At the beginning of 2020, just as global Covid-19 restrictions were coming into force, the artist David Hockney was at his house, studio and garden in Normandy. From there, he witnessed the arrival of spring, and recorded the blossoming of the surrounding landscape on his iPad, a medium he has been using for over a decade. Working outdoors was an antidote to the anxiety of the moment for Hockney – 'We need art, and I do think it can relieve stress,' he says. This uplifting publication – produced to accompany a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts – includes 116 of his new iPad paintings and shows to full effect Hockney's singular skill in capturing the exuberance of nature.

Featuring four films by the young Irish filmmaker Kevin Gaffney, Unseen By My Open Eyes is the first publication on the artist's work, exploring the psychological landscapes that the artist devises to explore the construction, projection and manipulation of identity. Within the book, Gaffney's films are presented through a series of richly illustrated sections, providing an excellent insight into the artist's methodologies. The book explores subjects ranging from: daily life in Iran; selfhood and military conscription in Taiwan; geographic, political and emotional separations in South Korea, with characters imagining what the moon looks like from North Korea; and food consumption in a self-sustaining militarised Ireland of the near future where climate change has benefited agricultural production.The book features English scripts of the five films, with an annex compiling the scripts in Korean, Chinese, Persian and Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic).Gaffney's works are contextualised through an accompanying essay by Irish critic Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith.Gaffney was the first Irish recipient of a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship in 2015, and was an UNESCO-Aschberg laureate artist in residence at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's Changdong Residency in South Korea in 2014. His work features in the Irish Museum of Modern Art's collection, and solo exhibitions have been held at the Linenhall Arts Centre (Ireland), Millennium Court Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) and CAI02 Contemporary Art Institute (Japan).

At the start of the March 2020 lockdown, Ian Beck would walk his greyhound Gracie through the early morning streets of Isleworth in west London, revelling in the light and the silence that the restrictions had brought. The familiar became charged with new meaning, inspiring Ian to paint the scenes around him for their own sake, something that he hadn't done since his student days in the sixties. Suburban streets, trees, fences, shrubs and overgrown alleyways - all are transformed in the quiet intensity of Ian's lockdown paintings. He painted interiors too: the moon shining through a bedroom window, objects on mantelpieces, the eeriness of back gardens at dusk. As the year progressed, the crisp light of spring gave way to the haze of summer and the gloom of autumn fogs. The Light in Suburbia collects sixty of Ian's paintings from this period: a remarkable record of his year spent trying to capture the beauty of the unprepossessing everyday.

The first monograph on New York-based contemporary artist Richard Phillips, best known for his large-scale paintings that are 'ultra-cool' in execution and very hot in effect. Richard Phillips's hyper realistic oil paintings embody themes as broad as power, politics, celebrity, fashion, ideology, beauty, and sex, and pose questions about the status of painting today: Does the medium remain valid, or has it become a historical pastime? Pornography, propaganda, advertising, entertainment, fashion-Phillips incorporates material from a range of sources to confront what is at the core of contemporary image making, from the power of celebrity branding to complicity between viewer and viewed. The book's exploitative design strategy celebrates the commercial and fashion alliances of the artist's practice, while revealing the complex politics behind the imagery the artist chooses to paint.

From Russia to Poland and Romania, and from the Czech Republic to Yugoslavia and East Germany, Contemporary Art in Eastern Europe is an ambitious attempt to chart the changing realities of the eastern half of Europe as seen through the eyes of artists, critics, photographers and curators. If the Iron Curtain and the antagonisms of the Cold War era had often kept the richness and diversity of Eastern European art hidden from the rest of the world, the contemporary era has been a witness to its unparalleled creative explosion and fruitful dialogue with the global art scene. The work featured in this book explores the correlations between shifts in the political, cultural, economic and geographical realities of Eastern Europe and the region's contemporary art. The artists in this book revisit the region's past to envision a better future, reaching challenging conclusions and producing some of the most powerful and inspiring art being produced today. The book features essays from respected writers in the field and profiles the most influential artists producing work in and from the region today, including Marina Abramovic, Christo, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Zofia Kulik, Komar and Melamid, IRWIN, Natalia Lach-Lachowicz, Alexander Brodsky, Ewa Partum, NSK, Group OHO, Stano Filko, Laibach, KwieKulik, Post Ars, Weekend Art, Zbigniew Libera, Marjetica Potrc, and Mladen Stilinovic. The following countries are covered in this anthology: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, East Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. Contemporary Art in Eastern Europe is the third title in the ARTWORLD series following Contemporary Art in the Middle East and Contemporary Art in Latin America.

