Search results for ""Thames Hudson Ltd""

Don McCullin is one of four new titles being published in Autumn 2007 in Thames & Hudson's acclaimed 'Photofile' series. Each book brings together the best work of the world's greatest photographers in an attractive format and at an easily affordable price. Handsome and collectable, the books are printed to the highest standards. Each one contains some sixty full-page reproductions printed in superb duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography.

Read more less

Magnum reporter Elliott Erwitt (born 1928) is a witty photographer with an eye that is not always optimistic, but is always stylish. Sudden coincidences and chance encounters with objects and situations allow him to capture glimpses of the ridiculous or comical side of everyday events. Dogs are his favourite subject, an affectionate metaphor for human frailities. Erwitt’s visual jokes become striking and pithy observations about life.

Read more less

An elegant presentation of interiors for introverts, placing the memorable work of London architect William Smalley alongside buildings around the world that have inspired his practice. Quiet Spaces places the work of architect William Smalley alongside spaces that have inspired him. Places of private contemplation – calm spaces to read a book or listen to music in, to walk through or simply be in – they are spaces that achieve a rare sense of repose and peace. From his own Bloomsbury Apartment and projects in the UK, France and New York, the book expands to include the work of other architects: a sixteenth-century villa by Palladio, houses in Mexico and Sri Lanka and the Secular Retreat in Devon by Swiss master architect Peter Zumthor. There are also places of making and displaying art: simplicity in Barbara Hepworth’s garden and studio in Cornwall, and intimacy in Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge. Specially commissioned photography by Harry Crowder conveys the atmosphere of the spaces. A foreword by acclaimed potter and writer Edmund de Waal records the small, unspoken ways in which we relate to buildings and how they come to have meaning for us.

Read more less

Gothic, Romanesque, Modernist, Metabolist... The variety of styles through architectural history can be bewildering. Whether it be a Gothic crocket or a simple Modernist join, this book illustrates all the key architectural styles from around the world using beautiful, specially commissioned drawings to identify key features and details. It begins with the earliest styles of the ancient civilizations – Egypt, Greece and Rome – before travelling through Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque and into the modern world via the panoply of 19th century revivalist styles. Also covered is the traditional architecture of China, India, Japan and Pre-Columbian America. A final section gathers together key architectural elements from different periods – columns, towers, doorways, windows. Filled with hundreds of drawings by an expert architectural illustrator, this book is ideal for anyone with a general interest in architecture as well as for students.

Read more less

This totally original architecture book – the first ever comprehensive study of brick – follows the story of brick from 5,000 bc to its use in building today, via the vast baths and basilicas of ancient Rome, through the wonders of Gothic brick in Germany, the majestic temples of Pagan and Mughal mosques in Iran, to its modern revival. Marvellously illustrated with spectacular, specially-taken photographs, Brick is at once an historical account of how bricks have been employed by architects of every period, a technical survey of brickmaking and bricklaying, and an essay in architectural and cultural history. The authors have applied their expert visual and technical knowledge to more than one hundred themes, from bricks in ancient Egypt to their distinctive use by such modern masters as Louis Kahn, Alvar Aalto and Renzo Piano. Great works of engineering – viaducts, tunnels and bridges – are given prominence alongside great cathedrals and country houses, temples and mosques, testifying to the incredible versatility and importance of bricks and brickwork.

Read more less

A concise survey of the pioneering work of London-based Ghanaian photographer James Barnor. With a practice spanning six decades and two continents, ranging from street to studio and fashion to documentary, Ghanaian photographer James Barnor (b.1929) is now recognised as a pivotal figure in the history of photography. Moving between Accra and London throughout his life, Barnor's photographic portraits visibly map societies in transition: Ghana winning independence from Britain, and London embracing the freedoms of the swinging sixties. He has said: 'I was lucky to be alive when things were happening ... when Ghana was going to be independent and Ghana became independent, and when I came to England the Beatles were around. Things were happening in the sixties, so I call myself Lucky Jim.' Barnor's photographs have been described as 'slices of history, documenting race and modernity in the post-colonial world', and he has been the subject of several major retrospectives over the last fifteen years. This concise survey in the Photofile series is the perfect overview of his multifaceted work.

Read more less

A stylishly illustrated compendium of 100 herbs, designed to enrich our understanding of all their uses. This isn’t just a book for the kitchen – it’s for the greenhouse, the medicine cabinet, the coffee table... Award-winning designer Caz Hildebrand’s Herbarium is a 21st-century reboot of the traditional herbal compendium. The visual genius behind the international bestseller The Geometry of Pasta, she has created abstract forms and vibrant colours to illustrate 100 essential herbs and to reveal their hidden properties. From bergamot, comfrey and dill to sassafras, vervain and wasabi, all types of herbs are covered; each is explained through the fascinating history of their uses and symbolism. There are tips on how to use them as seasonings and how to create healing potions, as well as advice on when and how to grow them. Herbarium celebrates all facets of herbs and all their life-enhancing properties.

