Search results for ""Thames Hudson Ltd""
Thames & Hudson Ltd Pre-Raphaelite Cats
Susan Herbert’s feline versions of famous paintings have delighted cat and art-lovers everywhere. In this book, now available in paperback, she turns her eye to the works of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, whose popularity is reaching new heights today. The epitome of their style and period, these wonderful paintings can be viewed in a new and entrancing way when their protagonists are endearing cats. The Beggar Maid, ‘more beautiful than day’ in Tennyson’s poem, takes on a particularly touching relationship with King Cophetua, while Medea gives new meaning to the word enchantress as she prepares the ingredients for a spell. And were ever two creatures so frightened and so abandoned as the poor cat princes wickedly imprisoned in the Tower, or two lovers so sad and so stoical as the young officer cat and his fiancée on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo? A special feature of this book is its inclusion of small black-and-white reproductions of all the original paintings that have inspired Susan Herbert. Once again she has risen to the challenge of endowing the world’s best- loved works of art with a certain feline charm.
£9.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Graffiti School: A Student Guide with Teacher's Manual
Graffiti School is the world’s first fully illustrated graffiti coursebook for college use. It opens with an exploration of graffiti’s background and history, from Pompeii to the Hip Hop revolution to the present day, as well as how to stay on the right side of the law. It then introduces modern-day graffiti media and terminology, going on to conduct the reader through the process of designing graffiti, setting out the possibilities and skills needed to create a successful work on paper, ready to be transferred to a wall. The author explains the practical techniques of using a spray can, and the step-by-step methods and skills required to create artistic graffiti. The final section is a manual designed specifically to be of use to teachers. It gives ideas for running both theoretical and practical graffiti lessons and units, as well as providing suggestions on the details, such as marking schemes and ideas for class trips.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That: Modern Art Explained
Why Your 5 Year Old Could Not Have Done That is Susie Hodge’s passionate and persuasive argument against the most common disparaging remark levelled at modern art. In this enjoyable and thought-provoking book, she examines 100 works of modern art that have attracted critical and public hostility – from Cy Twombly’s scribbled Olympia (1957), Jean-Michel Basquiat’s crude but spontaneous ‘LNAPRK’ (1982), to the apparently careless mess of Tracey Emin’s My Bed (1998) – and explains how, far from being negligible novelties, they are inspired and logical extensions of the ideas of their time. She explains how such notorious works as Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII (1966) – the infamous bricks – occupy unique niches in the history of ideas, both showing influences of past artists and themselves influencing subsequent artists. With illustrations of works from Hans Arp to Adolf Wölfli, Hodge places each work in its cultural context to present an unforgettable vision of modern art. This book will give you an understanding of the ways in which modern art differs from the realistic works of earlier centuries, transforming as well as informing your gallery visits for years to come.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the lost techniques of the Old Masters
The book that turned the art world on its head, now with new and exciting discoveries. Hockney takes his thesis further, demonstrating how Renaissance artists used mirrors and lenses to develop perspective and chiaroscuro – radically challenging our view of how these two foundations of Western art were established.
£27.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
The gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt, worshipped for over half of recorded history, are among the most fascinating and complex of any civilization. Here is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the deities that lay at the heart of Egyptian religion and society. It examines the evolution, worship and eventual decline of the numerous gods and goddesses – from minor household figures such as Bes and Taweret to the all-powerful deities Amun and Re – that made Egypt the most completely theocratic society of the ancient world, and made Egyptians, according to Herodotus, ‘more religious than any other people’.
£17.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Brett Whiteley: Art & Life
Brett Whiteley was one of the most dynamic and talented artists in the history of Australian art, an artist whose recognition had spread worldwide before his untimely death in 1992. Early in his career he established a name for himself in London, exhibiting at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and coming into contact with many British painters - Francis Bacon and David Hockney among others. His early paintings startled critics and fellow artists, but even at that point, two basic subjects were evident: the landscape and the nude, elements which became the mainstay of his oeuvre. At the root of all Whiteley's work was a draughtsmanship of stunning virtuosity, capable of capturing all the poetic arabesque of a river in a single sweeping line of brush and ink, or the erotic curves of the human body in a few searching strokes of charcoal. This volume presents an illuminating evaluation of Whiteley's achievement. Works dating from the 1950s to the last years of his life, illustrated in over 180 colour plates, allow Whiteley's career to be surveyed in its entirety. Barry Pearce, Head Curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, provides a comprehensive overview of Whiteley's life and art; Bryan Robertson offers an impression of the artist's years in London; and Wendy Whiteley, the artist's wife and companion for over three decades, contributes an intimate portrait of the man behind the work. Superbly illustrated and produced, Brett Whiteley: Art & Life is a fitting tribute to one of Australia's most significant artists, a man whose outstanding work excites, amazes and impresses us no less now than it did when first created.
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Kilim: The Complete Guide: History · Pattern · Technique · Identification
In recent years, demand for kilims (flatwoven textiles) in the West has reached unprecedented levels. Kilim: The Complete Guide unravels the complex questions surrounding the origins and history of these unique flatweaves and of the peoples who make them. Hundreds of illustrations, many in colour and many specially taken, show them in all their glory. A detailed account of techniques - materials, dyes and dyeing, tools, kilim structures and weaving - is followed by a systematic analysis of motifs and symbolism. Here, the complex relationship between Islam and the animistic or shamanistic traditions that preceded it is explored. The core of the book is devoted to the specific characteristics of region, tribe and kilim type. Four major sections present much original research, fully informing the reader about kilims from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia; Anatolia; Persia and the Caucasus; and Afghanistan and Central Asia. Chapters on new kilims and the use of kilims as bags or trappings as well as rugs - together with a reference guide to collecting, care and further study, conclude what has become the standard work on this widely appealing subject.
