Search results for ""yale university press""

In 2004, the opera scene was taken by storm by the ground-breaking production of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde in Los Angeles. This book offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the visionary American artist Bill Viola created four hours of video as a visual complement to this profound psychological drama. It also tells the story of its commissioning by the then Paris Opera director Gerard Mortier, who pushed the boundaries of what opera could be by inviting a trinity of California-based creatives to re-imagine a Tristan und Isolde for our times. Having just opened the now iconic Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, this was a bold project for the Los Angeles Philharmonic to take on, but it was one which catapulted them into the world of music and breath-taking visuals. The fully staged opera that resulted has been seen in Paris, Toronto, Madrid, Tokyo, Kobe, and concert versions in LA, New York, Rotterdam, London, Helsinki, Stockholm, and St Petersburg, and the revolutionary four-hour video and visuals created by Bill Viola to accompany this opera lives on through this beautifully illustrated book. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

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Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria’s unique urban, political and religious organization evolved alongside the numerous scientific innovations and philosophical expressions that shaped the city into one of the ancient world’s civilizational centres. Located at the intersection of art and history, this book revisits the former Egyptian megapolis of Alexandria with the aim of going beyond the usual depictions of the city – focusing on the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Lighthouse and the Library – to take a journey of discovery into an ancient city that is full of nuance. Several recent discoveries have enabled us to refine our knowledge of the lost city of Alexandria. By examining the city’s multi-layered temporalities, this book echoes dominant accounts of Alexandria as a city through which successive civilisations and political formations of the past (Byzantine, Arab, Modern) have rehearsed visions of futures that are either no longer present or remain felt through Alexandria’s remaining material culture and built environment. This book also features a series of contemporary artworks which develop a critical and poetic association with the themes it covers.Exhibition Schedule:BOZAR, Center for Fine Arts, Brussels : 29/09/2022 – 08/01/2023 MUCEM, Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille : 08/02/2022 – 08/05/2023

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Pierre Culot (1938-2011) was a Belgian ceramist and sculptor who was trained by Antoine de Vinck and English master potter Bernard Leach. He is one of the ceramists of the 1950s who transformed their craft into an art form. In his work, Pierre Culot passionately expresses his desire to be in the world, to be on earth and to be in nature the sole generator of life and beauty. The clay that he molds into slabs, scratches and enamels becomes containers for daily use with majestic presence. Over his career Culot aimed at mastery of his practice, shaping his pieces in terms of size and in surface effect, by combining the raw earth in each item with luxuriant enamels that had unique variations. All of Culot’s life he remained faithful to his initial experience as a potter, evolving his ceramic works from basic forms (bowls, plates, jugs) to more daring shapes (cruciform vases, gourds, compound pots, inkwells), and even into the landscape space by sculpting garden walls. This book offers a complete overview of his unique and multi-faceted career in pottery, sculpture and landscaping. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

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In his brief life, Alexander the Great gained fame as the military genius who conquered the known world. After death, his legend only increased. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther—across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant nations. This engaging and handsomely illustrated book for the first time gathers together hundreds of the colorful Alexander legends that have been told and retold around the globe. Richard Stoneman, a foremost expert on the Alexander myths, introduces us first to the historical Alexander and then to the Alexander of legend, an unparalleled mythic icon who came to represent the heroic ideal in cultures from Egypt to Iceland, from Britain to Malaya. Alexander came to embody the concerns of Hellenistic man; he fueled Roman ideas on tyranny and kingship; he was a talisman for fourth-century pagans and a hero of chivalry in the early Middle Ages. He appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings, frequently as a prophet of God. Whether battling winged foxes or meeting with the Amazons, descending to the underworld or inventing the world’s first diving bell, Alexander inspired as a hero, even a god. Stoneman traces Alexander’s influence in ancient literature and folklore and in later literatures of east and west. His book provides the definitive account of the legends of Alexander the Great—a powerful leader in life and an even more powerful figure in the history of literature and ideas.

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A reassessment of self-taught artist William Edmondson, exploring the enduring relevance of his work This richly illustrated volume reintroduces readers to American sculptor William Edmondson (1874–1951) more than 80 years after his historic solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Edmondson began carving at the onset of the Depression in Tennessee. Initially creating tombstones for his community, over time he expanded his practice to include biblical subjects, the natural world, and recognizable figures including nurses and preachers. This book features new essays that explore Edmondson’s life in the South and his reception on the East Coast in the 1930s. Reading the artist through lenses of African American experience, the authors draw parallels between then and now, highlighting the complex relationship between Black cultural production and the American museum. Countering existing narratives that have viewed Edmondson as a passive actor in an unfolding drama—a self-taught sculptor “discovered” by White patrons and institutions—this book considers how the artist’s identity and position within history influenced his life and work. Distributed for the Barnes Foundation Exhibition Schedule:The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (June 25–September 10, 2023)

