Honore Sharrer (1920-2009) was a major art world figure in 1940s America, celebrated for exquisitely detailed paintings conveying subtly subversive critiques of the political and artistic climate of her time. This book offers the first critical reassessment of the artist: a leftist, female painter committed to figuration in an era when anti-Communist sentiment and masculine Abstract Expressionism dominated American culture. Her brightly colored, humorous, and distinctly feminine paintings combine elements of social realism and surrealism to seductive and disquieting effect. This publication is a timely reevaluation of an artist who pushed the boundaries of figurative painting with playfulness and biting wit. Distributed for the Columbus Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Columbus Museum of Art (02/10/17-05/21/17) Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (06/30/17-09/03/17) Smith College Museum of Art, Northamton, MA (09/21/17-01/07/18)

Following World War II, Western painting went in completely new directions. A young generation of artists turned their backs on the dominant styles of the interwar period: Instead of figurative representation or geometric abstraction, painters in the orbit of Abstract Expressionism in the US and Art Informel in Western Europe pursued a radically impulsive approach to form, color, and material. As an expression of individual freedom, the spontaneous artistic gesture gained symbolic significance. Large-scale color-field compositions created a meditative space for ruminating the fundamental questions of human existence. The exhibition and catalogue examine the two sister movements against the background of a vibrant transatlantic exchange, from the 1940s through to the end of the Cold War. This lavishly illustrated volume brings together works by more than 50 artists, amongst them Alberto Burri, Jean Dubuffet, Helen Frankenthaler, K. O. Goetz, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Georges Mathieu, Joan Mitchell, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Judit Reigl, Mark Rothko, Hedda Sterne, Clyfford Still, and Jack Tworkov.

Insiders/Outsiders, published to accompany a UK-wide arts festival of the same name in 2019, examines the extraordinarily rich and pervasive contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education and art-world structures of the United Kingdom. In every field, emigres arriving from Europe in the 1930s - supported by a small number of like-minded individuals already resident in the UK - introduced a professionalism, internationalism and bold avant-gardism to a British art world not known for these attributes. At a time when the issue of immigration is much debated, the book serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural cross-fertilization and of the deep, long-lasting and wide-ranging contribution that refugees make to British life. Contributions by: Richard Aronowitz, Harriet Atkinson, Michael Berkowitz, Morwenna Blewett, Monica Bohm-Duchen, Charmian Brinson, Andrew Chandler, Hans Christian Hoenes, Leyla Daybelge, Rachel Dickson, Keith Holz, Amanda Hopkinson, Shauna Isaac, Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser, Simon Lake, Sarah MacDougall, Anna Muller-Harlin, Sir Norman Rosenthal, Anna Nyburg, Michael Paraskos, Antony Penrose, Alan Powers and Daniel Snowman

This book examines Rembrandt Bugatti's fraught personal life, his position in art history, and the wide-ranging artistic influences apparent in his works. It discusses the sculptor's innate empathy for the life of his subjects, revealing a fascinating figure, independent from yet not unrelated to the artists of his time. This updated lavishly illustrated publication will be a revelation to those discovering the artist for the first time. For those already aware of his brilliant vision and unsurpassed sculptural skills, it offers a spectacular photographic archive of his works, and much fresh thinking and research about his career.

Throughout his life, Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was a prolific and creative writer. Correspondent to many, his unpublished letters, selected and extracted here for the first time (along with published writings), reveal fascinating insight into significant events and encounters at various stages of the artist's career, while also demonstrating how Nicholson's aesthetic was interwoven into every aspect of his daily life. Including previously unpublished letters to both Winifred Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, these are complemented by those sent to some of the artist's closest friends and trusted supporters, among them Herbert Read, Adrian Stokes, Jim Ede and Margaret Gardiner. Throughout, Nicholson's lively intellect and total commitment to art are clearly evident, as is his association and friendship with some of the key figures of international Modernism, including Mondrian, Henry Moore and Picasso. Featuring reproductions of key works and selected letters, Ben Nicholson: Writings and Ideas is an invaluable resource to all those interested in the work of this key British artist and the period in which he worked.

Knitting together two fascinating but entirely distinct lives, this ingeniously structured braided biography tells the story of the lives and work of two women, each a cultural icon in her own country yet lesser known in the other's. Australian poet Judith Wright and Canadian painter Emily Carr broke new ground for female artists in the British colonies and influenced the political and social debates about environment and indigenous rights that have shaped Australia and Canada in the 21st century. In telling their story/ies, this book charts the battle for recognition of their modernist art and vision, pointing out significant moments of similarity in their lives and work. Although separated by thousands of miles, their experience of colonial modernity was startlingly analogous, as white settler women bent on forging artistic careers in a male-dominated world and sphere rigged against them. Through all this, though, their cultural importance endures; two remarkable women whose poetry and painting still speak to us today of their passionate belief in the transformative power of art.