£31.46
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Chinese Myths: A Guide to the Gods and Legends
The essential guide to the complex, fascinating world of Chinese myths: retelling the stories and exploring their significance in Chinese culture. This is a concise and entertaining guide to the complex tradition of Chinese mythology. While many around the world are familiar with some aspects of Chinese myth – through Chinese New Year festivities or the classic adventures of the Monkey King in Journey to the West – few outside of China understand the richness of Chinese mythology, influenced by Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Offering much more than any competing overview of Chinese mythology, The Chinese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Chinese religions, culture and history. Tao Tao Liu introduces us to an intriguing cast of gods, goddesses, dragons and monks, including: the ancient hero, Yi the Archer, who shot suns out of the sky to save humanity from a drought; Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion, to whom there are temples dedicated all over East Asia; and Madame White Snake, a water snake spirit in the guise of a mysterious widow, her story adapted into countless films and operas. This book is for anyone interested in China, as knowing its myths allows readers to understand and appreciate its culture in a new light.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Nature's Palette: A colour reference system from the natural world
First published in 1814 and expanded in 1821 – long before the era of colour photography or print – Syme’s edition of Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours attempted to establish a universal colour reference system to help identify, classify and represent species from the natural world. Werner’s set of 54 colour standards was enhanced by Patrick Syme with the addition of colour swatches and further references from nature, taking the total number of hues classified to 110. The resulting resource proved invaluable not only to artists but also to zoologists, botanists, mineralogists and anatomists. In Nature’s Palette this technicolour trove has, for the first time, been enhanced with the addition of illustrations of the animals, vegetables and minerals Werner referenced alongside each colour swatch and accompanied by expert text explaining the uses and development of colour standards in relation to zoology, botany, minerology and anatomy. This fully realized colour catalogue includes elegant contemporary illustrations of every animal, plant or mineral that Syme cited. Readers can see for themselves Tile Red in the Cock Bullfinch’s breast, Shrubby Pimpernel and Porcelain Jasper; or admire the Berlin Blue that Syme identified on the wing feathers of a Jay, in the Hepatica flower and in Blue Sapphire. Displays of contemporary collector’s cabinets of birds, butterflies, eggs, flowers and minerals are interspersed at intervals throughout the compendium, with individual specimens colour matched to colour swatches. Still a much-loved reference among artists, naturalists and everyone fascinated by colour today, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours finds its fullest expression in this beautiful and comprehensive colour reference system.With 1000 illustrations in colour
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Japanese Myths: A Guide to Gods, Heroes and Spirits
The perfect introduction to the world of Japanese myth and legend. This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japan’s cultural exports, few are familiar with Japan’s unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore. Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helping readers to understand the deep links between past and present in Japan, and the ways these myths live and grow. Joshua Frydman takes the very earliest written myths in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki as his starting point, and from there traces Japan’s mythology through to post-war State Shinto, the rise of the manga industry in the 1960s, J-horror and modern-day myths. Reinventions and retellings of myth are present across all genres of contemporary Japanese culture, from its auteur cinema to renowned video games such as Okami. This book is for anyone interested in Japan, as knowing its myths allows readers to understand and appreciate its culture in a new light.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Turquerie: An Eighteenth-Century European Fantasy
Painstakingly researched from many sources, this is the first book to look at the artistic phenomenon known as turquerie. At the end of the 17th century, the long-standing fear of the Turk in Europe was gradually replaced by fascination. Travellers’ accounts of the Ottoman lands, translations of works such as One Thousand and One Nights, and the magnificent spectacle of Ottoman ambassadors and their retinues were among the catalysts that inspired the creation of a European fantasy of this world. In this new book, Haydn Williams shows how turquerie manifested itself in the arts across Europe. Its most intense and long-lasting expression was in France, but its reach was broad: from a mosque folly in Kew Gardens to an ivory statuette of a janissary created in Dresden for King Augustus II of Poland and the costumes worn for a carnival celebration in Rome in 1748. Focusing on categories including painting, architecture, interiors and the theatre, Turquerie provides an engaging account of this whimsical European fantasy.
£35.96
Thames & Hudson Ltd Misère: The Visual Representation of Misery in the 19th Century
The coming of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century witnessed unprecedented changes in society: rapid economic progress went hand-in-hand with appalling working conditions, displacement, squalor and destitution for those at the bottom of the social scale. These new circumstances presented a challenge to contemporary image-makers, who wished to capture the effects of hunger, poverty and alienation in Britain, Ireland and France in the era before documentary photography. In this groundbreaking book, the eminent art historian Linda Nochlin examines the styles and expressive strategies that were used by artists and illustrators to capture this misère, roughly characterized as poverty that afflicts both body and soul. She investigates images of the Irish Famine in the period 1846–51; the gendered representation of misery, particularly of poor women and prostitutes; and the work of three very different artists: Théodore Géricault, Gustave Courbet and the less wellknown Fernand Pelez. The artists’ desire to depict the poor and the outcast accurately and convincingly is still a pertinent issue, though now, as Nochlin observes, the question has a moral and ethical dimension – does the documentary style belittle its subjects and degrade their condition?
£22.46
Thames & Hudson Ltd Abstract Art: A Global History
Taking a radically new approach to the history of abstract painting, Pepe Karmel applies a scholarly yet fresh vision to reconsider the history of abstraction from a global perspective and to demonstrate that abstraction is embedded in the real world. Moving beyond the orthodox canonical terrain of abstract art, he surveys artists from across the globe, examining their work from the point of view of content rather than form. Previous writers have approached the history of abstraction as a series of movements solving a series of formal problems. In contrast, Karmel focuses on the subject matter of abstract art, showing how artists have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural and spiritual experience. An introductory discussion of the work of the early modern pioneers of abstraction opens up into a completely new approach to abstract art based around five inclusive themes – the body, the landscape, the cosmos, architecture, and the repertory of man-made signs and patterns – each of which has its own chapter. Starting from a figurative example, Karmel works outwards to develop a series of narratives that go far beyond the established figures and movements traditionally associated with abstract art. Each narrative is complemented by a number of ‘featured’ abstract works, which provide an in-depth illustration of the breadth of Karmel’s distinctive vision. A wide-ranging examination of topics – from embryos to the surface of skin, from vortexes to waves, planets to star charts, towers to windows – is interwoven with detailed analysis of works by established figures like Joan Miró and Jackson Pollock alongside pieces by lesser-known artists such as Wu Guanzhong, Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita.
