Search results for ""Thames Hudson""

'I perhaps owe it to flowers', wrote Claude Monet (1840-1926), ‘that I became a painter.’ One of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement and perhaps the most celebrated landscape painter of his age, Monet dedicated his life to capturing the subtleties of the natural world. Trees – willows enveloped in the eerie mists of the Seine, palm trees beneath the bright Mediterranean sun or poplars heavily laden with snow – became a significant motif in his work, and he used them to experiment with an extraordinary variety of tones and colours. Ralph Skea’s account is split into five main chapters, each focusing on a different theme: Monet’s earliest drawings and paintings of trees; his atmospheric use of rivers and coastlines, from the English Channel to the Italian Riviera; the fields, farmlands and orchards of France; parks and gardens in both the city and the countryside, including his series of paintings featuring trees reflected in his water-lily pond; and his muted depictions of trees in winter. The result is a succint and highly accessible exploration of some of the best-loved landscapes in art.

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In our age of fast-paced biotechnological progress and humans' increasing impact on the environment the autonomy of 'nature' has come into question. We can now engineer living things, blur the biological distinctions between humans and animals, and influence parts of our world that we cannot see - such as DNA and genes. These discoveries and far-reaching developments have created fertile ground for artistic expression. This book reveals the ways in which the work of bio artists offers new meanings for our lives in the wake of scientific discovery, as well as new frameworks for describing them. Four thematic chapters cover the key areas in which biotechnology has had an impact on today's world, including ecology, biomedicine, designer genomes and evolutionary theory, profiling the work of 60 artists, collectives and organizations from countries including France, Germany, the US, the Netherlands, Mexico and Japan. Interviews with eight bio artists and technologists, including Arne Hendriks, Mark Dion, Boo Chapple, Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Raphael Kim, provide a deeper insight into the ideas and methods of this new breed of creative practitioner.

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From the 1860s through to the early 20th century the rise of Japonisme and the Art Nouveau movement meant that few could ignore or resist the obsession with all things Japanese. Superbly crafted and often highly decorated Japanese objects – lacquer, metalwork, ceramics, enamels and other decorative items – excited, stimulated and inspired Western artists and craftsmen to produce their own works. Arts of the Meiji period (1868–1912) were displayed at international exhibitions, galleries of influential dealers and at fashionable stores in London, Paris and Vienna. This book includes many examples of the superlatively designed and executed decorative arts of the Meiji periods from the Khalili Collection, the greatest collection of Meiji period art in the world. Artists such as Van Gogh, Whistler, Monet, Manet, Klimt and Schiele were all, to varying degrees, influenced by the arts of Japan. Van Gogh said that he owed his inspiration to Japanese art, but even he was probably not aware of just how much art in Europe had already been greatly influenced by that of Japan.

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The encounter between art and fashion has been a rapidly growing phenomenon over the last decade, with major international artists working with top fashion houses to produce contemporary masterpieces that challenge the traditional boundary between these two dynamic cultures. In Art/Fashion in the 21st Century, five chapters feature concise essays with profiles of the key designers, break-out stories about the most avant- garde projects and interviews with the leading lights of the art-fashion crossover phenomenon. Nearly 250 illustrations showcase collaborative art/fashion work from Acne Studios, Balenciaga, Chanel, Hussein Chayalan, Tracey Emin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Zaha Hadid, Hermès, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Jeff Koons, Stella McCartney, Issey Miyake, Takashi Murakami, Prada, Richard Prince, Anselm Reyle, Cindy Sherman, Juergen Teller, Viktor & Rolf, and many more. This is essential and inspiring reading for all those interested in the very cutting edge of both art and fashion – and those who are already there.

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Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) felt a profound empathy with the natural environment, and considered the spiritual essence of trees to be comparable with that of human figures. Vincent’s Trees traces Van Gogh’s development as a painter of trees in the natural landscape – from his home province of North Brabant, through Paris to Provence. Ralph Skea’s elegant prose is accompanied by Van Gogh’s vibrant illustrations of trees, which range from pencil and ink sketches to watercolours and oil. Stylistic experiments encompassing Pointillism and compositions inspired by Japanese prints give way to the expressive, painterly depictions of his later work. The book also includes quotes from Van Gogh’s letters, which convey the depth of his feeling for the natural landscape, and the force with which it affected him.

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An essential visual overview for students and readers with an interest in Sienese art, history and Renaissance culture. For two centuries, the city-republic of Siena was home to a brilliant succession of painters who created some of the greatest masterpieces of all time; an imagery unmatched in colouristic intensity and spatial experimentation. This overview, now revised and updated, is an essential introduction to this extraordinary artistic tradition. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it moves from the 14th-century Siena of Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, to the 15th-century city of Sassetta and Giovanni di Paolo. Perceptive visual analysis of the distinctive styles and conventions of Sienese painting is combined with clear explanations of traditional techniques such as fresco and tempera. The works are also placed in their social and religious context through discussion of Siena’s system of government, its civic consciousness, the importance of the Franciscan movement and the cults of local saints. An accomplished writer as well as a practising artist, Timothy Hyman brings breadth of knowledge and experience to this extensively illustrated book, brilliantly conveying his personal enthusiasm for Sienese art.

