Ordinary art. Ordinary art means something like: all art not made by Mozart. After all, art is rarely made by Mozart-like people; essentially-statistically speaking-there aren't any people like that. Geniuses get made once-a-century or so, yet good art gets made all the time, so to equate the making of art with the workings of genius removes this intimately human activity to a strangely unreachable and unknowable place. For all practical purposes making art can be examined in great detail without ever getting entangled in the very remote problems of genius."--from the Introduction

    Starting with James Abbott McNeill Whistler and ending with Matthew Barney, nearly every prominent figure in Modern art is represented in vibrant double-page spreads that show how these artists continued to redefine norms and challenge tradition. Fascinating biographical and anecdotal information about each artist is provided alongside large reproductions of their most celebrated works, stunning details, and images of the artists themselves. A color-coded timeline spans the entire volume, showing overlapping careers and important historical dates. From the impressionists to the surrealists, the cubists to the pop-artists-readers will find a wealth of information as well as hours of enjoyment learning about this popular and prolific period in art history.

    A short illustrated survey of the use of photography in contemporary art since the mid-1980s.

    As you browse the photographs they discuss inspiration, censorship, how to find models, and how to make a living capturing beautiful women on film and in pixels. The New Erotic Photography is the room, and 82 photographers from 14 countries are the hosts of this intimate gathering. In this 608 page volume you will meet Ralph Gibson, Jan Saudek, Terry Richardson, Natacha Merritt, Petter Hegre, Richard Kern, Bob Carlos Clarke, Thomas Karsten and the many fresh new talents currently redefining eroticism. Playful, provocative and exuberantly sexy, these aren?t your granddad's art nudes; this is The New Erotic Photography. Photographers featured: Robert Adler, Markus Amon, Guido Argentini, Alethea Austin, Marc Baptiste, Daniel Bauer, Bruno Bisang, Lisa Boyle, Derek Caballero, Bob Carlos Clarke, Didier Carre, BT Charles, John Chilton, Robert Chouraqui, Jean Van Cleemput, Barney Cokeliss, Bob Coulter, Cristian Crisbasan, Yuri Dojc, Susan Egan, Andrew Einhorn, Alla Esipovich, Ivana Ford, Ed Fox, Peter Franck, Jody Frost, Perry Gallagher, Ralph Gibson, Steve Diet Goedde, Peter Gorman, Ludovic Goubet, James Graham, China Hamilton, Naomi Harris, Aaron Hawks, Petter Hegre, Mark Helfrich, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Mike James, Jive, Thomas Karsten, Richard Kern, Christine Kessler, Chas Ray Krider, Eric Kroll, Vlastimil Kula, Dennis Letbetter, Stefano Levi, Herv? Lewis, Kenn Lichtenwalter, Florian Lohmann, Ben Marcato, Olaf Martens, Natacha Merritt, Maki Miyashita, Craig Morey, Ken-ichi Murata, Dave Naz, Beatrice Neumann, SakikoNomura, David Perry, George Pitts, Collin Rae, Nicola Ranaldi, Terry Richardson, Markus Richter, Giovanni Sambuelli, Will Santillo, Jan Saudek, Joan Sinclair, Tony Stamolis, Julie Strain-Eastman, Missy Suicide, Brian Sullivan, Jeremy Thompson, Rebecca Tillett, Larry Utley, Mariano Vargas, Yasuji Watanabe, Ben Westwood, Michael White, Chip Willis

    During van Meegeren’s heyday as a forger of Vermeers, he earned 50 million dollars, the acclamation of the world’s press, and the satisfaction of swindling the Nazis. His canvases were so nearly authentic that they would almost certainly be prized among the catalogue of Vermeers if he had not confessed. And, no doubt, he never would have confessed at all if he hadn’t been trapped in a catch-22: he had thrived so noticably during the war that when it ended, he was quickly arrested as a Nazi collaborator. His only defense was to admit that he himself had painted the remarkable “Vermeers” that had passed through his hands—a confession the public refused to believe, until, in a huge media event, the courts staged the public painting of what would be van Meegeren’s last “Vermeer.” I Was Vermeer is an utterly gripping real-life mystery, capturing both the life of the consummate art forger, phenomenally skilled and yet necessarily unrecognized, and the equally fascinating work of the experts who identify forgeries and track down their perpetrators. Wry, amoral, irreverent, and plotted like a thriller, it is the first major book in forty years on this astonishing episode in history.

    Each image in Talking Pictures reveals a singular, frozen moment in a person’s life, be it joyful, quiet, or steeped in sorrow. Yet the book’s unique depth comes from the writing accompanying each photo: as with the caption revealing how one seemingly random snapshot of a dancing couple captured the first dance of their 40-year marriage, each successive inscription shines like a flashbulb illuminating a photograph’s particular context and lighting up our connection to the past.

    This book was conceived on a grand scale that does justice to his extraordinary life and the events he has witnessed. It forms one of the great documents of the latter part of the last century.The book begins and ends in the Somerset landscape that surrounds McCullin's home, but the whole sequence of more than two hundred photographs encompasses a ravaged northern England, war in Cyprus, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, Beirut and riots in Derry. The climax of the book is among the cannibals and tribespeople deep in the jungles of Irian Jaya, where McCullin focuses on humanity in an almost Stone Age condition.The introduction by Harold Evans, the acclaimed newspaper editor and authority on photojournalism, is drawn from his long experience of working with McCullin. The distinguished novelist and essayist, Susan Sontag, has contributed an essay on McCullin and the role of witness to conflict - a subject of timely pertinence.

