Search results for ""art / books""
Phaidon Press Ltd My Art Book of Adventure
Selected as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2023 As Oprah says on OprahDaily.com – 'Created for kids, these little books pair famous artworks (Gauguin! Kerry James Marshall!) with read-aloud text ("Love is... soft snuggles... and tender nuzzles"). So special – adults will want them, too.' This keepsake children’s book celebrates adventure in a new and accessible way: through art Featuring a bright stylish cover and sturdy colorful pages, My Art Book of Adventure pairs 35 famous artworks with joyful read-aloud text, illustrating the many feelings that come with big milestones. A beautiful gift for babies, toddlers, and young children, as well as new and expecting parents, My Art Book of Adventure presents vibrant paintings, drawings, and sculptures by a diverse array of artists – from Edward Hopper and Henri Matisse to Amy Sherald and Yinka Shonibare. With its elegant design and heartwarming descriptions, My Art Book of Adventure will be treasured by little ones and grown-ups alike. Part of the beloved My Art Books series of stunning board books, which explore big feelings through famous artworks.
£14.95
Phaidon Press Ltd My Art Book of Happiness
Selected as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2023 As Oprah says on OprahDaily.com – 'Created for kids, these little books pair famous artworks (Gauguin! Kerry James Marshall!) with read-aloud text ("Love is... soft snuggles... and tender nuzzles"). So special – adults will want them, too.' This keepsake children’s book explores emotions in a new and accessible way: through art Featuring a bright stylish cover and sturdy colorful pages, My Art Book of Happiness pairs 35 famous artworks with charming read-aloud text, creating an artful ode to joy in all forms. A beautiful gift for babies, toddlers, and young children, as well as new and expecting parents, My Art Book of Happiness presents vibrant paintings, drawings, and sculptures by a diverse array of artists – from Henri Matisse and Diego Rivera to Yayoi Kusama and Lorna Simpson. With its elegant design and heartwarming descriptions, My Art Book of Happiness will be treasured by little ones and grown-ups alike. Part of the beloved My Art Books series of stunning board books, which explore big feelings through famous artworks.
£14.95
Promopress Art of Cutting: Traditional and New Techniques for paper, Cardboard, Wood and Other Materials
Trimming, piercing, slicing, snipping: just a few of the many words that relate to the idea of cutting. In this volume Jean-Charles Trebbi explores the traditional techniques of paper cutting, before examining current manifestations of this art form, including the contemporary materials and technologies it uses and the types of artistic expression it offers. The Art of Cutting is a collection of artworks that have been created using a variety of cutting techniques. The author explores traditional techniques that are still very much alive worldwide, and he analyses the current aspects of the art of cutting, in which different materials and technologies lead to new forms of artistic expression. This book presents a selection of artists who revisit and work with traditional techniques, as well as those who adopt contemporary approaches. From paper to ceramics, food design and architecture, The Art of Cutting offers a stunning and diverse universe that is waiting to be discovered. AUTHOR: Born in Paris, Charles Trebbi is an urban architect, designer, artist and writer. A Renaissance man who specialises in the infinite possibilities of folding, cutting and assembling using paper, cardboard, textiles and even wood and metal, he creates his own art books, which are often inspired often by urban spaces and architecture, and produces completely original structures with pop-up and cutting techniques.
£22.50
Lars Muller Publishers Karl Blossfeldt: Variations
In the 1890s, Berlin artist, sculptor and teacher Karl Blossfeldt started to photograph plants, seeds and other illustrative material from nature for the purpose of teaching his students about the patterns and designs found in natural forms. His close-ups of the smallest plant parts, magnified up to thirty times their natural size, are startling as the plants appear geometric and sculptural. Published in 1928, his first collection of photographs Urformen der Kunst (later translated into English as Art Forms in Nature) became an international bestseller and remains one of the most significant photo books of the twentieth century. Karl Blossfeldt: Variations is the first book-length monograph to examine the reception of Blossfeldt’s work. Drawing on unpublished materials, it analyzes the photographs’ replication in teaching mate- rials, pattern books and art books, and also in the pages of the illustrated press. The six chapters of the richly illustrated study trace the paths Blossfeldt’s legendary plant motifs described as specimens, illustrations, patterns, analogues, models and abstractions from 1890 to 1945. Thematic excursions into the present, illustrating the rediscovery of Blossfeldt’s motifs in design and architecture over the past twenty years, offer a contemporary perspective on the famous German photographer.
£36.00
3DTotal Publishing Ltd Prism: The Art Journey of Cosmic Spectrum
The Art of Cosmic Spectrum features the characters, worlds, and stories created by artist Yana Bogatch aka Cosmic Spectrum. Previously, she has self-published a graphic novel and two art books. Now, The art of Cosmic Spectrum showcases the artist’s entire story and demonstrates the development of her style and career, as well as brand new art and tutorial content. With character art and comics being her specialty, the book features an array of tips and techniques for drawing anatomy, gesture, and character details. Sketchbook pages reveal Yana’s experience in animation and storyboarding; her use of both traditional and digital tools reveals the artist’s versatility. Storytelling and connecting with other people are vital to the artist, and readers will be fascinated to discover how she infuses her art with these motivations. Another way in which she shares her art is through her shop, where creativity and commercial success meet. Yana’s energy, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial spirit will encourage readers looking for way to transform their passion for art into a viable career while staying true to their style. The Art of Cosmic Spectrum is the creative inspiration and springboard every character artist needs.
