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All Good Things: A Treasury of Images to Uplift the Spirits and Reawaken Wonder
A wondrous journey with the world-renowned image hunter and social media art curator Stephen Ellcock.
Designed to stimulate and inspire, All Good Things is an exciting, eclectic collection of over 200 images from world-leading museums as well as lesser-known collections. In a finely calibrated procession of image, quote and myth, Stephen Ellcock leads us through the Realms of Creation – from the Stars to the Seas, the Natural to the Supernatural – to give us his extraordinary world vision. A treasure trove of 3,000 years of artistic creation, scientific enquiry and pan-global magical, philosophical and religious traditions.
The best of the world’s beauty, creativity and curiosity in a single book.
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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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Lyrics: The definitive collection of the Roxy Music frontman’s iconic lyrics
**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Roxy Music’s iconic first album with this collection of Bryan Ferry’s evocative lyrics of aspiration and romantic longing, introduced by the author.
‘Lyrics is a book any Roxy fan would be proud to have on their shelf’ The Telegraph
Bryan Ferry’s work as a singer and songwriter, both as a solo artist and with Roxy Music, is legendary.
Lyrics collects the words written for music across seventeen albums, from the first iconic Roxy album of 1972 via the masterpiece of Avalon to 2014’s reflective Avonmore, introduced by the author, and with an insightful essay by James Truman.
All the classic Roxy anthems are here – ‘Virginia Plain’, ‘Do the Strand’, ‘Love is the Drug’ – songs in which the real and the make-believe blend in a kaleidoscopic mix, shot through with cinematic allure.
Also included are the evocative lyrics of romantic longing and lost illusions for which Ferry is rightly revered: ‘Slave to Love’, ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘More Than This’. As he writes in his preface, ‘The low points in life so often produce the most keenly felt and best-loved songs.’ And, it might be added, some of the best poetry.
Discover this unforgettable collection of Bryan Ferry’s work today.
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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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Hermès: Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
This irresistible, authorized, illustrated gift book from the luxury brand Hermès is an homage, in stories and drawings, to the artisans and craftsmen who have been the foundation of the iconic brand since its beginnings as a saddle-maker for the carriage trade in 19th-century Paris. The stories are short, pithy, often quite witty, and they include first-person accounts from the leather artisans, silk manufacturers, and goldsmiths, gardeners, window dressers, designers, and electricians who have plied their craft at Hermes.We learn about quirky characters in the atelier who refuse to share their tools, of an elevator ride with a visiting President Nixon that went badly wrong, of a life-sized white rhinoceros made for a window display that disappears in Switzerland, reappears in Colorado, and returns, eventually, to Paris. A concise and witty company history, the book shares genuine love for the craft of producing luxury goods of the highest quality. Even if you can’t afford to buy your partner a Hermès bag or wallet, you can afford to give them this enchanting book.Read more
£16.10£20.90Hermès: Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
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British Library: Children’s Illustrators 2024 Desk Diary – Week to View, Illustrated on every page
Produced in partnership with the British Library, this diary showcases an enchanting selection of children’s book illustrations from their extensive collection. Featuring over 30 works from beloved stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows and The Jungle Book, this practical and stylish week-to-view desk diary is a wonderful gift or a treat for yourself. Printed on FSC-certified paper.Read more
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Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between (Fashion Studies)
A revelatory look at the influential and enigmatic designer behind Comme des Garçons
The great pantheon of fashion designers produces only a handful of creators who are masters of their métier. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons is one of them. Widely recognized among her contemporaries as the most important and influential designer of the past forty years, she has, since her Paris debut in 1981, defined and transformed the aesthetics of our time. This lavishly illustrated publication examines Kawakubo’s fascination with interstitiality, or the space between boundaries. Existing within and between dualities―whether self/other, object/subject, art/fashion―Kawakubo’s work challenges the rigid divisions that have come to define received notions of identity and fashionability, inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, re-creation, and, ultimately, hybridity. Featuring brilliant new photography, and thought-provoking texts by Andrew Bolton, this book expresses the conceptual and challenging aesthetic of this visionary designer. An insightful interview and illustrated chronology of Kawakubo’s career provide additional context.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(05/04/17–09/04/17)Read more
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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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The V&A Sourcebook of Pattern and Ornament (Victoria and Albert Museum) (V&a Museum)
The wealth of surface pattern and three-dimensional ornamentation in the many objects that enrich our lives is testament to the inventiveness of designers and craftspeople around the globe and throughout history.This richly illustrated, easy-to-navigate sourcebook presents more than 1,000 historic and contemporary examples of pattern and ornamentation from around the world, each one succinctly identified and explained. Arranged thematically, it is unique among pattern books, as it includes examples not only of surface pattern but also of three-dimensional ornamentation and embellishment.
