History
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Blade: King of Graffiti
BLADE has already told his life story through graffiti. Now, over forty years into his career and armed with an incredible memory, BLADE sits down with Chris Pape to reflect on growing up in the Bronx in the turbulent 1970s, and recounts the highs and lows of his storied career, holding nothing back. BLADE is considered The King of Graffiti because, by 1980, after painting 5,000 wildly creative trains, he stopped counting. This book parallels the New York graffiti movement almost from its inception, moving through its glory years in the mid-1970s, when BLADE earned his title, and ending in the global art scene, where he remains a major presence. BLADE helped New York graffiti become internationally famous by making it look fun, and, for reasons of quantity, quality, and, perhaps above all, for sheer spirit, BLADE may very well be the most popular graffiti artist with his peers. Chris Pape was born in 1960. He grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan where he watched the birth of the graffiti movement. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Elsa, and their kids, Cora and Dash.Read more
£28.20£37.00Blade: King of Graffiti
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Une Semaine De Bonté: A Surrealistic Novel in Collage
The great surrealist’s collage masterpiece was printed in 1934 in a limited edition of five now-priceless pamphlets. This single-volume edition contains all of the original publication’s 182 bizarre, darkly humorous scenes of violent dreams and erotic fantasies. “One of the clandestine classics of our century.”― The New York Times.Read more
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Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
‘The Tomb of an Unknown Craftsman is of a treasure hoard from a distinct civilisation. The difference is that it is a civilisation of one. The territory it springs from is my imagination. … The relationship between my personal themes and obsessions and the vastness of world culture as represented in the British Museum is like a narrow pilgrimage trail across an infinite plain.’ Grayson Perry Grayson Perry’s centrepiece to this fascinating journey is a major artwork: a metal tomb in the form of a ship, encrusted with reliefs and artistic cargo based on, or actually cast from, objects in the collection of the British Museum. The occupant sails into the afterlife surrounded by the talismans of many faiths and peoples. This is a memorial to all the anonymous craftsmen that over the centuries have fashioned the man-made wonders of the world, many of which are on display in the Museum. Around the tomb, the other artworks – ceramics, tiles, cast metal sculpture, textiles and prints – are laid out in ritualistic symmetry as if they once belonged somewhere else. Alongside his own works, Grayson Perry presents a personal selection of objects from the British Museum that are the inspiration for his pieces or connected strongly with them thematically or aesthetically. Including an introduction by Grayson Perry and lavishly illustrated, this book takes us to the fantasy world of a contemporary artist who never fails to challenge and unsettle his audience. “Grayson Perry is winner of the 2012 South Bank Sky Arts Award for visual arts, for the British Museum exhibition, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman.”Read more
£19.30£23.80Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
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Women of Abstract Expressionism (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lec)
The celebrated survey of female Abstract Expressionist artists revealing the richness and lasting influence of their workThe artists Jay DeFeo, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and many other women played major roles in the development of Abstract Expressionism, which flourished in New York and San Francisco in the 1940s and 1950s and has been recognized as the first fully American modern art movement. Though the contributions of these women were central to American art of the twentieth century, their work has not received the same critical attention as that of their male counterparts.
Women of Abstract Expressionism is a long-overdue survey. Lavishly illustrated with full-color plates emphasizing the expressive freedom of direct gesture and process at the core of the movement, this book features biographies of more than forty artists, offering insight into their lives and work. Essays by noted scholars explore the techniques, concerns, and legacies of women in Abstract Expressionism, shedding light on their unique experiences. This groundbreaking book reveals the richness of the careers of these important artists and offers keen new reflections on their work and the movement as a whole.Published in association with the Denver Art Museum
Exhibition Schedule:
Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C.
(10/22/16–01/22/17)Palm Springs Art Museum
(02/18/17–05/28/17)Read more
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Paula Rego (Hardback)
A stunning new volume which tells the story of Paula Rego’s extraordinary life, exploring the personal and socio-political contexts in which her work is rooted.
