurity wrought by the passage of time and taste. -- Dr. Carey Rote, Professor of Art History, Texas A & M University-Corpus ChristiJohn Nici’s fun and fascinating text delves into the heart of how and why certain objects, often ones that were criticized in their own eras, become celebrated. Ultimately, Nici explores the nature of and causes for the popular renown of painting, sculpture, and photography. Nici’s delectable prose will be enjoyed by the specialist, the amateur, those who are new to art history, and anyone who has ever asked themselves or their professor, "Why is that famous?" -- Caterina Y. Pierre, Professor of Art History, City University of New York at KingsboroughTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword by Dennis Geronimus Introduction Chapter 1 The Great Sphinx: Beyond Human Understanding Chapter 2 Tomb of Tutankhamen: Politics, Ethnic Pride, Hornets, a Dead Canary, and a Curse Chapter 3 The Parthenon Sculptures: Lord Elgin and How Greece Lost Its Marbles Chapter 4 The Apollo Belvedere: The Rise and Fall of The Apollo Belvedere Chapter 5 Nike of Samothrace: The Victory of the Staircase Chapter 6 Birth of Venus by Botticelli: Nothing Is Forever, Not Even Neglect Chapter 7 Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci: You Never Know What a Smile Can Do Chapter 8 Sistine Madonna by Raphael: The Most Perfect Picture in the World Chapter 9 The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco: A Touch of Madness Goes a Long Way Chapter 10 Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt: Fame Available for a Price Chapter 11 Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze: Or Perhaps, Washington Crossing the Rhine Chapter 12 Luncheon on the Grass by Edouard Manet: Success through Scandal Chapter 13 The Thinker by Auguste Rodin: Fame Has Its Consequences Chapter 14 Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh: Lost in a Starry Night Chapter 15 The Scream by Edvard Munch: Scream, Indeed Chapter 16 American Gothic by Grant Wood: All-American Gothic Chapter 17 Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange: The Power of the Press Chapter 18 Guernica by Pablo Picasso: Travels with Guernica Chapter 19 Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup: Mmm Mmm Good Chapter 20 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin: The Triumph of Abstraction Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisExplores how the distinctive formal and material qualities of a range of Romanesque sculpture types stimulated multisensory religious experiences. Emphasizes the power of these sculptures to “come alive” in ritual and produce emotional responses for Christians of the time. Trade Review“Dale describes a historical sea change in European Christianity at the end of the first millennium, evident in the formation of Romanesque sculpture, which he masterfully explores. Pygmalion’s Power shows how the religious sense of embodiment condensed physically and metaphysically in this period and enabled a conception of vision whose materiality laid the groundwork for everything that followed in religious imagery and art. Dale’s book makes a welcome contribution to the history of images, deftly bringing art, theology, devotional practice, and visual experience together in an account that deepens our understanding of Romanesque sculpture and its implications for the history of art and religion thereafter.”—David Morgan,author of Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment“The eleventh and twelfth centuries in Western Europe witnessed a level of sculptural production unequaled since antiquity. Thomas Dale offers a fresh and compelling account of this phenomenon, focusing on how the very materiality of Romanesque sculpture helped patrons and audiences make sense of their world. This book will be of wide interest to historians of medieval art, as well as to anyone interested in the problem of the senses.”—Kirk T. Ambrose,author of The Marvellous and the Monstrous in the Sculpture of Twelfth-Century Europe“In Pygmalion’s Power, Thomas Dale replaces the outdated master narrative of Romanesque sculpture with a brilliant new history of materials, meanings, and functions. Considering both the normative—portraiture and the ideal nude—and the ‘disruptive other’ of the monstrous and the lustful, he delves into issues of the body as model, as admonition, and even as musical instrument to be played rightly. Finally, characterizing the church itself as body, he demonstrates how sculpture could activate the senses and allow perception of the divine.”—Cynthia Hahn,author of Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries, 400–circa 1204“The reasons for sculpture’s ‘revival’ and its vital eventual role in the visual culture of the Middle Ages have long dogged the narrative of medieval art. Dale offers an original and thought-provoking rewriting of the problem by exploring sculpture’s new spiritual embodiment, decisively showing how viewers’ psychological investment in sculptural objects—stone sculpture in a cloister, reliquaries in crypts, carved wooden Crucifixions—animated the works and gave them meaning. Pygmalion’s Power represents a significant reorientation for medieval sculpture studies and offers a welcome challenge to older orthodoxies.”—Robert A. Maxwell,author of The Art of Medieval Urbanism: Parthenay in Romanesque Aquitaine“This is a major contribution to understanding Romanesque art. The so-called Pygmalion effect should be presented in every course on Romanesque art.”—D. K. Haworth Choice

