**SELECTED AS A BEST ART BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE SUNDAY TIMES** 'Stonard traverses the sweep of human history, moving between cultures and hemispheres ... His book consists of myriad flashes of brilliance and inventiveness' LITERARY REVIEW 'A worthy and richly illustrated successor to Ernst Gombrich's fabled The Story of Art' SUNDAY TIMES 'This bountifully illustrated book is a history of connections ... Lucid and thoughtful' COUNTRY LIFE _____________________________________ A fully illustrated, panoramic world history of art from ancient civilisation to the present day, exploring the remarkable endurance of humankind's creative impulse. Fifty thousand years ago on an island in Indonesia, an early human used red ochre pigment to capture the likeness of a pig on a limestone cave wall. Around the same time in Europe, another human retrieved a lump of charcoal from a fire and sketched four galloping horses. It was like a light turning on in the human mind. Our instinct to produce images in response to nature allowed the earliest Homo sapiens to understand the world around them, and to thrive. Now, art historian John-Paul Stonard has travelled across continents to take us on a panoramic journey through the history of art - from ancient Anatolian standing stones to a Qing Dynasty ink handscroll, from a drawing by a Kiowa artist on America's Great Plains to a post-independence Congolese painting and on to Rachel Whiteread's House. Brilliantly illustrated throughout, with a mixture of black and white and full colour images, Stonard's Creation is an ambitious, thrilling and landmark work that leads us from Benin to Belgium, China to Constantinople, Mexico to Mesopotamia. Journeying from pre-history to the present day, it explores the remarkable endurance of humankind's creative impulse, and asks how - and why - we create.

Why did the ancient artists create paintings and engravings? What did the images mean? This careful study of rock art motifs in the Trans-Pecos area of Texas and a small area in South Africa demonstrates that there are archaeological and anthropological ways of accessing the past in order to investigate and explain the significance of rock art motifs. Using two disparate regions shows the possibility of comparative rock art studies and highlights the importance of regional studies and regional variations. This is an ideal resource for students and researchers.

Review: ...a strong and engaged spectrum of essays by leading scholars that reflects the range and depth of Caravaggio scholarship today. It constitutes a milestone contribution to our understanding of this artist and his complex historical reception, as well as the range of approaches currently at work in the study of early modern European art.'- Genevieve Warwick, University of Edinburgh and Editor, Art History'This is a distinguished collection of original essays by well-established scholars of Italian Baroque art and Caravaggio in particular. It is remarkable for the diversity of questions asked and methodological resources deployed in answering them. Such is the sureness of scholarship that underpins each essay, however, that there is little to no contradiction among them. Each essay contributes to a fuller understanding of Caravaggio that is greater than the sum of its excellent parts.' - Charles DempseyProfessor of Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art EmeritusThe Johns Hopkins University.

'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.

Hokusai: the blue, foam-crested wave rearing above Mount Fuji; the celebrated volcano idealized and reinventedby the artist in every nuance of view, season and painting; extraordinary bridges, the waterfalls of Japan, the contortions, costumes, gestures – the very breath of men, women, peasants, townsmen, warriors, artisans, leaping horses, birds, insects, fish, almost live on the ground on which they are painted – the countless imaginative drawings or the lively sketches done on the spot for the Manga, Hokusai’s record of shapes and forms drawn from life or imagined over time. With a body of work comprising more than 30,000 drawings and paintings, Hokusai (1760–1849) was the most prolific, varied and indisputably the most creative artist of old Japan. A universal genius in everything that constituted drawing and painting in his time, he practised all genres of ukiyo-e, those ‘images of the floating world’, as his contemporaries liked to describe their pleasures and their daily life.

This book traces the career of this child from a working-class district of old Tokyo, then known as Edo, evoking the special atmosphere of this great city and of Japanese life, when Japan – closed to foreigners – developed in a vacuum a powerfully original culture. Hokusai became one of the great masters of the woodcut, this ‘brush gone wild’, as he called himself, being rediscovered by the Impressionists and aesthetes at the end of the 19th century. He remains one of the greatest and – thanks to his personality – one of the most attractive figures of world art.

