The synthetic proposition examines the impact of Civil Rights, Black Power, the student, feminist and sexual-liberty movements on conceptualism and its legacies in the United States between the late 1960s and the 1990s. It focuses on the turn to political reference in practices originally concerned with abstract ideas, as articulated by Joseph Kosuth, and traces key strategies in contemporary art to the reciprocal influences of conceptualism and identity politics: movements that have so far been historicised as mutually exclusive. The book demonstrates that while identity-based strategies were particular, their impact spread far beyond the individuals or communities that originated them. It offers a study of Adrian Piper, David Hammons, Renee Green, Mary Kelly, Martha Rosler, Silvia Kolbowski, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Lorna Simpson, Hans Haacke, Andrea Fraser and Charles Gaines. By turning to social issues, these artists analysed the conventions of language, photography, moving image, installation and display. -- .

Spearheaded by Constantine Sekeris, author of "MetamorFX," this book is an in-depth look at costume design and illustration. Showcasing an educational process breaking down the problematic areas of costume design for the film, video game and animation industries. From 10 top leading artists in the field, this title will have a wide range of aesthetic and design solutions. One will learn how to design and illustrate a costume from start to finish with educational tips and the process from sketches to finished Photoshop images to 3D ZBrush sculptures to fabrication.

A major reassessment of photography's pivotal role in 1960s conceptual art Why do we continue to look to photographs for evidence despite our awareness of photography's potential for duplicity? Documents of Doubt critically reassesses the truth claims surrounding photographs by looking at how conceptual artists creatively undermined them. Studying the unique relationship between photography and conceptual art practices in the United States during the social and political instability of the late 1960s, Heather Diack offers vital new perspectives on our "post-truth" world and the importance of suspending easy conclusions in contemporary art. Considering the work of four leading conceptual artists of the 1960s and '70s, Diack looks at photographs as documents of doubt, pushing the form beyond commonly assumed limits. Through in-depth and thorough reevaluations of early work by noted artists Mel Bochner, Bruce Nauman, Douglas Huebler, and John Baldessari, Diack advances the powerful thesis that photography provided a means of moving away from the object and toward performative effects, playing a crucial role in the development of conceptual art as a medium of doubt and contingency. Discussing how unexpected and contradictory meanings can exist in the guise of ordinary pictures, Documents of Doubt offers evocative and original ideas on truth's connection to photography in the United States during the late 1960s and how conceptual art from that period anticipated our current era of "alternative facts" in contemporary politics and culture.

The title of this book, "Autofocus Retina" means a configuration of four diamond shaped mirrors connoting the inner mechanics of a camera lens: the photographic eye. Lothar Baumgarten (b. Germany 1944, living and working in Berlin/New York) presents a personal selection of photographs, sculpture, drawings and film, from the late 1960s to the present day. The book follows the creative trajectory of an artist who does not comply with the aesthetic vision of art but who continually questions the logic structuring Western thought and systems of representation. It features essays on Baumgarten's work by Hal Foster, Michael Jakob, Craig Owens, Anne Rorimer and Friedrich Wolfram Heubach. Each text has been chosen by the artist himself along with special graphic illustrations and images.

"The book is an impressive work of scholarship" - Studio International "Richard set about to produce a study of distribution networks, and achieved this through immaculate and thorough research. It is no criticism of the book to say that there are many questions left unexplored ... As scholars of the future think through these and other questions, they will remain grateful to Richard's extraordinary and meticulous scholarship." - Mark Godfrey, Frieze Emerging in the late 1960s, conceptual art was spurred by a network of artists, dealers, curators and critics. These little-known connections are detailed for the first time in this highly significant volume. By focusing on 15 artists - including Marcel Broodthaers, Richard Long, Lawrence Weiner, Hanne Darboven and Daniel Buren - and a specific network of dealer-galleries, private and public institutions and collectors around them, author Sophie Richard documents the role of art dealers in the development of conceptual art - which ultimately led to the structure of today's art world. We learn how conceptual artworks entered private collections and public institutions, how value was conferred to them, and the distribution networks that drove these artists' success. A detailed account of artistic activity in the decade 1967-77 is accompanied by extensive and previously unpublished data, charting the exhibitions and sales of conceptual works. The relationships, support structures and strategies of dealer-galleries - such as Konrad Fischer, Wide White Space and Lisson Gallery - are revealed and make fascinating reading. Including numerous interviews with key figures of the period, 'Unconcealed' exposes the new dealing, curatorial, collecting and teaching methods formed in this decade that continue to be critical to today's art world.

The first true monograph on the work of celebrated French conceptual artist and sculptor Bernar Venet Bernar Venet is one of France's most celebrated living artists. Having emerged from the late 1960s avant-garde scene in New York, Venet developed a personal aesthetic based on an innovative use of mathematics and science, where control, chance, and chaos converge to form a fine equilibrium while investigating their relationship with the environment. Conversant in many media, Venet is mostly known for his monumental outdoor sculptures in major cities worldwide and, in fall 19, his Arc Majeur is due for completion at a site in Belgium - at almost 200 feet in height (60 metres), Venet's sculpture will be taller than New York's Statue of Liberty.

