First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

David Hockney's continuing belief in the importance of the portrait and his virtuoso skill in creating a sense of close communication between artist, sitter and viewer has resulted in some of the best-loved works of the postwar era. From the 1950s on, Hockney's most persistent subject matter, in paintings, drawings, collages and photoworks, has been of people usually very close to him, as well as of himself. These works are narratives of autobiographical relationships: they reflect the intimate and often intense stories of this artist's life. They also explore different formal ways of representing the passage of time and at the same time the unavoidable but marvellous stillness of portraits. The works include fascinating sequences as he paints his mother or Henry Geldzahler or Celia Birtwell on and off for decades; the special qualities attached to depictions of lovers; and the range of celebrities, writers and artists - Billy Wilder, Armistead Maupin, W.H. Auden, Henry Moore, Christopher Isherwood - who have been part of a very full life. The text by a distinguished European critic and curator reinforces the point that this hugely popular English-born artist, who made America his second home, has become a figure of worldwide appeal.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) felt a profound empathy with the natural environment, and considered the spiritual essence of trees to be comparable with that of human figures. Vincent's Trees traces Van Gogh's development as a painter of trees in the natural landscape - from his home province of North Brabant, through Paris to Provence. Ralph Skea's elegant prose is accompanied by Van Gogh's vibrant illustrations of trees, which range from pencil and ink sketches to watercolours and oil. Stylistic experiments encompassing Pointillism and compositions inspired by Japanese prints give way to the expressive, painterly depictions of his later work. The book also includes quotes from Van Gogh's letters, which convey the depth of his feeling for the natural landscape, and the force with which it affected him.

The Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Landseer (1802 1873) is one of the most celebrated paintings of the nineteenth century. It was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 2017. In this new book, the first to focus in detail on this iconic picture, Christopher Baker explores its complex and fascinating history. He places Landseer's work in the context of the artist's meteoric career, considers the circumstances of its high-profile commission and its extraordinary subsequent reputation. When so much Victorian art fell out of fashion, Landseer's Monarch took on a new role as marketing image, bringing it global recognition. It also inspired the work of many other artists, ranging from Sir Bernard Partridge and Ronald Searle to Sir Peter Blake and Peter Saville. Today the picture has an intriguing status, being seen by some as a splendid celebration of Scotland's natural wonders and by others as an archaic trophy. This publication will make a significant contribution to the debates that it continues to stimulate. The painting will tour to four Scottish venues in late 2017 and early 2018 (Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, 6 October - 19 November 2017; Perth Museum and Art Gallery, 25 November 2017 - 14 January 2018; Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, 20 January - 11 March 2018; Kirkcudbright Galleries, 25 March - 12 May 2018).

The Cage paintings were conceived as a single coherent group, and displayed for the first time at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Their titles, Cage (1) (6), pay homage to the American avant- garde composer John Cage (1912 92). In his Lecture on Nothing , Cage famously declared I have nothing to say and I m saying it . Richter is equally suspicious of ideologies and any claim to absolute truth. He shies away from giving psychological interpretations to his paintings, preferring to allow viewers and critics to make up their own minds. Leading critic Robert Storr considers the importance of the Cage paintings within Richter s practice and within the wider context of abstract art. A series of extraordinary, detailed photographs document the development of each painting, day by day, and show the artist at work on these monumental canvases, giving unique insight into his working methods.

"Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" is a fitting addition to Walter Foster's new dynamic technique and project-driven series devoted to introducing aspiring artists to the fun and engaging world of acrylic painting. Painting portraits is a fundamental subject for any beginning-to-intermediate artist. With a fresh and simple approach, "Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" teaches fine artists everything they need to know about setting up and rendering beautiful, dynamic portraits in acrylic. Beginning with an introduction to a variety of tools and materials, artists will learn how to select the right brushes, palettes, paints, paper, and surfaces for their work. "Acrylic Made Easy: Portraits" also provides valuable information about color theory and mixing for skin tones, planning a composition, and achieving proper perspective. Additionally, artists will learn a range of basic painting techniques, including glazing, scumbling, and stippling, as well as how to paint from photographs, create ambient lighting, arrange a composition, work with multiple subjects, and more. Through simple step-by-step projects, artists will discover how to approach a portrait, beginning with a sketch and progressing to a beautiful finished piece of acrylic artwork. With a diverse range of subjects, artists will find guidance, tips, and stunning artwork to inspire on virtually every page.

The links between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and India go back for two and a half centuries. Surgeons who had studied botany at the Garden laid the foundations of western knowledge of the Indian flora. Supplementing their written plant descriptions with botanical drawings, commissioned from Indian artists, they established collections which survive today at Edinburgh, the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This book tells the story of these collections, reproducing a selection of 86 exquisite, original drawings - including examples made in all three of the Presidencies (administrative units) of British India (Bombay, Bengal and Madras), between 1770 and 1860.

