Search results for ""royal academy of arts""

David Remfry MBE RA has long been fascinated by the relationships that develop between dogs and their owners. In this charming new book, his deft portraits in watercolour and gouache reveal the mutual understanding and sympathy of these partnerships. Many of his portraits are accompanied by sketches from the artist's many notebooks alongside brief accounts by his sitters of how dog and owner came to find each other. Remfry's lively watercolours and sketches illustrate such celebrities as Ethan Hawke (and Nina), Susan Sarandon (and Penny and Rigby) and Alan Cumming (and Honey). Some of the sitters were Remfry’s neighbours at the iconic Chelsea Hotel in New York.

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"Monet, van Gogh and Cezanne feature in a pleasurable Royal Academy show that demonstrates why the Impressionists remain the world's favourite set of artists." — Independent Best known for their superlative oils on canvas, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and numerous other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists also regularly used paper as a support for works in watercolour, gouache, pencil, tempera and that most elusive of media, pastel. Their practice transformed the status of these works from preparatory studies, to be left in the studio and not shown in public, to works of art in their own right. With insightful texts by acknowledged experts in the field, this sumptuous book brings together some 70 masterworks on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. Their bold innovations challenged traditional attitudes, radically transformed the future direction of art and ultimately paved the way for later movements such as Abstract Expressionism.

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"Forget the rural idylls. This sublime show recasts John Constable as the godfather of the Avant Garde, producing explosive, nightmarish paintings of a vanishing world." – Jonathan Jones, Guardian One of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, John Constable (1776–1837) was brought up in Dedham Vale, the valley of the River Stour in Suffolk. The eldest son of a wealthy mill owner, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1800 at the age of 24, and thereafter committed himself to painting nature out of doors. His ‘six-footers’, such as The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse, were designed to promote landscape as a subject and to stand out in the Academy’s Annual Exhibition. Despite this, he sold few paintings in his lifetime and was elected a Royal Academician late in his career. With texts by leading authorities on the artist, this handsome book looks at the freedom of Constable’s late works and records his enormous contribution to the English landscape tradition.

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The artist Humphrey Ocean RA has painted portraits of Sir Paul McCartney and Philip Larkin, among many others. But alongside these prestigious commissions, he has always returned to drawing the simpler things in life: our 'alluringly unnatural world', as he puts it. The result is this idiosyncratic and charming collection of birds, all rendered in Ocean's unique style. With a species to discover on every page, this book is the perfect gift for any keen ornithologist, aspiring twitcher or dedicated listener to Tweet of the Day. As well as birdwatching around his home and studio in South London, Ocean regularly visits his sister, who is a nun in Nairobi and has loved birds all her life. There, he paints Kenyan birds such as the Eurasian bee-eater, the Bulbul and the Flycatcher that are 'local, a bit like our garden birds so nothing overly exotic, but of course to me they are'. They join the familiar gulls, thrushes and tits of the gardens, parks and hedgerows of the UK in this beautifully produced collection.

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Norman Ackroyd CBE RA has spent over four decades recording the coastal landscapes of the British archipelago. All his watercolours and many of his etchings are executed en plein air, mainly from chartered boats chosen for their skippers' local knowledge and expertise in landing on the more remote rocks and islands. These journeys, which can last up to fourteen hours, are the result of extensive reading and research. A Shetland Notebook contains 39 watercolours selected from several journeys to the edges of Shetland in the spring and summer of 2012. From the verdant flora of the southern isles to the rugged northern cliffs of Unst and Esha Ness, the book paints a vivid portrait of one of the most intriguing yet inhospitable corners of the British Isles. Each sketch is accompanied by a brief but engaging commentary by the artist.

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In 2018 the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts will host major exhibitions of the work of Tacita Dean. Each will provide a different encounter with her art. This book brings together new and existing works from all three exhibitions - LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT, STILL LIFE - with texts offering a unique insight into Dean's work by leading writers including Alexandra Harris, Alan Hollinghurst and Ali Smith. Published at a particularly prolific period for Dean, this book provides a new and authoritative view of a hugely influential artist who has been at the forefront of British art for over twenty years. The volume is published with three different covers.

