Written by the art dealer and friend who was among the first to recognise Rousseau's importance, these Recollections present a movingly personal portrait of the artist known as Le Douanier (the Customs Officer).

Defining Decadence The legacy of Gustav Klimt A century after his death, Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) still startles with his unabashed eroticism, dazzling surfaces, and artistic experimentation. This monograph gathers all of Klimt's major works alongside authoritative art historical commentary and privileged access to the artist's archive with some 179 letters, cards, writings, and other documents. With top quality illustration, including new photography of the celebrated Stoclet Frieze, the book follows Klimt through his prominent role in the Secessionist movement of 1897, his candid rendering of the female body, and his lustrous "golden phase" when gold leaf brought a shimmering tone and texture to such beloved works as The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, also known as The Woman in Gold. Through luminous spreads and carefully curated details, the monograph traces the repertoire of Japanese, Byzantine, and allegorical stimuli that informed Klimt's flattened perspectives, his symbolic vocabulary, and his mosaic-like textures. Drawing upon contemporary critics and voices, the book also examines the art world's polarized reception to Klimt's pictures as much as his own stylistic trajectory. From his landscape painting to erotic works to the controversial ceiling for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna, we see how Klimt's admixture of tradition and daring divided the press and public, becried by some as a pornographer, hailed by others as a modern maestro.

"Martin Bailey has written some of the most interesting books on Vincent's life in France, where he produced his greatest work" - Johan van Gogh, grandson of Theo, the artist's brother Studio of the South tells the story of Van Gogh's stay in Arles, when his powers were at their height. For Van Gogh, the south of France was an exciting new land, bursting with life. He walked into the hills inspired by the landscapes, and painted harvest scenes in the heat of summer. He visited a fishing village where he saw the Mediterranean for the first time, energetically capturing it in paint. He painted portraits of friends and locals, and flower still life paintings, culminating in the now iconic Sunflowers. He rented the Yellow House, and gradually did it up, calling it 'an artist's house', inviting Paul Gauguin to join him there. This encounter was to have a profound impact on both of the artists. They painted side by side, their collaboration coming to a dramatic end a few months later. The difficulties Van Gogh faced led to his eventual decision to retreat to the asylum at Saint-Remy. Based on extensive original research, the book reveals discoveries that throw new light on the legendary artist and give a definitive account of his fifteen months in Provence, including his time at the Yellow House, his collaboration with Gauguin and its tragic and shocking ending.

"'Thirst for information, faith in commerce and industry, inventiveness and technical daring, energy and tenacity, and a tendency to mix up religion with visible success - all these qualities have to be remembered as one embarks on a conducted tour of some of the exhibits of 1851.'"

The Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace was opened by Queen Victoria and would attract more than six million visitors. Writing one hundred years later, Nikolaus Pevsner makes a brilliant survey of what the Exhibition - 'the final flourish of a century of great commercial expansion' - offered to posterity as the hallmarks of High Victorian Design; also as windows into the mentality of mid-nineteenth-century England.

This book follows the life of Ivan Aguéli, the artist, anarchist, and esotericist, notable as one of the earliest Western intellectuals to convert to Islam and to explore Sufism. This book explores different aspects of his life and activities, revealing each facet of Aguéli’s complex personality in its own right. It then shows how esotericism, art, and anarchism finally found their fulfillment in Sufi Islam. The authors analyze how Aguéli’s life and conversion show that Islam occupied a more central place in modern European intellectual history than is generally realized. His life reflects several major modern intellectual, political, and cultural trends. This book is an important contribution to understanding how he came to Islam, the values and influences that informed his life, and—ultimately—the role he played in the modern Western reception of Islam.

Intersections, Innovations, Institutions: A Reader in Singapore Modern Art is the second of two volumes of readers which the editors had published on Singapore art. The first volume, Histories, Practices, Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art, was published in 2016. Like the first volume, Intersections, Innovations, Institutions brings together historically important writings but the scope is on modern artistic practices in Singapore from the 19th century to the 1980s. The aim of this book is to make these writings accessible for research and scholarship and for new histories and narratives to be constructed about the modern in Singapore art.

Intersections, Innovations, Institutions: A Reader in Singapore Modern Art is the second of two volumes of readers which the editors had published on Singapore art. The first volume, Histories, Practices, Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art, was published in 2016. Like the first volume, Intersections, Innovations, Institutions brings together historically important writings but the scope is on modern artistic practices in Singapore from the 19th century to the 1980s. The aim of this book is to make these writings accessible for research and scholarship and for new histories and narratives to be constructed about the modern in Singapore art.

