And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an all-star cast of characters, eye-opening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery.   Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, who here takes readers across the globe and over the centuries on an unforgettable tour through the brilliant history of color in art. Written for newcomers to the subject and aspiring young artists alike, Finlay’s quest to uncover the origins and science of color will beguile readers of all ages with its warm and conversational style. Her rich narrative is illustrated in full color throughout with 166 major works of art—most from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum.   Readers of this book will revel in a treasure trove of fun-filled facts and anecdotes. Were it not for Cleopatra, for instance, purple might not have become the royal color of the Western world. Without Napoleon, the black graphite pencil might never have found its way into the hands of Cézanne. Without mango-eating cows, the sunsets of Turner might have lost their shimmering glow. And were it not for the pigment cobalt blue, the halls of museums worldwide might still be filled with forged Vermeers.   Red ocher, green earth, Indian yellow, lead white—no pigment from the artist’s broad and diverse palette escapes Finlay’s shrewd eye in this breathtaking exploration.

    It looked lonely all by itself, so he cut out more shapes to join it. Before he knew it, Matisse had transformed his walls into larger-than-life gardens, filled with brightly colored plants, animals, and shapes of all sizes! Featuring cut-paper illustrations and interactive foldout pages, Matisse’s Garden is the inspiring story of how the artist’s never-ending curiosity helped turn a small experiment into a radical new form of art.

    Invaluable for students, arts professionals and other aspiring writers, the book first navigates readers through the key elements of style and content, from the aims and structure of a piece to its tone and language. Brimming with practical tips that range across the complete spectrum of art-writing, the second part of the book is organized around its specific forms, including academic essays; press releases and news articles; texts for auction and exhibition catalogues, gallery guides and wall labels; op-ed journalism and exhibition reviews; and writing for websites and blogs.In counseling the reader against common pitfalls—such as jargon and poor structure—Gilda Williams points instead to the power of close looking and research, showing how to deploy language effectively; how to develop new ideas; and how to construct compelling texts. More than 30 illustrations throughout support closely analysed case studies of the best writing, in Source Texts by 64 authors, including Claire Bishop, Thomas Crow, T.J. Demos, Okwui Enwezor, Dave Hickey, John Kelsey, Chris Kraus, Rosalind Krauss, Stuart Morgan, Hito Steyerl, and Adam Szymczyk.Supplemented by a general bibliography, advice on the use and misuse of grammar, and tips on how to construct your own contemporary art library, How to Write About Contemporary Art is the essential handbook for all those interested in communicating about the art of today.

    

    Slowly, they started to collect their own sets of Mah Jongg and as their collections grew, so did their appreciation of the history of, and interest in the game.Finding few references, Israel and Swain set out to create a book that chronicles the early beginnings of the game and documents Mah Jongg sets from the most basic, made simply of paper, to the most outrageous and opulent sets that have ever existed. Recognized and respected scholars and game experts have collaborated with Israel and Swain, contributing important chapters on the game's history and its pieces as well as technical information on the tiles. Lastly, great collectors from around the globe have shared their incredible sets and memories for the first time in one book for everyone to enjoy.With hundreds of beautiful new images by renowned photographer, Michel Arnaud, and including historical documentation and ephemera, Mah Jongg: The Art & History of the Game fills the void between the past and today's game, providing vision, inspiration and resources. Anyone who has ever been intrigued by a Mah Jongg tile will find in these pages visually stunning photographs that will entice them into becoming an enthusiast of the timeless game of Mah Jongg.

    A first of its kind in digital print, the ‘Masters of Art’ series allows digital readers to explore the works of the world’s greatest artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, the world's greatest painter, in beautiful detail, with concise introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material.Features:* the complete paintings of Leonardo da Vinci* includes previously lost works, with annotations* concise introductions to the paintings and other works, giving valuable contextual information* learn the secrets of the MONA LISA, the history of THE LAST SUPPER or the meaning behind THE VITRUVIAN MAN* beautiful 'detail' images, allowing you to explore Leonardo's masterpieces as though in the gallery* includes Leonardo’s drawings and his complete notebooks, with plates* special criticism section, with essays by critics such as Sigmund Freud* features two biographies on Leonardo's life, including Vasari's famous biography* hundreds of images in stunning colour - highly recommended for Kindle Fire, iPhone, iPad or PC users, or as a valuable reference tool on traditional Kindles* UPDATED with improved images and recently attributed worksPlease visit: www.delphiclassics.com to browse our range of art eBooksCONTENTS:The PaintingsTOBIAS AND THE ANGELMADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATETHE MADONNA OF THE CARNATIONTHE BAPTISM OF CHRISTTHE ANNUNCIATIONTHE BENOIS MADONNAPORTRAIT OF GINEVRA DE’ BENCIST. JEROME IN THE WILDERNESSTHE ADORATION OF THE MAGITHE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS (LOUVRE)THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS (NATIONAL GALLERY)THE HEAD OF A WOMANLITTA MADONNALADY WITH AN ERMINEPORTRAIT OF A MUSICIANLA BELLE FERRONNIÈRETHE LAST SUPPERTHE MADONNA OF THE YARNWINDERMONA LISATHE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. ANNELEDA AND THE SWANST. JOHN THE BAPTISTBACCHUS (ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST)THE BATTLE OF ANGHIARISALVATOR MUNDIPORTRAIT OF A LADY IN PROFILEMADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. JOSEPHThe DrawingsTHE VITRUVIAN MANTHE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. ANNE AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTISTSELF-PORTRAITSTUDY OF HORSESOTHER DRAWINGSThe NotebooksTHE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCITHOUGHTS ON ART AND LIFEThe CriticismLEONARDO DA VINCI by Sigmund FreudExtract from ‘THE RENAISSANCE’ by Walter PaterExtract from ‘ESSAYS ON ART’ by A. Clutton-BrockThe BiographiesLIFE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI by Giorgio VasariLEONARDO DA VINCI by MAURICE W. BROCKWELLPlease visit: www.delphiclassics.com for more information

    Francis Bacon painted a study of his portrait of Pope Innocent X. Monet and Renoir, Corot and Courbet, Degas and Dalí…for so many champions of art history, the ultimate soundboard was—and remains—Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660).This updated catalog raisonné brings together Velázquez’s complete works, jaw-droppingly reproduced in extra-large format, with a selection of enlarged details and brand new photography of recently restored paintings, achieved through the joint initiative of TASCHEN and Wildenstein. The book's dazzling images are accompanied by insightful commentary from José López-Rey on Velázquez's interest in human life and his equal attention to all subjects, from an old woman frying eggs to a pope or king, as well as his commitment to color and light, which would influence the Impressionists over two centuries later. Contributors José López-Rey (1905–1991) taught Italian Renaissance at the University of Madrid and worked as an art advisor for the Spanish Ministry of Education. Before the end of the Spanish Civil War, he emigrated to the USA, where he resumed his teaching career at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York. In 1973 he was awarded emeritus status. López-Rey was a corresponding member of the Hispanic Society of America and a consultant and contributor to several international art journals, including the Gazette des Beaux Arts and Art News.Odile Delenda, graduate of the École du Louvre, served as professor there, and then as deputy head of the department of paintings at the Musée du Louvre until 2007. She has collaborated on several exhibitions of old master paintings. A research fellow at the Wildenstein Institute in Paris since 1990, she has continued her study of Spanish art from the Siglo de Oro. She is, among other works, the author of Vélasquez, peintre religieux (1993) and, under the auspices of the Wildenstein Institute, the first critical catalogue raisonné of the painted oeuvre of Francisco de Zurbarán and his studio (2009/10).

    Guggenheim Museum in 2014, this catalogue considerably advances the scholarship and understanding of an influential yet little-known twentieth- century artistic movement. As part of the first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism to be presented in the United States, this publication examines the historical sweep of Futurism from its inception with F.T. Marinetti's manifesto in 1909 through the movement's demise at the end of World War II. Presenting over 300 works created between 1909 and 1944, by artists, writers, designers and composers such as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Fortunato Depero, Gerardo Dottori, Marinetti, Ivo Pannaggi, Rosa Rosa, Luigi Russolo, Tato and many others, this publication encompasses not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, theater and performance. A wealth of scholarly essays discuss Italian Futurism's diverse themes and incarnations.

    Even today remembered primarily as the mentor and lover of Robert Mapplethorpe, the once infamous photographer, Wagstaff, in fact, had an incalculable—and largely overlooked—influence on the world of contemporary art and photography, and on the evolution of gay identity in the latter part of the twentieth century.  Born in New York City in 1921 into a notable family, Wagstaff followed an arc that was typical of a young man of his class. He attended both Hotchkiss and Yale, served in the navy, and would follow in step with his Ivy League classmates to the "gentleman's profession," as an ad executive on Madison Avenue. With his unmistakably good looks, he projected an aura of glamour and was cited by newspapers as one of the most eligible bachelors of the late 1940s. Such accounts proved deceiving, for Wagstaff was forced to live in the closet, his homosexuality only revealed to a small circle of friends. Increasingly uncomfortable with his career and this double life, he abandoned advertising, turned to the formal study of art history, and embarked on a radical personal transformation that was in perfect harmony with the tumultuous social, cultural, and sexual upheavals of the 1960s.Accordingly, Wagstaff became a curator, in 1961, at Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, where he mounted both "Black, White, and Gray"—the first museum show of minimal art—and the sculptor Tony Smith's first museum show, while lending his early support to artists Andy Warhol, Ray Johnson, and Richard Tuttle, among many others. Later, as a curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, he brought the avant-garde to a regional museum, offending its more staid trustees in the process.After returning to New York City in 1972, the fifty-year-old Wagstaff met the twenty-five-year-old Queens-born Robert Mapplethorpe, then living with Patti Smith. What at first appeared to be a sexual dalliance became their now historic lifelong romance, in which Mapplethorpe would foster Wagstaff's own burgeoning interest in contemporary photography and Wagstaff would help secure Mapplethorpe's reputation in the art world. In spite of their profound class differences, the artistic union between the philanthropically inclined Wagstaff and the prodigiously talented Mapplethorpe would rival that of Stieglitz and O’Keefe, or Rivera and Kahlo, in their ability to help reshape contemporary art history.Positioning Wagstaff's personal life against the rise of photography as a major art form and the simultaneous formation of the gay rights movement, Philip Gefter's absorbing biography provides a searing portrait of New York just before and during the age of AIDS. The result is a definitive and memorable portrait of a man and an era.