Since the 1950s, Paula Rego has played a key role in redefining figurative art in the UK and internationally. An uncompromising artist of extraordinary imaginative power, she has revolutionised the way in which women are represented. This stunning voulme tells the story of Rego’s extraordinary life, highlighting the personal nature of much of her work and the socio-political context in which it is rooted. It also reveals the artist’s broad range of references, from comic strips to history painting. Featuring over 100 illustrations, including collage, paintings, largescale pastels, ink and pencil drawings, etchings and sculpture, including including early work from the 1950s in which Rego first explored personal as well as social struggle, her large pastels of single figures from the acclaimed Dog Women and Abortion series and her richly layered, staged scenes from the 2000-10s. The range of texts reflects the themes explored in the exhibition, relating to the artist’s childhood memories and everyday life, the experience of love and the loss of the beloved. It also addresses broader socio-political issues, such as the policing of women’s bodies, the struggle to legalise abortion, and the fight against authoritarianism and war, from the dictatorship in Portugal to the Iraq War. The book reflects the richness of Rego’s work, from the socio-political context to the biographical, from her many literary references to her vast knowledge and referencing of key historical paintings from the Western tradition.Read more
£28.90£38.00Paula Rego (Hardback)
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Peter Doig (Rizzoli Classics): -compact edition-
In every generation of artists, there are a few who propose a new set of ques- tions and alter the way we understand art. Peter Doig is such an artist. This handsome monograph considers the painter’s entire career, beginning with the early work produced in the 1990s when Doig’s enigmatic but wholly new conception of painting was first introduced to audiences. Doig was born to Scottish parents, spent several years as a child in Trinidad, later settling in Canada for his formative early teen years. He found his voice while at art school in London, albeit one that was out of step with the work of the time (much of it installation-based and dripping with neo-conceptualist leanings). He had developed a small following of fellow artists and critics when the rest of the art world caught up and took notice. In 2002, he left London for Trinidad, where he has remained. The small Caribbean island-with its own distinctive light and landscape-has deeply influenced his recent work. This volume was designed in close collaboration with the artist, with a cover and various interior elements created especially by the artist.Read more
£41.70£47.50Peter Doig (Rizzoli Classics): -compact edition-
£41.70£47.50 -
John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey
A celebration of the life and work of the artist John Craxton, a rebellious figure in British art history
Spanning a rich variety of works from the 1940s to the 2000s, this book celebrates the life and work of the British artist John Craxton (1922–2009). It charts the development of Craxton’s work from the poetic, melancholy images created in wartime Britain to the vibrant paintings and drawings produced in his adopted homeland of Greece. The book revisits the artist’s early life and looks at the influence of British Romantic art and the landscape of England and Wales on his work, while also exploring themes around LGBTQ+ identity, his relationship to significant modern British and international artists, and the historical context of mid-century Britain and Greece.
Featuring short essays and texts from contributors including Sir David Attenborough, Ian Collins, Simon Martin, Miriam O’Connor Perks, David Mellor, Edmund White, Hilary Spurling, and Tacita Dean―covering subjects across Craxton’s career, including book illustration, landscape, ballet design, ceramics, and tapestry―this lively account showcases the diverse artistic output of this key figure in British art history.
Exhibition Schedule:
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
(October 28, 2023–April 21, 2024)Read more
£28.50 -
Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was only twenty-seven when he died in 1988, his meteoric and often controversial career having lasted for just eight years. Despite his early death, Basquiat’s powerful oeuvre has ensured his continuing reputation as one of modern art’s most distinctive voices. Borrowing from graffiti and street imagery, cartoons, mythology and religious symbolism, Basquiat’s drawings and paintings explore issues of race and identity, providing social commentary that is shrewdly observed and biting. This bestselling book, now available in a compact edition, celebrates Basquiat’s achievements in the contexts of the key influences on his art. It not only re-evaluates the ar tist s principal works and their meaning, but also explains what keeps his painting relevant today.Read more
£16.70£18.00Basquiat
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Action / Gesture / Paint: a global story of women and abstraction 1940–70
Drawing on the avant-garde movements of both Expressionism and Surrealism, the women of Abstract Expressionism redefined artistic practice as an immersive arena for action, process and consciousness. Their paintings were regarded not as images but as events. Although the movement officially began in mid-century USA, it quickly – through myriad means – spread around the world and became a catalyst for redefining ideas around aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and politics.This new publication, accompanying a major European touring exhibition, will include works by 40 artists from across the globe, from well-known practitioners such as Carmen Herrera, Etel Adnan, Sandra Blow and Helen Frankenthaler, to lesser-known names from countries such as Australia, China, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Mozambique, Romania and Venezuela: women who took up the ideas and methodologies of the movement but endowed them with specific cultural and subjective dimensions.