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Illustrates a vibrant and fascinating history of the appropriation of paper in medieval and early modern visual arts with unique examples and a clear understanding on how the technology of paper changed artistic practices across the continents.”—Orietta Da Rold, The Library“Beautifully argued and illustrated, wide-ranging, and fast-paced, this engaging book prompts us to reconsider paper as a valuable, surprisingly eloquent commodity.”—Eileen Reeves, Princeton University“This book is highly original, and Fowler’s scholarship is exemplary. It orients the study of Renaissance drawings and artistic practice in a new direction, away from concerns of connoisseurship and authenticity to broader cultural issues.”—Jean Cadogan, Trinity College

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Book SynopsisThe Renaissance was probably the most influential and fertile period of European cultural history. We are all familiar with the giants of High Renaissance art – Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael – but how much do you really know about how it all started and why it was so revolutionary? This easily accessible, fresh and beautiful introduction to this wonderful world takes you from the stirrings of a revival in classical learning and humanist thought in late medieval Italy through the application of technical developments in painting and scientific knowledge, to the blossoming of astounding artworks that we all know and love, reaching its peak in the sixteenth century. A digestible introduction to the background and history of the Renaissance is followed by a gallery of treasured works focusing on the most popular Italian art, from Giotto's frescoes and Fra Angelico’s delightful Annunciation, to Botticelli’s willowy Venuses, that ceiling of Michelangelo’s and the master of Venetian painting, Titian.

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Book SynopsisAn enlightening and overdue re-evaluation of the masterwork of a complex and under-appreciated artistTrade Review"newly available postscript material […] reveals the paintings to contain their own murder mystery" — Lauren Elkin, RA magazine"a dazzling aggregation of ideas and approaches" — Jeremy Harding, London Review of BooksPollock [. . .] provides a book that not only contributes to scholarship on it but also makes a highly significant contribution to the discipline of art history.”—Debora Schultz, Kunst Chronik

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Finalist for the Marfield Prize (The National Award for Arts Writing), Arts Club of Washington""[An] immaculately researched book. . . . A riveting experience for lovers of any art form. . . . [Wallace] reveals here his masterly skills as a biographer."---Peter Marks, Washington Post"To this aged Michelangelo, with his frailties, his frustrations, and his insoluble contradictions, William Wallace has devoted the latest and most poignant of his books on the artist. . . . When Michelangelo turned seventy, as he does at the beginning of Michelangelo, God’s Architect, he had nineteen more years to live, every one of them spent at work. As dear friends died and his body weakened, he took on a remarkable series of huge, daunting projects, fully aware, as Wallace emphasizes, that he would never live to see them completed. In his deeply spiritual vision of the world, his own limits hardly mattered; God had called him, and he had answered. . . . Wallace, in turn, relies on his own experience to take bold risks as a writer, pushing the haphazard evidence that survives from sixteenth-century Rome to bring the city and its people to life."---Ingrid D. Rowland, New York Review of Books"Wallace brilliantly evokes the day-to-day life of the project as Michelangelo struggled to resolve its many difficulties, which included dealing with the mechanics of the building operation, the calculations of the amount of travertine required, the quarrymen at Tivoli and the practicalities of transport."---Catherine Fletcher, Literary Review"In Michelangelo, God’s Architect Wallace presents the artist’s last two decades as the creative climax of a long career whose earlier phases Wallace has explored in previous books. . . . Wallace demonstrates in sympathetic, intimate detail what being an old, famous, phenomenally active artist entailed on a day-to-day basis in Renaissance Rome. . . . Wallace’s Michelangelo is marvellously human. In some ways he remains the same artist I learned about at school. . . . But there’s a more restless, modern consciousness breaking through – like an unfinished figure from the marble – in the way Wallace shows him confronting the fact that even the longest life is too short for completing all that you want to get done."---Michael Bird, The Telegraph"The strength of Wallace’s work has been to place Michelangelo firmly within his milieu, not as some isolated genius living alone in squalor, but as a human being with strong feelings about friendships and family. . . . He brings the man alive."---James Stevens Curl, Times Higher Education"[Michelangelo, God’s Architect] offers a rich, lively, fascinating, biographical examination of the last two decades of Michelangelo’s life. A period when he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other buildings even as he continued to sculpt and draw . . . [A] superb book!"---Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes"Including ample illustrations of Michelangelo’s many works of art, this book reveals the active and inimitably creative life of the artist during his final years." * Choice *"In this well-written, informative book, William Wallace casts light on this often-overlooked period of Michelangelo’s life, revealing his mindset as a man and an artist."---Adriano Marinazzo, Architectural Histories

