This collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating a 360° view on the circus. Three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aesthetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society. This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers, junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording format. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic point of views. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies, emerging disciples of circus and performance.

The most comprehensive survey to date of the work of Faith Ringgold, whose groundbreaking art and political activism span more than sixty years - featuring a stellar line-up of contributors and an unprecedented collection of images Faith Ringgold is a critically acclaimed American artist whose unique methods of visual storytelling have documented and advanced art historical, feminist, and civil-rights movements for more than half a century. Accompanying a major retrospective at the New Museum, New York, this expansive survey covers work from all periods of her career, including her early civil rights-era figurative paintings, her graphic political protest posters, and her signature experimental story quilts.

Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London brings together a group of essays from across multiple fields of study that examine the socio-cultural, political, economic, and aesthetic dimensions of pageantry in sixteenth and seventeenth-century London. This collection engages with modern interest in the spectacle and historical performances of pageantry and entertainments, including royal entries, progresses, coronation ceremonies, Lord Mayor's Shows, and processions. Through a discussion of the extant texts, visual records, archival material, and emerging projects in the digital humanities, the chapters elucidate the forms in which the period itself recorded its public rituals, pageantry, and ephemeral entertainments. The diversity of approaches contained in these chapters reflects the collaborative nature of pageantry and civic entertainments, as well as the broad socio-cultural resonances of this form of drama, and in doing so offers a study that is multi-faceted and wide-ranging, much like civic performance itself. Ideal for scholars of Early Modern global politics, economics, and culture; literary and performance studies; print culture; and the digital humanities, Civic Performance casts a new lens on street pageantry and entertainments in the historically and culturally significant locus of Early Modern London.

Discover the ultimate collection of Ron Cobb's artwork from across his entire career (Alien, Star Wars, Back to the Future) in this comprehensive coffee table book. During his sixty-year career, Ron Cobb provided concept art for some of the biggest films in sci-fi cinema. From designing spaceships for Alien, Dark Star, and Firefly and Delorean from Back to the Future to character designs for Conan the Barbarian and creature concepts for Star Wars and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ron has left a legacy of artwork behind to inspire future generations of concept artists. This beautiful coffee table book is full to the brim with Ron Cobb's artwork from throughout his career and includes exclusive insights from the talent he worked with along the way, including James Cameron, Joe Johnston, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and Nick Castle. Brought to you by Concept Art Association in collaboration with the Estate of Ron Cobb.

'Ravilious in Pictures: The War Paintings' celebrates and commemorates the wartime career of Eric Ravilious, who died on active service in Iceland at the age of 39. One of a series of books, it creates a vivid portrait both of the artist himself and of life in wartime Britain.

How can we reconfigure our picture of modern art after the postcolonial turn without simply adding regional art histories to the Eurocentric canon? Transmodern examines the global dimension of modern art by tracing the crossroads of different modernisms in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Featuring case studies in Indian modernism, the Harlem Renaissance and post-war abstraction, it demonstrates the significance of transcultural contacts between artists from both sides of the colonial divide. The book argues for the need to study non-western avant-gardes and Black avant-gardes within the west as transmodern counter-currents to mainstream modernism. It situates transcultural art practices from the 1920s to the 1960s within the framework of anti-colonial movements and in relation to contemporary transcultural thinking that challenged colonial concepts of race and culture with notions of syncretism and hybridity. -- .

Joe Tilson RA (b.1928) is one of the great figures in post-war British art and a pivotal artist of the British Pop Art movement during the 1960s. Still working, and still evolving, he has continued to explore many new directions and a great variety of mediums since moving away from his Pop origins. Astonishingly, no general monograph documenting all these phases of Tilson’s prolific production has ever been published. This book remedies this through a series of insightful chapters, exploring each decade of the artist’s career, written by Marco Livingstone, a respected authority on British contemporary art. Featuring a lively and visually rich design, this unique work will guide the reader through the evolution of one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British art.