Two-dimensional pattern is ubiquitous, no matter what the age of an object or where it was created. From Japanese kimono and William Morris fabrics to Chinese porcelain and contemporary furniture, such works reveal humanity’s unceasing desire to combine pattern with design. Just as prevalent are examples of three-dimensional embellishments that go far beyond the requirements of their practical use: an acrylic handbag has a carved motif of insects and wildflowers, a cobalt-blue pottery ewer has a dragon’s-head spout and an early 19th-century fruit plate is shaped like a seashell.
Designers working today are as fascinated and inspired by pattern and ornament as they have always been. This expertly compiled selection will appeal to designers, artists, illustrators and other creatives from all disciplines as well as anyone interested in visual and material culture.
With 1146 illustrations in colour
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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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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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The National Gallery: Masterpieces of Painting
An exceptional introduction to European paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century through one of the greatest collections in the world.
This richly illustrated and beautifully designed book offers an ideal introduction to European painting from the 13th to the early 20th century. The National Gallery, London, houses one of the finest collections of Western European art in the world. Its extraordinary range includes exceptional paintings from medieval Europe through the early Renaissance and on to Post-Impressionism, including masterpieces by Leonardo, Hans Holbein, Titian, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet, and Van Gogh.
This volume showcases more than 250 of the Gallery’s most treasured pictures, providing an opportunity to make connections across this uniquely representative collection. Paintings are accompanied by numerous details, as well as brief and illuminating texts, providing an informative and visually rich survey of hundreds of years of European painting.
Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press
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£37.40£47.50The National Gallery: Masterpieces of Painting
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Nicolas de Staël en Provence
Catalogue officiel de l’exposition Nicolas de Staël en Provence à l’Hôtel de Caumont – Centre d’art du 27 avril au 23 septembre 2018. A travers environ 80 peintures et dessins provenant de prestigieuses collections publiques et privées de par le monde, cette exposition et le catalogue qui l’accompagne se concentrent pour la première fois exclusivement sur l’oeuvre de Nicolas de Staël peinte en Provence de juillet 1953 à octobre 1954. Cette année marque un tournant dans la vie et l’oeuvre du peintre, qui découvre la lumière du Midi. Il fait aussi l’expérience intense de la solitude et puise son génie dans le désespoir le plus profond, dans l’exaltation la plus haute, dans une relation amoureuse périlleuse. Le peintre confiera à son marchand Paul Rosenberg, le 12 février 1954 : ” Si vous êtes content de l’exposition, c’est que j’ai pu travailler ici dans le Midi et en Sicile. ” Avec l’abstraction des premières années, à travers ses toiles organiques, De Staël crée des formes qui traduisent et pressentent la solitude de notre époque. Les tableaux abstraits des années 1947-1948 ont été, selon les mots du peintre, ” l’équilibre de base de tout ce qui suivra ” . Cet équilibre permet de comprendre comment le peintre passe du concret au formel, de la nature à la métaphysique. A partir de Lagnes (juillet 1953) et de Ménerbes (novembre 1953), le regard du peintre aura rencontré son ” feu ” . Les paysages sont saisis au plus près de leur motif, avec une attention portée à l’évolution de la lumière au fil de la journée. C’est depuis Lagnes, en août 1953, que le peintre voyagera jusqu’en Sicile. Le rythme de ce parcours définit l’urgence de sa création. Paysages, sites archéologiques, musées, églises, lui permettent alors, une fois de retour à Lagnes, de mettre en chantier les grands tableaux, à partir des notes prises dans ses carnets à Agrigente, Sélinonte, Syracuse, Fiesole. C’est à ce moment que le peintre noue une relation amoureuse avec Jeanne, une amie de René Char. Ce qui résulte de cet état passionnel trouvera son écho dans l’intensité des paysages de Sicile, mais aussi dans les grands tableaux de nus qui renouvellent le genre. Lorsqu’il