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Books > Arts & Architecture > Art forms, treatments & subjects > Art treatments & subjects
Epic Land is a celebration in pictures and words of the arresting beauty of the landscapes of Namibia and of the centrality of land in the culture, history, politics and daily lives of its people. The book seeks to uncover the rare essence that marks the landscape of Namibia apart from all others.
Few countries in the world are richer than Namibia in its canvas of natural beauty. The landscape is one of rich and often harsh contrast with many changing moods. A journey through its landscape is infinitely rewarding. Within this book this progression is depicted. The dramatic scenery of remote deserts, mountains, mystical trees and stormy shores are the equal of any.
Through her captivating photographs and absorbing text, Amy Schoeman shares with the reader the strange beauties of her life’s passion. The superb photographs capture the life of the desert, its forms and colours, and the moods of its ever-changing landscapes.
This book takes you beyond the traditional boundaries of muted,
delicate and translucent watercolour to create rich, vivid images,
not only with watercolour on paper, but with other media and
materials, while still retaining a watery feel and enhancing and
expanding the possible textural effects. The projects showcase a
mix of water media in familiar and unconventional, experimental
ways. These include paint, ink, coloured pencils and fabric dye,
with texture mediums forming part of the repertoire. While
watercolour paper is used a fair amount, canvases, board and
drafting paper or vellum are also incorporated. Some really simple,
structured techniques have been covered, which can be followed step
by step to achieve a very similar outcome and are suitable for
crafty projects. Readers are also encouraged to use the more
spontaneous and less controlled techniques (illustrated step by
step), to further their own creative path, develop a sense of
adventure, learn to take risks and work with their 'happy
accidents'. There are lots of things one can do with unsuccessful
work and the author has included ideas for incorporating discarded
endeavours into new art work. Filled with fabulous ideas for both
artists and crafters, even the absolute beginner will be able to
play and experiment along with Water marks.
Originally published by the Standard Bank as part of a curated exhibition in May 2011, this prestigious volume celebrates the life and works of Peter Clarke (1929–2014), one of South Africa’s foremost artists. A mere 500 copies were originally published, all taken up at the exhibition, and continued demand has led to its re-release.
Clarke left his job as a dockworker in Simon’s Town to devote himself to art. The wisdom of this decision is reflected in a remarkable career, which extended over some six decades and was acknowledged in the awards of the Order of Ikhamanga (silver) in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
Listening To Distant Thunder: The Art Of Peter Clarke recounts an artist’s life in the context of the social history of South Africa from the 1940s onwards. His images reflect the social disruption of the Cape Flats, and the trauma of his community’s forced removal from Simon’s Town to the bleak apartheid township of Ocean View. Yet Clarke’s images have avoided bitterness, and his work is a perceptive scrutiny and celebration of life in all its aspects.
Illustrated with over 200 reproductions and photographs, this book was researched and written by well-known South African art historians Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, in close collaboration with the artist over almost seven years.
This stunning catalogue presents for the first time an outstanding
group of modern drawings by European and American masters,
assembled by the late Howard Karshan and his wife, Linda, who
recently presented the works to The Courtauld. Accompanying their
exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, the catalogue features
drawings by renowned artists including Paul Cezanne, Wassily
Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Sam
Francis, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter and Georg Baselitz. The
Karshan gift is a significant addition to The Courtauld's
collection. The works demonstrate Howard and Linda Karshan's
sensibility for the expressive power and rich variety of drawing as
an art form. The drawings are characterised by innovative
mark-making and distinctive use of line. Examples range from
radical watercolours by Cezanne and highly expressive finger
drawings in ink by Louis Soutter, to abstract compositions made by
Henri Michaux whilst experimenting with Mescalin to explore the
subconscious, and on to works by Twombly that further broadened the
possibilities of draughtsmanship. The 25 drawings of the Karshan
gift will be shown at The Courtauld Gallery when it reopens in late
2021, following a major transformation project. This catalogue will
include an interview with Linda Karshan, two essays and a fully
illustrated catalogue with detailed entries on each work.
