Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023
A Reese’s Bookclub December Pick (2022)
An Instant Sunday Times, New York Times and Irish Times Bestseller (August 2022)
A Guardian and LitHub Book of the Year (December 2022)

‘Every bit as evocative and spellbinding as Hamnet. O’Farrell, thank God, just seems to be getting better and better’ i newspaper

‘Her narrative enchantment will wrest suspense and surprise out of a death foretold’ Financial Times

‘Ingenious, inventive, humane, wry, truthful . . . better than her last novel’ Scotsman

‘Finely written and vividly imagined’ Guardian

‘In O’Farrell’s hands, historical detail comes alive’ Spectator
Winter, 1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.
Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence’s grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.

What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival.

The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.

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Making Sense of Islamic Art & Architecture is designed to equip the cultural tourist and art student with the means to interpret each painting, building, or artifact in terms of the iconography and symbolism of Islam. With reference to 100 clearly illustrated and diverse historical works, readers will learn to identify the telling details that mean so much to Muslims. The book’s layout is both visually striking and accessible. Each double-page spread features a full-page colour photograph of either a detail of the work or its context, depending on the subject, with a second photograph chosen to illustrate important aspects of the work. Alongside is a detailed exposition of the work’s significance in Islamic art history and philosophy, with key historical facts about the work, including where it may be seen today. By tracing the paths between Islamic belief and artistic intention, this book will deepen understanding not only of Islamic art and architecture but also of Islam itself.

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An icon of 1980s New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) first made his name under the graffiti tag “SAMO,” before establishing his studio practice and catapulting to fast fame at the age of 20. Although his career lasted barely a decade, he remains a cult figure of artistic social commentary, and a trailblazer in the mediation of graffiti and gallery art.

Basquiat’s work drew upon diverse sources and media to create an original and urgent artistic vocabulary, biting with critique against structures of power and racism. His practice merged abstraction and figuration, poetry and painting, while his influences spanned Greek, Roman, and African art, French poetry, jazz,and the work of artistic contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly. The results are vivid, visceral mixtures of words, African emblems, cartoonish figures, daubs of bold color, and beyond.

This book presents Basquiat’s short but prolific career, his unique style, and his profound engagement with ever-relevant issues of integration and segregation, poverty and wealth.

About the series

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:

a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance

a concise biography

approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

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Emerging in the late 1960s as women artists struggled to de-gender their work to compete in a male-dominated arena, the feminist art movement has played a leading role in the art world over the last five decades. Using the female gaze to articulate socially relevant issues after an era of aesthetic formalism, women artists, working in a variety of media, have called to attention ideas around gender, identity and form, criticising the cultural expectations and stereotyping of women, women s struggle for equality, and the treatment of the female body as a commodity. This little book is a short and pithy introduction to some of the most important artworks borne out of this movement. Fifty outstanding works from the late 1960s to the present reflect women s lives and experience, as well as the changing position of women artists, and reveal the impact of feminist ideals and politics on visual culture. Exploring themes such as gender inequality, sexuality, domestic life, personal experiences and the female body, A Little Feminist History of Art is a celebration of one of the most ambitious, influential and enduring artistic movements to emerge from the twentieth century.

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Illuminating reflections on painting and drawing from one of the most revered artists of the twentieth century

‘Thank God for yellow ochre, cadmium red medium, and permanent green light’

How does a painter see the world? Philip Guston, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, spoke about art with unparalleled candour and commitment. Touching on work from across his career as well as that of his fellow artists and Renaissance heroes, this selection of his writings, talks and interviews draws together some of his most incisive reflections on iconography and abstraction, metaphysics and mysticism, and, above all, the nature of painting and drawing.

‘Among the most important, powerful and influential American painters of the last 100 years … he’s an art world hero’ Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine

‘Guston’s paintings make us think hard’ Aindrea Emelife, Guardian

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A unique look at the craft of writing from a bestelling master of storytelling.

In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.

Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his strangely surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing.

‘An insightful collection of essays on his work and methods… You end this collection of beautiful essays vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again’ Guardian

‘Murakami is like a magician who explains what he’s doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers’ New York Times Book Review

‘A fascinating glimpse of the peculiar writerly life’ Sunday Times

** A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES and NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR**

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Beautifully illustrated with an array of Japanese art, this book offers a closer look at the rich variety of styles, decoration, motifs and patterns – and the sheer craftsmanship – of Japanese culture. Opening with an introduction that asks ‘What is Japanese art?’, this book presents a selection of striking and fascinating art from Japan, organised into a series of thematic chapters in which the author provides cultural context while pointing out exceptional features. By showing the complete artwork alongside enlarged details – sometimes virtually invisible to the naked eye – intriguing comparisons can be drawn between seemingly unrelated pieces. The selection of illustrations evokes the hand and eye of the most accomplished Japanese craftsmen and women past and present. Offering a superb insight into a wide array of Japanese art, the book highlights – close up and in colour – outstanding examples of design and craft in prints, paintings and screens, metalwork, ceramics, wood, stone and lacquer and will provide endless creative inspiration.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Chinese Brush Painting teaches this ancient art form in an easy-to-understand way―no prior experience necessary!