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Masterpieces of nineteenth-century French painting from the Ordrupgaard Collection in Copenhagen are travelling to the Royal Academy of Arts in the spring of 2020. Drawn from the remarkable collection of the Danish insurance magnate and art lover Wilhelm Hansen, these works represent the very best of French Impressionism. Having already built up an impressive collection of Scandinavian art, at the beginning of the First World War Hansen had ambitious plans to extend his collection to encompass French art. A burst of acquisitions from 1916 to 1918, during which he took advice from the influential Parisian art critic Theodore Duret, saw his collection grow to include works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Sisley, Courbet, Morisot, Matisse, Pissarro and - forming a particular highlight of the collection - a group of significant paintings by Paul Gauguin. With stunning reproductions of sixty works, the authors explore the history of the collection and provide detailed analysis of the works themselves.

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A handsomely illustrated study of one of the world’s greatest contemporary artists, including Johns’s most iconic paintings, sculptures, works on paper and collages.

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The history of architecture is a story of continual innovation, and yet at certain points within that story comes an architect whose vision completely defies convention. Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture focuses on twelve such figures from the history of British architecture, including Sir John Soane, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Cedric Price and Zaha Hadid. From the stripped-back classicism of Soane''s Dulwich Picture Gallery to Hadid''s neofuturistic Olympic Aquatics Centre in London, their work is bold, frequently controversial, often radical; it is architecture that actively resists being pigeon-holed into a particular style or period. What connects this naturally disparate group of free creative spirits is the way each has charted their own course, often deliberately evading conventions of taste, fashion and ways of working. This book will offer a fresh take on their work, establishing new and sometimes surprising historical connections, while posin

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Over his long and successful career David Remfry MBE RA RWS has achieved a mastery of watercolour that few have matched. Unusually for the medium, he works on a large scale and often focuses on people, exploring the dance hall and the nightclub in breathtaking images that are at once beautiful and edgy. This book is the first full-length monograph devoted to the artist's watercolours. Its author, James Russell, is well known for his writing on 20th-century British artists. Russell brings his scholarship, humour and fascination for people and their lives to his study of Remfry’s career, tracing the evolution of a remarkable talent, looking in depth at the most significant works and placing Remfry in the context of both the British watercolour tradition and international contemporary painting. This is at once a glorious art book and an intimate portrait of city life. Having spent 20 years living and working at the legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York, Remfry has a following on both sides of the Atlantic. New Yorkers – often in party mode – feature in many of his watercolours, and his recollections of people and places add colour to the text.

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Pablo Picasso's artistic output is astonishing in its ambition and variety. This handsome publication examines a particular aspect of his legendary capacity for invention: his imaginative and original use of paper. He used it as a support for autonomous works, including etchings, prints and drawings, as well as for his papier-collé experiments of the 1910s and his revolutionary three-dimensional 'constructions', made of cardboard, paper and string. Sometimes, his use of paper was simply determined by circumstance: in occupied Paris, where art supplies were hard to come by, he ripped up paper tablecloths to make works of art. And, of course, his works on paper comprise the preparatory stages of some of his very greatest paintings, among them Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937). With reproductions of more than 300 works of art and additional texts by Violette Andres, Stephen Coppel, Emmanuelle Hincelin, Christopher Lloyd, Johan Popelard and Claustre Rafart Planas, this sumptuous study reveals the myriad ways in which Picasso's genius seized the potential of paper at different stages throughout his career.

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At first glance, there may appear to be more to separate Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Bill Viola (b. 1951) than to unite them: one, the great master of the Italian Renaissance; the other, the creator of state-of-the-art immersive sound and video installations. And yet, when Martin Clayton showed Viola Her Majesty The Queen's unsurpassed collection of Michelangelo drawings at Windsor in 2006, parallels began to emerge. This book presents a new perspective on both artists' works. Stills and sequences from ten key video pieces by Viola are reproduced alongside fourteen of Michelangelo's presentation drawings, as well as the Taddei Tondo, the only Michelangelo marble sculpture in the UK and a treasure of the Royal Academy's collection. Texts by Martin Clayton examine how existential concerns - the preoccupation of many Renaissance artists, not least Michelangelo - are explored in Viola's often profoundly moving video installations, while Kira Perov provides insight into Viola's working processes.

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Norman Ackroyd CBE RA has been a familiar face to the boatmen of the British Isles for the past 50 years, often requiring their services to take him out on the water, where he paints the coastal landscape in vivid watercolours. An Irish Notebook is a collection of 40 such sketches created by Ackroyd on the west coast of Ireland. From Malin to Mizen, via the rocky outcrops of Puffin Island and the emerald depths of Roaringwater Bay, Ackroyd records the Irish coast in all its rugged beauty.

