Individual artists, art monographs Books
Phaidon Press Ltd African Artists: From 1882 to Now
Book SynopsisAs featured in the New York Times, ARTnews, Colossal, Metropolis and New York Magazine’s The StrategistA groundbreaking A-Z survey of the work of over 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in AfricaModern and Contemporary African art is at the forefront of the current curatorial and collector movement in today’s art scene. This groundbreaking new book, created in collaboration with a prestigious global advisory board, represents the most substantial appraisal of contemporary artists born or based in Africa available. Features the work of more than 300 artists, including El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, Lubaina Himid, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Robin Rhode, as well as lesser-known names from across Africa, with stunning and surprising examples of their art paired with insightful texts that demonstrate their contribution to the painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image, and performance art.Advisory Panel: Alayo Akinkugbe, Kavita Chellaram, Raphael Chikukwa, Julie Crooks, Tandazani Dhlakama, Oumy Diaw, Janine Gaëlle Dieudji, Ekow Eshun, Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba, Joseph Gergel, Danda Jaroljmek, Omar Kholeif, Rose Jepkorir Kiptum, Alicia Knock, Nkule Mabaso, Lucy MacGarry, Owen Martin, Aude Christel Mgba, Bongani Mkhonza, Riason Naidoo, Paula Nascimento, Simon Njami, Robert Njathika, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Hannah O’Leary, Sean O’Toole, John Owoo, Brenda Schmahmann, Mark Sealy, Yasmeen Siddiqui, and Joseph L. UnderwoodTrade Review'African Artists moves toward filling the hole in the Western record of the continent’s creative output.' – New York Times'A comprehensive guide to the continent’s brightest stars.' – ARTnews'The volume comes at a time when modern and contemporary African art is at the forefront of curatorial and collector efforts.' – SixtySix'This volume makes a strong argument for the diverse mediums and messages coming out of the African continent.' – Elle Decor'Essential.' – Aesthetica'A groundbreaking new book.' – Red'A stunning coffee-table title that is itself a substantial, gorgeous display.' – Shelf Awareness 'Another terrific history-in-a-book from Phaidon.' – Chicago Tribune 'An insightful read for art novices and seasoned collectors alike.' – New York Magazine’s The Strategist 'One of the most expansive volumes of its kind.' – Colossal 'Beautiful and illuminating.' – Cool Mom Picks
£42.46
HarperCollins Publishers Origin Africa
Book SynopsisA major new look at how Africa's geological history, climate, geography and biology resulted in the wonderful diversity of life found there. It is also the story of how it was the crucible for the evolution most extraordinary species on Earth Homo sapiens.Africa has properties that ensure that most of human evolution could have occurred nowhere else. A greater diversity of mammal, bird and many other forms of life has forced more and more species to squeeze into narrower and narrower niches. Human complexity has evolved directly in response to this, the most complex of continents. On offer here is an intensely personal portrait of a continent bolstered by Jonathan Kingdon''s own animal senses, the same excited set of senses he was born in Africa with. Senses that look, listen, scent and grasp at the mother-continent. Not just his personal motherland but the birthplace of all humanity.Trade Review‘Magnificent. So rich, moving with ease through deep time and biological place, using a lifetime of thought’ Redmond O’Hanlon ‘Africa from the inside … Extremely good stuff’ Paul Theroux ‘Lovely … and the pictures are magnificent’ Richard Dawkins Praise for Jonathan Kingdon 'Jonathan Kingdon's work is one of the things that make the present day such an exciting time for anyone with the slightest intellectual curiosity. His subject matter is our profound and thrilling human origins, and his stance toward it makes his work unique and priceless' Philip Pullman 'Jonathan Kingdon is a subtle amalgam of artist and scientist. He has a deep and up-to-date knowledge of human prehistory, and of the topology and geography of Africa, the continent where most of human prehistory happened. But he is also our leading zoological artist, and I think it must be his artist's eye that gives his writing style its vividness' Richard Dawkins, Times Literary Supplement
£24.00
Prestel Andy Warhol
Book SynopsisAndy Warhol's continuous pursuit of ideal beautyvisible in a body of his work that is brought here together for the first time.Andy Warhol is arguably one of the most widely known and discussed artists of the twentieth century. While his depictions of consumer products and celebrities led him to become household famous, there is a red thread throughout his career, starting even in the late forties until his untimely death in 1987. In the eighties Warhol was continuously searching to visualize an ideal of beauty, male beauty, finding form and creating lasting images of what he desired. He visualized and therefore eternalized this continuous pursuit of ideal beauty.From the early line and blotted line drawings to his screen tests and moving image experiments in the sixties, the torso paintings in the seventies through his collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, there is a continuous search to express an ideal of male beauty. During his lifetime these w
£36.00
Vanguard Productions Frazetta Worlds Best Comics Cover Artist
Book SynopsisVanguard continues their trademark Definitive Reference series with Frazetta: World''s Best Comics Cover Artist, a sister book to 2022''s hit, Frazetta Book Cover Art.While the prior book by illustration and cartooning historian J. David Spurlock catalogued, documented, and commented on all of Frazetta''s book cover paintings, this new volume focuses on the artist''s comics magazine cover art, which originally appeared on such periodicals as Creepy magazine, Ghost Rider, Mad magazine, Vampirella, National Lampoon and EC Comics'' Weird Science-Fantasy.