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From the turn-of-the-century S-bend silhouette to celebrity couture of the new millennium and the evolution of streetwear, this comprehensive survey explores significant developments in fashion from 1900 to the present day. Fashion historians Amy de la Haye and Valerie Mendes focus on key movements and innovations in style, and explore trends through the work of some of the world’s most original and influential designers and couturiers. Chapters are organized around crucial shifts in tastes and major world events, and exciting advances in fashion are placed within their socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts. International in scope with colour illustrations throughout, this edition includes updated text as well as a new chapter that discusses some of the defining features of fashion in our time: the industry’s proactive embrace of age, gender and race diversity, and its ongoing efforts to combat labour exploitation and encourage global sustainability.With 315 illustrations in colour

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This book distils a lifetime’s study of Viking art. Written by a leading authority, it introduces all the intricate and beautiful art styles of the Viking age. It ranges in time from the first major Viking expeditions overseas around AD 800 to the general establishment of Christianity in Scandinavia some 300 years later. The opening chapter introduces the geographical and historical background to Viking culture; thematic chapters then describe and illustrate the six main Viking art styles, showing how they emerged from and interacted with one another. Delicate metalwork, elaborate wood-carvings and the famous Gotland picture-stones are all discussed. Viking art ranges in scale from ship burials to decorated weapons and finely crafted jewelry; all feature here, alongside Viking architecture and archaeological traces left by Vikings across continental Europe and beyond. The final chapter examines Viking art in relation to pagan mythology, the conversion to Christianity, and the Viking legacy for later artistic movements. First published in 2013 and now revised and updated throughout, this volume is a modern classic that serves as a definitive guide for all those interested in the vibrant artistic culture of this fascinating period in European history.With 224 illustrations

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The dazzling colours and patterns of the art of the Pacific Islands have long entranced Western audiences, not least artists such as Gauguin and Picasso. The tendency has been to regard Oceanic art as ‘primitive’, mysterious and shrouded in taboo, but Nicholas Thomas, in looking at and beyond the familiar, stunning surfaces of masks and shields, carved canoe prows and feathered gods, discovers the significance of such objects, past and present, for the peoples of the Pacific. In this revised edition with a completely new chapter on globalization and contemporary art, he shows how each region is characterized by certain art forms and practices – among them Maori ancestral carvings, rituals of exchange and warfare in the Solomon Islands, the production of barkcloth by women in Polynesia – while also being shaped by influences from within the Pacific and beyond. The dynamism and diversity of this compelling art are highlighted by the works accompanying this revelatory text – from those that evoke deep-rooted customs to ones that address contemporary political issues, now illustrated in colour throughout.

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One of the most popular and influential British artists of our times, David Hockney has never ceased to change his style and ways of working, always re-energizing his art with new solutions, fresh ideas and technical mastery. Now excitedly embracing his ‘late period’, Hockney remains as engaged as ever with the questions he has always posed for himself – what to depict, how to depict it and how to persuade the spectator that he or she is an active participant rather than just a passive witness. Published to mark Hockney’s 80th birthday and in the wake of the most extensive Tate retrospective ever accorded to a living artist, this new edition includes a new preface, afterword and final chapter covering work of the past two decades. Tracing a line from the beginnings of Hockney’s career in the early 1960s, the portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, his drawings and photocollages, to his highly acclaimed stage designs for the opera, video works, his iPad drawings and other novel forms of picturemaking, Marco Livingstone shows the continuing preoccupation with invention and artifice that has made this artist’s work at once popular and enduring.

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John Boardman has updated his classic account of one of the most popular historic artistic traditions among Western audiences. In the twenty years since the last edition was released, valuable evidence has come to light which has dramatically enhanced our understanding of the art of this ancient civilization. We now know conclusively that Greeks in fact lavished their sculptures with realistic colour paint, and also worked with a wealth of other materials on a major scale, including wood and precious metals, proving that our view of ‘classic’ pure white marble of the age is a Renaissance construction. We can identify the work of individual artists, and schools of artists, and have a clearer picture than ever of how art and artistic ideas travelled throughout the Greek world. Boardman encourages the reader to consider the beautiful pieces that have been preserved in their original context, rather than as the isolated installations of our modern galleries, weaving into the discussion of the art objects insights into the society that produced them. Illustrated in full colour throughout for the first time, this fifth edition showcases more vividly than ever the artistic endeavours of the ancient Greeks.

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As heard on BBC Radio 4's 'A Good Read’ 'Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer's birthplace', writes Hans Richter, the artist and film-maker closely associated with this radical movement from its earliest days. Here, he records and traces Dada's history, from its inception in wartime Zurich, to its collapse in Paris in the 1920s when many of its members were to join the Surrealist movement, to its reappearance in the 1960s in movements such as Pop Art. This absorbing eyewitness narrative is enlivened by extensive use of Dada documents, illustrations and texts by fellow Dadaists. The complex personalities, relationships and contributions of, among others, Hugo Bali, Tristan Tzara, Picabia, Arp, Schwitters, Hausmann, Duchamp, Ernst and Man Ray, are vividly brought to life. Over a hundred years on from the riotous inception of Dada at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916, art historian Michael White provides a new introduction and commentary to a book that has become a legend in its own right, influencing a generation of performers and artists since its first publication in 1965 - David Bowie even quoted from Dada: Art and Anti-Art in his Scary Monsters album. Michael White has unearthed Richter's private correspondence with his fellow Dada artists to tell the story of how the book came about and, using previously unseen archive sources, enables us to read between the lines and discover the truth behind this most elusive of art movements.

