Search results for ""thames hudson""

Winner of the prestigious BolognaRagazzi New Horizons Award 2019A History of Pictures for Children takes readers on a journey through art history, from early art drawn on cave walls to the images we make today on our computers and phone cameras. Based on the bestselling book for adults, this children’s edition of A History of Pictures is told through conversations between the artist David Hockney and the author Martin Gayford, who talk about art with inspiring simplicity and clarity. Rose Blake’s illustrations illuminate the narratives of both authors to bring the history of art alive for a young audience.

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WINNER of the 2018 4-11 Picture Book Awards (Non-Fiction 4-7 category)Nominated for the 2018 CILIP Kate Greenaway MedalThis book opens with introductory spreads explaining that beasts are wild animals that can’t be tamed and gives tips on how to spot them in their natural habitats. Subsequent spreads, illustrated with scenic compositions, are dedicated to specific beasts, including armadillos, bears, tigers and the Tasmanian Devil. Later spreads approach the world of beasts thematically, looking at mythical beasts, Ice-Age beasts, beasts on your street and how to save beasts in danger. The text is chatty, funny and full of amazing facts.

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Pascale Estellon’s whimsical artwork provides a high-quality base for creative fun in this beguiling book, which is guaranteed to entice kids away from the screen. Use the 128 pages of photographs and suggested activities to draw, colour and paint your own personal album – paint the missing half of a portrait, fill a vase with flowers, help the potatoes escape the pot, give a dog his dinner, draw heads inside hats and helmets, and teach fish to talk - the possibilities are endless!

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Mona Kuhn: Works is the first retrospective by one of the most respected and widely exhibited contemporary art photographers of today. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, Kuhn’s underlying theme involves humanity’s longing for spiritual interconnectivity. She is renowned for developing close relationships with her subjects, resulting in images of remarkable intimacy. Kuhn employs a range of playful visual strategies that reveal glimpses into the psyche as it is expressed through the human form, ultimately reinterpreting the nude in the canon of contemporary art. This new volume features images from throughout Kuhn’s career, including previously unseen work, and will introduce her distinct aesthetic to a wide, popular audience. Accompanied by insightful texts by Rebecca Morse, Chris Littlewood, Darius Himes and Simon Baker and an interview with Elizabeth Avedon, the reader is provided with insights into Kuhn’s creative process and the ways in which she works with her subjects and settings, and achieves the visual signature of her imagery. Mona Kuhn: Works is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the human form in contemporary art.With 155 illustrations in colour

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Bruce Gilden first set foot in Japan in 1994. On that trip and subsequent others, he explored the meandering streets of a country that had long fascinated him. From Tokyo to Osaka, he laid Japan bare in his own inimitable photographic style. Each image is a very close and powerful encounter with a story behind it. As ever, Gilden makes his approach, talks, tells stories, takes photographs, and paints a portrait of a unique street scene. In search of personalities as strong as his own, Gilden drew on the details around him to transcribe his vision of Japan: one man’s suit, another’s hat, or a woman’s posture. All of these elements, which give strength to the images, form a captivating ensemble – on the margins, just like him. In Cherry Blossom, Gilden tells the story of these voyages and the ties he maintains with Japan in a rare introductory text. The stories told alongside these pictures – whether an anecdote or a dialogue with their characters – render the American photographer’s vision even more contemporary than ever.With 60 illustrations

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With a career spanning nearly half a century, Bill Brandt was a master of several major genres of photography: photojournalism, portraiture, the nude and landscapes. At first glance, Brandt’s genres may appear unrelated, but when analysing his career in its entirety, a common theme comes to the forefront: what psychologist Sigmund Freud and philosopher Eugenio Trías called 'the sinister.' From his earliest photographs taken as an amateur in the 1930s to his late portraits and studies of the female body, Brandt expresses a fascination with the strange and dark aspects of life that only he can reveal. With 200 photographs from throughout Brandt’s career, this book adds a crucial chapter to the analysis of this key figure in 20th-century photography. Bill Brandt is set to become an authoritative retrospective.