£26.09
Prestel The Unnatural History Museum
Book SynopsisFor over a decade, from a tiny storefront in east London, the artist Viktor Wynd has been reinventing the cabinet of curiosities for the twenty-first century. The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History is now one of the city’s most tantalising tourist destinations. Wynd first introduced his worldview in the book Viktor Wynd’s Cabinet of Wonders, which John Waters called “an insanely delightful how-to guide . . . told with lunatic humour and absolute joy.” In this new volume, he takes readers on a tour inside his mildly-twisted mind, delving deeper into his philosophy of collecting, and describing personal connections to the objects he treasures. Written in his trademark charismatic style, which blends whimsical stories with odd facts and obscure references, this book is filled with lavish and theatrical photographs and drawings. Loosely organised into thematic chapters, it ponders the beauty of skulls and masks; explores beasts, freaks, monsters, fairies, and mermaids; covers magical plants, hallucinogens, erotica, and dandies; and dips into the world of the occult. This might not be a book for everyone. However, it is a book everyone interested in cabinets of curiosities should have on their shelf.
£28.00
Taschen GmbH Chagall
Book SynopsisFor Marc Chagall (1887–1985), painting was an intricate tapestry of dreams, tales, and traditions. His instantly recognizable visual language carved out a unique early 20th-century niche, often identified as one of the earliest expressions of psychic experience. Chagall’s canvases are characterized by loose brushwork, deep colors, a particular fondness for blue, and a repertoire of recurring tropes including musicians, roosters, rooftops, flowers, and floating lovers. For all their ethereal charms, his compositions were often rich and complex in their references. They wove together not only colors and forms, but also his Jewish roots with his present encounters in Paris, markers of faith with gestures of love and symbols of hope with testimonies of trauma. Across scenes of birth, love, marriage, and death, this dependable artist introduction explores the many versions of Chagall’s rich vocabulary. From visions of his native Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus to images of the Eiffel Tower, we explore the unique aesthetic of one of the most readily identifiable modern masters and one of the most influential Jewish artists of all time.
£13.50
Dover Publications Inc. Rackhams Color Illustrations for Wagners Ring
Book Synopsis
£12.14
Museum of Fine Arts,Boston Rachel Ruysch Nature Into Art
Book SynopsisThe first monograph in over 70 years on the celebrated female protagonist of Dutch floral paintingWinner of Gold Medal in Art from the 2024 Foreword INDIES Book Awards.Winner of the ARLIS/NA 2024 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award.At the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th, Rachel Ruysch was celebrated across Europe for her sumptuous floral still lifes, admired both for their artistry and for their accurate depictions of flowers, fruit and insects. Often placed on stone ledges and against dark backgrounds, her sumptuous bouquets seem to spill over with all manner of colorful flowers and plants, as bees and butterflies flit to and from their petals. Ruysch's star faded after the close of the Dutch Golden Age, but late 20th- and early 21st-century interest in women artists has returned her to the forefront of the art historical canon.Nature into Art introduces today's audiences to Ruysch's achievements while also exploring the pioneering role of women artists and scientists in the Dutch Republic in the 17th and 18th centuries. Brilliantly illustrated with detailed reproductions of Ruysch's intricate paintings, the essays touch upon Ruysch's career and her immediate legacy while also widening their scope to consider the role of botany in the early modern era and the storied tradition of botanical illustration. The catalog also includes an index of the various flora and fauna depicted within Ruysch's work, which feature both native and nonnative species.Rachel Ruysch (16641750) produced hundreds of the floral still lifes for which she is best known. She was an apprentice in the studio of Willem van Aelst and the daughter of famed scientist Frederick Ruysch, meaning she had access to a wider world of Dutch flower painters and botanists. From 1708 until 1716 she served as court painter to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine.
£46.00
Skira Hildegard Von Bingen: In the Heart of God
Book Synopsis
£23.80
Siglio Press What Is Now Known Was Once Only Imagined: An
Book SynopsisA biography by Nicole Rudick told in Saint Phalle's own words, assembled from rare and unseen materials Known best for her exuberant, often large-scale sculptural works that celebrate the abundance and complexity of female desire, imagination and creativity, Niki de Saint Phalle viewed making art as a ritual, a performance—a process connecting life to art. This unconventional, illuminated biography, told in the first person in Saint Phalle's voice and her own hand, dilates large and small moments in Saint Phalle's life which she sometimes reveals with great candor, at other times carefully unwinding her secrets. Nicole Rudick, in a kind of collaboration with the artist, has assembled a gorgeous and detailed mosaic of Saint Phalle's visual and textual works from a trove of paintings, drawings, sketches and writings, many previously unpublished or long unavailable, that trace her mistakes and successes, her passions and her radical sense of joy. Saint Phalle's invocation—her "bringing to life"—writes Rudick, "is an apt summation of the overlap of Saint Phalle’s life and art: both a bringing into existence and a bringing to bear. These are visions from the frontiers of consciousness." Born in France, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) was raised in New York and began making art at age 23, pursuing a revelatory vision informed both by the monumental works of Antonin Gaudí and the Facteur Cheval, and by aspects of her own life. In addition to her Tirs (“shooting paintings”) and Nanas and her celebrated large-scale projects—including the Stravinsky Fountain at the Centre Pompidou, Golem in Jerusalem and the Tarot Garden in Tuscany—Saint Phalle produced writing and works on paper that delve into her own biography: childhood and her break with her family, marriage to Harry Mathews, motherhood, a long collaborative relationship with Jean Tinguely, numerous health crises and her late, productive years in Southern California. Saint Phalle has most recently been the subject of retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in 2015, and at MoMA P.S.1, in 2021. Nicole Rudick is a critic and an editor. Her writing on art, literature and comics has been published in the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Artforum