prépare son exposition à New York, en janvier 1954, le peintre a la certitude d’avoir donné le maximum de sa force : ” Je vous donne là, avec ce que vous avez, de quoi faire la plus belle exposition que j’aie jamais faite. ” L’exposition ” Nicolas de Staël en Provence ” rend compte des plus hautes envolées picturales du peintre, insufflées par ses doutes les plus profonds, par une joie débordant sur l’aspect le plus sombre, par une immense fragilité qui se meut en puissance créatrice. Un catalogue français et un catalogue anglais, richement illustrés, seront publiés à l’occasion de l’exposition, sous la direction de Gustave de Staël et Marie du Bouchet, commissaires de l’expositionRead more
£22.70Nicolas de Staël en Provence
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Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker
The first monograph to examine Lavinia Fontana’s work in over two decades, and the first to focus on her striking portraits
Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker explores this female Renaissance artist’s fascinating biography and the cultural climate that enabled her to become the first woman artist in Western Europe to gain commercial success beyond the confines of a court or a convent. Bringing together several strands of scholarship on Fontana and her contemporaries, it provides context to her career and examines areas underrepresented in current scholarship on the painter, including information on her workshop practice.
Focusing on the portraiture for which she was renowned, Lavinia Fontana tells stories that will be universally familiar―tales of family bonds, sibling rivalries, engagements, weddings, births, and deaths. Written by Aoife Brady, with contributions from one of the leading scholars on Fontana, Babette Bohn, and a foremost expert on Renaissance fashion, Jonquil O’Reilly, this engaging book explores Fontana’s world and how she forged a successful career in the male-dominated world of Renaissance Italy.
Exhibition Schedule:
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
(May 6–August 27, 2023)Read more
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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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Nicolas de Staël: Catalogue exposition MUSÉE ART MODERNE DE PARIS 2023
Présentant plus de deux cents tableaux, dessins, gravures et carnets issus de collections publiques et privées, cette rétrospective, organisée de manière chronologique, porte un nouveau regard sur le travail de Staël, en tâchant de rester au plus près de ses recherches graphiques et picturales. Loin du mythe, il s’agit de montrer l’artiste au travail, fasciné par le spectacle du monde – qu’il se confronte à un paysage, un match de football, un ballet ou un fruit posé sur une table. Menant de front plusieurs toiles, Staël travaille de longs mois, avant de condenser ses recherches dans un ou plusieurs tableaux-manifestes. Dans cette démarche expérimentale, le dessin joue un rôle prépondérant, tout comme la volonté d’explorer de nouveaux formats, médiums et outils. Depuis ses toiles sombres et matiérées des années 1940 jusqu’à ses tableaux lumineux peints avant sa mort prématurée en 1955, l’oeuvre de Staël bouleverse délibérément la distinction entre abstraction et figuration, dans la poursuite passionnée d’un art toujours plus dense et plus concis. Grâce une sélection d’oeuvres célèbres ou méconnues, cet ouvrage permet de prendre la mesure d’une quête picturale d’une rare intensité.Read more
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Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
Between 1978 and 1992, Factory was one of the most important record labels in Britain. It launched the careers of Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays, to name but a few; it opened the legendary Haçienda club and Dry bar; and it introduced to music the concept of high-quality, cutting-edge design. The visual languages developed alongside the music, by designers such as Peter Saville, Central Station Design and 8vo, are still widely recognized and imitated today.Factory Records documents the label’s entire visual legacy and its role in bringing design into the mainstream. Every item with a famous Factory inventory number is illustrated or listed, including album sleeves, singles, special editions, flyers, posters, stationery and architectural projects. With a foreword by Tony Wilson, Factory’s charismatic record label owner and nightclub manager, this book amply conveys the energy, creativity and enthusiasm of one of the most dynamic (and chaotic) record labels ever.