The catalaogue will include essays by Christian Levett, Joan Marter, Agustin Perez Rubio and Elizabeth Smith, as well as full colour illustrations of all the works.
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A Big Important Art Book (Now with Women): Profiles of Unstoppable Female Artists–And Projects to Help You Become One
Celebrate 45 women artists, and gain inspiration for your own practice, with this beautiful exploration of contemporary creators from the founder of The Jealous Curator.
Walk into any museum, or open any art book, and you’ll probably be left wondering: where are all the women artists? A Big Important Art Book (Now with Women) offers an exciting alternative to this male-dominated art world, showcasing the work of dozens of contemporary women artists alongside creative prompts that will bring out the artist in anyone!
This beautiful book energizes and empowers women, both artists and amateurs alike, by providing them with projects and galvanizing stories to ignite their creative fires. Each chapter leads with an assignment that taps into the inner artist, pushing the reader to make exciting new work and blaze her own artistic trail. Interviews, images, and stories from contemporary women artists at the top of their game provide added inspiration, and historical spotlights on art “herstory” tie in the work of pioneering women from the past. With a stunning, gift-forward package and just the right amount of pop culture-infused feminism, this book is sure to capture the imaginations of aspiring women artists.
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The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia: 1
Dark Horse Books and Nintendo team up to bring you The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, containing an unparalleled collection of historical information on The Legend of Zelda franchise. This handsome hardcover contains never-before-seen concept art, the full history of Hyrule, the official chronology of the games, and much more! Starting with an insightful introduction by the legendary producer and video-game designer of Donkey Kong, Mario, and The Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto, this book is crammed full of information about the storied history of Link’s adventures from the creators themselves! As a bonus, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia includes an exclusive comic by the foremost creator of The Legend of Zelda manga – Akira Himekawa!Read more
£24.70 -
Leonardo Da Vinci: His Life and Works in 500 Images: An Illustrated Exploration of the Artist, His Life and Context, with a Gallery of 300 of His Greatest Works
This comprehensive new book is an essential volume for anyone who wants to learn more about Leonardo and to survey his greatest works in one beautifully illustrated collection. The first half of the book contains a detailed exploration of Leonardo s life, including his background, early career, influences and relationships. Beginning with his illegitimate birth in the small Italian village of Vinci, in 1452, it details his childhood, family life and education then moves on to his interests in architecture, engineering and science and his career as a painter. The second half of the book contains a comprehensive gallery of over 300 of Leonardo s major paintings, drawings and designs. These superb reproductions are accompanied by thorough analysis of each artwork and its significance within the context of his life, his technique and his body of work as a whole.Read more
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Japanese Art: Close-Up
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.Read more
£9.50£12.30Japanese Art: Close-Up
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One Hundred Great Paintings (National Gallery London Publications)
This beautiful book presents one hundred great works from the National Gallery Collection, each by a different artist. Arranged in chronological order and accompanied by Louise Goviers lively text, full-page reproductions of these selected highlights introduce you to some of the most inspiring paintings ever made. From the earliest Italian altarpiece of around 1265, to the most recent – Paul Cézannes great Bathers, of about 18941905 – each painting has been chosen for its unique significance; whether representing a particular artist, a place or a time, or simply for its beauty and the pleasure it provides.Read more
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David Hockney. A Chronology. 40th Ed.
Pop artist, painter of modern life, landscape painter, master of color, explorer of image and perception―for six decades, David Hockney has been known as an artist who always finds new ways of exploring the world and its representational possibilities. He has consistently created unforgettable images: works with graphic lines and integrated text in the Swinging Sixties in London; the famous swimming pool series as a representation of the 1970s California lifestyle; closely observed portraits and brightly colored, oversized landscapes after his eventual return to his native Yorkshire. In addition to drawings in which he transfers what he sees directly onto paper, there are multiperspective Polaroid collages that open up the space into a myriad of detailed views, and iPad drawings in which he captures light using a most modern medium―testaments to Hockney’s enduring delight in experimentation.