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Accompanying catalogue for the Marina Abramović exhibition at the Royal Academy from 23 September – 1 January 2024. Over the past half century, Marina Abramović has earned worldwide acclaim as a pioneer of performance art. This handsome new book records the first UK exhibition to include works from her entire career. Re-performances of some of her best-known and most radical pieces appear alongside new and recent work. An augmented-reality app for iOS and Android enables readers to watch films of Abramović’s original performances while reading the book. An essential purchase for all followers of Abramović’s extraordinary 55-year career, this important publication brings expert voices into the debate that her groundbreaking art engenders. How far should an artist push herself in pursuit of her work? What role does the audience play in creating a performance? How can performance art outlive the moment in which it takes place?

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Pablo Picasso's artistic output is astonishing in its ambition and variety. This handsome new publication examines a particular aspect of his legendary capacity for invention: his imaginative and original use of paper. He used it as a support for autonomous works, including etchings, prints and drawings, as well as for his papier-collé experiments of the 1910s and his revolutionary three-dimensional 'constructions', made of cardboard, paper and string. Sometimes, his use of paper was simply determined by circumstance: in occupied Paris, where art supplies were hard to come by, he ripped up paper tablecloths to make works of art. And, of course, his works on paper comprise the preparatory stages of some of his very greatest paintings, among them Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937). With reproductions of more than 300 works of art and additional texts by Violette Andres, Stephen Coppel, Emmanuelle Hincelin, Christopher Lloyd, Johan Popelard and Claustre Rafart Planas, this sumptuous study reveals the myriad ways in which Picasso's genius seized the potential of paper at different stages throughout his career.

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From the remote shores of Rapa Nui to the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea, the islands of the Pacific are home to some of the most culturally diverse populations on the planet. The region embraces an extraordinary range of art forms, from delicate shell ornaments to spectacularly decorated canoes and meeting houses. These have fascinated outsiders since the exploratory voyages of Captain Cook, the first of which commenced 250 years ago in 1768, and went on to entrance Gauguin and a host of other European artists. This volume accompanies a major survey in London and Paris of art from Oceania. It brings together the most up-to-date scholarship by the leading experts in the field, encompassing a dazzling array of objects from the region, including many that have never been published before. Also included are many works that have historically been overlooked, such as painted and woven textiles, elaborate wicker assemblages and expressively sculpted vessels, alongside works by artists working in Oceania today. Objects of great aesthetic beauty, these artworks are the product of a complex web of social, mythological and historical influences.

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Ann Christopher RA is a non-figurative sculptor who works primarily in cast bronze, stainless steel, silver and fabricated Corten steel; her output comprises both large and small sculptures and site-specific commissions. Christopher's elegant and understated works reveal connections with a vast spectrum of sources from across the globe, such as rock formations in Israel, fossils from the Cretaceous chalks of Hertfordshire, prehistoric standing stones in Avebury and early Aegean figurines. The marks Christopher makes on her works are suggestive both of natural processes, such as weathering, and the forms and tools of mechanised industry. Christopher has been exhibiting sculpture for over 45 years. During that period she has won many awards and prizes, including the Silver Medal for Sculpture of Outstanding Merit by the Royal Society of British Sculptors and the Otto Beit Medal of Sculpture of Outstanding Merit. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and was elected a Royal Academician in 1989. She lives and works near Bath.

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A farmer's son from Cheshire, British artist Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-79) won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1920. He went on to work in numerous mediums, his favored subject matter being Britain's native birds and other fauna, always depicted punctiliously and yet, unusually for the time, in their natural habitats. Renowned as the illustrator of the 1932 edition of Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter and numerous Brooke Bond tea cards (popular collector's items in Britain in the postwar period), Tunnicliffe lived on the Welsh island of Anglesey for more than 30 years. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1954. This handsome catalogue raisonne of his prints, over 430 in number, includes lavish illustrations and authoritative annotations by the printmaking authorities Robert Meyrick and Harry Heuser.