By scrutinizing every possible Persian and European written source on the subject, Negar Habibi discusses the paintings known as farangi saz, and in particular those of 'Ali Qoli Jebadar, one of Iran's most important Safavid artists of the 2nd half of the 17th century. En resserrant plusieurs sources ecrites persanes et europeennes, Negar Habibi discute des peintures connues sous le nom de farangi sazi, specialement celles de 'Ali Qoli Jebadar, l'un des artistes emblematiques de la 2eme moitie du XVIIe siecle.

Just when you thought there was no hope of ever finding a comprehensive color-mixing resource for oil, acrylic, and watercolor artists, along comes the 1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor, a collection of Walter Foster's bestselling Color Mixing Recipes books, including Color Mixing Recipes for Oil and Acrylic, Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits, Color Mixing Recipes for Watercolor, and the most recent addition, Color Mixing Recipes for Landscapes. This incredible collection comes in a user-friendly concealed spiral-bound format that is tabbed for quick and easy reference. Aspiring artists will also find two removable color mixing grids--one for oil or acrylic, and one for watercolor.

Every painted work that is on display in the Uffizi Gallery, The Pitti Palace, the Accademia, and the Duomo is included in the book, plus many or most of the works from 28 of the city's other magnificent museums and churches. The research and text are by Ross King (best-selling author), Anja Grebe (author or The Louvre and The Vatican), Cristina Acidini (former Superintendent of the public museums of Florence) and Msgr. Timothy Verdon (Director of the artworks for the Archdiocese of Florence).

A Beginner's Guide to Chinese Brush Painting teaches this ancient art form in an easy-to-understand way--no prior experience necessary! As one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world, Chinese brush painting has been used for thousands of years to create images that harness the imagination, and capture the inner spirit of a subject--be it an animal, landscape or tree. All you need for this simple, but beautiful, art form is black watercolor paint, white paper, a brush and some creativity! An introduction tells you about the history of brush painting, and also gives tips for holding your brush, achieving different shades and collecting your materials. After that, the book takes you step-by-step through more than 35 hands-on activities--including basic strokes, putting them together to create an object or scene, the importance of leaving open space and even writing some Chinese calligraphy. With the help of this book, artists of all ages can learn to paint: Bamboo stalks, branches and leaf clusters A knotted pine tree and its delicate needles A snail with a spiral shell and little body peeking out from underneath A waterfall gliding down the side of a mountain And much more! You'll find that this activity will help you learn to center your mind and thoughts, and your masterpieces will be inspiring decorations or great gifts for friends and family. Get started learning this "soft martial art!"

The indispenable introduction to the life and work of Jasper Johns, the influential American artist whose work questions the very nature of art

John James Audubon is arguably America's most widely recognized and collected artist. His Birds of America has been reproduced often, beginning with the double elephant folio printed by Havill in England, followed by a much smaller "Octavo" edition printed in Philadelphia and sold by subscription. After Audubon's death, his family arranged with the New York printer Julius Bien to produce another elephant folio edition, this time by the new chromolithographic process. It too would be sold by subscription, but the venture, begun in 1858, was brought to an abrupt end by the Civil War. Only 150 plates were produced, and the number remaining today is slight; they are among the rarest and most sought after Audubon prints. Bound in cloth with a full cloth slipcase, this beautifully produced book is the first complete reproduction of Bien chromolithographs and will become the centerpiece of any bird lover's library.

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students and readers a comprehensive selection of the work of William Blake (1757-1827). Accompanied by full scholarly apparatus, this authoritative edition enables students to explore Blake's poetry, illuminated poetry, and prose alongside selections from his letters, manuscripts, notebook, advertising pamphlets, marginalia, and works he printed in conventional letterpress. The edition arranges Blake's works in chronological order, according to the date when they were first printed or, in the case of unpublished works, the years in which they were composed. With the help of editorial headnotes and annotations, this arrangement brings to the foreground Blake's material and intellectual labours as a poet, painter, prophet, and non-academic philosopher; the networks of acquaintances, friends, patrons, and enemies who helped support or provoke this work; and the tumultuous historical events he responded to, which included the beginning of modern feminism, the agricultural and industrial revolutions, the American and French Revolutions, William Pitt's so-called 'Reign of Terror' in Britain, an attempted revolution in Ireland (1798), a successful slave rebellion in Haiti (1791-1804), and the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Some editions attempt to sanitize Blake, by hiding from view the most startling elements of his thought; but in this edition Blake's sexual, political, religious, and poetic heterodoxy comes into full view. At the same time, this edition foregrounds the dynamics of Blake's composite art, with equal weight given to its verbal and visual dimensions; makes visible the chief lines of force that structure his oeuvre; and highlights his developing thought on sapphism, sodomy, the body, relations between the sexes, the roots of violence, and the politics of imagination. This is a Blake whose dialogue with his own time anticipates much later developments, including modern depth psychologies; analyses of the social and psychological dynamics of war and peace; interest in the body, sexuality, and gender; and experiments in the relation between actual and virtual realities-a Blake who is provocative, unsettling, exhilarating, and somehow our contemporary. Explanatory notes and commentary are included, to enhance the study, understanding, and enjoyment of these works, and the edition includes an Introduction to the life and works of Blake, and a Chronology.