This special edition has been newly assembled from the two volumes of the David Hockney: A Bigger Book monograph to celebrate TASCHEN’s 40th anniversary. Hockney’s life and work is presented year by year as a dialogue between his works and voices from the time period, alongside reviews and reflections by the artist in a chronological text, supplemented by portrait photographs and exhibition views. Together they open up new perspectives, page after page, revealing how Hockney undertakes his artistic research, how his painting develops, and where he finds inspiration for his multifaceted work.
About the series
TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program―now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.
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The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller, Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023
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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£4.80£9.50 -
Basquiat. 40th Anniversary Edition: And the Art of Storytelling (40th Edition)
The legend of Jean-Michel Basquiat is as strong as ever. Synonymous with 1980s New York, the artist first appeared in the late 1970s under the tag SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems on the walls of the city. He appeared as part of a thriving underground scene of visual arts and graffiti, hip hop, post-punk, and DIY filmmaking, which met in a booming art world. As a painter with a strong personal voice, Basquiat soon broke into the established milieu, exhibiting in galleries around the world. Basquiat’s expressive style was based on raw figures and integrated words and phrases. His work is inspired by a pantheon of luminaries from jazz, boxing, and basketball, with references to arcane history and the politics of street life-so when asked about his subject matter, Basquiat answered “royalty, heroism and the streets.” In 1983 he started collaborating with the most famous of art stars, Andy Warhol, and in 1985 was on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. When Basquiat died at the age of 27, he had become one of the most successful artists of his time. First published in an XXL edition, this unprecedented insight into Basquiat’s art is now available in a compact, accessible volume in celebration of TASCHEN’s 40th anniversary. With pristine reproductions of his most seminal paintings, drawings, and notebook sketches, it offers vivid proximity to Basquiat’s intricate marks and scribbled words, further illuminated by an introduction to the artist from editor Hans Werner Holzwarth, as well as an essay on his themes and artistic development from curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne. Richly illustrated year-by-year chapter breaks follow the artist’s life and quote from his own statements and contemporary reviews to provide both personal background and historical context. About the series TASCHEN turns 40 this year! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. In 2020, we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.Read more
£19.00 -
Eric Ravilious Masterpieces of Art
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.Read more
£11.20£12.30Eric Ravilious Masterpieces of Art
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Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) was always a name to be reckoned with. Notorious bad boy of the Italian Baroque, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial, violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run.
Though famed for his dramatic use of color, light, and shadow, it was above all Caravaggio’s boundary-breaking naturalism which scorched his name into the annals of art history. From the dirtied soles of feet to the sexualized languor of bare flesh, the artist allowed even sacred and biblical scenes to unfold with a startling, often visceral humanity. This vivid pictorial world was accompanied by an equally intense personal biography, scored by gambling, debts, drunken brawls, and even a murder charge.
This book brings together more than 50 of Caravaggio’s most famous and revolutionary works to explore how and why this artist is now considered the most important painter of the early Baroque period and one of the defining influences of art history, without whom Ribera, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Courbet, and Manet could never have painted the way they did.
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
£11.40Caravaggio
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Rothko
Resisting interpretation or classification, Mark Rothko (1903–1970) was a prominent advocate for the artist’s consummate freedom of expression. Although identified as a key protagonist of the Abstract Expressionist movement, first formed in New York City, Rothko rejected the label and insisted instead on “a consummated experience between picture and onlooker.” Following a repertoire of figurative works, Rothko developed his now iconic canvases of bold color blocks in red, yellow, ochre, maroon, black, or green. With these shimmering, pulsating color masses, Rothko stressed that he had not removed the human figure but rather put symbols or shapes in its place. These intense color forms contained all the tragedy of the human condition. At the same time, Rothko explicitly empowered the viewer in the expressive potential of his work. He believed “A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer.” From his early development through to his most famous color fields, this book introduces the intellect and influence of Rothko’s dramatic, intimate, and revolutionary work.
