A panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs over 40,000 years from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany, following the new BBC Radio 4 documentary and British Museum exhibition. One of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious. Yet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument in favour of faith. It is about the stories which give shape to our lives, and the different ways in which societies imagine their place in the world. Looking across history and around the globe, it interrogates objects, places and human activities to try to understand what shared beliefs can mean in the public life of a community or a nation, how they shape the relationship between the individual and the state, and how they help give us our sense of who we are. For in deciding how we live with our gods, we also decide how to live with each other. 'The new blockbuster by the museums maestro Neil MacGregor ... The man who chronicles world history through objects is back ... examining a new set of objects to explore the theme of faith in society' Sunday Times

After Cezanne is a sequence of fifty-six poems exploring the life and work of the post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Reimagining his friendships with Zola and Pissarro, his impact on Matisse and Picasso, as well as his posthumous reputation, Maitreyabandhu celebrates Cezanne's apples and card players in poems at once tender, urgent and amused. The book includes 26 colour reproductions, a preface by Christopher Lloyd (Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, 1988-2005) and extensive textual notes. After Cezanne is Maitreyabandhu's third collection.

Indonesian art entered the global contemporary art world of independent curators, art fairs and biennales in the 1990s. By the mid-2000s, Indonesian works were well-established on the Asian secondary art market, achieving record-breaking prices at auction houses in Singapore and Hong Kong. This comprehensive overview introduces Indonesian contemporary art in a fresh and stimulating manner, demonstrating how contemporary art breaks from colonial and post-colonial power structures, and grapples with issues of identity and nation-building in Indonesia. Across different media, in performance and installation, it amalgamates ethnic, cultural and religious references in its visuals, and confidently brings together the traditional (batik, woodcut, dance, Javanese shadow puppet theatre) with the contemporary (comics and manga, graffiti, advertising, pop culture). Spielmann's Contemporary Indonesian Art surveys the key artists, curators, institutions and collectors in the local art scene, and looks at the significance of Indonesian art in the Asian context. Through this book, originally published in German, Spielmann stakes a claim for global relevance of Indonesian art.

One of the most distinctive features of Islamic design is the evolution of an increasingly abstract and repetitive repertoire of motifs, which are shared among all media - metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, tilework and textiles. In textiles the main themes are based on angular and geometric shapes - vertical and horizontal striped bands; hexagons and octagons, which can be linked and infinitely extended; stylized and rhythmic scrolls of foliage and flowers; and Arabic calligraphy, of which the letters can be formed into continuous borders, panels and medallions. These motifs can be used separately or combined into complex patterns, of which the repetitive and two-dimensional features are ideal for textile production, especially where varying lengths are required - for hangings, curtains, robes and shawls. Valued for their role in the subtleties of court ceremonial and fashion, these textiles were also much admired beyond the Islamic lands. The exceptional collection published here ranges widely in region, material and technique. There are textiles and garments from North Africa, Syria, Arabia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian subcontinent linked by a shared vocabulary of ornament - evidence of the international nature of Islamic design. Materials represented are silk - the most prestigious of fibres, requiring highly respected weavers - wool, cotton and linen. Decoration is based on variations of weave and colour and embellishment through embroidery, printing and applique and illustrates the work of both professional and domestic workers. The strengths of the collection are concentrated in the textile production of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which, thanks to the basically conservative nature of textile technique and design, preserve and continue the traditions established in the medieval Islamic world. They are important in an assessment of Islamic textiles both for their quality and as illustrations of survival and adaptation in a major industry. Their heritage reaches back well over a thousand years, even though their very high perishability means that for the earlier part of the tradition our knowledge is reliant very largely on written sources. These, however, attest to the superb quality and quantity of textiles at the courts of the period.

