History & Criticism
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Keep Your Mouth Shut: Graffiti Art & Street Culture in Chicago and Beyond
A raw collection of photos and stories spotlighting the artistic process and dangerous adventures of a Chicago graffiti artist as he creates unsponsored works of art around the world. More than 350 photographs combine with previously untold firsthand stories to offer readers a rarely seen look into graffiti art and street culture, a subculture that has grown seemingly without boundaries. Vibrant, urgent prose takes readers into the emotions and physical experience of bringing street art into existence, capturing the moments of creation as well as the camaraderie of souls bound by these acts of expression. Each story is a real-life mini action adventure following FLEX KYM’s trajectory from local artist to world traveler to incarcerated individual to creator with reignited passion. Underpinning the story of the art is that of Chicago and its growth into a city internationally recognized for live-action urban painting. As the art ignites a path to form global networks, the journey takes readers to New York, New Jersey, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Catania, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Stockholm, Bangkok, Barcelona, Istanbul, Athens, and Berlin. Features images of art by FLEX, ARK, FACT, SKOL, DTEK, SPIN, HEAR, NYKE, and other graffiti artists from Chicago and beyond. This visceral look at the artistic process takes readers deep inside the world of graffiti art — a subculture that is now more celebrated than ever.Read more
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Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together
An inside look at the organizers and artists on the front lines of political mobilization and social change
“Ken [Grossinger] is one of the smartest strategists I know.” —John Sweeney, AFL-CIO president, 1995–2009
An artist’s mural of George Floyd becomes an emblem of a renewed movement for racial equality. A documentary film injects fuel into a popular mobilization to oust a Central American dictator. Freedom songs course through the American civil rights movement.
When artists and organizers combine forces, new forms of political mobilization follow—which shape lasting social change. And yet few people appreciate how much deliberate strategy often propels this vital social change work. Behind the scenes, artists, organizers, political activists, and philanthropists have worked together to hone powerful strategies for achieving the world we want and the world we need.
In Art Works, noted movement leader Ken Grossinger chronicles these efforts for the first time, distilling lessons and insights from grassroots leaders and luminaries such as Ai Weiwei, Courtland Cox, Jackson Browne, Shepard Fairey, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Alexander, Bill McKibben, JR, Jose Antonio Vargas, and more. Drawing from historical and present-day examples—including Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Legacy Museum, and the Art for Justice Fund—Grossinger offers a rich tapestry of tactics and successes that speak directly to the challenges and needs of today’s activists and of these political times.
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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
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Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s
Reveals how American art in the 1930s―intertwined with the political, social, and economic tumult of an era not so unlike our own―engaged with the public amid global upheaval
This publication examines the search for artistic identity in the United States from the stock market crash of 1929 that began the Great Depression to the closure of the Works Progress Administration in 1943 with a focus on the unprecedented dissemination of art and ideas brought about by new technology and government programs. During this time of civil, economic, and social unrest, artists transmitted political ideas and propaganda through a wide range of media, including paintings and sculptures, but also journals, prints, textiles, postcards, and other objects that would have been widely collected, experienced, or encountered. Insightful essays discuss but go beyond the era’s best-known creators, such as Thomas Hart Benton, Walker Evans, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe, to highlight artists who have received little scholarly attention, including women and artists of color as well as designers and illustrators. Emphasizing the contributions of the Black Popular Front and Leftist movements while acknowledging competing visions of the country through the lenses of race, gender, and class, Art for the Millions is a timely look at art in the United States made by and for its people.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(September 6–December 10, 2023)Read more
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Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works
The Mega Man Zero series is a fan-favorite Mega Man spin-off known for it’s exciting gameplay, stellar character designs, and engaging story.Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works collects the unique artwork of the series, and is filled with character designs, concept sketches, location artwork, key visuals, item charts, creator interviews, and more! A must-have for all video game fans and inspired artists!