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Born in 1943 in London, Bill Jacklin RA studied and worked in graphic design before a move to study painting at the Royal College of Art. Initially abstract, his work moved towards figuration in the mid-1970s, at which point he also became preoccupied with the effects of light and movement, twin strands that have characterised his work ever since. Since his move to New York in 1985, he has concentrated on painting portraits of the city in all its guises, from large-scale compositions of crowds in flux to Seurat-like etchings depicting more intimate urban moments.Jacklin enjoys making monotypes, whose fusion of printmaking and painting techniques is particularly well suited to his subject-matter. Painted on a polished, non-absorbent surface, these images are unique, and no reusable element, such as an etching plate, woodblock or stencil, is employed in their creation. This handsome new book reproduces a wide range of Jacklin's exuberant monotypes and contains an informative ac

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A student at Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art, Eileen Cooper RA became well known in the 1980s for her strong and passionate figuration. Her unapologetically female approach to her subject-matter encompasses sexuality, motherhood, life and death. She was elected a Royal Academician in 2001 and served as Keeper of the Royal Academy between 2010 and 2017, the first woman in the institution’s history to do so. This lovely new sketchbook reveals Cooper’s fascination with the female body in various media, from pencil and crayon to charcoal and gouache, and celebrates her work in all its joyful intimacy.

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For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, and recycled and cast-off objects that articulate America’s painful past – the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalised racism. Their works date from the early twentieth century to today and respond to issues ranging from economic inequality, oppression and social marginalisation, to sexuality, the influence of place, and ancestral memory. Among the sculptures, paintings, reliefs and drawings included here are works by Hawkins Bolden, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Henry and Georgia Speller, Mose Tolliver, Charles Williams and Purvis Young. Also featured are the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, among them Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Loretta Pettway and Martha Jane Pettway.

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Monet''s lavish paintings are re-imagined in zesty, energetic and amusing ways with illustrations that younger readers will find amusing and engaging. They tell the story of Monet and his garden: his arrival; the country clothes he wore; the bright Japanese prints he collected; how the Impressionist artist painted outdoors, rain or shine; the thousands of seed-packets he ordered; his gardeners, who had to leave Giverny to go to war... Spread by spread the garden is explained and built up with Ascari''s and Valentinis''s original illustrations, which take Monet''s work as their starting point and transform it in beautiful and unexpected ways.

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Michelangelo's (1475–1564) "Taddei Tondo," in the collection of the Royal Academy in London, offers a fascinating insight into the master's technical and experimental skill. Joshua Reynolds, the Academy's first president, considered that Michelangelo represented everything that an artist should aspire to, combining technical brilliance with sublime poetical imagination, and the Tondo shows this in scintillating relief. Expertly researched and written by the renowned Renaissance art historian Alison Cole, this book moves through the life of the "Tondo," from Michelangelo's rivalry with Leonardo to the marble's arrival at the Royal Academy and its use in the RA Schools. Finishing with a fresh look at the Tondo's role in revealing Michelangelo's technical experimentalism, Cole explores the importance of finish and what constitutes a finished work of art. Lavishly illustrated and including new photos of the Tondo, this is an enriching exploration of a lesser-known side of the great Renaissance. AUTHOR: Alison Cole is a Renaissance art historian who currently works as a writer and strategic consultant in the arts, digital and cultural sector. She has served on the executive boards of institutions such as Arts Council England, the Southbank Centre and The Art Fund. She is the author of 'Virtue and Magnificence: Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts' (1995) and has written several books on art history in association with major galleries. Her latest book, published by Laurence King, is a revised and expanded edition of 'Art of the Italian Renaissance Courts'. SELLING POINTS: . A new examination of the Taddei Tondo, the only Michelangelo marble in Britain . Authoritatively written by the renowned Renaissance art historian Alison Cole . Accompanied by new photographs of the tondo taken at its home in the Royal Academy Collections 50 colour images

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Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin are among the exceptional artists associated with the emergence of Expressionism in Germany in the early decades of the 20th century. Each challenged prevailing ideals of feminine identity at a time of great societal change. As women, they were expected to marry and raise a family; some chose to, some did not. As ambitious artists, they wanted to work. As they rose to these challenges, their art further undermined conventions. Their portraits of children symbolise joy, hope and innocence but also melancholy, tension, curiosity, the passing of time and unfulfilled desire. Their radical depictions of the nude wrest the female body away from the male gaze towards a newfound role, expressive of powerful maternity and female subjectivity. These dramatic modernist compositions, with their fluid brushwork and bright hues, push at the boundaries of form, colour and spiritual meaning.