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£11.40£14.30Rothko
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Warhol
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is hailed as the most important proponent of the Pop art movement. A critical and creative observer of American society, he explored key themes of consumerism, materialism, media, and celebrity.
Drawing on contemporary advertisements, comic strips, consumer products, and Hollywood’s most famous faces, Warhol proposed a radical reevaluation of what constituted artistic subject matter. Through Warhol, a Campbell’s soup can and Coca Cola bottle became as worthy of artistic status as any traditional still life. At the same time, Warhol reconfigured the role of the artist. Famously stating “I want to be a machine,” he systematically reduced the presence of his own authorship, working with mass-production methods and images, as well as dozens of assistants in a studio he dubbed the Factory.
This book introduces Warhol’s multifaceted, prolific oeuvre, which revolutionized distinctions between “high” and “low” art and integrated ideas of living, producing, and consuming that remain central questions of modern experience.
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
£11.40£14.30Warhol
£11.40£14.30 -
Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art
Now available for the first time in paperback, this book remains the definitive survey of the life and work of Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Carrington burst onto the Surrealist scene in 1936, when, as a precocious nineteen-year-old debutante, she escaped the stultifying demands of her wealthy English family by running away to Paris with her lover Max Ernst. She was immediately championed by Andre Breton, who responded enthusiastically to her fantastical, dark and satirical writing style and her interest in fairy tales and the occult. Her stories were included in Surrealist publications, and her paintings in the Surrealists’ exhibitions. After the dramas and tragic separations of the Second World War, Carrington ended up in the 1940s as part of the circle of Surrealist European emigres living in Mexico City. Close friends with Luis Bunuel, Benjamin Peret, Octavio Paz and a host of both expatriate Surrealists and Mexican modernists, Carrington was at the centre of Mexican cultural life, while still maintaining her European connections. Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art provides a fascinating overview of this intriguing artist’s rich body of work. The author considers Carrington’s preoccupation with alchemy and the occult, and explores the influence of indigenous Mexican culture and beliefs on her production.Read more
£23.80£28.50Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art
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Femina: The instant Sunday Times bestseller – A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE‘Revelatory’ GUARDIAN
‘A firecracker somehow captured between two covers’ LUCY WORSLEY
An instant bestseller and one of the most celebrated history books of the year, Femina reveals the power and influence of medieval women who have been written out of our history. From royalty and religion to fame and fury, see the medieval world – and the women erased from it – with fresh eyes.
‘Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended’ CAITLIN MORAN
‘Femina is a ground-breaking history of the Middle Ages’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
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£9.00£10.40 -
Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy
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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£12.20£16.10 -
DAZEWORLD: The Artwork of Chris Daze Ellis
This is the illustrated story of New York artist Chris Daze Ellis’s successful transition from the subways to international studios and galleries. Follow his 30 year career from his teen years as a graffiti writer to his current life as a professional painter, mentor, and family man. This book, with more than 250 photographs, is a journey that tracks seminal moments in Daze’s life that shaped his art. View his aesthetic evolution, from Graffiti High (New York’s High School of Art and Design) and an unsanctioned street art phase to exhibitions with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Train photos from the 1970s and ’80s, a broad representation of Daze’s studio and mural works, and personal photos guide the reader through an artistic portfolio spanning five decades. Contributions by graffiti writer Jay J.SON Edlin and essayist Claire Schwartz, and a foreword by graffiti historian and chronicler Sacha Jenkins complete this volume.Read more
£19.90£32.30DAZEWORLD: The Artwork of Chris Daze Ellis
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Mark Rothko – The Works on Canvas – A Catalogue Raisonne
Originally published in 1998 and still in print, this quintessential volume presents an overview of Mark Rothko’s stunning corpus of paintings on canvas and panel. With all works reproduced in color, the book includes the images for which Rothko is most famous―the large, hypnotic, poignant fields of color―along with almost 400 additional paintings that are far less well known and reveal an artist who was attuned by turns to realism, expressionism, surrealism, and the avant-garde issues of his era.“Far and away the best monograph ever written on Rothko.”―Yve-Alain Bois, Artforum
Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington
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£191.70 -
After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art
Through the 1880s the very essence of representation, meaning and process in Western art were profoundly interrogated. Plausible representations of the external world were cast aside in favour of non-naturalism expressed in varying degrees, from modest distortions of reality to pure abstraction.The decades that followed, up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, were a complex, vibrant period of artistic questioning, searching, risk-taking and innovation. Concentrating on this period of great upheaval, this book will explore the constructive dialogue between painting and sculpture, and the influential roles played by three giants of the era, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, across European art as a whole. While acknowledging the centrality of Paris as a cultural capital, it will also uniquely highlight other centres of artistic ferment in Europe, from Brussels and Barcelona to Berlin and Vienna, and track the variety of routes into modernism in the early twentieth century.
