Stefan Jonsson uses three monumental works of art to build a provocative history of popular revolt: Jacques-Louis David's "The Tennis Court Oath" (1791), James Ensor's "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889" (1888), and Alfredo Jaar's "They Loved It So Much, the Revolution" (1989). Addressing, respectively, the French Revolution of 1789, Belgium's proletarian messianism in the 1880s, and the worldwide rebellions and revolutions of 1968, these canonical images not only depict an alternative view of history but offer a new understanding of the relationship between art and politics and the revolutionary nature of true democracy.

Drawing on examples from literature, politics, philosophy, and other works of art, Jonsson carefully constructs his portrait, revealing surprising parallels between the political representation of "the people" in government and their aesthetic representation in painting. Both essentially "frame" the people, Jonsson argues, defining them as elites or masses, responsible citizens or angry mobs. Yet in the aesthetic fantasies of David, Ensor, and Jaar, Jonsson finds a different understanding of democracy-one in which human collectives break the frame and enter the picture.

Connecting the achievements and failures of past revolutions to current political issues, Jonsson then situates our present moment in a long historical drama of popular unrest, making his book both a cultural history and a contemporary discussion about the fate of democracy in our globalized world.

Today, the works of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) are among the most well known and celebrated in the world. In paintings such as Sunflowers, The Starry Night, and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, we recognize an artist uniquely dexterous in the representation of texture and mood, light and place. Yet in his lifetime, van Gogh battled not only the disinterest of his contemporary audience but also devastating bouts of mental illness. His episodes of depression and anxiety would eventually claim his life, when, in 1890, he committed suicide shortly after his 37th birthday. This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh offers a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings, alongside writings and essays, charting the life and work of a master who continues to tower over art to this day.

A stunning portfolio of Discworld illustrations from the brush of Paul Kidby, Sir Terry Pratchett's artist of choice. Paul Kidby, Sir Terry Pratchett's artist of choice, provided the illustrations for The Last Hero, designed the covers for the Discworld novels since 2002, and is the author of the bestselling The Art Of Discworld. Now, Paul Kidby has collected the very best of his Discworld illustrations in this definitive volume, including 40 pieces never before seen, 30 pieces that have only appeared in foreign editions, limited editions and BCA editions, and 17 book cover illustrations since 2004 that have never been seen without cover text. If Terry Pratchett's pen gave his characters life, Paul Kidby's brush allowed them to live it, and nowhere is that better illustrated than in this magnificent book. For fans old and new, this beautiful collectors item is the perfect gift for Christmas. 'The closest anyone's got to how I see the characters' - Sir Terry Pratchett

Scandal, Shock and Rivalry Can Be an Artist's Best Friends Scandal, shock and rivalry all have negative connotations, don't they? They can be catastrophic to businesses and individual careers. A whiff of scandal can turn a politician into a smoking ruin. But these potentially disastrous "negatives" can and have spurred the world of fine art to new heights. A look at the history of art tells us that rivalries have, in fact, not only benefited the course of art, from ancient times to the present, but have also helped shape our narrative of art, lending it a sense of drama that it might otherwise lack, and therefore drawing the interest of a public who might not be drawn to the objects alone. There would be no Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo had rival Raphael not tricked the pope into assigning him the commission, certain that Michelangelo, who had never before worked with frescoes, would botch the job and become a laughing stock. Scandal and shock have proven to be powerful weapons when harnessed and wielded willfully and well. That scandal is good for exposure has been so obviously the case that many artists have courted it intentionally, which we will define as shock: intentionally overturning expectations of the majority in a way that traditionalist find dismaying or upsetting, but which a certain minority avant-garde find exciting. From Damien Hirst presenting the public with a shark embalmed in formaldehyde and entombed in a glass case to Marcel Duchamp trying to convince the art community that a urinal is a great sculpture shock has been a key promotional tool. The Devil in the Gallery is a guided tour of the history of art through it scandals, rivalries, and shocking acts, each of which resulted in a positive step forward for art in general and, in most cases, for the careers of the artists in question. In addition to telling dozens of stories, lavishly illustrated in full color, of such dramatic moments and arguing how they not only affected the history of art but affected it for the better, we will also examine the proactive role of the recipients of these intentionally dramatic actions: The art historians, the critics and even you, the general public. The Devil likes to lurk in dark corners of the art world, morphing into many forms. Let us shed light upon him.

A new interpretation of the development of artistic modernity in eighteenth-century France What can be gained from considering a painting not only as an image but also a material object? How does the painter's own experience of the process of making matter for our understanding of both the painting and its maker? The Painter's Touch addresses these questions to offer a radical reinterpretation of three paradigmatic French painters of the eighteenth century. In this beautifully illustrated book, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth provides close readings of the works of Francois Boucher, Jean-Simeon Chardin, and Jean-Honore Fragonard, entirely recasting our understanding of these painters' practice. Using the notion of touch, she examines the implications of their strategic investment in materiality and sheds light on the distinct contribution of painting to the culture of the Enlightenment. Lajer-Burcharth traces how the distinct logic of these painters' work-the operation of surface in Boucher, the deep materiality of Chardin, and the dynamic morphological structure in Fragonard-contributed to the formation of artistic identity. Through the notion of touch, she repositions these painters in the artistic culture of their time, shifting attention from institutions such as the academy and the Salon to the realms of the market, the medium, and the body. Lajer-Burcharth analyzes Boucher's commercial tact, Chardin's interiorized craft, and Fragonard's materialization of eros. Foregrounding the question of experience-that of the painters and of the people they represent-she shows how painting as a medium contributed to the Enlightenment's discourse on the self in both its individual and social functions. By examining what paintings actually "say" in brushstrokes, texture, and paint, The Painter's Touch transforms our understanding of the role of painting in the emergence of modernity and provides new readings of some of the most important and beloved works of art of the era.