The new Jacana series of pocket guides is meant for those who are looking for a brief but lively introduction to a wide range of relevant topics of South African history, politics and biography. Written by some of the leading experts in their fields, the individual volumes are informative and accessible, inexpensive yet well produced, slim enough to put in your pocket and carry with you to read.

No one captures the graces and idiosyncrasies of cats quite like the painters, printmakers, and haiku masters of Japan. From the Edo to the Showa period, many artists turned their gaze toward an unlikely subject: their small feline companions. Closely observed portraits in words and ink elevate the everyday adventures of cats: taking a nap on a Buddha statue's lap, daintily eating a rice ball, courting the neighbor's cat. This curated collection of poems, prints, and paintings will leave you inspired to cultivate the serenity and wonder embodied by these creators - and by the cats themselves. Presented as a sweet, jacketed paperback with thoughtful design touches, this volume includes each poem in both English and Japanese.

Capturing the spoor describes and discusses the virtually unknown rock art of the northern most reaches of South Africa, in the area of the Central Limpopo Basin. The title of the publication comes from the belief held by some traditional Bantu-speakers that the San can 'capture' animal spoor and bewitch it in order to ensure hunting success. The authors use this as an analogy for understanding the behaviour of people in the past through the traces they leave behind. This title discuss the rock art of cultural groups other than the San. It describes the work of four distinct cultural groups - the San; Khoekhoen (Khoikhoin or 'Hottentots'), Venda and Northern Sotho, and, most recently, people of European descent. Further, it discusses the interaction and connection between the four groups. It is the first substantial body of work from South Africa to focus on an area outside the Drakensberg, which has become synonymous with 'southern African rock art'. Although the title focuses on a specific region, it introduces anthropological information from the Cape to the greater Kalahari region. The text is interspersed with first-hand accounts of Kalahari and Okavango San beliefs and rites and discussions with traditional Bantu-speaking peoples. A distillation of 14 years of field surveying and research in the Central Limpopo Basin, it targets the general reader who would like to know more about southern Africa's rock art traditions, but at the same time addresses many academic concerns. A simple narrative line and copious end notes, respectively, ensure that both 'lay' and academic readers will find the subject interesting.

This pack contains 500 high-quality origami sheets printed with delicate and cheerful cherry blossom designs. These colorful origami papers were developed to enhance the creative work of origami artists and paper crafters. The pack contains 12 unique designs, and all of the papers are printed with coordinating colors on the reverse to provide aesthetically pleasing combinations in origami models that show both the front and back. There's enough paper here to assemble amazing modular origami sculptures, distribute to students for a class project, or put to a multitude of other creative uses. This origami paper pack includes: 500 sheets of high-quality origami paper 12 unique designs Bright, vibrant colors Double-sided color 4 x 4 inch (10 cm) squares

This edited volume maps dialogues between science and technology studies research on the arts and the emerging field of artistic research. The main themes in the book are an advanced understanding of discursivity and reasoning in arts-based research, the methodological relevance of material practices and things, and innovative ways of connecting, staging, and publishing research in art and academia. This book touches on topics including studies of artistic practices; reflexive practitioners at the boundaries between the arts, science, and technology; non-propositional forms of reasoning; unconventional (arts-based) research methods and enhanced modes of presentation and publication.

This book provides a comprehensive assessment of Dürer’s depictions of human diversity, focusing particularly on his depictions of figures from outside his Western European milieu. Heather Madar contextualizes those depictions within their broader artistic and historical context and assesses them in light of current theories about early modern concepts of cultural, ethnic, religious and racial diversity. The book also explores Dürer’s connections with contemporaries, his later legacy with respect to his imagery of the other and the broader significance of Nuremberg to early modern engagements with the world beyond Europe. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, Renaissance studies and Renaissance history.