    Converging Lines celebrates this friendship and offers an illuminating look at their close-knit New York circle. Whereas previous scholarship has examined LeWitt’s impact on Hesse, this is the first publication to demonstrate that the artists influenced each other’s art and lives in reciprocal and profound ways.   Richly documented, this book includes a personal recollection by Lucy R. Lippard, a distinguished American art writer and critic who was a close friend of both artists. Also included are reproductions of 39 postcards LeWitt wrote to Hesse during his international travels, along with a poignant five-page letter that he sent Hesse, attesting to his belief in her talent; a previously unpublished interview from 2001 with LeWitt about his relationship with Hesse; and an illustrated chronology drawing upon interviews, photographs, and primary documents from the time. Shedding new light on the careers and personal lives of Hesse and LeWitt, this publication explores the deep connections between two of the 20th century’s most important artists.

    E. Kleiner has shared her deep knowledge and passion for the history and architecture of ancient Rome with thousands of students, travelers, and enthusiasts through her lectures. She is indeed “the traveler’s best friend”—and now she has created an enhanced eBook that richly deserves that encomium as well. Professor Kleiner personally guides you through the great ruins of Rome and the Roman Empire, highlighting their most fascinating and important features with an extraordinary wealth of knowledge, insights and anecdotes. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide offers readers over 250 appealing and enlightening visual images alongside accessible, concise descriptions that focus on precisely the most pertinent and meaningful information.. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide is an indispensable—and enchanting—resource for travelers, architecture enthusiasts, historians, and all those with an interest in any aspect of the richly multi-faceted subject that is Roman architecture. At its most expansive, the Roman Empire stretched from the British Isles to Egypt; Rome was the ancient world’s greatest superpower. Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide takes us to the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its empire, exploring not only Rome but also buildings preserved at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Tivoli, North Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, and North Africa—allowing readers to trace the growth and expansion of the Roman Empire chronologically through its cities. Roman Architecture’s wealth of photographs and site plans of these intriguing structures are presented from the fresh perspective of an author who has journeyed to nearly all of the sites, revealing most of them through her own digital images. In addition, this interactive e-book makes learning about these monuments easier than ever, with handy maps and geolocation links that show you just where the monuments are and, if you’re traveling, how to get there. A fascinating introduction to some of history’s most compelling and influential architecture, Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide is an enthralling resource, whether one wishes to visit Rome in person or from afar.About the Author DIANA E. E. KLEINER is the Dunham Professor of History of Art and Classics at Yale University. A pioneer in online education, she is the Founding Director of Open Yale Courses, where she offers Roman Architecture as a free self-directed course. Kleiner has resided in Rome and Athens and has traveled extensively throughout what was once the Roman Empire, experiencing firsthand nearly every site and building featured in Roman Architecture: A Visual Guide.

    Prisse first embarked on his explorations in 1836, documenting sites throughout the Nile Valley, often under his Egyptian pseudonym, Edris Effendi. Prisse's first publication of notes, drawings and squeezes (a kind of frottage) came in the form of Les Monuments egyptiens, a modest collection of 51 plates, but one met with considerable acclaim in both popular and intellectual circles. Encouraged by his success, Prisse returned to Egypt in the late 1850s to expand his work. His subsequent, vast oeuvres, L'Histoire de l'art egyptien and L'Art arabe, offer a truly complete survey of Egyptian art. The albums cover architecture, drawing, sculpture, painting and industrial or minor arts, with sections, plans, architectural details and surface decoration all documented with utmost sensitivity and accuracy. Even when compared to the products of the great state-sponsored expeditions to Egypt of this period, Prisse's compendium remains the largest, singlehanded illustrated record of Egyptian art in existence. This publication brings together for the first time the complete collection of Prisse's unsurpassed illustrations in a visual and archaeological feast of symmetry and complexity, mystery and opulence. Text in English, French, and German

    But many important works have disappeared over the last century in a variety of ways, including war, theft, natural catastrophe, and carelessness. Most signifi­cantly, loss itself has been a major theme within modern and contemporary art, with elements of transience central to the practice of many well-known figures.Grouped into 10 sections—Discarded, Missing, Rejected, Attacked, Destroyed, Erased, Ephemeral, Transient, Unrealized, and Stolen—this unique book surveys 40 case studies, looking at the stories behind lost works of art by artists such as Kandinsky, Miró, Kahlo, Christo, Keith Haring, and including Michael Landy’s 2001 project Break Down, in which he systematically destroyed every one of his possessions himself.

    Tired of the perfectly rendered screen image, architects are making presentations that are clearly the work of the hand and the mind, not the computer.This ambitious publication, organized chronologically, is aimed at a new generation of architects who take technology for granted, but seek to further understand the principles of what makes a building meaningful and enduring. Each of the fifty works of architecture is presented through detailed consideration of its site, topology, and surroundings; natural light, volumes, and massing; program and circulation; details, fenestration, and ornamentation. Over 2,500 painstakingly hand-drawn images of the buildings of the past seven decades help readers return to the core values of understanding site and creating buildings: looking with the eyes, engaging through direct physical experience, and constructing by hand.

    Thus began the biggest evacuation of art and antiques in history. A small army of workers swiftly emptied the Louvre's cavernous galleries of all but the most cumbersome and fragile pieces and tucked away the displaced treasures in the châteaux of the Loire countryside. As the Germans neared Paris in 1940, the French raced to move the masterpieces still further south, then again and again during the war, crisscrossing the southwest of France. Throughout the German occupation, the Louvre's staff fought to keep the priceless treasures out of the hands of Hitler and his henchmen and to keep the Louvre palace safe, many of them risking their jobs and their lives to protect the country's artistic heritage. Saving Mona Lisa is the sweeping, suspenseful narrative of their battle. Superbly researched and accompanied by riveting photographs of the period, it is a compelling story of art and beauty, intrigue and ingenuity, and remarkable moral courage in the face of one of the most fearful enemies in history.

    But whether they were in the Louvre or the Prado, the Mauritshuis of the Palazzo Pitti, they reveal the pleasures of truly looking.De Montebello shares the sense of excitement recorded by Goethe in his autobiography—"akin to the emotion experienced on entering a House of God"—but also reflects on why these secular temples might nevertheless be the "worst possible places to look at art." But in the end both men convey, with subtlety and brilliance, the delights and significance of their subject matter and some of the intense creations of human beings throughout our long history.

    A mysterious set of relationships emerged amongst its former owners, revolving round the almost forgotten artist, Robert Bateman, a prominent Pre-Raphaelite and friend of Burne Jones. He was to marry the granddaughter of the Earl of Carlisle, and to be associated with Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone, and other prominent political and artistic figures.But he had abandoned his life as an artist in mid-career to live as a recluse, and his rich and glamorous wife-to-be had married the local vicar, already in his sixties and shortly to die. The discovery of two clearly autobiographical paintings led to an utterly absorbing forensic investigation into Bateman's life.The story moves from Staffordshire to Lahore, to Canada, Wyoming, and then, via Buffalo Bill, to Peru and back to England. It leads to the improbable respectability of Imperial Tobacco in Bristol, and then, less respectably, to a car park in Stoke-on-Trent. En route the author pieces together an astonishing and deeply moving story of love and loss, of art and politics, of morality and hypocrisy, of family secrets concealed but never quite completely obscured. The result is a page-turning combination of detective story and tale of human frailty, endeavor, and love. It is also a portrait of a significant artist, a reassessment of whose work is long overdue.Nigel Daly is an antique dealer and house restorer.

    His later works demonstrate his mastery, skillfulness, and exceptional ability to render the effects of light, and they have since defined his image as an artist. Rembrandt gleaned inspiration from his direct study of nature, exalting the humble, the mundane, and even the ugly, particularly in his self-portraits and works based on his everyday surroundings. His intimate pictures of figures from history, often portrayed in austere or introspective attitudes, are created with extraordinary sensitivity.   This handsome volume includes superb reproductions of some of Rembrandt’s most recognizable paintings, alongside etchings and drawings in various media that demonstrate his mastery of the graphic medium. Through a series of thematic essays, the authors draw on new research to examine Rembrandt’s iconographic, stylistic, and technical innovations and underscore how his work in one medium influenced his work in others. This captivating book is the first to focus exclusively on the paintings, drawings, and prints that Rembrandt produced during the final, most creative phase of his career.