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Renowned for such prominent buildings as London’s Tate Modern, Beijing’s Bird’s Nest National Stadium and 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Herzog & de Meuron sits at the cutting edge of contemporary design. Founded in Basel over 40 years ago, the Swiss architectural practice is now an international partnership with projects across the globe – among them museums, hospitals, skyscrapers, arenas, and private and civic buildings. Produced in close collaboration with the architects, and comprising new texts by leading writers, practitioners and thinkers, this exciting new publication gives an authoritative account of the inner workings of what the New York Times dubbed ‘one of the most admired architecture firms in the world’.

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These sketchbooks, the work of the acclaimed Scottish artist Barbara Rae CBE RA during her three journeys towards the Northwest Passage in the depths of the Arctic Circle in 2015, 2016 and 2017, record in colourful and assured brush strokes the icebergs, frozen bays and snowdrifts of this often hostile landscape. Polar bears roam and the Northern Lights dance across its pages, accompanied by Rae's handwritten notes in which she records her experiences and her immediate reactions to this harsh, unforgiving environment. Each page of the sketchbooks is meticulously reproduced, and the handsomely bound volume sits comfortably in the hand, making it the perfect gift for anyone interested in painting or exploration.

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Though little known outside her native country, Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) is one of Finland's best-loved artists. Her career, which stretched from the late 1870s to the end of the Second World War, encompassed both Impressionism and Modernism. This book records an exhibition that marks the first time her works have been seen in the UK since she exhibited in London herself in 1890. It presents the full range of her exceptional paintings and drawings, with 70 works in all genres, including portrait, landscape and still-life. Schjerfbeck's technique, her social and cultural context and her legacy are all examined in depth by the authors. The book also explores the role of the masquerade in Schjerfbeck's work, and the impact of old-master paintings on her practice.

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During his reign, King Charles I (1600-1649) assembled one of Europe's most extraordinary art collections. Indeed, by the time of his death, it contained some 2,000 paintings and sculptures. Charles I: King and Collector explores the origins of the collection, the way it was assembled and what it came to represent. Authoritative essays provide a revealing historical context for the formation of the King's taste. They analyse key areas of the collection, such as the Italian Renaissance, and how the paintings that Charles collected influenced the contemporary artists he commissioned. Following Charles's execution, his collection was sold. This book, which accompanies the exhibition, reunites its most important works in sumptuous detail. Featuring paintings by such masters as Van Dyck, Rubens and Raphael, this striking publication offers a unique insight into this fabled collection.

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This jewel-like book evokes unmistakable Italian landscapes and cityscapes. Anne Desmet's pen commits every detail to paper, and the small-scale format emphasises her distinctive flair for capturing the relationship between extreme foreground and distance. This is an opportunity to explore Italy, from Apennines to Veneto, through the eyes of a very particular artist.

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Lost Futures looks in detail at the wide range of buildings constructed in Britain between 1945 and 1979. Although their bold architectural aspirations reflected the forward-looking social ethos of the postwar era, many have since been either demolished or altered beyond recognition.Photographs taken at the time of their completion are accompanied by expertly researched captions that examine the buildings' design, creation, the ideals they embodied and the reasons for their eventual destruction. Lost Futures covers many building types, from housing to factories, commercial spaces and power stations, and presents the work of both iconic and lesser-known architects. The author charts the complex reasons that led to the loss of these projects' ambitious futures, and assesses whether some might one day be recaptured.

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Revolution: Russian Art, 1917-1932 encapsulates a momentous period in Russian history that is vividly expressed in the diversity of art produced between 1917, the year of the October Revolution, and 1932 when Stalin began to suppress the avant-garde and its debates. Based around the great exhibition of 1932 held at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad, the book explores the fascinating themes and artistic developments of the first fifteen years of the Soviet state, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, posters, graphics and film. The exhibition itself was to be the swansong of avant-garde art in Russia: new policies quickly ensured that Socialist Realism - collective in production, public in manifestation and Communist in ideology - was to become the only acceptable art form. This volume is a timely and authoritative exploration of how modern art in all its forms flourished, was recognised, celebrated, and broken by implacable authority all within fifteen years.

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Considered one of the most important religious structures of the twentieth century, the Chapel of the Rosary in Vince was regarded by Matisse himself as his great masterpiece. He dedicated four years to the creation of this convent chapel on the French Riviera, and the result is one of the most remarkable and comprehensive ensemble pieces of twentieth-century art. Every element of the chapel bears the artists touch, from the vivid Mediterranean hues of the stained glass windows to the starkly powerful murals; even the vestments and altar were designed by Matisse. This beautifully illustrated volume captures the chapel in exquisite detail, allowing an unparalleled view of this iconic and sacred space. With stunning new photography that captures the dramatic effects of the changing light in the building throughout the day, this book is the first to present the experience of being within the chapel exactly as Matisse himself envisaged it, while Marie-Therese Pulvenis de Selignys authoritative and insightful text explores the extraordinary story of the chapels creation and the challenges faced by the 77-year-old artist in realising his great vision.