and elsewhere. She was managing editor of the Paris Review for nearly a decade. She is the editor, most recently, of a new edition of Gary Panter’s legendary comic Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise (New York Review Comics, 2021).Trade ReviewTracking Saint Phalle’s creative, personal, and professional odyssey from childhood to old age, with an emphasis on persistent themes of feminism, abuse, and illness, the book is just as much a testament to the willful production of artistic subjectivity as it is to the manifold powers of art as an instrument of therapy, education, and activism. -- Jackson Davidow * Los Angeles Review of Books *As readers, we inhabit her consciousness—we grow and process with her...This is the greatest strength of What Is Now Known: It offers an intimate emotional portrait—an experiential biography, you might say—of Saint Phalle. -- Jillian Steinhauer * The Nation *What Is Now Known also clarifies editing as a creative act rather than a definitive one. Saint Phalle wrote nothing for this book, and yet this book is written by her. Embracing that contradiction, Rudick enables the artist to speak for herself, as herself, once again. -- Jennifer Krasinski * Bookforum *The book follows her international journey weathering the highs and lows of being an artist, woman, friend, daughter, lover, and mother. The person who emerges is open, driven, and often remarkably perceptive about who she is and why. -- Lauren Moya Ford * Hyperallergic *
£999.99
Taschen GmbH Sebastião Salgado. Genesis. Postcard Set
Book SynopsisFor Sebastião Salgado, Genesis is a “love letter to the planet.” TASCHEN’s postcard set allows you to send on that wonder with 25 individual images from the complete Genesis portfolio, now the world’s most-visited photography show of all time. The boxed set spans the breadth of Salgado’s project across five focal territories: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, and Amazonia and Pantanal. In exquisite black and white textures, each image celebrates the pristine splendor of nature, animals, and indigenous peoples that have, so far, escaped the imprint of modern society, from a Nomadic Nenet girl in Siberia to sunlit Buffalo herds in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. “Genesis is a quest for the world as it was, as it was formed, as it evolved, as it existed for millennia before modern life accelerated and began distancing us from the very essence of our being” — Lélia Wanick Salgado
£999.99
Yale University Press Scott Burton Shape Shift
£38.00
Anness Publishing Cezanne His Life and Works in 500 Images
Book SynopsisA perceptive and detailed account of the artist Paul Cezanne, who inquely bridged the gap between the Impressionist and the Cubist movements.
£15.29
ACC Art Books Xu Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the
Book Synopsis"The written word is the most basic element of human culture. To touch the written word is to touch the essence of culture." - Xu Bing Book from the Sky certainly seemed to have fallen from the heavens: the text of this installation piece was written in a new language that resembled traditional Chinese. No matter who scours Xu Bing's book for 'meaning', they will only discover a semblance of it: mutated characters that resist interpretation. Carving out approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making (in his own words) "something that said nothing". After creating a book no one could read, it only made sense for Xu Bing to develop his next project: a book that transcended barriers of language: Book from the Ground. Composed entirely of pictographs, Book from the Ground is a groundbreaking study into the concept of universal communication. Whether his goal is total comprehension or confusion, Xu Bing's masterful exploration of language challenges the way we think about the written word.
£24.00
Prestel Publishing Velázquez
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Portland Press Chihuly and Architecture
Book SynopsisInternationally acclaimed artist Dale Chihuly’s site-specific installations in the form of architectural commissions and exhibitions Forty years of Dale Chihuly’s spectacular site-specific glass installations are captured in this large-format publication examining architectural commissions, temporary art installations, and museum exhibitions around the world. Chihuly’s installations on walls, windows, ceilings, stairways, courtyards, and fountains are closely examined. Chihuly and Architecture explores entire rooms and galleries, glasshouses and castles, and travels from the canals of Venice to the Citadel in the Old City of Jerusalem, providing rare insight into Chihuly’s inspiration and global footprint.
£44.00
Royal Academy of Arts Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection
Book SynopsisThe Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) was celebrated for his exciting impromptu performances at calligraphy and painting parties. Dynamic, playful and provocative, Kyōsai delighted his audience with spontaneous and speedy paintings of demons, skeletons, deities and Buddhist saints. These were often satirical, reflecting a time of political and cultural change in Japan. Among his most charming and inventive works are his brilliant depictions of animals, which humorously play the roles of protagonists of modern life. Kyōsai’s important place in Japanese art is here explored in depth by Sadamura Koto, a leading authority on the artist, in this catalogue of the exceptionally rich holdings of the Israel Goldman Collection.Table of ContentsPresident’s Foreword by Rebecca Salter pra 7 Foreword by Israel Goldman 8 Preface by Timothy T. Clark fBa 11 Notes to the Reader 14 Painter at a Boisterous Party: Kyōsai’s Creative Environment in Late Nineteenth-century Japan 17 Catalogue plates and entries 1 From Tradition to Innovation 39 2 Laughing at Modernity 85 3 The Artist Meets His Public 119 Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889): A Chronology 178 Endnotes 182 Bibliography and References 183 Inscriptions and Lists of Artists 186 Index 188
£27.00
Cannibal/Hannibal Publishers Pedro de Mena: The Spanish Bernini
Book SynopsisPedro de Mena y Medrano (1628-1688) is the most highly regarded master of Spanish Baroque sculpture, on a par with his contemporaries, the great seventeenth-century painters Velázquez, Zurbarán and Murillo. Mena's contributions to Spanish Baroque sculpture are unsurpassed in both technical skill and expressiveness of his religious subjects. His ability to sculpt the human body was remarkable, and he excelled in creating figures and scenes for contemplation. This first monograph of Pedro de Mena shows incredible details and remarkable images of his hyper-realistic sculptures, full of passion. In addition to text by curator Xavier Bray, Pedro de Mena also features important contributions by José Luis Romeo Torres, curator of the exhibition Pedro de Mena, to be held in Málaga in 2019.