Read more less

A global overview of the most contemporary and ingenious – and comfortable – former light-industrial spaces transformed into stylish modern residences. The love of warehouse buildings – often in attractive waterside locations – has become a global phenomenon, from London to New York, from Sydney to Florence. Drawing on her own experience of living in a Grade II listed mill, Sophie Bush has amassed a wealth of knowledge, contacts and understanding about which ingredients make a building fit for contemporary habitation. Warehouse Home is the ultimate resource for everything from how best to preserve and complement original architectural features to style ideas for adapting vintage and reclaimed pieces for modern living. The book has a practical structure, broken down into two key sections. 'Architectural Features' looks at how to make the most of a space while retaining its features, such as exposed brickwork, concrete floors and mezzanines. It also draws on examples of former industrial buildings across the world that have been renovated to create distinctive homes and workspaces, each selected for the originality or intelligence of its design. ‘Decorative Details' provides tips on how to recreate the warehouse aesthetic in any home, from repurposing pallets and breeze blocks as furniture to transforming exhaust cones into unique lighting fixtures. A reference section includes ideas on where to source everything from furniture to finishes.

Read more less

A lavishly illustrated collection of essays on drawing as a vital intellectual, artistic and life practice, by the artists of the Royal Drawing School. Drawing is among the most profound ways of engaging with the world. It is absorbing, instinctive – a way not just of seeing, but of understanding what we see. Ways of Drawing brings together a range of reflections and creative propositions by contemporary artists and teachers associated with the Royal Drawing School, generously illustrated with images by alumni of the School and the work of significant artists past and present. From explorations of artistic development to short, imaginative strategies for seeing the world afresh, it repositions this art form as a vital force in the contemporary world. Advocating passionately for drawing as both deeply personal and utterly essential, this book is an invaluable companion for artists with all levels of experience looking for new inspirations for their practice.

Read more less

The definitive survey of contemporary photography of the human body. The body remains a battleground. Politicized, conceptualized and increasingly shared, our often-paradoxical relationship with the human form is nothing new, but finds itself heightened in the digitised, virtualised era of the ‘post-industrial’ body. No longer a tool but a work-in-progress, our bodily expectations bound from fantasy to reality, beauty to tyranny, art to commerce and curiosity to obsession, leaving us dreaming of other bodies and alternate lives. Surveying a range of over 360 photographic re-presentations from the worlds of art, fashion, scientific and vernacular photography - including the work of Nobuyoshi Araki, Bettina Rheims, Lauren Greenfield, Viviane Sassen, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Daido Moriyama, Sally Mann, Pieter Hugo and Juergen Teller, Sølve Sundsbø and Daniel Sannwald - Body: The Photobook explores what our imaging of the human form, and the ways in which those images have been used and shared, might reflect of our relationship to the body. Supporting the broad range of photography is an essay by the psychologist Professor David Sander, who discusses the neurological representation of our own bodies.

Read more less

The official illustrated history of Blue Note, the most influential and important brand in jazz. Blue Note is not only known as the purveyor of extraordinary jazz but is also famous as an arbiter of cool. The superb photography of co-founder Francis Wolff and the cover designs of Reid Miles were integral to the label’s success and this highly illustrated publication – featuring the very best photographs, covers and ephemera from the archives, including never-before-published material – commemorates Blue Note’s momentous contribution to jazz, to art and design, and to the music business. Tracing the evolution of jazz from the boogie-woogie and swing of the 1930s, through bebop, funk and fusion, to the eclectic mix Blue Note releases today, the book also narrates a complex social history from the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany to the developments in music and technology in the late 20th century. Celebrating over eight decades of extraordinary music, this book demonstrates how Blue Note has stayed true to its founders’ commitment to ‘Uncompromising Expression’.

Read more less

Impeccably designed, and copiously illustrated with more than two hundred stills and behind-the-scenes images, this is the definitive celebration of one of cinema’s most enduring talents. Since his emergence in the early seventies, Martin Scorsese has become one of the most respected names in cinema. Classics such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas are regularly cited as being among the finest films ever made. This lavish retrospective is a fitting tribute to a remarkable director, now into his sixth decade in cinema and showing no signs of slowing up. Leading film writer Tom Shone draws on his in-depth knowledge and distinctive viewpoint to present refreshing commentaries on all twenty-three main features, from the rarely shown Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967) to the latest release, The Irishman (2019), as well as covering Scorsese’s parallel career as a documentary maker.