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Rewritten from cover to cover and updated to include the discoveries and new theories from the past decade and a half, this classic guide to the art of the ancient Maya is now illustrated in full colour throughout. World expert Mary Miller and her co-author Megan O’Neil take the reader through the visual world of the Maya, explaining how and why they created the paintings, sculpture and monuments that intrigue and compel people the world over. With an array of new material, from recent finds including the La Corona panels, to new studies of the monuments at Palenque, Zotz and elsewhere, to the beautiful wall paintings discovered in recent years, this new edition will be essential reading for students and scholars – and for travellers to the cities of this mysterious civilization.

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Since the Modern Movement began to be challenge in the late 1960s, architecture has followed a number of widely divergent paths. In this thoughtful and eloquent book, Diane Ghirardo examines the architectural world of the late twentieth century and its theories in the crucial context of social and political issues. Within a survey of a broad range of buildings, she focuses on specific 'megaprojects' as paradigms for discussion. In the realm of public space, she argues, the key questions are raised by the Disney empire and its amusement parks; in domestic space, by the IBA in Berlin, with projects ranging from new structures to rehabilitation and residents' self-build. Her text ranges world-wide, and she considers the work of lesser-known designers and women architects as well as famous international stars.

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Carole Hillenbrand’s book offers a profound understanding of the history of Muslims and their faith, from the life of Muhammad to the religion practised by 1.6 billion people around the world today. Each of the eleven chapters explains a core aspect of the faith in historical perspective, allowing readers to gain a sensitive understanding of the essential tenets of the religion and of the many ways in which the present is shaped by the past. It is an ideal introductory text for courses in Middle Eastern studies, in religious studies, or on Islam and its history.

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Chronicling forty years of luxury architecture and design by Steve Leung, founder of one of Asia’s most successful design studios. This major design monograph represents a comprehensive overview of 35 years of architectural, interior- and product-design work by Steve Leung, founder of Hong Kong-based Steve Leung Design Group (SLD). Spanning luxury residential developments and hotels to high-end restaurants and resorts, SLD’s work extends from Hong Kong to China and across Asia. This book – organized by themes that reflect periods in Leung’s life and work – captures the essence of one of Asia’s most successful and entrepreneurial practices. Introductory texts frame projects presented in each chapter, based on interviews with Steve and other influential creative and cultural figures, and are followed by illustrated project spreads that place each theme in context.

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A highly illustrated history of the diverse visual art produced across East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, written by two specialist art historians. Asia is home to more than half the world’s population, and learning about the art of its many cultures helps readers understand the visual world that surrounds us. This book tells the story of the simultaneous development of artistic techniques, styles and ideas across East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, exploring the ways these regions were often dynamically interconnected with each other, and with places beyond Asia. It covers the full breadth of Asian art history, with almost 500 artworks from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia and Southeast Asia; including areas often under-represented in other books on the subject, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Tibet, Nepal and Mongolia. Authors Lee and Hutton are active teachers, writers and speakers who engage with art history as a progressive field that promotes cross-cultural understanding. In this book, they situate Asian art in the context of art history globally, with 12 ‘Seeing Connections’ features drawing themes and comparisons with art from many other parts of the world. The authors’ approach encourages students to analyse and think about Asian artworks as a way of exploring ideas about gender and sexuality, personal and national identity, migration and diaspora, and anthropogenic climate change.

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This landmark publication presents, for the first time ever, 500 of the very best and previously unpublished graphic works by cinema’s master of film. Created in collaboration with RGALI – the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts – this book traces Eisenstein’s extraordinary life and career through the distinctive yet evolving styles of his drawings, from early childhood sketches to set and costume designs, and from surreal pshychoanalytic drawings to late abstract works. Foremost Eisenstein scholar Naum Kleiman brings fresh and incredible insights into the motivation and purpose of the drawings, and reflects upon excerpts from Eisenstein’s own discursive texts, some published here for the first time. Comparative frames from Eisenstein’s movies – scanned from the original film – together with a biographical introduction and a foreword by Martin Scorsese completes the revelatory and arresting picture.

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Hokusai created sublime works during the last thirty years of his life, right up to his death at the age of ninety. Publications have hitherto presented his long career as a chronological sequence. This book takes a fresh approach based on innovative scholarship: thematic groupings of works are related to the major spiritual and artistic quests of Hokusai’s life. Hokusai’s personal beliefs are studied here through major brush paintings, drawings, woodblock prints and illustrated books. The book gives due attention to the contribution of Hokusai’s daughter Eijo (Oi), an accomplished artist in her own right. Hokusai continually explored the mutability and minutiae of natural phenomena in his art. His late subjects and styles were based on a mastery of eclectic Japanese, Chinese and European techniques and an encyclopaedic knowledge of nature, myth, and history. Mount Fuji was the most significant model for Hokusai in his quest for immortality. This collection of Hokusai’s works draws on the finest to be found in Japan and around the world, making this the most important publication for years on Hokusai, and a uniquely valuable overview of the artist’s late career.