Striking color images depict traditional lifeways and the pain of imprisonment

Philippe Daverio is one of Italy's most important contemporary art historians, whose discerning comments about art are voraciously consumed by the public through his writing as editor of the famed magazine Art e Dossier and his platform on a leading Italian television program Passepartout. Now, in his first full-length work of narrative nonfiction, Daverio uses the conceit of creating his own perfect museum gallery and in the process reexamines major artistic masterpieces of Western art. Daverio turns his critical eye on the place of Western art in contemporary twenty-first-century culture and how we relate to art generally. According to Daverio, we relate to the history of art based on views that crystallized in the nineteenth century, and so we look to the past to understand the present, though the present is what truly matters to everyone. Daverio means to challenge this perspective, and guided by his curiosity and personal taste, he examines key masterworks to rediscover the true meaning and power they had before they became commoditized and cliched.

With such words, Kiowa and Comanche people express their deep connection to their traditional lattice cradles. Prevalent from 1870 to 1930, these cradles represented a unique, yet extremely practical, art form. These "gifts of pride and love" reflected close networks, which remained intact despite the difficult transition to reservation life, new religions, government boarding schools, and allotment of tribal lands.

This book, a beautiful homage to the artisans who crafted cradleboards, includes a history of the origins of lattice cradles as well as essays by eleven descendants of cradle makers. Forty color and over eighty black-and-white photographs vividly display the creativity and imagination found in these lovingly produced cradles. Reminding people of the Kiowas' and the Comanches' long, arduous struggles to create and maintain a viable identity, the cradles featured in this book connect us to the past.

A catalogue of 108 portrait bronzes of great masters of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. It presents a history of these teaching lineages. The sculptures span the most productive period in the history of Tibetan Buddhist art, illustrating Tibetan portraiture's long and varied history. This is a catalogue of 108 portrait bronzes of great masters of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, it presents a history of these teaching lineages based on and illustrated by the collection. Ranging in date from the 12th to 18th century, the sculptures span the most productive period in the

A panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs over 40,000 years from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany, following the new BBC Radio 4 documentary and British Museum exhibition. One of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious. Yet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument in favour of faith. It is about the stories which give shape to our lives, and the different ways in which societies imagine their place in the world. Looking across history and around the globe, it interrogates objects, places and human activities to try to understand what shared beliefs can mean in the public life of a community or a nation, how they shape the relationship between the individual and the state, and how they help give us our sense of who we are. For in deciding how we live with our gods, we also decide how to live with each other. 'The new blockbuster by the museums maestro Neil MacGregor ... The man who chronicles world history through objects is back ... examining a new set of objects to explore the theme of faith in society' Sunday Times

The work of Chippewa artist George Morrison (1919-2000) has enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. His paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures have been displayed in numerous public and private exhibitions, and he is one of Minnesota's most cherished artists. Yet because Morrison's artwork typically does not include overt references to his Indian heritage, it has stirred debate about what it means to be a Native American artist. This stunning catalogue, featuring 130 color and black-and-white images, showcases Morrison's work across a spectrum of genres and media, while also exploring the artist's identity as a modernist within the broader context of twentieth-century American and Native American art.
Born and raised near the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in Minnesota, Morrison graduated from the Minnesota School of Art and the Art Students League in New York City. He spent his early career mainly on the East Coast, becoming one of the first Native American artists to exhibit his work extensively in New York. Best known for his landscape paintings and wood collages, he employed a variety of media--paint, wood, ink and metal, paper, and canvas--and developed a unique style that combined elements of cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism.
In her foreword to "Modern Spirit, " Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick describes her personal association with Morrison and admiration for his authentic artistic vision. Kristin Makholm, in her introduction to the volume, explores Morrison's ties to Minnesota and his legacy within the history of Minnesota art and culture. Then, drawing on extensive primary research and Morrison's own writings, W. Jackson Rushing III offers an in-depth analysis of Morrison's artistic evolution against the backdrop of evolving definitions of "Indianness."
By expanding our understanding of Morrison's singular vision, "Modern Spirit" invites readers to appreciate more deeply the beauty and complexity of his art.