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The Art of Darksiders II
New Hardcover Edition! Awakened by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, embarks on a quest to undo Armageddon! The Art of Darksiders II collects the dark and dynamic artwork behind the second installment in the fan-favorite Darksiders video game series. Featuring the artwork of legendary comic artist Joe Madureira (X-men, Battle Chasers) and the Vigil Games art team, the book collects full-color illustrations, character and environment designs, unused concepts, and more!Read more
£36.30£42.70The Art of Darksiders II
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The Art of Tekken: A Complete Visual History HC
Twenty-five years ago, Namco released Tekken and redefined the fighting game genre in three dimensions. Known for its deep gameplay, cutting edge graphics, and operatic lore, Tekken has become synonymous with the PlayStation brand while remaining one of the last vestiges of the arcade. The Art of Tekken: A Complete Visual History follows the series history through a visual feast of iconic games and characters, as well as in-depth interviews with the Bandai Namco developers who made it a reality and the players who made it a phenomenon on its way to becoming one of the best-selling fighting game series in history. It’s a complete visual retrospective of one of the most indispensable parts of gaming history, over a quarter century in the making, including art from all seven games of the franchise and more.Read more
£23.80£34.20The Art of Tekken: A Complete Visual History HC
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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
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£11.40Caravaggio
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Kyffin in Venice: An Illustrated Conversation
A series of interviews between Kyffin Williams and David Meredith, in which Meredith takes Kyffin on a return visit to his beloved Venice, the inspiration for so many of his best-loved paintings. Includes over 15 full colour reproductions of Kyffin’s paintings, together with photographs of the artist, and fascinating insights into his experiences.Read more
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Dalí. The Wines of Gala
Hot on the heels (or lobster claws) of the best-selling Salvador Dalí phenomenon, Les dîners de Gala, TASCHEN presents the artist’s equally surreal and sensual viticulture follow-up: The Wines of Gala. A Dalínian take on pleasures of the grape and a coveted collectible, the book sets out to organize wines “according to the sensations they create in our very depths.” Through eclectic metrics like production method, weight, and color, the book presents wines of the world in such innovative, Dalíesque groupings as “Wines of Frivolity,” “Wines of the Impossible,” and “Wines of Light.”
Bursting with imagery, the book features more than 140 illustrations by Dalí. Many of these are appropriated artworks, including various classical nudes, all of them reconstructed with suitably Surrealist, provocative touches, like Jean-François Millet’s The Angelus, one of Dalí’s favorite points of reference over the decades. Dalí also included what is now considered one of the greatest works from his late “Nuclear Mystic” phase, The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955), which sets the iconic biblical scene in a translucent dodecahedron-shaped space before a Catalonian coastal landscape. Dalí was by this stage a devout Catholic, simultaneously captivated by science, optical illusion, and the atomic age.
The first section is dedicated to “Ten Divine Dalí Wines,” an overview of 10 important wine-growing regions, while the second develops Dalí’s revolutionary ordering of wine by emotional experience, instead of by geography or variety. Rather than any prescriptive classification, it’s a flamboyant, free-flowing manifesto in favor of taste and feeling, as much a multisensory treat as a full-bodied document of Dalí’s late-stage oeuvre, in which the artist both reflected on formative influences and refined his own cultural legacy.
Winner of the 2018 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
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£35.20£47.50Dalí. The Wines of Gala
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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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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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Zawa-Zawa: The Treasured Art Works of Ashley Wood
The only book to showcase Ashley’s key works from his past exhibition catalogues- which were previously available only as single limited edition publications. Features English and Japanese text.This comprehensive collection of the best of Ashley Wood’s work covers nearly 400 “treasured” art works in a range of media, from his oil paintings, sketches and drawings, to his package and figurine designs. These works have either been unpublished or have only been available in previous exhibition catalogues. Inspired by Osamu Tezuka (the legendary Japanese manga artist) and Nobuyoshi Araki (the Japanese photographer), Wood is in constant motion developing new epic stories and expanding universes populated with his designs and creations for toy lines, comics, videogames, film, and music. He continues to evolve and inspire many new artists. This is a must-have book for hardcore Ashley Wood fans around the world.
