Description
Book SynopsisEnter The Madman's Gallery - the perfect gift book for any art lover. Discover an eccentric exploration through the curious history of art, to find the strangest paintings, sculptures, drawings and other artistic oddities ever made. From the author of the bestseller
The Madman’s Library (
SundayTimes Literature Book of the Year 2020, Radio 4
Book of the Week) comes an extraordinary new illustrated collection. This unique exhibition gathers more than a hundred magnificent works, each chosen for their
striking beauty, weirdness and captivating story behind their creation.
Obscure and forgotten treasures sit alongside famous masterpieces with secret stories to tell. Here are Doom paintings, screaming sculptures, magical manuscripts, impossible architecture,
dog-headed saints, angel musketeers and the first
portrait of a cannibal. Stolen art, outsider art, ghost art, revenge art, and art
Trade Review‘I love this book.
Beautifully illustrated, it's a superb cabinet of art curiosities, featuring the true stories of muses and masterpieces, uncovering what artists have really been inspired by, across history and cultures.
A coffee table book that you'll actually want to read.' -- Ruth Millington, author of Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces
‘Welcome to this cabinet of artistic curiosities. Brooke-Hitching has done
a marvellous service in highlighting the weird in art history. Too often, Surrealism aside, we fail to embrace the bizarre, feeling it is insufficiently "important" or "serious". Finally there is a book that beautifully embraces this subset of art history with lavish illustrations and thoughtful text about just this. Lay back, pour yourself a teacup full of string, and dive into this
brain-tingling collection.
The perfect gift for all lovers of the bizarre and the visually arresting.’ -- Dr Noah Charney, author of The Museum of Lost Art
'
The Madman’s Gallery reminds us that for the first 40,000 years of its existence art was a verb - something that does something. Protects you from demons and plagues, assists in childbirth, casting spells, summoning ghosts, standing over tombs, communing with ancestors, making the crops grow, safeguarding armies, and conjuring God.’ -- Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic New York Magazine
'Don't miss the
extraordinary new illustrated collection from Edward Brooke-Hitching.
The Madman's Gallery draws on a
depth of research and images to form a book that surprises at every turn.' * Artists & Illustrators *
'Brooke-Hitching has the true eye and instinct for the unusual and unexpected that is possessed by only the most dedicated and assiduous connoisseur and collector. I hope this cabinet of artistic curiosities becomes a bestselling book.
A handsome volume that deserves to sell like hot cakes.' -- Robert Cumming, author of 'Art: A Visual History'
‘…a feast of artistic curiosities’ * The Telegraph *
‘A gallery of the gory, the gruesome, the saucy, images familiar and strange.’ * Saga Magazine *
‘Following on from books highlighting eccentric offerings from the fields of literature and cartography, Edward Brooke-Hitching sets off in search of similarly outré gems from visual art.’ * History Revealed *