£36.00
National Galleries of Scotland Lady Agnew
Book SynopsisA biography of an evocative portrait, contextualising it within Sargent’s career and practice, and unveiling the life of the sitter and the picture’s critical history.Gertrude Vernon, or Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, was an English woman who married a Scot. The American artist John Singer Sargent excelled as a painter in Europe. His portrait of Lady Agnew was painted in London but has found its definitive home in Edinburgh. All these contexts converge in a supremely beautiful painting which is one the icons of the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. Created in the 1890s, it proved to be a seminal work in the lives of the artist and his subject and has enjoyed a rich afterlife, inspiring artistic and written responses. This book offers a fascinating biography of this most accomplished, evocative and admired of portraits, placing it in the context of Sargent’s career and how he worked, discussing the life of the sitter and unveiling the picture’s rich critical history.
£14.24
Prestel Gabriele Muenter: Painting to the Point
Book SynopsisFilled with the vibrant color that is the hallmark of Münter’s oeuvre, this dynamic consideration of the German painter offers a lively and detailed analysis of her life, work, and contributions to modern painting. While Münter is most often linked to Wassily Kandinsky and the Blue Rider movement, this book offers a refreshing appreciation of her work in its own right. Multifaceted, imaginative, and stylistically diverse, Münter’s creative output spanned genres to include portraits, landscapes, interiors, and abstractions. Beautifully reproduced images allow readers to marvel at Münter’s joyful vibrant hues, her bold brushstrokes and her experimental and innovative approach to painting. Lively texts offer important biographical insights into her artistic evolution and place her work in the broader context of modern art. Comprehensive and insightful, this newly formatted edition pays tribute to a hugely influential woman artist whose work is all too often overlooked.
£28.00
Tate Publishing Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
Book SynopsisAn extraordinary publication with new research and writing on world renowned Japanese multi-media artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist, Yoko Ono (born 1933). Yoko Ono is an artist who has made an indelible mark on contemporary culture and political activism through her radical and innovative practice. This remarkable and essential publication, developed in collaboration with Yoko Ono and her studio, traces in full the evolution of an artist whose visionary spirit has transcended boundaries and challenged conventions. Accompanying the survey exhibition at Tate Modern of the same name, Music of the Mind explores the world of Yoko Ono and reveals the profound impact of her art on the collective consciousness of our time. With previously unpublished photographs from her involvement at Indica Gallery, London, Sogetsu Art Centre, Tokyo and her loft on Chambers Street in New York.
£25.60
Flame Tree Publishing Vincent Van Gogh Masterpieces of Art
Book SynopsisPart of a new series of beautiful gift art books, Van Gogh Masterpieces of Art features all of the best-known works of one of the most famous artists in the world, preceded by a fresh and thoughtful introduction providing lively commentary on his life, society, places and style and techniques, including the powerful animation of his strident brushwork.
£12.34
Two Rivers Press Botaniphoria: A Cabinet of Botanical Curiosities
Book SynopsisTake a fresh look at the world through the lens of a self-confessed nature-obsessed artist. Asuka Hishiki possesses not only a sense of profound awe and wonder at the intricacies of the natural world, but also the talent to communicate it through her paintings. Recalling the Wunderkammer (literally, 'wonder rooms') of 16th and 17th century European collectors, Asuka Hishiki's Botaniphoria: A Cabinet of Botanical Curiosities encompasses subjects as diverse as rotting vegetables, endangered species, mundane weeds and backyard insects - all treasures to her and transformed into objects of intense and fragile beauty through her skill with watercolour. Her work is held in prestigious collections such as The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, California, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pennsylvania. One of the first people to appreciate her work said about it, 'your work is not to hang upon a wall in a bright living room, but to put in a drawer in the study. Then, alone in the middle of the night, to take out and ponder upon.' In the best traditions of Wunderkammer, this book is an artfully arranged collection intended to be pondered upon. From the interactions of the objects within the paintings, to the quirky choice of subjects and the realism with which they are portrayed, they will bear revisiting again and again. As Asuka admits, painting is her language. She is an extremely adept communicator in it.
£16.19
The Crowood Press Ltd Recreating an Age of Reptiles
Book SynopsisDinosaurs and other prehistoric animals have always fascinated people but they pose vast problems for the artist. How do you go about recreating the anatomy and behaviour of a creature we've never seen? How can we restore landscapes long lost to time? And where does the boundary between palaeontology - the science of understanding fossils- and artistic licence lie? In this outstanding book, Mark Witton shares his detailed paintings and great experience of drawing and painting extinct species. The approaches used in rendering these impressive creatures are discussed and demonstrate the problems, as well as the unexpected freedoms, that palaeontological artists are faced with. The book showcases over ninety scientifically credible paintings of some of the most spectacular animals in the Earth's history, as well as may less familiar species.Trade ReviewThis book is an enjoyable and at times humorous discussion of the artistic reconstruction of Mesozoic reptiles by palaeontologist and palaeoartist Mark Witton. -- Emma Askew reviewer * Open University Geological Society *
£16.14
Taschen GmbH Malevich
Book SynopsisAfter flirtations with Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism, Kiev-born Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) found his métier in dissolving literal, representational figures and landscapes into pure emotionally-charged abstraction. In 1915, he created what is widely lauded as the first and ultimate abstract artwork: Black Square, a black rectangle on a white background, hailed as the “zero point of painting,” a seminal moment for modern and abstract practice. In this book, we follow Malevich’s key innovations and ideas and place his groundbreaking achievements within the context of both the Russian and global avant-garde. Through rich illustrations of his work, we explore the artist’s theory of Suprematism, based on severe geometric abstraction and “the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art”; his leading role in the development of Constructivism; as well as his interests in philosophy, literature, Russian folk art, and the fourth dimension.