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This beautifully illustrated book brings to life the greatest treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Fifty of the most important objects on display today are each accompanied by a short, accessible text giving the reader just enough information to understand their relevance and importance while retaining a sense of wonder at these ancient artefacts. Each carefully selected object is presented with a full-page colour image and a facing text explaining what the object is, where it was found and why it was buried with the young Pharaoh. There are quotes throughout the text from Howard Carter on his discovery of the tomb in 1922. An introduction by the esteemed Egyptologist Garry Shaw gives a brief overview of the history of ancient Egypt and sets out what we know about the life and times of the young king. He offers a graphic depiction of the dramatic story of the discovery and opening of the tomb by Howard Carter in 1922, and touches on the latest theories and scientific work that has taken place, as well as explaining what is still left to be discovered and the controversial nature of some of the latest interpretations. This is the perfect pocket-sized companion for anyone visiting the Tutankhamun exhibition travelling around the world, the New Egyptian Museum in Giza or any of the renowned collections of Egyptology in museums across the world.With 92 illustrations, 80 in colour

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In 1960, John Rewald took over the task of researching and collating Cezanne's oeuvre, following the death of Lionello Venturi, publisher of the first catalogue on Cezanne in 1936. The result is this catalogue raisonné, treating the 954 paintings accepted by Rewald. The plate volume reproduces all 954 paintings, with titles, dimensions and dates, and is chronologically arranged by Rewald’s new dating and numbering, with the works grouped by subject. Walter Feilchenfeldt introduces the book’s history and issues of dating, chronology and authenticity. Each painting is accompanied by a detailed commentary, which draws on an enormous variety of sources, and for over half the paintings, the commentary consists of a lengthy essay. Of special interest are the 200 documentary photographs integrated with the entries, which provide the scholar and admirer of Cézanne’s work with much fascinating visual information, including biographical portraits, landscape motifs and objects found in Cézanne’s studio. Fifty-eight magnificent colour reproductions of the largest paintings also appear in this volume, which concludes with important indices of owners, exhibitions and works; an extensive bibliography; and a concordance of Venturi and Rewald numbers. The mass of information and insight provided by catalogue raisonné makes it an essential reference for scholars, curators, collectors and librarians.

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Ivory is a wonderful material: tactile, beautiful, workable into many different forms and the strongest in the animal kingdom. Unfortunately for the elephant, it has been highly prized from the Palaeolithic to the present day, in part by virtue of its rarity and the difficulty of acquiring it. During the early first millennium bc – the ‘Age of Ivory’ – literally thousands of carved ivories found their way to the Assyrian capital city of Kalhu, or modern Nimrud, in northern Iraq. The majority were not made there, in the heart of ancient Assyria, but arrived as gift, tribute or booty gathered by the Assyrian kings from the small neighbouring states of the ancient Middle Eastern world. The ivories were first unearthed in the mid-19th century by renowned Victorian traveller and adventurer Austen Henry Layard, but it was not until the mid-20th century that the extent of the treasure was realized by Max Mallowan, the archaeologist husband of Agatha Christie. Thousands of extraordinary ivories have since been excavated from the ruins of the ancient city’s extravagant palaces, temples and forts. In recent years, many have been destroyed or remain at risk following the invasion of Iraq and the sacking of the Iraq Museum, as well as in the ongoing conflict and destruction of cultural heritage in the region. As a result, the ivories preserved in these pages form a unique and unparalleled record of the otherwise lost art of the Middle East.

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For more than 4,000 years the pyramids of Giza have stood like giant question marks that have intrigued and endlessly fascinated people. Who exactly built them? When? Why? And how did they create these colossal structures? But the pyramids are not a complete mystery – the stones, the hieroglyphs, the landscape and even the layers of sand and debris hold stories for us to read. Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass, with over four decades of involvement with Giza, provide their unique and personal insight into the site, bringing together all the information and evidence to create a record unparalleled in its detail and scope. The celebrated Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops, is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing, but there is much more to Giza. We may think of the pyramids as rising from the desert, isolated and enigmatic, yet they were surrounded by temples, tombs, vast cemeteries and even teeming towns of the living. All are described in detail here and brought back to life, with hundreds of illustrations including detailed photographs of the monuments, excavations and objects, as well as plans, reconstructions and the latest images from remote-controlled cameras and laser scans. Through the ages, Giza and the pyramids have inspired the most extraordinary speculations and wild theories, but here, finally, in this prestigious publication, is the full story as told by the evidence on the ground, by the leading authorities on the site.

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Following his account of Irish origins as evidenced by archaeology, genetics and linguistics, J. P. Mallory returns to the subject to interrogate what he calls the ‘Irish Dreamtime’: the native Irish retelling of their own origins, as related by medieval manuscripts. He attempts to explore the reality of this version of the earliest history of Ireland, which places apparently ‘mythological’ events on a concrete timeline of invasions, colonizations and royal reigns that extends even further back in time than the history of Classical Greece. Can the accounts of this ‘Dreamtime’ really inform us of the way of life in Iron Age Ireland? By comparing the world depicted in the earliest Irish literary tradition with the archaeological evidence available on the ground, Mallory explores Ireland’s rich mythological tradition and tests its claims to represent reality.