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The South African artist William Kentridge Hon RA was born in Johannesburg in 1955 and lives and works there to this day. He is internationally renowned for the expressionism of his work in numerous media, among them charcoal, printmaking, sculpture and film, as well as his acclaimed theatrical and operatic productions. As elusive as it is allusive, Kentridge’s art is shaped by apartheid and grounded in the politics of the post-apartheid era, and in science, literature and history, while always maintaining space for contradiction and uncertainty. In a brilliant exposition of Kentridge’s output, Stephen Clingman, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, undertakes a series of enquiries, of walks around the artist and his practice, through the various layers and linkages, crossings and connections of his art. As he proceeds, he considers Kentridge’s themes, explores them and proceeds by association to others. Along the way, overlaps, thought-collages, allusions and assemblages come together to create a connective, dimensional way of thinking inspired by Kentridge’s own habits of creation.

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Gilbert McCarragher is an artist and photographer based in London and Dungeness. His architectural photography is featured extensively in books and magazines including El Croquis, Domus and John Pawson Plain Space (2010). As an artist, he works in multiple photographic mediums, and has exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Jerwood Space and the Wapping Project.

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Mwili, Akili Na Roho: Ten Figurative Painters from East Africa features the work of ten artists from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, including Sam Ntiro, Elimo Njau, Asaph Ng’ethe Macua, Jak Katarikawe, Theresa Musoke, Sane Wadu, Peter Mulindwa, Chelenge van Rampelberg, John Njenga, and Meek Gichugu. The personal histories, thematic concerns, and formal strategies of this multigenerational group of artists present an opportunity to engage more deeply in the genealogies of artistic creation in the region, while considering the enduring influence of certain ideas and institutions in the creation, dissemination, and reception of art in and from East Africa. This catalogue is published to coincide with an expanded version of Mwili, Akili Na Roho at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute in 2022, following earlier iterations at Haus Der Kunst in Munich (2020) and the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2021).

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Fahd Burki is known for his works on paper employing acrylic, charcoal, marker pen and collage; he has also produced a number of screen prints. These works frequently feature abstract graphic fields that contain a central form dominating the picture plane. The sources for these forms range from tribal folk art to science fiction. Painstakingly produced by hand, Fahd Burki’s imagery offers a series of playful and at times menacing icons or symbols harvested from a very personal mythology of the present, at once disconcertingly familiar and completely novel. Fahd Burki (b. 1981, Lahore, Pakistan) lives and works in Lahore and London. He graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore in 2003 and received a Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2010. Since 2004, his works have been exhibited at various art fairs including: LISTE 17, Basel, Switzerland; Artissima 18, Turin, Italy; India Art Summit, New Delhi, India and Art Dubai 2013, Dubai, UAE. Recent solo exhibitions have been held in Lahore and Dubai.

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English painter William Etty (1787-1849) believed women were ""God's most glorious work."" His determination to present that glorious work in its finest light led to criticism in his day for his choice of nudes as subjects. Today, this nineteenth century painter deserves recognition for his place in the history of English art, a poor boy who struggled against all odds to live his dream as a painter, and who eventually achieved the title of academician at the Royal Academy of Arts. The life of William Etty is thoroughly explored and generously illustrated in this biography. The historical and cultural backdrop for Etty's life and works is studied throughout the book. Chapters detail his family background and childhood, his home in York, his life in London and at the Royal Academy, and his struggles to make a living. His studies in Italy and France and his career as a painter are explored in detail. His work with the York School of Design in the final decade of his life, his place in the fine arts market and his emulators are described. An appendix examines Etty's relationship with his niece Betsy, his caretaker, housekeeper and assistant.

