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.

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.

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.

The symmetrical, exuberant heart is everywhere: it gives shape to candy, pendants, the frothy milk on top of a cappuccino, and much else. How can we explain the ubiquity of what might be the most recognizable symbol in the world? In The Amorous Heart, Marilyn Yalom tracks the heart metaphor and heart iconography across two thousand years, through Christian theology, pagan love poetry, medieval painting, Shakespearean drama, Enlightenment science, and into the present. She argues that the symbol reveals a tension between love as romantic and sexual on the one hand, and as religious and spiritual on the other. Ultimately, the heart symbol is a guide to the astonishing variety of human affections, from the erotic to the chaste and from the unrequited to the conjugal.

This book provides high school and undergraduate students, and other interested readers, with a comprehensive survey of science fiction history and numerous essays addressing major science fiction topics, authors, works, and subgenres written by a distinguished scholar. This encyclopedia deals with written science fiction in all of its forms, not only novels and short stories but also mediums often ignored in other reference books, such as plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels. Some science fiction films, television programs, and video games are also mentioned, particularly when they are relevant to written texts. Its focus is on science fiction in the English language, though due attention is given to international authors whose works have been frequently translated into English. Since science fiction became a recognized genre and greatly expanded in the 20th century, works published in the 20th and 21st centuries are most frequently discussed, though important earlier works are not neglected. The texts are designed to be helpful to numerous readers, ranging from students first encountering science fiction to experienced scholars in the field. Provides readers with information about written science fiction in all its forms-novels, stories, plays, poems, comic books, and graphic novels Includes original interviews with major writers like Ted Chiang, Samuel R. Delany, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Connie Willis that are not available elsewhere Features numerous sidebars with additional data about various subjects and key passages from several classic works Includes hundreds of bibliographies of sources that provide additional information on various specific topics and the genre of science fiction as a whole

When everything is lost, imagination is the only place of true freedom. The New Art Studio, co-founded in 2014 by art psychotherapist Tania Kaczynksi, is a unique space in London set up as a lifeline for refugees and asylum seekers so they can experience art therapy in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. Who Am I? is a poignant look at the state of the dispossessed, and at how creating art can provide a last bastion of hope for those who have lost everything. Alongside the unique and touching artwork of the studio's members are their true stories of bravery, loss and redemption.

Unmatched in his ingenuity, technical prowess, and curiosity, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) epitomizes the humanistic ideal of the Renaissance man: a peerless master of painting, sculpture, cartography, anatomy, architecture - and more. Simultaneously captivating art historians, collectors, and the millions who flock yearly to admire his works, Leonardo's appeal is as diffuse as were his preoccupations. His images permeate nearly every facet of Western culture - The Vitruvian Man is engraved into millions of Euro coins, The Last Supper is considered the single most reproduced religious painting in history, and the Mona Lisa has entranced countless artists and observers for centuries. This updated edition of our XL monograph is an unrivaled survey of Leonardo's life and work, including a catalogue raisonne of all paintings. Through stunning full-bleed details, we experience every measured brushstroke, each a testament to Leonardo's masterful ability. An expansive catalog of nearly 700 of Leonardo's drawings further illuminates the breadth of his pursuits. From diagrams of intricately engineered machines to portraits of plump infants, they stand reflective of his boundless and visionary technical imagination, balanced with a subtle and perceptive hand, capable of rendering quotidian moments with moving emotional timbre. For the new edition, Frank Zoellner has written a new preface in which he considers the latest scholarly findings on Leonardo's oeuvre and takes a critical look at the much-discussed painting Christ as Salvator Mundi, sold at auction for the record sum of around 400 million euros. Numerous illustrations have been replaced by new photographs.

As a woman wielding public authority, Elizabeth I embodied a paradox at the very center of sixteenth-century patriarchal English society. Louis Montrose's long-awaited book, "The Subject of Elizabeth, "illuminates the ways in which the Queen and her subjects variously exploited or obfuscated this contradiction.
Montrose offers a masterful account of the texts, pictures, and performances in which the Queen was represented to her people, to her court, to foreign powers, and to Elizabeth herself. Retrieving this "Elizabethan imaginary" in all its richness and fascination, Montrose presents a sweeping new account of Elizabethan political culture. Along the way, he explores the representation of Elizabeth within the traditions of Tudor dynastic portraiture; explains the symbolic manipulation of Elizabeth's body by both supporters and enemies of her regime; and considers how Elizabeth's advancing age provided new occasions for misogynistic subversions of her royal charisma.
This book, the remarkable product of two decades of study by one of our most respected Renaissance scholars, will be welcomed by all historians, literary scholars, and art historians of the period.