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Book SynopsisIn the 1990s, Shirin Neshat’s startling black-and-white videos of Iranian women won enormous praise for their poetic reflections on post-revolutionary life in her native country. Writing in the New Yorker, Peter Schjeldahl called her multi-screen video meditations on the culture of the chador in Islamic Iran “the first undoubtable masterpieces of video installation.” Over the next twenty-five years Neshat’s work has continued its passionate engagement with ancient and recent Iranian history, extending its reach to the universal experience of living in exile and the human impact of political revolution. This book connects Neshat’s early video and photographic works—including haunting films such as Rapture, 1999 and Tooba, 2002—to her current projects which focus on the relation of home to exile and dreams such as The Home of My Eyes, 2015, and a new, never-before-seen project, Land of Dreams, 2019. It includes numerous stills from her series, Dreamers, in which she documents the lives of outsiders and exiles in the United States. This volume also includes essays by prominent Iranian cultural figures as well as an interview with the artist. Neshat has always been a voice for those whose individual freedoms are under attack. With this monograph, her audience will gain a deeper understanding of Neshat’s own emotional, psychological, and political identities, and how they have helped her create compassionate portraits of the fraught and delicate spaces between attachment and alienation.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The richly illustrated catalog is handsome and instructive."---Karen Wilkin, Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisStaking out new territory in the history of art, this book presents a compelling argument for a lost link between the panel-painting tradition of Greek antiquity and Christian paintings of Byzantium and the Renaissance. While art historians place the origin of icons in the seventh century, Thomas F. Mathews finds strong evidence as early as the second century in the texts of Irenaeus and the Acts of John that describe private Christian worship. In closely studying an obscure set of sixty neglected panel paintings from Egypt in Roman times, the author explains how these paintings of the Egyptian gods offer the missing link in the long history of religious painting. Christian panel paintings and icons are for the first time placed in a continuum with the pagan paintings that preceded them, sharing elements of iconography, technology, and religious usages as votive offerings.Exciting discoveries punctuate the narrative: the technology of the triptych, enormously popular in Europe, traced by the authors to the construction of Egyptian portable shrines, such as the Isis and Serapis of the J. Paul Getty Museum; the discovery that the egg tempera painting medium, usually credited to Renaissance artistCimabue, has been identified in Egyptian panels a millennium earlier; and the reconstruction of a ring of icons on the chancel of Saint Sophia in Istanbul.This book will be a vital addition to the fields ofEgyptian, Greco-Roman, and late antique art history and, more generally, to the history of painting.Trade Review"Essential."--Apollo "Thomas Mathews and Norman Muller offer a radical alternative picture, based on years of research."--Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisRecalled as the lover and patron of Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Wagstaff here takes centre stage as a leading American intellectual and cultural visionary. Philip Gefter traces Wagstaff’s evolution from society "bachelor" of the 1940s to his emergence as rebellious curator. In 1972, his meeting with twenty-five-year-old Mapplethorpe, would lead to his legacy as world-class photography collector and cultural arbiter. Positioning Wagstaff’s personal life against the rise of photography as a major art form and the simultaneous formation of the gay rights movement, Gefter’s absorbing biography provides a searing portrait of New York just before and during the age of AIDS. The result is a definitive and memorable portrait of a man and an era.Trade Review"...striking, sexy biography of a charismatic man in the best and worst of times." -- The Times"...this excellent and overdue biography…" -- The Telegraph"Gefter is very good on New York's gay milieu and his book is full of racy details." -- The Independent"...Philip Gefter tells the fascinating story of art curator and collector Sam Wagstaff, who helped create a market boom when he turned his eye to photography in the 1970s." -- Popular Photography"His [Wagstaff's] role in establishing photography as a major art form is given its due here." -- Apollo Magazine

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Roland H. Bainton Book Prize for Art and Music History, Sixteenth Century Society and Conference""[Bass’] study beds the manuscripts in early-modern empiricism, and beautifully complements the plates—a jewel box of exquisitely rendered sunfish, chameleons, bees, an Indian elephant and more."---Barb Kiser, Nature"****" * De Volkskrant *"[Insect Artifice] brilliantly brings [the] various facets of the depiction of insects together, in a study of the polymath and artist Joris Hoefnagel."---Kathryn Murphy, Apollo"Bass brings vast learning, remarkable facility with classical texts and meticulous first-hand analysis of the volumes in Washington to bear on her interpretation of Hoefnagel’s artifice. . . . This is a nuanced study, hovering between critical biography and wider intellectual and artistic history, of an easily overlooked sixteenth-century master. Bass has eloquently channelled Hoefnagel’s message – relevant to our own time – that small things do matter."---Albert Godycki, Burlington Magazine"This beautifully illustrated and exquisitely printed book offers a poetic reading of the Four Elements manuscripts."---Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen, Nuncius"Bass provides an ideal, humanist reading of Hoefnagel’s oeuvre, positing the painter in opposition to the world of sixteenth-century court culture. . . . Insect Artifice is a magnificently illustrated, erudite, and profoundly insightful book. It offers an original and provocative interpretation of how Hoefnagel relied on art to remedy the wounds that the Dutch Revolt had inflicted upon him."---Dániel Margócsy, CAA Reviews