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£16.90£23.80Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
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Morbid Curiosities: Collections of the Uncommon and the Bizarre
A fascinating insight into the strange world of collectors of the macabre, Morbid Curiosities features 18 unique collections and an extensive interview with each collector, explaining how and why they collect, and showcasing the most remarkable pieces from each collection. The collections include skulls, mummified body parts, taxidermy, occult objects and various carnival, and side-show and criminal ephemera. Detailed captions tell the curious stories behind each object, many of which are being shown outside the private world of their collections for the first time. Morbid Curiosities includes stunning, specially commissioned photography of both the individual objects and the context of how the collector exhibits their work, forming a unique showcase of the bizarre and the intriguing.Read more
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Ashmolean Museum: Japanese Art by Ogata Gekkō Wall Calendar 2024 (Art Calendar): Original Flame Tree Publishing-Kalender [Kalender]
With 12 exquisite prints by Japanese artist Ogata Gekkо̄, this calendar showcases the incredible detail found in Japanese art from the Ashmolean Museum’s incredible collections. Informative text accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next month’s views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.Read more
£9.60£10.40 -
Laura Knight: A Panoramic View
A major survey of Dame Laura Knight, first female Royal Academician and popular British artist of the 20th century.Laura Knight (1877–1970) was one of the most famous and popular English artists of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, in 1965. In the following decades her realist style of painting fell out of fashion and her work become largely overlooked. A new generation has rediscovered her work, finding a contemporary resonance in her depictions of women at work, of people from marginalized communities and her contributions as a war artist.
This beautifully illustrated book, which accompanies a major exhibition at MK Gallery, provides an overview of Knight’s illustrious career: from her training at Nottingham Art School at the age of 13 and her time in North Yorkshire and Cornwall, to her visits to traveller communities and a segregated American hospital. It also features her circus, ballet and theatre scenes, paintings of women during the war and her late paintings of nature.
The selection of over 160 works combines celebrated paintings with less known graphic and design works, including ceramics, jewellery and costumes that reflect the artist’s enduring interest in the everyday activities of people from all walks of life.