£999.99
Alma Books Ltd Selected Writings: First English Translation
Book SynopsisAvailable for the first time in an English translation, this selection gives non-Francophone readers the chance to encounter the many incarnations of renowned Belgian painter René Magritte – the artist, the man, the aspiring noirist, the fire-breathing theorist – in his own words. Through whimsical personal letters, biting apologia, appreciations of fellow artists, pugnacious interviews, farcical film scripts, prose poems, manifestos and much more, a new Magritte emerges: part Surrealist, part literalist, part celebrity, part rascal. While this book is bound to appeal to admirers of Magritte’s art and those who are curious about his personal life, there is also much to delight all readers interested in the history and theory of art, philosophy and politics, as well as lovers of creativity and the inner workings of a probing, inquisitive mind unrestricted by genre, medium or fashion.Trade ReviewMagritte thought of himself as a secret agent, and the Selected Writings are his cypher-books. * The Spectator *Magritte’s writings demonstrate an unflaggingly scabrous wit and provide an invaluable textual anchorage fro his work as a painter * Apollo, The International Art Magazine *
£12.28
Oxford University Press Mona Lisa
Book SynopsisRead this book and the world''s most famous image will never look the same again. For the world''s greatest cultural icon still has secrets to reveal - not the silly secrets that the ''Leonardo loonies'' continue to advance, but previously unknown facts about the lives of Leonardo, his father, Lisa Gherardini, the subject of the portrait, and her husband Francesco del Giocondo. From this factual beginning we see how the painting metamorphosed into a ''universal picture'' that became the prime vehicle for Leonardo''s prodigious knowledge of the human and natural worlds. We learn about the new money of the ambitious merchant who married into the old gentry of Lisa''s family. We discover Lisa''s life as a wife and mother, her association with sexual scandals, and her later life in a convent. We meet, for the first time, previously undiscovered members of Leonardo''s immediate family and discover new information about his early life. The tiny hill town of Vinci is placed before us, with itTrade ReviewKemp analyses the painting as a key to all of Leonardos thinking and works, describing it as the 'window of the soul', in which is reflected all the knowledge acquired by the artist-scientist in the course of his life spent in the study of anatomy, optics, perspective, geology, atmosphere, hydrology and the science of painting. * Pietro C. Marani, The Burlington Magazine *Elegantly-produced study. * Richard Owen, The Tablet *This well-researched book is also highly readable: after so many bunkum theories, the sober truth about the Mona Lisa's origins comes across as surprisingly radical and refreshing. * Alastair Smart, Prospect *Riveting reading... This book is a veritable mine of information. Beautifully written, it reaches out in an engaging and fluid way to those who know relatively little about the subject, whilst still imparting fascinating new evidence to the more experienced on the origins of the painting, and also about Mona Lisa herself. It is not just a further paean to 'the most famous painting in the world', it also offers to the reader a rich and tantalising picture of the world in which Leonardo da Vinci inhabited, and the huge part that an insignificant bourgeois woman, Mona Lisa del Gioconda, played in history. * Sandra Callard, On: Yorkshire Magazine *This book is state of-the-art informative and will be mightily useful for students. * James Hall, Literary Review *A model of clear-headed rationality, succinct, intriguing and marvellously readable. * Michael Bird, Daily Telegraph *[Kemp & Pallanti] marshal meticulous research into the family histories of painter, patron and subject; deep knowledge of the traditions and allusions of Renaissance art; and scientific analyses of the venerated object. * Philip Ball, Nature *Brings the portrait of the enigmatic Lisa into a sharper focus than ever before. * Ross King, Woodstock and Bladon News *Fascinating... revelatory... with their scholarly and fluent book Kemp and Pallanti have given Lisa Gherardini, mother and silk merchants wife, a new lease of authentic life and re-established the Mona Lisa as an extraordinary painting with ordinary origins. * Michael Prodger, The Sunday Times *[A] stimulating study grounded in documentary and literary sources, not to mention the painting itself.Readable and informative, this book is invaluable for offering a better understanding of the painting.Essential * na, CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1: Old Gentry and New Money: Lisa and Francesco 2: Leonardo from Vinci 3: Ser Piero and Francesco 4: An intermittent History 1: Renaissance Records 5: An intermittent History 2: The Rise to Fame 6: From Portrait to Poetry 1: Dolce still nuovo 7: From Portrait to Poetry 2: Painter and Poets 8: The Universal Picture 9: Close Observation: Science Intervenes Conclusion Index Further Reading
£24.64
Prestel Hiroshige
Book SynopsisPresented in a style as stunning as the prints it celebrates, this survey of Hiroshige tells the fascinating story of the last great practitioner of ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world." Hiroshige is considered to be the tradition's most poetic artist and his work had a marked influence on Western painting towards the end of the 19th century. Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Paul Ce zanne, and James Whistler were inspired by Hiroshige's serene depictions of the natural world. Arranged chronologically, this book illustrates through text and magnificent reproductions Hiroshige's youth and early career; his artistic development in the genre of landscape prints; his depictions of Edo and the provinces; the flower and bird prints; and his many popular books and paintings. It discusses the historic and cultural environment in which Hiroshige flourished and the many reasons his art continues to be revered and imitated. Filled with 300 color reproductions, and featuring a clamshell box and Japanese-style binding, this volume is destined to become the definitive examination of Hiroshige's oeuvre.Trade Review"This lavish chronically organized survey of his life and work is a jewel for art lovers, featuring Japanese-style binding and clamshell box. The 300 depictions of Hiroshige’s beloved prints, books and paintings, along with an examination of the historic and cultural environments in which he created them, crowns the oeuvre of a true artistic titan." -Bask
£74.25
Sadie Coles HQ Michele Abeles Zebra
Book Synopsis
£27.00
Dover Publications Inc. Picasso
Book SynopsisIntimate, revealing memoir of Picasso as man and artist by influential literary figure. Highly readable amalgam of biographical fact, artistic and aesthetic comments: Picasso as founder of Cubism, associate of Apollinaire, Braque, Derain, other notables; titanic, creative spirit. One of Stein''s most accessible works. 61 black-and-white illustrations. Index.