This is an outline of two hundred years of British caricature. It begins in the 1740s with a portrayal of Walpole's alleged bottom flagrantly exhibited at the centre of royal patronage. In the 1780s a 'Golden Age' of satire was dominated by coarse images of Fox, Pitt, George III, Lord North and Prince George. The mid-1800s witnessed an evolution in manners, which made the bawdy humour of 'The Golden Age' less popular. The first cartoons were far more sophisticated and restrained by Victorian propriety. The period also witnessed numerous examples of individuals menacing the world. In the early 1800s audiences witnessed Pitt and Napoleon carving-up the great globe itself. Their insatiable appetites appeared to menace the world. The notion of menacing the world was certainly a theme that applied to the 1900s. The rise of the dictators in the 1920s and 1930s saw the eventual collusion of Hitler and Stalin crush Poland in 1939. Perhaps the least menacing of the triumvirate of dictators was Mussolini, who on fearing exclusion from the spoils of war, declared war only when he thought it was safe to do so. Chosen for their impression and their attention to detail, these vignettes represent the satirists' view of those characters and/or events that forged opinions and shaped the outcome of British (and World) history.

A Revolution in Movement is the first book to illuminate how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico's postrevolutionary cultural identity. K. Mitchell Snow traces this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance-the emulation of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in the 1920s, the adoption of U.S.-style modern dance in the 1940s, and the creation of ballet-inspired folk dance in the 1960s.Snow describes the appearances in Mexico by Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and Spanish concert dancer Tortola Valencia, who helped motivated Mexico to express its own national identity through dance. He discusses the work of muralists and other visual artists in tandem with Mexico's theatrical dance world, including Diego Rivera's collaborations with ballet composer Carlos Chavez; Carlos Merida's leadership of the National School of Dance; Jose Clemente Orozco's involvement in the creation of the Ballet de la Ciudad de Mexico; and Miguel Covarrubias, who led the "golden age" of Mexican modern dance. Snow draws from a rich trove of historical newspaper accounts and other contemporary documents to show how these collaborations produced an image of modern Mexico that would prove popular both locally and internationally and continues to endure today.

Notions of crisis have long charged the study of the European avant-garde and modernism, reflecting the often turbulent nature of their development. Throughout their history, the avant-garde and modernists have both confronted and instigated crises, be they economic or political, aesthetic or philosophical, collective or individual, local or global, short or perennial. The seventh volume in the series European Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies addresses the myriad ways in which the avant-garde and modernism have responded and related to crisis from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century. How have Europe's avant-garde and modernist movements given aesthetic shape to their crisis-laden trajectory? Given the many different watershed moments the avant-garde and modernism have faced over the centuries, what common threads link the critical points of their development? Alternatively, what kinds of crises have their experimental practices and critical modes yielded? The volume assembles case studies reflecting upon these questions and more from across all areas of avant-garde and modernist activity, including visual art, literature, music, architecture, photography, theatre, performance, curatorial practice, fashion and design.

Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs taken between the years 1850 and 1950. This visual narrative of astonishing sensitivity brings to light an until-now-unpublished collection of hundreds of snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in the most varied of contexts, both private and public. Taken when male partnerships were often illegal, the photos here were found at flea markets, in shoe boxes, family archives, old suitcases, and later online and at auctions. The collection now includes photos from all over the world: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Latvia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Serbia. The subjects were identified as couples by that unmistakable look in the eyes of two people in love - impossible to manufacture or hide. They were also recognised by body language - evidence as subtle as one hand barely grazing another - and by inscriptions, often coded. Included here are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots - over 100 years of social history and the development of photography. Loving will be produced to the highest standards in illustrated book publishing, The photographs - many fragile from age or handling - have been digitised using a technology derived from that used on surveillance satellites and available in only five places around the world. Paper and other materials are among the best available. And Loving will be manufactured at one of the world's elite printers. Loving, the book, will be up to the measure of its message in every way. In these delight-filled pages, couples in love tell their own story for the first time at a time when joy and hope - indeed human connectivity - are crucial lifelines to our better selves. Universal in reach and overwhelming in impact, Loving speaks to our spirit and resilience, our capacity for bliss, and our longing for the shared truths of love.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2010. Designing the Modern Interior reveals how the design of the inside spaces of our homes and public buildings is shaped by and shapes our modern culture. The modern interior has often been narrowly defined by the minimalist work of elite, reforming architects. But a shared modernising impulse, expressed in interior design, extends at least as far back as the Victorians and reaches to our own time. And this spirit of modernisation manifested itself in interiors, designed both by professionals and by amateurs, which did not necessarily look modern and often even aimed to imitate the past. Designing the Modern Interior presents a new history of the interior from the late 19th to the 21st century. Particular characteristics are consistent across this period: a progressive attitude towards technology; a hyper-consciousness of what it is to live in the present and the future; an overt relationship with the mass media, mass consumption and the marketplace; an emphasis on individualism, interiority and the 'self'; the construction of identities determined by gender, class, race, sexuality and nationhood; and the experiences of urban and suburban life.