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£18.70£28.50Laura Knight: A Panoramic View
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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
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Pattern Magic 2: (Part of the Best-Selling Japanese Inspired Pattern Magic Series)
More Pattern Magic is the cult pattern-cutting text from Japan, partner to the original Pattern Magic book. Inspiring and exciting, this volume takes a creative approach to pattern cutting, with more step-by-step projects for fashion designers and dressmakers to enjoy. This book looks at creating interesting surfaces, optical illusions and curved shapes through pattern cutting. All the basic information you need to start pattern cutting is included, from the basic block to measurements and scaling. Each project is beautifully illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs showing the stages of construction, the muslins (toiles) and the finished garments. These easy-to-follow illustrations and detailed instructions make it easy to create stunning, sculptural clothes.Read more
£14.30£19.00 -
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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Turner in his Time
Here is the ultimate, one-volume story of Turner’s life and work. Superb colour plates illuminate Turner’s range – dramatic views of the sea or mountains, sweeping landscapes, architecture, imaginary scenes from history and legend, panoramas of contemporary towns – while the fruits of his travels, not just over Britain but also in France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, are presented in the context of his life. In the most attractive work for a wide audience ever published, the text reveals the man, the illustrations his genius.Table of Contents
Introduction • 1. 1775–1800: Seeking Reputation • 2. 1801–1810: Royal Academician • 3. 1811–1820: Theory and Practice • 4. 1821–1830: What You Will! • 5. 1831–1840: Transformation Scenes • 6. 1841–1851: The Angel of the Apocalypse • Chronology, Turner’s Library, Inventory of the Late Residence of JMW Turner, List of Illustrations, Index
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£26.30£33.30Turner in his Time
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Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome (Chronicles)
This is a highly readable history and a unique work of reference. Focusing on the succession of the rulers of imperial Rome, it uses timelines with at-a-glance visual guides to each reign and its main events. Biographical portraits of the 56 principal emperors from Augustus to Constantine, together with a concluding section on the later emperors, build into a highly readable single-volume history of imperial Rome. Biographical information is illustrated with busts of each emperor, coin portraits, battle plans and cutaway diagrams of imperial monuments. Supporting datafiles for every emperor list key information such as name at birth, wives and children, full imperial titles and place and manner of death. Genealogical trees and over 90 sidebars and special features on subjects ranging from Nero’s Golden House to Diocletian’s Palace allow the reader to delve even deeper. Colourful contemporary judgments by such writers as Suetonius and Tacitus are balanced by judicious character assessments made in the light of modern research. The famous and the infamous – Caligula and Claudius, Trajan and Caracalla – receive their due, while lesser names emerge clearly from the shadows for the first time. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors is at once a book to be enjoyed as popular history, an essential work of reference, and a source of visual inspiration, bringing to life one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever known. ‘A valuable volume providing a nice blend of information and entertainment’ – Teaching History ‘Marvellous’ – New ScientistRead more
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Philip Guston Now
A sweeping retrospective of Philip Guston’s influential work, from Depression-era muralist to abstract expressionist to tragicomic contemporary master A Wall Street Journal 2020 holiday gift guide pick Philip Guston―perhaps more than any other figure in recent memory―has given contemporary artists permission to break the rules and paint what, and how, they want. His winding career, embrace of “high” and “low” sources, and constant aesthetic reinvention defy easy categorization, and his 1968 figurative turn is by now one of modern art’s most legendary conversion narratives. “I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The war, what was happening in America, the brutality of the world. What kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything―and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue?” And so Guston’s sensitive abstractions gave way to large, cartoonlike canvases populated by lumpy, sometimes tortured figures and mysterious personal symbols in a palette of juicy pinks, acid greens, and cool blues. That Guston continued mining this vein for the rest of his life―despite initial bewilderment from his peers―reinforced his reputation as an artist’s artist and a model of integrity; since his death 50 years ago, he has become hugely influential as contemporary art has followed Guston into its own antic twists and turns. Published to accompany the first retrospective museum exhibition of Guston’s career in over 15 years, Philip Guston Now includes a lead essay by Harry Cooper surveying Guston’s life and work, and a definitive chronology reflecting many new discoveries. It also highlights the voices of artists of our day who have been inspired by the full range of his work: Tacita Dean, Peter Fischli, Trenton Doyle Hancock, William Kentridge, Glenn Ligon, David Reed, Dana Schutz, Amy Sillman, Art Spiegelman and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Thematic essays by co-curators Mark Godfrey, Alison de Lima Greene and Kate Nesin trace the influences, interests and evolution of this singular force in modern and contemporary art―including several perspectives on the 1960s and ’70s, when Guston gradually abandoned abstraction, returning to the figure and to current history but with a personal voice, by turns comic and apocalyptic, that resonates today more than ever.Read more
£43.30£50.40Philip Guston Now
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The National Gallery Wall Calendar 2024 (Art Calendar)
Produced in partnership with the National Gallery, this calendar will take you on a journey through the most well-loved masterpieces from the National Gallery collection. Featuring incredible paintings such as Ambrosius Bosschaerts’s Flowers in a Glass Vase and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire, this calendar celebrates some of the world’s most important artworks. Informative text accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next month’s views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.