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£18.70£23.70Zawa-Zawa: The Treasured Art Works of Ashley Wood
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Ciprian Muresan: Drawings, 2015-2004
Never employed as an instrument for direct notation, for Ciprian Muresan (*1977 in Dej) drawing functions in equations that envelop this mode of production in a reflection on visibility and loss, on historical suspension, and ways in which the past is retrieved. Based on the artist’s diverse artistic output, the volume surveys the forms in which drawing recurs in Muresan’s practice. It foregrounds lines of continuity between earlier works, such as cheat sheets onto which The Gospel of John has been transcribed, and recent projects in which, for instance, all of the reproductions in books on Antonello da Messina or Kasimir Malevich are copied onto a single sheet of paper. Essays contextualize Muresan’s drawings in their fraught relation to art history, remembrance, and conservation as well as against shifting notions of labor.Read more
£10.60£17.10Ciprian Muresan: Drawings, 2015-2004
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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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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
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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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Creative Inspiration: Vincent Van Gogh
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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£10.50£12.30Creative Inspiration: Vincent Van Gogh
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Butterfly Coloring Book for Adults: Beautiful Butterfly Designs with Lovely Flowers, Cute Butterflies’ and Relaxing Nature Scenes for Stress Relief and Relaxation for men and women
Butterfly Flower Coloring Book for Adults
Discover the amazing selection of Simple Flowers and Butterflies coloring pages and get hours of relaxation and stress relief.This coloring book has 50 straightforward but lovely patterns. Ideal for older people, beginners, or anyone searching for soothing coloring sheets that aren’t overly complicated. Spend hours having fun while relaxing and engaging in brain exercise. The ideal present for older folks on holidays, celebrations, and birthdays.
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Hockney’s Pictures
This much acclaimed book, newly available in paperback, is the definitive retrospective of the most popular serious artist in the world today. Covering all media over almost fifty years, and presented thematically to show the evolution and diversity of Hockney’s prolific paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints and photography, it also features quotes from the artist himself that illuminate the passionate thinking behind his work. Its huge international success confirms and reinforces Hockney’s position as the world’s most popular living artist.Read more
£19.30£23.80Hockney’s Pictures
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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
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The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer turns his eye to the seventeenth-century Dutch Golden Age
Twenty years ago, Benjamin Moser followed a love affair to an ancient Dutch town. In order to make sense of this new place, he threw himself into the Dutch museums. Soon, he found himself unearthing the strange, inspiring and sometimes terrifying stories of the artists who shaped one of the most luminous moments in the history of human creativity, the Dutch Golden Age.
As he explored the hidden world of the Dutch Masters (and one Mistress), Moser met a crowd of fascinating personalities: the stormy Rembrandt, the intimate Ter Borch, the mysterious Vermeer. Through their art, he got to know their country, too: from Pieter Saenredam’s translucent churches to Paulus Potter’s muddy barnyards, and from Pieter de Hooch’s cozy hearths to Jacob van Ruisdael’s tragic trees. Over the years, Moser found himself on increasingly intimate terms with these centuries-dead artists, and found that they, too, were struggling with the same questions he was. Why do we make art? What is art, anyway – and what is an artist? What does it mean to succeed as an artist, and what does it mean to fail?
The Upside-Down World is an invitation to ask these questions, and to turn them on their heads: to look, and then to look again. It is a brilliant, colourful and learned book for anyone, whether lifelong scholar or curious tourist, who has ever felt the lure of the Dutch galleries. It shows us art, and artists, as we have never seen them before.
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Monet: The Restless Vision
A magnificent new biography of the founder of Impressionism
In the course of a long and exceptionally creative life, Claude Monet revolutionized painting and made some of the most iconic images in western art. Misunderstood and mocked at the beginning of his career, he risked everything to pursue his original vision. Although close to starvation when he invented impressionism on the banks of the Seine in the 1860s-70s, in the following decades he emerged as the powerful leader of the new painting in Paris at one of its most exciting cultural moments. His symphonic series Haystacks, Poplars, and Rouen Cathedral brought wealth and renown. Then he withdrew to paint only the pond in his garden. The late Water Lilies, ignored during his lifetime, are now celebrated as pioneers of twentieth century modernism.