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Book SynopsisA timely and definitive exploration of the art and culture of the ancient civilizations situated between Rome and the Middle East that presents a new way of understanding the region’s influential heritage This publication examines the art and architecture of regions that served as major trade routes between the Roman and Parthian Empires from 100 B.C. to A.D. 250. The book examines the cultural histories of cities including Petra, Baalbek, Palmyra, Dura-Europos, and Hatra together for the first time, capturing the intricate web of influence that emerged in the Ancient Middle East through the exchange of goods and ideas across the region. Works illustrated and discussed include statues, coins, reliefs, architectural elements and friezes, painted tiles and wall fragments, jewelry, textiles, and more. The World Between Empires is the definitive book on this subject, contextualizing the significance of these works on a local and global scale, including a thoughtful discussion of recent cultural heritage destruction and preservation efforts in the region, particularly in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and the role of museums.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (03/11/19–06/23/19)

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Book SynopsisThe Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, the model for the Getty Villa in Malibu, is one of the world's earliest systematically investigated archaeological sites. Buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, the Villa dei Papiri was discovered in 1750 and excavated under the auspices of the Neapolitan court. Never fully unearthed, the site yielded spectacular coloured marble floors and mosaics, frescoed walls, the largest known ancient collection of bronze and marble statuary, intricately carved ivories and antiquity's only surviving library, with over a thousand charred papyrus scrolls. For more than two and a half centuries, the Villa dei Papiri and its contents have served as a wellspring of knowledge for archaeological science, art history, classics, papyrology and philosophy. 'After Vesuvius: Treasures from the Villa dei Papiri' offers a sweeping yet in-depth view of all aspects of the site. Presenting the latest research, the essays in this authoritative and richly illustrated volume reveal the story of the Villa de Papiri's ancient inhabitants and modern explorers, providing readers with a multidimensional understanding of this fascinating site.

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Book SynopsisA fresh look at a pivotal nineteenth-century painter

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Book SynopsisThe earliest phase of Thai history is an exciting but little understood period that bridged the gap between protohistory and the fully developed historical period. Ten international scholars examine the inception of the Dvāravatī period in the fifth century with a focus on archaeology and consider the art and architecture of the sixth to tenth centuries. Defining Dvāravatī provides an overview of the art historical characteristics of Dvāravatī style; collates the epigraphic evidence, including previously unpublished texts; considers the importance of trade and religion in cementing relationships between early Southeast Asian societies and as paramount incentives for its expansion and development; and discusses the end of the period.

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Book Synopsis María Izquierdo (1902–1955) and Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) were the first two Mexican women artists to achieve international recognition. During the height of the Mexican muralist movement, they established successful careers as easel painters and created work that has become an integral part of Mexican modernism. Although the iconic Kahlo is now more famous, the two artists had comparable reputations during their lives. Both were regularly included in major exhibitions of Mexican art, and they were invariably the only women chosen for the most important professional activities and honors. In a deeply informed study that prioritizes critical analysis over biographical interpretation, Nancy Deffebach places Kahlo’s and Izquierdo’s oeuvres in their cultural context, examining the ways in which the artists participated in the national and artistic discourses of postrevolutionary Mexico. Through iconographic analysis of paintings and themes within each arTrade ReviewDeffebach's feminist critique of the Mexican avant-garde and her discussion of women's rights are valuable. * Latin American Research Review *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: The Problem of the Hero 1. Women on the Wire: Izquierdo's Images of Female Circus Performers 2. Saints and Goddesses: Kahlo's Appropriations of Religious Iconography in Her Self-portraits Part Two: Legitimating Traditions 3. Revitalizing the Past: Precolumbian Figures from West Mexico in Kahlo’s Paintings 4. Kahlo's The Girl, the Moon and the Sun, 1942 5. Mother of the Maize: Izquierdo’s Images of Rural Gardens with Granaries Part Three: The Wall of Resistance6. What Sex Is the City? Izquierdo's Aborted Mural Project Part Four: Still-Life Paintings 7. Picantes pero sabrosas: Kahlo’s Still-Life Paintings and Related Images 8. Grain of Memory: Izquierdo's Paintings of Altars to the Virgin of Sorrows Part Five: Women's Rights in Modern Mexico9. Beyond the Canvas: Izquierdo, Kahlo, and Women’s Rights Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisQuentin Tarantino is one of the leading filmmakers of the 90s, known for his unique scenes, exquisite soundtracks, violence and coarse language. Tarantino pays tributes in each of his films and creates unique situations in which the grotesque becomes amusing. This book is a tribute to Quentin Tarantino and the whole universe he has created. Here, you will see different fan art works by 31 international artists, authentic masterpieces, accompanied by phrases and anecdotes from the world of this fantastic filmmaker.