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The magic of embroidery is that it can transform something ordinary into something extraordinary. Armed with just a needle and thread, this book, and a little imagination, there is no limit to the fun you can have transforming clothes, accessories and homewares. The 25 inspiring designs can be applied to just about anything and cover a range of ability levels. Each project is clearly explained with step-by-step text, photographs and templates. All the necessary information on tools, materials and techniques is included too. So it's super easy to give your home and wardrobe a quirky and stylish boost. AUTHOR: Amy Burt is a full-time embroiderer who teaches at the Royal School of Needlework. In 2018, Amy's embroidery of 'The Young Stevie Nicks' was chosen from over 20,000 entries to be displayed in London during the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts 250th Summer Exhibition curated by Grayson Perry RA. Amy also works as a freelance embroiderer in the fashion industry. She is a senior embroiderer at the British Haute Couture fashion house Ralph & Russo. She lives in London. 300 photographs, 20 templates

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Landscape architect and designer Tom Stuart-Smith began his practice in London in 1998. Known for contrasting built forms with naturalistic planting, he has designed gardens, parks and landscapes in Europe, India, Morocco, the United States and the Caribbean. With clients such as the Royal Horticultural Society, the Royal Academy of Arts, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Stuart-Smith has established himself as the United Kingdom’s leading landscape architect. Featuring twenty-four of Stuart-Smith’s gardens from around the world, this book is the first major overview of his career. Through four essays by the designer, readers will learn about his inspirations and methods, while also marvelling at the beauty of his designs. Each garden is accompanied by an overview drawing, spectacular commissioned photography, and text by leading garden writer Tim Richardson. Offering rare insights and ideas on planting, design and landscaping, this book is a must-have for garden lovers and gardening professionals. Offering unique insights into landscape design and planting, this book will provide inspiration and ideas for garden-lovers and professionals, opening up imaginative possibilities for designing spaces from the smallest to the grandest. With 275 illustrations

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‘A dazzling anthology uniting the written word with the visual’ STEPHEN FRY A Short Affair is a vibrant anthology that combines the best of original short fiction with remarkable work by contemporary artists from the Royal Academy Schools. In this visually stunning collection from Pin Drop, the renowned short fiction and arts studio, Simon Oldfield brings together eighteen original short stories by giants of the form, alongside exciting new voices from the prestigious annual Pin Drop Short Story Award. With a foreword by Tim Marlow, Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Arts, each story is accompanied by a unique artwork. ‘Pin Drop is a wonderful and rare conception. The perfect antidote to the sound-bite culture’ WILLIAM BOYD Writers include: Elizabeth Day, Bethan Roberts, Nikesh Shukla, Claire Fuller, Ben Okri, Anne O’Brien, A. L. Kennedy, Anna Stewart, Craig Burnett, Douglas W. Milliken, Will Self, Jarred McGinnis, Barney Walsh, Rebecca F. John, Joanna Campbell, Emily Bullock, Cherise Saywell and Lionel Shriver Artists include:Eddie Peake, Kay Harwood, Gabriella Boyd, Jonathan Trayte, Luey Graves, Marco Palmieri, John Robertson, Coco Crampton, Pio Abad, Declan Jenkins, Mary Ramsden, Carla Busuttil, Jessy Jetpacks, Nick Goss, Tim Ellis and Adam Shield

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Selected writings from a leading critic of modern art, “the best art writer of his generation” (Art Newspaper) Michael Peppiatt, guest curator of the Royal Academy of Arts’ 2021 exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’, has for more than 50 years written trenchant and lively dispatches from the centre of the international art world. In this collection of key essays, Peppiatt gives his unique insight into the making and interpretation of modern art, from Manet and Degas through to Kandinksy and Picasso to Freud and Hockney. Covering a whole spectrum of artists and art-world figures—from pioneers such as Klimt and Soutine, to collectors and dealers who played a pivotal role in the modern art world, to artists such as Jean Dubuffett, Francis Bacon and Zoran Music, with whom he had close relationships—Peppiatt interweaves personal anecdote with critical judgement. Each text is accompanied by a new introduction, written in the author’s signature vivid and jargon-free style, in which he contextualises his writings and reflects on significant moments in a lifetime of artistic engagement. This volume will provide readers with an exhilarating tour of the extraordinary reach and variety of modern art.

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For more than forty years William Watson has occupied a unique place in the study and teaching of Chinese art in Great Britain. Professor Watson's publications cover a wide field, his command of Chinese, Japanese, Russian and western languages giving access to the fullest literature on his subjects. The colloquies he organized at the Percival David Foundation achieved international repute, with results that remain on record. At the Royal Academy of Arts he took a leading part in the Chinese archaeological exhibition of 1972 which reinstated cultural relations between Britain and China. Also at the Royal Academy he was the instigator and chief organizer of the Japanese exhibition of 1982, in which for the first time the art of the Tokugawa period was comprehensively presented outside of Japan as enshrining the national genius. The present two volumes collect Professor Watson's main smaller publications made in the course of museum and university careers. Many are specific studies of works in terms of cultural context, dating and historical significance. They contain mainly writing on Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects, in particular the bronze art, ceramics and sculpture of the T'ang and earlier periods. Painting is treated in some closely defined topics.