The newly revised and updated Charleston: A Bloomsbury House & Garden is the definitive publication on the Bloomsbury Group's rural outpost in the heart of the Sussex Downs. "It's absolutely perfect...", wrote the artist Vanessa Bell when she moved to Charleston in 1916. For fifty years, Vanessa and her fellow painter Duncan Grant lived, loved and worked in this isolated Sussex farmhouse, together transforming the house and garden into an extraordinary work of art and creating a rural retreat for the Bloomsbury group. Now, Vanessa's son, Quentin Bell, and her granddaughter Virginia Nicholson tell the inside story of their family home, linking it with some of the pioneering cultural figures who spent time there, including Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf, the economist Maynard Keynes, the writer Lytton Strachey and the art critic Roger Fry. Taking readers through each room of the house - from Clive Bell's Study, the Dining Room, the Kitchen and the Garden Room, through to individual bedrooms, the Studios and the Library - Quentin Bell relives old memories, including having T.S. Eliot over for a dinner party and staging plays in the Studio, while Virginia Nicholson details the artistic techniques (stencilling, embroidery, painting, sculpture, ceramics and more) used to embellish and enliven the once simple farmhouse. In this refreshed edition of the original 1997 publication, Gavin Kingcombe's specially commissioned photographs breathe life into the colourful interiors and garden of the Sussex farmhouse, while updated text and captions by Virginia Nicholson capture the evolution of Charleston as it continues to inspire a new generation. For lovers of literature, decorative arts, and all things Bloomsbury, Charleston: A Bloomsbury House & Garden offers a window onto a truly unique creative hub.

Positioning Alice Neel as a champion of civil rights, this book explores how her paintings convey her humanist politics and capture the humanity, strength, and vulnerability of her subjects   “One of the most ambitious and thorough collections of Neel’s work to date.�—Allison Schaller, Vanity Fair   “For me, people come first,� Alice Neel (1900–1984) declared in 1950. “I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being.� This ambitious publication surveys Neel’s nearly 70-year career through the lens of her radical humanism. Remarkable portraits of victims of the Great Depression, fellow residents of Spanish Harlem, leaders of political organizations, queer artists, visibly pregnant women, and members of New York’s global diaspora reveal that Neel viewed humanism as both a political and philosophical ideal. In addition to these paintings of famous and unknown sitters, the more than 100 works highlighted include Neel’s emotionally charged cityscapes and still lifes as well as the artist’s erotic pastels and watercolors. Essays tackle Neel’s portrayal of LGBTQ subjects; her unique aesthetic language, which merged abstraction and figuration; and her commitment to progressive politics, civil rights, feminism, and racial diversity. The authors also explore Neel’s highly personal preoccupations with death, illness, and motherhood while reasserting her place in the broader cultural history of the 20th century. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (March 22–August 1, 2021)   Guggenheim, Bilbao (September 17, 2021–January 30, 2022)   de Young Museum, San Francisco (March 12–July 10, 2022)

Memory Art in the Contemporary World deals with the ever-expanding field of transnational memory art, which has emerged from a political need to come to terms with traumatic historical pasts, from the Holocaust to apartheid, colonialism, state terror and civil war. The book focuses on the work of several contemporary artists from beyond the Northern Transatlantic, including William Kentridge, Vivan Sundaram, Doris Salcedo, Nalini Malani and Guillermo Kuitca, all of whom reflect on historical situations specific to their own countries but in work which has been shown to have a transnational reach. Andreas Huyssen considers their dual investment in memories of state violence and memories of modernism as central to the affective power of their work. This thought-provoking and highly relevant book reflects on the various forms and critical potential of memory art in a contemporary world which both obsesses about the past, in the building of monuments and museums and an emphasis on retro and nostalgia in popular culture, and simultaneously fosters historical amnesia in increasingly flattened notions of temporality encouraged by the internet and social media.

Surrealist women's writing: A critical exploration is the first sustained critical inquiry into the writing of women associated with surrealism. Featuring original essays by leading scholars of surrealism, the volume demonstrates the extent and the historical, linguistic, and culturally contextual breadth of this writing. It also highlights how the specifically surrealist poetics and politics of these writers' work intersect with and contribute to contemporary debates on, for example, gender, sexuality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment. Drawing on a variety of innovative theoretical approaches, the essays in the volume focus on the writing of numerous women surrealists, many of whom have hitherto mainly been known for their visual rather than their literary production. These include Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, Colette Peignot, Suzanne Cesaire, Unica Zurn, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, and Rikki Ducornet. -- .

