Simon Schama brings Britain to life through its portraits, as seen in the five-part BBC series The Face of Britain and the major National Portrait Gallery exhibition Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a black Othello in the nineteenth century; the poet-artist Rossetti trying to capture on canvas what he couldn't possess in life; a surgeon-artist making studies of wounded faces brought in from the Battle of the Somme; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death. In the age of the hasty glance and the selfie, Simon Schama has written a tour de force about the long exchange of looks from which British portraits have been made over the centuries: images of the modest and the mighty; of friends and lovers; heroes and working people. Each of them - the image-maker, the subject, and the rest of us who get to look at them - are brought unforgettably to life. Together they build into a collective picture of Britain, our past and our present, a look into the mirror of our identity at a moment when we are wondering just who we are. Combining his two great passions, British history and art history, for the first time, Schama's extraordinary storytelling reveals the truth behind the nation's most famous portrayals of power, love, fame, the self, and the people. Mesmerising in its breadth and its panache, and beautifully illustrated, with more than 150 images from the National Portrait Gallery, The Face of Britain will change the way we see our past - and ourselves.

In On Art and Mindfulness, world-renowned artist and celebrated teacher Enrique Martinez Celaya shares his views and advice on the art-making process, the development of a practice, the management of obstacles, and the day-to-day choices we must make in order to remain creative and honest. Drawn from the actual sold-out workshops that Martinez Celaya taught over nine years at the venerable Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado, these concise teachings are relevant not only to artists but to anyone wishing to live a mindful, productive life. Listen to an interview with Enrique Martinez Celaya. Read an excerpt.

"Red: Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship 2013," the eighth iteration of the Eiteljorg Museum's acclaimed biennial art series, documents the strength, drama, determination, and humor of contemporary Native art and the artists who create it. Celebrating the work of Invited Artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun (Coast Salish/Okanagan) and Eiteljorg Fellows Julie Buffalohead (Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Aleut), Shan Goshorn (Eastern Band of Cherokee), and Meryl McMaster (Plains Cree/Blackfoot), "Red" declares that any person who lives with the idea that Native people are vanishing, weak, or failing to thrive needs simply to look at their art.
Contributors:
heather ahtone (Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is the James T. Bialac Assistant Curator for Native American and Non-Western Art at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman.
Dana Claxton (Lakota) is a video and performance artist whose projects form a subversive societal critique in time-based media that suit experimental storytelling.
Ashley Holland (Cherokee) is Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eiteljorg Museum.
Jennifer Complo McNutt is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eiteljorg Museum and has been instrumental in the development and success of the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship since its inception in 1999.
Tania Willard (Secwepemc Nation) is an artist who works within the shifting ideas around contemporary and traditional," "often with knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between aboriginal and other cultures.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Eugene B. Adkins (1920-2006) spent nearly four decades acquiring his extraordinary collection of Native American and American southwestern art. His vast assemblage includes paintings, photographs, jewelry, baskets, textiles, and ceramics by many of the Southwest's most renowned artists and artisans. This stunning volume features full-color reproductions of significant works from the Adkins Collection, some of which are reproduced here for the first time.

Adkins began collecting in the 1960s, when American southwestern art enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Ultimately his holdings encompassed works by such distinguished American artists as Maynard Dixon, Dorothy Eugenie Brett, Charles Bird King, Alfred Jacob Miller, Charles M. Russell, and Joseph H. Sharp. In addition, Adkins was a passionate and prescient connoisseur of Native American art and artifacts, and his wide-ranging collection of works by Native artists includes paintings by T. C. Cannon, sculpture by Maria Martinez, and jewelry by Charles Loloma, all of which are represented in this book.

Along with its rich photographic sampling of works by Native and non-Native artists, "The Eugene B. Adkins Collection" offers informative essays by art historians and curators, whose areas of expertise coincide with Adkins's own interests. The volume also features a foreword by David L. Boren, President of the University of Oklahoma, and a preface by Randall Suffolk, Director of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, and Ghislain D'Humieres, Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. These two museums, which share a commitment to preserving Native American art and artifacts, are joint stewards of the Eugene B. Adkins Collection.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Eugene B. Adkins (1920-2006) spent nearly four decades acquiring his extraordinary collection of Native American and American southwestern art. His vast assemblage includes paintings, photographs, jewelry, baskets, textiles, and ceramics by many of the Southwest's most renowned artists and artisans. This stunning volume features full-color reproductions of significant works from the Adkins Collection, some of which are reproduced here for the first time.