Behind this great and famous artist is a volatile, voracious, nervous yet reckless man, largely unknown. Jackie Wullschläger’s enthralling biography, based on thousands of never-before translated letters and unpublished sources, is the first account of Monet’s turbulent private life and how it determined his expressive, sensuous, sensational painting. He was as obsessional in his love affairs as in his love of nature, and changed his art decisively three times when the woman at the centre of his life changed. Enduring devastating bereavements, he pushed the frontier of painting inward, to evoke memory and the passing of time. His work also responded intensely to outside cataclysms – the Dreyfus Affair, the First World War. Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau was his closest friend. Rich intellectual currents connected him to writers from Zola to Proust; affection and rivalry to Renoir, Pissarro and Manet.
Monet said he was driven ‘wild with the need to put down what I experience’. This rich and moving biography immerses us in that passionate experience, transforming our understanding of the man, his paintings and the fullness of his achievement.
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£27.10£33.30Monet: The Restless Vision
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Grayson Perry: Smash Hits
- Including new pieces and illuminating texts by Perry himself
- 76 works from the exhibition form the centrepiece of this vibrant and insightful retrospective of his life and work
- Published to accompany the Grayson Perry: Smash Hits exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland, July to November 2023
Grayson Perry is one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists and cultural figures. This book, which includes first sight of new and previously unpublished works, is published to accompany the largest-ever retrospective of Perry’s art. It offers a vibrant insight into his life and work, from his youth in rural Essex to sell-out stage shows at the Royal Albert Hall.
Grayson Perry vividly reflects on his art, life and career, remembering the sources of inspiration and influences along the way. Victoria Coren Mitchell’s thought-provoking contribution considers the role of humour in Perry’s art, highlighting the often-underestimated effort involved in being at once a serious artist and a lovable character. Patrick Elliott provides an illuminating biographical essay of the artist. The reader is also given a fascinating glimpse into the technique and process behind Perry’s prints, pots and tapestries.
Showcasing 75 exhibited works, the book covers the full range and breadth of his astonishing career.
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£20.70£23.70Grayson Perry: Smash Hits
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Rothko: Every Picture Tells a Story
- A catalogue of the major exhibition of remarkable paintings by Mark Rothko at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, from October 18, 2023 to April 2, 2024
- This publication has been produced in close collaboration with the artist’s family
- Two page fold-outs plunge the reader deep into Rothko’s oeuvre
- Contains previously unpublished works and archive material
- Represents a major cultural event for Paris and the world
This illustrated catalogue is published to accompany the retrospective exhibition devoted to American artist Mark Rothko, curated by Suzanne Pagé and the artist’s son, Christopher Rothko. The show will feature over one hundred works. Born Markus Rothkowitz in Latvia in the early 20th century, the man who would soon become known as Mark Rothko began painting in the 1930s. While his early works were influenced by mythology and Surrealism, his first abstract paintings emerged in the 1940s with the Multiform series, followed by his Classic Years and the Black and Gray paintings. A key figure on the New York art scene, Rothko was an uncategorisable artist who deployed an extensive palette of colour and light with a talent that consistently triggers emotion. His great sensitivity shaped a poetic, enigmatic universe that leaves no one untouched.
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£31.20£38.00Rothko: Every Picture Tells a Story
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In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s
A major study of Ukrainian art from 1900 to the mid-1930s – with loans from major museums in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe, the United States (including MoMA) and Israel.How does artistic life flourish during revolution and conflict? Ukraine in the early 1900s endured unimaginable political upheaval, yet this became a period of true renaissance in Ukrainian art, literature, theatre and cinema.
In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s presents the ground-breaking art produced in Ukraine in the early 20th century, focusing on the three key cultural centres of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Against a complicated socio-political backdrop of collapsing empires, World War I, the revolutions of 1917 with the ensuing Ukrainian War of Independence, and the eventual creation of Soviet Ukraine, several strands of distinctly Ukrainian art emerged.
While émigrés such as Sonia Delaunay and Alexander Archipenko found fame outside their homeland, the followers of Mykhailo Boichuk focused on Byzantine revivalism, and the artists of the Kultur Lige sought to promote the development of contemporary Yiddish culture. The first avant-garde exhibitions in Ukraine featured the radical art of Davyd Burliuk and Alexandra Exter, and the dynamic canvases of the Kyiv-based Cubo-Futurist Oleksandr Bohomazov. In Kharkiv, Vasyl Yermilov championed the industrial art of Constructivism, while Vadym Meller, Anatol Petrytskyi, Oleksandr Khvostenko-Khvostov and Borys Kosarev revolutionized theatre design. The attempt to build a national identity in Ukraine resulted in a polyphony of styles and artistic developments across a full range of media – from oil paintings, sketches and sculpture to collages, cinema posters and theatre designs.