Fantasy Flowers Coloring Book No. 1 -24 Designs in Elaborate Oval Frames, illustrated by Alberta L. Hutchinson, is a collection of 24 fantasy flowers, each with a unique and elaborate oval design frame, suitable for coloring. Children and adults alike will enjoy the infinite designs that can be made by adjusting the color of both the intricate borders and the flowers. As with Hutchinson's other design coloring books, Fantasy Flowers Coloring Book No. 1 will be enjoyed by colorists of all levels of skill.

Byzantine imperial imagery is commonly perceived as a static system. In contrast to this common portrayal, this book draws attention to its openness and responsiveness to other artistic traditions. Through a close examination of significant objects and monuments created over a 350-year period, from the ninth to the thirteenth century, Alicia Walker shows how the visual articulation of Byzantine imperial power not only maintained a visual vocabulary inherited from Greco-Roman antiquity and the Judeo-Christian tradition, but also innovated on these artistic precedents by incorporating styles and forms from contemporary foreign cultures, specifically the Sasanian, Chinese, and Islamic worlds. In addition to art and architecture, this book explores historical accounts and literary works as well as records of ceremonial practices, thereby demonstrating how texts, ritual, and images operated as integrated agents of imperial power. Walker offers new ways to think about cross-cultural interaction in the Middle Ages and explores the diverse ways in which imperial images employed foreign elements in order to express particularly Byzantine meanings.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Charles Dana Gibson's pen-and-ink drawings of the "American Girl" -- now remembered as the Gibson Girl -- became the national ideal of femininity. This collection of his images of youthful, dynamic women offers an informative and amusing reflection of the era's social life. Sentimental, humorous, and often gently satirical, these images portray the Gibson Girl at the theater, in the drawing room, flirting and courting, vacationing at the beach, and engaging in other genteel pursuits. Several of Gibson's "common man" illustrations provide a contrast, along with a section devoted to one of the artist's best-known and most beloved characters, the curmudgeonly Mr. Pipp.
This gallery features more than a hundred carefully selected images from vintage editions. A rich source of royalty-free art, it offers graphic artists, fashion designers, social historians, and nostalgia lovers a lovely and accurate chronicle of a bygone era.

The writings which comprise my memoirs were-started over twenty years .ago when I was still painting. Verse can express, emotions of love, joy and sadness in a manner divorced from most painters' subject matter. This, I find, is especially so nowadays in the prevalence of the abstract -- with most practitioners' work having many human verities absent -- not only in Europe but world-wide. This change in thinking has been enormous and is -one that is seen most clearly in the visual arts. Now that circumstances make painting impossible for me, writing has moved into first place. Even so, as with painting, progress has been slow. But writing is so very different from painting -- so many thoughts and imaginative images, often distantly or subtly related, can imbue a poem with a lasting mystery, or a glimpse into a lovely insubstantial world. This volume completes my Trilogy My Life, My Painting and finally My Writing. Although they have emerged as separate books, the writing of Part III was essential to complete the narrative as I conceived it -- there has been a great deal to think about, much to ponder over.

The coming of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century witnessed unprecedented changes in society: rapid economic progress went hand-in-hand with appalling working conditions, displacement, squalor and destitution for those at the bottom of the social scale. These new circumstances presented a challenge to contemporary image-makers, who wished to capture the effects of hunger, poverty and alienation in Britain, Ireland and France in the era before documentary photography. In this groundbreaking book, the eminent art historian Linda Nochlin examines the styles and expressive strategies that were used by artists and illustrators to capture this misere, roughly characterized as poverty that afflicts both body and soul. She investigates images of the Irish Famine in the period 1846-51; the gendered representation of misery, particularly of poor women and prostitutes; and the work of three very different artists: Theodore Gericault, Gustave Courbet and the less wellknown Fernand Pelez. The artists' desire to depict the poor and the outcast accurately and convincingly is still a pertinent issue, though now, as Nochlin observes, the question has a moral and ethical dimension - does the documentary style belittle its subjects and degrade their condition?

Syria is undergoing a stage of transformation, including political and social changes. This unique book focuses on the transformations in creative industries and presents a collection of research papers describing and analyzing this pivotal period, in which their role evolved from producing tangible cultural products to becoming an active player in the maintenance of knowledge and a source of support and revenue.

Since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and recognition of the Holocaust as a watershed event of the twentieth century, if not in Western Civilization itself, the capacity of art to represent this event adequately has been questioned. Contributors provide case studies that include a broad spectrum of artists from North America, Europe and Israel, and examine some of the dominant themes of their work.

The Goddess Devi, the primordial Shakti, is a revelation of the eternal Brahman in a maternal aspect. She is worshipped during the autumnal festival of Durga Pujo in Bengal every year. In this volume, Peter Bjorn Franceschi presents a photographic exploration of the mother goddess in the making, a visual diary of the clay idols of the goddess Durga, from conception to finished form. The book takes us through the winding lanes of Kumartuli, home to the master artists who craft the clay idols of the Devi for the Durga Pujo. Accompanying these photographs are verses from Sankaracharya's poetic work, Saundaryalahari (Waves of Beauty), translated by the scholar Minati Kar. The work is a paean to the goddess Durga, entwining Advaita Vedanta and Tantra philosophy to paint a splendid picture of Devi, starting from the crown of her head and ending at her feet. These poetic descriptions serve as a deeper layer to the visuals, and as an alternate way of interpreting the process of image making. Delving deep into the philosophical and artistic aspects of the divinity of goddess Durga, this volume is a visual celebration of her many forms, and also of the artisans who have occupied a centuries-old caesura between devotion and art.