This stunning catalogue presents The Courtauld's outstanding
collection of works by Renaissance artist Girolamo Francesco Maria
Mazzola, better known as Parmigianino (1503-1540). This catalogue
accompanies a display of works by Parmigianino at The Courtauld,
including his famous and enigmatic painting of the Virgin and
Child, as well as drawn studies for his most ambitious projects
such as the Madonna of the Long Neck and the frescoes of the church
of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. The latter was the last and
most important commission of his life and would have been his
triumphal homecoming. Instead, Parmigianino became entangled in his
experimental processes and failed to complete it, leading to his
brief imprisonment for breach of contract. Fundamentally a
draftsman at heart, Parmigianino drew relentlessly during his
relatively short life, and around a thousand of his drawings have
survived. The Courtauld's collection comprises twenty-four sheets.
In preparation for the catalogue, new photography and technical
examinations have been carried out on all the works revealing two
new drawings that were previously unknown, hidden underneath their
historic mounts. They have also helped to better identify
connections between some of the drawings and the finished paintings
for which they were conceived. The catalogue illustrates the whole
Courtauld collection, which also includes two paintings and more
than ten prints. As a printmaker, Parmigianino is considered to
have been the first to experiment with etching in Italy and was a
pioneer of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique. His refined and
graceful compositions were much appreciated by his contemporaries
and exalted by the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74).
This catalogue and display have been curated by Gottardo and
Rebecchini in collaboration with former and current research
students at The Courtauld, and technical research has been
conducted by members of The Courtauld Conservation Institute. A
truly collaborative project, the catalogue sheds light on an artist
who approached every technique with unprecedented freedom and
produced innovative works which were studied and admired by artists
and collectors for many years to come.
This beautiful publication presents for the first time the
Eveillard Gift of drawings to The Frick Collection, the most
important gift of drawings and pastels in its history. It
accompanies an exhibition at the Frick and includes a catalogue of
the works and commentaries by noted scholars. Twenty-six works of
art promised to The Frick Collection by Elizabeth and Jean-Marie
Eveillard dramatically advance the museum's commitment to the
research and display of European drawings. Included in this
transformative gift from two longtime supporters of the Frick are
exquisite drawings, pastels, prints, and one oil sketch by Francois
Boucher, Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Eugene Delacroix,
Jean-Honore Fragonard, Thomas Lawrence, Francisco de Goya y
Lucientes, John Singer Sargent, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, and
Jean-Antoine Watteau, among others. The works include figurative
sketches, independent studies, portraits, and landscape scenes,
each either deepening the museum's celebrated holdings or bringing
the work of an artist who is not face=Calibri>- but should be -
represented in the collection. This lavishly illustrated
publication, which accompanies an exhibition at the Frick, includes
a catalogue of the works, as well as comprehensive commentaries on
each of promised gifts written by noted scholars in their field.
This catalogue will be published to accompany the fi rst ever
exhibition of Golden Age Dutch pictures in the collection of the
National Trust, which will be shown at the Mauritshuis in The
Hague, the Holburne Museum in Bath and at Petworth House in West
Sussex (2018-19). Celebrating the enduring British taste for
collecting Dutch paintings from the long seventeenth century, the
publication will explore why and how this particular type of art
was desired, commissioned and displayed through the consideration
of masterpieces from a number of National Trust houses. It will
feature portraits, still lifes, religious pictures, maritime
paintings, landscapes, genre paintings and history pictures,
painted by celebrated artists such as Rembrandt, Lievens, Hobbema,
Cuyp, Hondecoeter, De Heem, Ter Borch and Metsu, as well as less
well-known artists such as De Baen and Van Diest. With over 350
heritage properties in the UK, the National Trust cares for one of
the world's largest and most signifi cant holdings of art and its
collection of Dutch Old Masters is particularly impressive. The
catalogue will include essays by Quentin Buvelot (chief curator at
the Mauritshuis) and David Taylor (curator of pictures and s
culpture at the National Trust). The authors will also discuss
other aspects of the infl uence of Dutch culture in British country
houses (using National Trust examples) - on furniture, garden
design and print and ceramics collecting.
In his joint capacities of Premier peintre du roi, director of the
Gobelins manufactory and rector of the Academie royale de peinture
et de sculpture, Le Brun exercised a previously unprecedented
influence on the production of the visual arts - so much so that
some scholars have repeatedly described him as 'dictator' of the
arts in France. The Sovereign Artist explores how Le Brun operated
in his diverse fields of activities, linking and juxtaposing his
portraiture, history painting and pictorial theory with his designs
for architecture, tapestries, carpets and furniture. It argues that
Le Brun sought to create a repeatable and easily recognizable
visual language associated with Louis XIV, in order to translate
the king's political claims for absolute power into a visual form.