Twelve internationally renowned scholars, including curators from the National Art Museum of Ukraine, bring to life this astonishing period of creativity in Ukraine and all the movements it encompassed.
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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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The Rossettis
A visually stunning book devoted to the radical Rossetti generation.The Rossettis’ approach to art, love and lifestyles are considered revolutionary. This is explored by a range of short thematic essays containing fresh, and surprising research, accompanied by beautiful and iconic Pre-Raphaelite illustrations. Featuring artworks and writings by Dante Gabriel, Christina and Elizabeth (née Siddal), the book distinguishes the Rossettis from Victorian culture and foregrounds their countercultural roles.
The publication accompanies the first retrospective of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at Tate and the largest exhibition of his iconic pictures in two decades, and what will also be the most comprehensive exhibition of Elizabeth Siddal’s work for 30 years, featuring rare surviving watercolours and important drawings.
The Rossettis will take a fresh look at the fascinating myths surrounding the unconventional relationships between Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris.
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£23.70£28.50The Rossettis
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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 -
Out of this Century – Confessions of an Art Addict: The Autobiography of Peggy Guggenheim
This is the fascinating autobiography of a society heiress who became the bohemian doyenne of the art world. Written in her own words it is the frank and outspoken story of her life and loves: her stormy relationships with such men as Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock, and her discovery of new artists.
Known as ‘the mistress of modern art’, Peggy Guggenheim was a passionate collector and major patron. She amassed one of the most important collections of early twentieth-century European and American art embracing Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism.
A must-read for anyone with an interest in these major-league artists, this seminal period of art history, and the ultimate self-invented woman.
Includes a foreword by Gore Vidal.
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£12.00£14.20 -
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
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Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec
- Some 70 masterworks on paper by leading Impressionists and Post-Impressionists
- Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy from 25 November 2023 to 10 March 2024
Best known for their superlative oils on canvas, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and numerous other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists also regularly used paper as a support for works in watercolour, gouache, pencil, tempera and that most elusive of media, pastel. Their practice transformed the status of these works from preparatory studies, to be left in the studio and not shown in public, to works of art in their own right.
With insightful texts by acknowledged experts in the field, this sumptuous book brings together some 70 masterworks on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. Their bold innovations challenged traditional attitudes, radically transformed the future direction of art and ultimately paved the way for later movements such as Abstract Expressionism.
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£20.70£23.80Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec
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Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Masterworks from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum
A spectacular introduction to the greatest masters and masterpieces of Dutch art, from one of the world’s finest museums. The art of the Dutch Masters in the Golden Age is among the most popular ever created. Artists featured in this volume include Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen, Willem Claesz Heda and many others, making this a thorough survey the world of Dutch art in the 17th century. Packed with 200 colour photos, but produced as an affordable paperback, this is a beautiful gift book.Read more
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Rubens & Women
- The first book (and exhibition) ever to present a focused study on Rubens’ depictions of women, with an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery that will run from October 2023 to January 2024
- This will challenge the popular assumption that Rubens only painted one type of woman
- Instead, it will show the varied and essential role that women played in the artist’s life and work
- A chance for readers to get to know the real man behind some of his most famous works – we meet not only Rubens the artist, but Rubens the father, husband, lover, diplomat, friend
- Includes the latest scholarly developments in subjects such as the identities of Rubens’ sitters, 17th century artistic theory and practice, and Rubens’ treatment of the human body
- Featuring beautiful illustrations of artworks from international and private collections, many of which will be appearing in the UK for the first time in 2023
- Provides a complete catalogue for works in this groundbreaking accompanying exhibition, as well as contextual essays that raise current debates around sexuality, power and feminism
The art of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is synonymous with the female nude, with the term ‘Rubenesque’ first coined in the 19th century to describe a voluptuous female body. Yet remarkably, there has never been a focused study of Rubens’ depictions of women, making this book, and the exhibition that it will accompany, a first.