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The first monographic publication in English on German Expressionist artist and architect Paul Goesch, who long struggled with—and was persecuted and ultimately murdered for—his schizophrenia Paul Goesch (1885–1940) produced one of the most inventive, peculiar, and poignant bodies of work to emerge from Weimar Germany. An artist and architect, he made both fanciful figurative drawings and visionary architectural designs. The latter, from the extensive holdings of the Centre for Canadian Architecture in Montreal, are the focus of this publication, the first in English dedicated to Goesch. Amid the aftermath of First World War, a generation of young architects sketched their visions for utopia. Goesch stands out among them for his formal range, his kaleidoscopic color sense, and his playful and pluralistic embrace of architectural history, as well as for his long struggles with schizophrenia, a condition for which he was institutionalized and ultimately murdered by the Nazis. This publication highlights the decorative portals and archways that predominate in Goesch’s work. These represent the artist’s metaphysical passages, as a spiritualist steeped in diverse religious and esoteric beliefs, and his altered psychological states. They also suggest Goesch’s liminal status between art and architecture, “sanity” and “madness,” the trained insider and the institutionalized “outsider.” Celebrated in his time and since forgotten, Goesch is presented here in the context of period discussions on art, architecture, and mental health. Distributed for the Clark Art institute Exhibition Schedule:Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (March 18–June 11, 2023)

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An expansive new study that explores the wide breadth of Italian painting in the fifteenth century Painting in Fifteenth-Century Italy: This Splendid and Noble Art is a transformational study that introduces groundbreaking approaches and discoveries. Challenging the traditional focus on Venice, Florence, and Rome, the lively narrative traverses the peninsula from north to south and culminates in the global ports of Naples and Sicily. It reappraises the careers and collaborations of painters, some little-known today. With greater frequency than previously imagined, these masters traveled widely to seek professional opportunities and expand their artistic horizons. Through such journeys, they engaged with local visual culture as well as the art of antiquity, Byzantium, Spain, and northern Europe. New findings by conservators elucidate the varied techniques, precious materials, and brilliant colors of the works. With nearly 200 colour illustrations, some specially commissioned, Painting in Fifteenth-Century Italy reveals the richness, invention, and dynamic crosscurrents of the century’s art.

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As in many postcommunist states, politics in Ukraine revolves around the issue of national identity. Ukrainian nationalists see themselves as one of the world’s oldest and most civilized peoples, as “older brothers” to the younger Russian culture.Yet Ukraine became independent only in 1991, and Ukrainians often feel like a minority in their own country, where Russian is still the main language heard on the streets of the capital, Kiev. This book is a comprehensive guide to modern Ukraine and to the versions of its past propagated by both Russians and Ukrainians. Andrew Wilson provides the most acute, informed, and up-to-date account available of the Ukrainians and their country. Concentrating on the complex relation between Ukraine and Russia, the book begins with the myth of common origin in the early medieval era, then looks closely at the Ukrainian experience under the tsars and Soviets, the experience of minorities in the country, and the path to independence in 1991. Wilson also considers the history of Ukraine since 1991 and the continuing disputes over identity, culture, and religion. He examines the economic collapse under the first president, Leonid Kravchuk, and the attempts at recovery under his successor, Leonid Kuchma. Wilson explores the conflicts in Ukrainian society between the country’s Eurasian roots and its Western aspirations, as well as the significance of the presidential election of November 1999.

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A concise history of “just price,” from Aristotle to the present day The question of what constitutes a fair price has been at the center of market interactions since the time of Aristotle. Should a seller sell to the highest bidder, or is there some other standard, such as a morally defined price, to be applied? Charles R. Geisst traces the ways that philosophers, religious leaders, and economists have sought to answer that question, from antiquity through the modern era. Aristotle’s thinking on usury influenced the idea of pricing well into the Renaissance. In his view, money was barren and should not be used to beget more money. As trade became more extensive, the strictures placed on pricing by Aristotelian thinking began to fall away, replaced by Roman and common-law conceptions of value and interest. Geisst’s book follows the evolution of that thought—influenced along the way by figures such as Copernicus, Fibonacci, Adam Smith, Marx, Cassel, and Keynes—and charts parallel developments in European and Islamic notions of fair pricing. Today, pricing is seen as an economic inevitability, dictated by the laws of supply and demand. But this has not always been the case. As Geisst argues, the idea of a just price was once a moral concept, long before it was an economic one.

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A compelling, authoritative history of how women shaped the Reformations and transformed religious life across the globe

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An exquisite, lovingly crafted meditation on plants, trees, and our place in the natural world, in the tradition of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek “Sumana Roy has written—grown—a radiant and wondrous book.”—Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot “Beautiful. . . . Roy weaves together science, nature, personal narrative, literature, sociology, and more to keep the reader turning pages—and to turn us all into tree-lovers.”—Kateri Kramer, The Rumpus “I was tired of speed. I wanted to live to tree time.” So writes Sumana Roy at the start of How I Became a Tree, her captivating, adventurous, and self-reflective vision of what it means to be human in the natural world. Drawn to trees’ wisdom, their nonviolent way of being, their ability to cope with loneliness and pain, Roy movingly explores the lessons that writers, painters, photographers, scientists, and spiritual figures have gleaned through their engagement with trees—from Rabindranath Tagore to Tomas Tranströmer, Ovid to Octavio Paz, William Shakespeare to Margaret Atwood. Her stunning meditations on forests, plant life, time, self, and the exhaustion of being human evoke the spacious, relaxed rhythms of the trees themselves. Hailed upon its original publication in India as “a love song to plants and trees” and “an ode to all that is unnoticed, ill, neglected, and yet resilient,” How I Became a Tree blends literary history, theology, philosophy, botany, and more, and ultimately prompts readers to slow down and to imagine a reenchanted world in which humans live more like trees.

