Best of
Visual-Art

2013

Hieronymus Bosch: Complete Works


Stefan Fischer - 2013
    1450–1516) was more than an anomaly. Bosch’s paintings are populated with grotesque scenes of fantastical creatures succumbing to all manner of human desire, fantasy, and angst. One of his greatest inventions was to take the figural and scenic representations known as drolleries, which use the monstrous and the grotesque to illustrate sin and evil, and to transfer them from the marginalia of illuminated manuscripts into large-format panel paintings. Alongside traditional hybrids of man and beast, such as centaurs, and mythological creatures such as unicorns, devils, dragons, and griffins, we also encounter countless mixed creatures freely invented by the artist. Many subsidiary scenes illustrate proverbs and figures of speech in common use in Bosch’s day. In his Temptation of St Anthony triptych, for example, the artist shows a messenger devil wearing ice skates, evoking the popular expression that the world was “skating on ice”—meaning it had gone astray. In his pictorial translation of proverbs, in particular, Bosch was very much an innovator. Bosch—whose real name was Jheronimus van Aken—was widely copied and imitated: the number of surviving works by Bosch’s followers exceeds the master’s own production by more than tenfold. Today only 20 paintings and eight drawings are confidently assigned to Bosch’s oeuvre. He continues to be seen as a visionary, a portrayer of dreams and nightmares, and the painter par excellence of hell and its demons. Featuring brand new photography of recently restored paintings, this exhaustive book, published in view of the upcoming 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death, covers the artist’s complete works. Discover Bosch’s pictorial inventions in splendid reproductions with copious details and a huge fold-out spread, over 110 cm (43 in.) long, of The Garden of Earthly Delights. Art historian and acknowledged Bosch expert Stefan Fischer examines just what it was about Bosch and his painting that proved so immensely influential.

Designa: Technical Secrets of the Traditional Visual Arts


John Martineau - 2013
    Following the success of Quadrivium and Sciencia, a compendium of six titles on art and design in the acclaimed Wooden Books series appears here in one volume.Book 1: Celtic Pattern by Adam TetlowBook 2: Islamic Design by Daud SuttonBook 3: Curves by Lisa DelongBook 4: Perspective by Phoebe McNaughtonBook 5: Symmetry by David WadeBook 6: The Golden Section by Scott Olsen

The Book of Miracles


Till-Holger Borchert - 2013
    The nearly complete surviving illustrated manuscript, which was created in the Swabian Imperial Free City of Augsburg around 1550, is composed of 169 pages with large-format illustrations in gouache and watercolor depicting wondrous and often eerie celestial phenomena, constellations, conflagrations, and floods as well as other catastrophes and occurrences. It deals with events ranging from the creation of the world and incidents drawn from the Old Testament, ancient tradition, and medieval chronicles to those that took place in the immediate present of the book’s author and, with the illustrations of the visionary Book of Revelation, even includes the future end of the world. The surprisingly modern-looking, sometimes hallucinatory illustrations and the cursory descriptions of the Book of Miracles strikingly convey a unique view of the concerns and anxieties of the 16th century, of apocalyptic thinking and eschatological expectation. The present facsimile volume reproduces the Book of Miracles in its entirety for the first timeand thus makes one of the most important works of the German Renaissance finally available to art lovers and scholars. The introduction puts the codex in its cultural and historical context, and an extensive description of the manuscript and its miniatures, as well as a complete transcript of the text, accompany the facsimile in an appendix.

Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy


J.W. Rinzler - 2013
    Working from Lucas’s ideas for scenes and sequences, these artists produced beautiful drawings that helped lay the foundations for the worlds, characters, and shots of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Together, these conceptual storyboards show early takes on favorite scenes; alternate, unused approaches to character designs and environments; and entirely different approaches to key moments. Like wordless comic books, they have an energy and rhythm all their own that is fascinating to explore.Now, for the first time, Lucasfilm has opened its archives to present the best of the conceptual storyboards for Episodes I, II, and III. Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy collects the best storyboards from all three films together in one striking volume, along with relevant excerpts from the shooting scripts. Throughout this book, readers will find insight into how these conceptual storyboards helped to contribute both to the creation of the Prequel Trilogy and the expansion of the Star Wars universe.

The Sunflowers are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh's Masterpiece


Martin Bailey - 2013
    Martin Bailey explains why Van Gogh painted a series of sunflower still lifes in Provence. He then explores the subsequent adventures of the seven pictures, and their influence on modern art. Through the Sunflowers, we gain fresh insights into Van Gogh's life and his path to fame. Based on original research, the book is packed with discoveries throwing new light on the legendary artist.