First published in 1917, On Collecting Japanese-Prints is meant to assist the amateur who has started a collection for the first time, or the person who, while not actually a collector, is sufficiently interested to read about the subject, yet finds the more exhaustive and advanced works thereon somewhat beyond them. How to distinguish forgeries and imitations; what prices should be given; what examples can still be obtained, are some of the questions which the writer has attempted to answer. The following chapters being primarily written for the beginner, artists whose work is very rare, or whose prints they are unlikely to come across in their search for examples, are not mentioned, unless where necessary from a historical or artistic point of view.

Islamic Visual Culture, 1100-1800 is the second in a set of four volumes of studies on Islamic art by Oleg Grabar. Between them they bring together more than eighty articles, studies and essays, work spanning half a century by a master of the field. Each volume takes a particular section of the topic, the three other volumes being entitled: Early Islamic Art 650-1100; Islamic Art and Beyond; and Jerusalem. Reflecting the many incidents of a long academic life, they illustrate one scholar's attempt at making order and sense of 1400 years of artistic growth. They deal with architecture, painting, objects, iconography, theories of art, aesthetics and ornament, and they seek to integrate our knowledge of Islamic art with Islamic culture and history as well as with the global concerns of the History of Art. In addition to the articles selected, each volume contains an introduction which describes, often in highly personal ways, the context in which Grabar's scholarship developed and the people who directed and mentored his efforts. The focus of the present volume is on the key centuries - the eleventh through fourteenth - during which the main directions of traditional Islamic art were created and developed and for which classical approaches of the History of Art were adopted. Manuscript illustrations and the arts of objects dominate the selection of articles, but there are also forays into later times like Mughal India and into definitions of area and period styles, as with the Mamluks in Egypt and the Ottomans, or into parallels between Islamic and Christian medieval arts.

This lushly illustrated book examines the cross-cultural influences and unique artistic dialogue between Hispano and Native American arts in the Southwest over the past 400 years since Spanish colonization. Insightful essays by historians, artists, and scholars including Estevan Rael-Galvez, Lane Coulter, Enrique R. Lamadrid, Marc Simmons, and others, explore the impact of cultural interaction on various art forms including painting, sculpture, metalwork, textiles, architecture, furniture and performance and ceremonial arts. Over 150 art works and photographs gathered from museums across the country are testimony to the unique Southwestern aesthetic that developed from this dynamic cultural exchange. Published as companion to an exhibition at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico on display through September 30, 2010.

Wide-ranging and timely, The Practice of Public Art brings together practicing artists, curators, activists, art writers, administrators, city planners, and educators from the United Kingdom and United States to offer differing perspectives on the many facets of the public art process. The Practice of Public Art examines the continual evolution of public art, from monuments and memorials to socially engaged public art practice. Topics include constructing new models for developing and commissioning public art works, understanding the challenges of public art vs. public design, and unraveling the relationships between public artists and the communities they serve. The Practice of Public Art offers a diverse perspective on the complex nature of public art in the twenty-first century.

This fully revised and updated third edition offers students and artists valuable insights into traditional color theory and its practical application using today's cutting-edge technology. The text is lavishly illustrated, stressing issues of contemporary color use and examining how today's artists and designers are using color in a multitude of mediums in their work. It is the only book that has parity between the male and female artists and designers represented, while containing more multicultural and global examples of art and design than any other text. This book begins with how we see color and its biological basis, progressing to the various theories about color and delving into the psychological meaning of color and its use. There are individual chapters on color use in art and design, as well as global and multicultural color use. One chapter investigates cross cultural life events such as marriages and funerals, while examining the six major religions' conceptual and psychological underpinnings of color use. The final chapter explores the future of color. Contemporary Color is the ideal text for color theory courses, but also for beginning art and design students, no matter what their future major discipline or emphasis may be. It provides the foundation on which to build their career and develop their own personal artistic voice and vision.