£27.00
McGill-Queen's University Press Giuliano de' Medici: Machiavelli's Prince in Life and Art
Most modern historians perpetuate the myth that Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516), son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was nothing more than an inconsequential, womanizing hedonist with little inclination or ability for politics. In the first sustained biography of this misrepresented figure, Josephine Jungic re-evaluates Giuliano’s life and shows that his infamous reputation was exaggerated by Medici partisans who feared his popularity and respect for republican self-rule. Rejecting the autocratic rule imposed by his nephew, Lorenzo (Duke of Urbino), and brother, Giovanni (Pope Leo X), Giuliano advocated restraint and retention of republican traditions, believing his family should be “first among equals” and not more. As a result, the family and those closest to them wrote him out of the political scene, and historians – relying too heavily upon the accounts of supporters of Cardinal Giovanni and the Medici regime – followed suit. Interpreting works of art, books, and letters as testimony, Jungic constructs a new narrative to demonstrate that Giuliano was loved and admired by some of the most talented and famous men of his day, including Cesare Borgia, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Niccolò Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. More than a political biography, this volume offers a refreshing look at a man who was a significant patron and ally of intellectuals, artists, and religious reformers, revealing Giuliano to be at the heart of the period’s most significant cultural accomplishments.
£37.00
Prestel Bookstores: A Celebration of Independent Booksellers
Bookstores are treasure troves of knowledge and ideas, invaluable for the imagination, and often reflect their owners’ personalities in ways internet behemoths could never recreate. In this book, photographer Horst A. Friedrichs opens the door to the world of bricks-and-mortar bookstores, showcasing their variety, quirkiness, and vitality with lavish photography. It celebrates the passion and commitment of the owners with interviews and anecdotes. Explore William Stout Books, a specialty store for architecture and art books in San Francisco, and Baldwin’s Book Barn in Pennsylvania, a 5-story bookstore housed in a dairy barn open since the mid-1940s. Discover Gay’s the Word, the UK’s first and only dedicated LGBTQI bookshop and Livraria Lello, whose art deco interior is a temple to reading in the middle of Porto, Portugal. Some of the featured bookstores specialize in a certain genre, some are massive with vaulted ceilings, some are tiny and filled to the brim with books, some are in historic buildings that evoke a different time and place, and some are brand new, high- tech, architect-designed spaces. What all the bookstores have in common is that they are all dedicated to spreading the written word to their communities. This is an ideal book for anyone who loves to read, browse, or simply linger in the analog world of books and bookstores.
£31.50
Rizzoli International Publications Codex Seraphinianus: 40th Anniversary Edition
Featuring a handsome new package redesigned by the author himself, this edition is a must-have for fans and collectors of Luigi Serafini s art. First published in 1981 in Milan by F.M. Ricci, the book has been hailed as one of the most unusual yet beautiful art books ever made. A visual encyclopaedia of an unknown world written in an unknown language, it has fuelled much debate over its meaning. Written for the information age and addressing the import of coding and decoding in genetics, literary criticism, and computer science, it has now fascinated and enchanted two generations. While its message may be unclear, its appeal is obvious: it is a most exquisite artifact, blurring the line between art book and art object. This edition presents it in a new, unparalleled light complete with 15 new illustrations by the author. With the advent of new forms of communication, continuous streams of information, and social media, the Codex is more relevant and timely than ever. A limited numbered deluxe edition, bound in real cloth and presented in a handsome slipcase, is also available. It includes a signed print of a new illustration made by the author to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the death in 1321 of Dante Alighieri, one of Italy s greatest writers and creator of The Divine Comedy.
£112.50
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Florida Sculptors and Their Work: 1880–2020
The first study of its kind, featuring over 80 important artists who have lived in Florida. With its natural beauty, distinctiveness, and warmth, Florida has attracted an abundance of artists for centuries. While fine painters have been featured in art books about the state, little has been written about important sculptors who have adopted it. To remedy the dearth of literature on the subject, Florida Sculptors and Their Work: 1880–2020 is a tribute to these diverse artists who have enchanted, amused, saddened, or outraged us. Capturing the Sunshine State's essence, this well-researched and generously illustrated volume tells the fascinating stories of these creative people and reveals secrets behind their three-dimensional art—from realistic to abstract to folk art. Discover how Florida has inspired such world-renowned artists as Augusta Savage, Duane Hanson, Richard Anuszkiewicz, John Chamberlain, and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as lesser-known yet highly praised sculptors who have enhanced collections throughout the world and changed the state’s profile with their iconic public art. This indispensable resource is a must-have for those interested in Florida's art, history, and culture.