As one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world, Chinese brush painting has been used for thousands of years to create images that harness the imagination, and capture the inner spirit of a subject―be it an animal, landscape or tree. All you need for this simple, but beautiful, art form is black watercolor paint, white paper, a brush and some creativity!

An introduction tells you about the history of brush painting, and also gives tips for holding your brush, achieving different shades and collecting your materials. After that, the book takes you step-by-step through more than 35 hands-on activities―including basic strokes, putting them together to create an object or scene, the importance of leaving open space and even writing some Chinese calligraphy.

With the help of this book, artists of all ages can learn to paint:

• Bamboo stalks, branches and leaf clusters
• A knotted pine tree and its delicate needles
• A snail with a spiral shell and little body peeking out from underneath
• A waterfall gliding down the side of a mountain
• And much more!

You’ll find that this activity will help you learn to center your mind and thoughts, and your masterpieces will be inspiring decorations or great gifts for friends and family. Get started learning this ‘soft martial art!’

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Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are amongst the most iconic and admired in the world. The trials of his life and health are endlessly discussed but the extraordinary richness of his writings and depth of his thinking on creativity, art and beauty is less explored.

In Creative Inspiration, Van Gogh’s writings have been edited and selected to create an enlightening, uplifting and helpful book for art lovers and creatives – amateurs and professionals alike.

150 carefully selected images illustrate these quotes, focusing on the sketches and drawings that reveal the rigour and ambition with which he approached his work.

The book is thematically divided – from Beginnings to Routine to Beauty – and his determination and charisma are shared through words and pictures.

A beautiful, and delightfully handy, art book that is designed to inspire.

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The Art of Fine Gifts: Twentieth-century painter, designer and wood engraver Eric Ravilious was responsible for a fascinating range of different works, from illustrations for books to designs for ceramics for the established Wedgwood pottery firm. This gorgeous new book features beautiful woodcut images of countryside life, watercolours of rolling landscapes and many of Ravilious’ acute and profound war paintings.

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The first full length account of Lee Krasner’s colourful life

In Gail Levin’s riveting biography, Lee Krasner emerges as a significant artist who richly deserves her place in the 20th century’s cultural lexicon. Drawing on new sources and numerous personal interviews – including with Krasner herself – Levin has created a dynamic and moving portrait of a brilliant woman, and in so doing recovers Krasner’s voice and allows us to understand how her life intersected with and informed her art.

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Part of an exciting series of sturdy, square-box 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles from Flame Tree, featuring powerful and popular works of art. This new jigsaw will satisfy your need for a challenge, with L.S. Lowry’s Going to Work. This 1000 piece jigsaw is intended for adults and children over 13 years. Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts. Finished Jigsaw size 735 x 510mm/29 x 20 ins. Now includes an A4 poster for reference.

This painting is an example of one of L.S. Lowry’s famous crowd scenes. The colour palette is unusually light and airy for the artist, with pink and gold-tinged buildings lifting the atmosphere. Lowry said of this painting, ‘To say the truth, I was not thinking very much about the people … They were part of a private beauty that haunted me!’ In his many depictions of north-west England Lowry makes industrial scenes his own, showing how industry had affected the landscape and how the inhabitants of the urban areas lived out their daily lives. Marches, evictions, accident s, illness, relaxation at the park or the fair, going to work, coming out o f school and going to the football match were all subjects for Lowry’s brush or pencil. His works were created in his own unique style, poetic yet not sentimental, compelling, even at times disturbing, but never judgemental.

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In the mid-1950s, Yves Klein (1928–1962) declared that “a new world calls for a new man.” With his idiosyncratic style and huge charisma, this bold artist would go on to pursue a brief but bountiful career, producing more than 1,000 paintings over seven years in an oeuvre now considered a mainstay of postwar modernism.

Klein made his name above all with his large monochrome canvases in his own patented hue of blue. International Klein Blue (IKB), composed of pure pigment and binding medium, is at once rich and luminous, evocative and decorative, and was conceived by Klein as a means of evoking the immateriality and infinitude of the world. The works of this “Blue Revolution” seem to draw us into another dimension, as if hypnotized by a perfect summer sky. Klein was also renowned for his deployment of “living brushes,” in which naked women, daubed in International Klein Blue, would make imprints of their bodies on large sheets of paper.

This Basic Art introduction presents key Klein works to introduce an artist who was at once a showman, inventor, and pioneer of performance art. With page after page of the ever-alluring International Klein Blue, it is both an essential guide to a modern art master and a meditation on the unique effects of a single color.

About the series

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:

a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance

a concise biography

approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Read more

This authoritative visual guide to the artistic materials and painting techniques of J. M. W. Turner brings to life the skills of one of the world’s greatest artists. Details of his watercolours and oil paintings, usually only available to small numbers of museum professionals, and an experienced artist’s recreation of his core painting processes, combine with in-depth research into Turner’s use of new materials to give unique insights into his creative processes.