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American Geography is the visual record of Magnum photographer Matt Black’s five-year, 100,000-mile road trip across 46 states of the United States, plus Puerto Rico. It examines the conditions of powerlessness, prejudice and pragmatism among America’s poor. The project originated in Matt Black’s exploration of his own home town in California’s rural Central Valley – a place that has been called ‘the other California’ – where one third of the population lives in poverty. Travelling out from that location in 2015, he went on to visit designated ‘poverty areas’ – places with poverty rates of above 20% as defined by the US census. He found that, rather than being anomalies, ‘poverty areas’ are never more than two-hour’s drive apart. They are woven throughout the fabric of the country, yet are cut off from the ‘land of opportunity’. Matt Black’s compelling black and white photographs, from which one can trace a line back to the FSA Photographers of the 1930s and 1940s such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, are accompanied by his own travelogue – an eclectic combination of observations, overheard conversations in cafés and city buses, diner menus, bus timetables, historical facts and echoes from daily news reports – which enrich the vivid portrait of these ‘states of un-America.’With 100 illustrations in colour

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Sean Scully is one of today’s best-loved abstract painters. His familiar signature style of lines or bands of colour, alluding to architectural elements such as portals, windows and walls, is one of the most instantly recognizable in contemporary painting. This book brings together for the first time his photographs of the dry stone walls found on the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland.

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Artist-photographer Tim Walker has won a cult following for his flamboyant, lavishly staged and surrealist fashion photography. Now he brings his unique brand of very British fantasia to a subject close to his and all our hearts: grandmothers. Pour yourself a cup of tea and step into an enchanted realm, where twinkling Miss Marple-types elope to Egypt in head-to-toe tartan or jet off to Mars on a flying saucer.... You’ll find Lucinda, whose hat addiction shows no sign of waning (she even goes to bed in one), and Hattie, who’ll give you a humbug if you’re helpful. Brush up on your knitting skills to rival Kitty. Book 1 of this two-volume collection offers an assortment of characterful portraits by Tim Walker of grannies and the things dearest to them, arranged alphabetically and accompanied by short, gently humorous verses written by Kit Hesketh-Harvey. In Book 2, fashion illustrator Lawrence Mynott contributes his own A–Z of drawings of lively old ladies. Spirited, stylish, sweet – here are granny archetypes of every stripe.

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Le Corbusier’s development was inextricably connected to the rise of the century’s most popular visual medium: photography. Marking the 125th anniversary of the architect’s birth in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, this remarkable book traces the many ways in which he used photography to define and disseminate his work and ideas around the world. This unique portrait presents the architect and his work in six chapters, each by an expert in a particular facet of Le Corbusier’s work: a photographic biography; his secret travel photographs; the ways in which the architect used photography for promotion; an examination of his approach to the printed page; an overview of his use of large-scale imagery in his buildings and exhibitions; and contemporary photographic interpretations of his work. Because Le Corbusier’s buildings are usually shown in a documentary manner, the candid, personal, artistic and often unexpected images that appear in this volume offer new insights and ways to appreciate the facets of the man behind his works.

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Robert Rauschenberg’s engagement with photography began in the late 1940s under the tutelage of Aaron Siskind and Hazel Larsen Archer at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Their combined influence was so great that for a time Rauschenberg was unsure whether to pursue painting or photography as a career. Instead he chose both. This volume gathers and surveys Rauschenberg’s numerous uses of photography for the first time. It includes portraits of friends, studio shots, photographs used in the ‘Combines’ series, silkscreens, photographs of lost works and works in progress, allowing us to re-imagine almost the entirety of the artist’s work in light of his always inventive uses of photography, while also supplying previously unseen glimpses into his social nexus of the 1950s and 60s.

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This haunting collection of photographs reflects the surreal vision of the New York collector W. M. Hunt. The photographs have a common theme – the gaze of the subject is averted, the face obscured or the eyes firmly closed – and range from André Breton’s self-portrait with eyes closed to Ruth Snyder in the electric chair in 1928 and from Weegee’s multi-imaged portrait of Andy Warhol in sunglasses to Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs of the artist Alice Neel with her eyes closed. The pictures present a catalogue of anti-portraiture, characterized at first glance by what its subject conceal, not by what the camera reveals. The continuous plate section, broadly ordered as a portrait of humanity from birth to death, has a commentary by Hunt running through it, in which he offers his own intense and perceptive responses to the images he has gathered over many years, as well as insights into the psychology of collecting.

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Men’s jewelry has a long and fascinating history, with storied houses, famous patrons and a diverse range of modern designers. Behind each tiny piece often lies a complex narrative of patronage, personality and craftsmanship. This is the first publication dedicated solely to a neglected subject. Drawing on his expertise on men’s style and insider’s knowledge of the jewelry industry, men’s style aficionado James Sherwood tells the story of men’s relationship with jewelry and presents the contemporary artisans who keep the art alive. Through thematic chapters, works by key jewelers are profiled and richly illustrated, including pieces by Tiffany & Co., David Yurman, Cartier, Boucheron and Ara Vartanian. Hundreds of exquisite photographs, many specially commissioned, of rings, cufflinks, studs, pins, slides, bracelets, chains and pendants chart changing fashions and evolving attitudes to men’s jewelry over the centuries. Pieces by great craftsmen and -women and the patrons who commissioned them, from the Maharaja of Kashmir to David Bowie, are brought to life through vivid texts and contemporary and archival portraits. This sumptuous guide to sartorial elegance sets men’s jewelry in its proper historical and cultural contexts, offering an unexpected resource for jewelers and a trove of inspiration for anyone who wears, gifts or simply admires men’s jewelry.