This first survey of Antonio Bernal's life and work, The Artist as Eyewitness features essays that assess his murals, situating them within the historical, political, and cultural frameworks of the Chicano movement. It also includes an analysis of Bernal's unpublished novel, Breaking the Silence; a biography of Bernal; reproductions of his artwork; and a selection of his writings. Drawing on personal correspondence and writings, photographs, and audiovisual materials that document Bernal's travels, artwork, and family history, this book offers an important contribution to Chicana/o studies and art history.

This comprehensive book is both a biographical exploration of the early life of Mary Seton Watts and a survey of the pottery she designed. Her roots in Scotland, her artistic career and her marriage to the Victorian artist George Frederic Watts all influenced the design of the Grade 1 listed Cemetery Chapel at Compton and the art potteries which she then set up, both in Compton (The Potters' Arts Guild) and in her home village near Inverness. The pottery at Compton was in business for more than fifty years, making terracotta garden ware, memorials and small decorative pieces. It remained open through two World Wars and a trade depression. This highly illustrated publication showcases the beautiful and individual pieces of pottery and is a fitting tribute to the ability of Mary Watts to coordinate both people and resources.

Since the 2011 Arab Spring street art has been a vehicle for political discourse in the Middle East, and has generated much discussion in both the popular media and academia. Yet, this conversation has generalised street art and identified it as a singular form with identical styles and objectives throughout the region. Street art's purpose is, however, defined by the socio-cultural circumstances of its production. Middle Eastern artists thus adopt distinctive methods in creating their individual work and responding to their individual environments. Here, in this new book, Sabrina De Turk employs rigorous visual analysis to explore the diversity of Middle Eastern street art and uses case studies of countries as varied as Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain and Oman to illustrate how geographic specifics impact upon its function and aesthetic. Her book will be of significant interest to scholars specialising in art from the Middle East and North Africa and those who bring an interdisciplinary perspective to Middle East studies.

Noa the Boa is a slave to fashion with the heart of an actor and an obsession with celebrity. He becomes luxurious leather accessories for illustrious clients - from Grace Kelly's pillow to the codpieces at the Folies Bergere - in a high-fashion gift book for adults that is whimsical, and a little bit naughty.

'Heady, lively, engaging...brings Montmartre's heyday back to life' - Sunday Times 'Brilliant' - Guardian The real revolution in the arts first took place not, as is commonly supposed, in the 1920s to the accompaniment of the Charleston, black jazz and mint juleps, but more quietly and intimately, in the shadow of the windmills - artificial and real - and in the cafes and cabarets of Montmartre during the first decade of the century. The cross-fertilization of painting, writing, music and dance produced a panorama of activity characterized by the early works of Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck and Modigliani, the appearance of the Ballet Russe and the salons of Gertrude Stein. In In Montmartre, Sue Roe vividly brings to life the bohemian world of art in Paris between 1900-1910.

This landmark book reflects on almost 70 years of works by Bridget Riley (b.1931), from some of her earliest to very recent projects, providing a unique record of the work of an artist still very much at the height of her powers. Essays from leading scholars and commentators on Riley's work will make this title the authority on Riley's practice. In the last decade, Riley has continued to push her practice considerably, producing several large-scale site-specific wall paintings as well as continuing to develop new paintings. This book will explore these recent developments. It will also examine the notable influence that other artists such as Georges Seurat and Piet Mondrian have had on Riley's work.

Majestic and magical landscapes, the soft beauty of fields of flowers, the raw cold of winter: the works of Harald Sohlberg combine a Romantic perception of nature with a contemporary pictorial language akin to Symbolism. This volume assembles some 60 pai ntings, in addition to a number of drawings, prints and photographs by the artist and grants insight into his conceptual world through his correspondence. In particular the mountain world surrounding Rondane National Park provided Harald Sohlberg (1869 - 193 5) with inexhaustible inspiration for countless studies and watercolours which were later incorporated into his landscape pictures. This volume places one of his most famous works, Winter Night in the Mountains , in a new context and casts light on less wel l - known aspects of Sohlberg ' s oeuvre, which also includes street scenes, for example. One characteristic of his works that is particularly attractive is the lack of people in them - not least because their traces always appear present. This reveals a criti cal attitude to the modern age and at the same time allows the viewer to become immersed in his or her own st ories.

The artist who created the statue for the Lincoln Memorial, John Harvard in Harvard Yard, and The Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) is America's best-known sculptor of public monuments. Monument Man is the first comprehensive biography of this fascinating figure and his illustrious career. Full of rich detail and beautiful archival photographs, Monument Man is a nuanced study of a preeminent artist whose evolution ran parallel to, and deeply influenced, the development of American sculpture, iconography, and historical memory. Monument Man was specially commissioned by Chesterwood / National Trust for Historic Preservation. The release will coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Chesterwood, his country home and studio, as a public site and with a major renovation of the Lincoln Memorial. The book includes a comprehensive geographical guide to French's public work.