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Beneath the waters of Abukir Bay, at the edge of the Nile Delta, lie the submerged remains of the ancient Egyptian cities Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion, which sank over 1,000 years ago but were dramatically rediscovered in the 20th century and brought to the surface by marine archaeologists in the 1990s. These pioneering underwater excavations continue today, and have yielded a wealth of ancient artefacts, to be exhibited in Britain for the first time in 2016. Through these spectacular finds, this book tells the story of how two iconic ancient civilizations, Egypt and Greece, interacted in the late first millennium bc. From the foundation of Naukratis and Thonis-Heracleion as trading posts to the conquest of Alexander the Great, through the ensuing centuries of Ptolemaic rule to the ultimate dominance of the Roman Empire on the world stage, Greeks and Egyptians lived alongside one another in these lively cities, sharing their politics, religious ideas, languages, scripts and customs. Greek kings adopted the regalia of the pharaoh; ordinary Greek citizens worshipped in Hellenic sanctuaries next to Egyptian temples; and their ancient gods and mythologies became ever more closely intertwined. This book showcases a spectacular collection of artefacts, coupled with a retelling of the history by world-renowned experts in the subject (including the sites’ long-term excavator), bringing the reader face-to-face with this vibrant ancient society. Accompanies the most sensational exhibition of ancient Egyptian and Greek discoveries to be held in the UK for decades, opening at the British Museum.

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Explore the dynamic world of 1960s Pop Art through Lucy Lippard's insightful analysis in this new addition to the Pocket Perspectives series. Pop Art epitomized the free spirit of the 1960s, blending carnival-like qualities with bold colours and monumental scale, but based on a tough, no-nonsense, no-refinement standard appropriate to its time. Renowned art critic and curator Lucy Lippard's classic, contemporaneous study enriches our understanding of this groundbreaking art movement. Across three chapters, the author first outlines the phenomenon of Pop Art, its antecedents and related styles ranging from folk art, Surrealism and Dada as well as the work of key artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. She then focuses on Pop Art in New York, discussing key iconic figures including Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann, who appropriated advertising, comics, and the conventions of commercial art and its specific

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An appealing picture book of cats depicted by John Craxton, one of the major figures of modern British painting, with an introduction and commentary by Andrew Lambirth, who knew Craxton well. By concentrating on a single subject very dear to John Craxton's heart cats this book offers a much more accessible introduction to this popular artist (championed by David Attenborough and Andrew Marr among many others) than the recently published biography and monograph. Craxton's significance as the early artist companion of Lucian Freud, his time in Greece and his collaborations with Patrick Leigh Fermor have generated growing interest in his art. For John Craxton, cats were an index of moods and states of mind, and a splendidly apposite vehicle for his visual and verbal wit. Craxton loved cats and lived with them, on and off, for most of his life. The cat image came readily to mind and hand, whether he was planning a taverna scene in Crete, or doodling during a telephone conversatio

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Showcasing more than sixty pieces from the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and the Museum of Lace and Fashion collections, Sheer highlights the designer’s mastery over transparent fabrics. Through archival drawings and photographs, and newly shot sheer silhouettes designed by Yves Saint Laurent from the collections of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and the Museum for Lace and Fashion, Calais, Sheer: The Diaphanous Creations of Yves Saint Laurent highlights the couturier’s pioneering work in lace and other sheer fabrics, uncovering how he was able to overturn codes of unveiling the body to present a new, powerful and sensual feminine figure. The book shows how he worked to ‘reveal’ the body of the woman wearing his clothes with both elegance and audacity: the Nude Dress of 1968, for example, made entirely of transparent chiffon, provided ‘modesty’ in the form of ostrich feathers. Original outfits, sketches, collection boards and fabric swatches give an intimate window into the designs, while photographs of models and clients such as Catherine Deneuve and Naomi Campbell bring to life the designer’s creations in a way that still shocks even now. Sheer is an essential read for fashion fans, and a fascinating and unique look at the work of one of the great designers.

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A refreshed edition of the plain-speaking yet inspirational architecture primer that encourages the reader to take a broader look at the world around us and how we might shape it. Architecture is a discipline that requires constant collaboration with the wider world, but too often architectural teaching and indeed building designs don't reflect this important fact. The Architecture Concept Book encourages the reader to look and think again, to draw inspiration widely and to consider the context in which the building will sit before putting pen to paper, or cursor to screen. Building on the success of the first edition, James Tait has updated his original text with introductions to each section that inspire further creative thinking and understanding. With 18 new pages and 5,000 extra words of text, this revised edition is the perfect way in to the ideas and fundamentals that govern an often impenetrable industry for anyone interested in our built environment.

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Renowned art historian and pioneering feminist Linda Nochlin explores how, from the late 18th century, fragmented, mutilated and fetishized representations of the human body came to constitute a distinctively modern view of the world. Surprising, questioning, challenging, enriching: the Pocket Perspectives series celebrates writers and thinkers who have helped shape the conversation across the arts. Mixing classic and contemporary texts, reissues and abridgements, these are bite-sized, fully illustrated reads in an attractive, affordable and highly collectable package.

