Search results for ""Author Richard Chamberlain""

This book provides a radical reading of Edmund Spenser and argues for a re-orientation in Renaissance criticism. It begins by critiquing the new historicist hegemony in Spenser studies, and, through a series of detailed readings, proposes alternative strategies for interpreting the texts of this pivotal Renaissance author which include a politicised 'new aestheticism', eco-criticism, and pastoral theory. Unlike most non-new historicist studies, Radical Spenser argues that Spenser's texts demand a reading at once political and sensitive to aesthetic surprise. Following a polemical Introduction which establishes Spenser's centrality to key problems in contemporary Renaissance studies, Richard Chamberlain shows that William Empson's ideas about pastoral are vital for an understanding of Spenser and early modern literature. The following chapters discuss Spenser's use, in The Shepheardes Calender, of a distinctively 'pastoral' logic to problematise the relationship between literature and criticism; the ways in which this method informs The Faerie Queene; the approach, in the central books of the epic, to textual and state authority; and the final books' exploration of political experience. Finally, by demonstrating the complexity of the critically neglected prose treatise A View of the State of Ireland, the book offers an eco-critical perspective on Spenser's place in the natural and cultural environments of sixteenth-century Ireland. Key Features * Theoretical intervention encouraging debate and analysis in Renaissance studies. * Close analysis of key passages offers a new understanding of how Spenser's writing works. * Broad coverage including readings of Spenser's major poems and his prose dialogue on Ireland.

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"There have been volumes written on and by Terence Conran and Mary Quant, but this is the first time they have been placed together in a book. And it works." - Colin McDowell, The Times "It is given to a fortunate few to be born at the right time, in the right place, with the right talents. In recent fashion there have been three: Chanel, Dior and Mary Quant." - Ernestine Carter. Transporting you back to London at the height of the Swinging Sixties, this book provides vital context for two of the biggest and boldest names in 'Pop' fashion: Mary Quant, alleged mother of the miniskirt, and Terence Conran, the entrepreneur behind the new wave of 'lifestyle' stores. Friends, associates and allies in design, Quant and Conran stood at the head of an informal but influential bohemian group who steered the rudder of style during the Pop era. 'The Chelsea Set' resist definition; there was no comprehensive members list. Conran/Quant: Swinging London - A Lifestyle Revolution explores the contributions of designers and artists from Laura and Bernard Ashley to Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigen Henderson and Alexander Plunket Greene, all of whom were essential generators of Sixties Style.

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The first publication devoted to the textile designs of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, showcasing a rarely discussed aspect of the Pop Art superstar’s career Andy Warhol (1928–1987), a giant of twentieth century art, is known to most people for his iconic images of soup cans, Coke bottles, and Marilyn Monroe. Before his meteoric rise to fame in the early 1960s as a Pop Art superstar, Warhol was a highly successful commercial artist in New York. The late Matt Wrbican, former chief archivist of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, once said “there are very few stories left to tell about Warhol, but textiles is one of them”. This is the first book devoted to the commercial textile designs of this leading figure in the history of art. With stunning new photography throughout, including unpublished images of newly discovered textiles, the book sheds new light on a previously undocumented but important aspect of Warhol’s oeuvre. Featuring over 30 different textiles, from ice cream sundaes to acrobatic clowns, Warhol: The Textiles offers a unique record of the beginnings of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists. Published in association with the Fashion and Textile Museum Exhibition Schedule: Fashion and Textile Museum, London (March 31–September 10, 2023)

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Jacqueline Groag was probably the most influential textile designer in Britain in the post Second World War era. Although originally Czech, she studied textile and pattern design in Austria in the 1920s. During the late twenties and early thirties she designed textiles for the Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna and subsequently designed and produced unique hand printed lengths of fabrics for many of the leading Parisian fashion houses, including Chanel, Lanvin, Worth, Schiaparelli and Paul Poiret. She was awarded a gold medal for textile design at the Milan Triennale in 1933 and another gold medal for printed textiles at the Paris World Fair in 1937. Jacqueline was not only a serious and highly respected contender in the field of textile and pattern design but, with her husband, the Modernist architect Jacques Groag, was also deeply immersed in the intellectual life of Vienna. In 1938 the sophisticated world of Jacques and Jacqueline was brutally shattered when the Anschluss, the political unification of Austria and Germany, occurred and the German army entered Vienna. Faced with the actuality of the Nazi terror the Groags, who were Jewish, fled to Czechoslovakia and their home city of Prague. After a brief respite they were once more forced to flee in 1939, this time to London. On their arrival in England they were welcomed and championed by leading members of the British design fraternity, amongst whom were Sir Gordon Russell, the doyen of British architects Sir Charles Reilly and Jack Pritchard, founder of the modernist design company, Isokon. Much of the Contemporary style of the textiles and wallpapers shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain were heavily indebted to Jacqueline's influential designs of the 1940s. Many examples of her work were featured prominently at the Festival and from then on she became a major influence on pattern design internationally. She developed a large client group in the United States during the fifties and sixties, amongst whom were Associated American Artists, Hallmark Cards and American Greetings Ohio. In the later 1950s and throughout the 1960s she became increasingly involved with Sir Misha Black and the Design Research Unit (D.R.U.), working on the interiors for boats and planes and trains, particularly the design of textiles and plastic laminates for BOAC and British Rail. One of her last commissions from Misha Black, in the mid-seventies was a distinctive moquette for London Transport, for seating on both buses and tube trains. Her work and influence did not just extend to the large corporations and exclusive couturiers but was familiar to the general public through stores and companies such as John Lewis, Liberty of London, David Whitehead, Edinburgh Weavers, Sandersons, Warerite and Formica. Her remarkable achievement finally received public recognition in 1984 when, at the age of 81, she was made an R.D.I. - a Royal Designer for Industry - the ultimate accolade for any designer in Britain.

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