£58.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Training Days: The Subway Artists Then and Now
In the late 1970s, New York City was bankrupt, dirty and dangerous. Born on these grimy streets, graffiti rapidly made its mark. Here, twelve legendary graffiti writers – the original subway artists whose creative genius fuelled the earliest flowering of the movement – give first-person accounts of their experiences. Individually interviewed for this book by Sacha Jenkins, they reveal an authentic, unparalleled insight into the golden age of graffiti. Illustrated with Henry Chalfant’s original photographs, this book captures all the raw, explosive creativity of that era.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen
The making of pictures has a history going back perhaps 100,000 years to an African shell used as a paint palette. Two-thirds of it is irrevocably lost, since the earliest images known to us are from about 40,000 years ago. But what a 40,000 years, explored here by David Hockney and Martin Gayford in a brilliantly original book. They privilege no medium, or period, or style, but instead, in 16 chapters, discuss how and why pictures have been made, and insistently link ‘art’ to human skills and human needs. Each chapter addresses an important question: What happens when we try to express reality in two dimensions? Why is the ‘Mona Lisa’ beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting? Why are optical projections always going to be more beautiful than HD television can ever be? How have the makers of images depicted movement? What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? Energized by two lifetimes of looking at pictures, combined with a great artist’s 70-year experience of experimentation as he makes them, this profoundly moving and enlightening volume will be the art book of the decade.
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Fashion and the Art of Pochoir: The Golden Age of Illustration in Paris
The 1910s and 1920s witnessed an outpouring of luxury publications that used a hand-stencilling technique known as pochoir (French for 'stencil'). The highly refined and painterly technique, which consists of applying layers of gouache paint or watercolour to achieve bold blocks of saturated colour, produced works of visual artistry formerly unrivalled in the history of illustration, and it became the medium of choice for avant-garde couturiers seeking to stand apart and cultivate an elite readership. Organized chronologically by publication and showcasing a carefully curated selection of the most exceptional illustrations from couture albums and high-end magazines, Fashion and the Art of Pochoir is the definitive tribute to the artists and couturiers who first united to redefine luxury, inaugurating the enduring alliance between fashion and art, from Schiaparelli and Dalì to Vuitton and Murakami today. Closing with biographical notices of illustrators and fashion designers, it offers a unique chance for illustrators, artists, designers and fashion enthusiasts to discover the rarely seen images that defined a short but magnificent golden age.
£45.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Cats Galore: A Compendium of Cultured Cats
Susan Herbert's delightful feline reimaginings of famous scenes from art, theatre, opera, ballet and film have won her a devoted following. This unprecedented new compilation of her best paintings provides an irresistible introduction to her feline world. An array of cat characters take the starring roles in a variety of instantly recognizable settings. The masterpieces of Western art retain their distinctive styles while being cleverly filled with furry faces and pussycat tails. Cats then take to the stage in Shakespearean dramas and lavishly staged opera productions. The final stop is Hollywood, where cats are cast in everything from big-budget epics to cult classics, emulating the timeless glamour of the golden age of cinema. From Botticelli's Birth of Venus through Puccini's Tosca to James Dean and Lawrence of Arabia, Susan Herbert's brilliantly observed feline dramatis personae are a joy to discover.
£16.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Book of Kells
The Book of Kells is a masterpiece of medieval art – a brilliantly decorated version of the four Gospels with full-page depictions of Christ, the Virgin and the Evangelists as well as a wealth of smaller decorative painting. This new book, by the Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College Library, Dublin, represents on a generous scale the glories of the Book of Kells for today’s readers, revealing the astounding detail and richness of one of the greatest treasures of medieval art. Its illustrations feature 59 full-size reproductions of complete pages of the manuscript, and, in addition, enlarged details that allow one to relish the intricacy of elements barely visible to the naked eye. We explore the Book of Kells through its historical background; a display of the elements of the book, actual size; the spectacular openings of the texts that precede the Gospels; a study of earlier and comparable manuscripts; detailed examination of symbols and themes, with special enlarged details; a look at the scribes and artists who worked on the manuscript; and a consideration of technical aspects, illuminated by recent scientific research.
£58.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Van Gogh Paintings: The Masterpieces
This volume is dedicated to 100 of the artist’s most beautiful and unforgettable canvases, as well as a rich selection of lesserknown works. It explores the paintings in the context of Van Gogh’s short but brilliant career, allying the works to his correspondence, which provides the narrative thread around which this study develops.
£22.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Interior Design Since 1900
From the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement to the present day, and from Art Nouveau and Bauhaus to hi-tech and green design, every style of interior design since 1900 is charted in this wide-ranging survey. Design in the 20th century saw an extraordinary evolution, with the emergence of professional interior designers and the growing appetite to redesign homes at frequent intervals. In recent decades the focus has been on sustainable design in public spaces such as offices, factories and ships. Anne Massey explores these developments in social, political, economic and cultural contexts. More than 200 illustrations of interiors from around the world, from William Morris’s drawing room to a 21st-century aircraft, reveal the fundamental changes in taste and style from Art Deco to Pop and from the Streamline Moderne to Post-Modernism. <This volume has been a classic introduction to the subject for almost thirty years. The new, fourth edition is brought up to date with a chapter on transnational design, encompassing mid-century modernist work in Singapore and Sri Lanka as well as very recent interiors for spaces as varied as luxury hotels in Dubai and a contemporary art museum in Cape Town. Anne Massey shows how a shared language of design and cutting-edge technology are reshaping interiors around the globe.