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Arriving in Paris in 1845, at the age of twenty and with only a few francs in his pocket, Charles Frederick Worth would go on to build the most prominent, innovative and successful fashion house of the century. Worth was inspired by a love of fine art, luxurious fabrics and his vision of the female ideal. He was the first to set out to dictate new styles and silhouettes to his elite clientele – not the other way around – hosting them in his rue de la Paix salons, which included ground-breaking ‘sportswear’ and ‘maternity’ departments, as well as silk, velvet and brocade rooms, and a special salon with closed shutters and gas lighting designed to allow clients to try on ball gowns in lighting conditions precisely matched to those of the event. Organized chronologically and illustrated with striking ensembles (including photographs of details that reveal the garments’ intricate construction and craftsmanship), paintings and documents sourced from both private family archives and the best fashion collections from museums around the world, The House of Worth is an inspiring tribute to the house that started it all.

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‘This ad is gender neutral’, proclaimed a 2016 poster for the fashion brand Diesel; ‘I resist definitions’, announced a Calvin Klein ad in the same year, while a Louis Vuitton shoot featured Jaden Smith, son of actor Will Smith, wearing a skirt like a natural. Fashion magazines have printed countless features on the blurring of gender barriers, while brands including Yves Saint-Laurent, Gucci, Burberry, Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana have all interpreted the concept ‘girls will be boys and boys will be girls’ in their own individual style. The previous turn of the century was as obsessed with androgyny as this one, as seen in the art of Edward Burne-Jones and Gustave Moreau, and the writings of Oscar Wilde and the mystic Joséphin Péladan. From the late 19th to the early 21st century, the genders have blended: from Berlin in the 1920s to Hollywood of the 1930s with Garbo to Dietrich; from the 1940s Bright Young Things to the androgynous pop stars of the 1970s, and beyond. What do these variations on a theme have in common? What has caused the dizzying rise of androgyny? Why has this concept, a staple of ancient myth that was first discussed in Plato’s Symposium, been revived today? Accompanied by a striking selection of contemporary photographs, Patrick Mauriès presents a condensed cultural history of androgyny, drawing on the worlds of art and literature to give us a deeper understanding of the strange but timeless human drive to escape from defined categories.

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The middle decades of the twentieth century saw an extraordinary flourishing of the illustrated, pictorial dust jacket. From the 1920s, as the potential for the book’s protective wrapping to be used for promotion and enticement became clear, artists and illustrators on both sides of the Atlantic applied their talents to this particular art form. Rising to the wide-ranging challenges posed by format and subject matter, leading artists and illustrators, including John Piper, Edward Bawden and John Minton in the UK and Ben Shahn, Edward Gorey and George Salter in the USA, brought their unique personal vision to bear on the world of books. Many of their designs reflect the changing visual styles and motifs of the period, including Bloomsbury, Art Deco, Modernism, postwar neo-romanticism and the Kitchen Sink School. Martin Salisbury has selected over fifty of the artists and illustrators who were active in the period 1920–1970 in the UK and USA, as well as others such as Tove Jansson and Celestino Piatti, and discusses their life and work. A selection of dust jackets – both known and too long forgotten – for each artist reveals how far the book as an artefact had travelled from the days of the plain wrapper in the nineteenth century.

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The Greek myths have a universal appeal, reaching far beyond the time and physical place in which they were created. But many are firmly rooted in specific settings: Thebes dominates the tragedy of Oedipus; Mycenae broods over the fates of Agamemnon and Electra; Knossos boasts the scene of Theseus’ slaying of the Minotaur; Tiryns was where Heracles set out from on each of his twelve labours. Here, the reader is taken on a tour of 22 destinations in Greece and Turkey, from Mount Olympus to Homer’s Hades, recounting the tales from Greek mythology and the history associated with each, evoking their atmosphere and highlighting features that visitors can still see today. Drawing on a wide range of Classical sources, with quotations newly translated by the author and freshly illustrated with specially commissioned drawings, this book is both a useful visitor’s guide to famous sites connected with Greek mythology and an enthralling imaginative journey for the armchair traveller.