Essential quotations from renowned artist and pop icon Keith Haring Keith Haring remains one of the most important and celebrated artists of his generation and beyond. Through his signature bold graphic line drawings of figures and forms dancing and grooving, Haring's paintings, large-scale public murals, chalk drawings, and singular graffiti style defined an era and brought awareness to social issues ranging from gay rights and AIDS to drug abuse prevention and a woman's right to choose. Haring-isms is a collection of essential quotations from this creative thinker and legendary artist. Gathered from Haring's journals and interviews, these lively quotes reveal his influences and thoughts on a variety of topics, including birth and death, possibility and uncertainty, and difference and conformity. They demonstrate Haring's deep engagement with subjects outside of the art world and his outspoken commitment to activism. Taken together, this selection reflects Haring's distinctive voice and reminds us why his work continues to resonate with fans around the globe. Select quotations from the book: "Art lives through the imaginations of the people who are seeing it. Without that contact, there is no art." "It's a huge world. There are lots and lots and lots of people that I haven't reached yet that I'd like to reach." "Art is one of the last areas that is totally within the realm of the human individual and can't be copied or done better by a machine." "The artist, if he is a vessel, is also a performer." "No matter how long you work, it's always going to end sometime. And there's always going to be things left undone." "I decided to make a major break. New York was the only place to go." "I came to believe there was no such thing as chance. If you accept that there are no coincidences, you use whatever comes along." "There was a migration of artists from all over America to New York. It was completely wild. And we controlled it ourselves." "I couldn't go back to the abstract drawings; it had to have some connection to the real world."

At a time where there are repeated claims of the impending demise of art criticism, The Ends of Art Criticism seeks to dispel these myths by arguing that the lack of a single dominant voice in criticism is not, as some believe, a weakness, but a strength, allowing previously marginalised voices and new global and political perspectives to come to the fore. An essential book for anyone interested in contemporary art criticism, The Ends of Art Criticism benefits from an author whose 30 years of experience as editor of Art Monthly magazine allows her to offer opinionated and thought-provoking insight into the many questions and debates surrounding current critical writing on art, including the relationship between artists and critics, the academicisation of critical discourse, and the relationship between art history and criticism.

Creating Improvised Theatre: Tools, Techniques, and Theories for Short Form and Narrative Improvisation is a complete guide to improvised theatre for performers and instructors. This book provides a modern view of improvised theatre based on the rapid evolution of this art form, shedding new light on classic theories as well as developing lesser known and emerging techniques, such as the Trance Mask. Instead of simply referencing classic theories, the book revisits them and places them in the context of contemporary improvisation techniques. Designed as a practical support, this guide contains over 130 exercises that allow its theories to come alive in workshops, rehearsals, and performance. The book is divided into four sections: Nuts and bolts: The fundamental tools of improvisation to explore how to be spontaneously creative, build with your partner, and learn from masks to discover your scene instant by instant. Short form: Techniques for scene work and short form performance, including how to get the most out of a scene, remain connected to the relational stakes, provoke change (physical, status, and emotional), and maintain a playful attitude. Narrative improvisation: Theories to help navigate long form narrative-based shows with "narrative waypoints," generate variety, develop protagonists, work on genres, and manipulate creative transitions. The bits box: Advice for warming-up before a rehearsal or a show with a collection of useful games. Written to inspire creativity and provide the tools to develop innovative improvised shows and experiences, Creating Improvised Theatre is an invaluable source book for anyone interested in the art of improvised theatre, whether a beginning student or experienced performer.