£53.99
Metropolitan Museum of Art Louise Bourgeois: Paintings
An unprecedented look at the little-known paintings from Louise Bourgeois’s early years in New York that laid the groundwork for her sculptural practice “The catalog Louise Bourgeois: Paintings, and the revelatory exhibition, . . . were overseen by Clare Davies, who has commissioned an insightful essay from the art historian Briony Fer. But there’s another bonus: Beyond the paintings in the show, the catalog reproduces around 25 more, meaning that three-quarters of Bourgeois’s contribution to modern painting can now be seen in one place.”—Roberta Smith, New York Times, “Best Art Books of 2022” Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) is celebrated today for her sculptures. Less known are the paintings she produced between her arrival in New York in 1938 and her turn to three-dimensional media in 1949. Crucial to her artistic practice, these early works—the focus of this groundbreaking publication—show how Bourgeois evolved her deeply personal artistic lexicon, and how the themes and motifs she explored in her paintings coalesced into symbols of her sculptural practice. Informed by new archival research and the artist’s extensive diaries, Louise Bourgeois: Paintings explores Bourgeois’s relationship to the New York art world of the 1940s and her development of a unique pictorial language, adding a key element to our understanding of this crucial artist’s career. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (April 11–August 7, 2022) New Orleans Museum of Art (September 8, 2022–January 8, 2023)
£35.00
Five Continents Editions Maria Lai. Holding the Sun by the Hand
Maria Lai (Ulassai, September 27, 1919 - Cardedu, April 16, 2013) is without doubt one of the leading figures in the history of contemporary Italian art. Not only on account of the content of her works, but also thanks to the diversity of her artistic approach, ranging as it does across many media - public art, embroidery, weaving, sculpture, drawing, and writing: all are grist for her poetics. The book is published to coincide with the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, which is presenting to the general public over one hundred works by the Sardinian artist, from the early 1960s to her very last works, and explores the various themes dear to the artist with the contributions of experts in their fields: the locations, the creation, and publication of art books, her public art events and her relationship with the written word and her own writing. Her entire oeuvre is distinguished by its powerful visual impact, revealing a 'way of doing art' that is nothing other than an instrument of thought. The book's structure reflects the exhibition's own sections, arranged by theme, whose titles are paradigmatic of Lai's oeuvre as a whole: Essere è tessere. Cucire e ricucire; L'arte è il gioco degli adulti. Giocare e raccontare; Disseminare e condividere; Il viaggiatore astrale. Immaginare l'altrove; L'arte ci prende per mano. Incontrare e partecipare. Text in English and Italian.
£27.00
Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd Desmond Freeman Paris: Impressions in Ink
Paris, known affectionately throughout the world as the City of Lights, is captured in precise detail in more than 40 extraordinary drawings by Desmond Freeman. The city's much-loved ornate buildings, majestic monuments, and grand boulevards from across its 20 arrondissements are the source of inspiration for this new artistic endeavour by noted artist Desmond Freeman. Working with ink he captures more than the intricate detail of Paris to reveal a city that is again open to being discovered. Lavish full-colour and black-and-white spreads show everyday Parisian life taking place in among the city's famous landmarks. With sweeping views of the River Seine, Notre Dame, the Paris Opera, the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre's artist markets and the Trocadero, to the shopping districts, which are a beacon to the style aficionados who travel from across the world to glimpse the latest in style and fashion, you will fall in love with Paris again. Freeman's first book, Venice: Impressions in Ink ISBN 9780994558404 won the Gold Medal in the Fine Art Books section at the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York from 5,000 entries from around the world. This new book on Paris makes a perfect collector's item - it illuminates this artist's methodology and renders the city in a unique format with an original set of superb illustrations.
£31.50
Columbia Global Reports Beautiful, Gruesome, and True: Artists at Work in the Face of War
Why have some of the most interesting artists of our time committed themselves to some of the most devastating conflicts on Earth? Why are some of the most interesting artists of our time committed to engaging with conflict and exploitation around the world? Beautiful, Gruesome, and True tells the stories of three of them: Amar Kanwar makes riveting films about the destruction of rural India in the drive to extract natural resources. Teresa Margolles creates haunting installations from the traces of crime scenes and drug-related violence in Mexico. The anonymous collective Abounaddara has produced more than four hundred short films chronicling the uprising and civil war in Syria. Drawing on years of research and extensive reporting, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie vividly recounts how a group of “political” artists found ways to produce remarkable works of art that demand deliberate and methodical ways of thinking—works that are contemplative, thoughtful, even redemptive. Named one of the best art books of the year by Holland Cotter of the New York Times “A gifted critic and a compelling journalist, Wilson-Goldie offers many important insights into the challenges these artists face in their confrontation with authority, repressive regimes, death, and violence. The story she tells could not be more timely.” —Glenn D. Lowry, David Rockefeller Director, Museum of Modern Art
£11.99
Tuttle Publishing How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles (over 1,000 illustrations)
Author and artist Kamo is back with her ever-popular doodles!Cute, funny and simple drawings—alongside step-by-step instructions—are sure to inspire readers of all ages to sit down and start doodling. Begin with a line or squiggle, and then turn it into a face, animal or anything else that your imagination conjures up. The point is just to draw—anytime, anywhere, anything—and, most of all, to have fun while you are doing it!With more than 1000 examples to trace or make on your own, How to Draw Anything Anytime includes: People of all ages Animals from sea otters to giraffes and sloths to turtles Food and drinks including coffee, popcorn, sushi and lots of other appetizing treats Transportation, whether traveling by submarine, UFO or bus Astrological signs and zodiac animals Japanese and latin alphabet lettering Clever borders for decorating edges The adorable images throughout the book provide inspiration. Whether doodling digitally or on paper, use your drawings to decorate bookmarks, office supplies, bags, cards, invitations, notebooks, mobiles, window hangings and more. Sample cartoon strips show you how to incorporate your doodles into a bigger project.Fans of Kamo's other doodle books love her instantly recognizable style. Unlike serious art books, there are no rules to follow and no classes to take. All that's needed is a free hand and a free spirit—follow your lines and see where they take you.