£8.07
Hurtwood Press Tyler Hobbs
Book SynopsisTyler Hobbs' debut monograph is one of the first to focus on the work of a generative artist. Order/Disorder contextualises Hobbs' groundbreaking art from 20182023 and includes works from his 2023 solo exhibitions at Unit, London, and Pace, New York. Tyler Hobbs' debut monograph is one of the first to focus on the work of a generative artist. Contextualising his art from 20182023, Order/Disorder includes works from Hobbs' solo exhibitions at Unit, London, and Pace, New York, in 2023. Structured around the concept of dualities, the book explores Hobbs' systematic approaches to artmaking, the creative relationship between man and machine, computer-led aesthetics and the interplay of repetition and emergence across longform generative projects. Order/Disorder features an interview between Hobbs and Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries, and an essay by Melanie Lenz, curator of digital art at the Victoria & Albert Museum, alongside texts by the artist that i
£40.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Andr Kertsz Photofile
Book SynopsisPart of the Photofile series, this title brings together the best work of the world's greatest photographers in an attractive format. It contains some sixty full-page reproductions printed in duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography.
£11.69
Phaidon Press Ltd Cindy Sherman
Book SynopsisThe perfect introduction to the life and work of Cindy Sherman.Trade ReviewOn the Phaidon Focus series "Excellent introductions to modern masters series."—The Observer Magazine "Satisfyingly hardback yet not too hefty. Tastefully simple, encased in a plastic cover to protect them from all those crayons and paints that you're sure to whip out in a frenzy of inspiration after browsing these pages. Each contains a trove of images of artwork and educational focus chapters on themes and techniques."—It's Nice That "Concise yet spirited introduction... Plenty of colour plates make it brilliantly useful as a reference tool."—The Sunday Telegraph "Eschewing the heavyweight doorstop format of many art books, these beautiful and compact Phaidon Focus artist monographs are small and slick, and refreshingly affordable... Designed by Julia Hasting, the Zurich-based design director at Phaidon Press, who manages to create a clean, fresh look that - as art book design should - put the artists' work centre stage... Coated in a translucent grey plastic with a clear window, the book's pared back approach continues with clean, black typography on a white background. Never cluttered, but resolutely in-depth, the series manages to condense some of the 20th century's most famous artists' work into small, but by no means diminutive introductions."—DesignWeek.co.uk "Beautifully designed... The most iconic artists of the modern day... Bring you the essentials in a concise manner."—It's Nice That "Phaidon are adept at packaging up key artists and movements in contemporary art, ensuring each generation has a familiar and forward-thinking way of immersing itself in visual culture. The newest tranche of introductory monographs is Phaidon Focus. [...] The Focus series is an extended primer, a handsome hardback designed to provide an in-depth overview of an artist's life, plus a more concentrated focus on key works from the artist's career to date."—Wallpaper.com "Amazing... An essential addition to any art lover's collection."—Grazia
£13.46
Phaidon Press Ltd Paul McCarthy
Book SynopsisDefinitive monograph on America's most challenging and influential artistTrade Review"McCarthy teaches us to acknowledge that we are mortal and split by speaking. His work is death (of the ego) and abject resurrection." —Michael Cohen, Flash Art"The combination of intelligent analysis, personal insight, useful facts and plentiful pictures is a superb format invaluable for specialists but also interesting for casual readers. It makes these books a must for the library of anyone who cares about contemporary art." —Flash Art"The boldest, best executed, and most far-reaching publishing project devoted to contemporary art. These books will revolutionize the way contemporary art is presented and written about." —Artforum
£33.96
Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd Thomas Lawrence: Coming of Age
Book SynopsisThis survey of Lawrence’s first twenty-five years tells the story of an exceptional artist growing up at the end of the century as Britain created its own unique artistic voice. Like his Renaissance predecessors Raphael, Michelangelo and Dürer, the young Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) was considered to be a boy genius. He first came to public attention when he was cited in a scientific paper on ‘early genius in children’; shortly afterwards his family moved to Bath where the eleven-year-old was kept busy making likenesses of the spa town’s fashionable visitors. By 1790, Lawrence's spectacular portraits were the most applauded works in the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition, which opened days before his twenty-first birthday. The book considers the young artist’s self-image as a prodigy, the impact of Bath’s rich cultural life on his formation, the rapid development of his painting technique following his move to London, and his use of celebrity, print media and the Royal Academy to grow his reputation. Particular attention is given to Lawrence’s perceptive depictions of old age and bold celebrations of youthful energy. His portraits from this time present a fascinating glimpse of British high society at the turn of a memorable century: they include celebrities such as the Duchess of Devonshire, Emma Hamilton and actresses Sarah Siddons and Elizabeth Farren, as well as political leaders, members of the Bluestocking circle and the Royal Family. The book accompanied a major exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath and includes previously unpublished works as well as some of Lawrence’s most brilliant masterpieces.Table of ContentsAuthor’s Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction 1. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Prodigy 2. Striking Likenesses 3. Old Masters and New Horizons 4. Risking my Reputation 5. The Most Hazardous Step 6. Gleams of Power Notes Select Bibliography Image Credits Index
£17.09
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd Fidelia Bridges: Nature into Art