Examines the intersection of Samuel Beckett's thirty-second playlet Breath with the visual arts Samuel Beckett, one of the most prominent playwrights of the twentieth century, wrote a thirty-second playlet for the stage that does not include actors, text, characters or drama but only stage directions. Breath (1969) is the focus and the only theatrical text examined in this study, which demonstrates how the piece became emblematic of the interdisciplinary exchanges that occur in Beckett's later writings, and of the cross-fertilisation of the theatre with the visual arts. The book attends to fifty breath-related artworks (including sculpture, painting, new media, sound art, performance art) and contextualises Beckett's Breath within the intermedial and high-modernist discourse thereby contributing to the expanding field of intermedial Beckett criticism. Key Features Examines Beckett's ultimate venture to define the borders between a theatrical performance and purely visual representation Juxtaposes Beckett's Breath with breath-related artworks by prominent visual artists who investigate the far-reaching potential of the representation of respiration by challenging modernist essentialism The focus on this primary human physiological function and its relation to arts and culture is highly pertinent to studies of human performance, the nature of embodiment and its relation to cultural expression Facilitates new intermedial discourses around the nature and aesthetic possibilities of breath, the minimum condition of existence, at the interface between the visual arts and performance practices and their relation to questions of spectacle, objecthood and materiality

This book is the first to examine the meaning encoded in the very form of caricature, a form of popular and polemical visual art that burst suddenly on the scene in late eighteenth-century England, and to explain its rise as a consequence of the emergence of modernity, especially the modern self. Caricature and the modern self developed in tandem: as the modern notion of selfhood_with its valorization of interiority, private authenticity, and consistency across time_rather suddenly replaced older, more flexible notions of identity, so caricature developed as a technology for representing this new self, making character visible on the surface of the body, unmasking the public role and revealing the authentic private self beneath. Through the detailed analysis of specific prints and a wide-ranging compilation of historical evidence, this book constructs a rich and precise cultural history of the conceptual shift that led to the explosion of caricature in late eighteenth-century England. Complemented with seventy-eight illustrations.

Knowings and Knots presents a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the methodology of research-creation and asks how those who make knowledge think about and value it. Not just a method but a site of ongoing experimentation around what counts as knowledge, research-creation is a meeting place of academia, artistic creation, and the wider public. The contributors argue that academic institutions and funders must recognize research-creation as innovative knowledge-making that leaps over the traditional splitting of theory from practice while considering how gender/feminist studies, Indigenous practices, and new materialism might inform and develop the conversation. Through this book, readers can transform the way they experience both art and education. Contributors: Carolina Cambre, Owen Chapman, Paul Couillard, T.L. Cowan, John Cussans, Randy Lee Cutler, Petra Hroch, Rachelle Viader Knowles, Natalie Loveless, Glen Lowry, Erin Manning, Sourayan Mookerjea, Natasha Myers, Simon Pope, Stephanie Springgay, Sarah E. Truman

Swiss artist HR Giger (1940-2014) is most famous for his creation of the space monster in Ridley Scott's 1979 horror sci-fi film Alien, which earned him an Oscar. In retrospect, this was just one of the most popular expressions of Giger's biomechanical arsenal of creatures, which consistently merged hybrids of human and machine into images of haunting power and dark psychedelia. The visions drew on demons of the past, harking back as far as Giger's earliest childhood fears as well as evoking mythologies for the future. Above all, they gave expression to the collective fears and fantasies of his age: fear of the atom, of pollution and wasted resources, and of a future in which our bodies depend on machines for survival. From surrealist dream landscapes created with a spray gun and stencils to album cover designs, from guillotine-like sculptures to self-designed bars, Giger personally guides us through his multi-faceted universe in this definitive introduction to a master of horror. Detailed reproductions and designs and a foreword by Timothy Leary complement Giger's intimate autobiographical texts. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions