Individual artists, art monographs Books

Book SynopsisIn a long career that spanned the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the Bourbon Restoration, Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) created innovative and daring paintings in the midst of the most turbulent times. Bringing together two dozen of Boilly’s works—the majority of which have never before been published—this handsome volume includes portraiture, scenes of seduction, and groundbreaking representations of raucous Parisian street life. A master technician with acute powers of observation and a wry sense of humor, Boilly invented the term trompe l’oeil and popularized the genre through his stunningly realistic compositions. In this first English-language publication on Boilly in more than 20 years, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper vividly brings the artist and the period he lived in to life, shedding new light on Boilly’s work and expanding our understanding of how art functioned within France’s rapidly changing political environment.Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:National Gallery, London (02/27/19–05/19/19)

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Book SynopsisIn all his films, Peter Greenaway shows obsessive attention to detail, exaggerating the archaic and fabricating his plots out of an artificial realm of caricature and pastiche. This book examines his vision from a number of perspectives and traces a shift of sensibility in his work. A painter by training, Greenaway has made his reputation as a controversial film-maker with a strong visual style. The book focuses on his work as an artist, curator and writer, as well as a film-maker, and is illustrated with stills from his films.Trade ReviewPascoe tirelessly explicates the numerology and mytho-mania that are the film-maker's organising principles Guardian A supremely intelligent, utterly tuned-in, definitive exploration of the ultimate British auteur's back catalogue, helpfully illustrated at every opportunity... illuminating Empire

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Book SynopsisThe stature of the Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp, in the history of art has grown steadily since the 1950s, but he continues to be relatively unknown outside his narrow circle of followers. This book sets out to offer a careful explanation of the oeuvre which has been shrouded in mystery.

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Book SynopsisMarcel Duchamp is one of the most important cultural figures of modern times. Drawing on the artist's correspondence and interviews, this title details Duchamp's life-long belief in chance and coincidence, and how that led him to let his life take its own course, constantly travelling, meeting new people and embracing new experiences.

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Book SynopsisThe art of Samuel Bak depicts a world destroyed and yet provisionally pieced back together. Across nearly seven decades of artistic production Samuel Bak has explored and reworked a set of metaphors, a visual grammar and vocabulary, that ultimately privileges questions. Bak's pictorial readings invite reconsideration of the Post-Reformation privileging of word over image, and of the Post-Enlightenment privileging of reason over experience. Bak preserves memory of the twentieth century ruination of Jewish life and culture by way of an artistic passion and precision that stubbornly announces the creativity of the human spirit.

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Book SynopsisArt & Life: The Story of Samuel Bak traces the development of a child prodigy deeply shaped by the catastrophic events of the Shoah, from his early artistic influences to his years in the Vilna Ghetto and Landsberg DP Camp, his formal training in Israel and Paris, and his fruitful art career in Rome, New York, Switzerland, and Boston. Augmenting the rich existing literature on Bak, Art & Life explores—in thoughtful prose and through reproductions of both iconic and rarely seen work created between 1942 and 2022—how he navigated the prevailing art trends of the mid-twentieth century in search of his own pictorial language. It considers the personal, historical, and artistic currents that led Bak, now aged 90, to create an astonishing body of work that bears witness to cataclysmic events, embodies our common humanity of suffering and hope, and poses questions about the repair of the world.Trade ReviewLike the inexorable visions of Dante and Milton, Samuel Bak’s uncontainable cascades of unparalleled images plumb the deeps of the moral imagination. A deluge of genius, they are more than merely rending; they are silencing. They catch at the throat and strangle, they burn with history’s meaning, they strike hard against metaphysical ease. To gaze at Bak’s art is to learn to see and to feel and to know." - Cynthia Ozick, critic and author of Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays

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Book SynopsisPublished in conjunction with an exhibit at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, "Edvard Munch: Psyche, Symbol and Expression" includes nine essays from scholars representing a variety of disciplines. From themes of love, sexuality, gender and anxiety to comparisons with Ibsen and Kierkegaard, the catalogue explores the meanings of Munch's imagery, his sources in Symbolist art, and his legacy for German Expressionism within the context of his contemporaries' developments in psychology, literature, and philosophy. The volume includes many illustrations from rarely seen private collections and some that have never been exhibited before.

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Book SynopsisAdam Elsheimer is first recorded in 1600 and by 1610 he was dead. But, rather like Giorgione, who had died young in Venice 100 years earlier, Elsheimer was influential on the coming century to a degree out of all proportion to his brief career and small oeuvre. He developed a wonderful mastery of light, a dramatic chiaroscuro that gave new depth to his subject-matter, and a rather less definable poetic feeling that gives a very special savor to all his painting. “What is remarkable about this volume is the number of quality reproductions of the artist's work that can be seen together for the first time. This collection of paintings demonstrates more comprehensively than ever before Elsheimer's extraordinary intuition for light and atmosphere” (Antiques Magazine).

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Book SynopsisPierre-Auguste Renoir's La Loge (The Theater Box), 1874, is one of the masterpieces of impressionism and a major highlight of The Courtauld Gallery's collection. Its depiction of an elegant couple on display in a loge epitomizes the Impressionists' interest in the spectacle of modern life. At the heart of the painting is the complex play of gazes enacted by these two figures. In turning away from the performance, Renoir focused instead upon theater as a social stage where status and relationships were on public display.

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Book SynopsisThis book concentrates on a few crucial years of Caravaggio’s development, in order to cast light on what made the artist such a revolutionary figure. It argues that this revolution was one of technique rather than style, and involved the sophisticated use of a camera obscura and so-called 'burning' or parabolic mirrors, exploiting new advances in glassmaking and optics. Because the results Caravaggio obtained by his new methods were so different he created a sensation, although these innovations were rapidly assimilated and the artistic establishment worked successfully to restore their way of doing things, so that the true novelty of his art in the 1590s has been obscured. Clovis Whitfield uses a lifetime of study of the period to discuss not only Caravaggio's technology but also his patronage and cultural context, the Rome of Clement VIII, concentrating particularly on Caravaggio's homosexual patron Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte and analysing the taste and role of his other early supporters as well. Whitfield's Caravaggio was the son of a bricklayer, untrained in traditional artistic disciplines, who instead took the dramatic step of painting exactly what he saw with his reproductive aids. Galileo’s hypothesis drawn from observation and Caravaggio’s novel description of what he saw were, according to Whitfield, parallel attempts to explain features of the many-layered reality that surrounds us. The book features remarkable new photographs and especially details of Caravaggio's paintings and those of his followers and rivals that will dramatically refresh hackneyed perceptions of this crucial figure and his world. "This revolutionary book will transform studies of the renegade 'people's artist'."Art Quarterly, Spring 2012

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Book SynopsisThis publication is the only available English-language monograph to date on sixteenth-century sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (c. 1455–1528), who earned the nickname 'Antico' with his highly refined reductions of Greco-Roman antiquities. His bronzes – many of which were produced at the brilliant court of Isabella d'Este at Mantua – were remarkable for being meticulously cast and finely cleaned and finished, designed for close appreciation in the privacy of a courtly studio. His black patination and exquisite detailing, such as gilded hair and silver-inlaid eyes, are characteristic. Given Antico's importance for the history of sculpture, this book is a much needed resource in the field, presenting new scientific research and the results of technical studies undertaken at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. A series of essays places Antico's life, work and technique in a contextual framework useful for understanding his body of work. In addition to providing an overview of the artist's career, the catalogue will address key topics from his workmanship and craft to his relationship with the court of Mantua. Eleonora Luciano, associate curator of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, provides a biography of the artist; Claudia Kryza-Gersch, curator of Italian sculpture at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, discusses Antico as a pioneer of Renaissance sculpture; Stephen Campbell, professor and chair of the department of the history of art at John Hopkins University, writes about 'Antico and Humanism at the Court of Mantua'; Davide Gasparotto, curator at the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, considers Antico's portraiture; Denise Allen, curator at the Frick Collection, New York, writes about 'Materials, Workmanship and Meaning' in the artist's work. Two appendices present new scientific work: Dylan Smith and Shelley Sturman, both conservators at the National Gallery of Art, explore the technology of Antico's bronzes, and Richard Stone, conservator emeritus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, examines Antico's patinas. Exhibition held at National Gallery of Art, Washington.

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Book SynopsisSir Peter Lely (1618-1680) was Charles II’s Principal Painter and the outstanding artistic figure of Restoration England. When Lely arrived in England in the early 1640s his ambition was to be a painter of narrative scenes and not to work as a portraitist. However, the ‘subject pictures’ did not find favor with many English patrons and he produced less than thirty. As Lely’s friend Richard Lovelace explained, all they wanted was “their own dull counterfeits” or portraits of their mistresses. Thus, Lely was obliged to turn to portraiture to make a living. Yet, his poetic pictures of figures in idyllic landscapes are among the most beautiful paintings made in 17th-century England and this catalog will be the first in-depth look at this important chapter of this major painter’s career. Lely was born in Westphalia and received his artistic training in Haarlem with Frans Pietersz. De Grebber. He came to England around 1643. Few painters had stayed in London following the move of the Royal Court to Oxford, and Lely was therefore free to establish his reputation in the city. By 1650 he had settled at a house on Covent Garden Plaza (a five-minute walk from Somerset House) where he remained for the rest of his life. His major patrons were the ‘Puritan Earls’, a group of cultivated noblemen including the Duke of Northumberland and the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury, as well as the circle surrounding the Countess of Dysart at Ham House. Lely never met Van Dyck (who had died in London in 1641), but he had the opportunity to study his paintings and those of the great Venetian 16th-century artists Giorgione and Titian in the houses of these wealthy aristocratic patrons. He began to buy these works himself and by the end of his life had amassed one of Europe’s richest collections of 16th- and 17th-century Italian paintings and drawings. It was probably in response to the pictures of Van Dyck and the Venetian Renaissance that he made his most ambitious works, including The Concert (The Courtauld Gallery) and Nymphs by a Fountain (Dulwich Picture Gallery, London). This group of enigmatic paintings are massive in scale and united by strong lighting, idealized landscape settings and a sense of theatricality and sensuality. Unlike many painters, Lely did not rely on classical mythology, but was able to create his own, highly personal dramas. For instance, it is likely that the man playing the viola da gamba in the center of The Concert is the painter himself. The exhibition Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision at The Courtauld Gallery, London, is on view from 11 October 2012 to 13 January 2013.

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Book SynopsisThe Courtauld Gallery holds the most important collection of works in the United Kingdom by the Post-impressionist master Paul Gauguin (1841–1903). Assembled by the pioneering collector Samuel Courtauld (1876–1947), it includes major paintings and works on paper as well as one of the only two marble sculptures ever created by the artist. This special Summer display presents the complete collection together with the loan of two important works by Gauguin formerly in Courtauld's private collection: Martinique Landscape (Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh), and Bathers at Tahiti (The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham). Today, Gauguin is widely celebrated as one of the most important and popular artists of the 19th century. Collecting Gauguin offers an opportunity to consider the contribution of Samuel Courtauld in developing the artist’s reputation in this country. In 1910, the critic Roger Fry organised his ground-breaking exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists, a major step in generating awareness of Gauguin in Britain. Fry included 37 works by Gauguin (more than by any other artist) and also chose a work by him for the poster, a rare surviving copy of which will be included in the display. Inspired by this exhibition, over the following decade the educationalist Michael Sadler (1861–1943) established the first substantial collection of works by Gauguin in this country. A small number of other individuals acquired single paintings, but Courtauld was the only other early collector to assemble a major group of works by Gauguin. Collecting Gauguin is the first of a new series of special Summer displays which will showcase aspects of The Courtauld’s outstanding permanent collection.