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In the 1920s and ’30s Art Deco influenced everything from art and architecture, interiors and furnishings, automobiles and boats, to the small personal objects that are part of everyday life. The items in this thematically structured book demonstrate Deco style at its most alluring. They were then the height of fashion, and are highly prized collectibles today. They demonstrate an era of close cooperation between designers and manufacturers, who aimed to produce goods that were not only fit for purpose, but also well made and beautiful. This informative showcase of portable classics of avant-garde modern design from Britain, Europe (particularly France) and the United States will appeal both to collectors and to anyone with an interest in Deco style and the history of fashion, taste and design. It is the first book to bring together the small collectibles – from cigarette cases and lighters to powder compacts and cosmetics accessories, watches, jewelry, even cameras – that demonstrate the style, glamour and sophistication of the Jazz Age.

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The attack on London between 1939 and 1945 is one of the most significant events in the city's modern history, the impact of which can still be seen in its urban and social landscapes. As a key record of the attack, the London County Council Bomb Damage Maps represent destruction on a huge scale, recording buildings and streets reduced to smoke and rubble. The full set of maps is made up of 110 hand-coloured 1:2500 Ordnance Survey base sheets originally published in 1916 but updated by the LCC to 1940. Because they use the 1916 map, they give us a glimpse of a 'lost London', before post-war redevelopment schemes began to shape the modern city. The colouring applied to the maps records a scale of damage to London's built environment during the war - the most detailed and complete survey of destruction caused by the aerial bombardment. A clear and fascinating introduction by expert Laurence Ward sets the maps in the full historical context of the events that gave rise to them, supported by archival photographs and tables of often grim statistics.

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The design revolutions of the early 20th century were woven into the very fabric of the carpets and rugs of that era. Carpets of the Art Deco Era, previously published as Art Deco and Modernist Carpets and now reissued in PLC, is the first in-depth history on the subject. It charts the evolution of carpet design out of the floral effusions of the Victorian salons and into the angular elegance of Art Deco and bold abstraction of Modernism popularized by the machine age. Such artists and designers as Picasso, Poiret, Gray, Delaunay, Matisse, Klee, and many more advanced the designs going on underfoot, making these rugs extremely collectible artworks in their own right. Generously sized and beautifully illustrated with over 250 colour photographs, here are Art Deco carpets at their most glorious.

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Charles Fréger has photographed a series of portraits of Breton women of every generation from every region, wearing costumes and headdresses of endless variety: from high starched towers to elaborately pinned, tucked and embroidered confections of handmade lace, as delicate as they are distinctive. Marie Darrieussecq, winner of the Prix Medicis and twice nominated for the Prix Goncourt, has contributed a foreword. Some fifty headdresses are introduced and described in a separate reference section, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations. Charles Fréger’s exceptional photographs demonstrate a wealth of pride, ingenuity and personal expression that make this book uniquely compelling.

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Jean-Paul Goude is a modern legend in the world of commercial art. From his New York days with Esquire magazine to his latest work for Galeries Lafayette, he has consistently provoked and delighted those who have encountered his work. He was Grace Jones’s Pygmalion, creating unforgettable images of her, from androgyne to cyber-superwoman to supreme diva. This volume, published to accompany a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, is a celebration of his creative zest and perfectionism, and his unique affinity for making fresh and engaging work. Around 600 images are on show, including many working documents published here for the first time, from inspired doodles to final images that sparkle with creative vigour. Selected and arranged by Goude himself, they present a gallery of artworks that have redefined advertising and brand photography as we know them. Sexy, irreverent and full of humour, this book will inform and instruct all those concerned with the art of image-making, whether professionals or simply those prepared to be entertained by chic, witty images that work.

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Spectacular, mysterious, elegant, or grotesque, the vertebrate skeletons of Earth's fossil record carry within them the traces of several billion years of life. Evolution in Action, a resounding success on its initial publication in 2007, is a unique and beautiful attempt to provide a map of those billion years in time. Now updated and presented in a smaller format with seventeen new utterly distinctive photographs, this book steps beyond the debate and presents the undeniable truth of Darwin's theory, showing through 200 photographs of skeletons both obscure and commonplace, but always intriguing, the process by which life has transformed itself, again and again,

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From the green, terracotta and ochre of the Ionian Islands in the west, to the brilliant blue and white of the Aegean, the villages of Greece and its islands present a picture of incomparable beauty. The variety of village life and building springs from a multitude of histories and influences, often accompanied by foreign occupation. Yet this variety cannot disguise the fact that these villages are all, in their separate ways, an expression of Greekness, one of the most durable ideals in history. Captured here are the most beautiful villages created by that indomitable spirit. Complete with appendices of useful information for the traveller and now available in a new compact format, The Most Beautiful Villages of Greece and the Greek Islands presents a fabulous picture of a village culture largely lost to other countries of Europe, but loved by many visitors each year.