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A journey through Europe’s old towns, exploring why we treasure them—but also what they hide about a continent’s fraught history “[A] fascinating chronicle.”—Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal Historic quarters in cities and towns across the middle of Europe were devastated during the Second World War—some, like those of Warsaw and Frankfurt, had to be rebuilt almost completely. They are now centers of peace and civility that attract millions of tourists, but the stories they tell about places, peoples, and nations are selective. They are never the whole story. These old towns and their turbulent histories have been key sites in Europe’s ongoing theater of politics and war. Exploring seven old towns, from Frankfurt and Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, the acclaimed writer Marek Kohn examines how they have been used since the Second World War to conceal political tensions and reinforce certain versions of history. Uncovering hidden stories behind these old and old-seeming façades, Kohn offers us a new understanding of the politics of European history-making—showing how our visits to old towns could promote belonging over exclusion, and empathy over indifference.

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The Story of the Country House is an authoritative and vivid account of the British country house, exploring how they have evolved with the changing political and economic landscape. Clive Aslet reveals the captivating stories behind individual houses, their architects, and occupants, and paints a vivid picture of the wider context in which the country house in Britain flourished and subsequently fell into decline before enjoying a renaissance in the twenty-first century. The genesis, style, and purpose of architectural masterpieces such as Hardwick Hall, Hatfield House, and Chatsworth are explored, alongside the numerous country houses lost to war and economic decline. We also meet a cavalcade of characters, owners with all their dynastic obsessions and diverse sources of wealth, and architects such as Inigo Jones, Sir John Vanbrugh, Robert Adam, Sir John Soane and A.W.N. Pugin, who dazzled or in some cases outraged their contemporaries. The Story of the Country House takes a fresh look at this enduringly popular building type, exploring why it continues to hold such fascination for us today.

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The first thorough account of a formative and little understood chapter in Chinese history

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A comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of Belgian painter Jan Van Imschoot A comprehensive overview of the oeuvre of Belgian painter Jan Van Imschoot (b. 1963), whose contemporary work builds bridges to predecessors such as Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Goya, and Manet. Van Imschoot’s painting consciously opts for a clear, sometimes contradictory and ironic style. The directness of his decisive brushwork and his balanced yet audacious use of color is strikingly contemporary, while his work draws on historical themes from literature and art history. In this way, Van Imschoot engages in a continuous dialogue with the past, in which he, with a dose of cynicism, often targets phenomena or figures that find themselves on the fringes of (contemporary) society. Bringing together more than 220 works by Van Imschoot with five accompanying texts, this book gives fresh insight into the painting practice of this Belgian master.Distributed for Mercatorfonds

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The dramatic story of a man who stood at the center of British intelligence operations, the ultimate spymaster of World War II: Thomas Kendrick“A remarkable piece of historical detective work. . . . Now, thanks to this groundbreaking book, the result of years of meticulous research and expert analysis, Kendrick’s role as one of the great spymasters of the twentieth century can be revealed.”—Saul David, Daily Telegraph Thomas Kendrick (1881–1972) was central to the British Secret Service from its beginnings through to the Second World War. Under the guise of “British Passport Officer,” he ran spy networks across Europe, facilitated the escape of Austrian Jews, and later went on to set up the “M Room,” a listening operation which elicited information of the same significance and scope as Bletchley Park. Yet the work of Kendrick, and its full significance, remained largely unknown. Helen Fry draws on extensive original research to tell the story of this remarkable British intelligence officer. Kendrick’s life sheds light on the development of MI6 itself—he was one of the few men to serve Britain across three wars, two of which while working for the British Secret Service. Fry explores the private and public sides of Kendrick, revealing him to be the epitome of the “English gent”—easily able to charm those around him and scrupulously secretive.

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Explores the life and work of the little-known photographer Alexander Henderson, whose work laid the foundations of the Canadian romantic landscape Scottish-born Alexander Henderson (1831–1913) arrived in Montreal in 1855 at the age of twenty-four, eager to explore the Canadian wilderness. Photography, his observation tool, would also reveal a remarkable artistic sensibility. Little known among the general public, his work laid the foundations of the Canadian romantic landscape and its themes: the magic of winter, the endless lure of the country’s lakes and waterways, the metaphysical awe inspired by the vastness of its land and its great river. But Henderson also offered a colonial vision of the young North American city and documented a number of Canada’s major railway projects. This publication accompanies the first exhibition devoted to Alexander Henderson’s entire oeuvre and focusses on photographs that highlight the tonalities, textures, and clarity characteristic of the prints of the period. Texts explore Henderson’s biography, the sources and forms of romanticism evident in his landscapes, and the genesis of his work as a process of adaptation to the New World in a context of British imperialism. Distributed for Editions Hazan, ParisExhibition Schedule:McCord Museum, Montreal (June 10, 2022–April 16, 2023)