Supremely successful at the beginning of his life; lonely, bankrupt and virtually ignored at its end, Rembrandt produced some of the most powerful and psychologically penetrating works in the whole of world art. Poverty, illness, the deaths of his wife, children and devoted mistress - nothing deflected him from his inner vision and his unique handling of light: which would change the course of painting for ever.

Mati & The Music is a book about the 52 paintings by Mati Klarwan that appeared on album covers, this body of work started in the mid 1950s and continued for half a century. Klarwein was heavily involved in the New York art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He was mainly commissioned to paint covers by the musicians themselves the most famous being Miles Davis 'Bitches Brew' and 'Live Evil', Carlos Santana's 'Abraxas', Earth Wind & Fire, Buddy Miles, Gregg Allman. He was also employed by major records labels including Blue Note for Jackie McLean, Reuben Wilson and Douglas records for the Last Poets, Howard Walkes and Jerry Garcia. This book is an introduction to a painter's work through his passion for music.

'A hymn to life, love, family, and spirit' DAVID MITCHELL, author of Cloud Atlas The vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies. ***WINNER OF THE BARBELLION PRIZE*** In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. She endures endless medical procedures and is told she will never have a job, a romantic relationship or an independent life. But everything changes when as an adult Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark, and it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening or worthless, instead insisting that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Riva begins to paint their portraits - and her art begins to transform the myths she's been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal. 'A brilliant book, full of strangeness, beauty, and wonder' Audrey Niffenegger 'Wonderful. An ode to art and the beauty of disability' Cerrie Burnell 'Stunning' Alison Bechdel ***SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD***

In small, stunningly rendered self-portraits, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted herself cracked open, hemorrhaging during a miscarriage, anesthetized on a hospital gurney, and weeping beside her own extracted heart. Her works are so incendiary in emotion and subject matter that one art critic suggested the walls of an exhibition be covered with asbestos.

In this beautiful book, art historian Hayden Herrera brings together numerous paintings and sketches by the amazing Mexican artist, documenting each with explanatory text that probes the influences in Kahlo's life and their meaning for her work. Included among the illustrations are more than eighty full-color paintings, as well as dozens of black-and-white pictures and line illustrations. Among the famous and little-known works included in Frida Kahlo: The Paintings are The Two Fridas, Self-Portrait as a Tehuana, Without Hope, The Dream, The Little Deer, Diego and I, Henry Ford Hospital, My Birth, and My Nurse and I. Here, too, are documentary photographs of Frida Kahlo and her world that help to illuminate the various stages of her life.

Brett Whiteley was one of the most dynamic and talented artists in the history of Australian art, an artist whose recognition had spread worldwide before his untimely death in 1992. Early in his career he established a name for himself in London, exhibiting at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and coming into contact with many British painters - Francis Bacon and David Hockney among others. His early paintings startled critics and fellow artists, but even at that point, two basic subjects were evident: the landscape and the nude, elements which became the mainstay of his oeuvre. At the root of all Whiteley's work was a draughtsmanship of stunning virtuosity, capable of capturing all the poetic arabesque of a river in a single sweeping line of brush and ink, or the erotic curves of the human body in a few searching strokes of charcoal. This volume presents an illuminating evaluation of Whiteley's achievement. Works dating from the 1950s to the last years of his life, illustrated in over 180 colour plates, allow Whiteley's career to be surveyed in its entirety. Barry Pearce, Head Curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, provides a comprehensive overview of Whiteley's life and art; Bryan Robertson offers an impression of the artist's years in London; and Wendy Whiteley, the artist's wife and companion for over three decades, contributes an intimate portrait of the man behind the work. Superbly illustrated and produced, Brett Whiteley: Art & Life is a fitting tribute to one of Australia's most significant artists, a man whose outstanding work excites, amazes and impresses us no less now than it did when first created.