Commedia dell'Arte, its Structure and Tradition chronicles a series of discussions between two renowned experts in commedia dell'arte - master practitioners Antonio Fava and John Rudlin. These discussions were recorded during three recent visits by Fava to Rudlin's rural retreat in south west France. They take in all of commedia dell'arte's most striking and enduring elements - its masks, its scripts and scenarios, and most outstandingly, its cast of characters. Fava explores the role of each stock Commedia character and their subsequent incarnations in popular culture, as well as their roots in prominent figures of their time. The lively and wide-ranging conversations also take in methods of staging commedia dell'arte for contemporary audiences, the evolution of its gestures, and the collective nature of its theatre-making. This is an essential book for any student or practitioner of commedia dell'arte - provocative, expansive wisdom from the modern world's foremost exponent of the craft.

Taking a radically new approach to the history of abstract painting, Pepe Karmel applies a scholarly yet fresh vision to reconsider the history of abstraction from a global perspective and to demonstrate that abstraction is embedded in the real world. Moving beyond the orthodox canonical terrain of abstract art, he surveys artists from across the globe, examining their work from the point of view of content rather than form. Previous writers have approached the history of abstraction as a series of movements solving a series of formal problems. In contrast, Karmel focuses on the subject matter of abstract art, showing how artists have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural and spiritual experience. An introductory discussion of the work of the early modern pioneers of abstraction opens up into a completely new approach to abstract art based around five inclusive themes - the body, the landscape, the cosmos, architecture, and the repertory of man-made signs and patterns - each of which has its own chapter. Starting from a figurative example, Karmel works outwards to develop a series of narratives that go far beyond the established figures and movements traditionally associated with abstract art. Each narrative is complemented by a number of 'featured' abstract works, which provide an in-depth illustration of the breadth of Karmel's distinctive vision. A wide-ranging examination of topics - from embryos to the surface of skin, from vortexes to waves, planets to star charts, towers to windows - is interwoven with detailed analysis of works by established figures like Joan Miro and Jackson Pollock alongside pieces by lesser-known artists such as Wu Guanzhong, Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita.

THE ART OF ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

This is the most comprehensive and detailed study of British artist Andy Goldsworthy, and is the only full-length exploration of Goldsworthy and his art available anywhere. The book has been completely rewritten and brought up to date for this new edition.

Andy Goldsworthy makes land or earth art out of, among other materials, stacks of rocks, or stalks tied together, or mud thrown into rivers or poppy petals wrapped around boulders. His art is a sensitive, intuitive response to nature, light, time, growth, the seasons and the earth.

Fully illustrated, with a revised text. Bibliography and notes. 348pp. ISBN 9781861714106. www.crmoon.com

EXTRACT FROM THE CHAPTER ON GOLDSWORTHY'S LEAFWORKS

It is the leafworks that are the most colourful of Andy Goldsworthy's sculptures. What the leaf sculptures show is how beautiful the colours of nature are: Goldsworthy presents the viewer with these subtle colours by contrasting one leaf with another. Maple patch grouped the red/ orange/ yellow of Japanese maple leaves together; Poppy leaves contrasted the red poppy leaves against the mid-green of an elderberry bush; a Stone Wood sculpture of 1992 consisted of poppy leaves wrapped around a hazel branch, the red constrasting vividly with the wet green leaves. Two sycamore leafworks of 1980 and 1981 are very simple: a leaf black from cows is placed against pale Autumn leaves; another leaf, bleached white, is set down on a bed of dark leaves. He pins together two colours of sycamore leaves (sycamore is a favourite Goldsworthy medium) in Sycamore leaf sections (1988), and hangs the line of leaves from a tree. Shot with the sun behind them, the photograph of the leaves shows them glowing green and gold, the two classic colours of poetry and alchemy. The Fall colours of course connote nostalgia, decadence, sensuality, Romanticism, time passing, the decay of the year, and so on.

REVIEW ON AMAZON

A happily received gift. It's worth the price for one who wants a scholarly while earthy (sorry, couldn't help it) approach to the work. There's a quirkiness about the writing style that is engaging and honest. I'm glad I have the book and will reread it as I purchase other books on Goldsworthy where the work is shown via great photography.

REVIEW ON AMAZON

This is a chatty informational book. It has stories of many artists that have been associated with Andy Goldsworthy in his long career as a contemporary nature sculptor. If you are looking for a personal history this is a book for you.