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An illustrated exploration of the largely unpublished collection of eighteenth-century French drawings, albums, and sketchbooks at the Bibliothèque nationale de FrancePromenades on Paper explores the largely unmined collection of eighteenth-century drawings held in the Department of Prints and Photography of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Among the 50 featured artists are some of France’s most celebrated eighteenth-century practitioners, including Madeleine Basseporte (1701–1780), François Boucher (1703–1770), Gabriel de Saint Aubin (1724–1780), and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), alongside architects, designers, and printmakers. Scattered across the institution’s vast reserves, these drawings have until now served primarily documentary purposes. In this book, leading international scholars introduce more than 80 drawings, albums, and sketchbooks—many published here for the first time—and reveal how artists used drawing to record, critique, and try to improve the world around them.Distributed for the Clark Art InstituteExhibition Schedule:Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (December 17, 2022–March 12, 2023)Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (May 12–August 28, 2023)

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A lively and thought-provoking tour of the intertwined histories of art and walking “A broad-ranging book [that] has something for every rambler.”—Benjamin Riley, New Criterion What does a walk look like? In the first book to trace the history of walking images from cave art to contemporary performance, William Chapman Sharpe reveals that a depicted walk is always more than a matter of simple steps. Whether sculpted in stone, painted on a wall, or captured on film, each detail of gait and dress, each stride and gesture has a story to tell, for every aspect of walking is shaped by social practices and environmental conditions. From classical statues to the origins of cinema, from medieval pilgrimages to public parks and the first footsteps on the moon, walking has engendered a vast visual legacy intertwined with the path of Western art. The path includes Romantic nature-walkers and urban flâneurs, as well as protest marchers and cell-phone zombies. It features works by artists such as Botticelli, Raphael, Claude Monet, Norman Rockwell, Agnès Varda, Maya Lin, and Pope.L. In 100 chronologically arranged images, this book shows how new ways of walking have spurred new means of representation, and how walking has permeated our visual culture ever since humans began to depict themselves in art.

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A timely look at the impact of China’s booming emergence on the countries of Southeast Asia“An expert and lucid synthesis of the historical context and recent developments of Southeast Asia’s rich and complex relations with Beijing.”—John Reed, Financial Times Today, Southeast Asia stands uniquely exposed to the waxing power of the new China. Three of its nations border China and five are directly impacted by its claims over the South China Sea. All dwell in the lengthening shadow of its influence: economic, political, military, and cultural. As China seeks to restore its former status as Asia’s preeminent power, the countries of Southeast Asia face an increasingly stark choice: flourish within Beijing’s orbit or languish outside of it. Meanwhile, as rival powers including the United States take concerted action to curb Chinese ambitions, the region has emerged as an arena of heated strategic competition. Drawing on more than a decade of on-the-ground experience, Sebastian Strangio explores the impacts of China’s rise on Southeast Asia, the varied ways in which the countries of the region are responding, and what it might mean for the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

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The first major publication to explore the work of Sonia Boyce, one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary artists, including her newest and most ambitious work to date The British artist Sonia Boyce (b. 1962) is celebrated for depicting intimate social encounters that explore interpersonal dynamics in drawing, photography, video, and installation, using images and sounds captured during the participatory art events she initiates. Boyce’s immersive new exhibition for the British Council commission at La Biennale di Venezia 2022 is her most ambitious to date—focussing on collaborative play as a route to artistic innovation and the importance of taking creative risks—both central tenets of Boyce’s exceptional artistic practice. Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way captures the drama and scope of this multisensory work as it unfolds throughout the British Pavilion. Boyce came to prominence as a key figure in the British Black arts movement of the 1980s and the authors’ texts connect this astonishing new work with Boyce’s preceding works and her abiding interests and concerns. Published in association with the British CouncilExhibition Schedule:La Biennale di Venezia (April 23–November 27, 2022)

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A new look at French Orientalism’s influence on the art of the American West, showing how aesthetics and ideology jointly informed approaches to colonialism and expansion during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in both France and the United States From the 1830s to the 1920s, American artists such as Alfred Jacob Miller, George de Forest Brush, Joseph H. Sharp, Bert Geer Phillips, and Ernest Blumenschein traveled to France to study their craft. Returning from abroad, these artists looked to the American West in search of new subjects. Influenced by French Orientalists such as Eugène Delacroix, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-Léon Gérôme, the American artists applied an Orientalist aesthetic and ideology to their paintings, sculptures, and drawings, while at the same time creating works that appeared uniquely American. Exploring the ways that the visual tropes and knowledge structures of Orientalism influenced French and American colonialism and expansion, this volume considers the impact of French artistic techniques and tropes on the development of western American art. Other themes include the symbolism of desert landscapes and exotic animals, the role of world’s fairs in disseminating Orientalist spectacles and stereotypes, and the importance of artistic pilgrimage to the deserts of North Africa and the American Southwest. Historical and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples of North America, Muslim Americans, and Arab Americans challenge, negotiate, and provide alternative perspectives to the artworks.Distributed for the Denver Art MuseumExhibition Schedule:Denver Art Museum (March 5–May 28, 2023)

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A haunting novel that probes the enigmas of time and memory, by Nobel Prize–winning author Patrick Modiano “Polizzotti’s crisp and evocative translation keeps the reader hooked.”—Publishers Weekly In his acclaimed semi-autobiographical novella Suspended Sentences, Patrick Modiano recounted a dramatic season in his childhood, of the home he shared with sinister surrogate parents, the mysterious events that took place there, and an infamous heist that was never solved. In Scene of the Crime, Modiano conjures the aftermath of those years. A decade has passed, and Jean Bosmans, now in his early twenties, becomes aware of a set of disturbing coincidences involving an elusive woman, his childhood home, and a host of disquieting characters who seem inordinately interested in his past, for reasons he can’t fathom. As he journeys into the echoes of memory, past and present become increasingly intertwined, forming a web spanning half a century. With the taut suspense of a detective novel, this book slowly peels away layers of time and forgetfulness to reveal the haunting, threatening, ultimately tragic legacies of what we think we know about our lives.