£12.99
Phaidon Press Ltd Video/Art: The First Fifty Years
A personal and expert account of the artists and events that defined the medium’s first 50 years, written a true expert in the field‘London’s book excites because it brings new artists into a lineage worthy of greater stuff. Her passion for lesser-known figures … is contagious.’ – ARTnews, The Best Art Books of 2020Since the introduction of portable consumer electronics nearly a half century ago, artists throughout the world have adapted their latest technologies to art-making. This first-hand account by the curator who has been following video art from its beginnings in the late 1960s, when artists first adapted portable consumer technology to art-making, spotlights video’s ongoing importance in the art world, tracing the genre’s development alongside the advances in technology that have continued to open up new possibilities for artists. London has worked closely and personally with the artists she writes about, who span generations, including Joan Jonas, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Shirin Neshat, Pipilotti Rist, Miranda July, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Ian Cheng. The text is both art-historical and personal – weaving together background information and insightful interpretations with unique anecdotes and experiences to trace the history of video art as it transformed into the broader field of media art – from analog to digital, small TV monitors to wall-scale projections, and clunky hardware to user-friendly software. In doing this, she reveals how video evolved from fringe status to be seen as one of the foremost art forms of today.
£17.95
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press The Target: Alain Robbe-Grillet and Jasper Johns
The Target is a two-part interarts study of Jasper Johns and Alain Robbe-Grillet. Stoltzfuss' translation of Robbe-Grillet's introduction in the catalogue to John's 1978 Pompidou show in Paris is followed by an essay comparing the works of the American Pop artist and the French new novelist and cinematographer. Fifty-eight illustrations (eight in color) from the show accompany the translation because these art works generated Robbe-Grillet's text, also entitled 'The Target.' Stoltzfuss' essay discusses Johns' art and Robbe-Grillet's metafiction in a postmodern context. Both men subvert cultural stereotypes and realism in art. Their works are self-reflexive and they call attention to themselves and to the language of art. Autopoiesis, that is, the internal recursive loops of the system in the artwork is one of many features that they share. In addressing these features the essay deals with chaos theory, strange attractors, psychoanalysis, play theory, the role of the observer(s), and the social function of art. Books and articles have been published on Johns and on Robbe-Grillet, but none comparing the two. Bringing the two together, while exploring the affinities between the visual and the written, should be of great interest to every aficionado. The conclusion of the book argues that the foregrounding of the significant, the distortion of sequential narrative, and the disruption of causality and closure affect our perception of history, the work, and our lives; that this process has profound social consequences because Johns and Robbe-Grillets art explores the ontology of representation, not the mirroring of reality. An appendix to the book describes the rings of Johns Target and their relationship to the nine objects and nine numbers that Robbe-Grillet assigns to them.
£82.74
Hodder & Stoughton Looking to Sea: Britain Through the Eyes of its Artists
*One of The Times Best Art Books of the Year*'Looking to Sea is a remarkable and compelling book... I loved it.' Edmund de Waal'In her first, transporting book, Lily Le Brun sweeps the beaches of the past century of British art, collecting treasures from sea, shingle and shore... A book to pack in your picnic basket for shivering dips, heatwave day trips and ice-cream Sundays' The TimesAn alternative history of modern Britain, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural, artistic and philosophical storytelling. Looking to Sea considers ten pivotal artworks, from Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach, one of the first modernist paintings in Britain, to Paul Nash's work bearing the scars of his experience in the trenches and Martin Parr's photographs of seaside resorts in the 1980s, which raised controversial questions of class. Each of the startlingly different pieces, created between 1912 and 2015, opens a window onto big ideas, from modernism and the sublime, the impact of the world wars and colonialism, to issues crucial to our world today like the environment and nationhood. In this astonishingly perceptive portrait of the twentieth century, art critic Lily Le Brun brings a fresh eye to a vast idea, offering readers an imaginative new way of seeing our island nation.'Le Brun's writing is at once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned. Her book explores the inexhaustible variety of human perception.' Alexandra Harris'A smart and clear-eyed set of meditations on marine gaze, made with a painterly touch worthy of the chosen artists. Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history.' Iain Sinclair'Elegant and endlessly interesting . . . as much a rich compendium of social history as it is a hard consideration of art itself' Critic
£22.50
University of Minnesota Press Civil Rights Childhood: Picturing Liberation in African American Photobooks
Childhood joy, pleasure, and creativity are not often associated with the civil rights movement. Their ties to the movement may have faded from historical memory, but these qualities received considerable photographic attention in that tumultuous era. Katharine Capshaw’s Civil Rights Childhood reveals how the black child has been—and continues to be—a social agent that demands change. Because children carry a compelling aura of human value and potential, images of African American children in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education had a powerful effect on the fight for civil rights. In the iconography of Emmett Till and the girls murdered in the 1963 Birmingham church bombings, Capshaw explores the function of children’s photographic books and the image of the black child in social justice campaigns for school integration and the civil rights movement. Drawing on works ranging from documentary photography, coffee-table and art books, and popular historical narratives and photographic picture books for the very young, Civil Rights Childhood sheds new light on images of the child and family that portrayed liberatory models of blackness, but it also considers the role photographs played in the desire for consensus and closure with the rise of multiculturalism.Offering rich analysis, Capshaw recovers many obscure texts and photographs while at the same time placing major names like Langston Hughes, June Jordan, and Toni Morrison in dialogue with lesser-known writers. An important addition to thinking about representation and politics, Civil Rights Childhood ultimately shows how the photobook—and the aspirations of childhood itself—encourage cultural transformation.