The complete and unabridged full-color edition First published in 1856, The Grammar of Ornament remains a design classic. Its inspiration came from pioneering British architect and designer Owen Jones (1809-1874), who produced a comprehensive design treatise for the machine age, lavishly illustrated in vivid chromolithographic color. Jones made detailed observations of decorative arts on his travels in Europe, the Middle East, and in his native London, where he studied objects on display at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 and at local museums. His aim was to improve the quality of Western design by changing the habits of Victorian designers, who indiscriminately mixed elements from a wide variety of sources. Jones's resulting study is a comprehensive analysis of styles of ornamental design, presenting key examples ranging from Maori tattoos, Egyptian columns, and Greek borders to Byzantine mosaic, Indian embroidery, and Elizabethan carvings. At once splendidly Victorian and insistently modern, The Grammar of Ornament celebrates objects of beauty from across time periods and continents, and remains an indispensable sourcebook today.

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.

This study develops a theory of Indian art worlds that argues for the need to consider the different discursive formations and related strategic practices of an art world. In so doing, it develops the common notion of "art world" into a plurality of worlds. The author explores the art worlds of the Orisan patta paintings, an Indian art form that has seen a great revival since the early 1950s, due partly to increased national pride after independence and partly to the rise of mass tourism. Locally, the increasing popularity of these paintings has led to, and is reinforced by, a village in the district of Puri being designated a "crafts village" by the states government. Here the author examines the consequences of this increased popularity, paying particular attention to the encompassing local, regional and national discourses involved. In so doing, clashing Indian art worlds demonstrates that, while painters' local discourses are characterized by pragmatism, the discourses of regional and especially national elites are concerned with the exegesis of local paintings and their association with the great Sanskrit tradition. A central theme of the study focuses on the awards given for

The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden has compiled a bibliographic database documenting publications on South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology. Twenty editors and documentalists in Leiden, Colombo, Bangkok, Dharwad, and Jakarta have collected the material in this first volume, and over 1,000 records describe monographs, articles in monographs, and articles in periodicals including reviews and Ph.D. dissertations published in 1996 and 1997. The records are arranged geographically and according to subject: pre- and proto-history, historical archaeology, ancient and modern art history, material culture, epigraphy and paleography, numismatics and sigillography.

Waterlife features Mithila art, a vibrant and delicate form of folk painting from Bihar in eastern India. The artist Rambharos Jha grew up on the banks of the legendary river Ganga, and developed a fascination for water and water life. In this book he creates an unusual artist's journal, adapting the motifs of the Mithila style to express his own vision. He frames his art with a playful text that evokes both childhood memory and folk legend. 'The long awaited successor to the bestselling Night Life of Trees, Waterlife is silk-screen printed by hand on handmade paper.

Along the Atlantic seaboard, from Scotland to Spain, are numerous rock carvings made four to five thousand years ago, whose interpretation poses a major challenge to the archaeologist.
Richard Bradley discusses the cultural settings of the rock carvings, the ways in which they can be interpreted in relation to ancient land use, the creation of ritual monuments and the burial of the dead. Integrating this fascinating yet little-known material into the mainstream of prehistoric studies, IRock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe demonstrates that these carvings played a fundamental role inthe organization of the prehistoric landscape.

Along the Atlantic seaboard, from Scotland to Spain, are numerous rock carvings made four to five thousand years ago, whose interpretation poses a major challenge to the archaeologist.
In the first full-length treatment of the subject, based largely on new fieldwork, Richard Bradley argues that these carvings should be interpreted as a series of symbolic messages that are shared between monuments, artefacts and natural places in the landscape. He discusses the cultural setting of the rock carvings and the ways in which they can be interpreted in relation to ancient land use, the creation of ritual monuments and the burial of the dead. Integrating this fascinating yet little-known material into the mainstream of prehistoric studies, Richard Bradley demonstrates that these carvings played a fundamental role in the organization of the prehistoric landscape.