Zenspirations Dangle Designs


Joanne Fink - 2013
    Zenspirations dangles are a unique form of patterning...and although they look complicated, they are actually easy to create. If you enjoyed Joanne's first book, Zenspirations Paterns & Lettering then you'll love Zenspiration Dangle Designs.

Inside the Rainbow: Russian Children's Literature 1920-1935: Beautiful Books, Terrible Times


Julian Rothenstein - 2013
    In the dark and dangerous world of revolutionary Petrograd, a group of Russian poets and artists, among the greatest of the century, came together to create a new kind of book for children about to enter a Brave New World. These artists and writers dreamed of endless possibilities in a new world where children and grown-ups alike would be free from the bitterness of ignorance. For a time, when children's publications still escaped the scourge of state censorship, their books became a last haven for learning, poetic irony, burlesque and laughter. In this book 250 brilliant examples of illustration and design are complemented by some wonderful translations of poems and stories as well as texts from the victims, criminals and witnesses to the Russian revolution.

Someday Is Now: The Art of Corita Kent


Ian Berry - 2013
    Artist, activist, teacher, and devout Catholic Corita Kent (1918-1986) eloquently combined her passions for faith and politics during her rich and varied career. As a teacher at LA's Immaculate Heart College, she fostered a creative and collaborative arts community and developed an interest in printmaking. Her posters, murals, and signature serigraphs combined messages of love and faith with images from popular culture and inventive use of type and color. For Kent, printmaking was a populist medium to communicate with the world around her. This activist spirit came most alive in the 1960s, when her posters and murals addressed subjects like racism and poverty, U.S. military brutalities in Vietnam, and conflicts between radical and conservative positions in the Catholic Church. Even after the war, and after she had left the church, she continued to be active in Boston's urban issues, producing prints and commissioned works until her death in 1986. Full of the lively, colorful work that was so iconically hers, this volume presents four decades of a life dedicated to serving others through and with the language of art.

Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey


Trevor Schoonmaker - 2013
    Born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1972, and now based in Brooklyn, Mutu renders the complex global sensibility of the early twenty-first century through a distinctly hybrid aesthetic. She combines found materials and magazine cutouts with sculpture and painted imagery, sampling from sources and phenomena as diverse as African traditions, international politics, the fashion industry, and science fiction. In her work, Mutu marries poetic symbolism with sociopolitical critique to explore issues of gender, race, war, colonialism, and, particularly, the exoticization of the black female body.The many images included in Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey highlight the most important and iconic works that Mutu has created since the mid-1990s, as well as portray new collages, drawings, videos, and site-specific installations. The catalog also offers an intimate look into her sketchbooks and includes an interview with the artist conducted by the exhibition's curator, Trevor Schoonmaker. Essays by Schoonmaker, the art historian Kristine Stiles, and the critic, musician, and producer Greg Tate are paired with an illustrated chronology of Mutu's work.Publication of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

Micha�l Borremans: As Sweet as It Gets


Jeffrey Grove - 2013
    The disparate spaces he imagines in his paintings, drawings, sculptures and films are unified by an uncanny sense of dislocation and an often unsettling beauty. Rendered in complex palettes and exquisite techniques, Borremans' works in all media embrace a rich legacy of artistic progenitors, but remain firmly anchored in the present. Presenting over 100 works created by the artist over a 14-year period in all media, this publication includes many works not previously reproduced in books or catalogues, offering the most complete overview of Borremans' oeuvre to date. Contributions include a concise and incisive overview of Borremans' practice; a revealing, in-depth interview between the main author of the book, Jeffrey Grove, and the artist, addressing process, influence and philosophical and critical issues; as well as more than 50 individual entries and mini-essays on individual works in the artist's oeuvre by notable writers, curators, filmmakers and musicians. Described by the artist as "the mother of all Borremans books," Micha�l Borremans: As Sweet As It Gets is published on the occasion of a major mid-career retrospective.Initially trained in photography and graphic design, the Belgian artist Micha�l Borremans (born 1963) turned to painting at the age of 30. Work by the artist is held in numerous public collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Borremans lives and works in Ghent.