The Birmingham Art Book is a tribute to a unique city whose visionary scientists and inventors made it famous as a manufacturing powerhouse. From heavy metal industry - here is where the first steam trains were built- to heavy metal music - Black Sabbath made their mark here, this is a place with a proud heritage. Its handsome university is the original of the 'Redbrick' universities, founded by a farsighted mayor in 1900 as a civic place of learning, open to all, now with many world famous alumni and staff, 10 of whom have won Nobel prizes. Local artists convey the architectural glory of Victoria Square and the city centre Museum and Art Gallery (which holds a sumptuous collection of Pre-Raphaelite art). In their drawings, they echo the modern vibrancy of buildings such as the iconic Selfridges department store and the REP theatre. Collages and sketches depict a city buzzing with vitality -from the world-renowned Hippodrome theatre, to the shopping centres and legendary nightlife that are national attractions. Quirky nooks like the Jewellery Quarter, the Electric Cinema or the tranquil Botanic gardens hidden so close to the centre are reflected in this lovely book. The green city with 8000 acres of public parks and many miles of canal paths dating from its heyday in the Industrial Revolution is lovingly drawn and painted by its artists. The Birmingham Art Book is where local artists shine a light on the grand and the humdrum with equal affection. Their love for the modern city is evident and their pride in its heritage comes to the fore in this lovely book.

Discover hundreds of stormtrooper helmet designs with a deluxe art book, and customize your own unique helmet with this collector's set! In 2014, creatives from Lucasfilm, Disney, Industrial Light & Magic, Pixar, and Marvel Studios joined forces for an incredible artistic endeavor, the Star Wars Legion project. The task was simple--decorate, adorn, or transform a blank, vinyl stormtrooper helmet--but the result was extraordinary, with artists creating more than 200 radically unique helmets that were put on display at the Robert Vargas Gallery in 2014. Now, you can experience the Star Wars Legion project through a deluxe art book showcasing incredible helmet designs, and a customizable stormtrooper helmet. - BE INSPIRED BY MORE THAN 200 HELMET DESIGNS: Includes a deluxe, hardcover photography book that showcases the hundreds of stunning helmet designs created for the Legion project. - EXERCISE YOUR CREATIVITY: This collector's kit includes a blank helmet, based on the stormtrooper design from the beloved television show Star Wars Rebels, which is ready for customization, display, or even signing at conventions. - THE PERFECT GIFT FOR STAR WARS FANS: A great value for fans of any age, this kit is the perfect way to celebrate the boundless inventiveness of the Star Wars galaxy. - COMPLETE YOUR STAR WARS COLLECTION: This kit stands alongside fan-favorite Star Wars books, including Star Wars: The Life Day Cookbook, Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith, and Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection.

This unique book presents works that until now have only rarely been seen, even in private collections. Paintings, drawings and sculptures by well known outsider artists and new discoveries, all of which express deeply personal interpretations of sexual desire and activity. With texts by the world's leading academic experts in this field, Raw Erotica presents an essential element in the rich and varied world of outsider and self-taught art. With texts and contributions from: * Colin Rhodes, Univ of Sydney, author of Outsider Art: Spontanious Alternatives * Roger Cardinal, author of the original book Outsider Art * Jenifer Borum, New York based authority on self-taught art * Michale Bonesteel, Chicago based writer and author of Henry Darger * Thomas Roske, Curator, The Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg * Laurent Danchin, Paris author and French authority on Art Brut * Francois Monin, editor of Artension magazine, France.

As the book's provocative title indicates, a woman reading was once viewed as radical. In chapters - such as: Intimate Moments and The Search for Oneself - Bollmann profiles how a woman with a book was once seen as idle or suspect and how women have gained autonomy through reading over the years. Bollmann offers intelligent and engaging commentary on each work of art in Women Who Read Are Dangerous, telling us who the subject is, her relationship to the artist, and even what she is reading. With works ranging from a 1333 Annunciation painting of the angel Gabriel speaking to the Virgin Mary, book in hand, to 20th-century works, such as a stunning photograph of Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses, this appealing survey provides a veritable slideshow of the many iterations of a woman and her book; a compelling subject to this day. An excellent gift for graduates, teachers, or Mother's Day, this elegant book should appeal to anyone interested in art, literature, or women's history.

This book offers a unique focus on the roles of women in contemporary art, cultural production and arts institutions in the Gulf. argues that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been largely excluded from the critical discourse about, and display of, contemporary Middle Eastern art. addresses this oversight by providing an examination of the work of several contemporary women artists from the Gulf region. discusses the role of women in museums and cultural institutions in the region, as well as the education systems available to emerging women artists. will be essential reading for scholars and students engaged in the study of art history, visual culture, museums and heritage, and women and gender studies