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Book SynopsisProlific and successful in his own lifetime, and ""Picture drawer"" to Charles I, Cornelius Johnson (1593–1661) is now the forgotten man of seventeenth-century British art. This is the first book ever to address his life and work.Johnson's surviving works, all portraits, are found in most public collections in Britain and in many private collections seen on the walls of British country houses, in the possession of descendants of the original sitters. Working on every scale from the miniature to the full-length and big group portrait, Johnson faithfully rendered the rich textiles and intricate lace collars worn by his sitters. While always recognisably by him, his works reveal his exceptional flexibility and underline his response to successive influences. When four of Johnson's portraits in the Tate’s collection were recently conserved, the author Karen Hearn commissioned investigations into his working methods and techniques. This previously unpublished material will make a significant contribution to the literature on this little-known artist as well as to the technical literature on 17th-century painting.Johnson's career coincided with one of the most dramatic periods in 17th-century history, and he painted many of the leading figures of the era. In 1632 he was appointed Charles I’s Picture drawer and, as well as portraying the king, he produced exquisite small images of the royal children. In 1643, following the outbreak of Civil War, Johnson emigrated to the northern Netherlands. There he continued to work successfully, in Middelburg, Amsterdam, The Hague and, finally, in Utrecht, where he died a prosperous man.Johnson's portraits are not elaborate Baroque construts on the contrary, they have a delicacy, a dignity and a humanity that speak directly to present-day viewers. Their quality and diversity will be a revelation.

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Book SynopsisThe book is an invitation to get lost within varied landscapes of its pages: middle-of-nowhere Australia, the minds of Susan Sontag and W.G Sebald, and, most prominently, the proverbial forests of all of our childhoods. There are, however, a few thematic paths to trace through these landscapes. Coming-of-age desire, our uneasy sense of self when isolated in nature and female sexuality become the mile-markers. The invitation to get lost is an invitation to come out the other side with the sense that being lost is not necessarily a state to be avoided but one in which we can occasionally luxuriate in.

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Book SynopsisThe Leiden-born artist Jan Steen (1626–1679) is widely admired as one of the most engaging and technically brilliant painters of the Dutch Golden Age. This volume accompanies an exhibition that will be the first in the UK devoted to Steen’s Old Testament subjects. The focal point will be his magnificent Wrath of Ahasuerus (c.1668–69), one of the highlights of the Barber’s collection, which will be joined by a number of other paintings by Steen from private and public collections across the world. Three essays will examine the core themes of the show – the role of Jewish history in Steen’s Old Testament scenes; the infl uence of Dutch theatre on his work; and the critical response to his Old Testament paintings from the 17th century to date. Robert Wenley (Barber Institute of Fine Arts) will look at how the Dutch nation established its identity in part by associating its people with the Biblical Israelites, seeing themselves as persecuted by the Spanish for their faith. He will explore the popularity of the story of Esther and other Old Testament subjects in Dutch culture – in plays as well as paintings – and the possibility of Jewish patrons for Steen’s Old Testament paintings. Nina Cahill (University of Kassel) will put forward new research about how Steen adopted the gestural language of contemporary Dutch theatre, amateur and professional, in order to represent the key fi gures in these scenes and to convey the pivotal dramatic moments. In some instances, Steen may have been quoting from an actual production of a play based on the Biblical story. Rosalie van Gulick (Utrecht University) will consider how Steen’s Old Testament scenes have been received and understood over the years. She will investigate how the apparent farcical character of these scenes has been understood over the centuries and why they have prompted adversely critical responses from some modern art historians.

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Book SynopsisPatron Saints: Collecting Stanley Spencer is a revealing new exhibition at the renowned Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham – Spencer’s spiritual home and major source of inspiration. The exhibition draws together a spectacular collection of loans, including The Centurion’s Servant (Tate); Love on the Moor (Fitzwilliam); John Donne Arriving in Heaven, (Fitzwilliam) and one work not seen in the public domain in over 50 years. The exhibition and catalogue examine the often complex relationships between Spencer and his patrons and what drove them to collect his work. Spencer was a single-minded genius, but the influence of his patrons on his painting is far greater than has hitherto been realised. At the turn of the century, collecting art was no longer the preserve of the aristocracy and the upper classes, but Spencer’s art appealed to a broad spectrum of art lovers, fellow artists, businessmen and politicians. Many of his patrons lived in Cookham, where he lived and found artistic inspiration, and many of his paintings were influenced by his spiritual feelings for that place. His idiosyncratic and deeply personal approach gave him a wide and enduring appeal, and he was patronised by some of the most important cultural figures and taste-makers of that time. Curator Amanda Bradley comments, “Behind Stanley Spencer, one of the greatest Modern British artists, were a group of individuals who enabled his very existence – both artistically and emotionally. They were not wildly rich, but they were powerful, cultivated, intellectual and artistic. Some bought on spec, others were true patrons, giving him the freedom to fulfil his artistic genius. Most fostered long-lived relationships with the artist, influencing his life and work more than has hitherto been realised. These were the patron saints.” Patron Saints: Collecting Stanley Spencer explores the emergence of Spencer as an artistic personality, looking at those who helped him and why he – and his popularity – was a product of the zeitgeist (first half of the twentieth century) characterised by social and economic anxiety.

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Book SynopsisTiepolo in Milan: The Lost Frescoes of Palazzo Archinto brings together preparatory drawings and paintings, as well as documentary photographs, to commemorate an extraordinary fresco cycle by the Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770). Painted for Palazzo Archinto in Milan, the frescoes were destroyed in a bombing during World War II. The catalogue accompanies an exhibition at The Frick Collection. In 1730–31, Tiepolo undertook his first significant project outside the Veneto, frescoes for five ceilings in Palazzo Archinto in Milan. The paintings were commissioned by Count Carlo Archinto (1670–1732), likely in honor of the marriage of his son, Filippo, to Giulia Borromeo. Tiepolo’s mythological and allegorical scenes—Triumph of Arts and Sciences; Apollo and Phaëton; Perseus and Andromeda; Juno, Fortune, and Venus; and Nobility—were painted in some of the largest rooms of the palazzo. Unfortunately, the palazzo was bombed during World War II and its interior completely destroyed. Only a series of black-and-white photographs, taken between 1897 and the late 1930s, preserves the frescoes’ appearance, but a number of preparatory drawings and paintings provide precious information, including three painted sketches (Triumph of Arts and Sciences, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon; Apollo and Phaëton, Los Angeles County Museum; and Perseus and Andromeda, The Frick Collection). Three drawings from the British Museum in London, the Museo Civico in Trieste, and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki are the only related graphic works. These—along with other drawings and prints by Tiepolo and some books— have been reunited for the first time in order to bring to life these extraordinary works of art. On view at The Frick Collection from April 16 to July 14, 2019, the exhibition is curated by Xavier F. Salomon, Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick, with Andrea Tomezzoli, Professor at the University of Padua, and Denis Ton, Curator of the Musei Civici in Belluno. Included in the publication are essays on Tiepolo’s work in Palazzo Archinto (Salomon), on the role of the frescoes in Tiepolo’s career (Tomezzoli), on the intellectual world of the Archinto family (Ton), and on the architectural history of the palace (Kluzer).