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Book SynopsisThis is without question the best book ever written on O’Keeffe' New Yorker Born on a wheat farm in Wisconsin in 1887, the second of seven children, Georgia O’Keeffe had her eyes wide open to the beauty of nature from the very beginning, and by her twenties had become a formidable artist, and a strikingly original and spirited young woman. Moving first to Chicago and then to New York to pursue her studies, her consciousness was enlarged by her discovery of the modernist movement, and by the work both produced and shown by the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz. Making her way in the world – first as a commercial artist and then as an art teacher – O’Keeffe developed her own original style. When Alfred Stieglitz discovered her work he was the first to exhibit it. Twenty-three years her senior, Stieglitz later fell in love with the artist as well as the work. O’Keeffe moved to New York in 1918 and married Stieglitz in 1924. She found herself a muse as well as an artist, and entered a circle of America’s most vibrant and boundary-pushing artists – and became herself one of the most important and successful of them all. But O’Keeffe fell in love again – this time with the bewitching landscapes of New Mexico,. She began spending half of each year there, and when Stieglitz died in 1949 she moved there for good, and lived there for the rest of her life, taking pleasure in the otherworldly beauty of the Ghost Ranch, north of Abiquiú. Following O’Keeffe’s early bud and sensational bloom, her loves, losses, agonies and ecstasies, and her painting against the dying of the light, Roxana Robinson’s spellbinding and definitive biography has now been updated for the twenty-first century with a new foreword and access to never-before-seen letters. Written with the cooperation of the O’Keeffe family, and with access to sources closed to biographers during O’Keeffe’s lifetime, It remains an unparalleled portrait of one of the most important female artists of all time.Trade ReviewThis is without question the best book ever written on O’Keeffe and an invaluable reattribution not only for scholars but for the general public. It is accurate, insightful, and beautifully written * New Yorker *This book radiates a subtle understanding of complex human relations and pulsates with a quiet dramatic power * Independent *An ideal reader might start it without preconceptions about American painting generally, or O’Keeffe in particular. By the final page he should be hooked on both * Daily Telegraph *Illuminating and fair-minded guide to the American art scene in the early and mid-twentieth century … Above all, Robinson makes one aware of the amount of hard work, self-sacrifice and singleminded determination which went into O’Keeffe’s long career * Financial Times *Never have the controversial events and minutiae of O’Keeffe’s life been presented so completely and even-handedly as in Roxana Robinson’s Georgia O’Keeffe * Los Angeles Times *Chockablock with intriguing detail, some apt insight, and best of all, O'Keeffe's own voice - in her letters and in the words of her family and friends who wouldn't talk to anyone before the artist's death at the age of 98 in 1986. It gives us the first sensible discussion of how photography influenced O'Keeffe's painting -her closeups, wide angles, cropping, distortion of scale, and zooms * Ms Magazine *The most comprehensive O'Keeffe biography to date, this essentially feminist reading convincingly builds its case from a wealth of sources (some unavailable before her death) to explain less the woman-behind-the-myth than how and why the woman herself became myth-maker * Kirkus *

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Book Synopsis'Fine Lines: American Drawings' from the Brooklyn Museum is the first survey of the Brooklyn Museum's world-class collection of drawings. It highlights more than 100 masterworks in graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, crayon, and pastel, by some of the most important names in American art from the last three centuries; among the more than 70 artists included are John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, Edward Hopper, Georgia O Keeffe, and Marsden Hartley. Author Karen A. Sherry begins by putting the collection in context within the broader history of the graphic arts in America. A brief historical overview opens each of the following six thematic sections, with an interpretive entry and colour plate for each drawing. A further essay, by Caitlin Jenkins, focuses on how conservation enhances our understanding of works on paper, with the addition of a glossary of terms defining drawing materials and techniques.Table of ContentsContents: Foreword; Preface and Acknowledgements; Catalogue - Introductions and entries by Karen A. Sherry, with contributions by Caroline Gillaspie; Recording Anatomy; Fashioning Character Portraying Personalities; Telling Tales; Exploring Nature; Observing the Built Environment; The Conservator's Eye: Examining a Collection by Caitlin Jenkins; Glossary of American Drawing Materials and Conservation Techniques by Caitlin Jenkins; Selected Bibliography; Brooklyn Museum Board of Trustees; Index of Catalogue Works.