Chacón's work can be read as a pictorially narrated story of the problems of modern and contemporary painting. Throughout his career, genres and aesthetics are transgressed in his artistic production, "pure" painting is invaded by conceptual art or becomes an installation, and the most radical geometry shares the stage with abstract expressionism. This book is the most complete editorial work dedicated to the artist, one of the main protagonists of contemporary Venezuelan and Latin American art. It contains critical texts by authors of international and national prestige, such as Jesús Fuenmayor, Dan Cameron, Nadja Rottner and Félix Suazo; it also includes a complete interview with the artist by graphic designer and curator �lvaro Sotillo and a detailed chronology by Israel Ortega and Leonor Solá.  Illustrated with numerous reproductions of his works and a selection of previously unpublished historical photographs, it is destined to become an essential bibliographical reference.

Official art book of the Marvel's Midnight Suns video game, packed with interviews with the creative team behind the game, as well as stunning concept art created during the development process. When the demonic Lilith and her fearsome horde unite with the evil armies of Hydra, it's time to unleash Marvel's dark side. As The Hunter, your mission is to lead an unlikely team of seasoned Super Heroes and dangerous supernatural warriors to victory. Can legends such as Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Blade put aside their differences in the face of a growing apocalyptic threat? If you're going to save the world, you'll have to forge alliances and lead the team into battle as the legendary Midnight Suns-Earth's last line of defence against the underworld. Marvel's Midnight Suns - The Art of the Game captures the creative process of this much-anticipated game. The exclusive concept art and in-game renderings created by the talented development team-creating the game in collaboration with Marvel-are shown in glorious detail in this lush, hardback volume. Characters, locations, gadgets, weapons, monsters, enemies, and much more are all accompanied by unique insights from the artists and developers behind the game. So step into the world of Marvel's Midnight Suns - and rise up against the darkness!

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-78) died at only 35 of pancreatic cancer and has since become a cult figure of late 20th-century art. Trained in architecture at Cornell, he went on to question the field's conventions in vivid projects--performance and recycling pieces, space and texture works and word games--some of which excised holes into existing buildings or assembled deeds to New York City alleys and curbs. The artist used a variety of media to document his work, including film, video and photography. His work and words, while sophisticated enough to make him an artist's artist, and colossal and outgoing enough to draw public attention and affection, were always also grounded in social or political convictions. In the early 1970s, Matta-Clark developed the idea of anarchitecture, which encompassed his interest in voids, gaps and left-over spaces. Gordon Matta-Clark: Experience Becomes the Object collects five essays and ten individual interviews with various friends and family members of Matta-Clark's. Together, they outline a biographical profile and offer an analysis of the historical period in which the artist developed his short but successful career. New, never-before-published material and photographs as well as an exclusive link to the documentary Crosswords: Matta-Clark's Friends by Matias Cardone are also included.

Following his previous books, Quantum Dreams and Quantumscapes, Velocity is a stunning new visionary collection of sci-fi book cover paintings, commercial and film art, video game designs, and never before-seen artwork from the fantastic imagination of acclaimed artist Stephan Martiniere.

Sketching and drawing are fundamental to creating great art; the simple doodle is often where the artist first brings their ideas and concepts to life. In Sketching from the Imagination: Dark Arts, we have gathered together fifty talented traditional and digital artists to showcase work from their sketchbooks, share inspiration, and give insight into how they create imaginative and dark illustrations. Featuring a range of artwork and artists from many fields, from concept design and animation to illustration and comic art, Sketching from the Imagination: Dark Arts is a collection of beautifully macabre sketches with plenty of useful tips and creative insights an invaluable resource that will inspire artists of all abilities.

Dark room. The frame of a boat hangs, suspended. A cascade of light fibres flows downwards and the wires are arranged on the ground, like the tentacles of a motionless Medusa, beyond time's limits. Among the protagonists of the international art scene, Adrian Paci uses a straight-forward language - lacking rhetoric to investigate the human condition with refined formal synthesis. In his works, migration, which he experienced in the first person, is sublimated into universal research on the indefinite nature of the human being, and on the complexity of social, political and cultural dynamics intrinsic to contemporary life. The project Di queste luci si serviraI la notte (Lights to Serve the Night) underlines his ability to narrate our times and describe the perpetual transit of man, assimilated to the continuous flow of water and its cathartic power.

One of the most important movements in twenty-first century literature is the emergence of conceptual writing. By knowingly drawing on the histories of art and literature, conceptual writing upended traditional categorical conventions. Postscript is the first collection of writings on the subject of conceptual writing by a diverse field of scholars in the realms of art, literature, media, as well as the artists themselves. Using new and old technology, and textual and visual modes including appropriation, transcription, translation, redaction, and repetition, the contributors actively challenge the existing scholarship on conceptual art. Rather than segregating the work of visual artists from that of writers we are shown the ways in which conceptual art is, and remains, a mutually supportive interaction between the arts.

Czech action art - a medium similar to performance art that does not require an audience - emerged out of the political and social turmoil of the 1960s. This movement has received little critical attention, however, as the Iron Curtain prevented its dissemination to an international audience. Here theorist and art historian Pavlina Morganova gives this art scene its due, chronicling its inception and tracing its evolution through to the present. Morganova explains the various forms of action art, from the "actions" and "happenings" of the 1960s; to the actions of land art that encompass stones, trees, water, or fire; to recent displays of body art; to the actions of the latest generation of artists, who are using the principles of action art in contemporary postconceptual and participative art. Along the way, she introduces the most prominent Czech artists of each specific niche, including Milan Knizak, Zorka Saglova, Ivan Kafka, Petr Stembera, Karel Miler, Jiri Kovanda, and Katerina Seda, and demonstrates not only the changes in the art forms themselves but also the shifting roles of artists and spectators after World War II. With over one hundred illustrations, Czech Action Art introduces this heretofore overlooked but fascinating art form to a global readership.