How he did this is discussed through a series of individual case
studies ranging from Le Brun's lost equestrian portrait of Louis
XIV, and his involvement in the Querelle du coloris at the
Academie, to his scheme for 93 Savonnerie carpets for the Grande
Galerie at the Louvre, his Histoire du roy tapestry series, his
decoration of the now destroyed Escalier des Ambassadeurs at
Versailles and the dramatic destruction of the Sun King's silver
furniture. One key theme is the relation between the unity of the
visual arts, to which Le Brun aspired, and the strong hierarchical
distinctions he made between the liberal arts and the mechanical
crafts: while his lectures at the Academie advocated a visual and
conceptual unity in painting and architecture, they were also a
means by which he attempted to secure the newly gained status of
painting as a liberal art, and therefore to distinguish it from the
mechanical crafts which he oversaw the production of at the
Gobelins. His artistic and architectural aspirations were
comparable to those of his Roman contemporary Gianlorenzo Bernini,
summoned to Paris in 1665 to design the Louvre's East facade and to
create a portrait bust of Louis XIV. Bernini's failure to convince
the king and Colbert of his architectural scheme offered new
opportunities for Le Brun and his French contemporaries to prove
themselves capable of solving the architectural problems of the
Louvre and to transform it into a palace appropriate "to the
grandeur and the magnificence of the prince who [was] to inhabit
it" (Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Nicolas Poussin in 1664). The
comparison between Le Brun and Bernini not only illustrates how
France sought artistic supremacy over Italy during the second half
of the 17th century, but further helps to demonstrate how Le Brun
himself wanted to be perceived: beyond acting as a translator of
the king's artistic ambition, the artist appears to have sought his
own sovereign authority over the visual arts.
Sandra Blow (1925-2006) is among the most important British artists
of the later twentieth century. During a time of rapid change in
the art world, her commitment to abstract painting resulted in a
large and diverse body of work of distinctive power and subtlety.
Michael Bird's fascinating survey of Sandra Blow's life and art is
now available for the first time in a handsome paperback edition.
Compiled in collaboration with the artist during the last years of
her life, it provides a definitive overview of her career. The book
is lavishly illustrated throughout with a fully representative
selection of Blow's work. In this highly readable account, Michael
Bird looks in depth at Blow's evolving studio practice and the
personal nature of her abstract vision. He places Blow's
achievement firmly within the wider context of British and
international art movements of the post-war period and late
twentieth century. He also casts new light on the role played in
her life by Alberto Burri and Roger Hilton, two influences she
acknowledged to be crucial to her art. Through close attention to
Blow's working methods, this book provides a unique insight into
her creative process. It reveals the intensity of emotional
engagement and technical experimentation that lie behind the
apparent spontaneity of her vivid handling of materials, colour and
form.
The Book of Small is a collection of thirty-six short stories
about a childhood in a town that still had vestiges of its pioneer
past. Emily Carr tells stories about her family, neighbours,
friends and strangers-who run the gamut from genteel people in high
society to disreputable frequenters of saloons-as well as an array
of beloved pets. All are observed through the sharp eyes and ears
of a young and ever-curious girl. Carr's writing is a disarming
combination of charm and devastating frankness.
This first-ever biography of American painter Grace Hartigan traces
her rise from virtually self-taught painter to art-world fame, her
plunge into obscurity after leaving New York to marry a scientist
in Baltimore, and her constant efforts to reinvent her style and
subject matter. Along the way, there were multiple affairs, four
troubled marriages, a long battle with alcoholism, and a chilly
relationship with her only child. Attempting to channel her vague
ambitions after an early marriage, Grace struggled to master the
basics of drawing in night-school classes. She moved to New York in
her early twenties and befriended Willem de Kooning, Jackson
Pollock, and other artists who were pioneering Abstract
Expressionism. Although praised for the coloristic brio of her
abstract paintings, she began working figuratively, a move that was
much criticized but ultimately vindicated when the Museum of Modern
Art purchased her painting The Persian Jacket in 1953. By the
mid-fifties, she freely combined abstract and representational
elements. Grace-who signed her paintings "Hartigan"- was a
full-fledged member of the "men's club" that was the 1950s art
scene. Featured in Time, Newsweek, Life, and Look, she was the only
woman in MoMA's groundbreaking 12 Americans exhibition in 1956, and
the youngest artist-and again, only woman-in The New American
Painting, which toured Europe in 1958-1959. Two years later she
moved to Baltimore, where she became legendary for her signature
tough-love counsel to her art school students. Grace continued to
paint throughout her life, seeking-for better or worse-something
truer and fiercer than beauty.