How Turner Painted brings new research and understanding to the subject since the publication of the author’s earlier book Turner’s Painting Techniques (1993). Joyce Townsend, senior conservation scientist at Tate, which houses the majority of Turner’s work and is a centre of expertise on the artist, has revisited, updated and continued the examination of his innovative use of materials and early adoption of new colours. Comparisons are drawn across oil painting and watercolour to illustrate how Turner built up an image, and what his numerous unfinished works can tell us about his working methods. With a foreword by art historian Nicola Moorby and a chapter contributed by artist Tony Smibert, the book will coincide with two major new exhibitions planned for 2020, at Tate Britain and at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Tasmania.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘A burst of springtime joy’ Daily Telegraph

‘A springboard for ideas about art, space, time and light’ The Times

‘Lavishly illustrated’ Guardian

David Hockney reflects upon life and art as he experiences lockdown in rural Normandy

On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquility for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the change of the seasons; a place to keep the madness of the world at bay. So when Covid-19 and lockdown struck, it made little difference to life at La Grande Cour, the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where Hockney set up a studio a year before, in time to paint the arrival of spring. In fact, he relished the enforced isolation as an opportunity for even greater devotion to his art.

Spring Cannot be Cancelled is an uplifting manifesto that affirms art’s capacity to divert and inspire. It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney’s new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others.

We see how Hockney is propelled ever forward by his infectious enthusiasms and sense of wonder. A lifelong contrarian, he has been in the public eye for sixty years yet remains entirely unconcerned by the view of critics or even history. He is utterly absorbed by his four acres of northern France and by the themes that have fascinated him for decades: light, colour, space, perception, water, trees. He has much to teach us, not only about how to see… but about how to live.

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These fine-quality sheets feature 6 prints inspired by classic and colorful Japanese chiyogami! These papers are suitable for craft projects as well as for gift wrapping. The variety of designs means they are useful for any occasion–whether a holiday, birthday, anniversary or “just because.” 24 sheets of 18 x 24 inch (45 x 61 cm) paper 6 unique patterns The tradition of gift wrapping originated in Asia, with the first documented use in China in the 2nd century BC. Japanese furoshiki, reusable wrapping cloth, is still in use four centuries after it was first created. Gift wrapping is one custom that has prevailed through the ages and across the world–it should be special for both the gift giver and recipient.

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***

‘An indispensable volume’
Vogue

‘As rabid admirers and collectors of contemporary art and photography we wholeheartedly recommend this passionate and joyous book. Without art the human soul is unfulfilled. This collection by Russell and Robert fully explains why.’
Sir Elton John and David Furnish

‘Russell and Robert have made talking art not just pleasurable but necessary.’
Lena Dunham

‘As witty, wise and well informed as Russell and Robert’s excellent podcast.’
Edward Enninful, OBE

When launching the Talk Art podcast in 2018, actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament had one clear aim: to make the art world more accessible. Since then, the podcast has grown to be a global hit, featuring exclusive interviews with leading artists, curators, gallerists, actors, musicians and fellow art lovers such as Lena Dunham, Sir Paul Smith, David Shrigley, Noel Fielding, Edward Enninful, Rose Wylie and Sir Elton John.

Talk Art, the book, is a beautiful and accessible celebration of contemporary art, and a guidebook to navigating and engaging with the art world. Covering a range of different media from photography and ceramics to performance and sound art, the book explores the way art interacts with our society, highlights lesser-known artists, and provides a snapshot of the art world as it is today.

With a wealth of imagery – some never before seen in print and some created exclusively for the book – and an informative, engaging narrative, Talk Art will become the must-have book art lovers return to again and again.

The book features highlights from interviews with: Tracey Emin, Jordan Casteel, Jerry Saltz, Elton John, Grayson Perry, Ian McKellen, Alasdair McLellan, Helen Cammock, Somaya Critchlow and many more.

Praise for the podcast:
‘Lively, accessible and enthusiastic’ – Financial Times
‘As fast-paced and gossipy as it is genuinely interesting’ – Dazed
‘Trendy, gossipy, fast-paced conversational fun’ – New York Times
‘It’s an education, but not in an alienating highbrow way’ – NME

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In 1984, photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured the imagination of a generation with Subway Art, a groundbreaking book documenting the work of graffiti writers who illegally painted subway cars in New York City. The 2009 edition of the book is now available in a new, slightly reduced format. Henry Chalfant’s images of the trains retain their impact, while Martha Cooper’s narrative pictures tell the story. In the introductions, the authors recall how they gained entry to the New York graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s and describe the techniques that they used to photograph it. Afterwords report how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded, and chronicle the end of the subway graffiti scene in the late 1980s and its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. This is an essential book for all fans of graffiti, stunning photography and 1980s-cool.

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