Read more less

For centuries the beguiling ancient ruins of Egypt have provided an endless source of fascination for explorers, antiquarians, treasure hunters and archaeologists. All, from the very earliest travellers, were entranced by the beauty and majesty of the landscape: the remains of tombs cut into the natural rock of hillsides and the temples and cities gently consumed by drift sand. These early adventurers were gripped by the urge to capture what they had seen in writings, sketches, paintings and photographs. While it was always the scholars – the Egyptologists – who were in charge, they depended on architects, artists, engineers and photographers. Yet when we think of Petrie, we think of Sir William Matthew Flinders, not of his wife Hilda. Only through reading their diaries and letters has it come to be realized how important she and other partners were. Similarly the role played by Egyptian workers, digging on archaeological projects and maintaining relations with the local landowners, is only just coming to be appreciated. Egyptologists’ Notebooks brings together the work – reproduced in its original form – of the many people who contributed to our understanding of ancient Egypt, offering a glimpse into a very different history of Egyptology. They evoke a rich sense of time and place, transporting us back to a great age of discovery.

Read more less

For more than 2,000 years the art of Greece and Rome has lain at the heart of western civilization. This book recaptures the excitement of the artists who first created it. It traces the daring innovations of those who, defying traditional wisdom, explored new ideas; it describes the valiant struggles of sculptors and painters to portray – for the first time – both the complexities of the human form and the richness of human emotions. So much has been destroyed by the ravages of time that Greek and Roman art seems to consist only of impressive ruins and broken fragments. Yet the creative achievements of the Greeks and their legacy, as adapted by the Romans, have never lost their power.

Read more less

The Great Builders surveys the careers of forty great architects whose engineering skills were crucial to their success. Sixteen nationalities and seven centuries of architectural innovation make for a survey of spectacular scope and depth: from churches and fortresses to bridges and high-tech skyscrapers, it includes masterpieces from all over the world and covers 700 years of architectural history. Here is Brunelleschi, who built the ‘unbuildable’ dome of Florence Cathedral; Sinan, a Christian engineer who became chief architect to the Ottoman court; Joseph Paxton, scribbling down a design for the Crystal Palace, London, on a piece of blotting paper; and James Bogardus, an early American evangelist of the opportunities offered by cast-iron architecture. Rapid advances in industrial production inspired experiments with new materials and techniques, gradually allowing a whole new architecture to emerge: reinforced concrete, plate glass and steel were central to the creations of Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret and Mies van der Rohe, for instance; and, in the High-Tech architecture of the present day – represented by Norman Foster, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava, among others – computer-aided design has seemingly tested the boundaries of the possible.With 26 illustrations, 19 in colour

Read more less

This essential publication reintroduces the importance of learning to ‘see by hand’, to visualize large-scale design schemes and explain them through drawing, before using the digital tools that are so crucial to efficient and cost-effective building solutions. Combining traditional drawing techniques with those from CAD rendering, Drawing for Landscape Architecture guides practitioners from their very first impression of a site, through concept and schematic design and client presentation to construction and site drawings, concluding with two case studies that show the final result. Just as hand-drawing returns to design courses around the world, this welcome publication celebrates the best aspects of traditional techniques while incorporating them into today’s digital design methods.

Read more less

In Things Come Apart, fifty design classics – arranged by size and intricacy – are beautifully displayed, piece by piece, exploding in midair and dissected in real-time, frame-by-frame video stills. Welcome to Todd McLellan’s unique photographic vision of the material world. The new compact paperback edition of the bestselling Things Come Apart comes equipped with a fresh, design-savvy package, and includes five new projects that reveal the inner workings of some of the world’s most iconic designs. From SLR camera to mantle clock to espresso machine, from iPad to bicycle to grand piano, every single component of each object is made visible. In addition to showcasing the quality and elegance of older designs, these disassembled objects show that even the most intricate modern technologies can be broken down and understood. Stunning photography is interspersed with essays by notable figures from the world of restoration, DIY, and design innovation, who discuss historical examples of teardowns, disassembly, and reverse engineering. Things Come Apart conjures the childlike joy of taking something apart to see how it works, and will appeal to anyone with a curiosity about the material world.

Read more less

New in the series Pocket Photo Books - attractive, immersive, compact photo guides - in which Harry Cory Wright explores one of London's iconic sights, Tower Bridge.