£72.90
Distributed Art Publishers Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe
An unprecedented look at Nellie Mae Rowe’s art as a radical act of self-expression and liberation in the post-civil rights-era South A New York Times critics' pick | Best Art Books 2021 During the last 15 years of her life, Nellie Mae Rowe lived on Paces Ferry Road, a major thoroughfare in Vinings, Georgia, and welcomed visitors to her “Playhouse,” which she decorated with found-object installations, handmade dolls, chewing-gum sculptures and hundreds of drawings. Rowe created her first works as a child in rural Fayetteville, Georgia, but only found the time and space to reclaim her artistic practice in the late 1960s, following the deaths of her second husband and her longtime employer. This book offers an unprecedented view of how Rowe cultivated her drawing practice late in life, starting with colorful and at times simple sketches on found materials and moving toward her most celebrated, highly complex compositions on paper. Through photographs and reconstructions of her Playhouse created for an experimental documentary on her life, this publication is also the first to juxtapose her drawings with her art environment. Nellie Mae Rowe (1900–82) grew up in rural Fayetteville, Georgia. When her Playhouse became an Atlanta attraction, she began to exhibit her art outside of her home, beginning with Missing Pieces: Georgia Folk Art, 1770–1976, a traveling exhibition that brought attention to several Southern self-taught artists, including Rowe and Howard Finster. In 1982, the year she died, Rowe’s work received a new level of acclaim, as she was honored in a solo exhibition at Spelman College and included as one of three women artists in the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s landmark exhibition .
£35.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Sound of Stars
“This debut has it all: music, books, aliens, adventure, resistance, queerness, and a bold heroine tying it all together. ”—Ms. MagazineCan a girl who risks her life for books and an Ilori who loves pop music work together to save humanity?When a rebel librarian meets an Ilori commander…Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the death of one-third of the world’s population. Today, seventeen-year-old Ellie Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library.When young Ilori commander Morris finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. But Morris isn’t a typical Ilori…and Ellie and her books might be the key to a desperate rebellion of his own.“The Sound of Stars is a marvelous genre-bending debut." —The Nerd Daily“The Sound of Stars is a stunning exploration of the comforts that make us human and the horrors that challenge our humanity.”—K. Ancrum, author of The Wicker King "This book has everything! Aliens set on conquering earth! A determined heroine with a hidden stash of books! And the power of music and stories to give those with every reason to hate the power to love. Who could want anything more?"—Joelle Charbonneau, New York Times bestselling author of The Testing and Verify “An absolute must-read for everyone.” —Book Riot “Dow's debut is a testament to hope and the power of art.” —Buzzfeed Also by Alechia Dow:The Kindred
£9.04
Fordham University Press Humbug!: The Politics of Art Criticism in New York City's Penny Press
One of Hyperallergic's Top Ten Art Books for 2021 Approximately 300 daily and weekly newspapers flourished in New York before the Civil War. A majority of these newspapers, even those that proclaimed independence of party, were motivated by political conviction and often local conflicts. Their editors and writers jockeyed for government office and influence. Political infighting and their related maneuvers dominated the popular press, and these political and economic agendas led in turn to exploitation of art and art exhibitions. Humbug traces the relationships, class animosities, gender biases, and racial projections that drove the terms of art criticism, from the emergence of the penny press to the Civil War. The inexpensive “penny” papers that appeared in the 1830s relied on advertising to survive. Sensational stories, satire, and breaking news were the key to selling papers on the streets. Coverage of local politicians, markets, crime, and personalities, including artists and art exhibitions, became the penny papers’ lifeblood. These cheap papers, though unquestionably part of the period’s expanding capitalist economy, offered socialists, working-class men, bohemians, and utopianists a forum in which they could propose new models for American art and society and tear down existing ones. Arguing that the politics of the antebellum press affected the meaning of American art in ways that have gone unrecognized, Humbug covers the changing politics and rhetoric of this criticism. Author Wendy Katz demonstrates how the penny press’s drive for a more egalitarian society affected the taste and values that shaped art, and how the politics of their art criticism changed under pressure from nativists, abolitionists, and expansionists. Chapters explore James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald and its attack on aristocratic monopolies on art; the penny press’s attack on the American Art-Union, an influential corporation whose Board purchased artworks from living artists, exhibited them in a free gallery, and then distributed them in an annual five-dollar lottery; exposés of the fraudulent trade in Old Masters works; and the efforts of socialists, freethinkers, and bohemians to reject the authority of the past.