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£9.60£10.40 -
Magnum Streetwise: The Ultimate Collection of Street Photography
Ambitious in scope, democratic in nature, Magnum Streetwise is an unmissable tour through the photographs and practices that have helped define what street photography is and can be. Magnum photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered ‘modern’ concepts of street photography before the term was even coined. But their influence is far from historic. A rich seam of street photography runs through the heart of Magnum to this day, both in the work of recognized masters of street photography – such as Erwitt, Parr, Gilden and Kalvar – and of those who might not even consider themselves street photographers; a continued influence that has not gone unnoticed among the current generation of budding street photographers and fans.Magnum Streetwise is a true visual feast, interleaving insightful texts and anecdotes within an intuitive blend of photographer- and theme-based portfolios, exploring not only the work of outstanding photographers, but how common subject matter (places of leisure, marketplaces, travel) and locations (Paris, New York, Tokyo) have been addressed, conceptually and practically, across the agency and through the ages. Magnum Streetwise is an essential addition to the bibliography of street photography, showcasing hidden gems alongside many of the genre’s most famous images.
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£23.70£28.50 -
Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide
A comprehensive, infallibly informed reference guide for the sneaker novice and connoisseurSneaker culture is no longer the preserve of the hardcore sneaker freak: it is a full-blown mainstream phenomenon. Walk into any shoe shop today and you’ll be faced with a dizzying array of new designs, ‘old skool’ favourites, limited edition models and ‘rare’ shoes, all in a myriad of colourways. The sneaker has moved out from the sports arena and exploded into popular culture, a fashion staple that transcends race and class yet defines who you are in today’s urban tribes.
This encyclopaedic, profusely illustrated guide displays over 180 sneakers chosen for the impact they have made on sneaker culture worldwide. Eleven leading brands – from adidas to Vans – are discussed in detail with full histories, while a further selection – from well-loved or long-lost classics to new designs – will excite both the novice collector and the committed sneaker freak.
Packed with over 550 specially commissioned photographs, and featuring an indispensable directory of collectors’ shops, resources and websites, as well as practical tips on how to build and care for your collection, this is the definitive guide to the very best and most collectable sneaker designs.
Sneakers is written, photographed and designed by Unorthodox Styles, the team behind the leading sneaker website.
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£15.60£19.00Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide
£15.60£19.00 -
Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design
- Britain’s industrial age is often perceived through a black-and-white filter as the ‘funereal’ age of coal pollution and bleak working class slums. This catalogue will dispel that perception, demonstrating how the industrial revolution transformed colour, and focus on the central role it played in art, culture and technology
- As opposed to approaches favouring a long history of colour, the catalogue focuses on the second half of the 19th century and argues that this was a crucial chromatic turn, which has been significantly ignored by prominent historians of colour and previous publications
- Several essays in the catalogue offer new research into key chromatic events of the period including the 1862 International Exhibition
- Accompanies an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum from 21 September 2023 to 18 February 2024
Contrary to the monochrome vision of Queen Victoria’s mourning dresses and the coal-polluted streets of Charles Dickens’ London, Victorian Britain was, in fact, a period of new and vivid colours. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the Victorians’ perception of colour and, over the course of the second half of the 19th century, it became the key signifier of modern life.
Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design charts the Victorians’ new attitudes to colour through a multidisciplinary exploration of culture, technology, art and literature. The catalogue explores key ‘chromatic’ moments that inspired Victorian artists and writers to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, these figures learned from the sacred colours of the past, the sumptuous colours of the Middle East and Japan and looked forward towards the decadent colours that defined the end of the century.
Section 1: Glowing Colour: Introduction; Ruskin and Colour Pedagogy; Turner, Ruskin and the Lure of Venetian Colour; The Colour of the Middle Ages; Unweaving the Rainbow: Nature’s Colours in Art and Fashion; Pretty Plant Photographers or Pioneering Women?; Object in Focus: Hummingbird Necklace by Harry Emanuel;
Section 2: Colour for All: The Aniline Revolution; The International Exhibition of 1862; Object in Focus: Technical Analysis of the Great Bookcase; Sculpture and Race; The Colours of the Ancient Past; Orientalism; Object in Focus: Joseph and his Brethren by Owen Jones; India and Colour;
Section 3: Colour for Colour’s Sake: The Colours of Decadence: Yellow, Green and Blue; Object in Focus: St. Mark’s Venice by James McNeill Whistler; Queering Colour; Object in Focus: Tanagra; Object in Focus: Japanese Boardgame; Loie Fuller.
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£20.70£23.80Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design
£20.70£23.80 -
Frans Hals
An illuminating study of the singularly gifted Dutch artist Frans Hals, a true revolutionary in the field of portraiture and one of the most sought-after painters of his generation
This beautifully illustrated book offers a fresh scholarly appraisal of Frans Hals, more than 30 years since the last large exhibition devoted to his work. Essays cover all the important aspects of Hals’s oeuvre, including his militia paintings, his spectacular family portraits and his depictions of laughter: he was one of very few artists throughout the history of Western painting who successfully managed to paint people smiling and laughing. The texts also provide an overview of the artist’s life, and examine his extraordinarily virtuoso technique, which involved painting extremely fast straight on to the canvas.
The authors set out to place Hals and his work firmly in the context of his time, employing new previously unpublished archival research and technical findings. For the first time, an overview is given of all the apprentices who worked for Hals. Other themes, such as the design for portrait prints or the humour seen in the works of Frans Hals, have never before been treated separately.
Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The National Gallery, London
(September 30, 2023–January 21, 2024)
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
(February 15–June 9, 2024)Read more
£33.30Frans Hals
£33.30 -
V&A: Kimono Textiles Wall Calendar 2024 (Art Calendar): Original Flame Tree Publishing-Kalender [Kalender]
The V&A has been collecting Japanese art and design since it was founded in 1852 and now holds one of the world’s most comprehensive collections. This calendar showcases 12 of the best kimono textiles from the V&A’s collection, including delicately detailed patterns reproduced in excellent quality. Informative text accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next month’s views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.Read more
£9.60£10.40 -
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 -
Vintage Rolex: The essential guide to the most iconic luxury watch brand of all time, Rolex.
For more than a century, Rolex has stood apart as the most legendary brand of watch in the world. A Rolex conveys many things: a luxury timepiece, a tool of power for movers and shakers and the symbol of passage into adulthood.
New labels pop up, styles come and go, but the brand at the top never changes. Ever the record setter―the Daytona that had belonged to Paul Newman was auctioned by Phillips in New York in October 2017 for $17.8 million― it comes as no surprise that Rolex is the most collected watch brand in the world.
The Vintage Watch Company is the only store of its kind in the world, with a devoted client base of devoted Rolex aficionados, from royalty to sporting legends to stars of the silver screen. Throughout, father and son, John and David Silver have been carefully cataloguing and amassing one of the largest pictorial records of vintage Rolex watches in the world. Published to celebrate the company’s 25th anniversary in late 2020, the book contains a unique pictorial collection of vintage Rolex watches that have passed through the shop during the past 25 years.
More than 1800 watches have been photographed and are described in detail in the book. From early Rolex pocket watches to the world’s first wristwatches, elegant in their simplicity yet revolutionary in their impact, to the very first Submariners, iconic Daytonas and jewel-encrusted Crown Collections, the mesmerizing archive of vintage timepieces charts the extraordinary rise of an extraordinary brand. Choose from the First Rolex Submariner, later coined the James Bond, or the Early GMT-Master made for Pan Am transatlantic pilots. Read about the First Explorers made famous by the 1953 Everest Expedition or the later Explorer II worn by Steve McQueen. Marvel at Early Vintage collections, from the Officer’s Pocket Watch to the Ladies’ Diamond; from the Oyster and the Stella & Stone collections, to the Sport Collection.
