Portraits and self-portraiture in the arts Books
Karma Alex Katz: Beauty
Book SynopsisElegant monochrome glamour in Katz's new print series This handsome clothbound catalog gathers Alex Katz’s recent titular print portfolio. The series of 25 prints features close-up, black-and-white portraits that remove the subjects from any contextual backdrop, emphasizing instead subtle shifts in expression. Rendered in bold lineation and tightly framed, the women depicted recall the models and celebrities featured in mid-20th-century fashion imagery, underscoring Katz’s ongoing fascination with perceptions of beauty and glamour that permeate the public sphere. The portraits are bookended by a pair of meditations on beauty: Carter Ratcliff imagines a comedically philosophical dialogue between himself and beauty, and Jarrett Earnest shares 31 encounters with beauty in art and life. Alex Katz (born 1927) is one of America’s most iconic and prolific artists. His work has been the subject of more than 250 solo exhibitions and 500 group exhibitions since 1951 and can be found in over 100 public collections worldwide. Katz is best known for his large-scale canvases of flatly rendered figures cast against a monochrome background.Trade ReviewIf Katz is an artist of distillation, this volume may be the purest shot yet. -- David O'Neill * Bookforum *
£28.35
Editions Skira Paris Thameur Mejri (Bilingual edition)
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£24.00
Brepols N.V. Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women: From
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£131.10
Brepols Publishers Odds and Ends: Unusual Elements in Palmyrene
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£101.65
Bohlau Verlag Der Anzug im Porträt: Kleidung und Inszenierung
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£34.19
Bohlau Verlag Welfen und Portrat: Visuelle Strategien hofischer
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£51.29
De Gruyter Symphonie in Schwarz: Eine Spurensuche zwischen
Book Synopsis In 1904, Saxon artist Oskar Zwintscher painted the portrait of a lady smoking a cigarette. Today, the work has cult status at the Albertinum in Dresden. Her hair loose, a burning cigarette held casually in her hand, the sitter in a black reform dress is sitting in front of a black curtain. But who is behind the young woman who looks out of the picture so confidently? Andreas Dehmer and Susanna Partsch embark on a fascinating search for clues to the identity of the lady smoking. They find emancipated women who earned their living as artists, actors or writers, preferred reform dress to the corset, and regarded smoking as a symbol of independence. They follow them to metropolises like Berlin, Dresden or Munich, where they lived as part of the bohemian scene. A captivating picture of the way art and life intertwined around 1900 emerges in this search for the unknown.
£18.90
De Gruyter Francis Bacon: Portrait, 1962
Book SynopsisFrancis Bacon’s portrait of his first partner Peter Lacy is somehow simultaneously attractive and repulsive. The monumental portrait dating from 1962 was unknown to the public for a long time. Shortly after it was painted, Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni acquired the work and it remained in private hands for decades. This is a key work, created at a turning point in Bacon’s oeuvre. Markus Rath embeds the painting into Bacon’s visual world for the first time. The English painter reveals a biographically oriented representationalism in the portrait, concentrating his compositional arrangement on the stage-like interior and forcing a contrast between the two-dimensional ground and the colour-saturated figure – these are pioneering approaches to composition that shaped his late work decisively.
£18.90
Harrassowitz Abbild / Selbstbild: Das Portrat in Nurnberg Um
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£153.90
Harrassowitz The Iconography of the Pharaoh's Face in the
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£96.75
Harrassowitz Kultpraxis Und Distinktion: Bildnisse Von
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£163.00
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig,Germany The New African Portraiture: The Shariat
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£28.00
Brill Fink Revisionen Des Porträts: Jenseits Von Mimesis Und
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£79.00
Brill Fink Effigies: Antikes Porträt ALS Figuration Des
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£75.05
Brill U Fink Effigies: Ancient Portraiture as Figuration of
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£75.05
Hatje Cantz David Byrd
Book SynopsisA poignant look into the psychological depths of the human mind—its possibilities and fragility. This is the impressive and sensitive legacy of the painter David Byrd. The artist joined the army during World War II and later worked as an orderly in the psychiatric ward of a Veterans hospital in Upstate New York. From 1958 to 1988, Byrd’s keen observation of this world, filled with the crowded histories of its troubled patients, was recorded in the artist’s sketchbook. This publication is a replica of the deeply personal, creative, and revelationary journal examining the human experience and its potential for pain and alienation on the fringe. Byrd’s work was not publicly exhibited until 2013, only a few months before his death—an omission that seems absurd in the face of such a powerful output of artwork expressing the artist’s perspective as a veteran himself and his empathy toward those living with psychological trauma.
£35.20
Hirmer Verlag Maria Theresa and the Arts
Book SynopsisThe 300th birthday of Empress Maria Theresia provides an opportunity to examine her outstanding interest in the fine arts. At the invitation of the reforming monarch a large number of painters, sculptors and other artists in Austria and abroad found a wealth of work opportunities. Correspondingly, this era has left its mark on the countries of the former Habsburg monarchy to this day. Maria Theresia pursued an individual approach with regard to cultural policy. She was interested in reform not only in education, but also in the field of art. She commissioned contemporary artists and helped portrait painting to a new upswing, leading not least to the international consolidation of the newly formed House of Habsburg-Lorraine. This was the function also fulfilled by the allegorical paintings and ceiling frescoes for which impressive cartoons have survived. Landscape painting was highly esteemed, and finally outstanding masterpieces were produced in sculpture and three-dimensional works, for example by Balthasar Ferdinand Moll and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.