    Through the guilt-ridden words of Edouard Faret, Director of the psychiatric hospital of Montdevergues, we are drawn into to the life of an exceptional woman, Camille Claudel.In the 19th century, Camille was an unrivalled sculptress and both the student and lover of Auguste Rodin. She wanted to make a name for herself in a world of men, to achieve the fame and prestige that her work deserved, but this never came to pass.In 1913, after the death of her adored father, her family committed her by force to an asylum. There she would stay, locked up against her will for 30 years until her death, despite the doctors and others who argued in defence of her sanity.Mind of Steel and Clay: Camille Claudel tells the tragic tale of an extraordinary woman, an artistic genius whose fate was sealed with misfortune.For the first time ever, the dark, unknown years of Camille's confinement, an era shrouded in mystery, are revealed and explored in great depth.Through his diary, the Medical Director of the psychiatric hospital describes the years of confinement of the sculptress Camille Claudel. This bloody, ruthless account is teamed with the hardship of the Vichy France regime in World War II, yet is dappled with moments of inspiring hope; art, passion, guilt, madness and genius are at the forefront of this short novel.Perhaps Enrique Laso's most acclaimed and profound novel to date, the author's admiration for Camille shines through, whilst on countless occasions he shares in her rage against the injustice of a world in which the cruel and deplorable are allowed to win.

    This engaging book uses a multitude of lift-the-flaps, cutouts, and pull tabs to explain how his art evolved over his lifetime—from his earliest painting at age seven to the great masterworks of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Guernica. Readers are encouraged to make their own cubist collage using an enclosed sheet containing an eclectic collection of images.

    The many-layered and shifting meanings of his work have made him one of the most studied artists in the world. Few, however, have made the ambitious attempt to explore his work as a painter, printmaker and draftsman across media and the timeline of his life. This book does just that, presenting a comprehensive and integrated view of Goya's most important paintings, prints, and drawings through the themes and imagery that continually challenged or preoccupied the artist. They reveal how he strove relentlessly to understand and describe human behavior and emotional states, even at their most orderly or disorderly extremes, in elegant and incisive portraits, dramatic and monumental history paintings, and series of prints and drawings of a satirical, disturbing and surreal nature. Derived from the research for the largest Goya art exhibition in North America in a quarter-century, this book takes a fresh look at one of the greatest artists in history by examining the fertile territory between the two poles that defined the range of his boundlessly creative personality.Francisco Jos� Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was born in Fuendetodos, Arag�n, in the northeast of Spain. Goya was court painter to the Spanish Crown, and famously documented the Peninsular War (1807-1814) between France and Spain in his harrowing Disasters of War series. An important bridge to the modernist era, Goya's oeuvre provided a crucial precedent for artists such as Manet, Picasso and Francis Bacon.

    "Lost Walls," his first book, beautifully and poetically documents these walls, handpicked during his road trip around Tunisia. "Lost Walls" is a calligraffiti journey of discovery for eL Seed, who chronicles the painting of 24 walls in four weeks. Inspired by the reaction to his largest project to date, the minaret of the Jara mosque in his ancestral home of Gabes, eL Seed decided to set out on this month-long personal journey across his motherland, painting "lost" walls along the way. This book provides unique and rare insight into the world of calligraffiti and the Tunisian people.

    Through individual interviews the book peers into the life and work of each of these artists, discussing their methods, motives, and sources, from art history to the internet and the language of film. The book celebrates the work of 51 artists who are each taking the medium in a new direction: from those who work with appropriation and found images, to those trying to get as close as possible to contemporary reality and first-hand experience, to artists who are simply using painting as a door to parallel or imaginary worlds. The book makes the argument that, since perhaps the early Renaissance, the role fulfilled by painting has never been so vital or timely: in our image-saturated culture, digital technology has given painting and its slow, full-resolution images a new lease of life.

    By exploring the harsh romance of the medieval past with its ruined castles and abbeys, its wild landscapes and fascination with the supernatural, Gothic writers placed imagination firmly at the heart of their work.The Gothic has continued to haunt literature, fine art, music, film and fashion ever since its heyday in Britain in the 1790s. This book, which accompanies a major exhibition at the British Library, traces the numerous meanings and manifestations of the Gothic across time, tracking its shifts and mutations from its eighteenth-century origins, through the Victorian period, and into the present day.Through 150 objects – including manuscripts, paintings, film clips and posters – Terror and Wonder explores all aspects of the Gothic world. Iconic works, including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the sinister fairy tales of Angela Carter and the modern horrors of Clive Barker, highlight the ways in which contemporary fears have been addressed by successive generations of Gothic writers. Other rare and fascinating exhibits, including hitherto overlooked manuscripts and even a real-life vampire-slaying kit, add colour and drama to the story.Edited and introduced by Dale Townshend, and with original essays by major scholars of the Gothic, Terror and Wonder provides a compelling and comprehensive overview of the Gothic imagination over the past 250 years.ContentsDale Townshend, IntroductionNick Groom, Gothic Antiquity: From the Sack of Rome to The castle of OtrantoAngela Wright, Gothic, 1764-1820Alexandra Warwick, Gothic, 1820-1880Andrew Smith, Gothic and the Victorian fin de siecle, 1880-1900Lucie Armitt, Twentieth-Century GothicCatherine Spooner, Twenty-First Century GothicMartin Parr, Photographing Goths: Martin Parr at the Whitby Goth Weekend

    It explores the crossover between ‘art’ and ‘fashion’ in this period at the hands of famous Japanese painters who worked with clothing pattern books and painted directly onto garments. With Japan’s exposure to Western fashion in the nineteenth century, and Westerners’ exposure to Japanese modes of dress and design, the kimono took on new associations and came to symbolize an exotic culture and an alluring female form. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the kimono industry was sustained through government support. The line between fashion and art became blurred as kimonos produced by famous designers were collected for their beauty and displayed in museums, rather than being worn as clothing. Today, the kimono has once again taken on new dimensions, as the Internet and social media proliferate images of the kimono as a versatile garment to be integrated into a range of individual styles.            Kimono: A Modern History, the inspiration for a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,not only tells the story of a distinctive garment’s ever-changing functions and image, but provides a novel perspective on Japan’s modernization and encounter with the West.

    Through his graffiti-inspired drawings, paintings, sculptures, murals, and other works, Keith Haring created an immediately recognizable visual iconography that spoke to an enormous population--gay and straight, young and old, male and female. His importance in the annals of popular culture is indisputable, but little attention has been paid to his advocacy for social justice. Haring's political perspective is the focus of this visually arresting selection of works that traces the artist's development and historical significance and gives new gravitas to his career. Accompanying a major exhibition at the de Young museum in San Francisco, this book features more than 130 works of art, including large-scale paintings on tarpaulin and canvas, sculptures, and subway drawings. Together they create a narrative that explores Haring's responses to nuclear disarmament, racial inequality, capitalist excess, environmental degradation, and other prevalent social issues. Essays and conversations with writers, critics, and art dealers round out this important analysis of Haring's life, career, and passion.

    17/18), this lively and erudite book traces the art derived from Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the Renaissance up to the present day. The Metamorphoses has been more widely illustrated than any other book except the Bible; for centuries, great artists have drawn, painted, and sculpted its stories, the artists often responding not only to Ovid’s work but to one another’s in their depictions.  Paul Barolsky, a specialist in Italian Renaissance art and literature, explores Ovid’s unparalleled influence on the visual arts, discussing works by many of the most famous artists of the past six centuries.  Broadly interdisciplinary, the new understanding of the themes of the Metamorphoses revealed here will appeal to those in the fields of Renaissance art, humanism, literature, history, and classics, among others.  At once witty, entertaining, and profound, Ovid and the Metamorphoses of Modern Art from Botticelli to Picasso is a meditation on what words can achieve that images cannot, and conversely what images can show that words cannot tell.

    This accessible and clear workbook is both a practical guide and an informative history. Beginning with a “1-day course,” the chapters cover technique, equipment, general theory, painting plein air, and conservation. The authors also examine the work of watercolor masters, among them Claude Lorrain, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, and John Ruskin. Each chapter includes photographs and helpful examples of works in progress, explanations of methods, and how-to demonstra­tions. Designed for those who have not picked up a paintbrush since high-school art class as well as more seasoned practitioners, this guide is a must-have for anyone who wants to start out in watercolors, become a more assured and better artist, or simply gain a new understanding of the great watercolorists.

    Nowadays the name of Vittore Carpaccio (1460–1520) suggests raw beef, but to Morris it conveyed far more profound meanings. Thus began a lifelong infatuation, reaching across the centuries, between a renowned Welsh writer and a great and delightfully entertaining artist of the early Renaissance. Handsomely designed with more than seventy photographs throughout, Ciao,Carpaccio! is a happy caprice of affection. In illuminating the life of the artist and his paintings, Morris throws in digressions about Venetian animals, courtesans, babies, ships, architecture, and history, and caps it all with thoughtful analyses of Carpaccio’s spiritual convictions. Part biography, part art interpretation, part personal odyssey, and all lots of fun, Ciao, Carpaccio! will no doubt help to rescue the name of a noble artist from its popular interpretation as an item of cuisine.

    During the Nazi regime in Germany, -degenerate art- was the official term for much of the most important modern art of the day. -Degenerate art- was defined by the Nazi regime as artwork that was not in line with the National Socialists' ideas of beauty. Their condemnation extended to works in nearly every major art movement: Expressionism, Dada, New Objectivity, Surrealism, Cubism, and Fauvism. Banned artists included Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, and Oskar Kokoschka. Richly illustrated, Degenerate Art elucidates the historical and intellectual context of the notorious exhibition in Munich in 1937, which spurred the attack on modern art. The book contains reflections on the genesis and evolution of the term -degenerate art- and details of the National Socialist policy on art. Art works from the exhibition Degenerate Art are compared to works of art from The Great German Art Exhibition, which was held at the same time and displayed the works of officially approved artists. The book also presents the after-effects of the attack on modernism that are felt even today.