Adkins began collecting in the 1960s, when American southwestern art enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Ultimately his holdings encompassed works by such distinguished American artists as Maynard Dixon, Dorothy Eugenie Brett, Charles Bird King, Alfred Jacob Miller, Charles M. Russell, and Joseph H. Sharp. In addition, Adkins was a passionate and prescient connoisseur of Native American art and artifacts, and his wide-ranging collection of works by Native artists includes paintings by T. C. Cannon, sculpture by Maria Martinez, and jewelry by Charles Loloma, all of which are represented in this book.

Along with its rich photographic sampling of works by Native and non-Native artists, "The Eugene B. Adkins Collection" offers informative essays by art historians and curators, whose areas of expertise coincide with Adkins's own interests. The volume also features a foreword by David L. Boren, President of the University of Oklahoma, and a preface by Randall Suffolk, Director of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, and Ghislain D'Humieres, Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. These two museums, which share a commitment to preserving Native American art and artifacts, are joint stewards of the Eugene B. Adkins Collection.

Since the late 1980s the dominant theory of human origins has been that a 'cognitive revolution' (C.50,000 years ago) led to the advent of our species, Homo sapiens. As a result of this revolution our species spread and eventually replaced all existing archaic Homo species, ultimately leading to the superiority of modern humans. Or so we thought. As Clive Finlayson explains, the latest advances in genetics prove that there was significant interbreeding between Modern Humans and the Neanderthals. All non-Africans today carry some Neanderthal genes. We have also discovered aspects of Neanderthal behaviour that indicate that they were not cognitively inferior to modern humans, as we once thought, and in fact had their own rituals and art. Finlayson, who is at the forefront of this research, recounts the discoveries of his team, providing evidence that Neanderthals caught birds of prey, and used their feathers for symbolic purposes. There is also evidence that Neanderthals practised other forms of art, as the recently discovered engravings in Gorham's Cave Gibraltar indicate. Linking all the recent evidence, The Smart Neanderthal casts a new light on the Neanderthals and the 'Cognitive Revolution'. Finlayson argues that there was no revolution and, instead, modern behaviour arose gradually and independently among different populations of Modern Humans and Neanderthals. Some practices were even adopted by Modern Humans from the Neanderthals. Finlayson overturns classic narratives of human origins, and raises important questions about who we really are.

The rich designs found in wallpapers and textiles from China are impressive to behold and exhibit an unrivalled technical mastery. This stunning calendar featuring distinctly delicate paintings of flowers and gardens brings together 12 fascinating and elegant Chinese designs from the V&A collections, in all their beautiful colours and intricate detail. Informative text accompanies each work and the datepad features previous and next month's views. Created by Flame Tree Studio - The Art of Fine Gifts.

A book of 25 detachable postcards of beautiful and eclectic tiles from the National Trust collections. Includes such famous names as Delft and de Morgan and William Morris, as well as rare gems found in bathrooms, fireplaces and even pubs. A great gift for anyone interested in art, pattern design or history.A

When the Aztec Empire emerged to dominate central Mexico from 1460 to 1519, vast amounts of tribute wealth flowed into the capital city of Tenochtitlan, enabling artists and architects to create sophisticated works on a monumental scale. Confronting a civilization without precedent, some Spanish conquistadors and missionaries looked to the classical past for explanations and parallels were drawn between two great empires--the Aztec and the Roman.
While many studies dwell on the Aztec gods and the bloody rituals performed in their honor, this groundbreaking book examines little-known episodes in which classicism mediated a dialogue both within and between Mesoamerica and Spain. The authors engage contemporary approaches to cross-cultural analogy, shedding light on the function of monumental arts and religious spectacles and consciously classicizing traditions within empires. A foreword by Leonardo Lopez Lujan, director of the Proyecto Templo Mayor, places the comparison of Aztec and Roman empires in historical context. The publication accompanies an exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of Mexican Independence on view from March 25 to July 5, 2010, at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa.

Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia are centres for the preservation of local artistic traditions. Chief among these are manuscripts, a vital source for our understanding of Buddhist ideas and practices in the region. They are also a beautiful art form, too little understood in the West. The British Library has one of the richest collections of Southeast Asian manuscripts, principally from Thailand and Burma, anywhere in the world. It includes finely painted copies of Buddhist scriptures, literary works, historical narratives, and works on traditional medicine, law, cosmology and fortune-telling. This stunning new book illustrates over 100 examples of Buddhist art in the Library's collection, relating each manuscript to Theravada tradition and beliefs, and introducing the historical, artistic and religious contexts of their production. It is the first book in English to showcase the beauty and variety of manuscript art and reproduces many works that have never been photographed before.

Even ardent fans of Andy Warhol (1928-1987) may be surprised to learn that the artist created a significant body of western work. In fact, Warhol was drawn to the lore and lure of the American West throughout his life. He was heavily influenced by the mythology and iconography of the American West, conveyed primarily through film and television, and revealed at various points in his life by toys, clothing, and travel. His lifelong fascination with the West culminated with his 1986 series Cowboys and Indians, a print portfolio that represents an important milestone in the artist's late career and a shift in the conception of contemporary western American art. One of the last major projects Warhol completed prior to his death, Cowboys and Indians received very little critical or public attention at the time of its release and remains one of the most understudied aspects of the artist's career. Warhol and the West explores for the first time the range of western imagery Warhol produced. New scholarship examines how Warhol's western work merges the artist's ubiquitous portrayal of celebrities with his interest in cowboys, American Indians, and other western motifs. His work in the western genre is immediately recognizable, impressive, daring, inspirational, and sometimes confrontational. This body of work furthers our understanding of how the American West infiltrates the public's imagination through contemporary art and popular culture. The major traveling exhibition includes more than 100 objects and works of art including source materials revealing Warhol's process. The accompanying catalogue will feature essays by heather ahtone of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum (AICCM) in Oklahoma City, Faith Brower of the Tacoma Art Museum, and Seth Hopkins of the Booth Western American Art Museum, as well as 12 additional contributors: Tony Abeyta, Sonny Assu, Gregg Deal, Lara M. Evans, Michael R. Grauer, Frank Buffalo Hyde, Thomas S. Kalin, Gloria Lomahaftewa, Daryn A. Melvin, Andrew Patrick Nelson, Chelsea Weathers, and Rebecca West. Published in association with Tacoma Art Museum. Exhibition dates: Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, GA: August 25-December 31, 2019 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, OK: Spring 2020 Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA: Summer 2020

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.

From Neil MacGregor, the author of A History of the World in 100 Objects, this is a view of Germany like no other For the past 140 years, Germany has been the central power in continental Europe. Twenty-five years ago a new German state came into being. How much do we really understand this new Germany, and how do its people now understand themselves? Neil MacGregor argues that uniquely for any European country, no coherent, over-arching narrative of Germany's history can be constructed, for in Germany both geography and history have always been unstable. Its frontiers have constantly floated. Koenigsberg, home to the greatest German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, is now Kaliningrad, Russia; Strasbourg, in whose cathedral Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's greatest writer, discovered the distinctiveness of his country's art and history, now lies within the borders of France. For most of the five hundred years covered by this book Germany has been composed of many separate political units, each with a distinct history. And any comfortable national story Germans might have told themselves before 1914 was destroyed by the events of the following thirty years. German history may be inherently fragmented, but it contains a large number of widely shared memories, awarenesses and experiences; examining some of these is the purpose of this book. Beginning with the fifteenth-century invention of modern printing by Gutenberg, MacGregor chooses objects and ideas, people and places which still resonate in the new Germany - porcelain from Dresden and rubble from its ruins, Bauhaus design and the German sausage, the crown of Charlemagne and the gates of Buchenwald - to show us something of its collective imagination. There has never been a book about Germany quite like it.

The British engagement with India was an intensely visual one. Images of the subcontinent, produced by artists and travellers in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century heyday of the East India Company, reflect the role it played in Indian life. They mirror significant shifts in British policy and attitudes towards India. The Company's story is one of wealth, power, and the pursuit of profit. It changed what people in Europe ate, what they drank, and how they dressed. Ultimately, it laid the foundations of the British Raj. But few historians have considered the visual sources that survive and their implications for the link between images and empire, pictures and power. This book draws on the unrivalled riches of the British Library, telling the story of individual images, their creators, and the people and places they depict. It will present a detailed picture of the Company and its complex relationship with India, its people and cultures.