£30.40
Hirmer Verlag Eye to I: Self Portraits from 1900 to Today:
Book SynopsisThis richly illustrated book features an introduction by the National Portrait Gallery’s chief curator and nearly 150 insightful entries on key self-portraits in the museum’s collection. Eye to I provides readers with an overview of self-portraiture while revealing the intersections that exist between art, life, and self-representation. Drawing primarily from the museum’s collection, Eye to I explores how American artists have portrayed themselves over the past two centuries. The book shows that while each individual approaches self-portraiture under unique circumstances, all of their representations raise important questions about self-perception and self-reflection. Sometimes artists choose to reveal intimate details of their inner lives. Other times they use the genre to obfuscate their true selves or invent alter egos. Today, with the proliferation of selfies and the contemporary focus on identity, it is time to reassess the significance of the self-portrait.
£28.80
Hirmer Verlag Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair
Book SynopsisTEXTURES synthesises research in history, fashion, art, and visual culture to reassess the “hair story” of peoples of African descent. A fraught topic for African-Americans and others in the Diaspora, artists, barbers, and activists address the topic of Black hair,both the historical perceptions and its ramifications for self and society today.TEXTURES explores the breadth of Black artists’ perspectives on hair vis-à-vis beauty, pride, and politics. Barbers and activists address Black hair, from historical perceptions to its challenges today. Combs, products, and implements from the collection of hair pioneer Willie Morrow are paired with masterworks from artists like David Hammons, Sonya Clark, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Alison Saar. The exhibition & catalogue are inspired by Drs. Ellington and Underwood who research preferential treatment of straight hair, the social hierarchies of skin, and the power and politics of display.
£31.96
Hirmer Verlag Modigliani: The Primitivist Revolution
Book SynopsisAmedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) moved to Paris as a 22-year-old art student and is regarded as probably the last true bohémien in Montmartre. The exhibition catalogue to mark the 100th anniversary of his death shows him for the first time as a leading member of the avant-garde who carried the revolution of Primitivism well into the 20th century. Modigliani’s famous nudes, unusual portraits and unique sculptures are contrasted with works by Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncusi and André Derain as well as artefacts from so-called “primitive” cultures. In doing so the volume focuses in particular on Modigliani’s lifelong study of the art of Primitivism, which also interested the artist friends who influenced his work. Some 100 works are on view, including numerous main works by Modigliani from the great museums and most important private collections from America to Asia.Trade Review"Modigliani - Picasso: The Primitivist Revolution is the type and quality of a project one would expect to accompany an exhibition that honors an artist of Modigliani’s caliber on the occasion of the centenary of his death." * New York Journal of Books *
£35.96
Hirmer Verlag Charlotte Berend-Corinth (Bilingual edition)
Book SynopsisQuite apart from her position as the wife and model of Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), Charlotte Berend-Corinth (1880–1967) shone as an artist and was, like Käthe Kollwitz, one of the few women members of the Berlin Secession. This bibliophile monograph is dedicated to the highly gifted, successful and unfairly neglected artist and presents an impressive synopsis of her oeuvre. Berend-Corinth pursued a remarkable career with ultra-modern, radical subjects in the Berlin of the 1910s and 1920s until her Jewish descent compelled her to leave Germany and to emigrate to the United States. Her early work, in which she captured the permissive mood of the Berlin art and theatre scene during the 1910s and 1920s, represents one main area of focus, as do the later portraits of famous personalities of her time and some of her remarkable self-portraits, still lifes and landscape pictures.
£23.96
Hirmer Verlag Twinka Thiebaud and the Art of Pose
Book SynopsisOver the course of seven decades, Twinka Thiebaud has collaborated with thirty artists working in photography, painting, and drawing. This catalogue explores her body of work as an artist’s model alongside developments in photographic techniques and technology, and the role of nature in defining West Coast experimentation. This is the first book to highlight Twinka Thiebaud’s long career and influence as an artist’s model, while also exploring the artistic processes of numerous West Coast-based artists working today. Comprised of 120 paintings, drawings, and photographs that date from the 1940s through 2021, this catalogue’s essays and interview investigate the body/nature relationship in photographs of Thiebaud from the 1970s and 2000s, and her collaborations with such artists as Judy Dater and John Reiff Williams.