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Supported by an exhibition at Les Rencontres d'Arles in 2024, to be followed by an international tour, this is the first retrospective of one of China's most important photographic artists. Mo Yi is a photographic artist with a career spanning nearly forty years, from the 1980s to today. This retrospective contextualizes his work within the evolution of contemporary art following reform and opening in China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. Working in a documentary tradition, but building on and reinterpreting the meaning of documentary, Mo Yi's practice is exemplified by experimentation. Regularly creating work in distinct series, he has continually tested ways of extending the boundaries of the medium and his own personal expression. This publication, supported by his first exhibition outside of China, surveys Mo Yi's experimentation in photographic production and performance over the course of his career. Organized into five chronological chapters that mark the mi

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A new take on the history of art from da Vinci to Warhol as reinterpreted and ultimately reinforced by the international phenomenon that is Banksy Few would dispute that Banksy is the most famous urban artist in the world today. That he is also one of the most perceptive art historians of our age might come as a surprise to many. But the myriad memorable works he has created over the past thirty years constitute an audacious commentary on the history of image-making a captivating critique waiting to be pieced together. Armed with little more than stencils, spray paint and an anonymizing cloak of after-hours darkness, Banksy has forged an alluring identity for himself as an incorrigible prankster who doesn't embrace tradition but shreds it. What actually illuminates Banksy's audacious murals, impromptu urban sculptures and vandalized paintings, however, is a profound understanding of the story of art. Banksy recasts masterpieces as powerful comments on contemporary

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A fresh perspective on British landscape drawing in the Victorian and Modern eras. The attempts by artists of the Victorian and early Modern period to convey not merely the physical properties of a landscape but also its emotional and spiritual impact – landscape as ‘places of the mind’, as the critic Geoffrey Grigson put it – is the focus of this fascinating new study of British watercolours produced between 1850 and 1950. Drawing on the British Museum’s impressive collection, this book explores artists’ spiritual quests to capture the essence of landscape and convey a sense of place. Artists of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries drew on earlier traditions but developed and extended the genre through their imaginative, personal responses to the artistic, cultural and social upheavals of the time. The book includes works by Victorian artists Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Poynter and by many well known twentieth-century artists, such as John and Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore, some of which have never previously been published.

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The first monograph from exciting young Singapore architecture practice RT+Q, celebrating 20 years of work. With more than 120 completed projects in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, RT+Q has established itself as a leading practice in the region. Perhaps best known for its striking residential architecture that draws on both vernacular and Modernist traditions, the practice always surprises, and consistently wins awards. This book brings together 29 of the best houses completed since the practice was founded in 2003 by Rene Tan and TK Quek. RT+Q's designs make the most of their tropical setting, with an easy interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces through permeable apertures, lush planting and airy mezzanine living. Elegant brickwork, textural concrete and slatted wooden facades are perennial features of their work. Design awards from the Singapore Institute of Architecture and the World Architecture Festival have followed, with Rene Tan named Designer of the Year at the President's Design Awards in 2016, Singapore's most prestigious award. Tropical indoor-outdoor living has seen a huge surge in interest during the Covid pandemic, whilst travel was so restricted. This title offers the armchair adventurer an aspirational tour of cutting-edge domestic architecture from a practice shaping the future of luxurious living in Southeast Asia.

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The first in a series of four thematic volumes devoted to the world-class Kramlich Collection, the largest and most significant private collection of modern and contemporary media art. How does art respond to contemporary social questions? How, especially, does moving-image art address the themes that move us most? Drawn on works from the Kramlich Collection of time-based media art, The Human Condition comments on a range of complex political issues such as civil war, psychological isolation, human rights, gender relations, nuclear catastrophe and planetary degradation. Along the way, the featured artists innovate in their hybrid use of sound, image, performance, sculpture and screen technology. Since their first acquisition in 1987, pioneering collectors Pamela and Richard Kramlich have established one of the foremost international collections of media, video, film, slide, photography and performance art. In the first of four volumes devoted to the collection, The Human Condition presents signature works by internationally recognized artists such as Marina Abramovic, Doug Aitken, Dara Birnbaum, James Coleman, Pierre Huyghe, William Kentridge, Christian Marclay, Steve McQueen, Richard Mosse, Bruce Nauman, Shirin Neshat and Nam June Paik. The Human Condition also features newly commissioned essays from leading curators and scholars specializing in time-based media art, including Erika Balsom, Bill Brown, Adrienne Edwards, Chrissie Iles, Isaac Julien, Barbara London, Mark Nash, Catherine Wood and others. This book engages both newcomers and experts in the field with captivating imagery and rigorous reflection on some of the most influential contemporary art practices of the 20th and 21st centuries.

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An accessible yet critical introduction to African photography and cinema from the mid-20th century to the present day. The African Gaze is a comprehensive exploration of postcolonial and contemporary photography and cinema from Africa. Drawing from archival imagery and documents, interviews with the photographers and filmmakers (in some cases family members/close associates if the artist is deceased), and contributions from writers, scholars and curators, it maps a comprehensive introduction to African moving and still imagery. This is a hugely important and timely publication engagement with Black and African histories is stronger than ever before (and long overdue). The major names of African photography, such as Malick Sidibé, Sanlé Sory and Seydou Keïta, have become highly collectible in the art market, while African cinema, pioneered by filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembène in 1960s Senegal, is now recognized for its creative innovation and storytelling. For anyone draw