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Exploring the myths and realities of the origins of the “modern artist” in Britain The artist has been a privileged figure in the modern age, embodying ideals of personal and political freedom and self-fulfillment. Does it matter who gets to be an artist? And do our deeply held beliefs stand up to scrutiny? Making the Modern Artist gets to the root of these questions by exploring the historical genesis of the figure of the artist. Based on an unprecedented biographical survey of almost 1,800 students at the Royal Academy of Arts in London between 1769 and 1830, the book reveals hidden stories about family origins, personal networks, and patterns of opportunity and social mobility. Locating the emergence of the “modern artist” in the crucible of Romantic Britain, rather than in 19th-century Paris or 20th-century New York, it reconnects the story of art with the advance of capitalism and demonstrates surprising continuities between liberal individualism and state formation, our dreams of personal freedom, and the social suffering characteristic of the modern era.Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

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A companion to the prize-winning exhibition catalogue "Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe", edited by Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick (2003), this volume contains thirteen selected papers presented at the two conferences held in conjunction with the exhibition. The first was organized by the Getty Museum, and the second was held at the Courtauld Institute of Art, under the sponsorship of the Courtauld and the Royal Academy of Arts. Added here is an essay by Margaret Scott on the role of dress in the Burgundian court. Chapters include Lorne Campbell's research into Rogier van der Weyden's work as an illuminator, Nancy Turner's investigation of materials and methods of painting in Flemish manuscripts, and trenchant commentary by Jonathan Alexander and James Marrow on the state of current research on Flemish illumination. Although topics are wide ranging, one recurring theme is the structure of collaboration in manuscript production. Essays uncover an important new patron of manuscript illumination and address the role of illuminated manuscripts at the Burgundian court along with the contributions of individual illuminators. A series of biographies of Burgundian scribes is also included.

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Painting with Fire shows how experiments with chemicals known to change visibly over the course of time transformed British pictorial arts of the long eighteenth century--and how they can alter our conceptions of photography today. As early as the 1670s, experimental philosophers at the early Royal Society of London had studied the visual effects of dynamic combustibles. By the 1770s, chemical volatility became central to the ambitious paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds, premier portraitist and first president of Britain's Royal Academy of Arts. Valued by some critics for changing in time (and thus, for prompting intellectual reflection on the nature of time), Reynolds's unstable chemistry also prompted new techniques of chemical replication among Matthew Boulton, James Watt, and other leading industrialists. In turn, those replicas of chemically decaying academic paintings were rediscovered in the mid-nineteenth century and claimed as origin points in the history of photography. Tracing the long arc of chemically produced and reproduced art from the 1670s through the 1860s, the book reconsiders early photography by situating it in relationship to Reynolds's replicated paintings and the literal engines of British industry. By following the chemicals, Painting with Fire remaps familiar stories about academic painting and pictorial experiment amid the industrialization of chemical knowledge.

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The artistic accomplishments of James Northcote (1746–1831) have tended to be overshadowed by his role as a biographer of Joshua Reynolds, first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, with whom Northcote apprenticed for five years. Here, Mark Ledbury constructs a very different image of Northcote: that of a prolific member of the Royal Academy and an active participant in the cultural and political circles of the Romantic era, as well as a portrait and history painter in his own right. This book pays particular attention to Northcote’s One Hundred Fables (1828), a masterpiece of wood engraving, and the unconventional, collaged manuscripts for the volume, now at the Yale Center for British Art. Along with another series of collages now at The Morgan Library & Museum and a second volume of fables published posthumously in 1833, these collages and printed works constitute the most ambitious project of the artist’s later years. An underappreciated and courageously eccentric masterpiece, the Fables were an early experiment in what is now a familiar multimedia practice and are extensively published here for the first time. Idiosyncratic, personal, and visionary, the Fables serve as a lens through which to examine Northcote’s long, complex, and fruitful artistic career.Distributed for the Yale Center for British ArtExhibition Schedule:Yale Center for British Art(10/02/14–12/14/14)

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