Read more less

Painting is a continually expanding and evolving medium. The radical changes that have taken place since the 1960s and 1970s – the period that saw the shift from a modernist to a postmodernist visual language – have led to its reinvigoration as a practice, lending it an energy and diversity that persist today. In Contemporary Painting, renowned critic and art historian Suzanne Hudson offers an intelligent and original survey of the subject: a rigorous critical snapshot that brings together more than 250 renowned artists from around the world, whose ideas and aesthetics characterize the painting of our time. These luminaries include Cecily Brown, Theaster Gates, Josh Smith, Jenny Saville, Julie Mehretu, Takashi Murakami, Gabriel Orozco, Christina Quarles, Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Zhang Xiaogang and many others. Organized into seven thematic chapters exploring aspects of contemporary painting, this is an essential volume for art history enthusiasts, students, critics and practitioners.With 245 illustrations in colour

Read more less

Over the course of a career that spanned fifty years, Agnes Martin’s austere, serene work anticipated and helped to define Minimalism, even as she battled psychological crises and carved out a solitary existence in the American Southwest. ‘I paint with my back to the world’, she claimed; when she died at ninety-two, in Taos, New Mexico, it is said she had not read a newspaper in half a century. Here, for the first time, is an account of Martin’s extraordinary life, and a long- awaited critical discussion of her work. Nancy Princenthal tells her story chronologically – from Martin’s birth in Saskatchewan and her early days as an artist, living in derelict Manhattan shipping lofts with Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Ad Reinhardt and other artists as neighbours; to the seven years she stopped painting, just as her career was taking off, and the months she spent roaming the country in a pick-up truck; and her last thirty years, in Taos some of that time, in an adobe house she built with her own hands. Martin did not achieve recognition until she was in her late forties. Her work – pencilled grids on square canvases, washed with pale or neutral colours – at last receives the critical appraisal it deserves.

Read more less

Written by an international team of artists, art historians and curators, this absorbing and beautiful book gives readers unparalleled insights into the world’s most iconic artworks. Art: The Whole Story traces the development of art period by period, with the illustrated text covering every genre, from painting and sculpture to conceptual art and performance art. Cultural timelines are there too, to help to the reader with historical context. Masterpieces that epitomize each period or movement are highlighted and analysed in detail. Everything from use of colour and visual metaphors to technical innovations is explained, enabling you to interpret the meanings of world-famous masterpieces – Mughal miniatures; Japanese prints in the 19th century; the colour theories behind Seurat’s remarkable La Grande Jatte; and why Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was so shocking in its day.

Read more less

Published to coincide with the UK release in November 2023 of the film Lee, starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, a biography described by the Sunday Times as 'a fascinating revelation of an adventurous and protean spirit.' Lee Miller, 1927 - New York: A classically beautiful young woman, she is discovered by Condé Nast, hits the cover of Vogue and is immortalized by Steichen, Hoyningen-Huene, Horst and other famous photographers. Lee Miller, 1929 - Paris: Protégé and lover of Man Ray, she invents with him the solarization technique of photography, develops into a brilliant Surrealist photographer, and plays the statue in Cocteau's film Blood of a Poet. Lee Miller, 1939-45 - Europe: Living at times with her future husband, the painter Roland Penrose, she becomes a US war correspondent and covers the siege of St Malo and the liberation of Paris. Her photographs of Dachau concentration camp shock the world. These are but three of the many lives of Lee Miller, intimately recorded here by her son, Antony Penrose. Featuring a selection of her finest work, including portraits of her friends Picasso, Ernst and Miró, Penrose’s tribute to his mother brings to life a uniquely talented woman and the turbulent times in which she lived.With 116 illustrations

Read more less

This richly diverse exploration of female artists and self-portraits is a brilliant and poignant demonstration of originality in works of haunting variety. The two earliest self-portraits come from 12th-century illuminated manuscripts in which nuns gaze at us across eight centuries. In 16th-century Italy, Sofonisba Anguissola paints one of the longest series of self-portraits, spanning adolescence to old age. In 17th-century Holland, Judith Leyster shows herself at the easel as a relaxed, self-assured professional. In the 18th century, artists from Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun to Angelica Kauffman express both passion for their craft and the idea of femininity; and in the 19th the salons and art schools at last open their doors to a host of talented women artists, including Berthe Morisot, ushering in a new and resonant self-confidence. The modern period demolishes taboos: Alice Neel painting herself nude at eighty, Frida Kahlo rendering physical pain, Cindy Sherman exploring identity, Marlene Dumas dispensing with all boundaries. The full verve of Frances Borzello’s enthralling text, and the hypnotic intensity of the accompanying self-portraits, is revealed to the full in this inspiring book.