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The love of place is endemic in English literature, from the work of the earliest poets and hermits to the suburban celebrations of John Betjeman, covering all varieties of the British rural and urban landscape. This book presents an image of Britain as seen by writers of different regions and periods, and also illuminates the way in which their work has changed our visual attitudes, our taste in landscape and our relation to nature.

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Few have left a deeper impression on the world of typography than Jan Tschichold (1902–74), one of the most outstanding and influential designers of the 20th century. Not only was he was a master in his field, but he wrote a number of highly influential books and became instrumental in promoting the modernist design strategy called the New Typography. This substantial volume covers Tschichold’s life and career, placing the designer’s vision firmly in the rich cultural and historical context of his era. Tschichold embraced avant-garde ideas from movements such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl and made them accessible to working designers and printers, stressing clarity in communication, with form and function going hand in hand. The contributing writers discuss the designer’s major influences and the highlights of his varied career, including his seminal poster designs, his groundbreaking work with Penguin Books, and his creation of the classic typeface Sabon. Lavish illustrations – archive photographs, many published here for the first time, as well as copious examples of Tschichold’s work – accompany the text, confirming that Tschichold’s heritage lives on in the digital age, and proving that he is amongst the greatest typographic designers ever.

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A new take on Southeast Asia’s complex history, expertly told through art objects and cultural artefacts dating from the Neolithic Age to the present. Southeast Asia is home to numerous world heritage sites. Through engaging texts and expertly curated objects from the British Museum collection, arranged chronologically and thematically into seven chapters, this volume offers a new approach to one of the most complex and diverse areas of the world. Every object tells a story in a wide-ranging and accessible selection that illuminates the civilizations, societies and local cultures that have defined Southeast Asia over the past 6,000 years. From the emergence of early agricultural communities and stratified societies to the rise of powerful empires and religious developments in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, and to the eras of colonial rule and independence, curator and art historian Alexandra Green traces and explores the variety of Southeast Asian cultures. The texts describe the region through a broad range of objects, including sculptures from the historic civilizations of Java, Angkor, Bagan and Sukhothai, as well as ceramics, furniture, religious items, basketry, textiles, popular posters and contemporary art. This book is an informative visual delight for curious minds everywhere.

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The story of the illustrated book from the earliest printed books to the present day, told through the collections of the V&A’s National Art Library. This is the story of the illustrated book, from the earliest printed examples to the present day, told through the collections of the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London – a library that was created to bring together examples of superlative book-making on almost every subject. Gathered here are some of the most influential, compelling and striking examples of the illustrated book, arranged thematically in chapters devoted to subjects such as art, literature, religion, architecture, natural history, fashion, and shopping. Brimming with innovative and beautiful examples, ranging from well-known titles, such as Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament and James Audubon’s Birds of America, to other wonderful but less familiar publications, this collection offers a fascinating overview of some of the finest illustrated books ever created – demonstrating their enduring appeal.

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Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) was only 25 when he died from tuberculosis, but in his short life he established a reputation as one of the most accomplished – and controversial – illustrators of his day, whose contribution to the visual language of Art Nouveau was profound. Astonishingly, all his work was created in the course of only six years, and is today instantly recognizable for its use of black ink and flowing lines on white paper – and its erotically charged subject matter. Not all his work was lubricious – some of it was political, poking fun at the decadent mores of the time – but much of it was, taking its stylistic inspiration from Japanese shunga and Greek vase painting and its thematic inspiration from mythology, history, poetry and drama. This beautifully designed, accessibly priced gift book offers a wealth of illustrations by Beardsley, and introduces his exquisitely wrought drawings and prints to a new audience. With a text by Jan Marsh and around 110 illustrations from the extensive collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, this book brings together a carefully curated selection of works from Beardsley’s tragically short but highly productive life.