£25.60
Hirmer Verlag Kinship
Book SynopsisRecent events have pushed artists to visualize ideas of closeness in a new light. Kinship, published on the occasion of the National Portrait Gallery’s tenth “Portraiture Now” exhibition, features the work of eight leading contemporary artists who explore familial relationships through photography, painting, sculpture, and performance. Contemporary portraiture offers a way to consider the mutable yet enduring qualities of familial relationships and the internal and external forces that affect our bonds with others. For example, interpretations of distance - whether emotional, physical, or geographical - have recently become more fraught. By recognizing the transformations that occur in the genre of portraiture and the threads that today’s portraits share, we can better understand the universality and specificity of kinship. List of artists: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, Anna Tsouhlarakis
£16.50
Hirmer Verlag GmbH Gabriele Münter: Menschenbilder
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£40.50
Hirmer Verlag The Faces of Egon Schiele: Self Portraits
Book SynopsisThe artistic gaze into the mirror – Egon Schiele personally and in close-up. Many artists share the desire for involvement with the self and their own appearance. In the oeuvre of Egon Schiele, self-portraits occupy a central role. Over a period of many years Schiele recorded himself in various poses and styles. This publication focuses in detail on this crucial and yet often only marginally mentioned aspect of his art. Egon Schiele’s contorted and eccentric figures are among the world’s iconic images. For many of these works he and his own body served as model. His interest often lay not in his own self, but more generally in the position of the individual in the changing modern world. As in experimental arrangements, Schiele poses in a variety of roles. In doing so he “uses” his face and wears it like a mask. The publication offers a comprehensive representation of this life theme of the artist genius.
£28.00
Gebruder Mann Verlag Lorenzo Lotto Malt Andrea Odoni: Kunstschaffen
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£76.00
Prestel 50 Portraits You Should Know
Book SynopsisThroughout the history of art most of the world's greatest artists have produced portraits at some point in their careers, whether commissioned by rulers or magnates; created to preserve a cherished friend or relation; or even to capture the artist's own likeness. Arranged chronologically, each of the 50 masterworks in this book exemplifies a moment in history, or a turning point in the artist's career. Van Eyck's A Man in a Turban, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Sargent's Madame X, Kahlo's Self-Portrait with Necklace, Warhol's Marilyn and many more world-famous paintings are featured in exquisite full-page reproductions accompanied by engaging and enlightening texts. An introductory essay on the history and importance of the portrait in art history and brief biographies of each artist round out this survey that provides valuable information in an attractive and affordable package.Trade Review"Being educated on works of art is just as important as being up on the latest trends in design. Plus, all 50 portraits are super iconic and beautiful, so there's that, too." -Domino
£13.49
Schnell & Steiner Die Ersten Bildnisse Von Heiligen Der Fruhen
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£76.24
Jan Thorbecke Verlag Von Einem Der Auszog...: Das Werk Hans Malers Von
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£51.30
Taschen Autorretratos
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£14.82
V&R Unipress Portrats Von Tilla Durieux: Bildnerische
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£76.95
Kehrer Verlag Here / Still / Now
Book SynopsisD'Amato's portraits give individual faces to the ongoing crisis in African-American communities.
£27.20
Sandstein Verlag Silberglanz: Von Der Kunst Des Alters
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£36.71
Sandstein Verlag Wunsch & Wirklichkeit: Portrats Aus Der Sammlung
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£19.46
Sandstein Verlag Margarete: Meine Mutter. Handzeichnungen Aus Den
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£27.00
Hartmann Projects Cindy Sherman: 2016
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£22.50
MASP Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits
Book Synopsis“Paula’s beautiful, ambitious project illuminates forgotten histories, honoring the overlooked.” –Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker The Brazilian artist Dalton Paula (born 1982) works across painting, installation, photography and sculpture. Drawing on rigorous visual research, he seeks to critically interpret historical events, particularly as they have affected Black people in Brazil—a country that, after Nigeria, contains the second-largest population of African descent. Dalton Paula: Brazilian Portraits showcases a sampling from the portrait series Paula embarked on in 2018, a tribute to the Black Brazilian men and women who fought for freedom and justice over the course of several centuries but have been systematically erased from the country’s dominant historical narrative. Through his portraits (one of which—a gripping rendering of the Brazilian slave rebellion leader Zeferina—appears on the cover of the much-acclaimed 2021 volume Afro-Atlantic Histories), Paula provides much-needed dignity, visibility and recognition to these valorous figures.
£46.80
Archeobooks Le Portrait Dans La Peinture Antique
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£27.00
Hoaki Portraying Children: Expressions, Proportions,
Book SynopsisPortraying people is undoubtedly one of the most difficult aspects of drawing. Expressions, movements, emotions and gazes add a series of challenges not present when drawing still lifes or landscapes. In addition, the scant number of books specifically about drawing children leave many of the particularities related to the portrayal of childhood unresolved. This book, now in paperback, fills this void. Using live models, either posing or simply naturally, photographs, videos, drawings of faces, it contains a step-by-step, detailed explanation on how to draw children. Through an introduction to proportions, and by training in observing the changes children experience over the years, the reader learns how to capture both children's physical and psychological transformations. Portraying Children is intended for illustrators and those who love to draw, and anyone else who wants to capture the memorable and fleeting moments associated with childhood.
£15.29
Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki Titian's Aretino
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£47.04
Viella I Tondi Di Venezia E Dumbarton Oaks / The Tondi
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£45.60
Damiani Michael Stipe Even the birds gave pause
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£36.00
L'Erma Di Bretschneider Juana Romani: La Petite Italienne: Da Modella a
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£134.90