Read more less

Born in Berlin in 1931 to Jewish parents, the eight-year-old Auerbach was sent to England in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime. His parents stayed behind and died in a concentration camp in 1943. Now in his eighties, Auerbach is still producing his distinctly sculptural paintings of friends, family and surroundings in north London, where he has made his home since the war. The art historian and curator Catherine Lampert has had unique access to the artist since 1978 when she first became one of his sitters. With an emphasis on Auerbach’s own words, culled from her conversations with him and archival interviews, she provides a rare insight into his professional life, working methods and philosophy. Auerbach also reflects on the places, people and inspirations that have shaped his life. These include his experiences as a refugee child, finding his way in the London art world of the 1950s and 1960s, his friendships with Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Leon Kossoff, among many others, and his approaches to looking and painting throughout his career. For anyone interested in how an artist approaches his craft or his method of capturing reality this is essential reading.

Read more less

The Iconic House features over 100 of the most important and influential houses designed and built since 1900. International in scope and wide-ranging in style, the houses share a remarkable sensitivity to site and context, appreciation of local materials and building traditions, and careful understanding of clients’ needs. Each, however, has a unique approach that makes it groundbreaking and radical for its time. Concise, informative texts and fresh, vibrant illustrations, including specially commissioned photographs, floor plans and drawings, offer detailed documentation, while a bibliography, gazetteer and list of houses by type provide further information. Whether Arts and Crafts or Art Nouveau, Modernist or Minimalist, High-Tech or new vernacular, these unforgettable buildings from around the world will inspire and delight students and professionals, design aficionados and anyone who dreams of building a house of their own.

Read more less

Karl Lagerfeld is a modern master of couture. He is also famously outspoken: his wise, surprising statements pop up like offbeat news flashes. This collection of quotations pays homage to the legendary éminence grise of the fashion world. Lagerfeld’s pronouncements – on fashion, women, art, politics, love, and life high and low – are famously oracular, seized upon by fashionistas, acolytes and sages around the world. Created with the full approval of the designer himself, this cornucopia of Lagerfeld’s maxims is required reading for us all today as we negotiate the trickiest curves of modern life. Cultivated, unpredictable, provocative, sometimes shocking, Lagerfeld’s ‘bons mots’ are always impossible to ignore.

Read more less

Biographies of artists and writers have traditionally presented an individual’s lone struggle for self-expression. In this book, critics and historians challenge these assumptions in a series of essays that focus on artist and writer couples who have shared sexual and artistic bonds. Featuring duos such as Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, this book combines biography with evaluation of each partner’s work in the context of the relationship.

Read more less

Modern Art takes the reader through individual movements from Impressionism to Conceptual Art, situating these within five broader chronological themes. Starting with Impressionism in 1860, Dempsey proceeds through the essentials of Modernism, the post-war New Disorder and beyond. The material is arranged with great care to lead the reader through over seventy essential topics of modern art in a practical and easy-to-navigate structure. Each boldly designed feature includes a clear definition of the theme, a list of key artists, features, media and collections, and expertly curated illustrations with explanatory captions. A reference section includes a useful glossary of modern art terms, an easy-to-navigate timeline and suggestions for further reading.

Read more less

Screenprinting is in the midst of a popular revival among beginners, students, hobbyists and experts alike, but there are very few recent publications that give actual fundamental information on its techniques and processes. This book provides the missing manual on this very popular practice. It includes iInspirational step-by-steps with leading artists, illustrators and designers, including Ben Eine and Rob Ryan. In each step-by-step original work is created to showcase a key process or technique such as hand-cut stencils, colour blending and monoprinting. The information on materials and techniques, along with tips, insights and troubleshooting, will ensure today’s creatively minded screenprinters will be able to produce eye-catching work of their own. The book also gives valuable advice to the budding screenprinter on how to organize an exhibition or screenprinting event and promote and sell their work. Deliciously fresh and visual, with specially commissioned photographs and written by a vibrant, innovative group working and teaching at the very epicentre of the contemporary screenprinting scene, this book is the complete modern guide for screenprinters of all levels of knowledge and skill, and will have a vital presence in their studios and workshops.

Read more less

William Wegman is a world-renowned American artist whose paintings, photographs, videos and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Today he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with his longstanding muses, an ever-expanding cast of Weimaraners, for whom performing elaborate scenarios or merely posing demurely for their portraits comes as second nature. Curated in close collaboration with distinguished photography author William A. Ewing, William Wegman: Being Human is the most extensive collection of Wegman’s photographic work yet to be published. The book is organized thematically, presenting a wealth of exceptional work in such a way as to highlight the versatility of Wegman’s everinventive mind as he explores what it means to be human. From portraits of characters we so easily recognize – a suburban housewife, a famous actor, a nightclub singer, a golfer dressed in plaid – to imagery that toys with a wide range of visual languages, Wegman quotes freely from fashion photography, Cubism, colour theory, the tradition of the nude and the history of art itself. Essays and an interview explore Wegman’s approach to his subjects and their life in the studio. With over 300 images made over the last four decades, many published here for the first time, William Wegman: Being Human will delight and engage both those who are new to Wegman’s work and those who have admired his art for many years.