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Focusing on 56 selected works from the 1970s to today, Pushing paper examines why drawing has endured as a method of making art, and explores the vital and fundamental nature of drawing through themes such as systems and process, identity, place and space, time and memory, and power and protest. These broad themes allow for original connections to be made between images, which will inspire all practitioners of drawing. Supported by the Bridget Riley Art Foundation, the book showcases work by major contemporary artists from around the world, including Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Adel Daoud, Richard Deacon, Tacita Dean, Peter Doig, Tracey Emin, Richard Hamilton, Jacob El Hanani, David Hockney, Ellen Gallagher, Andrzej Jackowski, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Minjung Kim, Marcia Kure, Nja Mahdaoui, Sol LeWitt, Bahman Mohassess, David Nash, Eduardo Paolozzi, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Gerhard Richter, Bridget Riley, Susan Schwalb, Hamid Sulaiman, Imran Qureshi, Hajra Waheed and Rachel Whiteread, as well as exciting works by lesser-known artists. Aimed at admirers of drawing, and artists and students alike, Pushing paper provides an arresting analysis of the status of drawing in the world of contemporary art.

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From medieval pilgrim badges and Renaissance hat decorations to jewelled brooches and twentieth-century political pins, brooches and badges are often more than practical or decorative dress fasteners; they are expressions of identity. Focusing on the V&A¹s world-famous collection, Brooches & Badges explores the evolution of these intricate and versatile works of art, and the way in which changes in dress have dictated their use.

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A mini-monograph on Samuel Fosso, the renowned Cameroon-born Nigerian photographer. Samuel Fosso (b. 1962) is one of Central Africa’s leading contemporary artists, whose playful and perceptive work investigates Pan-African identity and history through the use of portraiture. Fosso’s path to artistry was found through his initial work as a commercial portrait photographer, utilising his leftover film by capturing self-portraits against well-considered backdrops and incorporating pose, costume and props. Renowned for his ‘autoportraits’ - styling himself and others as characters from popular culture or politics – Samuel Fosso reflects the world around him through a distinct aesthetic that has at times defied Nigerian dictatorial decree. Fosso’s work is now held in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate, and he was the recipient of the Prince Claus Award of The Netherlands, in 2001.

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Man Ray is one of seven new titles being published this spring 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.

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Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa and the buildings he created have become legendary in the region and influential around the world. Few architects achieved his harmonious fusion of local building traditions with modern forms and sensibility Bawa's early works were houses that artfully married vernacular styles and responses to climate and site with a modern architectural vocabulary. Soon his talents were applied on a larger scale, to the Sri Lanka parliament, a number of carefully situated and designed hotels, schools, offices and other public buildings. The summation of his oeuvre is symbolized by his own two residences – a house in Colombo and a residential complex in Lunuganga – whose evolution eloquently reflect Bawa’s career and personality. This ambitious publication is a comprehensive documentation and appreciation of Geoffrey Bawa and his work and includes a rich portfolio of his most important works, including some rarely published projects. An exhaustive reference section includes a complete chronology.

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Lovers of gold, wine and war, the Celts have no voice because they left no written records. Much of what we know of them comes from their enemies, the Romans, who finally crushed them, and from the weapons and ornaments they buried with their dead. From these traces we can now resurrect a sophisticated people who dominated Europe for 500 years. These highly cultured 'barbarians', with their exquisite jewelry and metalwork, were eventually driven to the edges of the known world – yet were destined to shine out once more in the art of Celtic Christianity.

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Engaging encounters, personal anecdotes and jargon-free critical insights into some of the liveliest creative minds in modern art, by an international art world insider. Praised by theArt Newspaperas the best art writer of his generation', Michael Peppiatt has encountered many European modern artists over more than fifty years. This selection of some of his best biographical writing covers a wide spectrum of modern art, from Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, to personal conversations with painter Sonia Delaunay, artist Dora Maar, who was Picasso's lover in the 1930s and 1940s, and Francis Bacon, perhaps the most famous of the many artists with whom Peppiatt has formed personal friendships. Michael Peppiatt's lively, engaging writing takes us into the company of many notable art-world personalities, such as the Catalan painter Antoni Tàpies, whom he visits in his studio, and moments of disillusion, such as his meeting with the self-mythologizing artist Balthus. Art criticism blends w

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A sumptuous treasury of Dior scarves. Plain and elaborate, commonplace and precious, fashionable and timeless, masculine and feminine: Dior's silk scarves form a unique visual repertoire and cover a gamut of palettes, themes and styles. The epitome of Parisian chic, they express the poetic imagination of the creative directors who have shaped the destiny of the house, from Christian Dior to Maria Grazia Chiuri. Unveiling the history and artistry of Dior's scarves from the first designs to today, this sumptuous book celebrates their incredible variety and beauty as never before. At its heart is an atlas of over 400 scarves, organized by theme and printed on a delicate paper that replicates the texture of the scarves themselves. Dior's creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has overseen the creation of this volume, contributes a foreword. The atlas is supplemented by exclusive visual essays from renowned photographers Brigitte Niedermair and Pol Baril, as well as texts by dis