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Book SynopsisThe Dresden collection’s singular group of Rembrandt works – about 20 drawings attributed to the master today and the nearly complete oeuvre of etchings– will provide the basis for this remarkable publication. It will have a particular focus on Rembrandt’s narrative compositions, printed self-portraits, studies of his wife Saskia, and will include works from all periods of his oeuvre plus prints and drawings by artists from his workshop and followers. The list of artists who understood Rembrandt as a dynamic authority and source of inspiration is long, reaching from his immediate followers to masters of the 18th century, from Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione to Jonathan Richardson to the kindred spirit Francisco de Goya, into the 20th century and up to the present day. Examples include Edouard Manet, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Lovis Corinth, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, as well as Marlene Dumas and William Kentridge and artists from the GDR such as A.R. Penck. By including works by these artists, the exhibtion and catalogue foreground Rembrandt as one of the most important ‘artists’ artist’ of all time. Select juxtapositions will help the reader better understand the fi reworks of creativity that Rembrandt not only lit in his own time but those he continues to ignite today. Rembrandt remains eternally captivating, not only because of his radical choices and unconventional interpretations of Christian and profane pictorial subjects, but also because of his joy in experimentation, especially in the use of printing and drawing techniques, and his refl ective, humorous intellect, complemented by his sensually direct approach to the world. With a light hand, he broke open the conventions of his era. The pictorial worlds that he created with his free, decisive mark convey his near inexhaustible interest in nature as creation, whether it be the human exterior or interior, and off er a wealth of connecting points and constellations for other artists as well as for the viewer.

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Book SynopsisElijah Pierce (1892–1984) was born the youngest son of a former slave on a Mississippi farm. He began carving at an early age when his father gave him his first pocketknife. Pierce became known for his wood carvings nationally and then internationally for the first time in the 1970s. Accompanying a major exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, this publication seeks to revisit the art of Elijah Pierce and see it in its own right, not simply as ‘naive’. Elijah Pierce made his living as a barber; he was also a qualified preacher. Just as his barber shop was a place for gossip and meeting, so his art reflects his own and his community's concerns, but also universal themes. Through his carvings Pierce told his own life story and chronicled the African-American experience. His subjects ranged from politics to religious stories but he seldom distinguished the race of his figures – he thought of them as everyman. His secular carvings show his love of baseball, boxing, comics and the movies, and also reflect his appreciation for American heroes who fought for justice and liberty. In 1932, Pierce completed ‘the Book of Wood’, which he considered his best work. Originally carved as individual scenes, the completed ‘Book’ tells the story of Jesus carved in bas-relief. He and his wife Cornelia held “sacred art demonstrations” to explain the meaning of the Book of Wood. Pierce’s work was first appreciated in the art world thanks to a fellow sculptor, Boris Gruenwald, who saw the expressive power of his work. As a later critic wrote, “There are 500 woodcarvers working today in the United States who are technically as proficient as Pierce, but none can equal the power of Pierce’s personal vision”. Pierce became known primarily in circles promoting ‘naive’ art, winning first prize at the International Meeting of Naive Art in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, in 1973. The vast majority of his work is now held in Columbus, Ohio, which had become his home town. This book revisits Pierce’s art seeking to see it in its own right, and not simply as ‘naive’. Another critic wrote: “He reduces what he wants to say to the simplest forms and compositions. They are decorative, direct, bold and amusing. He uses glitter and all kinds of devices to make his message clear. It gives his work an immediacy that’s very appealing” – an appeal arising from a sophisticated art with its own particular voice.Trade Review…places his intricate, expressive, highly skilled, painted-wood reliefs and sculptures firmly within the social, cultural and political times in which the artist lived and worked. * Art Quarterly *...a long-lasting historical document in the form of a beautifully designed comprehensive catalog. * Folk Art Messenger 06/05/2021 *

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Book SynopsisKokusai lived in a time of immense social, cultural and artistic change, and his work – and indeed his own person – captures its contradictions. The Edo period was ending, the last breath of feudal Japan, and the Meiji Restoration launched the new nation into a dramatic, Westernized and industrialized modernity. Kokusai was a radical interpreter of this world, holding up a mirror to the rich culture vanishing before his eyes. A modernist who yet stubbornly adhered to ancient, simple values, he carved humble, personal truths into the most intractable of materials while simultaneously enjoying a life of wild excess and lavish beauty. This beautifully illustrated set of three volumes – titled Precursors, Kokusai and Followers – includes catalogue entires for 608 objects as well as a number of sub-entries. Also included are essays on Kokusai’s life, carving techniques, materials and followers — the latter of which demonstrates his extraordinary and lasting influence. Most objects are illustrated at size and are augmented by additional and lavish detail photography. Many of the larger objects, such as staffs and sceptres, are illustrated with luxurious fold-out pages.Trade ReviewThis impressive three volume publication is a celebration of Kokusai … the catalogue is one of the most beautiful I have seen, from the lavish covers to the remarkable photography and high-quality print that covey the details of the works, it is truly a joy. * Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society *

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Book SynopsisThis handsome catalogue is the second of a three-volume set exploring the McCarthy collection, arguably the largest and most important private collection of illuminated cuttings, miniatures, and leaves in the world. Volume I (published 2018) presented Italian and Byzantine entries; Volume III (forthcoming 2020) will be devoted to French entries. The present volume is dedicated to the holdings of single leaves and cuttings from Spanish, English, Flemish and Central European manuscripts from the 12th to late 15th centuries. Richly detailed with plentiful illustrations, it is a notable contribution to medieval scholarship.