REVIEW ON AMAZON

I'm no expert on visual art, nor would I claim to be, but I found this to be a useful book, and the only one I've been able to find about the work of Andy Goldsworthy. The author has taken the time to round up a large amount of varied source material which makes this book well worth seeking out.

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley's portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald's portrait of the former first lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public, and attendance at the museum has more than doubled as visitors travel from near and far to view these larger-than-life paintings. After witnessing a woman drop to her knees in prayer before the portrait of Barack Obama, one guard said, "No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever." The Obama Portraits is the first book about the making, meaning, and significance of these remarkable artworks. Richly illustrated with images of the portraits, exclusive pictures of the Obamas with the artists during their sittings, and photos of the historic unveiling ceremony by former White House photographer Pete Souza, this book offers insight into what these paintings can tell us about the history of portraiture and American culture. The volume also features a transcript of the unveiling ceremony, which includes moving remarks by the Obamas and the artists. A reversible dust jacket allows readers to choose which portrait to display on the front cover. An inspiring history of the creation and impact of the Obama portraits, this fascinating book speaks to the power of art-especially portraiture-to bring people together and promote cultural change. Published in association with the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Frantic Assembly have had a powerful and continuing influence on the popularisation of devising practices in contemporary theatre-making. Their work blends brave and bold physical theatre with exciting new writing, and they have collaborated with some of the leading theatre-makers in the UK. The company's impact reaches throughout the world, particularly through their extensive workshop and education programmes, as well as their individual and collective impact as movement directors on landmark, internationally successful productions such as Black Watch and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. This volume reveals the background to, and work of, a major influence on twentieth and twenty-first century performance. Frantic Assembly is the first book to combine: an overview of the history of the company since its foundation in 1994 an analysis of the key ideas underpinning the company's work a critical commentary on two key productions - Hymns by Chris O'Connell (1999) and Stockholm by Bryony Lavery (2007) a detailed description of a Frantic Assembly workshop, offering an introduction to how the company works. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's student.

A deluxe gift edition of L. Frank Baum's cherished children's classic, vividly reimagined with beautiful four-color artwork and nine interactive features created by MinaLima, the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise. Hailed as "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale" by the Library of Congress, L. Frank Baum's classic story has been enjoyed by generations of young readers since its publication in 1900. One of the most-read children's books, it is a staple of American literature and the inspiration for the beloved 1939 Academy Award-winning movie (widely acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time), as well as stage plays and musicals. When a tornado strikes the Kansas prairie, young orphan Dorothy Gale and her little dog Toto are blown away to Oz, a magical place filled with witches, munchkins, winged monkeys, and other unusual inhabitants. Lost and afraid, all Dorothy wants is to return to her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. But to do so, the Good Witch of the North tells her, she must follow the Yellow Brick Road that leads to the Emerald City. There, she will find the fearsome Wizard of Oz who can help her find her way home. Along the way, Dorothy encounters three unforgettable characters-the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion-who join her in her quest. Their journey to the Emerald City, fraught with peril and adventure, teaches them the true meaning of friendship and reminds us all that there is no place like home. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Interactive reimagines the novel's iconic imagery and highlights phrases from the original book in a unique and delightful style that will enchant readers of all ages. Sure to become a collector's item, this deluxe illustrated edition contains specially commissioned artwork and nine exclusive interactive features, including: A cyclone map that opens up to reveal the Land of Oz A pop-up Yellow Brick Road Oz glasses that provide a different look at the world Fighting trees with branches that move Dorothy's silver shoes that can be clicked together This marvelous edition will enchant young and adult readers and is a thoughtful gift for any occasion.

Aimed to fashion students and designers, Palette Perfect is both a practical guide and an inspirational book that proposes a reflection on the universe of colour combinations, the moods and atmospheres they evoke and how we associate particular places and emotions to special colours. Each chapter explores a particular mood and describes the corresponding feelings and colour combinations, using as examples exquisite photographs of objects, still-lives, landscapes, interiors and fashion. At the end of each chapter, a wide variety of palettes representing the chapter's particular mood or atmosphere is included.