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An accessible, design-savvy collector's guide to the world of unusual, rare and dazzlingly retro watches. Retro Watches is a popular, accessible collector's guide for anyone who wants to make a statement with the watch they wear, but who wants to choose a timepiece that is very different from the classic' and very mainstream watches by the major Swiss brands. It brings together the most intriguing, visually striking and out-there' watch designs from little-known but influential watch brands, along with overlooked but brilliant pieces from the major players. One hundred watch models are featured, specially photographed for the book and accompanied by accessible, informative texts discussing the watch's design, its intriguing features, and its rarity and value. The book also dives into the cultural and fashion history of watch design and the many innovations from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

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New in the Art Essentials series, an introductory guide to the art of looking at and engaging with photography. Everything counts in a good photograph, even down to the smallest details. This introductory guide is structured to help you develop new and more in-depth ways of looking at images, whether as a viewer or practitioner or just out snapping with your smartphone. Looking at Photographs outlines key approaches to help us understand why a photograph captures our attention and moves us. Across seven chapters, visual culture expert Laurent Jullier discusses themes and concepts that are essential to understanding the medium, including: photography as a reflection of reality; manipulation and defamiliarization; focus, perspective and space; time and the moment; identity, portraits and selfies; the power of images. With examples drawn from across the world and throughout the history of photography, from Louis Daguerre to Julia Margaret Cameron, László Moholy-Nagy, Dorothea

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A revised and updated edition of Sir John Summerson's classic book. Derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture in antiquity, the classical style has long dominated the history of western architecture from the Renaissance to the present. Sir John Summerson’s timeless text, as relevant today as it was when first published, distils the visual language of architecture into its core classical elements, and illustrates that building throughout the ages express an awareness of the ‘grammar’ of style and its rules even if they vary, break or poetically contradict them. From the original edifices of Greece and Rome to the recapitulations and innovations of the Renaissance; the explosive rhetoric of the Baroque to the grave statements of Neo-classicism; and finally, the exuberant eclecticism of the Victorians and Edwardians to the 'stripped Neo-classicism' of some of the moderns; Summerson explains how every period has employed classical language to make their statement. With a new introduction by academic and architectural historian Alan Powers, this introduction continues to be one of the defining texts on the subject and is essential reading for all students of architecture.

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The most ambitious and comprehensive book on women’s vintage fashion ever published, featuring over 1,000 garments dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. This is not just another history of fashion: it is a survey of how fashion past continues to inspire fashion present. It features over 1,000 stand-out pieces, together with over 300 contextual illustrations, dating from the 1920s to the 1980s, including many icons of vintage fashion, from Marilyn Monroe’s bra to the Ossie Clark dress made so famous by David Hockney’s painting. Each garment is explored from the viewpoint of the contemporary fashionista looking to build a vintage wardrobe. The book is organized into three main sections. 'Decades' explores the shapes and fabrics that define the look of each period. 'Elements' explores the individual components of a vintage look, everything from hat to shoes. 'Hallmarks' explores fashion’s perennial themes, from florals to the ever-popular Little Black Dress. Finally, a reference section includes invaluable practical advice for fans and collectors of vintage.

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Discover the lives of the ancient Romans, pieced together from inscriptions, discarded letters, biographies and myth over two thousand years of history. The Roman empire witnessed a huge diversity of human experience over its history. At its pinnacle, it exerted its rule across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, from Britannia to the Black Sea. In this collection of 100 lives, Philip Matyszak and Joanne Berry give voice not only to famed rulers and generals whose names and deeds have been enshrined in classical texts but also to the ordinary citizens – centurions, scholars, Christian martyrs and civil servants – who made up the fabric of Roman society. The biographies of these individuals, whose stories range from the happy and uneventful to the tragic and dramatic, are pieced together from ancient art, artefacts and myths. Matyszak and Berry illuminate the sometimes surprising exploits of Rome’s women, such as Amazonia, a sword-swinging gladiator, and Metila, a priestess of the cult of Cymbele. Romans of every class and creed are represented, from Faustulus, a shepherd said to have adopted the infant Romulus and Remus, to the poet Virgil, whose words still echo down the ages. Each of these lives forms part of a larger picture, together making up a rich mosaic that gives us a glimpse of what it meant to be a Roman.