Book SynopsisFidelia Bridges (1834-1923) painted pictures that critics praised for their ability to exude the fragrance of field flowers and glow with the plumage of birds. Raised in Salem and long residing in Connecticut, she maintained a studio in New York City, where she exhibited her art for over forty years at the National Academy, American Watercolor Society and other prestigious venues. Transforming flower painting from a domestic outlet for female amateurs to a marketable commodity for professionals, she never wavered in her conviction that women had the right to shape independent careers on their own terms. She delineated both cultivated flowers and clumps of weeds with an intensity of focus unmatched by any other artist of her era. Often, she combined plants with local birds to convey a sophisticated understanding of their environmental interaction that encouraged others to appreciate and conserve nature. She made an extended European tour in the 1860s and regular trips to Great Britain in later years but preferred home nature.Assembling a cross-section of her stunning oil paintings, watercolours, chromolithographs and illustrated volumes for the first time, and analysing them against letters, diaries and periodical reviews, Fidelia Bridges combines a recovery of the artist’s biography with close readings of her artworks. Living an outwardly conventional life, she embraced the bicycle and later the automobile as vehicles of female liberation, cultivated her garden with the skill of a horticulturalist, and left a lasting pictorial legacy to be found in US public museums and private collections nationwide.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Preface; Introduction; 1. Apprenticeship, Ambition and Adventure, 1850s-1860s; 2. Becoming a Professional Artist: From Brooklyn to Europe; 3. Success in the ‘Seventies; 4. Travel, Birds and Holiday Cards, 1880s-1890s; 5. Gardens and Friendship Circles: Canaan, 1900-1923; Appendix: Library of Fidelia Bridges; Notes; Picture Credit; Select Bibliography; Index
£33.25
Workman Publishing The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth
Book Synopsis“For those of you—and your numbers are growing—gardening in drought-stricken parts of the country, The Bold Dry Garden will quench your thirst for inspiration.” —New York Times Book Review Ruth Bancroft is a dry gardening pioneer. Her lifelong love of plants led to the creation of one of the most acclaimed public gardens, The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California. The Bold Dry Garden offers unparalleled access to the garden and the extraordinary woman responsible for it. In its stunningly photographed pages, you’ll discover the history of the garden and the design principles and plant palette that make it unique. Packed with growing and maintenance tips, profiles of signature plants for a dry garden, and innovative design techniques, The Bold Dry Garden has everything you need to create a garden that is lush, waterwise, and welcoming.
£23.75
Museum of Modern Art Gauguin
Book SynopsisExplores the remarkable relationship between Paul Gauguins rare and prints and transfer drawings, and his better-known paintings and sculptures in wood and ceramic. This title also explores the artists radically experimental approach to techniques and his pivotal place in the history of art.
£30.40
Richard Dennis Bonzo The Life and Work of George Studdy
Book Synopsis
£18.52
Hatje Cantz Daniel Richter: Paintings Then and Now
Book Synopsis"As a politically thinking person, I am not a morally thinking person.” While German painting of the postwar period essentially concerned itself with coming to terms with the past and presenting it in gestures ranging from the heroic to the ironic, Daniel Richter focuses on positioning himself in the present. Time and again he devises new ways of being “modern” in a medium that has long been labeled old-fashioned and anachronistic. His pictures constantly challenge the spectator by their painterly and contextually excessive demands, but they do not lecture on moral issues. In five chapters featuring more than 200 examples of his works, the author Eva Meyer-Hermann traces the chronological development of Richter’s artistic output for the first time. The turns from abstraction to figuration and back again that until now have been described as abrupt, prove on closer examination to be a logical consequence and a sign of conscious artistic action.
£55.50
Rizzoli International Publications Daniel Arsham
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive monograph on artist Daniel Arsham’s genre-bending world.Daniel Arsham mines lusted-after consumer goods and iconic imagery to create his conceptual objects and sculptures. The artist then casts and refinishes his work to imitate the effects of erosion and subsidence, creating monuments to our present obsessions, as if the objects were rescued from Pompeii. That same impulse toward excavation animates many of his installations,which range from layered broken walls to geodefilled caverns to melting portals. From room-collapsing environmental installations for today’s leading brands and museums to elaborate set design for classical dance, Arsham twists elements of architecture to create immersive aesthetic experiences that appeal to the divided attentions of a contemporary audience.Presented as an induction manual to Arsham’s covetable world, the book will provide a complete overview of his practice. Virgil Abloh discusses A
£999.99
Scheidegger und Spiess AG, Verlag Meret Oppenheim - Enigmas: A Journey Through Life
Book SynopsisSwiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985) is far more than just the creator of the iconic fur teacup. In the course of her career she produced a complex, wide-ranging, and enigmatic body of work that has no parallel in modern art. Like an x-ray beam, this book scans Oppenheim’s artistic oeuvre, bringing its variety, playfulness, and poetry to the fore. Instead of simply answering the riddles posed by these intriguing works, it maps out the paths that will lead us to still more clues. Simon Baur is a leading expert in the life and art of Meret Oppenheim. The nine new essays featured in this volume are at once scholarly and easy to read. In them, Baur shares the many fascinating insights and interpretations that he has gleaned from his decades-long engagement with Oppenheim’s work. The result is an anthology that combines both biographical and thematic aspects and takes us on an exciting journey into the poetic cosmos of a truly great female artist.