Read more less

Few photography books can lay claim to being truly groundbreaking. The first edition of Magnum Contact Sheets was one of them. This exceptional book, presented here in a new, accessible format for the first time, reveals how Magnum photographers capture and edit the very best shots. Addressing key questions of photographic practice - was the final image a set-up, or a serendipitous encounter; did the photographer work diligently to extract the potential from a situation, or was the fabled 'decisive moment' at play? - this book lays bare the creative methods, strategies and editing processes behind some of the world's most iconic images. 139 contact sheets, representing 69 photographers, are featured, as well as zoom-in details, selected photographs, press cards, notebooks and spreads from contemporary publications, including Life magazine and Picture Post. Further insight into each contact sheet is provided by texts written by the photographers themselves or by experts chosen by members' estates. Many acknowledged greats of photography are included, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt and Inge Morath, as well as Magnum's latest generation, such as Jonas Bendiksen, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Alec Soth. These photographers cover over seventy years of history, from the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, the Paris riots of 1968 by Bruno Barbey and war in Chechnya by Thomas Dworzak to images of Che Guevara by Rene Burri, Malcolm X by Eve Arnold and clasic New Yorkers by Bruce Gilden. This landmark book, published just as the shift to digital photography threatens to render the contact sheet obsolete, celebrates the sheet as artifact, as personal and historic record, as invaluable editing tool, and as a fascinating way of accompanying great photographers as they work towards, and capture, the most enduring images of our time.

Read more less

Draw funny dogs and get into a sunny mood. Draw comical cats and give your day a boost. If you feel like fun and have a pen. It’s time to follow your imagination!. Hirameki – ‘brainwave’ or ‘flash of inspiration’ in Japanese – is where doodling and imagination come together. Simply put, it’s the art of turning a random blot into something amazing, just by adding a few dots and lines. If it’s true that you can find happiness in little things, this book should keep your eyes, hand and brain entertained for hours.

Read more less

The skilled tailors of Savile Row in Mayfair, central London, have dressed kings, movie stars, rock legends, billionaires – and even a few regular guys. A Savile Row suit remains an enduring and highly individual symbol of the finest a man can buy. From its origins close to Britain’s main royal palaces, the Row has grown from clothing aristocrats to military men; more recently it has been revivified by the renewed appreciation of personalized, handmade goods, and by a new generation of modern sartorialists seeking ‘heritage luxury’. Told through eight chronological themes, this beautifully illustrated celebration brings together Savile Row’s highlights and low-lifes, the dramas and private tales, the suits and their accoutrements, the fabrics and the cuts, the history and future, as never before. Each chapter charts a stage of the Row’s development and its contribution to men’s fashion and culture. Throughout the book are dispersed 26 profiles of today’s master tailors, providing insight into what makes their work, relationships and clothes so special. The book is finely detailed with reference sections on the anatomy and making of the perfect suit. This once-in-a-lifetime publication, by the archetypal modern gentleman and devoted customer of the Row, weaves a fabric rich with anecdote, personality and sartorial detail.

Read more less

David Hockney’s continuing belief in the importance of the portrait and his virtuoso skill in creating a sense of close communication between artist, sitter and viewer has resulted in some of the best-loved works of the postwar era. From the 1950s on, Hockney’s most persistent subject matter, in paintings, drawings, collages and photoworks, has been of people usually very close to him, as well as of himself. These works are narratives of autobiographical relationships: they reflect the intimate and often intense stories of this artist’s life. They also explore different formal ways of representing the passage of time and at the same time the unavoidable but marvellous stillness of portraits. The works include fascinating sequences as he paints his mother or Henry Geldzahler or Celia Birtwell on and off for decades; the special qualities attached to depictions of lovers; and the range of celebrities, writers and artists – Billy Wilder, Armistead Maupin, W.H. Auden, Henry Moore, Christopher Isherwood – who have been part of a very full life. The text by a distinguished European critic and curator reinforces the point that this hugely popular English-born artist, who made America his second home, has become a figure of worldwide appeal.

Read more less

In this inventive interpretation of the popular colouring book concept, Islamic design expert Eric Broug helps readers to create their own patterns, based on compositions from across the Islamic world. The book opens up the world of intricate Islamic patterns, allowing artists, designers and doodlers alike to learn about these works of art as they produce their own. With 48 Islamic geometric compositions from around the world to choose from, artists at all skill levels will relish the myriad opportunities to replicate these intricate patterns or create their own. The workbook’s clever design invites the pattern-maker to consider a composition in the book, take a corresponding loose leaf from the back of the book and figure out which sections of lines to trace to make the composition. Readers will have the unique satisfaction of making patterns appear where previously none were visible. Compositions – including a mix of more familiar geometric compositions and those that have scarcely been documented – are categorized by region and have various levels of complexity, making it possible for beginners to get started and artists or designers to develop their skills.