£31.50
Mango Media Lettering From A to Z: 12 Styles & Awesome Projects for a Creative Life (Calligraphy, Printmaking, Hand Lettering)
Spark Your Creativity with Calligraphy“I found Lettering from A to Z to be an open door, inviting me to play and create in entirely new ways.” —Sherry Richert Belul, author of Say it Now and founder of Simply CelebrateWinner Indie Book Award for Gift/Specialty/Novelty Book in 2021Winner 15th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards (2021) for Crafts & Hobbies#1 New Release in Handwriting Reference, Mixed Media, and PrintmakingLettering artist Phawnda Moore has been teaching calligraphy and design for 25 years. An award-winning author, she steps into beginning students’ shoes to select content, address anticipated questions, and offer solutions to the unexpected yet inevitable problems that are encountered in hand lettering.Your creative life will be enriched with step-by-step tutorials “from A to Z.” Written in conversational narrative, this full-color book includes more than 200 images of Phawnda’s professional work, published articles, and guidance from her class demos to make beautiful projects. Blending traditional design principles and modern tools, it inspires you to find your own style.Phawnda's instruction includes: 12 styles (Uncial calligraphy, Italic calligraphy, script calligraphy, brush lettering, faux calligraphy, rainbow lettering, monoline letters, handwriting and drawn letters) Customized, printable practice sheets Recommended writing tools, papers, sources, printing tips Layout, color, and design basics Lettering projects for youngsters Tips on how to organize your studio space Tips on sharing your skills in teaching, business, events, home, garden, and community Illustrating with calligraphy tools Projects to make handmade birthday cards, holiday cards, journals of your life, and easy-to-design art books If you enjoyed Hand Lettering 101, The Lost Art of Handwriting, or Hand Lettering for Relaxation, then it’s time to grab a copy of Lettering from A to Z and reconnect to your natural creativity.
£17.15
Siglio Press Ray Johnson and William S. Wilson: Frog Pond Splash: Collages by Ray Johnson with Texts by William S. Wilson
This gemlike Ray Johnson book celebrates his friendship with writer and logophile William S. Wilson in pictures and words A New York Times critics' pick | Best Art Books 2020 Dubbed "Ray Johnson's Boswell," writer and logophile William S. Wilson was one of legendary artist Ray Johnson's closest friends and biggest champions. He was also perhaps Johnson’s most trusted poetic muse and synthesizer of referents and references. The influence was mutual: throughout their lifelong friendship, begun when both men were in their twenties, writer and artist challenged and enriched one another’s work. Published on the occasion of the exhibition of Ray Johnson works from Wilson's archive at the Art Institute of Chicago, Frog Pond Splash embodies the energy, expansiveness and motion of their work and their friendship. Editor Elizabeth Zuba has selected short, perspicacious texts by Wilson (from both published and unpublished writings) and collage works by Johnson to create juxtapositions that do not explicate or illustrate; rather, they form a loose collage-like letter of works and writings that are less bound than assembled, allowing the reader to put the pieces together, to respond, to add to and return to the way Johnson required of his correspondents and fellow travelers. Taking its title from Wilson's haiku equivalence of Johnson's process, Frog Pond Splash is a small book but many things: a collage-like homage to their friendship, a treasure chest of prismatic "correspondances," as well as an unusual portrait of the disappearing, fractured Johnson through Wilson's words. Zuba's nuanced selection and arrangement of images and texts in this sumptuous little volume honors Johnson's "open system" (which rejected closed and consistent meanings, codes and symbols) in its open, associative, and intimate playfulness.