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Book SynopsisA collection of full-page reproductions of Harry Clarke's Edgar Allan Poe illustrations.

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Book SynopsisDan Klein and Alan J. Poole began collecting in the late 1970s and over the subsequent thirty years assembled on the most comprehensive collections of modern British and Irish glass. The book includes work by over one hundred makers at the very cutting edge of their art. This dazzling collection was gifted to National Museums Scotland in 2009.Trade Review' ... For a student this is essential reading. For a collector it's an invaluable guide and personal primer. For a maker in the UK or Ireland, it's a family album that forms an important part of the collective story of who we are and what we are a part of. It should be on all our bookshelves.' Glass Circle NewsTable of ContentsPreface/Foreword by Alan J. Poole/Introduction by Jennifer Hawkins Opie/the Collection edited by Rose Watban, National Museums of Scotland/Bibliography/Biographical Information/Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisKate Nelson Best is an Associate Lecturer at Southampton Solent University, UK. She has also worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as The Guardian and Tatler.Trade ReviewThis is a thorough and much-needed study of the history of the fashion press from its beginning to the present day, with a focus on France, the UK and North America. Covering the shift from print to digital media, it will be useful to students and scholars alike and adds to the growing literature on this important topic. -- Francesca Granata, Parsons School of Design, The New School, USATaking us on a journey of discovery through the history of fashion journalism from the eighteenth century to the present day, this beautifully illustrated book is an most welcome addition to the subject. -- Sanda Miller, Southampton Solent University, UK.Best brings fashion journalism history to life with concise stories of the trailblazing women who shaped that history, particularly in the twentieth century. * Taylor & Francis Online *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. A Symbiotic Relationship: The Origins of the Modern Fashion Press 3. La Parisienne: Early Fashionable Icons 4. Patriotism and Couture: Fashion Journalism between the World Wars 5. Democratisation: Post-War Segmentation in Fashion Magazines 6. The Golden Age: Fashion Journalism and Haute Couture in the 1950s 7. The Rise of Individualism: The 1960s and 1970s 8. Commercialism versus Creativity: The 1980s and 1990s 9. A Global Discourse: The New Millennium 10. Facing the Future: The Evolving Role of Fashion Journalism Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFocusing on the prolific trade, transport and consumption of Chinese silk and porcelain, and Japanese lacquer abroad between 1500 and 1644, this groundbreaking book will show how the material cultures of late Ming China and Momoyama/Early Edo Japan on one side of the globe, and Western Europe and the New World on the other, became linked for the first time, through an exchange of luxury Asian manufactured goods for currency. It offers new insight into these multi-layered long-distance commercial networks, which resulted in an unprecedented creation of material culture that reflected influences of both East and West. New research reveals evidence of the trade of these three Asian manufactured goods, first by Portugal and Spain, and later by the trading companies formed by the Northern Netherlands/Dutch Republic and England. Important documentary information is brought to light concerning, for example, the use of Chinese porcelain in Western Europe, and the objects made to order in European shapes for the Dutch and English trading companies in Japan and China. The study also sheds light on both the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific commercial trading networks through which these Asian goods circulated, as well as the way in which these goods were acquired, used and appreciated by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English societies in Western Europe and the multi-ethnic societies of the European colonies in the New World and Asia. 400 illustrations of extant examples of Chinese silks and porcelains, along with Japanese lacquers of the period, complement the information gleaned from archival and textual material. In the case of Chinese porcelain, a large number of the examples illustrated are provided by archaeological finds from European shipwrecks, survival campsites, colonial settlements in Asia, the New World and the Caribbean, and their respective mother countries in Western Europe. Breaking new ground in its comparative study of the impact these European trading empires or companies had on the material cultures of China and Japan, this book shows the influence that the European merchants and missionaries exerted on the goods made specifically to order for them in both China and Japan. It also traces the worldwide circulation of these luxury objects, which were intended for secular and religious use in European settlements in Asia, and their respective mother countries in Western Europe and colonies in the New World. More importantly, this book shows that these specific orders led to the creation of a wide variety of hybrid manufactured goods in both China and Japan, which combined elements from very different and distant cultures, reflecting the fascinating and complex East-West cultural exchanges that occurred in the early modern period.Trade ReviewVery comprehensive, extremely detailed and notably well illustrated. It is at once academic and visually enticing, a rare combination in publishing today." * Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society *Meticulously researched ... extensively and intelligently illustrated, and beautifully produced. * Apollo Magazine *A monumental book … exceptionally well-illustrated … attractive to both experts and non-specialists." * Oriental Ceramic Society *Intriguing glimpses of the long European love affair with Far Eastern decorative art appear on every page of this handsome and substantial book … its 479 pages offer a rich synthesis of evidence - visual and archival. * Country Life Magazine *A glorious book … a sheer joy to browse through as well as to read in detail." * Textile Research Centre *