John William Waterhouse: 170 Pre-Raphaelite Paintings - Gallery Series


Daniel Ankele - 2013
    Book includes Table of Contents, Top 50 Museums of the World and is compatible with all Kindle devices, Kindle for iOS and Android tablets (use rotate and/or zoom feature on landscape/horizontal images for optimal viewing).BORN: April 6, 1849 in Rome, Papal States.DIED: February 10, 1917, in London, United Kingdom.MOVEMENT: Pre-RaphaeliteINTERESTING FACTS:§ Waterhouse's parents William and Isabella were both British painters.§ In 1871, he initially trained as a Sculptor at the Royal Academy of Art school, before changing to painting.§ In 1874, Waterhouse successfully exhibited 'Sleep and his Half-brother Death,' at the Royal Academy summer exhibition.§ In 1883, he was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor.§ In 1895, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy.NOTABLE WORKS:Ophelia (1894, 1909, 1910), The Lady of Shalott, Undine, Gone But Not Forgotten, Saint Eulalia.

9.5 Theses on Art and Class


Ben Davis - 2013
    In 9.5 Theses on Art and Class and Other Writings Ben Davis takes on a broad array of contemporary art’s most persistent debates: How does creative labor fit into the economy? Is art merging with fashion and entertainment? What can we expect from political art? Davis argues that returning class to the center of discussion can play a vital role in tackling the challenges that visual art faces today, including the biggest challenge of all—how to maintain faith in art itself in a dysfunctional world.

The Cy Twombly Gallery: The Menil Collection, Houston


Nicola Del Roscio - 2013
    In his works, Twombly incorporated a wide variety of elements, from scrawls and calligraphic marks to text from poetry and mythology. Opening in 1995, the Cy Twombly Gallery at the Menil Collection was designed by Renzo Piano and has become a pilgrimage destination for the artist’s avid admirers. The product of close collaboration between the Menil, Twombly, and the Dia Center for the Arts, the Gallery is one of the most extraordinary representations of any single 20th-century artist. Twombly chose the art that would be featured and worked closely with the builders to create the most appropriate venue for its presentation.This sumptuous volume showcases thirty-three paintings and eleven sculptures, including an immense 13 x 52–foot painting. Featuring large-scale, close-up details of many of the works, the book looks at paint, plaster, paintings, sculptures, and the “cues” that Twombly gave in his art about this special collection.

Turner and the Sea


Christine Riding - 2013
    M. W. Turner’s lifelong fascination with the sea, from his Royal Academy debut in 1796, Fishermen at Sea, to his iconic maritime subjects of the 1830s and 1840s such as Staffa, Fingal’s Cave. It places Turner and his work firmly in the broader field of maritime painting that flourished in nineteenth-century Britain, France, Germany, Holland, and America.The majority of the works illustrated here—paintings, watercolors, sketches, sketchbooks, and engravings—are by Turner, but there are also comparative works by some forty other artists including Winslow Homer, James McNeill Whistler, John Constable, Benjamin West, and Gustave Courbet. The book is organized thematically and chronologically, and the subjects range from “Contested Waters,” which examines what was at stake for marine painting during the Napoleonic Wars, to “New Wave,” an exploration of Turner’s international and often surprising legacy for the art of the sea.

An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle


Michael Duncan - 2013
    

Chris Burden: Extreme Measures


Lisa Phillips - 2013
    For four decades, Chris Burden’s work has redefined the boundaries of the sculptural field. Whether subjecting himself to extremes of physical suffering or reconfiguring forgotten urban objects and toy models to create potent signifiers of a time and place, the brute force of Burden’s work in the physical realm reverberates through the psychic one. On the occasion of the New Museum’s focused survey of Burden’s work, this book provides new perspectives on his art. Organized around themes like the Myth of the American West, the Institution, Gender Roles, and Model Making, the book reexamines preoccupations that span the artist’s long career.

Arts & Crafts of the Islamic Lands: Principles Materials Practice


Khaled Azzam - 2013
    Created by The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, one of the world’s leading schools for the study of Eastern and Western crafts, this book combines detailed information on techniques and materials with discussion of the philosophical and historical background of the cultures that have contributed to Islamic arts.The book covers a range of artworks and media from intricate geometric drawing, decorative Kufic calligraphy, and Persian miniature painting to ceramics, wood parquetry, mosaics, and glassblowing. Common tools and materials, such as gesso panels, gilding, and brush and wasli paper are presented along with information on their historical significance. Each chapter introduces a principle, tool, or technique along with examples of masterworks found across the Islamic world before providing a fully illustrated step-by-step guide to creating specific designs.

Pauline Boty: Pop Artist And Woman


Sue Tate - 2013
    

Heroics 2


Paul Freeman - 2013
    A collection of over one hundred and eighty fine art nude photographic portraits of men captured in the classical tradition of mythologised heroism and the sometimes grandiose and dramatic poses that entailed, shot in an array of contemporary, post-modernist, neo-classic and painterly environments, in both colour and warm toned black and white, reminiscent of the influences being evoked and in the tradition of fine art film photography.