Spirited Prospect: A Portable History of Western Art from the Paleolithic to the Modern Era is a lively, scholarly survey of the great artists, works, and movements that make up the history of Western art. Within the text, important questions are addressed: What is art, and who is an artist? What is the West, and what is the Canon? Is the Western Canon closed or exclusionary? Why is it more important than ever for individuals to engage and understand it? Readers are escorted on a concise, chronological tour of Western visual culture, beginning with the first art produced before written history. They learn about the great ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Italy; the advent of Christianity and its manifestations in Byzantine, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art; and the fragmentation of old traditions and the proliferation of new artistic choices that characterize the Enlightenment and the Modern Era. The revised second edition features improved formatting, juxtaposition, sizing, and spacing of images throughout. Spirited Prospect is an ideal textbook for introductory courses in the history of art, as well as courses in studio art and Western civilization at all levels.

George Stow was a Victorian man of many parts--poet, historian, ethnographer, artist, cartographer, and prolific writer. A geologist by profession, he became acquainted, through his work in the field, with the extraordinary wealth of rock paintings in the caves and shelters of the South African interior. Enchanted and absorbed by them, Stow set out to create a record of this creative work of the people who had tracked and marked the South African landscape decades and centuries before him.
"Unconquerable Spirit "reveals the scope and the beauty of his labors. Stow's paintings are more than just copies of what he found on the rocks. They are interpretations of the art of the San, informed by his own understanding of a particularly turbulent time in South African history and his sense of the tragic demise of the San way of life. This book celebrates his pioneering achievement and reminds us, too, of the richness of the imaginative universe of the San.

Major art movements and artists of nineteenth-century Europe, from the French Revolution to World War I, are presented alphabetically in a dictionary format. Artists and art movements are integrated within the politics and culture of the times. An examination of the prominent authors, politicians, rulers, writers, and musicians, who often posed for artists provides an historical background against which to study these famous, obscure, traditional, and avant-garde artists. Entries include the artists' models, many of whom became romantically involved with the artists, and the artworks in which the models appear. This focus on the European continent, rather than on one specific country, surveys the interconnected influences and politics that pervaded the lives of the artists during this age when Europe was powerful culturally and politically, and helps to explain the various art movements, such as the Neo-Classical, Romantic, Realist, Impressionist, Fauvist, Cubist, Expressionist, and Abstract, that consequently evolved.

Art history scholars, artists, and anyone with an interest in European art and politics will appreciate the organization and detail of this comprehensive volume. The alphabetical entries, coupled with straightforward and accessible writing, make this reference both informative and engaging. As a research tool, entries are cross-referenced, and a bibliography provides a useful guide to further research.

This first comprehensive research guide and annotated bibliography of Paul Gauguin includes information on more than 1500 books and articles on the artist as well as a comprehensive chronology and list of exhibitions. The secondary bibliography is arranged by topics and includes citations on the artist's life and career, his relationships with contemporary artists in France, including Vincent van Gogh, his life and work in Panama, Martinique, Tahiti, and the Marquesas Islands, his oeuvre in general and in various media, self-portraits, iconography, and more. The French artist Paul Gauguin continues to be a larger-than-life figure whose mystique exerts its spell on popular, critical, and scholarly minds. Consequently, the available literature on the artist is copious and marked by diversity of opinion on every aspect of his life and work. From the first book-length biography of Gauguin written by Louis Brouillon in 1906, interest in Gauguin has continued unabated and, since 1959, critical interest in the artist's drawings, prints, sculptures, and art works in other media has dramatically increased. Russell T. Clement has compiled the first comprehensive research guide and annotated bibliography on Gauguin. This volume encompasses primary materials by Gauguin including those published during the artist's lifetime and those published posthumously; contemporary accounts and criticism of Gauguin's life and work published through 1906; descriptions of the artist's oeuvre; a lengthy secondary bibliography; and a section that catalogs exhibitions of Gauguin's work between 1884 and 1989. While concentrating on printed materials, this guide also includes selected manuscripts--in all, more than 1500 books and articles are cited. For entries where titles give incomplete or unclear information about works and their content, the author provides brief annotations. Following a biographical sketch and chronology, the primary bibliography lists articles, essays, letters, manuscripts, and sketch books of Gauguin and then accounts and critiques of Gauguin's life and work published through 1906. The main part of the bibliography and research guide, the secondary bibliography, lists monographs, catalogues, dissertations, theses, periodical literature, films, sound recordings and musical scores, and selected newspaper articles. Substantial book reviews and exhibition reviews are also included. Arranged by topic, the secondary bibliography also includes citations on Gauguin's relationships with contemporary artists in France, his work in Panama and Martinique, his work and life in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, and his oeuvre in general. Not just a list of sources but a complete research guide, this volume deserves a place in every research library collection.