£24.30
Museyon Guides Art + Paris: Impressionists & Post-impressionists
Step inside the revolutionary lives of the Impressionists, a book that combines the best elements of art books and travel guides for a totally new take on Impressionist Paris. This comprehensive guide combines an introduction to late19th-century art history with colour reproductions of famous Impressionist masterpieces, walking tours and detailed listings of the city's art-related sites. 'Art + Paris' creates a vivid portrait of life in the 19th century and brings the reader along for the ride through four sections: 1. A complete background course on Impressionism covering the dramatic lives of the artists and the group's struggle to be recognized by the establishment in comprehensive biographies and engaging essays recounting their battle with the Salon. 2. Illustrated listings of 150 must-see Impressionist paintings in Paris with the stories behind the art. 3. Easy-to-follow tours that bring the reader into the streets of Paris to explore the places where the artists lived, fell in love, found inspiration and placed their easels to paint these famous works. 4. An extended-travel journey through the French countryside, exploring Normandy and the quaint Paris suburbs where the artists learned to paint en plein air, out in the open air. Illustrated with hundreds of beautiful, full-colour photos and maps. Art + Paris is the most comprehensive guidebook to Impressionism for the armchair traveller, lovers of Paris, and educators alike. 'Art+Paris' includes: . 500 full colour paintings, 300 photos and 17 maps. . Expert-written artist biographies on Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Caillebotte and Vincent van Gogh. . Highlights from 7 leading Paris museums including the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre. . 11 guides to travel to important historical Impressionist in picturesque towns and villages in Normandy and beyond including Auvres-sur-Oise, Giverny, Rouen, Le Havre, Étretat, Hofleur and more. 200 photographs and maps
£16.99
DoppelHouse Press The Lost Architecture of Jean Welz
A deserted Paris house holds the mystery of a brilliant Viennese modernist who worked alongside Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos before vanishing.Wyeth takes readers on a deeply personal and revelatory journey. This research process, which readers experience vicariously, makes Wyeth’s prose exhilarating as tiny details become breakthroughs of grand proportions. […] For late architect and painter Jean Welz, designs should reflect one’s aesthetic and political commitments. This narrative will resonate with anyone interested in the politics of architecture, or the pursuit of knowledge at large.—Hyperallergic "BEST ART BOOKS OF 2022"Welz’s having been “lost” is indeed a travesty of architectural history to which the book serves as a welcome antidote.—Artforum A leading painter still highly regarded in South Africa, Jean Welz's prior architectural career has been virtually unknown until a string of discoveries unfolded for author and filmmaker Peter Wyeth, allowing him to narrate this amazing true tale of genius. Trained in ultra-sophisticated, but conservative Vienna, Welz was sent to Paris for the 1925 Art Deco exhibition by his influential employer, renowned architect Josef Hoffmann. There he met preeminent modern architects Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos. The latter employed him to assist in building a house for the founder of Dada, Tristan Tzara. They all mixed in avant-garde circles at the Dôme Café in Montparnasse along with Welz’s classmate from Vienna, later Chicago-based architect Gabriel Guevrekian; Welz’s future employer Raymond Fischer, whose archive was mostly destroyed by Nazis; and photographer André Kertész. Through Welz’s South African family archive, author Wyeth retrieves stories, letters, portfolios, and photographs generations after Welz’s death that unravel his heroic designs, his stunning built critique of Corbusier’s “Five Points of Architecture,” a gravestone for Marx’s daughter, and the many ways that Welz disappeared amongst his collaborators, intentionally and not. This account of why Jean Welz did not become a famous name in architecture takes us through his brother’s Nazi-art-dealings, illness, betrayal, emigration, and an uncompromising artist’s vision at the same time sifting through significant, literally-concrete evidence of Welz’s built projects and visionary designs.
£26.09
Fordham University Press Humbug!: The Politics of Art Criticism in New York City's Penny Press
One of Hyperallergic's Top Ten Art Books for 2021 Approximately 300 daily and weekly newspapers flourished in New York before the Civil War. A majority of these newspapers, even those that proclaimed independence of party, were motivated by political conviction and often local conflicts. Their editors and writers jockeyed for government office and influence. Political infighting and their related maneuvers dominated the popular press, and these political and economic agendas led in turn to exploitation of art and art exhibitions. Humbug traces the relationships, class animosities, gender biases, and racial projections that drove the terms of art criticism, from the emergence of the penny press to the Civil War. The inexpensive “penny” papers that appeared in the 1830s relied on advertising to survive. Sensational stories, satire, and breaking news were the key to selling papers on the streets. Coverage of local politicians, markets, crime, and personalities, including artists and art exhibitions, became the penny papers’ lifeblood. These cheap papers, though unquestionably part of the period’s expanding capitalist economy, offered socialists, working-class men, bohemians, and utopianists a forum in which they could propose new models for American art and society and tear down existing ones. Arguing that the politics of the antebellum press affected the meaning of American art in ways that have gone unrecognized, Humbug covers the changing politics and rhetoric of this criticism. Author Wendy Katz demonstrates how the penny press’s drive for a more egalitarian society affected the taste and values that shaped art, and how the politics of their art criticism changed under pressure from nativists, abolitionists, and expansionists. Chapters explore James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald and its attack on aristocratic monopolies on art; the penny press’s attack on the American Art-Union, an influential corporation whose Board purchased artworks from living artists, exhibited them in a free gallery, and then distributed them in an annual five-dollar lottery; exposés of the fraudulent trade in Old Masters works; and the efforts of socialists, freethinkers, and bohemians to reject the authority of the past.