Read more less

Now available in a compact paperback edition, this book remains the most comprehensive survey of African textiles on the market today, illustrating in over 570 spectacular colour photographs the traditional, handcrafted, indigenous textiles of the whole continent. Covering, region by region, the handmade textiles of West, North, East, Central and Southern Africa, African Textiles outlines the vast array of techniques used as well as the different types of loom, materials and dyes that help to create these sumptuous textiles. With a useful glossary and map, a guide to collections open to the public, and suggestions for further reading, this book provides a wealth of information on the rich art of African textiles.

Read more less

Now available in paperback, this book devotes itself exclusively to rings, considering them thematically rather than chronologically. The author, a world expert, has rich historical and literary knowledge. As she considers rings in all their forms she makes us delight in them as works of art, and makes their context come alive through paintings, drawings and vivid quotations.

Read more less

This comprehensive survey of textiles from every region of the Indian subcontinent runs the gamut of commercial, tribal and folk textiles. The authors first place them in cultural context by examining the history, materials and various techniques – weaving, dyeing, printing and painting. They then give a detailed region-by-region account of traditional textile production, including chapters on Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A dazzling array of images provides an unsurpassed visual account of the textiles, while a detailed reference section with further reading, museums and information on technical terms completes this essential guide.

Read more less

Piet Oudolf, one of world’s most visionary and influential landscape gardeners, is at the forefront of the New Perennial planting movement. This glorious full-colour volume features twenty-three of Oudolf’s most beautiful public and private gardens. Noël Kingsbury’s accessible text places Oudolf’s work in context, and explains how each garden and the plants selected for it fit the specific environment, while Oudolf’s detailed plans provide inspiration and insight for all those interested in small personal gardens and the design of large-scale public landscapes alike.

Read more less

Between 1978 and 1992, Factory was one of the most important record labels in Britain. It launched the careers of Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays, to name but a few; it opened the legendary Haçienda club and Dry bar; and it introduced to music the concept of high-quality, cutting-edge design. The visual languages developed alongside the music, by designers such as Peter Saville, Central Station Design and 8vo, are still widely recognized and imitated today. Factory Records documents the label’s entire visual legacy and its role in bringing design into the mainstream. Every item with a famous Factory inventory number is illustrated or listed, including album sleeves, singles, special editions, flyers, posters, stationery and architectural projects. With a foreword by Tony Wilson, Factory’s charismatic record label owner and nightclub manager, this book amply conveys the energy, creativity and enthusiasm of one of the most dynamic (and chaotic) record labels ever.

Read more less

James Joyce remains a mysterious figure, and yet his books concern his own life: his friends, loves, and above all the city of Dublin. Professor Chester Anderson here examines Joyce as one of the greatest modern writers, but also explores his life, visiting all the places where he lived and worked, and showing how closely all these biographical details are related to Joyce's four great books: Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. This unity of work and life is illuminated by passages quoted from these masterpieces and from Joyce's letters and other writings. The fascinating photographs of Joyce, his family and his surroundings cover every phase of his life.

Read more less

Trace the history of the world in over 500 easy-to-follow maps, from the dawn of humanity to the present day. Organized chronologically, A History of the World in 500 Maps tells a clear, linear story, bringing together themes as diverse as religion, capitalism, warfare, geopolitics, popular culture and climate change. Meticulously rendered maps chart the sequence of broad historical trends, from the dispersal of our species across the globe to the colonizing efforts of imperial European powers in the 18th century, as well as exploring moments of particular significance in rich detail. • Visualizes 7 million years of human history. • Analyses cities and kingdoms as well as countries and continents. • Features major technical developments, from the invention of farming in the Fertile Crescent to the Industrial Revolution. • Charts the spread of major global religions, including Christianity and Islam. • Explores the increasing interconnectivity of our world through exploration and trade. • Investigates warfare and battles from across the ages, from Alexander the Great’s conquests to the D-Day offensive.

Read more less

An essential overview of great kingdoms in African history and their legacies, written by world-leading experts. From the ancient Nile Valley to the savannas of medieval West Africa, the highlands of Ethiopia and on to the forests, lakes and grasslands to the south, African civilizations have given rise to some of the world’s most impressive kingdoms. Yet Africa’s history is often little known beyond the devastation wrought by the slave trade and European colonial rule. In this groundbreaking new book, nine leading historians of Africa take a fresh look at these great kingdoms and empires over five thousand years of recorded history. How was kingship forged in Africa and how did it operate? Was dynastic power maintained by consent or by coercion? Did kings – and queens – display and project that power for all to see, or did they hide it away, as beneath the fringed crowns that concealed the faces of sacred Yoruba rulers? In what ways have African peoples themselves recorded, celebrated and critiqued the deeds of their kings? Great Kingdoms of Africa explores some of the most important questions in the continent’s deep past. As elsewhere in the world, absolute monarchy in Africa has been on the wane in the modern era. Yet kingship continues to thrive within many present-day African nations, preserving deep-rooted ideas about culture, identity and sacred power. Presenting exciting developments in the understanding of how states and societies have interacted with each other across time, this book shows how powerful and sophisticated kingdoms have shaped the course of African history – and continue to do so in the present day.