The work of Chippewa artist George Morrison (1919-2000) has enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. His paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures have been displayed in numerous public and private exhibitions, and he is one of Minnesota's most cherished artists. Yet because Morrison's artwork typically does not include overt references to his Indian heritage, it has stirred debate about what it means to be a Native American artist. This stunning catalogue, featuring 130 color and black-and-white images, showcases Morrison's work across a spectrum of genres and media, while also exploring the artist's identity as a modernist within the broader context of twentieth-century American and Native American art.
Born and raised near the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in Minnesota, Morrison graduated from the Minnesota School of Art and the Art Students League in New York City. He spent his early career mainly on the East Coast, becoming one of the first Native American artists to exhibit his work extensively in New York. Best known for his landscape paintings and wood collages, he employed a variety of media--paint, wood, ink and metal, paper, and canvas--and developed a unique style that combined elements of cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism.
In her foreword to "Modern Spirit, " Cherokee artist Kay WalkingStick describes her personal association with Morrison and admiration for his authentic artistic vision. Kristin Makholm, in her introduction to the volume, explores Morrison's ties to Minnesota and his legacy within the history of Minnesota art and culture. Then, drawing on extensive primary research and Morrison's own writings, W. Jackson Rushing III offers an in-depth analysis of Morrison's artistic evolution against the backdrop of evolving definitions of "Indianness."
By expanding our understanding of Morrison's singular vision, "Modern Spirit" invites readers to appreciate more deeply the beauty and complexity of his art.

A unique style of court painting, combining Persian, Indian and European elements, developed in India under the Mughal emperors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originally an art of book illustration, it soon gave rise to highly naturalistic portraiture and scenes of court life, among other subjects. These elegant and expressive works reflect the splendour of the Mughal empire, as well as the enthusiasm of the emperors from Akbar (1556-1605) onwards for stories of adventure and romance, for the recording of great imperial assemblies, or the meticulous depiction of the flora and fauna of India. Among the highlights of the book are the illustrations to Akbar's magnificent Baharistan manuscript of 1595, and the court scenes from the reigns of Shah Jahan (1627-58) or the pleasure-loving Muhammad Shah (1719-48). This book reproduces many of the finest Mughal and Deccani paintings preserved in the Bodleian Library's rich and historic collection, largely formed between 1640 and 1900. These pictures range in date from around 1560 to 1800, when British influence was becoming dominant in India. Each image is presented as a full page colour plate with facing text describing its subject and significance, while the introduction situates the works within the general context of the period and its art. A number of textual revisions have been made since the book first appeared in 2008.

One of the most important collections of modern Native American art assembled by one individual, the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection is an encyclopedic compilation of easel paintings and three-dimensional works. Showcased in this stunning catalogue, the collection comprises nearly four thousand items, including drawings, sculptures, prints, kachinas, jewelry, ceramics, rattles, baskets, and textiles.
James T. Bialac began collecting art in the 1950s, when he was a student at the University of Arizona School of Law. It was then that he purchased the first of what would develop into a collection of more than one thousand kachina dolls. In 1964 he acquired his first painting, Robert Chee's "Moccasin Game, " and he went on to expand his collection to reflect the diversity of Native American art forms. Inspired by his connections with other collectors, Bialac learned the importance of documenting, cataloging, and preserving his collection. In 2010 he bequeathed the collection to the University of Oklahoma, where the art will be displayed at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, as well as at other locations, including Bialac's native Arizona.
The Bialac Collection represents indigenous cultures across North America, especially the Pueblos of the Southwest, Navajos, Hopis, and many of the tribes of the Great Plains. It encompasses such important and innovative artists as Fred Kabotie, Alfonso Roybal, Fritz Scholder, Joe Hilario Herrera, Allan Houser, Jerome Tiger, Tonita Pena, Helen Hardin, Pablita Velarde, George Morrison, Walter Richard "Dick" West, and Patrick DesJarlait, all of whose work is featured in this volume.
Along with its rich sampling of works from the Bialac Collection, this catalogue offers informative essays by art historians, who draw on their areas of expertise to explain the significance of the artwork. The volume also features a foreword by David L. Boren, President of the University of Oklahoma, a preface by Ghislain d'Humieres, Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and an introduction by Mary Jo Watson, Director of the School of Art and Art History.
Published in cooperation with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma

In this richly illustrated book, Neal B. Keating explores Iroquois visual expression through more than five thousand years, from its emergence in ancient North America into the early twenty-first century. Drawing on extensive archival research and fieldwork with Iroquois artists and communities, Keating foregrounds the voices and visions of Iroquois peoples, revealing how they have continuously used visual expression to adapt creatively to shifting political and economic environments.

Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, peoples have long been the subjects of Western study. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, European and Euro- American writers classified Iroquois works not as art but as culturally lower forms of expression. During the twentieth century, Western critics commonly rejected contemporary Native art both as art and as an "inauthentic" expression of Indianness. Keating exposes the false assumptions underlying these perceptions. Approaching his subject from the perspective of an anthropologist, he focuses on the social relations and processes that are indexed by Iroquois visual culture through time, and he shows how Iroquois images are deployed in colonized contexts.

As he traces the history of Iroquois art practice, Keating seeks a middle road between ethnohistorical approaches and the activist perspectives of contemporaryartists. He is one of the first scholars in Iroquois studies to emphasize painting, a popular art form among present-day Iroquois. He conceptualizes painting broadly, to include writing, incising, drawing, tattoo, body painting, photography, videography, and digital media. Featuring more than 100 color and black-and-white reproductions, this volume embraces a wide array of artworks in diverse media, prompting new appreciation--and deeper understanding--of Iroquois art and its historical and contemporary significance.

'A truly transformative read' Sunday Times STYLE 'More than ever, we need books like this' Jessica Seaton, Co-Founder of Toast and author of Gather, Cook, Feast A whole new way of looking at the world - and your life - inspired by centuries-old Japanese wisdom. Wabi sabi ("wah-bi sah-bi") is a captivating concept from Japanese aesthetics, which helps us to see beauty in imperfection, appreciate simplicity and accept the transient nature of all things. With roots in zen and the way of tea, the timeless wisdom of wabi sabi is more relevant than ever for modern life, as we search for new ways to approach life's challenges and seek meaning beyond materialism. Wabi sabi is a refreshing antidote to our fast-paced, consumption-driven world, which will encourage you to slow down, reconnect with nature, and be gentler on yourself. It will help you simplify everything, and concentrate on what really matters. From honouring the rhythm of the seasons to creating a welcoming home, from reframing failure to ageing with grace, wabi sabi will teach you to find more joy and inspiration throughout your perfectly imperfect life. This book is the definitive guide to applying the principles of wabi sabi to transform every area of your life, and finding happiness right where you are.

In "African American Visual Arts" Celeste-Marie Bernier introduces readers to the sheer diversity, range, and experimental nature of African American art and artists and considers their relationship to key motifs within black culture and black experience in North America. The book traces the major developments in African American visual culture from its beginnings in the ceramics and textiles of slave artisans to later contributions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to the fine arts and abstract expressionism, sculpture, installation art, video art, and computer graphics.

Bernier analyzes the work of twenty-one artists, including Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, William Edmondson, Howardena Pindell, Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Betye Saar, Horace Pippin, and Kara Walker. She highlights key but frequently neglected and little-discussed black artists, situating their works within their specific historical and political contexts. Bernier provides a new understanding of their relationship to fundamental themes of the black experience such as black stereotyping and caricature in mainstream discourse, poverty in the inner city, and the division between the rural and the urban.

Ancient petroglyphs and paintings on rocky cliffs and cave walls preserve the symbols and ideas of American Indian cultures. In this richly illustrated volume, expert Linea Sundstrom draws on more than twenty years of fieldwork in describing the age, cultural affiliation, and meaning of a wide variety of petroglyphs and rock paintings in the Black Hills country--from warriors' combat scenes and images related to girls' puberty rites to depictions of creation myths and sacred visions. Storied Stone presents new interpretations of this ancient art in a clear, straightforward writing style and provides detailed illustrations of petroglyphs and painted rock art otherwise unavailable to the public.