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Contemporary artists and writers reflect on the Great Migration and the ways that it continues to inform the Black experience in America The Great Migration (1915–70) saw more than six million African Americans leave the South for destinations across the United States. This incredible dispersal of people across the country transformed nearly every aspect of Black life and culture. Offering a new perspective on this historical phenomenon, this incisive volume presents immersive photography of newly commissioned works of art by Akea, Mark Bradford, Zoë Charlton, Larry W. Cook, Torkwase Dyson, Theaster Gates Jr., Allison Janae Hamilton, Leslie Hewitt, Steffani Jemison, Robert Pruitt, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, and Carrie Mae Weems. The artists investigate their connections to the Deep South through familial stories of perseverance, self-determination, and self-reliance and consider how this history informs their working practices. Essays by Kiese Laymon, Jessica Lynne, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, and Willie Jamaal Wright explore how the Great Migration continues to reverberate today in the public and private spheres and examine migration as both a historical and a political consequence, as well as a possibility for reclaiming agency.Published in association with the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Mississippi Museum of ArtExhibition Schedule:Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson (April 9–September 11, 2022)Baltimore Museum of Art (October 30, 2022–January 29, 2023)Brooklyn Museum (March 3–June 25, 2023)California African American Museum, Los Angeles (August 5, 2023–March 3, 2024)

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A virtuoso collage novel about narrative, identity, and exile, from international literary sensation Norman Manea “One of the most eloquent living witnesses of the European 20th century, Norman Manea, at 87, has brought out Exiled Shadow, a contemplative work of fiction . . . [in] a strong, clarion translation into English by Carla Baricz. . . . A fitting summarization of a rich and deeply honorable career.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal “Exiled Shadow belongs among the great, intricate, and uncompromising works of contemporary literature.”—Jan Knoffeke, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) In this vibrant mosaic of voices, sources, and stories, the protagonist, known only as the Nomadic Misanthrope, leaves communist Romania and is reunited with his friend Gunther, an unrepentant Marxist exiled in Berlin. Their meeting sparks a spirited dialogue that endures throughout the Nomadic Misanthrope’s subsequent decades in the United States. At the center of the plot is the figure of the shadow—the insubstantial shape of the exile, the wandering Jew, the death camp survivor, the individual under totalitarianism, the dark side of the Jungian personality—a figure that calls into question the boundaries of the human condition. Recalling the beloved nineteenth-century German tale of Peter Schlemihl, the man who sold his shadow for a bag of gold, this is Norman Manea’s most daring work yet: an intimate record of alienation and endurance.

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A deep dive into the pioneering collection of nineteenth-century French photographs, equipment, and ephemera, which is a cornerstone of the George Eastman Museum In the early twentieth century, Parisian photographer, amateur historian, and collector Gabriel Cromer (1873–1934) amassed a collection that traced photography’s prehistory, invention, and development to about 1890. His dream was to found a national museum of the photographic arts in France. Although Cromer’s ambition was never realized, his collection was central to establishing the world’s first museum dedicated to photography: the George Eastman Museum. The Cromer Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Photography considers the origin and circulation of the collection as well as the influence it has had on photography as a field of study. The book’s six essays, written by French and American scholars, explore the Cromer Collection’s complex passage across markets, borders, and functions. For more than half a century, curators and scholars worldwide have drawn extensively on the Gabriel Cromer Collection for exhibitions and publications; this book provides the first focused scholarly study of the foundational resource. Published in association with the George Eastman Museum

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The Barnes Foundation’s historic Pueblo and Navajo collections are explored alongside works by contemporary Native American artists This richly illustrated book makes the Barnes Foundation’s exceptional collection of Native American art from the Southwest available to the public for the first time. Collector and educator Albert C. Barnes traveled to the U.S. Southwest in 1930 and 1931 and, deeply impressed by the generative art practices he saw there, formed a collection of Pueblo and Navajo pottery, textiles, and jewelry. Water, Wind, Breath illuminates the materials, forms, and designs of the objects as they relate to Pueblo and Navajo histories and ideas. The book blends postcolonial and Indigenous perspectives, introducing readers to living artistic traditions filled with purpose, intention, and a deeply embedded spirituality that connects places, practices, and Native identities. Works by contemporary Native American artists are juxtaposed with historic pieces, illuminating the connections between heritage traditions and modern practices.Distributed for the Barnes FoundationExhibition Schedule:The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (February 20–May 15, 2022)