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Central to the stories of many of the world’s great art galleries are the acquisitions and bequests that shaped their collections. So it is with M+ – a new museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong – and the M+ Sigg Collection. Acquired by the museum in 2012 from the Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector Uli Sigg, the collection consists of 1,510 works of contemporary Chinese art, dating from the 1970s to the present and ranging across all media. Most significantly, perhaps, it offers a unique window on the remarkable flowering of experimental artistic practices in China during this time – a period of unprecedented social and economic change in the country that saw artists devise new, sometimes radical, approaches to artmaking, formulating new connections between art and society, and developing ground-breaking conceptual methodologies. Published to coincide with the presentation of the M+ Sigg Collection at the opening of the M+ building, Chinese Art Since 1970 features more than 600 works by more than 300 artists represented by the collection, among them Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei and Geng Jianyi. After introductory essays by Pi Li and Uli Sigg, an illustrated chronology spanning the years 1972 to 2020 highlights important social events, exhibitions and artistic movements to establish a context for the discussion of the featured artists and their work that follows. Punctuating this discussion are contributions from renowned art historians, curators and critics from across the globe on specific works and practices, together with in-depth explanations of key concepts and events, from Cynical Realism to the seminal exhibition China/Avant-Garde. Through the medium of the world’s pre-eminent collection of contemporary Chinese art, Chinese Art Since 1970 offers an unparalleled introduction to one of the most culturally dynamic periods in modern Chinese history. With over 700 illustrations

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The new M+ museum of modern and contemporary visual culture will open its permanent new home in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong in the autumn of 2021. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the building is set to become a striking landmark on the waterfront of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. But even before the new building opened, M+ has been busy engaging with local and international audiences through a broad range of programmes and exhibitions and a strategic approach to collecting. The opening of M+’s new home is undoubtedly a milestone in the institution’s ongoing story, yet it also marks an important moment to reflect on its development to date. The Making of M+ is an immersive visual encounter with the many stages of the museum’s evolution. H. G. Masters, the book’s guest editor, and Sulki & Min, its award-winning designers, present images and words relating to M+’s first three decades – starting with the reclamation of the land on which the M+ building stands. While the hundreds of images in the book document the programmes, collections, staff, audiences and architecture that have helped shape the museum, the texts have been carefully selected from key moments in the institution’s formation, encompassing official pronouncements, staff mantras, public reactions, and snippets from the local and international press. Offering a wide range of perspectives and voices, The Making of M+ is an innovative companion to the creation of a remarkable cultural institution – the first of its kind in Hong Kong and Asia.With 360 illustrations in colour

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You may be familiar with Old Master paintings; you may even be familiar with cats inserting themselves into Old Master paintings – but you’ve never seen them in three-dimensional pop-up form. Cats in Art: A Pop-up Book celebrates the work of Susan Herbert, whose paintings have been delighting the world since her very first collection, A Cats Gallery of Art, was published in 1990. Since then, her work has appeared in numerous books, featuring cats in iconic works of art, as well as scenes from operas, Shakespearean plays and films, all with her trademark blend of humour and ability to capture those essential feline characteristics so instantly recognizable to cat lovers everywhere. In this new compilation of her work, six of the all-time best-known and loved works of art, spanning the 15th to the 19th centuries are transformed into three-dimensional form by renowned paper engineer Corina Fletcher. Each of these clever and charming feline tableaux is accompanied by engaging and lively text, telling a mini-story of the drama unfolding on the page.

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A compelling and vivid narrative history of one of the founding civilizations of the modern world, the Byzantine empire, evocatively told through the lives of its 92 emperors. The Byzantine empire was one of the most successful states of the Middle Ages, ruling over a huge terrain straddling Europe and western Asia for an unrivalled eleven hundred years. Yet its history remains largely unfamiliar. This chronicle brings this majestic yet turbulent period to life through the lives of its emperors: supreme military commander, Head of State and God’s representative on earth, no less. These were the men and women that presided over many of the foundations of the modern world, from the establishment of the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith, to the magnificent artistic heritage of Hagia Sophia and Mount Athos, and the creation of a visual template for Christian art. Each illustrated biographical entry contributes to the story of how Byzantium shaped our art, culture, religious beliefs and justice systems, and the role this extraordinary empire played in halting repeated invasions, allowing the idea of ‘Europe’ to flourish. Through stories of nobility and petty revenge, of religious devotion and brutal genocide, and of sexual intrigue and artistic brilliance; from soaring intellectuals to illiterate peasants, eunuchs and despots, this is a humanizing portrayal of individuals, whose role impacted the lives of millions.

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Green is the new black. With environmental concerns at an all-time high, many of us are looking to promote sustainability in everyday ways, especially at home. It is more important than ever that our kitchen and dining spaces allow us to live in harmony with nature. This glimpse into the home kitchens and dining areas of twenty of the world’s top chefs, food bloggers and restaurateurs reveals inspiring ways that the food-obsessed are embracing the 'wild' at home in their everyday cooking and dining. From a chef who experiments with herbs in a city apartment to a blogger who forages with her family in a local forest, each personality’s featured kitchen story offers a behind-the-scenes view of their unique cooking philosophy along with their insider tips for creating a unique kitchen space. Each chef – from Julia Sherman and David Tanis to Judy Williams (of Via Carota) and Rita Sodi – provides a simple recipe that uses their favourite natural ingredients. Offering advice on essential utensils, entertaining and bringing the outside in, the book also features a directory of websites and restaurants for those interested in finding out more. The desire to know where our food comes from and to minimize our carbon footprints is ever-growing. Wild Kitchen offers fresh insights into kitchen design and styling from those who understand the sustainable lifestyle best, and will inform, delight and inspire all food lovers looking to get back to nature.