Many of the flowers and fruits growing in our gardens and greenhouses today were brought to the West by collectors or traders. This book describes the origins of these plants, with quotations from the people of Asia who first appreciated, cultivated and wrote about them. Almost all the illustrations are by Asian and Middle Eastern artists, some of them hired by European collectors. Celia Fisher begins with an account of the long history of gardens in the East, and of how Eastern plants and botanical knowledge came to be transmitted to Europe. This is followed by seventy-four alphabetical plant entries, ranging from acacia to wisteria, each illustrated with wonderful pictures from a range of books, manuscripts, paintings and drawings. A must-have for every gardener and appreciator of beautiful artwork, this sumptuously illustrated handbook describes over seventy plants that originated in Asia and the Middle East.

Plains Indians were artists as well as warriors, and Silver Horn (1860-1940), a Kiowa artist from the early reservation period, may well have been the most prolific Plains Indian artist of all time.

Known also as Haungooah, his Kiowa name, Silver Horn was a man of remarkable skill and talent. Working in graphite, colored pencil, crayon, pen and ink, and watercolor on hide, muslin, and paper, he produced more than one thousand illustrations between 1870 and 1920. Silver Horn created an unparalleled visual record of Kiowa culture, from traditional images of warfare and coup counting to sensitive depictions of the sun dance, early Peyote religion, and domestic daily life. At the turn of the century, he helped translate nearly the entire corpus of Kiowa shield designs into miniaturized forms on buckskin models for Smithsonian ethnologist James Mooney.

Born in 1860 when huge bison herds still roamed the southern plains, Silver Horn grew up in southwestern Oklahoma. Son of a chief and member of an artistically gifted family, he witnessed traumatic changes as his people went from a free-roaming, buffalo-hunting culture to reservation life and, ultimately, to forced assimilation into white society. Although perceived as a troublemaker in midlife because of his staunch resistance to the forces of civilization, Silver Horn became to many a romantic example of the "real old-time Indian."

In this presentation of Silver Horn's work, showcasing 43 color and 116 black-and-white illustrations, Candace S. Greene provides a thorough biographical portrait of the artist and, through his work, assesses the concepts and roles of artists in Kiowa culture.

How can we imagine a future not driven by capitalist assumptions about humans and the wider world? How are a range of contemporary artistic and popular cultural practices already providing pathways to post-capitalist futures? Authors from a variety of disciplines answer these questions through writings on blues and hip hop, virtual reality, post-colonial science fiction, virtual gaming, riot grrrls and punk, raku pottery, post-pornography fanzines, zombie films, and role playing. The essays in Art as Revolt are clustered around themes such as technology and the future, aesthetics and resistance, and ethnographies of the self beyond traditional understandings of identity. Using philosophies of immanence - describing a system that gives rise to itself, independent of outside forces - drawn from a rich and evolving tradition that includes Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze, and Braidotti, the authors and editors provide an engrossing range of analysis and speculation. Together the essays, written by experts in their fields, stage an important collective, transdisciplinary conversation about how best to talk about art and politics today. Sophisticated in its theoretical and philosophical premises, and engaging some of the most pressing questions in cultural studies and artistic practice today, Art as Revolt does not provide comfortable closure. Instead, it is understood by its authors to be a "Dionysian machine," a generator of open-ended possibility and potential that challenges readers to affirm their own belief in the futures of this world. Contributors include Timothy J. Beck (University of West Georgia), Mark Bishop (Independent Scholar), Dave Collins (University of West Georgia), David Fancy (Brock University), Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw (University of Western Ontario), Malisa Kurtz (Independent Scholar), Nicole Land (Ryerson University), Eric Lochhead (Youth Author Calgary Alberta), Douglas Ord (Doctoral Student University of Western Ontario), Joanna Perkins (Independent Scholar), Peter Rehberg (Institute for Cultural Inquiry-Berlin), Chris Richardson (Young Harris College), Hans Skott-Myhre (Kennesaw State University), and Kathleen Skott-Myhre (University of West Georgia).