This book is a perfect gift for all lovers of luxury retail as well as passionate collectors of Rolex watches who will want to read about the models they own.
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£46.80£71.30 -
V&A: Women in Arts and Crafts Wall Calendar 2024 (Art Calendar)
The birth of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain in the late 19th century marked the beginning of a change in the value society placed on how things were made. This was a reaction to not only the damaging effects of industrialisation but also the relatively low status of the decorative arts. Arts and Crafts reformed the design and manufacture of everything from buildings to jewellery. This beautiful collection of works from the Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates in particular the women who made significant contributions to this Movement. Informative text accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next month’s views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.Read more
£6.60 -
National Galleries Scotland 2024 Desk Diary – Week to View, Illustrated on every page
Produced in partnership with National Galleries of Scotland, this diary showcases a stunning selection of artworks from their extensive collection, one of the finest in the world. Including artwork from Samuel John Peploe, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, George Leslie Hunter and John Duncan Fergusson – known as the Scottish Colourists – this practical and stylish week-to-view desk diary is a wonderful gift or a treat for yourself. Printed on FSC-certified paper.Read more
£11.40£12.30 -
Marina Abramović
- Records the first UK exhibition to include works from Abramović’s entire career
- Accompanying catalogue for the Marina Abramović exhibition at the Royal Academy from 23 September – 1 January 2024
- An augmented reality app for iOS and Android enables readers to watch films of Abramović’s original performances while reading the book
Over the past half century, Marina Abramović has earned worldwide acclaim as a pioneer of performance art. This handsome new book records the first UK exhibition to include works from her entire career. Re-performances of some of her best-known and most radical pieces appear alongside new and recent work. An augmented-reality app for iOS and Android enables readers to watch films of Abramović’s original performances while reading the book.
An essential purchase for all followers of Abramović’s extraordinary 55-year career, this important publication brings expert voices into the debate that her groundbreaking art engenders. How far should an artist push herself in pursuit of her work? What role does the audience play in creating a performance? How can performance art outlive the moment in which it takes place?
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£25.50£28.50Marina Abramović
£25.50£28.50 -
100 Paintings of Erling Haaland
Dive into the realm of the enigmatic genius, hailed as the greatest painter of our era, Rory Paints, as he turn his discerning eye and unmatched skills to capture the essence of Erling Haaland. While each of the 100 paintings sheds light on the football star, the true wonder lies in the artist’s evocative and transformative style. Shadows, hues, and textures reveal more about the painter’s soul than the subject he portrays. This is a book that transcends the bounds of a typical art anthology.Read more
£8.90£9.50100 Paintings of Erling Haaland
£8.90£9.50 -
Christian Dior
Capturing the highlights of the major Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, this stunning souvenir celebrates the House of Dior from its foundation in 1947 to the present day.
Haute-couture gowns by Christian Dior and the illustrious creative directors who followed him – Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferre, John Galliano, Bill Gaytten, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri – are showcased here, each described by Oriole Cullen and atmospherically photographed by Laziz Hamani.
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£31.20£38.00Christian Dior
£31.20£38.00 -
National Galleries Scotland: Scottish Colourists Wall Calendar 2024 (Art Calendar)
This calendar showcases a beautiful selection of artworks from the extensive collection at the National Galleries of Scotland, one of the finest in the world. Featuring stunning pieces by Scottish Colourists Francis Cadell, John Duncan Fergusson, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe, each work is accompanied by informative text. The datepad features previous and next month’s views. Printed on FSC-certified paper, with plastic-free packaging.Read more
£10.30