£27.00
Prestel Hokusai: 22 Pull-Out Posters
Book SynopsisDuring his lifetime, Hokusai was one of the most revered artists working in the ukiyo-e school of painting and printmaking. This book gathers the finest examples of Hokusai's breathtaking prints, including his iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, views of Mt. Fuji, landscapes, domestic scenes, and painstakingly rendered flora and fauna. An introduction by Matthi Forrer offers a brief biography of Hokusai and commentary on his practice and influence. Each full color poster is backed with a substantial caption that provides insights into the piece's significance and notable characteristics. Printed on heavy coated paper, these detachable posters are suitable for framing, but also taken together create a lasting and illuminating introduction to Hokusai's extraordinary accomplishment.
£16.99
Hardie Grant Books (UK) Pocket Frida Kahlo Wisdom: Inspirational Quotes
Book SynopsisPocket Frida Kahlo Wisdom is an inspiring collection of some of her best quotes on love, style, life, art and more, and celebrates the Mexican icon's immense legacy.Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential painters of the 20th century and is widely considered a style icon thanks to her eclectic taste and love for colour, print and hauls of jewellery. From a young age, Kahlo forged her own path, overcoming polio as a child, and stoically battling the after-effects of a tragic road accident that left her with lifelong injuries.Some quotes from Frida Kahlo:“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.”“The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”“I must fight with all my strength so that the little positive things that my health allows me to do might be pointed toward helping the revolution. The only real reason for living.”“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.”
£7.59
JRP Ringier Malcolm McLaren: Musical Paintings
Book SynopsisToday, declares svengali-at-large Malcolm McLaren, there are two words that sum up the culture: authenticity'' is one, and the other karaoke''! Many artists spend their entire life trying to authenticate, make true, a karaoke culturebut you have to be a magician to make that happen. This book, like the exhibition from which it stems, is built around McLaren''s Shallow, a series of 21 musical paintings made from a grab bag of pop culture''s debris over the past 50 years. The project, curated by Bernd Wurlitzer, brought together music-related works by Delia Brown, Wolfgang Flad, Rodney Graham, Gregor Hildebrandt, Damien Hirst, Alicja Kwade, Jim Lambie, Jack Pierson, Rob Pruitt, Michael Queenland, Anselm Reyle, Michael Sailstorfer and Andreas Schulze. McLaren has proven to be a visionary of pop culture and a pop cultural icon for more than 30 years; with Shallow, he formally announces his identity as an artist.
£8.22
JRP Ringier Vern Blosum: Planned Obsolescence
Book SynopsisVern Blosum does not exist. The story can be told simply: in 1961 an artist paints five canvases inspired by pages in a horticulture book; then came parking meters, water hydrants, and animals. Some of them were shown at Leo Castelli Gallery, sold to collectors and public institutions, included in seminal exhibitions or books on Pop arta seemingly normal progression in an artist''s career, were it not for a rumor that emerged regarding his true identity. Alfred H. Barr, the legendary director of MoMA, started to worry about the rumor sometime in 1964 and, after extensive inquiries, came to the conclusion that Vern Blosum did not exist. His paintings were taken down or sent back to storage, and the artist''s name fell into oblivion. Vern Blosum does not exist, but his work does. This book retrieves the oeuvre of this particularly elusive artist.
£8.22
Profile Books Ltd The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals,
Book SynopsisThis is a story about rivalry among artists. Not the kind of rivalry that grows out of hatred and dislike, but rather, rivalry that emerges from admiration, friendship, love. The kind of rivalry that existed between Degas and Manet, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. These were some of the most famous and creative relationships in the history of art, driving each individual to heights of creativity and inspiration - and provoking them to despair, jealousy and betrayal. Matisse's success threatened Picasso so much that his friends would throw darts at a portrait of his rival's beloved daughter Marguerite, shouting 'there's one in the eye for Matisse!' And Willem de Kooning's twisted friendship with Jackson Pollock didn't stop him taking up with his friend's lover barely a year after Pollock's fatal car crash. In The Art of Rivalry, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee explores how, as both artists struggled to come into their own, they each played vital roles in provoking the other's creative breakthroughs - ultimately determining the course of modern art itself.Trade ReviewIntriguing ... Smee writes beautifully ... tantalising -- Lynn Barber * Sunday Times *Elegant ... accomplished -- Michael Prodger * The Times *Lively and engaging -- Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *A fascinating examination ... This is art history as human friction - one in the eye for those who think art is a high-minded enterprise. * Tatler *The keynotes of Sebastian Smee's criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art - he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye - and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art - the enigma of artist's personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other¹s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art. * Adam Gopnik *A magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most. * Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take *Modern art's major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it's strange to have a book on it only now - and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness. * Peter Schjeldahl, art critic of the New Yorker *One of those rare books that manages to show,convincingly, the exalted stuff of genius emerging from the low chaos of life * Economist *
£11.69
Pie International Co., Ltd. A Bouquet of a Thousand Flowers: The Art of
Book Synopsis
£21.25