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A beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanying the first ever exhibition dedicated to Julie Manet This title offers an exhaustive description of the life, work, and art collection of Julie Manet (1878–1966)—the only daughter of Berthe Morisot and the niece of Édouard Manet. The book will cover several aspects of the artist’s life and work, from early beginnings to her role as a collector with her husband Ernest Rouart, offering a new and richly detailed account of her role in the the arts. Drawing on previously unpublished sources, this book constitutes a definitive account of the life of Julie Manet and her entourage that brings the whole world of the arts and culture in late 19th-century and early 20th-century Paris back to life. Distributed for Editions Hazan, ParisExhibition Schedule:Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (October 19, 2021–March 20, 2022)

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The dramatic biography of a slaveship turned freedom-fighterwhich brings new insights into Britain's involvement in the end of the trade in enslaved people

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An in-depth look at a public art project by David Hammons with an overview of the enigmatic artist's career

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A comprehensive history of Yale Divinity School and its impact on theology, religious life, and culture across two centuries, published for the school’s bicentennial"This Grand Errand" is the chronicle of a theological institution through 200 years of commitment to its mission of producing religious and civil leaders amid a society ever in flux. The school’s contributions to church life and theological education in U.S. history are perhaps unparalleled—YDS has played a critical role in preparing ministers, social reformers, religion scholars, deans and presidents of theological schools, denominational executives, and civic organizers who are grounded in theological education. This book features achievements by faculty and alums while documenting institutional transformation across two centuries. Over this period, the school has evolved from a regional seminary to a national and global pacesetter for the training of religious, scholarly, and public leaders. Throughout successive dramatic eras of national history, YDS has been remarkably steady in its identity, which is to preserve and restate, in an ecumenical setting, the value of Christian tradition in preparing leaders and speaking to contemporary human need, social reform, community building, reconciliation, and belonging. This ethos—an adherence to Christian faith, the value of critical thinking about religion, a commitment to diversity and interfaith expression, and a mandate to work for divine mercy, justice, and the common good—has its origins in early Yale history, which began as a college for the training of church and civic leaders. That moral calling is served by Yale Divinity School.Distributed for Yale Divinity School

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Introduces a previously unpublished major collection of Islamic, Modern, and Contemporary Middle Eastern art, notable for its exceptional range and breadth from earliest times to the present

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A New York Times best art book of 2022New insights into the innovative multimedia work and early career of fourteenth-century Italian painter Simone Martini Painter to popes, princes, and scions of Renaissance dynasties, Simone Martini (ca. 1284–1344) transformed Western painting with his groundbreaking devotional images and masterful manipulation of gold. This beautifully illustrated book highlights the astonishing novelty of his paintings in terms of their construction, multimedia techniques, and imagery. A focus of the book—the first on Simone Martini in English in over thirty years—is the work that he produced for churches in the Umbrian city of Orvieto, a papal refuge and stronghold of the Guelph political faction. The publication sheds light on Simone’s early career and technical accomplishments with extended catalogue entries for three Orvieto altarpieces and a painting of private devotion, including the results of new scientific analysis for the Gardner works. Leading scholars consider Simone’s patrons, artistic accomplishments, and contributions to the development of the polyptych altarpiece. Distributed for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Exhibition Schedule:Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (October 13, 2022–January 16, 2023)

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In a time of social distancing and isolation, a meditation on the beauty of solitude from renowned Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor A Los Angeles Review of Books “Best of the Year” selection “Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it. A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.”—Kirkus Reviews “Elegant and formally ingenious.”—Geoff Wisner, Wall Street Journal When world renowned Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor turned sixty, he took a sabbatical from his teaching and turned his attention to solitude, a practice integral to the meditative traditions he has long studied and taught. He aimed to venture more deeply into solitude, discovering its full extent and depth. This beautiful literary collage documents his multifaceted explorations. Spending time in remote places, appreciating and making art, practicing meditation and participating in retreats, drinking peyote and ayahuasca, and training himself to keep an open, questioning mind have all contributed to Batchelor’s ability to be simultaneously alone and at ease. Mixed in with his personal narrative are inspiring stories from solitude’s devoted practitioners, from the Buddha to Montaigne, from Vermeer to Agnes Martin. In a hyperconnected world that is at the same time plagued by social isolation, this book shows how to enjoy the inescapable solitude that is at the heart of human life.

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The fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize explores “Blackness” and the reasons why joy and peace might be harder to get than we think What does it mean to be safe when you’re a person of color in the United States? If you were given the chance to leave and create a utopia, would you? Is utopia possible with all of our subconscious bias? Rachel Lynett’s highly satirical and funny play is set in the fictional world following a second Civil War. Bronx Bay, an all-Black state (and neighborhood), is established in order to protect “Blackness.” When Jules’s new partner, Yael, moves into town, community members argue over whether Yael, who is Dominican, can stay. Questions of safety and protection surround both Jules and Yael as the utopia of Bronx Bay confronts within itself where the line is when it comes to defining who is Black and who gets left out in the process. The play is the fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize and the first one chosen by the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Paula Vogel.