As we approach the bicentennial, in 2017, of the birth of Henry David Thoreau, there is considerable debate and confusion as to what he may, or may not have, contributed to American life and culture. Almost every American has heard of Thoreau, but only a few are aware that he was deeply engaged with most of the important issues of his day, from slavery to "Manifest Destiny" and the rights of the individual in a democratic society. Many of these issues are still affecting us today, as we move toward the second quarter of the twenty-first century. By studying how various American artists have chosen to portray Thoreau over the years since the publication of Walden in 1854, we can gain a clear understanding of how he has been interpreted (or misinterpreted) throughout the years since his death in 1862. But along the way, we might also find something useful, for our times, in the insights that Thoreau gained as he wrestled with the most urgent problems being experienced by American society in his day.

Literature on domestic interior decoration first emerged as a popular genre in Britain during the 1870s and 1880s, as middle-class readers sought decorating advice from books, household manuals, women's magazines, and professional journals. This intriguing book examines that literature and shows how it was influenced by the widespread liberalism of the middle class. Judith Neiswander explains that during these years liberal values-individuality, cosmopolitanism, scientific rationalism, the progressive role of the elite, and the emancipation of women-informed advice about the desirable appearance of the home. In the period preceding the First World War, these values changed dramatically: advice on decoration became more nationalistic in tone and a new goal was set for the interior-"to raise the British child by the British hearth." Neiswander traces this evolving discourse within the context of current writing on interior decoration, writing that is much more detached from social and political issues of the day. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

This text provides coverage of the history of the Japanese philosophy of art, from its inception in the 1870s to modern day. In addition to the historical information and discussion of aesthetic issues that appear in the introductions to each of the chapters, the book presents English translations of otherwise inaccessible major works on Japanese aesthetics, beginning with a complete and annotated translation of the first work in the field, Nishi Amane's ""Bimyogaku Setsu"" (""The Theory of Aesthetics""). The text is divided into four sections: the subject of aesthetics; aesthetic categories; poetic expression; postmodernism; and aesthetics. It examines the momentous efforts made by Japanese thinkers to master, assimilate and originally transform Western philosophical systems to discuss their own literary and artistic heritage.

Art and literature during the European fin-de-siecle period often manifested themes of degeneration and decay, both of bodies and civilizations, as well as illness, bizarre sexuality, and general morbidity. This collection explores these topics in relation to artists and writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde, August Strindberg, and Aubrey Beardsley.

In this comprehensive account of censorship of the visual arts in nineteenth-century Europe, when imagery was accessible to the illiterate in ways that print was not, specialists in the history of the major European countries trace the use of censorship by the authorities to implement their fears of the visual arts, from caricature to cinema.

Originally published in Dutch and translated to Spanish for the fourth centenary celebration of the death of El Greco in 2014, this book is a comprehensive study of the rediscovery of El Greco -- seen as one of the most important events of its kind in art history. The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern Art analyses how changes in artistic taste in the second half of the nineteenth century caused a profound revision of the place of El Greco in the artistic canon. As a result, El Greco was transformed from an extravagant outsider and a secondary painter into the founder of the Spanish School and one of the principle predecessors of modern art, increasingly related to that of the Impressionists -- due primarily to the German critic Julius Meier-Graefe's influential History of Modern Art (1914). This shift in artistic preference has been attributed to the rise of modern art but Eric Storm, a cultural historian, shows that in the case of El Greco nationalist motives were even more important. This study examines the work of painters, art critics, writers, scholars and philosophers from France, Germany and Spain, and the role of exhibitions, auctions, monuments and commemorations. Paintings and associated anecdotes are discussed, and historical debates such as El Greco's supposed astigmatism are addressed in a highly readable and engaging style. This book will be of interest to both specialists and the interested art public.