    It then housed just 112 paintings. Today the gallery holds over 15,000 works of European art and is notable both for its extensive collection of Irish art and its Italian baroque and Dutch masters paintings. For this anthology, published to mark the 150th anniversary of the National Gallery of Ireland, fifty-six Irish writers have contributed short stories, essays, and poems inspired by pictures in the collection. These literary responses to art are by turns profound, playful, and insightful. Authors include acclaimed figures in contemporary Irish literature, such as Colm Toibin, John Banville, John Boyne, Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, Paula Meehan, Paul Muldoon, John Montague, and Seamus Heaney. The pictures that the writers have selected are intriguingly diverse. They range from old master paintings by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, El Greco, and Velazquez to works by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet and Pierre Bonnard, as well as works by Irish artists such as Jack B. Yeats, John Lavery, Gerard Dillon, and Paul Henry. The book is organized alphabetically by writer and each text is illustrated with the chosen work in color. Edited with preface by Janet McLean, Curator of European Art 1850 1950 at the NGI."

    But over the past century, a number of curators and critics have reassessed Turner’s late paintings. Instead of finding his employment of shimmering color to evoke light unpleasant or unskilled, they have seen it as a precursor to the Impressionists and consider his use of abstraction to be distinctly modern.   In this elegantly conceived volume, leading experts on Turner consider these contrasting views of the artist in a groundbreaking exploration of his paintings. They examine his notes and sketchbooks to determine whether his health may have impacted his art and how Victorian views of old age influenced perceptions of the elderly artist. They also question the notion that Turner’s late work articulated a conclusive, radical vision heedless of public reaction, for evidence makes clear that he had a firm idea of the art market in his day.   Fully illustrated in color, this book is published on the occasion of an exhibition on view at the Tate Britain, London, from September 15, 2014, through January 18, 2015; at the J. Paul Getty Museum from February 24 through May 24, 2015; and at the de Young Museum in San Francisco from June 20 through September 20, 2015.

    World-renowned for her work during the Weimar period, Hannah Hoch was a pioneer in many aspects, both artistic and cultural. She was the crucial female artist of the Berlin Dada movement - the riotous movement that deconstructed sound, language, and images to re-assemble them into new objects, texts and meanings. Hoch was a pivotal force in the development of collage, paving the way for today's ubiquitous image editing techniques. A determined believer in artistic freedom, Hoch questioned conventional concepts of partnership, beauty and the making of art, her work presenting acute critiques of racial and social stereotypes, particularly that of her native Germany. Focusing on Hoch's collages, this book examines the artist's career from the 1910s to the 1970s, charting her oeuvre from early works influenced by fashion and mass media, through to her later compositions of lyrical abstraction. It reveals her rapid development of a personal style, which was both humorous and often moving, but also offered critical commentary on society at a time of tremendous social change."

    Now, more than forty years into his career and armed with an incredible memory, BLADE sits down with Chris Pape to reflect on growing up in the Bronx in the turbulent 1970s, and recounts the highs and lows of his storied career, holding nothing back. BLADE is considered The King of Graffiti because, by 1980, after painting 5,000 wildly creative trains, he stopped counting. This book parallels the New York graffiti movement almost from its inception, moving through its glory years in the mid-1970s, when BLADE earned his title, and ending in the global art scene, where he remains a major presence. BLADE helped New York graffiti become internationally famous by making it look fun, and, for reasons of quantity, quality, and, perhaps above all, for sheer spirit, BLADE may very well be the most popular graffiti artist with his peers.

    An expansive survey of contemporary figurative art, The Figure showcases work by acclaimed artists including Jenny Saville, Eric Fischl, and Will Cotton alongside emerging talents. Artists’ texts and essays by distinguished critics, writers, and thinkers chart the evolution of figurative techniques, from the atelier to the use of photography, Photoshop, and 3D-modeling programs. Centered on the renowned New York Academy of Art—where many of the featured artists are alumni or instructors—this collection reflects the institution’s mission to instill the rigorous training of past generations within the lively dialogue of the present day. Championed by artists, scholars, and patrons of the arts, including Andy Warhol, since its founding in 1982, the Academy continues to serve as a creative and intellectual center at the vanguard of representational art. With a wealth of imagery displaying some of the finest examples of the genre in all mediums, this richly illustrated volume attests to the enduring appeal of the art of the human figure.

    In contrast with the wide boulevards and well-tended parks of Haussmann’s Paris, Montmartre possessed stretches of still-vacant land, strolling flâneurs, and the infamousmaquis packed with the makeshift homes of les misérables. As a bohemian refuge from the relentlessly modern metropolis, Montmartre played an important role for Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and the many other creatives who called the hilltop neighborhood home. While the works of the earlier impressionists tended to mirror the well-heeled bourgeois lifestyle to which they were accustomed, this new generation of post-impressionists captured the idyllic landscapes and quaint corner cafés of Montmartre as well as its harsh realities, including the lives of vagabonds and prostitutes. The more than three hundred paintings reproduced in this volume are organized thematically, with chapters that collect works portraying everyday street scenes, the “rural city” and the effects of urbanization, and the raucous Montmartre nightlife, including paintings of the Moulin de la Galette and the legendary Moulin Rouge. The paintings are accompanied by maps and historical photographs, including works by Eugène Atget.             A critic of the time once commented on Montmartre that “the quarter resembles a huge studio.” Esprit Montmartre explores this rich period of artistic production, the contexts that influenced it, and how these contexts continue to influence the image of the artist and subject today.

    Join author Melanie Stiassny from the American Museum of Natural History on an epic, oceanic journey. These fascinating essays, taken from the museum's Rare Book Collections, expand on the science behind the early histories that shaped the study of oceanography. They take close-up looks at coral, jellyfish, sea worms, whales, sharks, squid, and more, and provide accounts from legendary explorers and early naturalists. This gorgeously illustrated volume, which includes 40 frameable prints, will appeal to every seafaring and natural-science enthusiast. The Natural Histories series introduces today's readers to lost, fully illustrated scientific tomes from the American Museum of Natural History Library's Rare Book Collections. The museum's top experts provide interesting facts and commentary that enrich the original material and appeal to nature, science, and art lovers.

    Today's works of art may have no obvious focal point. Traditional artistic media no longer do what we expect of them. The styles and movements that characterized art production prior to the twenty-first century no longer exist.This book provides a straightforward guide to understanding contemporary art based on the concept of the tabula rasa – a clean slate and a fresh mind. Ossian Ward presents a six-step program that gives readers new ways of looking at some of the most challenging art being produced today. Since artists increasingly work across traditional media and genres, Ward has developed an alternative classification system for contemporary practice such as 'Art as Entertainment', 'Art as Confrontation', 'Art as Joke' -- categories that help to make sense of otherwise obscure-seeming works. There are also 20 'Spotlight' features which guide readers through encounters with key works.Ultimately, the message is that any encounter with a challenging work of contemporary art need not be intimidating or alienating but rather a dramatic, sensually rewarding, and thought-provoking experience.

    This book, based on the important Frank collection at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, is the first to focus on that work. Its careful sequence of 131 plates integrates 22 photographs from The Americans with more than 100 unknown or unfamiliar images to chart the major themes and pictorial strategies of Frank's work in the United States in the 1950s. Peter Galassi's text presents a thorough reconsideration of Frank's first photographic career and examines in detail how he used the full range of photography's vital 35mm vocabulary to reclaim the medium's artistic tradition from the hegemony of the magazines.

    Yet, even with this great mix, there was something else he offered--he was a great geologist. So now, he's going to be our guide to Italy, revealing many of the secrets this land has held for millennia. Many ancient scientists, historians and writers tried to understand this fascinating place, but whatever progress they made was eliminated either by time or by scientific positions which held that the ideas were folklore. Interestingly, it is now the advances in science and scientific testing instruments which are proving that which the ancients knew. You'll learn about: • radioactive waters that are good for our health, found on an island thought to have a fountain of youth • the secret of living in areas with positive and negative magnetic fields, and how they influence our health and well being • a visit to the real Underworld, with scorching steam and noxious vapors • how amber has healing properties to reduce body pain and cure throat ailments • mysterious roads carved 30 meters into volcanic rock which crisscross necropolises • ancient votive offerings in the form of body parts which can be found today as religious candles • sacred cave drip waters used by women to insure fertility and abundant breast milk • the stairway to Heaven as noted in the Bible and the Led Zeppelin song • unexplained "earthquake lights" that are thought to be UFOs • the ominous or auspicious meaning of thunder occurring on certain days • the oracles who forecasted the future while in a trance induced by inhaling gases emitted from the earth You'll see how the dramatic geological landscape of Italy has provided abundant Earthly inspiration for some of the greatest cultural, literary and artistic achievements of mankind.

     Volume VIII of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné transports us to the artist’s most beloved locations, often with his friends and family.  In the paintings featured here, Sargent returned to subjects that had always held deep personal connections and artistic challenges: mountains, streams, rocks and torrents, figures in repose, architecture and gardens, boats and shipping.  He had known and painted the Alps since childhood, and his new Alpine studies make up the greatest number of works in this book.   Beautifully designed, this volume represents a continuation in organization and presentation of the high standards that mark the series, and documents 299 works in oil and watercolor. Each painting is catalogued with full provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Wherever possible, works are illustrated in color; some are accompanied by related drawings and comparative studies by Sargent’s fellow artists. Contemporary photographs pinpoint the places and views that Sargent painted.

    Yet a majority of the prominent modern artists in every period had strong interests in the spiritual dimension of life, which they expressed in the new art forms they created. The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art draws on direct statements by scores of leading artists - cited from little known historical documentation as well as contemporary interviews - to demonstrate that spirituality, far from being inconsequential in the terrain of modern art, is generative. This magisterial overview insightfully presents, for the first time, a chronological survey of the major art movements that weaves together spiritual profiles of numerous leading artists and situates their stories within the cultural context of each period. The result is a significantly expanded understanding of the cultural history of modern art.

    Richly illustrated with colour photographs of artworks both modern and classical and written by a sculptor and teacher with lifelong experience, it arms the reader with the tools and vocabulary with which to view a vast range of sculptures. Insightful and thought-provoking, it is accessible to the widest audience, both as a primer for students and for general readers, it provides a new way of looking at, experiencing and discussing the art of crafting in three dimensions.

    Published from 1877 to 1918, Puck was regularly a major political battleground and is credited with single-handedly thwarting the third-term ambitions of Ulysses Grant in 1880 and electing Grover Cleveland to the presidency in 1884. Puck did it with art - lavish, color, full-page and two-page centerspread cartoons. It was the first American magazine to publish color lithographs on a weekly basis and, for nearly forty years, was a training ground and showcase for some of the country's most talented cartoonists, led by its co-founder, Joseph Keppler. This retrospective contains nearly 300 full-color plates.

    The controversial artist’s creation of this painting has been recounted in dozens of books and dramatized in the Oscar-winning film Pollock. Rumors—such as it was painted in one alcohol-fueled night and at first didn’t fit the intended space—abound. But never in doubt was that the creation of the painting was pivotal, not only for Pollock but for the Abstract Expressionists who would follow his radical conception of art —“no limits, just edges.”  Mural, painted in 1943, was Pollock’s first major commission. It was made for the entrance hall of the Manhattan duplex of Peggy Guggenheim, who donated it to the University of Iowa in the 1950s where it stayed until its 2012 arrival for conservation and study at the Getty Center. This book unveils the findings of that examination, providing a more complete picture of Pollock’s process than ever before. It includes an essay by eminent Pollock scholar Ellen Landau and an introduction by comedian Steve Martin. It accompanies an exhibition of the painting on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from March 11 through June 1, 2014.

    If history museums and historic sites are to be inclusive and relevant, they must begin incorporating this community into their interpretation.Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites is straightforward, accessible guidebook for museum and history professionals as they embark on such worthy efforts. This book features:An examination of queer history in the United States: The rapid rate at which queer topics have entered the mainstream could conceivably give the impression that LGBT people have only quite recently begun to contribute to United States culture and this misconception ignores a rich historyA brief overview of significant events in LGBT history: Highlights variant sexuality and gender in U.S. history, from colonization to the first decades of the 21st centuryCase studies on the inclusion and telling of LGBT history: These chapters detail how major institutions, such as the Chicago History Museum, have brought this topic to light in their interpretationAn extensive bibliography and reading listLGBT history is a fascinating story, and the limited space in this volume can hardly do it justice. These features are provided to guide readers to more detailed information about the contributions of LGBT people to U.S. history and culture. This guide complements efforts to make museums and historic sites more inclusive, so they may tell a richer story for all people.

    Information is presented clearly and contextualized so that it is accessible to students regardless of their prior level of knowledge A book companion website is available at www.wiley.gom/go/greekart with the following resources: PowerPoint slides, glossary, and timeline

    The journey of the birds beyond the seven valleys to meet Simorgh, the legendary bird and allegory of the Supreme Being, symbolizes the voyage of every human soul. The translation by Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi, published by Penguin Classics in 1984, was the first verse translation in English of Attar's work. His passionate and scholarly translation fluidly renders the poet's thought, as well as the beauty and musicality of his language. For this edition, Dick Davis has translated the prologue and epilogue, and has also reworked several passages. More than two hundred Persian, Turkish, Afghan and Indo-Pakistani works, chosen from the most beautiful manuscripts of the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries - from the banks of the Bosporus to those of the Ganges - complement the poem. The choice of works benefited from the inestimable contribution of Michael Barry; he has written over two hundred commentaries on the works, presented facing each painting. These commentaries will provide the reader with keys to understanding and interpretation.

    His paintings ranged from decorative fresco schemes and portraits to allegorical, biblical, and historical subjects, produced for an aristocratic international audience. This definitive reappraisal of the artist also provides a fascinating account of painting and patronage in 16th-century Venice. Xavier F. Salomon traces Veronese’s career from its beginnings in Verona, where he developed an art shaped by the rediscovery of antiquity, to Venice, where he established a successful workshop. Salomon’s discussion of Veronese’s entire output, including his monumental banquet scenes, illuminates the original function of every work, many of them designed for specific locations. Generous illustrations, including numerous details, reveal the distinctive tactile qualities of Veronese’s technique and the beauty of his palette, whether rendering rich textiles, precious metals or female complexions.  This splendid book makes a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of 16th-century Venetian painting.

    Featuring flaps, cutouts, and pull tabs, this engaging pop-up book covers Matisse's entire artistic career, including his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and paper cutouts, as well as the story of his lifelong friendship with Pablo Picasso. With activities that encourage readers to explore the artist's signature methods, this hands-on introduction will inspire budding artists from eight to eighty.

    These unique compositions—collages of text and gestural painting across a variety of media—quickly made Basquiat one of the most important and widely known artists of the 1980s. Reading Basquiat provides a new approach to understanding the range and impact of this artist’s practice, as well as its complex relationship to several key artistic and ideological debates of the late twentieth century, including the instability of identity, the role of appropriation, and the boundaries of expressionism. Jordana Moore Saggese argues that Basquiat, once known as “the black Picasso,” probes not only the boundaries of blackness but also the boundaries of American art. Weaving together the artist’s interests in painting, writing, and music, this groundbreaking book expands the parameters of aesthetic discourse to consider the parallels Basquiat found among these disciplines in his exploration of the production of meaning. Most important, Reading Basquiat traces the ways in which Basquiat constructed large parts of his identity—as a black man, as a musician, as a painter, and as a writer—via the manipulation of texts in his own library.

    They deserve to be appreciated afresh by a wider audience. Accompanying a landmark exhibition at the National Galleries of Canada and Scotland in 2014, this exploration of Ruskin's watercolors and drawings - representing his entire career and all subject types and degrees of finish and elaboration - demonstrated how his characteristic drawing style evolved and how he achieved his highly distinctive technical virtuosity. In more than 130 superb examples, reproduced with great delicacy, this book tells how he regarded drawing as a means of focusing his eye and as a discipline of observation, but attached small significance to the drawing itself when completed. Today the drawings will be celebrated for their immediacy and verve, for their absence of self-consciousness or any kind of artistic indulgence. Drawing was used by Ruskin to express the ecstasy he felt in the presence of transcendent beauty in nature and landscape, as well as in the works of man, and was an essential means of emotional release. On other occasions, and especially during phases of mental fragility, he drew in order to establish certainties about the physical world upon which he might rely. Ruskin's drawings are clues to his emotional state, and may be interpreted in psychological terms: the authors reveal them here as profoundly informative about the devastating swings of mood that Ruskin endured and which fired his massive intellectual creativity as well as his eventual descent into insanity. In examining alongside the central core of Ruskin's own drawings those made by artist who were his mentors, friends and followers, this book also aims to give an account of the wider phenomenon which might be called 'Ruskinism'. It demonstrates how Ruskin's own style formed as a result of contact with an older generation of drawing masters, such as Samuel Prout and J.D. Harding. Ruskin's paramount admiration for J.M.W. Turner, and the story of his advocacy of Turner as the greatest genius of British art, is explained by the consideration of a carefully selected group of Tuner drawings and watercolors. Ruskin's involvement with the contemporary conduct of art in the 1850's, and particularly his support for Pre-Raphaelitism as applied to landscape, is also explored. A fascinating and visually rich element of the book will be photographs, including those taken by Ruskin himself or under his immediate supervision and others that reveal his influence. By showing photographs and drawings together it will be possible to identify and define certain pictorial traits which may be regarded as characteristic Ruskinian methods of looking.

    

    

    Born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and Puerto-Rican mother, Jean-Michel Basquiat was deeply interested in Afro-Atlantic culture and he drew upon his heritage in many of his highly acclaimed paintings. This book looks closely--for the first time--at Basquiat's southern-themed paintings. The paintings in this book are filled with references to the history and culture of the South, a place the artist visited sparingly. Insightful essays discuss the importance of Basquiat's work in relation to a subject that occupied his attention throughout his career.

    Digital color is a fundamental part of how we use our devices, but we never give a thought to how it is produced or how it came about.            Chromatic Algorithms reveals the fascinating history behind digital color, tracing it from the work of a few brilliant computer scientists and experimentally minded artists in the late 1960s and early ‘70s through to its appearance in commercial software in the early 1990s. Mixing philosophy of technology, aesthetics, and media analysis, Carolyn Kane shows how revolutionary the earliest computer-generated colors were—built with the massive postwar number-crunching machines, these first examples of “computer art” were so fantastic that artists and computer scientists regarded them as psychedelic, even revolutionary, harbingers of a better future for humans and machines. But, Kane shows, the explosive growth of personal computing and its accompanying need for off-the-shelf software led to standardization and the gradual closing of the experimental field in which computer artists had thrived.             Even so, the gap between the bright, bold presence of color onscreen and the increasing abstraction of its underlying code continues to lure artists and designers from a wide range of fields, and Kane draws on their work to pose fascinating questions about the relationships among art, code, science, and media in the twenty-first century.

    His irreverent wit and promiscuous intelligence, coupled with his exceptional grasp of the properties of his materials, provided the foundation for his punishing critiques of the conventions of art history and social behavior. Experimenting wildly with materials and tools as varied as meteor dust and the xerox machine, Polke made work of both an intimate and monumental scale, drawn from sources as diverse as newspaper headlines and D�rer prints. Polke avoided any one signature style, a fluid method best defined by the word "alibi," which means "in or at another place." This also is a reminder of the deflection of responsibility which shaped German behavior during the Nazi period, compelling Polke's generation to reinvent the role of the artist. Published in conjunction with Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, the first exhibition to encompass the artist's work across all media, this richly illustrated publication provides an overview of his cross-disciplinary innovations and career. Essays by Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director of The Museum of Modern Art; Mark Godfrey, Curator of International Art, Tate Modern; and a range of scholars and artists examine the full range of Polke's exceptionally inventive oeuvre and place his enormous skepticism of all social, political and artistic conventions against German history.Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) was born in Oels, in eastern Germany, now Olesnica in present-day Poland. At the end of World War II, Polke and his family fled to East Germany and, in 1953, escaped to D�sseldorf, where he was trained as a glass painter and subsequently studied at the Kunstakademie D�sseldorf. Since the late 1960s, Polke's work has been shown widely, including solo exhibitions at European and American museums. His last major work was a commission for 12 stained glass windows of the Grossm�nster in Zurich, Switzerland, completed in 2009.

    One of the most fascinating and controversial people of his day, Leicester was also the most important patron of painters at the Elizabethan court. He amassed a substantial art collection, including commissioned works by Nicholas Hilliard, Paolo Veronese, and Federico Zuccaro; helped foster the birth of an English vernacular discourse on the visual arts; and was an early exponent, in England, of the Italian Renaissance view of the painter as the practitioner of a liberal art and, thus, fit company for the educated and well-born. Although Leicester’s picture collection and personal papers were widely dispersed after his death, this volume’s pioneering research reconstructs his lost world and, with it, a turning point in the history of British art. Some of the paintings featured here are little-known images from private collections, never before reproduced in color.

    In 1872, he famously helped settle a bet for former California governor Leland Stanford by photographing a galloping horse. Muybridge invented a complex system of electric shutter releases that captured freeze frames--proving conclusively, for the first time, that a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground for a fraction of a second. For the next three decades, Muybridge continued his quest to fully catalog many aspects of human and animal movement, shooting hundreds of horses and other animals, --as well as nude or draped subjects engaged in various activities such as running, walking, boxing, fencing, and descending a staircase (the latter study inspired Marcel Duchamp's famous 1912 painting).This book traces the life and work of Muybridge, from his early thinking about anatomy and movement to his latest photographic experiments. Many plates of Muybridge's groundbreaking Animal Locomotion (1887) are reproduced here. In addition, Muybridge's handmade and extremely rare first illustrated album, The Attitudes of Animals in Motion (1881), is reproduced in large part. A detailed chronology by British researcher Stephen Herbert throws new light on one of the most important pioneers of photography.About the seriesBibliotheca Universalis -- Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

    Far less recognized are texts by women in the school’s weaving workshop. In Bauhaus Weaving Theory, T’ai Smith uncovers new significance in the work the Bauhaus weavers did as writers.From colorful, expressionist tapestries to the invention of soundproofing and light-reflective fabric, the workshop’s innovative creations influenced a modernist theory of weaving. In the first careful examination of the writings of Bauhaus weavers, including Anni Albers, Gunta Stözl, and Otti Berger, Smith details how these women challenged assumptions about the feminine nature of their craft. As they harnessed the vocabulary of other disciplines like painting, architecture, and photography, Smith argues, the weavers resisted modernist thinking about distinct media. In parsing texts about tapestries and functional textiles, the vital role these women played in debates about medium in the twentieth century and a nuanced history of the Bauhaus comes to light.Bauhaus Weaving Theory deftly reframes the Bauhaus weaving workshop as central to theoretical inquiry at the school. Putting questions of how value and legitimacy are established in the art world into dialogue with the limits of modernism, Smith confronts the belief that the crafts are manual and technical but never intellectual arts.

    Through his prints and posters, he brought the language of the late-nineteenth-century French avant-garde to a broad public, through editioned prints, advertisements and contributions in reviews and magazines. He ushered in the first print boom of the modern era; taking advantage of lithography's new potential for color and scale, he made both posters for the streets of Paris and prints for the new bourgeois collector's living room. During his short career, he created more than 350 prints and 30 posters, as well as lithographed theater programs and covers for books and sheet music. The Museum of Modern Art's collection of this material is stellar, encompassing over 100 prints and posters, his most important book projects, and many magazines, journals and other examples of printed ephemera. A cultural nexus, Toulouse-Lautrec connected artists, performers, authors, intellectuals and society figures of his day, creating a bridge between the brothels and society salons of the Belle Epoque. His work allows entry into many facets of Parisian life of the period, from politics and economics to visual culture and the rise of popular entertainment in the form of cabarets and cafe-concerts. Featuring an overview essay by Sarah Suzuki, Associate Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at MoMA, this publication presents thematically organized groupings of Toulouse-Lautrec's prints from the Museum's collection, each accompanied by an illuminating essay on the theme. Inserted into the book is a 20" x 17" poster titled "Mademoiselle Eglantine's Troupe."Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) is best known for his portrayals of late-nineteenth-century Parisian life, particularly working-class, cabaret, circus, nightclub and brothel scenes. He was admired then as he is today for his unsentimental evocations of personalities and social mores. His greatest contemporary impact was his series of 30 posters (1891-1901), which transformed the aesthetics of poster art.

    While American Pop was indebted to its British predecessor’s insistence that any creative pursuit is worthy of aesthetic consideration, Crow demonstrates that this inclusive attitude also had strong American roots. Folk becomes Crow’s starting point in the advance of Pop. The folk revival occurred chiefly in the sphere of music during the 1930s and ’40s, while folk art surfaced a decade later in the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Crow eloquently examines the subsequent explosion of commercial imagery in visual art, alongside its repercussions in popular music and graphic design. Pop’s practitioners become defined as artists whose distillation of the vernacular is able to capture the feelings stirring among a broad public, beginning with young participants in the politicized 1960s counterculture. Woody Guthrie and Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan, Ed Ruscha and the Byrds, Pauline Boty and the Beatles, the Who and Damien Hirst are all considered together with key graphic designers such as Milton Glaser and Rick Griffin in this engaging book.

    Yet, beyond instinct, there is a kind of prayer that’s conscious and articulate, that we have to be taught. There is an “art of prayer,” when faith and prayer become creative responses by which creatures made in the image and likeness of the Creator relate to him with help of the imagination. Timothy Verdon explores these essential interactions in this magnificent book. Richly illustrated, Monsignor Verdon explains that images work in believers as tools that teach them how to turn to God. Art and Prayer explores these interactions in detail, demonstrating that prayer can become a fruit of the sanctified imagination – a way of beauty and turning to God.

    This guide by architectural historian Jon Cannon uses high-quality photographs and diagrams to help us to analyze the leading changes in style from the Anglo-Saxon period, through the Romanesque as far as Gothic and Perpendicular. By identifying various clues left by each period, he enables us to date architectural features and styles, and explains the technical terms applied to them. If you have ever wondered how your church or cathedral developed, and want to know your triforium from your blind arcade or your vault from your hammerbeam, all the answers are here.

    Despite this popularity, books on Duchamp are often hyper-theoretical, rarely presenting the artist in an accessible way. This new book explores the artist’s life and work through short, alphabetical dictionary entries that introduce his legacy in a clear and engaging way.From alchemy and anatomy to Warhol and windows, The Duchamp Dictionary offers a pithy and readable text that draws on in-depth scholarship and the very latest research. Thomas Girst includes close to 200 entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people, and ideas in Duchamp’s life—from The Bicycle Wheel and Fountain to Walter and Louise Arensberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine Dreier, and Arturo Schwarz. Delightful, newly commissioned illustrations introduce each letter of the alphabet and accompany select entries, capturing the irreverent spirit of the artist himself.

    Di Palma argues that a convergence of beliefs, technologies, institutions, and individuals in 18th-century England resulted in the formulation of cultural attitudes that continue to shape the ways we evaluate landscape today. Staking claims on the aesthetics of disgust, she addresses how emotional response has been central to the development of ideas about nature, beauty, and sublimity. With striking illustrations reaching back to the 1600s—husbandry manuals, radical pamphlets, gardening treatises, maps, and landscape paintings— Wasteland spans the fields of landscape studies, art and architectural history, geography, history, and the history of science and technology. In stirring prose, Di Palma tackles our conceptions of such hostile territories as swamps, mountains, and forests, arguing that they are united not by any essential physical characteristics but by the aversive reactions they inspire.

    Challenging the view that ideas about sexual and gender dissidence were too confused to congeal into a coherent form in the Middle Ages, Mills demonstrates that sodomy had a rich, multimedia presence in the period—and that a flexible approach to questions of terminology sheds new light on the many forms this presence took. Among the topics that Mills covers are depictions of the practices of sodomites in illuminated Bibles; motifs of gender transformation and sex change as envisioned by medieval artists and commentators on Ovid; sexual relations in religious houses and other enclosed spaces; and the applicability of modern categories such as “transgender,” “butch” and “femme,” or “sexual orientation” to medieval culture.             Taking in a multitude of images, texts, and methodologies, this book will be of interest to all scholars, regardless of discipline, who engage with gender and sexuality in their work.

    The Sistine Chapel is the irresistible attraction, the object of desire of international museum-goers. The Sistine Chapel, however, though part of a museum visit, is not a museum itself. As a consecrated chapel it defines a unique religious space. Moreover the Chapel truly defines the identity of the Roman Catholic Church. "Thus writes Antonio Paolucci, Art Historian and Director of the Vatican Museums, in the opening lines of his book. This book is an essential tool in helping visitors to understand the reasons which, between the fifteenth and the sixteenth century, led to the creation of the Sistine Chapel, "the greatest representation of human art and spirituality."It aspires to enable visitors to understand the extraordinary theological design which governs the space, as well as helping them to appreciate the different styles and artists (Michelangelo, Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Signorelli) who gave form to the message.

    But thecity had a wild, raw energy that made it the crucible for the birth of rap culture and graffiti. Graffiti writers worked in extremely tough conditions: uncollected garbage, darkness, cramped spaces, and the constant threat of police raids, assault by security staff and attacks by rival crews. It was not unlike practicing performance art in a war zone. Yet during the fertile years of the late 1970s and 1980s they evolved their art from stylized signatures to full-blown Technicolor dreamscapes. Henry Chalfant created panoramic images of painted trains by photographing overlapping shots along the train’s length. It took time to earn the writers’ trust andrespect, but Chalfant became their revered confidant and with Tony Silver went on to produce the classic documentary film Style Wars (1983). Through a series of interviews conducted by Sacha Jenkins, we hear the voices of these characters of old New York. Quite a few of the original writers are no longer with us, but those who have survived have continued to push the envelope as artists and individuals in a new millennium.The stories they tell, included here alongside iconic, raw photographs of their work, will enthrall graffiti fans everywhere.

    

    

    Created in several discrete bursts of activity from 1889 until his death in 1903, these remarkable works on paper reflect Gauguin's experiments with a range of media, from radically "primitive" woodcuts that extend from the sculptural gouging of his carved wood reliefs, to jewel-like watercolor monotypes and large mysterious transfer drawings. Gauguin's creative process often involved repeating and recombining key motifs from one image to another, allowing them to metamorphose over time and across mediums. Printmaking in particular provided him with many new and fertile possibilities for transposing his imagery. Though Gauguin is best known as a pioneer of modernist painting, this publication reveals a lesser-known but arguably even more innovative aspect of his practice. Richly illustrated with more than 200 works, Gauguin: Metamorphoses explores the artist's radically experimental approach to techniques and demonstrates how his engagement with media other than painting - including sculpture, printmaking and drawing - ignited his creativity.Painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramicist, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) left his job as a stockbroker in Paris for a peripatetic life traveling to Martinique, Brittany, Arles, Tahiti and, finally, the Marquesas Islands. After exhibiting with the Impressionists in Paris and acting as a leading voice in the Pont-Aven group, Gauguin's efforts to achieve a "primitive" expression proved highly influential for the next generation of artists.

    This book carefully considers the complicated relationships between the modern queer bachelor and interior design, material culture and aesthetics in Britain between 1885 and 1957.The seven deadly sins of the modern bachelor (queerness, idolatry, askesis, decadence, the decorative, glamour, artifice) comprise a contested site and reveal in their respective ways the distinctly queer twinning of shame and resistance. It pays close attention to the interiors of Lord Ronald Gower, Alfred Taylor, Oscar Wilde, Charles Shannon and Charles Ricketts, Edward Perry Warren and John Marshall, Sir Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, Noël Coward and Cecil Beaton.Richly illustrated and written in a lively and accessible manner, Bachelors of a Different Sort is at once theoretically ambitious and rich in its use of archival and various historical sources.

    The apparent enigma can be resolved by recognizing that later Byzantine diplomatic strategies, despite or because of diminishing political advantage, relied on an increasingly desirable cultural and artistic heritage. This book reassesses the role of the visual arts in this era by examining the imperial image and the gift as reconceived in the final two centuries of the Byzantine Empire. In particular it traces a series of luxury objects created specifically for diplomatic exchange with such courts as Genoa, Paris and Moscow alongside key examples of imperial imagery and ritual. By questioning how political decline refigured the visual culture of empire, Cecily J. Hilsdale offers a more nuanced and dynamic account of medieval cultural exchange that considers the temporal dimensions of power and the changing fates of empires.

    Taught by Professor William R. Cook from the State University of New York at GeneseoHis biography is at https://www.thegreatcourses.com/profe...The course information can be found at:https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...Lecture 1. The earliest churches -- Lecture 2. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- Lecture 3. Hagia Sophia -- Lecture 4. The cave churches of Cappadocia -- Lecture 5. Great churches of Russia -- Lecture 6. The painted churches of Romania -- Lecture 7. The churches of Armenia -- Lecture 8. The churches of Georgia -- Lecture 9. The rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia -- Lecture 10. The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba -- Lecture 11. The stave churches of Norway -- Lecture 12. The Pilgrimage Church of Sainte-Foy -- Lecture 13. The Cathedral of Monreale -- Lecture 14. Chartres Cathedral -- Lecture 15. Winchester Cathedral -- Lecture 16. The Cathedral of Siena -- Lecture 17. St. Peter's Basilica -- Lecture 18. The Wieskirche in Bavaria -- Lecture 19. La Compañia and Las Lajas Sanctuary -- Lecture 20. Guadalupe and the Cathedral of Mixico City -- Lecture 21. Four great American churches -- Lecture 22. La Sagrada Familia -- Lecture 23. Iceland's Hallgrimskirkja -- Lecture 24. Two churches in Seoul, Korea.

    It all started in the Telephone Road Place subdivision, where retired mail carrier Jefferson Davis McKissack built the Orange Show, an extraordinary and eccentric monument to self-reliance, hard work and, yes, the fruit itself. McKissack's installation spawned more of its kind in the Bayou City, like the Beer Can House, the Flower Man's House, Pigdom--one woman's shrine to swine"--and a flourishing art scene committed to preserving Houston's art environments. Author Pete Gershon tells the stories of these sites, their creators and the members of Houston's unique art community, all set against the backdrop of the city's quirky history.."

    1736-1795) surrounded himself with monumental paintings of architecture, gardens, people, and faraway places. The best artists of the imperial painting academy, including a number of European missionary painters, used Western perspectival illusionism to transform walls and ceilings with visually striking images that were also deeply meaningful to Qianlong. These unprecedented works not only offer new insights into late imperial China's most influential emperor, but also reflect one way in which Chinese art integrated and domesticated foreign ideas.In Imperial Illusions, Kristina Kleutghen examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of "scenic illusion paintings" (tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City. Produced at the height of early modern cultural exchange between China and Europe, these works have received little scholarly attention. Richly illustrated, Imperial Illusions offers the first comprehensive investigation of the aesthetic, cultural, perceptual, and political importance of these illusionistic paintings essential to Qianlong's world.Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http: //arthistorypi.org/books/imperial-illus...

     Rare color photographs of American life and landscapes around the turn of the 20th century   From the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Rockies to the Tropic of Cancer, the North American landscape is as diverse as it is immense. Lakes as vast as seas, windswept plains, massive waterfalls, sweltering deserts, marshy swamps, towering forests, giant rushing rivers, formidable volcanoes, powerful geysers, a legendary canyon...the list of the continent’s natural wonders reads like a thrilling travel brochure.This collection of photographs commissioned by the Detroit Photographic Company between the years of 1888 and 1924 documents—in color—North America’s most exceptional natural sites as well as its peoples, from Native Americans and African Americans to immigrants and the last of the gold rushers, and legendary sights such as Far West saloons, New York and San Francisco’s Chinatowns, Coney Island crowds, and much more. Using a photographic process that predated the autochrome (which didn't come into use until 1907) by nearly 20 years, these photochroms offered people their first glimpses of color photographs. This selection of beautifully reproduced images, drawn from over 15,000 large-format originals owned by private collector Marc Walter, will take you on an epic journey through the America of a century ago.

    But how, in a world without the array of technology and access to materials that we now have, did artists produce such incredible works, often on an unbelievably large scale? In The Riddle of the Image, research scientist and art restorer Spike Bucklow discovers the actual materials and methods that lie behind the production of historical paintings.   Examining the science of the tools and resources, as well as the techniques of medieval artists, Bucklow adds new layers to our understanding and appreciation of paintings in particular and medieval art more generally. He uses case studies—including The Wilton Diptych, one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery in London and the altarpiece in front of which English monarchs were crowned for centuries—and analyses of these works, presenting previously unpublished technical details that shed new light on the mysteries of medieval artists. The first account to examine this subject in depth for a general audience, The Riddle of the Image is a beautifully illustrated look at the production of medieval paintings.

    Yet despite the enduring appeal of works from the Parthenon to Michelangelo’s David to Picasso’s Guernica, histories of both art and democracy have ignored this phenomenon. Millions have admired the works of art covered in this book but relatively few know why they were commissioned, what was happening in the culture that produced them, and what they were meant to achieve. Even scholars who have worked on these objects for decades often miss the big picture as these objects have been traditionally studied in isolation.The goal of this book is to integrate the pursuits of creative excellence and human freedom on the grounds that this synthetic approach will bring a fresh, new perspective into both lines of inquiry. David’s Sling places into context ten canonical works of art executed to commemorate the successes of free societies that exerted political and economic influence far beyond what might have been expected of them. The book thus fuses political and art history with a judiciously-applied dose of creative reconstruction to craft a lively narrative around each key work of art and the free system that inspired it. David's Sling tells their story.

    Featuring Selections from the Khardziev and Costakis Collections: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 19 October 2013-2 February 2014

    Starting with the materials you need and basic calligraphy techniques, the book will move on to the development and improvement of skills with design elements, exercises, clear instruction on lettering, using colour, knotwork illustration and illumination, with inspirational examples of Celtic art and lettering. Beginners will find much to help them in this practical guide and more experienced calligraphers will learn much about Celtic influences and the way lettering can be enhanced with stylised knotwork illustration and illumination.Traditional letterforms can be transformed into unique works of art with an intertwining of colour, art and design. Stylised letterforms are ornament in themselves, but enhanced with knotwork, Celtic swirls and patterns, illumination, colour and design, Celtic calligraphy becomes an exciting art form based in fascinating ancient traditions. This can be taken into the realms of fantasy art, book illustration, crafting, written work — and into tattoo design.

    In contradistinction to the modern separation of image and text and, by implication, form and content, which was reified with the invention of printing, illuminated manuscripts made images out of words. In consonance with Christian doctrine, which declared that the Word had become flesh, letters painted on parchment assumed bodily presence to create effects of power and persuasion. Painted letters elicited modes of performance, oral recitation and ritual action. Far from calligraphic ornament or a medium with prescribed boundaries, medieval lettering reveals itself as a flexible instrument in which various categories of human experience and expression -- the audible, the visible, the symbolic and the figurative -- come together. Among the topics touched on by this book are display scripts, monograms, nomina sacra and carmina figurata, epigraphic inscriptions, chrysography and color, speech scrolls, relationships among author, scribe and artist as expressed through scripts, the anthropomorphic dimensions of abstract lettering, and the impact of iconic scripts on the reader.

     By examining notions of what was extraordinary, re-evaluating medieval ideas of authorship, and restoring economic considerations to the debate, Binski sets English visual art of the early 14th century in a broad European context and also within the aesthetic discourses of the medieval period.  The author, stressing the continuum between art and architecture, challenges understandings about agency, modernity, hierarchy, and marginality.  His book makes a powerful case for the restoration of the category of the aesthetic to the understanding of medieval art. Generously illustrated with hundreds of images, Gothic Wonder traces the impact of English art in Continental Europe, ending with the Black Death and the literary uses of the architectural in works by Geoffrey Chaucer and other writers.

    Global in scope and featuring an innovative present‐to‐past arrangement, the book’s accessible text looks back on the most significant art styles and movements, from the present day to antiquity.Pages of historical photographs, documents, newspaper headlines, and other ephemera evoke the times in which styles and movements arose. The book opens with The Information Age (Internet Art, Neo‐Expressionaism, Arte Povera) and closes with The Classical Age (Roman wall painting, Hellenistic Greek style), covering everything from Photorealism, Art Brut, Ukiyo‐e, and Byzantine style in between. An integrated timeline provides a linear thread throughout the book, while succinct, authoritative text illuminates key points.

    Reviving the fascination that gripped the avant-garde and the surrealists when confronted with the arts of the ancient Near East, The Infinite Image presents a radical new reading of Mesopotamian art as an aesthetic realm defined by objects that transcend time in order to carry traces of the past into the present.   Zainab Bahrani’s book opens in the early twentieth century, when artists and intellectuals like Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, and Georges Bataille were captivated by the ancient sculptures they encountered in European museums—before the question of the aesthetic in ancient art was rejected by rationalist scientific archaeology later in the century. She then travels back through the writings of Derrida, Hegel, Kant, and Plato to Mesopotamia, using these thinkers to argue that ancient images formed an aesthetic dimension that was both historical and evolving. She also addresses issues of the politics of cultural heritage important to Near Eastern art in the context of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and current instabilities in the Middle East. With over one hundred illustrations, The Infinite Image will be necessary reading for anyone interested in the questions at the center of contemporary history and the anthropology of art.

    Green is also a prolific writer and a major voice in the international art world. Other Planes of There gathers for the first time a substantial collection of the work she wrote between 1981 and 2010. The selected essays initially appeared in publications in different countries and languages, making their availability in this volume a boon to those wanting to follow Green's artistic and intellectual trajectory.Charting this cosmopolitan artist’s thinking through the decades, Other Planes of There brings essays, film scripts, reviews, and polemics together with reflections on Green's own artistic practice and seminal artworks. It immerses the reader in three decades of contemporary art showcasing the art and thought, the incisive critiques and prescient observations of one of our foremost artists and intellectuals. Sound, cinema, literature, time-based media, and the relationship between art forms and other forms of knowledge are just a few of the matters that Green takes up and thinks through. Sixty-four pages of color plates were selected by the artist for this lavishly illustrated volume.

    This book documents the exhibition Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913–1915 at LACMA which showcases twenty-five of the artist's seminal works from his years spent in Berlin (1913–1915).In New York, Hartley belonged to the circle of artists glitz's gallery "291" where contemporary European art could be seen. Hartley traveled in 1912 to Paris and then to Berlin, where he witnessed the outbreak of World War I. The works that he created during these years, paintings filled with vivid colors and explosive forms, are his responses to the war and to the artists in Europe that he reacted against, artists such as Pablo Picasso, Robert Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, A century later these paintings are still contemporary.

    With the arrival of Ottoman embassies and their elaborate entourages at the courts of Europe in the early eighteenth century, a fascination with all things Turkish took hold among royalty and aristocracy that lasted until the French Revolution. Turbaned figures appeared in paintings, as ceramic figures, and on the stage; tented boudoirs became the rage; and crossed crescents, palm trees, and camels featured on wall panels, furniture, and enamel boxes.Here Haydn Williams, an expert on the decorative arts, shows how it was a theme that sparked varied responses in different places. Its most intense and long-lasting expression was in France, but its reach was broad–from a pavilion built by Catherine II in Russia to the Turkish tents erected along the Elbe to celebrate a royal marriage in Dresden in 1719; from an ivory statuette of a janissary created for King Augustus II of Poland to the costumes worn for a carnival celebration in Rome in 1748.The book is organized into eight thematic and chronological chapters that concentrate on particular subjects, such as painting, tents, interiors, and costumes and settings for the stage. In all, this splendid volume enables the reader to indulge in the whimsies and fancies of the European elite of the eighteenth century.

    from the Near East to Western Europe. This was the world of Odysseus, in which trade proliferated with Phoenician merchants; of King Midas, whose tomb was adorned with treasures; and of the Bible, whose stories are illuminated by recent artistic and archeological discoveries. It was also a time of rich cultural exchange across the Mediterranean and Near East as diverse populations interacted through trade, travel, and migration. Assyria to Iberia showcases masterpieces that reflect the cultural encounters of this era. Stunning details convey the beauty and significance of more than 300 objects drawn from collections around the globe. These objects include carved reliefs from the majestic palaces of ancient Assyria, Phoenician fine bronze metalwork and carved ivories, and luxurious jewelry. Texts by over 80 international scholars provide a compelling picture of this fascinating period, one that is essential to understanding the origins of Western culture and art.

     Paul Cézanne was the leading figure in the revolution toward abstraction in modern painting. His influence on the course of modern art, particularly on the development of cubism, is enormous and deep. In his early career, he was strongly influenced by Delacroix and Courbet. Through Pissarro, Cezanne came to know Manet and the Impressionist painters. He exhibited with the Impressionists in 1874, but eventually rejected what he considered the Impressionists' lack of structure. Cezanne sought to "recreate nature" by simplifying forms to their basic geometric equivalents, utilizing contrasts of color and considerable distortion to express the essence of landscape, still-lifes, and figural groupings. Instead of adhering to the traditional system of perspective, he portrayed objects from shifting viewpoints. Cezanne worked in oil, watercolor, and drawing media, often making several versions of his works.

    The book examines well-known images such as William Hogarth's Gin Lane (1751), as well as lesser-known artworks including Alfred Priest's painting Cocaine (1919), in order to demonstrate how visual culture was both informed by, and contributed to, discourses of addiction in the period between 1751 and 1919. Through her analysis of more than 30 images, Julia Skelly deconstructs beliefs and stereotypes related to addicted individuals that remain entrenched in the popular imagination today. Drawing upon both feminist and queer methodologies, as well as upon extensive archival research, Addiction and British Visual Culture, 1751-1919 investigates and problematizes the long-held belief that addiction is legible from the body, thus positioning visual images as unreliable sources in attempts to identify alcoholics and drug addicts. Examining paintings, graphic satire, photographs, advertisements and architectural sites, Skelly explores such issues as ongoing anxieties about maternal drinking; the punishment and confinement of addicted individuals; the mobility of female alcoholics through the streets and spaces of nineteenth-century London; and soldiers' use of addictive substances such as cocaine and tobacco to cope with traumatic memories following the First World War.

    Peabody and Sherman, DreamWorks Animation’s new comedy about a dog and his boy. Yes, you heard right—Mr. Peabody’s IQ is so high, this dog is actually the world’s smartest person! So smart that he’s even invented the WABAC, a time-traveling machine that he and his pet boy Sherman use to explore the world throughout the ages. Based on the beloved 1960s cartoon, Mr. Peabody and Sherman is a role-reversal reinvention like no other. Barreling through time, Peabody and Sherman explore the universe, crossing paths with the likes of Marie Antoinette and Leonardo da Vinci. But when Sherman uses the WABAC without permission and history starts to spiral out of control, the results are disastrous—and hilarious, thanks in part to a cast that includes such comedic stars as Ty Burrell, Stephen Colbert, and Mel Brooks. The imaginative spirit of the film is captured here from beginning to end with concept art, character backgrounds, design inspiration, and exclusive behind-the-scenes information. The Art of Mr. Peabody and Sherman is the ultimate keepsake for families and film fans alike.