This fully illustrated catalogue will contain four essays, introductions to each city of ferment and biographies of the artists.
Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The National Gallery, London 25 March–13 August 2023Read more
£29.30£38.00After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art
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Banksy
The largest presentation of works by Banksy, the world’s most enigmatic yet highly sought-after artist, including iconic works, installation objects, ephemera, and memorabilia all in one volume.Banksy is the world’s most discussed artist of recent decades, and this seminal collection features hundreds of works including Girl with Balloon, Pulp Fiction, Love Is in the Air, Barcode, and Monkey Queen. It also includes scores of paintings, serigraphs, stencils, and installation objects as well as a selection of memorabilia―many of which have never been published previously. Created with the cooperation of Pest Control, the group that manages all things Banksy, this is as official and authorized as any Banksy publication could be.
Banksy is the world’s greatest practitioner of street art. His work has always been political, involving pointed critiques of inequality, injustice, consumerism, and the establishment, yet no one knows his identity. He is an exemplary case of fame and notoriety built upon absence and anonymity. His relationship with the art market is also complex: marked by mocking hostility while being one of the most marketable and most collected contemporary artists.Read more
£21.80£28.50Banksy
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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 TimesRead more
£31.50£42.80 -
The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A Postsecret Book
New York Times Bestseller
Postsecret.com founder Frank Warren is back with an irresistible addition to his bestselling PostSecret series. For The Secret Lives of Men and Women, Warren has selected a never-before-seen collection of postcards bearing the explosive confessions and captivating revelations of men and women everywhere. Created using photographs, collages, illustrations, and more, the handmade cards offer a compelling dialogue on some of today’s most provocative topics–from marriage and infidelity, to parenting, office politics, repressed fantasies, and even abortion–daring us to consider how well we really know our friends, family, even ourselves.
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£19.60 -
L.S. Lowry Masterpieces of Art
Renowned for his paintings of the industrial towns of North West England, Lancashire born Lowry had a distinctive and enchanting style, depicting the everyday life of the world around him. In association with The Lowry, which houses over 400 of Lowry’s works, this exceptional book portrays a selection of his paintings, sketches and other works, with subjects gleaned from urban landscapes teeming with his iconic ‘matchstick men’ to haunting unpopulated scenes. Often neglected by the elite of the art world his work has received much greater recognition in recent years.Read more
£11.20£12.30L.S. Lowry Masterpieces of Art
£11.20£12.30 -
Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes, 1250-1743
Every painted work that is on display in the Uffizi Gallery, The Pitti Palace, the Accademia, and the Duomo is included in the book, plus many or most of the works from 28 of the city’s other magnificent museums and churches. The research and text are by Ross King (best-selling author), Anja Grebe (author or The Louvre and The Vatican), Cristina Acidini (former Superintendent of the public museums of Florence) and Msgr. Timothy Verdon (Director of the artworks for the Archdiocese of Florence).Read more
£48.60£57.00Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes, 1250-1743
£48.60£57.00 -
Talk Art: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Everything you wanted to know about contemporary art but were afraid to ask
***‘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, OBEWhen 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’ – NMERead more
£13.40£19.00 -
Salvador Dali. The Paintings (Bibliotheca Universalis)
The seminal surrealistExploring Dalí’s grandiose and grotesque oeuvre
Picasso called Dalí “an outboard motor that s always running.” Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head. Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the century s greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination.
This publication presents the entire painted oeuvre of Salvador Dalí. After many years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret finally located all the paintings of this highly prolific artist. Many of the works had been inaccessible for years in fact so many that almost half the illustrations in this book had rarely been seen.