This new title, with text by Peyton Skipwith and Brian Webb, contains more than 170 images, several not illustrated before. The book focuses on Ravilious as a designer, in particular his work as an illustrator and wood engraver, and his work in ceramics and textiles. The book builds on the success of the first and bestselling book in this series which featured the work of Ravilious and his friend Edward Bawden - Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious: Design. This book will form an excellent and affordable introduction to the work of this brilliant and popular artist.

In this critical biography of Robert Desnos (1900-1945), Katharine Conley reevaluates the surrealist movement through the life and works of one of its founders. Desnos was as famous among the surrealists for his independence of mind as for his elaborate "automatic" drawings and his brilliant oral and written performances during the incubational period of the group. He stayed with the official surrealist movement in Paris for only six years but was pivotal during that time in shaping the surrealist notion of "transforming the world" through radical experiments with language and art. After leaving the group, Desnos continued his career of radio broadcasting and writing for commercials. Though no longer part of the official movement, he remained committed to his own version of popular surrealism: Desnosian surrealism and the search for the "marvelous" in everyday life. Near the end of World War II he was deported and imprisoned for his work in the French Resistance and died at the newly liberated camp of Terezin in Czechoslovakia. Reports from within the camp indicate that Desnos took with him into Terezin his most deeply held surrealist beliefs.

This work is a comprehensive and up-to-date monograph devoted to the oeuvre of Antonio Calderara (1903-1978), which retraces the steps of his over sixty-year-long artistic career. In his early years, Calderara embraced figurative art, influenced in part by the leading Italian art trends of the time, such as the Novecento, Chiarismo, Scapigliatura and Divisionismo movements (but also old masters like Piero della Francesca). Subsequently he turned to abstract art, in line with the shift in this direction in Milan, spearheaded by the Galleria Il Milione and Carlo Belli's KN, and later MAC. In any case, Calderara's art was always rigorously international in scope, as shown by his ties to leading exponents of European abstract art such as Mondrian, Albers and Mavignier. With an introduction by Luciano Caramel, and five sections covering the artist's personal history and his career within the context of the cultural milieu of his time, the monograph offers a thorough examination of the work of Calderara.

The Surrealist movement that developed in Europe following the devastation of World War I emerged out of a feeling by writers and artists that the world itself was going mad - and that they, the artists, were the sane ones. This introduction to Surrealism shows how the movement swept energetically through all kinds of media as artists found expression in the interaction between an imaginative pictorial language and an often-oppressive intensity of expression. The result was unique works that have lost nothing of their irresistible attraction to this day. Each work is featured on a beautifully illustrated double-page spread. An informative text highlights each work's classic characteristics as well as unusual aspects, its significance in the Surrealist movement, and its influence on the history of art in general and on contemporary art. Including brief biographies of each artist, this book is a beautifully illustrated primer to Surrealism.

Alberto Giacometti's attenuated figures of the human form are among the most significant artistic images of the 20th century. Sartre, Breton, and Winnicott are just some of the great thinkers who have drawn upon the graceful, harrowing work of Giacometti, which has continued to resonate with artists, writers, and audiences. In this book, Timothy Mathews explores the themes of fragility, trauma, space, and relationality in Giacometti's art and the texts that respond or refer to them: the novels of W.G. Sebald, Samuel Beckett and Cees Nooteboom, and the theories of Bertolt Brecht, which recasts the iconic L'Homme qui marche as Walter Benjamin's Angel of History. During his lifelong quest to represent the human form, and to locate the humanity at the heart of conflicting conceptions of modernity, Giacometti returned to the key notions of depth and flatness, memory and attachment, through his sculptures and writings. Both a critical study of Giacometti's life and work, and an investigation of their affective power, this book asks what encounters with Giacometti's pieces can tell us about the history of our own time, and our ways of looking; about the nature of human attachment, and the humility of relating to art.

Flags and Faces, based on David Lubin's 2008 Franklin D. Murphy Lectures at the University of Kansas, shows how American artists, photographers, and graphic designers helped shape public perceptions about World War I. In the book's first section, Art for War's Sake," Lubin considers how flag-based patriotic imagery prompted Americans to intervene in Europe in 1917. Trading on current anxieties about class, gender, and nationhood, American visual culture made war with Germany seem inevitable. The second section, Fixing Faces," contemplates the corrosive effects of the war on soldiers who literally lost their faces on the battlefield, and on their families back home. Unable to endure distasteful reminders of war's brutality, postwar Americans grew obsessed with physical beauty, as seen in the simultaneous rise of cosmetic surgery, the makeup industry, beauty pageants, and the cult of screen goddesses such as Greta Garbo, who was worshipped for the masklike perfection of her face. Engaging, provocative, and filled with arresting and at times disturbing illustrations, Flags and Faces offers striking new insights into American art and visual culture from 1915 to 1930.