Updated and expanded! Reviews the theory, materials, and processes
that are used in the lithographic process. Opens with a brief
historical introduction to the advances in microlithography.
Discusses four major topics: the physics of the lithographic
process, organic resist materials, resist processing, and plasma
etching. Designed as a tutorial for researchers with no experience
in the field, as well as those experienced in microlithography.
Will also prove invaluable to those already involved in
microlithography. Includes numerous references for more detailed
reading on specific aspects of microlithography.
Handcrafts for centuries have been the heart of the creative domain
in societies; bringing art close to the community not only as an
imaginative practice, but also as economical means and activities
for social experiences. Independent curator and art educator
Fereshte Moosavi explores the notion of art object in its
materiality, and the essence of craftsmanship in the works of two
compelling contemporary Iranian artists Farhad Ahrarnia and Hossein
Valamensh. While undertaking publication as a form of an exhibiting
platform, the selected works and texts offer a complex
interconnectivity with the humble 'matter' which works as a vessel
that belongs to the register of the imaginary. Farhad Ahrarnia's
Khatam-Kari (Persian marquetry), handmade carpets, collages of
everyday objects embellished by Tazhib delve into a dual experience
between modern life and traditional craftsmanship. Hossein
Valamanesh's use of material such as branches, leaves, earth and
fire delineates a kind of return to t
The horror of the First World War brought out a characteristic
response in a group of English artists, who resorted to black
humour. Among these, John Hassall, a pioneering British illustrator
and creator of the influential 'Skegness is so bracing' poster,
holds a special place. Early in the war, he hit on the idea of
drawing a parody of the Bayeux Tapestry to satirize German
aggression and add to the growing genre of war propaganda. Taking
the scheme of the famous tapestry which celebrates William the
Conqueror's invasion of England, Hassall uses thirty pictorial
panels to tell the story of Kaiser Wilhem II's invasion of
Luxembourg and Belgium. In mock-archaic language he narrates the
progress of the German army, never missing an opportunity to
lampoon 'bad' behaviour: 'Wilhelm giveth orders for frightfulness.'
The caricatured Germans loot homes, make gas from Limburg cheese
and sauerkraut, drink copious amounts of wine and shamefully march
through Luxembourg with 'women and children in front.' With comic
inventiveness Hassall adapts the borders of the original to
illustrate the stereotypical objects with which the English then
associated their enemy: they are decorated with schnitzel,
sausages, pilsner, wine corks and wild boar. Drawn with Hassall's
distinctive flat colour and striking outlines, Ye Berlyn Tapestrie
is a fascinating historical example of war-induced farce, produced
by a highly talented artist who could not then have known that the
war was set to last for another two years. Together with an
introduction which sets out the historical background of its
creation, every page of this rarely seen publication is reproduced
here in a fold-out concertina, just like the original, to resemble
the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.
Continuing its distinguished tradition of focusing on central
political, sociological, and cultural issues of Jewish life in the
last century, Volume XXVI of the annual Studies in Contemporary
Jewry examines the visual revolution that has overtaken Jewish
cultural life in the twentieth century onwards, with special
attention given to the evolution of Jewish museums. Bringing
together leading curators and scholars, Visualizing and Exhibiting
Jewish Space and History treats various forms of Jewish
representation in museums in Europe and the United States before
the Second World War and inquires into the nature and proliferation
of Jewish museums following the Holocaust and the fall of Communism
in Western and Eastern Europe. In addition, a pair of essays
dedicated to six exhibitions that took place in Israel in 2008 to
mark six decades of Israeli art raises significant issues on the
relationship between art and gender, and art and politics. An
introductory essay highlights the dramatic transformation in the
appreciation of the visual in Jewish culture. The scope of the
symposium offers one of the first scholarly attempts to treat this
theme in several countries.
Also featured in this volume are a provocative essay on the nature
of antisemitism in twentieth-century English society; review essays
on Jewish fundamentalism and recent works on the subject of the
Holocaust in occupied Soviet territories; and reviews of new titles
in Jewish Studies..
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