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Book SynopsisExperience the brilliant artist's lifelong obsession with nature and immersion in gardens, a bedrock of her hugely influential work. Yayoi Kusama’s work is the product of an infinite curiosity and obsessive drive to create. Throughout the artist’s long and varied career, there is one persistent yet little-studied through line—her deep engagement with nature. From early sketches depicting flowers at her family’s plant nursery in Japan, to her most recent monumental sculptures of botanical forms poised to take flight, Kusama consistently calls our attention to the patterns, connections, and cycles of living things that are not always visible.KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature is the accompanying catalogue to the first comprehensive exploration of the artist’s enduring fascination with the natural world, exhibited across the 250-acre landscape of The New York Botanical Garden. The exhibition examines her lifelong awareness and att

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe only book available on Scottish painting, this book is now in its third edition with a new introduction and final chapter that brings the book up to date with the latest developments in Scottish painting (Richard Wright's win of the Turner Prize 2009). Illustrated throughout, the work is by acknowledged authority on Scottish painting William Hardie. Scottish society has been reflected through the strong colour and energetic brushwork of its artists. The book traces the beginnings of Scottish painting from the foundation of the Foulis Academy in 1753, with William Dyce and Scott Lauder establishing themselves in the south, followed by W Q Orchardson and John Pettie around 1860. European travel ensured Scottish painters were open to new techniques, and the explosion of the Glasgow Boys and then the Colourists onto the scene meant Scotland was respected for its innovation and imagination. Charles Rennie Mackintosh today is still internationally recognised for his work, and the painting of John Byrne, Curister, and Peter Howson bring the book to the present day.Trade ReviewPress attention for 'Scottish Painting' first edition 'No better introductions to painting by Scottish artists has yet appeared, and this book is strongly recommended not only to those who have already looked into this field but also to those to whom Scottish painting is unknown. The style chosen is modest and scholarly, making no extravagant claims for the artists - It is a pleasure to read work of such quality. ' John Pinkerton, Connoisseur ' - A fund of much-needed and fascinating information - it is in his capacity for exploring the sequence of new dawns that Mr Hardie scores repeatedly - ' Christopher Neve, Country Life ' - A thorough and scholarly study - ' Arts Review And second edition: ' - A literary achievement opening to a larger public the particular richness of the medium in the talented hands of the Scots - The author is one of the few who could have compiled so discerning a history. This illuminating monograph - is the best available in its comprehensive survey of two centuries of Scots painting.' Leisure Painting 'For those interested in acquiring a good foundation on the development of the visual arts in Scotland from the 1830s, you could do no better than read William Hardie's scholarly 'Scottish Painting 1837 to the Present' the book is a delight to read.' The World of Antiques