    Revolutionary in their day, Group f.64 was one of the first modern art movements equally defined by women. From the San Francisco Bay Area, its influence extended internationally, contributing significantly to the recognition of photography as a fine art.The group-first identified as such in a 1932 exhibition-was comprised of strongly individualist artists, brought together by a common philosophy, and held together in a tangle of dynamic relationships. They shared a conviction that photography must emphasize its unique capabilities-those that distinguished it from other arts-in order to establish the medium's identity. Their name, f.64, they took from a very small lens aperture used with their large format cameras, a pinprick that allowed them to capture the greatest possible depth of field in their lustrous, sharply detailed prints. In today's digital world, these “straight” photography champions are increasingly revered.Mary Alinder is uniquely positioned to write this first group biography. A former assistant to Ansel Adams, she knew most of the artists featured. Just as importantly, she understands the art. Featuring fifty photographs by and of its members, Group f.64 details a transformative period in art with narrative flair.

    Was it the outcome of what a photographer had in mind from the outset? Did it emerge from a diligently worked sequence? Was the right shot a matter of being in the right place at the right time?Here, for the first time, are the best contact sheets created by Magnum photographers. They reveal the creative methods, strategies, and editing processes used by some of the acknowledged greats of photography, from legends such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt to Magnum’s latest generation, including Jonas Bendiksen, Trent Parke, and Alec Soth.Events, places, and people from over seventy years of history are contained in Magnum’s contact sheets, including the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, Che Guevara by René Burri, the Paris riots of 1968 by Bruno Barbey, Malcolm X by Eve Arnold, and New York street scenes by Bruce Gilden.With supporting texts by the photographers or by those selected by the estates of deceased Magnum members, and ancillary material such as press cards, notebooks, and filed captions, this landmark publication provides a depth of understanding and a critical analysis of the backstory to a photograph.

    Early on he adopted the versatile 35mm format and helped develop the popular “street photography” style, influencing generations of photographers that followed. In his own words, he expressed that “the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. . . . It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.” In 1947 Cartier-Bresson founded Magnum Photos with four other photographers. August 22 will be the 100th anniversary of his birth.

    But his profound influence on other photographers, most famously on Diane Arbus, derives not only from his sensational subject matter and his use of the blinding, close-up flash, but also from his eagerness to photograph the city at all hours, at all levels: coffee shops at three in the morning, hot summer evenings in the tenements, debutante balls, parties in the street, lovers on park benches, the destitute and the lonely. No other photographer has better revealed the non-stop spectacle of life in New York City.Weegee's first book, Naked City (1945), was a runaway success and made him a celebrity who suddenly had assignments from Life and Vogue. By the publication of his second book, Weegee's People (1946), he had cut the wires to his police radio and had begun to photograph the furred and bejeweled grandes dames at the Metropolitan Opera as well as his beloved street people. Naked Hollywood (1953) and Weegee by Weegee (1961) feature portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khruschev, and Liberace -- many of them viewed through the distorted lens of his Weegee-scope.Regarded as some of the most powerful images of twentieth-century photography, Weegee's work now resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

    He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. This is Tom Wolfe "at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent" (San Francisco Chronicle).

    After many years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Neret finally located all the paintings of this highly prolific artist. These two volumes represent a one time offer at 29.99 as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Dali's birth. The set will have a sticker indicating the 100th anniversary,

    TASCHEN's 25th anniversary - Special edition! "Fascinating for what it tells us about the history of body images and social codes." -The Independent, London

    The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary--one who was equally ambitious but possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses.Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were close associates whose personal bond frayed after Degas painted a portrait of Manet and his wife. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso swapped paintings, ideas, and influences as they jostled for the support of collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein and vied for the leadership of a new avant-garde. Jackson Pollock's uninhibited style of "action painting" triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival, Willem de Kooning. After Pollock's sudden death in a car crash, de Kooning assumed Pollock's mantle and became romantically involved with his late friend's mistress. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s, when Bacon was being hailed as Britain's most exciting new painter and Freud was working in relative obscurity. Their intense but asymmetrical friendship came to a head when Freud painted a portrait of Bacon, which was later stolen.Each of these relationships culminated in an early flashpoint, a rupture in a budding intimacy that was both a betrayal and a trigger for great innovation. Writing with the same exuberant wit and psychological insight that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for art criticism, Sebastian Smee explores here the way that coming into one's own as an artist--finding one's voice--almost always involves willfully breaking away from some intimate's expectations of who you are or ought to be.Praise for The Art of Rivalry"Gripping . . . Mr. Smee's skills as a critic are evident throughout. He is persuasive and vivid. . . . You leave this book both nourished and hungry for more about the art, its creators and patrons, and the relationships that seed the ground for moments spent at the canvas."--The New York Times"With novella-like detail and incisiveness [Sebastian Smee] opens up the worlds of four pairs of renowned artists. . . . Each of his portraits is a biographical gem. . . . The Art of Rivalry is a pure, informative delight, written with canny authority."--The Boston Globe"Bacon liked to say his portraiture aimed to capture 'the pulsations of a person.' Revealing these rare creators as the invaluable catalysts they also were, Smee conveys exactly that on page after page. . . . His brilliant group biography is one of a kind." --The Atlantic "Perceptive . . . Smee is onto something important. His book may bring us as close as we'll ever get to understanding the connections between these bristly bonds and brilliance."--The Christian Science Monitor"In this intriguing work of art history and psychology, The Boston Globe's art critic looks at the competitive friendships of Matisse and Picasso, Manet and Degas, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. All four relationships illuminate the creative process--both its imaginative breakthroughs and its frustrating blocks."--Newsday