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A compelling look at the B Corp movement and why socially and environmentally responsible companies are vital for everyone’s future—"a valuable guide to an important force" (Financial Times) "An important blueprint for how businesses can and should be both successful and a force for good."—Rose Marcario, President and CEO, Patagonia"Better Business is the book to read if you want to put values and purpose at the center of your company. It’s an inspiring book with great insights to share."—Jerry Greenfield, co-founder, Ben & Jerry’sGold Medalist in the Business Ethics category, 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards and longlisted for the 2020 Porchlight Business Book Awards Businesses have a big role to play in a capitalist society. They can tip the scales toward the benefit of the few, with toxic side effects for all, or they can guide us toward better, more equitable long-term solutions. Christopher Marquis tells the story of the rise of a new corporate form—the B Corporation. Founded by a group of friends who met at Stanford, these companies undergo a rigorous certification process, overseen by the B Lab, and commit to putting social benefits, the rights of workers, community impact, and environmental stewardship on equal footing with financial shareholders. Informed by over a decade of research and animated by interviews with the movement’s founders and leading figures, Marquis’s book explores the rapid growth of companies choosing to certify as B Corps, both in the United States and internationally, and explains why the future of B Corporations is vital for us all.

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A leading film critic on the evolving world of streaming media and its impact on society The city at night under lockdown, a time of plague and anxiety. It is an exciting new age of television, the light that flutters in every cell in the city. But no one seems to be asking: What is the endless stream doing to us? In Remotely, the most innovative writer on film and screens asks what happened to us as we sought consolation under lockdown by becoming a society of bingeing creatures. From Candid Camera and I Love Lucy to Ozark, Succession, and Chernobyl, David Thomson and his wife, Lucy Gray, wander through shows old and new, trying to pin down the nature and justification for what we call “entertainment.” Funny, mysterious, and warm, at last here is a book that grasps the extent to which television is not just a collection of particular shows—hits and misses—but a weather system in which we are lost pilgrims searching for answers.

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A funny, fierce, and uninhibited musical chronicle of the convulsive recent past from one of our finest cultural critics "A one-of-a-kind guide to rock music’s resonance in every aspect of our lives.”—David Kirby, Wall Street Journal “A smart set of suggestions for further reading, viewing, and listening by a most trustworthy guide.”—Kirkus Reviews For decades, celebrated author Greil Marcus has applied his unmatched critical apparatus to everything from music, television, radio, and politics to overheard comments, advertisements, and happenstance street encounters—an eclectic collection of what he calls “everyday culture and found objects.” This book collects hundreds of items from the crisscrossing spectrum of culture and politics throughout the tumultuous past six years of American life, an essential travel guide to the scorched landscape of recent history. Tracking the evolution of national identity during the Trump administration, Marcus spotlights the most whip-smart cultural artifacts to compose a mosaic portrait of American society, replete with unexpected heroes and villains, absurdity and its consequences, humor and despair, terror and defiance—as seen through media, music, and more. Bursting with Marcus’s effortless, no-nonsense, unapologetic verve, this book features seventy-three columns from 2014 through February 2021.

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An amply illustrated examination of Vincent Geyskens’ work exploring of the position of painting in contemporary society Vincent Geyskens examines the position of painting in contemporary society, engaging with abstraction, figuration and a variety of media and styles as the artist probes their possibilities and limits. Complemented by a number of older reference works, this book zooms in on Geyskens’ practical work over the past ten years to bring together various series in free‑ranging connection with one another. It places the spotlight on the breadth of his experience and gathers together the diverse series and types of work produced over the course of his oeuvre. The links forged between the various approaches he uses lends voice to Geyskens’ quest as a painter exploring the status of the image and visual representation in the present day. His painting is a way of turning thoughts into something tangible, translating them into substance in this amply illustrated publication.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:EXPO M Museum Leuven (May 27–September 5, 2021)

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“I want my clothes to make you smile!”—Patrick Kelly Patrick Kelly (1954–1990) was known for his bold, bright, and joyful fashion creations that resonated in the streets and nightclubs and on the runways of New York, Paris, and beyond. The first American and the first Black designer to be admitted to the governing body of the French fashion industry, Kelly boasted celebrity couture clients including Madonna, Cicely Tyson, and Gloria Steinem. His designs are distinguished by a combination of playful aesthetics and a willingness to brazenly foreground race and heritage and push cultural boundaries, including racial tropes like golliwogs, or Black baby dolls. Generously illustrated with hundreds of images of runway photography, garments on mannequins, and never-before-published archival materials, this book is an unprecedented exploration of Kelly’s influential career, which was tragically cut short by complications from AIDS. More than 80 of Kelly’s most beloved works are featured alongside thoughtful essays focusing on his work in relationship to French fashion, Queer identity, Black identity, and his exuberant runway shows. Also featured is a detailed timeline decorated with archival photographs and drawings, making this volume the definitive resource on Kelly’s life and work.Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San FranciscoExhibition Schedule:de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (October 23, 2021–April 24, 2022)Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (June 25–November 6, 2022)

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A collection of inspiring essays by the photographer Robert Adams, who advocates the meaningfulness of art in a disillusioned society