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Book SynopsisPublished by Ad Ilissvm in association with the Burlington Magazine.Hugely ambitious, Titian: Sources and Documents includes all known documents about Titian and his work dating from his lifetime, and all known references to him in contemporary publications. The relevant section of each text is transcribed in full, preceded by a short summary in English, with extensive annotation and, where necessary, a commentary. The intention of this incredible work of scholarship is to provide a comprehensive survey of the surviving historical evidence about Titian and his career.Titian was one of the most famous, successful and long-lived of Renaissance painters. Much of his output was for rulers or institutions whose archives have been in large part preserved, and many of his family papers have also survived. In addition, he was mentioned in more than a hundred and sixty different publications in his lifetime. Although hundreds of the documents about him and his work have been published, usually in specialised publications based on material in a single archive, there have only been two attempts to provide an overview of the entire body of documents and early published references to him, the first by Crowe and Cavalcaselle in 1877, the second by Adolfo Venturi in 1928. These publications were necessarily selective and included transcriptions of only a small part of the material which was used.The collection, amounting to over two thousand nine hundred items, includes not only texts specifically about Titian himself, but also those concerning his siblings and children, his principal assistants and the other members of the Vecellio family already active as painters before his death, as well as inscriptions on paintings and prints. In addition to texts dating from Titian's lifetime, the collection includes all biographical material published before 1700 and all other texts that could realistically be thought to reflect first- or second-hand anecdotal information about him. The particular strengths and limitations of the principal early printed sources and the circumstances in which they were produced are discussed in a substantial introduction, which also includes an overview of the main archival collections consulted in the preparation of the book. Most of these are in Italy, but others are in Spain, Austria and Germany. New transcriptions are provided for the great majority of the documents that have previously been published, and many hitherto unknown documents have been included. Consideration is given also to documents now known only via secondary sources, and to fake documents, of which a significant number were produced in the past two centuries.

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Book SynopsisThe story of an innovative designer and farsighted art entrepreneur and the important role he played in the dissemination of 19th-century Aestheticism This book follows the phenomenal rise of Daniel Cottier (1838–1891) from an apprentice coach painter in Glasgow to the founder of Cottier & Co., a fine and decorative arts business with branches in London, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. This gifted designer and brilliant art entrepreneur keenly spotted one of the key aspects of late nineteenth-century bourgeois culture – its focus on family, home and church – and seized the artistic and commercial opportunities of the building and decorating boom that it brought about. Cottier was a proponent of the Aesthetic movement, an international trend in the history of culture, art and design from the mid-1860s to the late 1890s: he understood the era’s desire for beauty and realised the economic possibilities of its commoditisation. Beyond biography, therefore, this book illuminates a significant event of late nineteenth-century cultural history – Aestheticism’s cult of beauty meeting with the bourgeoisie’s financial ability to possess it.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review"This publication is a fascinating, comprehensive and engaging account of Cottier’s life and work. Beautifully illustrated . . . it is a fitting testament to a great design thinker."—Claire Blakey, DAS Newsletter

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Book SynopsisAn in-depth examination of William Blake’s glorious and acclaimed series of twelve monoprints Among William Blake’s (1757–1827) most widely recognized and highly regarded works as an artist are twelve color printed drawings, or monoprints, conceived and executed in 1795. This book investigates these masterworks, explaining Blake’s technique—one he essentially reinvented, unaware of 17th-century precursors—to show that these works were produced as paintings, and played a crucial role in Blake’s development as a painter. Using material and historical analyses, Joseph Viscomi argues that the monoprints were created as autonomous paintings rather than as illustrations for Blake’s books with an intended viewing order. Enlivened with bountiful illustrations, the text approaches the works within the context of their time, not divorced from ideas expressed in Blake’s writings but not illustrative of or determined by those writings.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British ArtTrade Review“This volume is devoted to a set of twelve pictures created in 1795 and unanimously considered Blake’s highest achievement...Relying on material evidence and sensible deduction, Visconti reconstructs the whole chronology of the twelve pictures.”—Laurent Bury, Cercles “The new standard account of how [Blake’s] ‘printed paintings’ were produced and how the works should be interpreted…. The implications of Viscomi’s scholarship will resonate for years to come.”

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Book SynopsisHogarth’s Britons explores how the English painter and graphic satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764) set out to define British nationhood and identity at a time of division at home and conflict abroad. With notions of community cohesion, good citizenship and patriotism, wrapped up in a unifying idea of British national character and spirit in all its variety, and set alongside the ongoing national debate on Britain’s past, present and future within European and World affairs, Hogarth and his art has never been more relevant.In the summer of 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ landed with his supporters, the ‘Jacobites’, in a remote corner of Scotland. This signalled the start of his audacious military campaign, with the backing of Britain’s global adversary France andduring a Europe-wide war, to topple the Hanoverian, Protestant monarch George II and restore the Catholic Stuarts, exiled in France and then Rome since 1688, to the throne. The country descended into turmoil, with regional, local and family loyalty for these rival royal dynasties severely tested, and opposing visions for the new nation of Great Britain – since the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 – laid bare. By early December the prince and his 6,000 troops arrived in Derby, just 120 miles and five days’ march from London. For both sides everything was at stake.From the 1720s, through the crises of the early 1740s, to the civil war called the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion or Rising, Prince Charles’s defeat at Culloden in April 1746 and beyond, Hogarth created some of the most iconic images in British and European art, including Marriage A-La-Mode, O the Roast Beef of Old England (The Gate of Calais) and The March of the Guards to Finchley. Through such vibrant scenes, rich in topical commentary, he conveyed a sense of external threat (real and imagined) from foreign powers and internal political, social and cultural upheaval. At the same time he offered his fellow Britons a confident, reassuring idea of the rights and liberties they enjoyed under King George and his government: a flawed status quo, as Hogarth would readily admit, yet certainly better, he would argue, than the regime that would replace it under the ‘popish’ Stuarts as client monarchs of the self-serving French king, Louis XV.With British society and politics in flux, and the Union between Scotland and England arguably more vulnerable now than at any moment since 1746, the themes explored in Hogarth’s Britons have profound resonance with our own time.Trade ReviewRiding’s catalogue is excellent, a model of how these things should be done. Paul Holberton Publishing is to be congratulated on generating clear reproductions of the many exhibits. * The New Criterion *

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Book SynopsisThis gem of a catalogue accompanies an exhibition at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, on one of the great painters of 17th-century Italy, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591-1666). It brings together for the fi rst time Waddesdon's King David with three paintings of sibyls (female prophets from classical antiquity) on loan from the National Gallery and the Royal Collection. Readers and viewers alike will be immersed in the poetry, colour and majesty of these four works, which were all painted in the year 1651 by the great Italian artist Guercino (The Squinter'). They have never before been seen together. The catalogue will investigate the relationship between David, Jewish patriarch, psalmist and prophet, whom Christians believed prefi gured Christ, and the four turbaned, pagan seers, who supposedly foretold Christ's birth. Guercino's brilliant depiction of fabrics and materials silk, fl esh and ermine, paper, wood and stone evokes ideas about inspiration and contemplation, sight and foresight, poetry and prophecy.