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A lavishly illustrated look at the sources behind the paintings of Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon famously found inspiration in photographs, film-stills and mass-media imagery. In this new, updated edition of In Camera, Martin Harrison reveals how these sources informed some of Bacon’s most important paintings and triggered decisive turning points in the artist’s stylistic development. Key influences, including the masters Velázquez, Poussin and Rodin, the photographer Eadweard Muybridge and the film director Sergei Eisenstein, are given close consideration. Bacon’s work is examined in relation to the precedents set by other artists working in the tradition of making use of mechanical reproductions, including Pablo Picasso and Walter Sickert, and in the context of his contemporaries Lucian Freud, Mark Rothko, Graham Sutherland and Patrick Heron. With the aid of over 270 illustrations, including valuable source images and documents, In Camera is a bravura accomplishment of original research, addressing important questions about Bacon’s painting practice and shedding fresh light on his life and work.

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In a brand-new approach, this book presents photography in all its principal forms of experience, to portray the unique characteristics of this accessible and universally appealing medium. Arranged chronologically, legendary photographs are discussed alongside photobooks that represent a significant contribution towards photography, as well as important exhibitions that marked a shift in outlook, values and approach. In art history, particular works are usually cited as examples of specific styles; here photographs are given as indicative of art movements, which often developed precisely because of these examples. Among the works included are many that have had a profound impact across the globe, so circumventing or at least weakening the usual European-American emphasis. This guide is an inclusive and diverse account of the contributions of photographers from around the world from the birth of photography to the present day. Featuring stunning reproductions throughout with short essays and key references on each work by the widely respected photography academic and specialist David Bate, this title is set to become one of the definitive references on the subject and will appeal not only to readers seeking an introduction, but also to those more familiar with the medium.With 110 illustrations in colour

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A collection of intimate and revelatory first-hand accounts of pandemics through the ages. Humanity has always been struck by pestilence and pandemics, from the plagues of ancient Egypt to the pox that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, to Covid-19. People living through the crises have always recorded what they saw, what they felt, and what they did. Some presented sober facts laced with anecdote, while others produced emotional outpourings; moralists speculated on the origins of the horror, poets distilled the suffering. Doctors described how they were able to advance their understanding of disease and scientists how to cure it, while survivors and the families of victims gave the inside story of the nightmare that develops when a long-feared disease enters your home or your body. There was a time when to read accounts of the Plague in Wittenburg by Martin Luther or the Great Plague of 1665 by Samuel Pepys – scenes of anguish and woe, empty streets, quarantined houses, closed businesses, overflowing graveyards, heroic doctors and nurses, quack remedies and charlatans – was to enter a disturbing and unfamiliar world. Today, to read the same words is to be hit by a jolt of recognition and understanding. As well as causing a huge loss of life, the Covid pandemic has taught us a great deal about ourselves and the way we live, illuminating tensions at the heart of society. This collection of intimate and revelatory first-hand accounts of pandemics through the ages bears witness to despair, rage, the blackest of humour, heartbreak and hope. These voices hold up a mirror to our own experiences of, and responses to, the crisis today.

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What is contemporary art? What makes it ‘contemporary’? What is it for? And why is it so expensive? The contemporary art world can be a baffling place, but Kyung An and Jessica Cerasi are on hand to bring you up to speed. From museums and the art market to biennales and the next big thing, Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? offers concise and pointed insights into today’s art scene, decoding ‘artspeak’, explaining what curators do, demystifying conceptual art, exploring emerging art markets and much, much more. The authors’ playful explanations draw on key artworks, artists and events from around the globe, including Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s ‘Candy Spills’, extreme Chinese performances, Damien Hirst and Kanye West. Packed with behind-the-scenes information and completely free of ‘artspeak’, Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art? is the perfect gallery companion and the go-to guide for when the next big thing leaves you stumped.

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Available for the first time in an updated, compact paperback format, this book offers a stunning photographic survey of Ireland over the last seven decades, from the 1950s to the present day. Organized decade by decade, the images show the lingering influence of rural life in the 1950s; the hidden story of ordinary Irish men and women, living in a divided society during the troubled years of the sectarian conflict; the South’s huge economic growth at the end of 1990s, baptised the ‘Celtic Tiger’, and Ireland’s perpetual quest for identity, from the 1950s to the present day. Each decade is commented on by a notable contemporary Irish literary figure: Anthony Cronin, Nuala O’Faolain, Eamonn McCann, Fintan O’Toole, Colm Tóibín and Anne Enright invite the reader to dive into the social and political context of each period, providing a textual backdrop to the photographers’ work.

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