While most famously associated with numerous mid-century architects, Brutalism was a style of visual art that was also adopted by painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers. Taking into account Brutalist work by eminent artists such as Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, as well as lesser-known practitioners like Nigel Henderson and Magda Cordell , this volume focuses on a ten-year period between 1952 and 1962 when artists refused a programmatic set of aesthetics and began experimenting with images that had no set focal point, using non-traditional materials like bombsite debris in their work, and producing objects that were characterized by wit and energy along with anxiety, trauma, and melancholia. This original study offers insights into how Brutalism enabled British artists of the mid-20th century to respond ethically and aesthetically to the challenges posed by the rise of consumer culture and unbridled technological progress.

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Hiroshige's Plum Garden

Bringing the rich Japanese Shinto artistic tradition to life, this handsome volume explores the significance of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts within traditional kami veneration ceremonies A central feature of Japanese culture for many centuries, the veneration of kami deities-a practice often referred to as Shinto-has been a driving force behind a broad swath of visual art. Focusing on the Heian period (795-1185) through the Edo period (1615-1868), this generously illustrated volume brings the rich Shinto artistic tradition to life through works of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts. Thematic essays authored by both American and Japanese scholars explore different dimensions of kami veneration and examine the significance of these objects-many of which have never been seen outside of Japan-in Shinto ceremonies.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning "pictures of the floating world," ukiyo-e was a particular genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries and came to characterize the Western world's visual idea of Japan. In many ways images of hedonism, ukiyo-e scenes often represented the bright lights and attractions of Edo (modern-day Tokyo): beautiful women, actors and wrestlers, city life, and spectacular landscapes. Though he captured a variety of subjects, Hiroshige was most famous for landscapes, with a final masterpiece series known as "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" (1856-1858), which depicted various scenes of the city through the seasons, from bustling shopping streets to splendid cherry orchards. This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original sets of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo. It pairs each of the 120 illustrations with a description, allowing readers to immerse themselves in these beautiful, vibrant vistas that became paradigms of Japonisme and inspired Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau artists alike, from Vincent van Gogh to James McNeill Whistler.

'Art is not a luxury. Art is a basic social need to which everyone has a right'. This extraordinary collection of 100 artists' manifestos from across the globe over the last 100 years brings together activists, post-colonialists, surrealists, socialists, nihilists and a host of other voices. From the Negritude movement in Africa and Martinique to Brazil's Mud/Meat Sewer Manifesto, from Iraqi modernism to Australia's Cyberfeminist Manifesto, they are by turns personal, political, utopian, angry, sublime and revolutionary. Some have not been published in English before; some were written in climates of censorship and brutality; some contain visions of a future still on the horizon. What unites them is the belief that art can change the world.

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Owen Jones's Indian Lacquer

Self-taught photographer Hugh Mangum was born in 1877 in Durham, North Carolina, as its burgeoning tobacco economy put the frontier-like boomtown on the map. As an itinerant portraitist working primarily in North Carolina and Virginia during the rise of Jim Crow, Mangum welcomed into his temporary studios a clientele that was both racially and economically diverse. After his death in 1922, his glass plate negatives remained stored in his darkroom, a tobacco barn, for fifty years. Slated for demolition in the 1970s, the barn was saved at the last moment-and with it, this surprising and unparalleled document of life at the turn of the twentieth century, a turbulent time in the history of the American South. Hugh Mangum's multiple-image, glass plate negatives reveal the open-door policy of his studio to show us lives marked both by notable affluence and hard work, all imbued with a strong sense of individuality, self-creation, and often joy. Seen and experienced in the present, the portraits hint at unexpected relationships and histories and also confirm how historical photographs have the power to subvert familiar narratives. Mangum's photographs are not only images; they are objects that have survived a history of their own and exist within the larger political and cultural history of the American South, demonstrating the unpredictable alchemy that often characterizes the best art-its ability over time to evolve with and absorb life and meaning beyond the intentions or expectations of the artist.