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Book SynopsisThis beautifully and thoroughly illustrated book, which constitutes the first serious investigation of the relationship between Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, will be of considerable interest to both British and American art historians, and appeal to art lovers from both countries. West and Copley have always and properly been viewed as the two pre-eminent eighteenth-century American artists, despite the fact that, at the age of twenty-one, West left his native shores in 1760, never to return. He went on to become immensely successful in England, becoming, among other things, the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Copley spent half his working life also in England. However, before making the move across the Atlantic, he made his mark as an exceptionally talented artist, who, without any real training, painted likenesses of fellow Bostonians, including ones of figures such as John Hancock and Paul Revere, that have become icons of American history. While those portraits remain his most widely admired works, after 1775 and his resettling in England, he started painting distinctly different types of pictures, initially showing modern historical subjects in emulation of the model provided him by West, following, for example, West's celebrated Death of General Wolfe, exhibited in 1771, with his own Death of the Earl of Chatham, begun in 1779. For a brief span of time, the two expatriate Americans had a close working relationship, that we can see substantially reflected in both the formal language and the subject matter of many of their best works, but it eventually and inevitably turned into rivalry. The book begins with a brief prologue discussing the earliest of West's depictions of recent historical events and of subjects set in America, painted prior to Copley's arrival in England. It then follows the year-by-year evolution of Copley's painting from 1775 to his death in 1815, with an underlying focus upon his ongoing give-and-take with West, and it ends with examination of hitherto little-known and unstudied major late paintings, from after 1800, by both artists.

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Book SynopsisThis richly illustrated book presents the life of an artist whose career spans some of the most important developments in the American Clay Movement. With Fire is the story of ceramic artist Richard Hirsch, and an examination of the work for which he is so widely celebrated. This richly illustrated book presents the life of an artist whose career spans some of the most important developments in the American Clay Movement. Hirsch established a connection with the legendary Raku and Ohi families, whose influence created a lasting pedagogical and creative link to the West that continues today. SCOTT MEYER is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. He has authored numerous articles and is the recipient of many awards for creative excellence and teaching. Meyer's work with Richard Hirsch has spanned studio, kiln, writing and instructional workshops.

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Book SynopsisFor three decades the signature “W. C. Hook” has connoted dynamic design, saturated colour, and muscular brushwork. William Cather Hook’s ability to straddle the border between pictorial illustrationsion and pure paint, between traditional yet modern, has won him collectors worldwide. Less well-known about this master of acrylics is the breadth of his subject matter. In this retrospective of paintings dating from the early 1980s to the present Hook guides the reader on a journey that includes the back roads of northern New Mexico, the high country of the colourado Rockies and Sangre de Cristos, California’s Pacific coastline and central valley, the reaches of the Sonoran Desert, and historic vistas in England and Italy. Whether depicting crashing surf, aspen forests, or luminous big skies, Hook’s vision is inviting, vibrant, and infused with radiant light. Also explored is the artist’s biography, from his Kansas roots to his current studios in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Carmel, California.

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Book SynopsisArtist Robert Gratiot refers to his work as ""painterly photo-realism,"" and he readily reveals his complete commitment to this reference by rendering his subjects with photographic accuracy. His mastery of painterly methods and of various drawing techniques highlights his astounding eye-to-hand coordination. Gratiot precisely conveys a particular scene through meticulously produced details, each down to the smallest and expertly handled. But it is more than that-he regards each small section of a painting as an abstraction, and then assembles these tiny abstractions to build the realistic whole. His paintings are obviously the product of the considerable efforts of a very gifted and extremely meticulous painter.""The genuine revelation is how deeply personal and individual these pieces are for Robert Gratiot. This is a surprise, particularly considering the impersonal nature of his subjects. However, each is deeply felt and carries hidden moods and veiled stories, which until he shared them, were known only to Gratiot.""-Michael Paglia

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Book SynopsisThe majesty of Earth's most magnificent features was the domain of Wilson Hurley (1924-2008). In paintings of natural wonders throughout the galaxy, he was committed to expressing his love of the richness of reality. His journey to become a revered twentieth-century American landscapist is brought to life in this intimate biography. Written for appreciators, collectors, and working artists, Hurley's goals and procedures - from thumbnails to plein air field studies and finished studio paintings - are elucidated in depth, including a commission that resulted in five monumental triptychs of our nation's most prized vistas installed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

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Book SynopsisSince his first visit to Taos at age nineteen, Jerry Jordan was "captured" by the land, sky, and Indigenous peoples of Northern New Mexico. "I will never forget the feeling of awe," he says. "I remember taking a deep breath and thinking, How would I paint that?" Six decades later, Jordan remains in awe with each colourful canvas conveying his oneness with the common threads that unite people across time and place. This insider's look at Jordan's career highlights times of agony and defeat, chance encounters, and divine interventions. It's an inspired tale in which Jordan reminds us that we are all "riding on the back of hope, pointing our face toward our dreams . . . and walking our destiny with the God-given talent placed in our DNA."Often compared to art by the fabled Taos Society of Artists, Jordan's paintings are distinguished by loads of paint, vibrant pigments, animated brushwork, pulsing patterns, and titles that speak to the soul.