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Book SynopsisSince its founding in 1947, the legendary Magnum Photos agency has been telling its own story about photographers who were witnesses to history and artists on the hunt for decisive moments. Based on unprecedented archival research, The Decisive Network unravels Magnum's mythologies to offer a new history of what it meant to shoot, edit, and sell news images after World War II. Nadya Bair shows that between the 1940s and 1960s, Magnum expanded the human-interest story to global dimensions while bringing the aesthetic of news pictures into new markets. Working with a vast range of editorial and corporate clients, Magnum made photojournalism integral to postwar visual culture. But its photographers could not have done this alone. By unpacking the collaborative nature of photojournalism, this book shows how picture editors, sales agents, spouses, and publishers helped Magnum photographers succeed in their assignments and achieve fame. Bair concludes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when changing market conditions led Magnum to consolidate its brand. In that moment, Magnum's photojournalists became artists and their assignments oeuvres. Bridging art history, media studies, cultural history, and the history of communication, The Decisive Network transforms our understanding of the photographic profession and the global circulation of images in the predigital world.Trade Review"Ms. Bair’s book excels at revealing Magnum’s secret history as a supplier for companies eager to appropriate Magnum’s empathetic point of view." * Wall Street Journal *"In this impressively researched study of the early decades of Magnum, Nadya Bair uncovers the complex interactions of artistic ambition and business acumen that somehow produced a kind of order out of chaos. . . . An important contribution to the growing reassessment of photographic history. " * Inside Story *"Bair’s independent thinking ​. . . and the innovative premise used to map them is just the kind of thing photo history needs more of.​" * Critical Inquiry *"An archivally rich and methodologically innovative study." * Art Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Photo Agencies and the Magnum Model 2. Human-Interest Stories from the Postwar World 3. Freelancing for Life 4. Traveling for Holiday 5. Shooting for Corporations 6. Magnum Systems, Magnum Mythologies Conclusion: The Magnum Archive Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe English Romantic artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was hailed as the "painter of light" for his brilliantly colored landscapes and seascapes. He drew much influence from the French painter Claude Lorrain (c. 1604/5?–1682), who was a vital force in Turner's artistic practice from his formative years until the end of his working life. So great was Claude's influence that Turner stipulated in his will that his works hang alongside Claude's in the National Gallery, London.This book examines the ways in which Turner consistently strove to confront Claude's achievement and legacy. He had encountered Claude's works in salerooms and in the collections of his aristocratic patrons, and applied what he had learned to the British countryside, producing views of the Thames valley that transform it into an idyllic pastoral scene reminiscent of the Roman Campagna. For the balance of his career, Turner continued to pit himself against Claude, paying homage even as he continually sought to go beyond the accomplishments of his master.Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The National Gallery, London(03/14/12-06/05/12)Trade Review“A remarkable book...”—Souren Melikian, New York Times -- Souren Melikian * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAn award-winning art critic at New York magazine and Vulture offers rules, prompts, tips and insights for emerging artists to use to get through creative blocks, get the most from materials, manage career challenges and find joy in their work. Illustrations.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive exploration, spanning 1,300 years, of the art and culture of the Sahel region of Africa This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the Sahel (“shore” in Arabic), a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre-Islamic period through the 19th century. It features some of the earliest extant art from Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring creativity of the different peoples who lived, traded, and traveled through this crossroads of the world.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 29–May 10, 2020)Trade Review“Take[s] seriously the task of rewriting history [and] rather than focusing on trade itself, centres on the vibrant eponymous region”—Andrew Sears, 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive review of the wide and varied range of window tracery designs that emerged during the medieval period. While the terms used to describe the tracery of medieval church windows are familiar (Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular), there has been no really detailed attempt to examine it as a distinct, stylistic architectural form, agap which this book seeks to address. Based upon a visual catalogue of over 250 images of surviving types and styles from churches throughout England, it traces the progression of ideas and the continuity of motifs and themes intracery patterns from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, showing how different themes emerged within the main architectural styles; it also looks at the distinction between a window's architectural form and its tracery style, and describes the several different tracery techniques. The volume is completed with a detailed glossary. Stephen Hart is a retired architect, and the author of numerous works, including Flint Flushwork.Trade ReviewA comprehensive, sophisticated and long overdue survey of the development of Gothic church window tracery. * CHURCH MONUMENTS *It will be a most useful vade mecum for the enthusiastic church visitor. [...] A comprehensive overview of English parochial tracery design. * ECCLESIOLOGY TODAY *Anyone interested in medieval windows will enjoy the great range of examples put forward and discussed by Hart, whose book is a timely reminder of the ingenuity and creativity of England's medieval masons. * JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION *A perceptive, informative, beautifully written, and well-illustrated study of the topic. * SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS NEWSLETTER *In a methodical, clear and notably well-illustrated fashion (there are good plates of some 300 windows) it traces the evolution of tracery through the Lancet, Geometric, Curvilinear and Perpendicular styles. * BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY *The varieties of such stonework are splendidly analysed and illustrated. -- Christopher Howse * DAILY TELEGRAPH *

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Book SynopsisA beautiful new gift art book all about Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist behind the first truly Expressionist picture The Scream. Absorbed by such motifs as love, life, death and anguish, Munch’s paintings captured the psychological feelings evoked by man. Beginning with a fresh and captivating introduction to Munch’s life and art, the book showcases several of his works in all their glory.

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Book SynopsisArts & Crafts: Masterpieces of Art is a celebration of the design movement that spread rapidly around the world at the end of the nineteenth century. Depicting both well-known and unusual artworks, textile patterns and decorations from this most fascinating of eras, this book provides a wealth of information about the lives and times of the designers, architects and artists who created them, from Voysey and Morris to Lindsay Butterfield.

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