Bringing together a diverse range of paintings and drawings from throughout the artist’s career and from a range of international lenders, the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery (October 2023 – January 2024) will challenge the popular assumption that Rubens only painted one type of woman. Instead, it will present a more nuanced view of the varied and essential role that women played in the artist’s life and work, uniting and contributing to recent scholarly developments in subjects such as the identities of Rubens’ sitters, 17th century artistic theory and practice, and Rubens’ treatment of the human body.
Rubens evidently enjoyed painting the female figure, especially in its sensual and unclothed form. But his women are never mere bodies trapped by the male gaze, on the contrary; they are proud and complex heroines, full of character and gravitas. No other male artist has created such potent images of female power, assurance, determination, commitment, and beauty. Providing a catalogue for the works in the exhibition and featuring three introductory essays that contextualise Rubens’ work, this publication will both contribute to the existing corpus of scholarly literature on Rubens and introduce his masterpieces to new audiences, discussing them in the context of current debates around sexuality, power and feminism.
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£22.40£26.60Rubens & Women
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100 Books from the Libraries of the National Trust (The National Trust Collection)
The National Trust looks after almost half a million books and manuscripts held in libraries across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This beautifully illustrated volume brings together a selection of 100 rare and fascinating examples spanning the 8th to the 21st centuries.100 Books from the Libraries of the National Trust includes illuminated medieval manuscripts; the Trust’s oldest atlas, with maps of the ancient world; a volume from Henry VIII’s library; a book inscribed in blood; an Arabic manuscript on horsemanship; a very early book on swimming; the largest volume of botanical drawings ever produced; marches by Joseph Haydn; a library of miniature children’s books; Dame Ellen Terry’s annotated working copy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; the first book ever printed in Antarctica; Virginia Woolf’s handwritten manuscript for her novel Orlando; and John Lennon’s treasured childhood copy of Richmal Crompton’s William the Gangster.
Chosen by National Trust curators from collections at more than 160 properties, the featured books are arranged chronologically, each accompanied by beautiful photography and an illuminating, easytoread caption. The book concludes with a handy glossary of terms and a gazetteer of important National Trust libraries.
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£8.70£9.50 -
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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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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£28.90£38.00 -
Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India
With new photography of extraordinarily rare works of art, this pioneering study features discoveries and research essential to understanding the origins and meaning of Buddhist artistic traditionsNamed for two primary motifs in Buddhist art, the sacred bodhi tree and the protective snake, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India is the first publication to foreground devotional works produced in the Deccan from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Unlike traditional narratives, which focus on northern India (where the Buddha was born, taught, and died), this groundbreaking book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south. Long neglected, this is among the earliest corpus of Buddhist art surviving, and among the most sublimely beautiful. An international team of researchers contributes new scholarship on the sculptural and devotional art associated with Buddhism, and masterpieces from recently excavated Buddhist sites are published here for the first time―including Kanaganahalli and Phanigiri, the most important new discoveries in a generation. With its exploration of Buddhism’s emergence in southern India, as well as of India’s deep commercial and cultural engagement with the Hellenized and Roman worlds, the definitive study expands our understanding of the origins of Buddhist art itself.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(July 21–November 13, 2023)National Museum of Korea, Seoul
(December 22, 2023–April 14, 2024)Read more
£45.50£47.50Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India
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Barbara Rae: The Lammermuirs
- Studies of the Lammermuirs in south-eastern Scotland by the painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE RA, many made when the coronavirus pandemic prevented travel further afield
The Lammermuir Hills have been an important trade route between Scotland and England for generations, as well as an effective barrier when necessary.
Drawn by the long history of south-eastern Scotland and the many conflicting elements in play in its natural environment – among them wind farms, pylons, forestry plantations, grouse moors and sheep – the distinguished Scottish painter and printmaker Barbara Rae cbe ra has made numerous studies of these wild expanses.
This handsome volume reproduces a wide selection of her intensely colourful images with accompanying photographs and maps, and texts by the art critic Duncan Macmillan, Emeritus Professor of the History of Scottish Art at the University of Edinburgh, and Maureen Barrie, who worked for many years at National Museums Scotland.
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£25.50£28.50Barbara Rae: The Lammermuirs
£25.50£28.50