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Art and Myth in Ancient Greece
The Greek myths are so much part of our culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place. Visual sources – vase paintings, engraved gems and sculpture in bronze and stone – often pre-date references to the myths in literature, or offer alternative, unfamiliar tellings. In some cases visual art provides our only evidence, as there is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of such important stories as the Fall of Troy, or Theseus and the Minotaur. T. H. Carpenter’s book is the first comprehensive, scholarly yet succinct survey of myth as it appears in Greek art. Copiously illustrated, it is an essential reference work for everybody interested in the art, drama, poetry or religion of ancient Greece. With this handbook as a guide, readers will be able to identify scenes from myth across the full breadth of archaic and classical Greek art.With 297 illustrations in colour
£15.29
Thames & Hudson Ltd Art Since 1989
The years since 1989 have seen a complete untethering of what art can be, who makes it and where it can be found, which has been matched by a reassessment of art's appropriate place in society and the financial value that should be attached to it. In this new book in the World of Art series, Kelly Grovier surveys the dynamic developments in art practice worldwide since 1989, going in search of those artists who have undertaken to shape a fresh visual vocabulary and whose work reflects on these turbulent years. The book’s ten chapters examine the key themes in contemporary art, from portraiture in the age of face transplants and facial recognition software, to political activism, science and religion. Artists discussed include Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, George Condo, Marlene Dumas, Sean Scully, Cindy Sherman, Banksy, Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley, Christo and Jean-Claude, Jenny Holzer, Chuck Close and Cornelia Parker. The final chapter, a timeline, traces the evolution of art practice in this period by looking closely at one key artwork from each year.
£12.95
Thames & Hudson Ltd Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years
The first book to concentrate on the early ceramic work of ‘Transvestite Potter’, bestselling author, broadcaster and social commentator Grayson Perry. Grayson Perry is now a household name as a result of his widely viewed television documentaries, numerous publications – including his critically acclaimed book about masculinity, The Descent of Man – and dazzling appearances dressed as his alter ego, Claire. However, Perry first came to public attention in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize, the first ceramicist to do so, and rapidly established a unique brand as ‘the transvestite potter’. Ceramics are still central to Perry’s work as an artist, and this book examines the plates, pots and statues from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s that laid the foundations of his career. It traces his artistic development, examining the iconography and meaning behind the work, as well as placing his art in the context not only of his own psychological make-up in the period before he underwent therapy but also of the various subcultures of the London art scene. With essays by Grayson Perry, Andrew Wilson and Catrin Jones.
£17.95
Thames & Hudson Ltd A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen
‘I won't read a more interesting book all year... utterly fascinating' A. N. Wilson, Sunday Times ‘Enormously good-humoured and entertaining… Hockney asks big questions about the nature of picture-making and the relationship between painters and photography in a way that no other contemporary artist seems to.’ Andrew Marr, New Statesman A new, compact edition of David Hockney and Martin Gayford’s brilliantly original book, with a revised final chapter and three entirely new Hockney artworks Informed and energized by a lifetime of painting, drawing and making images with cameras, David Hockney, in collaboration with the art critic Martin Gayford, explores how and why pictures have been made across the millennia. What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? How do you show movement in a still picture, and how, conversely, do films and television connect with old masters? Juxtaposing a rich variety of images – a still from a Disney cartoon with a Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige, a scene from an Eisenstein film with a Velázquez painting – the authors cross the normal boundaries between high culture and popular entertainment, and make unexpected connections across time and media. Building on Hockney’s groundbreaking book Secret Knowledge, they argue that film, photography, painting and drawing are deeply interconnected. Insightful and thought provoking, A History of Pictures is an important contribution to our appreciation of how we represent our reality. This new edition has a revised final chapter with some of Hockney’s latest works, including the stained-glass window in Westminster Abbey.
£17.95
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Complete Tutankhamun
A fully updated and revised edition of a classic bestseller: the definitive guide to Tutankhamun and his tomb – what it contained, why, and what it means today. On 4 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s long search in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings drew to a triumphant close: Tutankhamun’s tomb had been found. As news of the discovery spread, and as images of the breathtaking treasures began to circulate, this once-obscure pharaoh would capture the imagination of the entire world. A hundred years on, and both the fascination and the drama continue. Scientific research has pushed forward, and the results have been impressive: the tomb’s ground-plan and setting are now fully remapped; CT-scanning and aDNA have begun to shed their unique light on Tutankhamun in life and in death; super-accurate recordings have been secured of the Burial Chamber’s decorated walls; and we possess at last high-quality photography of Pharaoh’s possessions. Our access to Carnarvon and Carter’s extraordinary find is greater today than it has ever been, and from this fuller evidence comes one new realization among many – that both the tomb and its treasures had been intended for someone else. In this new edition of his landmark book Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves revisits Tutankhamun in the context of his time, the excavators in the context of theirs, and every aspect, old and new, of the tomb’s discovery, archaeology, architecture and art. If what was discovered in 1922 had the ability to amaze, then what has been discovered since will simply astonish.
£36.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Louise Nevelson: Art is Life
Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) was, with Calder, Noguchi and David Smith, one of the great American sculptors of the 20th century. She created extraordinary work, from room-size installations composed of boxes to gnarled and majestic steel structures. Her life story is no less interesting. She was born in czarist Russia, but her family emigrated to the States and she grew up in Maine. Nevelson endured a repressive marriage to a New York millionaire, whom she escaped to pursue the life of an artist. She gained recognition as an abstract sculptor at the age of 59, and spent the next 30 years taking the art world by storm, becoming a colourful New York personality and minor celebrity. Laurie Wilson, who knew Nevelson personally, draws extensively on her own research in this crisp new biography. She conducted interviews not just with Nevelson but with her siblings, son, and gallery owner Arne Glimcher. Wilson has also had complete access to Glimcher’s archives, Nevelson’s personal assistant, Diana Mackown, and Lippincott studios, where much of Nevelson’s work was cast, among others
£22.46
Thames & Hudson Ltd Bog Bodies Uncovered: Solving Europe's Ancient Mystery
It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous 'Pete Marsh' discovered in Cheshire in the 1980s, has been joined by new finds from Ireland and elsewhere. Who were these unfortunate people, and why were they killed? Archaeologists, armed with the latest analytical techniques, are today investigating these cold cases to reveal much about our distant past. Forensic science allows us to deduce the age, physical condition, status, cause and time of death of these ancient victims, helping to answer the fundamental questions that they pose: were these people executed, simply murdered, or victims of human sacrifice? Who selected them? Who delivered the killing blow, and why? Drawing on all the latest evidence and research, Miranda Aldhouse-Green has written an engrossing detective story, uncovering the hidden truths behind these murder mysteries.