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£15.20£19.00 -
The Art Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
Learn about key movements like impressionism, cubism and symbolism in The Art Book.
Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Art in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Art Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in.
This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Art, with:
– More than 80 of the world’s most remarkable artworks
– Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts
– A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout
– Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understandingThe Art Book is a captivating introduction to painting, drawing, printing, sculpture, conceptual art, and performance art – from ancient history to the modern day – aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you’ll discover more than 80 of the world’s most groundbreaking artworks by history’s most influential painters, sculptors and artists, through exciting text and bold graphics.
Your Art Questions, Simply Explained
This fresh new guide examines the ideas that inspired masterpieces by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Klimt, Matisse, Picasso, and dozens more! If you thought it was difficult to learn about the defining movements, The Art Book presents key information in a clear layout. Find out about subject matters, techniques, and materials, and learn about the talented artists behind the great works, through superb mind maps and step-by-step summaries.
The Big Ideas Series
With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Art Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.
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£14.20£19.00The Art Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
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The Illustrated Story of Art: The Great Art Movements and the Paintings that Inspired them
This is your A to Z guide to art!
From cave paintings to pop art and modern masterpieces, this absorbing and beautiful art encyclopedia explores the development of art in spectacular detail.
Here’s what you’ll find inside the pages of this visually stunning art book:
– Covers every major movement in art from prehistory to the present day
– Each movement is tracked in a visual timeline that showcases its key paintings and notable artists and explains its context – the major events in its evolution
– Each section ends with a stunning image of a masterwork and a curator’s analysis that encapsulates its values, style, composition, and subject matter
– Glossary of technical terms and a comprehensive indexGet ready to embark on a unique guided tour throughout the history of art. Get to know more than 700 of the greatest artists, from Michelangelo and Monet to Damien Hirst and Picasso. Discover 2500 of the world’s most iconic artworks, paintings and sculptures that have shaken the art world through centuries and across continents.
Truly comprehensive in scope, The Illustrated Story of Art presents the most remarkable art movements throughout history in chronological order and explains the social and cultural background of each period. Turning-point paintings that triggered or epitomised each artistic movement are identified and explained, against a backdrop of influences – from admired techniques of an earlier artist to the changes in society that enabled new directions in art.
A must-have for your bookshelf, this is an indispensable art reference book for art-lovers everywhere!
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£12.20£23.80 -
How Turner Painted: Materials & Techniques
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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£11.60£14.20How Turner Painted: Materials & Techniques
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Yves Klein
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
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£11.40£14.30Yves Klein
£11.40£14.30 -
Renoir: His Life and Works in 500 Images: An Illustrated Exploration of the Artist, His Life and Context, with a Gallery of 300 of His Greatest Works
This fascinating new book looks in detail at Renoir’s influences, life and works. The first part begins examines his style; it covers Renoir’s techniques and training: painting copies at the Louvre; his time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; meeting his muse, Lise Trehot; working with fellow impressionist artists and his struggles for recognition. The volume then investigates Renoir’s move away from Impressionism, his stay in Guernsey and also the changes to his personal life and the way in which these informed his work. It also documents his eventual success in the art world and considers the devastating series of illnesses and losses that blighted the end of Renoir’s long painting career. The second part of the book is a gallery of Renoir’s work in 300 glorious pictures, each accompanied by an in-depth analysis of its context within his life, his technique and his body of work as a whole.Read more
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The Universal Penman. Engrav’d by George Bickham
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
The eighteenth-century fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity followed the systematic excavation of the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy; and after 1750 a neoclassical style dominated all artistic fields. The titles here trace developments in mostly English-language works on painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theater, and other disciplines. Instructional works on musical instruments, catalogs of art objects, comic operas, and more are also included.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British LibraryT086160
Engraved throughout and printed on recto only. Plates bear various dates 1733-41. Additional titlepage dated 1741: ‘The universal penman; or, the art of writing .. Exemplified in all the useful and ornamental branches of modern penmanship; .. Written wi
London : printed for the author, and sold by John Bickham, engraver, 1733-41. 52 parts ; 2°
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£20.90£24.70The Universal Penman. Engrav’d by George Bickham
£20.90£24.70
