Search results for ""Author Christopher Masters""

The window is one of the most essential components of architecture, yet it rarely receives the detailed examination that it deserves. This new study explores the development of the window, showing how it transformed human experience by increasing access to light and air, and simultaneously changed our perception of architectural space. Christopher Masters celebrates the multiple roles of the window in architecture through thematic chapters that allow for spectacular visual comparisons, juxtaposing images from different cultures and historical periods. He provides engaging commentaries on over 80 exceptional buildings of all types, both ancient and modern, ranging from the Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto to Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York, Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi and Dorte Mandrup's Icefjord Centre in Greenland. Featuring more than 150 superb photographs, this is an intriguing and accessible survey of a formerly neglected subject in architectural history. AUTHOR: Christopher Masters is a London-based author specialising in art and architecture. SELLING POINTS: . A new survey of an integral but little-studied aspect of architecture across the centuries . With more than 80 buildings worldwide by architects from Palladio and Christopher Wren to Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid . A wide-ranging, informative text analyses the window as a central aesthetic and functional feature of architecture, and also considers key social and technological factors 150 colour illustrations

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Salvador Dalí (1904-89) was one of the most controversial and paradoxical artists of the twentieth century. A painter of considerable virtuosity, he used a traditional illusionistic style to create disturbing images filled with references to violence, death, cannibalism and bizarre sexual practices, from the extraordinary limp watches in The Persistence of Memory to the gruesome monster in Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War and the fetishistic lobster in the famous Lobster Telephone. Born in Figueras, Spain, Dalí was initially influenced by Impressionism and Cubism, but subsquently became involved with the Surrealists, the most revolutionary artists of the time. They regarded his paintings as revealing the normally hidden world of the unconscious. Indeed the Surrealists’ leader, André Breton, remarked: “It is perhaps with Dalí that for the first time the windows of the mind are opened fully wide”. However, Breton later expelled him from the grou

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A window provides access to two of life's essentials, light and air, but it is more than just a means to an end. Windows also have symbolic, expressive and architectural qualities that have for centuries inspired some of the world's greatest artists. In this engaging new study, Christopher Masters celebrates the multiple roles of the window in art through five key themes, from the window as a status symbol to its use as a provider of physical and spiritual illumination; from its employment as a literal window on the world outside the confines of a room to its function as a mirror, reflecting the emotions of the artist or the individuals depicted; and finally to the immense architectural variety of windows that animate interior and exterior scenes throughout Western painting. With superb reproductions of 90 works by major artists from Giotto to Banksy, and spirited analysis of the paintings' meanings, this is a remarkable exploration of an important but hitherto neglected subject in art history.

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A most striking, design-led reference book, A to Z Great Modern Artists features artist and graphic designer Andy Tuohy's portraits of 52 key modern artists, rendered in each artist's own characteristic style - including Aleksandr Rodchenko in his constructivist poster style, Andy Warhol as a classic repeat print, and Barbara Hepworth illustrated to resemble one of her distinctive bronze and rod sculptures. With expert text by art historian Christopher Masters, each artist's entry includes a summary of the essential things you need to know about the artist; their biographical details, why they're so significant, where you can find their works today, and a surprising fact about them plus reproductions of key works.Whether you're already an art expert, or looking for a helpful cheat to navigating around a gallery, you'll love this stunning and intelligent guide to global artists of the modern age.

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