£120.60
Profile Books Ltd Hogarth: Life in Progress
THE SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR A Sunday Times Best Paperback of 2022 Christie's Best Art Books of the Year 'Deft and richly detailed ... rescues the artist from John Bull caricature' - Michael Prodger, Sunday Times 'Marvellous ... a vivid and compelling reconstruction of the settings of Hogarth's life and artistic achievements, and of the nature of the man' - Professor Linda Colley, author of The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen 'Full of richness, originality and considered humour, unafraid to shock with thrilling new insight ... terrific' - Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of V&A Stratford & Sky Arts 'The full technicolour panorama of Georgian life laid out in a huge and passionate book' - Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and author of Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court On a late spring night in 1732, a boisterous group of friends set out from their local pub. They are beginning a journey, a 'peregrination' that will take them through the gritty streets of Georgian London and along the River Thames as far as the Isle of Sheppey. And among them is an up-and-coming engraver and painter, just beginning to make a name for himself: William Hogarth. Hogarth's vision, to a vast degree, still defines the eighteenth century. In this, the first biography for over twenty years, Jacqueline Riding brings him to vivid life, immersing us in the world he inhabited and from which he drew inspiration. At the same time, she introduces us to an artist who was far bolder and more various than we give him credit for: an ambitious self-made man, a devoted husband, a sensitive portraitist, an unmatched storyteller, philanthropist, technical innovator and author of a seminal work of art theory. Following in his own footsteps from humble beginnings to professional triumph (and occasional disaster), Hogarth illuminates the work and life of a great artist who embraced the highest principles even while charting humanity's lowest vices.
£12.99
Vanderbilt University Press We Shall Overcome: Press Photographs of Nashville during the Civil Rights Era
Named One of the "Best Art Books of 2018" by the New York Times Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death—and at a time when race relations and social justice are again at the forefront of our country's consciousness—this book expands on a Frist Art Museum exhibition to present a selection of approximately one hundred photographs that document an important period in Nashville's struggle for racial equality. The images were taken between 1957, the year that desegregation in public schools began, and 1968, when the National Guard was called in to surround the state capitol in the wake of the civil rights leader's assassination in Memphis. Of central significance are photographs of lunch counter sit-ins in early 1960, led by a group of students, including John Lewis (who contributed the book's foreword) and Diane Nash, from local historically black colleges and universities. The demonstrations were so successful that King stated just a few weeks later at Fisk University: "I did not come to Nashville to bring inspiration but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community." The role that Nashville played in the national civil rights movement as a hub for training students in nonviolent protest and as the first Southern city to integrate places of business is a story that warrants reexamination. The book also provides an opportunity to consider the role of images and the media in shaping public opinion, a relevant subject in today's news-saturated climate. Photographs from the archives of both daily newspapers are included: the Tennessean, which was the more liberal publication, and the Nashville Banner, a conservative paper whose leadership seemed less interested in covering events related to racial issues. Some of the photographs in the exhibition had been selected to be published in the papers, but many were not, and their disclosure reveals insight into the editorial process. In several images, other photojournalists and news crews are visible, serving as a reminder of the almost constant presence of the camera during these historic times. Essays by Linda Wynn of Fisk University and the Tennessee Historical Commission and Susan H. Edwards, executive director of the Frist Art Museum, offer historical context on Nashville during the civil rights era and on photojournalism, respectively. Congressman John Lewis's foreword recounts memories of his time in Nashville and reminds us that there is still work to be done to build King's Beloved Community.
£25.95
Anomie Publishing Caroline Walker - Janet
Scotland-born, London-based artist Caroline Walker is celebrated for her paintings exploring the lives of women, from those living luxury lifestyles to those fleeing oppression. In this publication, which was produced to accompany Walker’s first exhibition with Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, in autumn 2020, the artist turns her attention closer to home, presenting a series of paintings in which the focus is the artist’s own mother, Janet, as she goes about her daily tasks: cooking, cleaning, tidying and tending the garden of the Fife home where the artist spent her childhood.The publication features a newly commissioned essay and an interview with the artist by critic and author Hettie Judah. The essay opens by comparing Walker’s works to the Dutch Golden Age, encouraging consideration of everyday domestic scenes. Judah then leads the reader through Walker’s latest series of works, exploring the daily routines and household chores that have filled Walker’s mother’s days for the past forty years, along with the artist’s treatment of these activities. Judah deftly locates this latest body of work within Walker’s wider practice, opening up discussion of women at work in different industries and notions of invisibility. She asserts: ‘While "Janet" extends Walker’s long-held interest in women’s work, the series is also a loving undertaking. The artist offers us her mother with great pride, both in particular, and on behalf of other mothers overlooked and working out of sight.’ The interview offers further insight into Walker’s thoughts in relation to the "Janet" series, and to the working processes behind it.The publication features around eighty illustrations of the preparatory studies and paintings that comprise this new body of work. It has been designed by Joanna Deans, Identity, with photography by Peter Mallet. The publication was produced by Ingleby, Edinburgh, and printed by Die Keure, Bruges. It was co-published in 2020 by Ingleby and Anomie Publishing, London, in an edition of 1500 copies.Caroline Walker was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1982. She attended Glasgow School of Art from 2000-04, before completing her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2009. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, and participation in the ninth edition of the British Art Show. She is represented in a number of public collections including the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, the UK Government Art Collection, London, Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway, and Museum Voorlinden & Kunstmuseum den Haag, in the Netherlands.Hettie Judah is chief art critic of the British daily newspaper The i, a regular contributor to The Guardian, The New York Times, Frieze, Art Quarterly, Numéro Art and The Art Newspaper, and a contributing editor to The Plant. Recent publications include a short biography of Frida Kahlo (Laurence King, 2020) and Art London (ACC Art Books, 2019).
£25.20