£22.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Alex Webb: Dislocations
A contemporary reimagining of Alex Webb’s long out-of-print, limited edition book Dislocations. Recognised as a pioneer of colour photography, Alex Webb is able to juxtapose gesture, colour and contrasting cultural tensions into a single beguiling frame, resulting in evocative images that elevate fractured and multilayered meanings. His book Dislocations, first published in 1998 as a limited edition accordion book with Canon Laser prints (then considered state of the art), brings together pictures from the many disparate locations over Webb’s oeuvre, meditating on the act of photography as a form of dislocation in itself. Spurred by the pandemic, and its world of closed borders and disrupted travel, Webb reconsidered the impossibility of creating this series of images: the result is this reimagined edition of Dislocations, which includes new photographs taken in the twenty-five years since the original. This characteristically exquisite book brings a fresh perspective to Webb’s expansive catalogue, and speaks to the palpable sense of dislocation in our time.
£36.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Shocking: The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli
Published to accompany the major exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, this book is destined to become a must-have work of reference for all fashion lovers. The couturière Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was a key figure in Paris fashion between the two World Wars. Following in the footsteps of her mentor Paul Poiret, she designed her first knitwear collection in January 1927. Decorated with trompe-l’oeil motifs in black and white, her sweaters were an immediate success in both France and the USA. In 1935, the Maison Schiaparelli opened in the Place Vendôme in Paris, selling collections designed for sports, city and evening wear. Like her arch-rival Gabrielle Chanel, Schiaparelli also worked closely with artists, including Man Ray, Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí, with whom she created a lobster dress. Taking a cue from Surrealism, her creations were hugely imaginative and made use of innovative new materials. The ‘Schiap’ style continued to develop through the 1930s. Her most famous collections had themes including the circus (summer 1938) and astrology (winter 1938–39). In 1937, Schiaparelli launched the fragrance Shocking, named after shocking pink, which had become her signature colour. Alongside vintage photographs, sketches and contemporary features from Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, this volume presents specially photographed masterpieces from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. All 120 garments and accessories from the Schiaparelli archive are illustrated, along with a selection of her drawings dating from 1933 to 1953.
£45.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses
The first publication dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld's glamorous homes, known for their eclectic interiors, ranging from the Art Deco to the ultramodern. While Karl Lagerfeld was famous for being at the very centre of the fashion industry for over half a century, he was equally opinionated when it came to interiors, which acted as a private creative outlet alongside his fashion designs. Following an overview by Patrick Mauriès, each house is introduced by a short text by Marie Kalt unveiling its history and identifying key designers and pieces. The homes are documented by date, beginning with rare photography of Lagerfeld’s early addresses in the 1960s and 1970s, through to his final house purchase in 2009. From the elegant Art-Deco inspired apartment in Saint-Sulpice, Paris, to the incredibly ornate 18th-century mansion, Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo (his muse and collaborator Amanda Harlech described Lagerfeld as having ‘a Versailles complex’) – Lagerfeld’s houses reveal he was a collector of a Renaissance scale, and showed spectacular range in his decorating styles. Lagerfeld would balance the old with the new, humorously describing the minimalist decor of his 200-year old apartment in Quai Voltaire, Paris as ‘like floating in your own spaceship over a very civilised past’, and moved from one atmosphere to the next, leaving a Memphis-designed apartment in Monte Carlo for a Grand-Tour themed Roman pied-à-terre, followed by bucolic French country houses and even a majestic Nordic villa in his native Hamburg. Presented in a large, elegant format, Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses will be a rich source of inspiration for those interested in interior design, and will appeal to fans of the decorative arts and the fashion designer himself.
£67.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon: The Official 50th Anniversary Photobook
The official photobook commemorating the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side Of The Moon. March 2023 marks fifty years since the release of Pink Floyd's classic album The Dark Side Of The Moon. Designed by Pentagram to high specifications, this celebratory publication brims with rare and unseen photographs and reveals the visual conception of the original iconic album artwork. It will be a covetable package for the legions of Floyd fans out there – new and old. • Presents rare and unseen backstage and onstage photography of the band during the album tours of 1972 to 1975. • 129 candid photographs by Storm Thorgerson, Jill Furmanovsky, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson document the soundchecks, the shows and the after shows. • A review of the October 1972 Wembley gig, originally published in Melody Maker, provides insight into one of the Floyd’s most celebrated performances. • Reveals the visual conception of the iconic album artwork. • Includes a complete listing of the tour dates.
£40.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Drawings of Vincent van Gogh
A compelling and authoritative overview of the drawings of Vincent van Gogh, one of the most celebrated and intriguing figures in the history of art. Vincent van Gogh believed that drawing was the ‘root of everything’. This was reflected in the remarkable number of more than a thousand graphic works produced by the artist during his short, dramatic life – many of them personal, often lonely explorations of the emerging modern world, anxieties that still speak to us today. The Drawings of Vincent van Gogh is a comprehensive account celebrating the genius and singularity of the artist’s achievements in this field. Arranged by theme – from drawings of humble harvesters to beautifully rendered depictions of landscape, pensive life studies to memorable sketches of the famous Yellow House in Arles and other places – Van Gogh’s works on paper are explored from a fresh perspective by art historian Christopher Lloyd, who records the artist’s successes, failures, experiments, trials and disappointments. Primarily self-taught, Van Gogh approached drawing instinctually, but soon recognized the importance of mastering the grammar of art – anatomy, modelling, foreshortening, perspective – as well as materials and techniques, in order to convey his emotional responses to a subject as vividly as possible. Using examples from the artist’s voluminous and highly charged family correspondence, sketchbooks, as well as comparative artworks by Rembrandt, Dürer and others, the resulting overview gives us a greater understanding of why drawing is so important within Van Gogh’s unique oeuvre and equals the intensity and reputation of his paintings.
