The authors analyze the lives and workd of women in both the fine and decorative arts from the Middle Ages until the 1970s.

    She explains the obstacles as both external and surmountable and internal and insurmountable in the race for achievement.

    Today, says Francine Prose, the word has been weakened and is used almost exclusively to refer to the chic women who help fashion designers inform their latest lines. But in her scholarly account, Prose (a National Book Award finalist for her novel Blue Angel ) presents nine real women who moved men to greatness and who were not mere catalysts but worthy of note on their own, in many cases deserving a share of the credit for the work they helped create.Each chapter is a mini-biography of a woman's life and the way a male artist figured into it. We see the muse as prompter and creator in her own regard, like memoirist Hester Thrale, whose letters to Samuel Johnson helped form his later works. In Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the muse is at her most passive, asserting her independence of the child-loving author only by failing to remain seven years old forever. And with Yoko Ono, there is the muse as artist in her own right, who claimed not to have heard of the Beatles before meeting John Lennon, and whose avant-garde tendencies some blamed for his musical downfall.To hit the mystical nine, Prose stretches a bit. For every Suzanne Farrell collaborating on ballets with George Balanchine, or every Gala Dal� cosigning canvases with spouse Salvador, there are personae only a graduate student would be likely to know. We learn of "serial muse" Lou Andreas-Salom�'s involvement with Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Sigmund Freud, and of how Charis Weston had to vie with a toilet for the attentions of her photographer husband, Edward. But these lesser-knowns help make the book a complete analysis of notable women who motivated men of achievement -- usually at the expense of their own -- and lived with the consequences. iKatherine Hottinger/i

    This first full-length study of her life and work shows that her powerfully original treatments of mythic-heroic female subjects depart radically from traditional interpretations of the same themes.

    . . . Until Power, feminist art has been conspicuously absent from standard academic narratives. . . . Now, no critic or historian, conservative or not, can argue that feminist art is insignificant.--Elizabeth Hess, Village Voice. 270 illustrations, 118 in full color.

    Collected here for the first time is an anthology of pieces artist Tracey Emin wrote for The Independent newspaper in London-a weekly column that ran to great acclaim between 2005 and 2009-that touch on everything from the themes behind her work to her process, inspirations, and her alternately humorous and profound observations of daily life. Moving from diatribes on contemporary art and culture to confessional pieces chronicling her travels abroad and reflecting on her private life in London, the columns bring together elements of essay and diary that present a unique perspective on life and the work of the queen of the Young British Artists. Edited and introduced by the artist, and illustrated with forty reproductions of photographs that recall the original format of the columns, Tracey Emin: My Life in a Column makes a giant of the art world at once more familiar and more profound.

    The Deadly Sisterhood An epic saga of the Italian Renaissance from the author of CATHERINE DE MEDICI Full description

    Images from Ryden's acclaimed Japanese Snow Yak Show are reproduced in large 11" x 14" format, & include many detail images & drawings. Features all of the works, as well as photographs of the work on display.

    Typical of Woodman's work in the way they cast the female body as simultaneously physical and immaterial, these photographs and the evocative title they share are apt choices to encapsulate the work of an artist whose legacy has been unavoidably colored by her tragic personal biography and her death, at age 22, by suicide. In less than a decade, Woodman produced a fascinating body of work--in black and white and in color--exploring gender, representation, sexuality and the body through the photographing of her own body and those of her friends. Since her death, Woodman's influence continues to grow: her work has been the subject of numerous in-depth studies and exhibitions in recent years, and her photographs have inspired artists all over the world. Published to accompany a travelling exhibition of Woodman's work, Francesca Woodman: On Being an Angel offers a comprehensive overview of Woodman's oeuvre, organized chronologically, with texts by Anna Tellgren, Anna-Karin Palm and the artist's father, George Woodman. Francesca Woodman (1958-81) was born in Denver, Colorado, to an artistic family and began experimenting with photography as a teenager. In 1975 she attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and in 1979 she moved to New York to attempt to build a career in photography. Woodman's working career was intense but brief, cut short by her death in 1981.

    She endured a catastrophic set of physical calamities as a child and young woman, was an active member of the Communist Party, and survived a tempestuous marriage to the artist Diego Rivera. This book includes many photographs of her life alongside her extraordinary paintings, and presents commentary by leading Mexican art historians, stunning reproductions of her most seminal works -- some never before reproduced, and nine gate-folds allowing the reader to examine in detail aspects of her larger works.

    

    Simply constructed, the book explores 50 key works – from the realist painting of Courbet to a contemporary installation by Yayoi Kusama – and then links them to the most important movements, themes and techniques. Accessible, concise and richly illustrated, the book reveals the connections between different periods, artists and styles, giving readers a thorough understanding and broad enjoyment of modern art.

    The Samurai spirit, Bushido, is an integral component of Japanese tattooing that is traced through the imagery and interpersonal dynamics of this veiled subculture. The eloquent text is based largely on Takahiro Kitamura's experiences as client and student of the famed Japanese tattoo master, Horiyoshi III. Over 200 beautiful photos by Jai Tanju capture the breathtaking tattoo artistry of Horiyoshi III. Five original, unpublished prints by Horiyoshi III, like those in his acclaimed book, 100 Demons of Horiyoshi III, are included here. Bushido: Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo is certain to fascinate everyone with an interest in tattoo culture.

    Discover the tragic genius of Vincent van Gogh with this beautiful and highly informative guide, which tells the fascinating story of his life and work. Superb specially commissioned photographs show the methods and materials van Gogh used to create his masterpieces, while art expert Bruce Bernard offers a rare "eyewitness" view into the painter's distinctive canvases, and the complex character behind them. See van Gogh's striking use of color and texture, the originality and expressiveness of his techniques, the masters that inspired him, and the work he produced during his madness. Learn of young Vincent's painful unrequited love, how poverty and illness added to his despair, how we won Monet's praise and influenced Toulouse-Lautrec, and about van Gogh's interest in Japan. Discover the astonishing speed at which van Gogh painted, the crisis that caused him to cut off part of his ear, his friendships with other artists, including Paul Gauguin, and much, much more.

    Focusing on art before 1520, this edition organizes the material chronologically. It now incorporates considerable new material on the history of music and theatre, and updates scholarship on ancient art.