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This visually rich survey – the first of its kind – showcases the work of over 200 artists and celebrates the explosion of street art in Africa over the last decade. Including eleven in-depth interviews with street artists active in Africa today as well as coverage of the continent’s major street art projects, collectives and festivals, it takes the reader on an introductory tour of the many African street art scenes, with a deeper focus on the most prominent players in Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. Topics and projects covered include the monumental project Murais da Leba in Angola, which saw a huge wall covered by local graffiti and visual artists in the Serra da Leba mountain range; the cultural influences and idiosyncrasies of individual street art scenes, and how they mesh with local communities; and eL Seed’s project ‘Perception’, a huge multi-part mural stretching across more than fifty buildings in Cairo’s Zaraeeb neighbourhood, revealing a message of hope to its marginalized community in the artist’s distinctive ‘calligraffiti’ style. Text commentaries elaborating on styles and processes, and social and cultural context, are peppered throughout the book, giving the reader further insight into a wealth of striking contemporary visual cultures – and helping make this a must-have for street art fans and practitioners.

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This volume is published on the occasion of the opening of the National Museum of Qatar in the state’s capital, Doha. It explores and celebrates architect Jean Nouvel’s innovative design which, inspired by the desert rose with its interlocking disks, responds to the country’s desert location by the sea. The museum, built around Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al-Thani’s original 19th-century palace, honours Qatar’s heritage while looking to its future as a thriving cultural hub.

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In this wide-ranging, thought-provoking and sometimes provocative new book, leading sculptor Antony Gormley, informed and energised by a lifetime of making, and art critic and historian Martin Gayford, explore sculpture as a transnational art form with its own compelling history. The authors’ lively conversations and explorations make unexpected connections across time and media. Sculpture has been practised by every culture throughout the world and stretches back into our distant past. The first surviving shaped stones may even predate the advent of language. Evidently, the desire to carve, mould, bend, chip away, weld, suspend, balance – to transform a vast array of materials and light into new shapes and forms – runs deep in our psyche and is a fundamental part of our human journey and need for expression. With more than 300 spectacular illustrations, Shaping the World juxtaposes a rich variety of works – from the famous Lowenmensch or Lion Man, c. 35,000 BCE to Michelangelo’s luminous Pietà in Rome, the Terracotta Warriors in China to Rodin’s The Kiss, Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades, Olafur Eliasson’s extraordinary Weather Project and Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus, and Tomas Saraceno’s ongoing Aerocene project, as well as examples of Gormley’s own work. Antony Gormley and Martin Gayford take into account materials and techniques, and consider overarching themes such as light, mortality and our changing world. Above all, they discuss their view of sculpture as a form of physical thinking capable of altering the way people feel, and they invite us to look at sculpture we encounter – and more broadly the world around us – in a completely different way.

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A Collector's Edition of Imagine John Yoko - the definitive inside story of the making of the legendary album and all that surrounded it - personally compiled and curated by Yoko Ono. In 1971, John Lennon & Yoko Ono conceived and recorded the critically acclaimed album Imagine at their Georgian country home, Tittenhurst Park, in Berkshire, England, in the state-of-the-art studio they built in the grounds, and at the Record Plant in New York. The lyrics of the title track were inspired by Yoko Ono's `event scores' in her 1964 book Grapefruit, and she was officially co-credited as writer in June 2017. Imagine John Yoko tells the story of John & Yoko's life, work and relationship during this intensely creative period. It transports readers to home and working environments showcasing Yoko's closely guarded archive of photos and artefacts, using artfully compiled narrative film stills, and featuring digitally rendered maps, floorplans and panoramas that recreate the interiors in evocative detail. John & Yoko introduce each chapter and song; Yoko also provides invaluable additional commentary and a preface. All the minutiae is examined: the locations, the key players, the music and lyrics, the production techniques and the artworks - including the creative process behind the double exposure polaroids used on the album cover. With a message as universal and pertinent today as it was when the album was created, this landmark publication is a fitting tribute to John & Yoko and their place in cultural history.

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Examining the body language displayed in works of art is a whole new way of looking at art. The gestures portrayed can reflect the mores of a particular period in history, the customs of a certain culture or a fashion in artistic styles. Exploring these with masterful subtlety, celebrated artist and anthropologist Desmond Morris uncovers fascinating insights about changing social attitudes and conventions through history and around the world, finding surprising similarities as well as now rarely used gestures. Morris selects a number of key gestures, such as the handshake, the pointed foot, or the glove-slap, and groups them by the message they are intended to convey, such as Greetings, Status and Threats. He discusses the previously unconsidered symbolism behind these. What is understood as a gang sign today may have borne a more enigmatic meaning for Botticelli. And what did Napoleon’s hidden hand really mean? Postures: Body Language in Art uniquely combines the author’s expertise in both art and social science, so that even the most familiar paintings are suddenly seen in a new light.

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Home Computers showcases the quirky and characterful beginnings of a commercial product that would come to unite the globe: the personal computer. As so much technology is forgotten once it is superseded, this is a celebration of machines, industrial design and techno-utopianism of an era in the not-so-distant past. Conceived as a visual sourcebook of the most popular, most powerful and most idiosyncratic computers to grace our workspaces, this timely publication offers a reflection on how far we’ve come and a nostalgic look at a time when digital worlds could be contained in a box and turned off, rather than ever-present in our lives. Home Computers opens with a scene-setting retrospective by computer and gaming writer Alex Wiltshire. The book’s heart is a series of specially commissioned photographs that capture details of switches and early user-interface design, letterforms and logos, and the quirks that set one computer off from another. Images are complemented by a potted history of each device, the inventors or personalities behind it, and its innovations and influences.

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