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Book SynopsisNominated for the 2022 Eisner Award - Best Academic/Scholarly Work The Life and Comics of Howard Cruse tells the remarkable story of how a self-described “preacher’s kid” from Birmingham, Alabama, became the so-called “Godfather of Gay Comics.” This study showcases a remarkable fifty-year career that included working in the 1970s underground comics scene, becoming founding editor of the groundbreaking anthology series Gay Comix, and publishing the graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby, partially based on his own experience of coming of age in the Civil Rights era. Through his exploration of Cruse’s life and work, Andrew J. Kunka also chronicles the dramatic ways that gay culture changed over the course of Cruse’s lifetime, from Cold War-era homophobia to the gay liberation movement to the AIDS crisis to the legalization of gay marriage. Highlighting Cruse’s skills as a trenchant satirist and social commentator, Kunka explores how he cast a queer look at American politics, mainstream comics culture, and the gay community’s own norms. Lavishly illustrated with a broad selection of comics from Cruse’s career, this study serves as a perfect introduction to this pioneering cartoonist, as well as an insightful read for fans who already love how his work sketched a new vision of gay life.Trade ReviewNew Books Network - New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies: An Interview with Andrew J. Kunka: Lavishly illustrated with a broad selection of comics from Cruse’s career, this study serves as a perfect introduction to this pioneering cartoonist, as well as an insightful read for fans who already love how his work sketched a new vision of gay life.— New Books Network - New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies "Kunka balances narrative analysis with comics analysis, pointing out where Cruse uses panel borders unconventionally, or how his work with stippling and cross-hatching was groundbreaking. Kunka's commentary balances Cruse's storytelling with his drawing work, showing how Cruse was the complete package, a true cartoonist. Kunka's work and critical commentary is an essential read for those interested not only in Howard Cruse, but in how his work impacted a generation of artists, especially in how important Cruse was to helping create the genre of queer comics." — International Journal of Comic Art Blog "I’ve been waiting a lifetime for this book! Howard Cruse is one of the most important cartoonists of the 20th century but has never gotten his due because he mostly worked in the LGBTQ comics underground. Andrew Kunka has written a thoughtful, thorough, and celebratory examination of Cruse’s life and remarkable oeuvre. He has paid homage to Howard’s legacy as the Godfather of Queer Comics, who broke up the doors for so many of us queer artists and forever changed the world of comics." — Justin Hall, editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics "Pioneering cartoonist Howard Cruse’s genius and fascinating career is vividly brought to life in Andrew Kunka’s highly readable and thoroughly entertaining biography.”— Denis Kitchen, founder of Kitchen Sink Press "December’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature."— Lambda Literary "This book is a lovingly rendered portrait of Howard Cruse, often called the godfather of queer comics. Andrew J. Kunka showcases the range of Cruse's comics, pairing nuanced analysis of previously overlooked comics with deft contextual details about Cruse's life."— Margaret Galvan, University of Florida Smash Pages QA | Andrew J. Kunka: The professor and author discusses his new book about the life and work of the late cartoonist Howard Cruse— Smash Pages "Kunka produced a much-needed critical biography that makes clear exactly how courageous and ground-breaking Howard Cruse had been, in both his comics and his eloquent, impassioned activism. It is essential reading, connecting the dots of a career arc understood primarily as going from 'Gravy on Gay' to Gay Comix to Stuck Rubber Baby, and detailing Cruse's influence on emerging and future generations of queer cartoonists.”— Karen L. Green, Curator for Comics and Cartoons, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Critical Biography 2 Autobiographical Fiction/Fictional Autobiography “The Basic Overview” “Jerry Mack” “Unfinished Pictures” “The Guide” “I Always Cry at Movies …” “That Night at Stonewall” “Then There Was Claude” 3 Commentary and Satire “Billy Goes Out” “Dirty Old Lovers” “Safe Sex” “Sometimes I Get So Mad. . .” “The Gay in the Street” “My Life as a TV Pundit” “Some Words from the Guys in Charge” “Death” 4 Parodies “The Other Side of the Coin” “The Nightmares of Little L*l*” “Raising Nancies” “Hubert the Humorless Ghost” “Shearwell in ‘The Prodigal Sheep’” Acknowledgements Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisNominated for the 2022 Eisner Award - Best Academic/Scholarly Work The Life and Comics of Howard Cruse tells the remarkable story of how a self-described “preacher’s kid” from Birmingham, Alabama, became the so-called “Godfather of Gay Comics.” This study showcases a remarkable fifty-year career that included working in the 1970s underground comics scene, becoming founding editor of the groundbreaking anthology series Gay Comix, and publishing the graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby, partially based on his own experience of coming of age in the Civil Rights era. Through his exploration of Cruse’s life and work, Andrew J. Kunka also chronicles the dramatic ways that gay culture changed over the course of Cruse’s lifetime, from Cold War-era homophobia to the gay liberation movement to the AIDS crisis to the legalization of gay marriage. Highlighting Cruse’s skills as a trenchant satirist and social commentator, Kunka explores how he cast a queer look at American politics, mainstream comics culture, and the gay community’s own norms. Lavishly illustrated with a broad selection of comics from Cruse’s career, this study serves as a perfect introduction to this pioneering cartoonist, as well as an insightful read for fans who already love how his work sketched a new vision of gay life.Trade ReviewNew Books Network - New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies: An Interview with Andrew J. Kunka: Lavishly illustrated with a broad selection of comics from Cruse’s career, this study serves as a perfect introduction to this pioneering cartoonist, as well as an insightful read for fans who already love how his work sketched a new vision of gay life.— New Books Network - New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies "Kunka balances narrative analysis with comics analysis, pointing out where Cruse uses panel borders unconventionally, or how his work with stippling and cross-hatching was groundbreaking. Kunka's commentary balances Cruse's storytelling with his drawing work, showing how Cruse was the complete package, a true cartoonist. Kunka's work and critical commentary is an essential read for those interested not only in Howard Cruse, but in how his work impacted a generation of artists, especially in how important Cruse was to helping create the genre of queer comics." — International Journal of Comic Art Blog "I’ve been waiting a lifetime for this book! Howard Cruse is one of the most important cartoonists of the 20th century but has never gotten his due because he mostly worked in the LGBTQ comics underground. Andrew Kunka has written a thoughtful, thorough, and celebratory examination of Cruse’s life and remarkable oeuvre. He has paid homage to Howard’s legacy as the Godfather of Queer Comics, who broke up the doors for so many of us queer artists and forever changed the world of comics." — Justin Hall, editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics "Pioneering cartoonist Howard Cruse’s genius and fascinating career is vividly brought to life in Andrew Kunka’s highly readable and thoroughly entertaining biography.”