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Affinities: A Journey Through Images from The Public Domain Review
An exploration of echoes and resonances across two millennia of visual culture, celebrating ten years of The Public Domain Review. Gathering a remarkable collection of over 500 public domain images, Affinities is a carefully curated visual journey illuminating connections across more than two thousand years of image-making. Drawing on a decade of archival immersion at The Public Domain Review, the book has been assembled from a vast array of sources: from manuscripts to museum catalogues, ship logs to primers on Victorian magic. The images are arranged in a single captivating sequence which unfurls according to a dreamlike logic, through a play of visual echoes and evolving thematic threads – hatching eggs twin with early Burmese world maps, marbled endpapers meet tattooed stowaways, and fireworks explode beside deep-sea coral. At once an art book, a sourcebook, and a kaleidoscopic visual poem, Affinities is a unique and enthralling publication that will offer something different on each visit. Its playful and imaginative space invites the reader to transcend familiar categories of epoch, style, or historical theme, and to instead revel in a new world of creative possibilities played out between the images – opening up new connections, ways of seeing, and forms of knowledge. Praise for The Public Domain Review 'An Aladdin’s cave of curiosity ... the best thing on the web' Guardian 'A gold mine of fantastic images and stories' The New York Times
£40.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion – A Financial Times Book of the Year
A revelatory biography of Karl Lagerfeld, introducing readers to the public and private life of the charismatic designer Karl Lagerfeld lived a very public life. He shaped the Chanel and Fendi brands for decades, and his wit and wisdom amused and informed the world. Yet despite a massively public persona, his hinterland remained unknown. What is the truth behind this larger-than-life but enigmatic figure? The journalist and fashion specialist Alfons Kaiser met Lagerfeld on numerous occasions. He has now written the first authoritative biography on this fascinating character, whose life has always been marked by elements of secrecy. From his parents’ links with the Nazi regime to Lagerfeld’s last days in the company of only his closest friends, this book – the result of unprecedented archival and field work – divulges all the facets of a passionate artist and workaholic: the precocious boy who preferred to draw in the attic rather than play with his peers; the son who quarrelled with his parents but never got away from them; the competitor of Yves Saint Laurent, whom he outshone in the end; the brother, uncle, friend; and finally, the partner of Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life.
£22.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Art of Colour: The History of Art in 39 Pigments
A unique approach to the history of art told through the story of colour and pigments. Did you know that the ultramarine that shimmers at the centre of Vermeer’s Milkmaid connects that masterpiece with 6th-century Zoroastrian paintings found on the walls of cave temples in Bamiyan, Afghanistan? Or that the surging waves that crest and curl in Hokusai’s perilous Great Wave off Kanagawa owe their absorbing blue lustre to an alchemist who was born in Frankenstein’s Castle in 1673? And were the Pre-Raphaelites really obsessed with a murky brown hue derived from the pulverized remains of ancient mummies? (Spoiler: they were.) Invented by prehistoric cave-dwellers and medieval conjurers, cunning conmen and savvy scientists, the colours of art tell a riveting tale all their own. Over ten scintillating chapters, acclaimed author Kelly Grovier helps bring that tale vividly to life, revealing the astonishing backstories of the pigments that define the greatest works in the history of art. Interwoven between these chapters is a series of features focusing on key moments in the evolution of colour theory – from the revelations of the Enlightenment to the radicalism of the Bauhaus – while reproductions of carefully selected artworks help illuminate the narrative’s twists and turns. The history of colour is an epic saga of human ingenuity and insatiable desire. Read this book and you will never look at a work of art in quite the same way.
£27.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd More Cats Galore: A Second Compendium of Cultured Cats
This follow-up to the smash hit Cats Galore dives deeper into the world of Susan Herbert, whose delightful re-imaginings of some of the best-known and best-loved works of art have won her a devoted international following. Herbert’s first book, The Cats Gallery of Art, was published in 1990, and since then her work has appeared in numerous books, featuring cats in iconic works of art, as well as scenes from opera, Shakespearean plays and the movies – 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, furry felines take over yet more of the world’s most famous masterpieces. They crowd into the pages of the 15th-century Très Riches Heures, zoom through the air as cherubic blindfolded Cupids in Renaissance masterworks, and pose stiffly in royal portraits, before loosening things up in the 19th century as artists take paint and palette out into the countryside. Ranging from medieval illuminated manuscripts to Old Master stalwarts such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, through to the likes of Monet and Rossetti, this second helping of cats in art will delight fans everywhere of a beloved artist.With 140 illustrations in colour
£14.99
Thames & Hudson Ltd Videogame Atlas: Mapping Interactive Worlds
As featured on BBC RADIO 4's Start the Week: a dazzling look at modern videogame worlds seen through an architectural lens, utilizing maps, diagrams and graphic illustrations to offer new perspectives on the art of virtual world building. Videogame Atlas presents a journey through twelve well-known videogame worlds via panoramic maps, intricate exploded diagrams and detailed illustrations. The book offers a playful new way of seeing these beloved virtual worlds using the practices and academic rigour that underpins real-world architectural theory. Titles such as Minecraft, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Final Fantasy VII are explored in exhaustive detail through over 200 detailed illustrations of the micro and macro, each with supporting commentary and architectural theory. Taking influence from high-end architectural monographs, the book is carefully designed to the smallest of details and its production is intricately executed. This book, printed in five colours, with neon ink throughout, is a culmination of Luke and Sandra’s work, which includes founding the Videogame Urbanism studio at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL that promotes the use of game technologies in architectural education.