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A global history of self-taught artists advocating for a nuanced understanding of modern and contemporary art often challenged by the establishment “An essential addition to any discerning art lover’s collection. . . . An informative and important companion for art aficionados, budding curators and total novices alike.”—Vanity Fair London When the art world has paid attention to makers from outside the cultural establishment, including so-called outsider and self-taught artists, it has generally been within limiting categories. Yet these artists, including many women, people with disabilities, and people of color, have had a transformative effect on the history of modern art. Responding to growing interest in these artists, this book offers a nuanced history of their work and how it has been understood from the early twentieth century to the present day. Nonconformers includes work by Henry Darger, Hilma af Klint, and Bill Traylor alongside that of many other artists who deserve widespread recognition. The book reviews how self-taught artists influenced key movements of twentieth-century art and highlights the voices of contemporary practitioners, offering new interviews with William Scott, Mamadou Cissé, and George Widener. An international group of contributors addresses topics such as the development of the Black Folk Art movement in America and l’Art Brut in France, the creative process of self-taught artists working outside of traditional studios, and the themes of figuration, landscape, and abstraction. Global in scope and with chronological breadth, this alternative narrative is an essential introduction to the genre long known as “Outsider Art.”

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The story of a poor man and radical activist who fought to revive the French Revolution, and whose failure heralded the republic’s defeat “Very much a book for our times. Mason’s retelling of the trial of Gracchus Babeuf and the French Revolution shows how democracies end. Historians of revolutions and all those concerned with the arc of social justice movements have much to learn from this remarkable story.”—Sophia Rosenfeld, University of Pennsylvania Laura Mason tells a new story about the French Revolution by exploring the trial of Gracchus Babeuf. Named by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as the “first modern communist,” Babeuf was a poor man, an autodidact, and an activist accused of conspiring to reignite the Revolution and renew political terror. In one of the lengthiest and most controversial trials of the revolutionary decade, Babeuf and his allies defended political liberty and social equality against a regime they accused of tyranny. Mason refracts national political life through Babeuf’s trial to reveal how this explosive event destabilized a fragile republic. Although the French Revolution is celebrated as a founding moment of modern representative government, this book reminds us that the experiment failed in just ten years. Mason explains how an elected government’s assault on popular democracy and social justice destroyed the republic, and why that matters now.

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A wide-ranging, insightful history of culture in West Germany—from literature, film, and music to theater and the visual arts After World War II a mood of despair and impotence pervaded the arts in West Germany. The culture and institutions of the Third Reich were abruptly dismissed, yet there was no immediate return to the Weimar period’s progressive ideals. In this moment of cultural stasis, how could West Germany’s artists free themselves from their experiences of Nazism? Moving from 1945 to reunification, Michael H. Kater explores West German culture as it emerged from the darkness of the Third Reich. Examining periods of denial and complacency as well as attempts to reckon with the past, he shows how all postwar culture was touched by the vestiges of National Socialism. From the literature of Günter Grass to the happenings of Joseph Beuys and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s innovations in electronic music, Kater shows how it was only through the reinvigoration of the cultural scene that West Germany could contend with its past—and eventually allow democracy to reemerge.

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An interdisciplinary study of the central role that the neighborhood played in seventeenth-century Dutch painting and culture The neighborhood was a principal organizing structure of Dutch cities in the seventeenth century, and each had its own regulations, administrators, social networks, events, and diverse population of residents. Linda Stone-Ferrier argues that this sense of community contributed to the steady demand for pictures portraying aspects of this culture. These paintings, by such artists as Jan Steen and Pieter de Hooch, reinforced the role and values of the neighborhood. Through close readings of such works—by Steen and De Hooch and, among others, Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Johannes Vermeer—Stone-Ferrier deftly considers social history, urban studies, anthropology, and women’s studies in this penetrating exploration. Her new interpretations of seventeenth-century Dutch painting across genres—scenes of streets, domesticity, professions, and festivity—challenge existing paradigms in Dutch art history.

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A comprehensive overview of renowned Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s work since 2014, inspired by the figure of the angel Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere has long been a leading light in the international contemporary art world whose sculptures, installations and drawings endeavor to find the meaning of humanity, physicality, suffering and vitality. Conceived in the loneliness and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book explores De Bruyckere’s recent, never-before-seen work inspired by the figure of the angel as portrayed in myths, stories, literature and art history. According to De Bruyckere, an angel—with its warm, dark wings—provides protection, a refuge from fear. The angel guards against a lonely existence and, even more importantly, against a lonely death. It symbolizes the fragile line De Bruyckere treads between artistic poeticism and engagement with current affairs. This volume will serve as an essential resource on an artist whose works constitute a provocative and influential addition to the contemporary art canon.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:Bonnefantenmuseum Maastrich, The Netherlands (March 29–September 26, 2021)

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The work of 38 established and emerging artists explore the creative potential of risk-taking and transgression in contemporary life The unconventional theme underlying the art featured in this book is the struggle between risk-taking and the prediction algorithms that have become a feature of contemporary life. Does the influence of machine intelligence, and the coincident avoidance of risk, homogenize creative thought? These ideas are explored in the work of 38 established and emerging artists in a variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, sculpture, video art, computer art, and performance. Featured artists include Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Ed Atkins, Esther Ferrer, Mounira Al Solh, and Shezad Dawoud. The book takes its title from a town on the French-Belgian border with a history as a well-known customs outpost.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:WIELS Museum for Contemporary Art Brussels (September 12, 2020–February 10, 2021)

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