— Denis Kitchen, founder of Kitchen Sink Press "December’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature."— Lambda Literary "This book is a lovingly rendered portrait of Howard Cruse, often called the godfather of queer comics. Andrew J. Kunka showcases the range of Cruse's comics, pairing nuanced analysis of previously overlooked comics with deft contextual details about Cruse's life."— Margaret Galvan, University of Florida Smash Pages QA | Andrew J. Kunka: The professor and author discusses his new book about the life and work of the late cartoonist Howard Cruse— Smash Pages "Kunka produced a much-needed critical biography that makes clear exactly how courageous and ground-breaking Howard Cruse had been, in both his comics and his eloquent, impassioned activism. It is essential reading, connecting the dots of a career arc understood primarily as going from 'Gravy on Gay' to Gay Comix to Stuck Rubber Baby, and detailing Cruse's influence on emerging and future generations of queer cartoonists.”— Karen L. Green, Curator for Comics and Cartoons, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Critical Biography 2 Autobiographical Fiction/Fictional Autobiography “The Basic Overview” “Jerry Mack” “Unfinished Pictures” “The Guide” “I Always Cry at Movies …” “That Night at Stonewall” “Then There Was Claude” 3 Commentary and Satire “Billy Goes Out” “Dirty Old Lovers” “Safe Sex” “Sometimes I Get So Mad. . .” “The Gay in the Street” “My Life as a TV Pundit” “Some Words from the Guys in Charge” “Death” 4 Parodies “The Other Side of the Coin” “The Nightmares of Little L*l*” “Raising Nancies” “Hubert the Humorless Ghost” “Shearwell in ‘The Prodigal Sheep’” Acknowledgements Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisIn Spring 1938, an Indian dancer named Ram Gopal and an American writer-photographer named Carl Van Vechten came together for a photoshoot in New York City. Ram Gopal was a pioneer of classical Indian dance and Van Vechten was reputed as a prominent white patron of the African-American movement called the Harlem Renaissance. Photo-Attractions describes the interpersonal desires and expectations of the two men that took shape when the dancer took pose in exotic costumes in front of Van Vechten’s Leica camera. The spectacular images provide a rare and compelling record of an underrepresented history of transcultural exchanges during the interwar years of early-20th century, made briefly visible through photography. Art historian Ajay Sinha uses these hitherto unpublished photographs and archival research to raise provocative and important questions about photographic technology, colonial histories, race, sexuality and transcultural desires. Challenging the assumption that Gopal was merely objectified by Van Vechten’s Orientalist gaze, he explores the ways in which the Indian dancer co-authored the photos. In Sinha’s reading, Van Vechten’s New York studio becomes a promiscuous contact zone between world cultures, where a “photo-erotic” triangle is formed between the American photographer, Indian dancer, and German camera. A groundbreaking study of global modernity, Photo-Attractions brings scholarship on American photography, literature, race and sexual economies into conversation with work on South Asian visual culture, dance, and gender. In these remarkable historical documents, it locates the pleasure taken in cultural difference that still resonates today.Trade Review"Ajay Sinha has woven a finely detailed tapestry of the social, personal and aesthetic allusions that contribute greatly to understanding and reimagining Ram Gopal's mystique and presence. This is timely, refreshing, colorful and a much needed intervention in our his-and her-stories around dance and the camera." -- Uttara Asha Coorlawala * co-curator of Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance *“Sinha’s is an extremely luminous and well-researched project. It is also a beautifully written, deeply analytical, and entirely accessible book, narrated with verve, and a pleasure to read.” -- Saloni Mathur * author of A Fragile Inheritance: Radical Stakes in Contemporary Indian Art *“This book arises from a thrilling pas de deux between a Modernist American photographer and an Indian classical dancer, in which it’s never entirely clear who is calling the shots. In deciphering the subtle aesthetic, erotic, and intellectual weave of these sessions, Ajay Sinha identifies a third partner in this elaborate dance, namely Van Vechten’s German-made Leica camera. This is an exhilarating book, intellectually compelling and visually mesmerizing. And the photographs are to die for.” -- Christopher Benfey * author of Degas in New Orleans and The Great Wave *“In Sinha’s lucid, incisive analysis, we encounter a world of technological messiness and experimentation, cultural disparities, and new, transitional queer masculinities, all set against the backdrop of the twentieth-century reinvention of Indian dance and the complexities of Euro-American Orientalism. A timely contribution to the fields of both dance studies and visual culture studies." -- Hari Krishnan * Wesleyan University, author of Celluloid Classicism: Early Tamil Cinema and the Making of Modern Bha *“Sinha provides a remarkably rich account that does justice to the contact zone unearthed by his archival discovery. Both vivid and perceptive, Sinha’s prose grips from the start and unfolds three days in the 1930s into a marvellous larger panorama of representational practices, a broader inter-cultural landscape, and the intimacy of personal encounters.” -- Christopher Pinney * Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture, University College London *"Photo-Attractions is the fascinating account, by a masterful storyteller, of a single extended portrait session that took place between Indian classical dancer Ram Gopal and photographer Carl Van Vechten in New York in 1938. Sinha’s cosmopolitan vision, deeply informed by histories of dance, gesture, performance and photography, offers brilliant new perceptions of trans-cultural exchanges of gender, sexuality and desire in the early twentieth century. An illumination." -- Laura Wexler * author of Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U. S. Imperialism *"With extraordinary finesse, Ajay Sinha reconstructs two remarkable artists’ collaborative fantasy-making through a Leica camera, which produced what he calls the 'photo-dance': a voluptuous intermedial object imbued with cross-cultural provocations. As much an astute commentary on Orientalism, postcoloniality, and race as it is an informed critique of the silences of established archival memory, this virtuosic study is a mesmerizing read." -- Rey Chow * Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Duke University *"A trio performs: a beautiful male dancer of Indo-Burmese origins, a cult photographer with a Leica, the metal prosthesis that acquires a life of its own — 'photo-eroticism'. This expansively researched book with a non-linear structure has a discursive flamboyance. A historical moment spins into the contemporary; the language of the writer enthralls the reader." -- Vivan Sundaram * visual artist, founder and trustee, Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation *Table of ContentsPreludeChapter 1: The Photo StudioChapter 2: The DancerChapter 3: The PhotographerChapter 4: The CameraChapter 5: Photo-DanceChapter 6: AfterimagesAcknowledgementsNotesReferencesIndex

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