£36.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd How to Build Stonehenge: 'A gripping archaeological detective story' The Sunday Times
Draws on a lifetime’s study and a decade of new research to address the first question that every visitor asks: how was Stonehenge built? Icon of the New Stone Age, sculptural and engineering marvel, symbol of national pride: there is nothing quite like Stonehenge. These great sarsen and bluestone slabs, arranged with simple, graphic genius, attract visitors from across the world. The monument stands silent in the face of the questions its unlikely existence raises: who built it? Why? How? There has been endless speculation about why Stonehenge was built, inspiring theories ranging from the academically credible to the improbable, but far less investigation into how. In the millennia since its creation, pieces of Stonehenge have been knocked over by heavy machinery, found their way to Florida (and back again), and been exposed to radioactive sodium, but the seemingly impossible endeavour of raising the stones with Neolithic technology has remained inexplicable – until now. In the past decade ground-breaking discoveries, made possible by cutting-edge scientific techniques, have traced the precise provenance of the bluestones in Wales, but can we plot their journeys to the Salisbury Plain? And how might teams of labourers lacking machinery or even pack animals have dragged them 150 miles to the site? How did they carve joints into the sarsen boulders, among the hardest stones in the world, and then raise them into place? Mike Pitts draws on a lifetime’s study to answer these questions, revealing how Stonehenge stood not in austere isolation, as we see it today, but as part of a wider world, the focus of a megalithic cosmology of belief, ritual and creativity. With 109 illustrations
£18.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Phaenomena: Doppelmayr's Celestial Atlas
A beautiful showcase of Johann Doppelmayr’s magnificent Atlas Coelestis that deconstructs its intricately drawn plates and explores its influential ideas. Showcasing Johann Doppelmayr’s magnificent 1742 map of the cosmos, Atlas Coelestis, this spectacular guide to the heavens is also a superb introduction to the fundamentals and history of astronomy. Charting constellations, planets, comets and moons, Doppelmayr’s Atlas presents the ideas and discoveries of many famous and influential astronomers, including Copernicus, Riccioli, Kepler, Newton and Halley, in intricate colour plates that interweave annotated diagrams and tables with figurative drawings and ornamental features. Here, you can appreciate the beauty of those exquisite astronomical and cosmographical plates and comprehend the details, which are also presented in step-by-step deconstructed form. Astronomer Giles Sparrow elucidates the scientific ideas inherent in each plate, expertly decoding and analysing the complex information contained in them and placing Doppelmayr’s sumptuous Atlas in the context of the ground-breaking discoveries made during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. A spectacular, revelatory celestial compendium to the cosmos, Phaenomena expands on and explains Doppelmayr’s original, awe-inspiring Atlas and reflects upon its influence on the development of the science of astronomy to the present day.
£45.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Keith Tyson: Iterations and Variations
The definitive survey of Keith Tyson's thirty-year career. British Turner Prize-winning artist Keith Tyson is known for a distinctive and diverse body of work including drawing, painting, installation and sculpture. Showing a wide range of influences, from mathematics and science through to poetry and mythology, he is interested in how art emerges from the combination of information systems and physical processes that surround us every day. For over thirty years, Tyson has probed, dissected, explored and questioned reality. Not fixed to one artistic style, Tyson sets out to challenge himself and the audience, whilst working with diverse materials – paint, clay, metal, resin – to question our knowledge of the world we perceive as real, and art’s role in representing it. With newly commissioned texts from an internationally diverse array of writers, and including a previously unpublished interview with the artist, this is the definitive survey of one of the most restless and adventurous creators working today.
£58.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd Mid-Century Modern Design: A Complete Sourcebook
This definitive survey of one of the most popular, collectable and dynamic periods of international design offers a rich overview of all aspects of the subject. It covers mid-century furniture, lighting, glass, ceramics, textiles, product design, industrial design, graphics and posters, as well as architecture and interior design, exemplifying post-war optimism and energy, use of innovative and affordable materials and forms of mass manufacture, and newly developed precepts of ‘good design’. Nearly 100 major and influential creators of the mid-century period are highlighted, whether based in Scandinavia, Western Europe, America, Japan, Brazil or Australia. An additional illustrated dictionary features hundreds more key mid-century designers and manufacturers as well as important organizations, schools and movements. Complete with thirteen specially commissioned essays by renowned experts and over 1,000 mainly colour illustrations, it is a must-have for any design aficionado, collector or reader seeking inspiration for their home.
£36.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Earthly Delights: A History of the Renaissance
A Sunday Times Art Book of the Year: written by one of the UK’s foremost art critics, this new narrative history of the Renaissance takes in the whole of Europe and its global context. What was the 'Renaissance'? In the nineteenth century this flowering of creativity and thought was celebrated as the birth of the modern world. Today many historians are sceptical about its very existence. Earthly Delights rekindles the Renaissance as a seismic change in European mentalities, in a panoramic history that encompasses Florence and Bruges, London and Nuremberg. Artists from northern as well as southern Europe, including Leonardo, Bosch, Bruegel and Titian, star in a captivating and beautifully illustrated narrative that sets their lives against a period of convulsive change across a continent that was finding itself as it ‘discovered’ the world. Art critic and writer Jonathan Jones tells the story of Renaissance artists as pioneers, adventurers and ‘geniuses’, a Renaissance concept. Albrecht Dürer gazes with wonder on Aztec art in Brussels in 1520, Leonardo da Vinci tries to perfect a flying machine, Hieronymus Bosch finds inspiration in West African ivory carvings imported by the Portuguese to Antwerp. A then unknown Netherlandish painter, Pieter Bruegel, arrives in 1550s Rome just as Michelangelo is striving in the same city to raise the new St Peter’s Basilica towards heaven. From Atlantic voyages to Germanic woods, Italian palazzi to the royal castle of Prague, this was an age when people dared to experiment with the occult and dabble in utopias: to think and create new worlds.
£27.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Venice: City of Pictures
A Sunday Times Art Book of the Year A visual journey through five centuries of the city known for centuries as 'La Serenissima' – a unique and compelling story for both lovers of Venice and lovers of its art. Venice was a major centre of art in the Renaissance: the city where the medium of oil on canvas became the norm. The achievements of the Bellini brothers, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese are a key part of this story. Nowhere else has been depicted by so many great painters in so many diverse styles and moods. Venetian views were a speciality of native artists such as Canaletto and Guardi, but the city has also been represented by outsiders: J. M. W. Turner, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Howard Hodgkin, and many more. Then there are those who came to look at and write about art. The reactions of Henry James, George Eliot, Richard Wagner and others enrich this tale. Nor is the story over. Since the advent of the Venice Biennale in the 1890s, and the arrival of pioneering modern art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the late 1940s, the city has become a shop window for the contemporary art of the whole world, and it remains the site of important artistic events. In this elegant volume, Gayford – who has visited Venice countless times since the 1970s, covered every Biennale since 1990, and even had portraits of himself exhibited there on several occasions – takes us on a visual journey through the past five centuries of the city known ‘La Serenissima’, the Most Serene. It is a unique and compelling portrait of Venice that will delight lovers of the city and lovers of its art.