Read more less

Following on the success of his book The Empire of Death , which has attracted a global cult following, Paul Koudounaris brings the catacomb saints out of the darkness with this astonishing volume, which includes arresting images of more than seventy spectacular jeweled skeletons and the fascinating stories of dozens more, accompanied by rare archive material. This is the first time that some of these incredible relics – both intriguing historical artifacts and masterpieces of artistic craftsmanship in their own right – have appeared in a publication, with Koudounaris gaining unprecedented access to photograph in some of the most secretive religious establishments in Europe. This will be essential reading for goths, art historians and everyone in between.

Read more less

Published to accompany the first Francis Bacon retrospective in Paris for twenty years, this catalogue analyses Bacon’s works from 1971 onwards in light of his relationship to literature. Bacon always vigorously opposed over-analysis of his paintings, preferring to interpret them in purely illustrative or symbolic terms; he admitted, however, that literature was a powerful stimulus to his imagination. The artist was inspired by the images conjured up by certain texts: Aeschylus’ phrase ‘the reek of human blood smiles out at me’ in particular haunted Bacon, while his 1978 work Painting refers to T. S. Eliot’s seminal poem The Waste Land. The inventory of Bacon’s personal library has identified more than 1,300 books, ranging from Bataille and Conrad to Nietzsche and Leiris. Including twelve of Bacon’s renowned triptychs, this lavish publication features eleven gatefolds and some sixty paintings created by Bacon between 1971 and his death in 1992. Reproduced here with analyses of Bacon’s paintings in the light of some of his most admired authors, these specially commissioned texts reveal new ways of understanding some of the most powerful works in the modern canon.

Read more less

The Graphic Art of Tattoo Lettering is a visually led, comprehensive guide to designing and realizing hand-drawn letterforms in the most widely used contemporary tattoo styles. Each chapter constitutes an accessible overview to these key tattoo styles, including an account of the history, complexities and relevant sub-styles, interviews spotlighting leading practitioners, galleries of exemplary artists’ work, sketches, sketchbooks, finished designs and detailed how-to-design guides to allow readers to truly understand each style. More than a step-by-step, technical handbook for professional and practising tattoo artists, The Graphic Art of Tattoo Lettering is also an informative introduction to both understanding tattoo styles, their history and context, and learning from them to inform other graphic arts. Touching on the role of lettering in tattooing, as well as considering the components of typographic tattoos, it offers an insight into how tattoo art intersects with other areas of design practice, including sign-making, furniture painting and scrimshaw. Combining great book design with the inimitable expertise of a master tattoo artist, The Graphic Art of Tattoo Lettering is the ultimate guide for all with an interest or involvement in tattoo art, typography and calligraphy, and graphic design.

Read more less

This groundbreaking study explores the deep connections between modern and premodern art, offering a radical reading that reveals the underlying patterns and ideas traversing centuries of artistic practice. Nagel reconsiders from an innovative double perspective some key issues in the history of art, from iconoclasm and illusionism to the status of painting, installation, and the museum as institution. He examines, among other topics, why the medieval workshop was of such importance to the Bauhaus; how the 4th-century Jerusalem Chapel in Rome was a proto-earthwork akin to the projects of Robert Smithson; and the relationship between medieval relics and Duchamp’s readymades. Alongside an analysis of 20th-century medievalist theorists such as Brecht, Joyce and Eco, Nagel considers a wide range of celebrated artists. This is a radical new reading of art that will profoundly broaden our understanding of both premodern practices and the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Read more less

Straddling two World Wars and the Great Depression, ushering in the Jazz Age and the era of the automobile and skyscraper, fomenting in the great cities of Europe and America and shaping everything from the Golden Gate Bridge to the humble desk lamp, the story of Art Deco is the story of our modern world. In this book, the most comprehensive account of the decorative arts of the Art Deco period ever assembled, Alastair Duncan celebrates the style’s rich variety of form and its diverse international roots as the very factors that make it a perennial favourite of modern collectors and designers. Sumptuously illustrated and written by one of the world’s leading experts, Art Deco Complete will be the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.

Read more less