£27.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Mid-Century Modern Furniture
The ultimate collector’s resource, including hundreds of pieces by both well- and lesser-known designers from around the world. From armchairs and chaises longues to cabinets and nightstands, the period between the late 1930s and early 1970s was one of the most productive, inventive and exciting eras for objects and furniture in the home. Post-war optimism combined with new manufacturing methods and material techniques to create an explosion of new design and objects of desire. The appetite for mid-century modern remains as strong as ever, both for classic designs – many still in production since they were launched – and for rare, hard-to- find or out-of-production pieces from lesser-known designers. While numerous books surveying mid-century modern style have appeared over the years, no publication has been specifically conceived for the increasing collector’s market in mid-century modern design, focusing on each piece of furniture as an object of formal invention, manufacturing intelligence and material innovation. This definitive book profiles hundreds of pieces in a substantial format perfect for reference in design libraries, studios and the homes of private collectors – or as an object of design in its own right. Each item of furniture is presented in detail, illustrated in colour and profiled via in-depth descriptive texts by Dominic Bradbury. The book’s substantial reference section includes essays on materials (eg, plywood) and designer profiles. Work by a host of influential talents is profiled throughout, alongside lesser-known pieces by Piet Hein, Bruno Mathsson, Lina Bo Bardi and Alexander Girard.
£45.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Japanese Design Since 1945: A Complete Sourcebook
Design in Japan is deeply rooted in the country’s historic craft culture, profound understanding of materials and commitment to functionality. These qualities yield chairs, cups and other daily use items which are easy on the eye, comfortable in the hand and always do their job well. Even as mass manufacturing became widespread in the post-war period and cross-cultural exchanges began to take place with the West, Japan held fast to these core values and practices. This dedication has given rise to timeless objects of great beauty and utility as well as innovations in materials, form and technology. Far beyond design icons such as the Kikkoman Soy Sauce Bottle, Sori Yanagi’s Butterfly Stool, and the Sony Walkman®, the products and objects created in Japan over the past seven decades serve to delight and draw admiration. In recent years, a new generation of designers, including Naoto Fukasawa, nendo and Tokujin Yoshioka, have taken Japanese creativity into exciting new territory: some are eliminating objects entirely, others are reimagining what an object could be. Though Japan has developed some of the world’s most sophisticated robotic manufacturing complexes, many of its most appealing products are made by small factories and workshops whose artisans use their hands as much as machines. This impressive volume is the most complete overview of Japanese design to date and its exquisite presentation is itself a beautiful example of Japanese design. Including profiles of over 70 creators, the book is based on the author’s interviews with designers, their colleagues and family members, as well as leading curators and critics. The profiles are accompanied by short takes on iconic products and essays on related topics by Japanese and Western design experts. Featuring hundreds of objects, this volume will become the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.
£45.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Henry Poole & Co.: The First Tailor of Savile Row
Known as the founding tailor of Savile Row, Henry Poole & Co. has been dressing the world’s most important men and women for over two centuries. Their craft of bespoke tailoring has been meticulously documented through the generations in a complete set of ledgers. Telling the story of Poole’s most colourful characters in six chapters, this fascinating account distills Sherwood’s research into sixty iconic customers, men and women. Each client is profiled with details of their signature garment and connections with Poole’s. From artists and writers, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Wilkie Collins, to financiers J. P. Morgan and Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, this book offers a unique window into an establishment at the very heart of 19th- and 20th-century public life. Illustrated with historic portraits and atmospheric photography of the premises as they are today, this intimate glimpse into the private lives of some of history’s most influential figures is essential reading for anyone interested Savile Row, the relationship between power and being well-dressed, and the evolution of style.
£31.50
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Journal of a Skateboarder
At the age of twenty-nine, photographer Thomas Sweertvaegher spends most of his life on the road with friends, indulging his dual passions of photography and skating. Years of travelling the world together – always on the move and often carrying nothing more than a skateboard – have yielded the poignant photographs collected in this volume, where the skateboard remains a constant symbol of freedom, an extension of their identities and the mark of their strong friendship. Rolling on the margins of society, exploring the limits of life and his own young adulthood, Sweertvaegher captures whatever is happening around him during his travels. His shots take the reader on a journey, showing the highs and lows, bruises and stitches of skating and street life, and ultimately celebrating the beauty such a life can bring. While it captures Sweertvaegher’s odyssey from a highly personal perspective, The Journal of a Skateboarder is at the same time a visual documentary of the skating world, and features key figures such as Axel Cruysberghs, Arto Saari, Dylan Rieder and Rodney Mullen.
£22.46
Thames & Hudson Ltd The Artist's Studio: A Cultural History – A Times Best Art Book of 2022
A 'TIMES' BEST ART BOOK OF 2022 ___________________________________________ An exciting narrative and visual history of the artist’s studio, examining the myth and reality of the creative space from early times to today. The artist’s workplace has always been an imaginary as well as an actual location, an idealized utopia as well as the domain of dirty, back-breaking work. Written descriptions, paintings, prints and even photographs of the artist’s atelier distort as much as they document. This pioneering cultural history charts the myth and reality of the creative space from Ancient Greece to the present day. Tracing a history that extends far beyond the bohemian, romantic and renaissance cults of the artist, each chapter focuses on key developments of the studio space as seen in a variety of familiar and unfamiliar images. Mythical and divine makers, and some amateurs, are included, and so too are craftspeople – workers in metal and wood, potters, illuminators, weavers, embroiderers and architects to name a few. Each carefully chosen example is placed within a cultural and political context, with the aim of correcting the historical imbalance that has long overlooked the many artisans who collaborated with artists. Leading authority James Hall also extends the discussion to the artist’s museum and the artist’s house, as well plein air painting and the development of portable studios.
£27.00