This book is the first full-length assessment of the paintings of Tal R (b. 1967), an Israeli-born Danish artist whose enigmatic work offers intersections of personal experience and wider history through a visual jigsaw, finely balanced between representation and abstraction, of what the artist terms 'Kolbojnik', a Hebrew term for leftovers.

Tal R's paintings are exceptionally idiosyncratic yet informed by an expansive view of the history of painting, with a diverse range of references including Fauvism, Symbolism and folk art. To the casual observer, his works depict amalgams of people, places and things. But deeper scrutiny reveals them as complex conceptual playgrounds where these seemingly simple categories are exploded and examined as 'construction' sites of both literal material (including collage, photography and sculpture) and meaning. For all students and lovers of painting, Tal R's works, like those of Chris Ofili or Laura Owens, have cleared a pathway for painting to continue after modernism and postmodernism without apology, beyond the worn out 'death of painting' mantra.

Terry R. Myers text offers an authoritative account of the twists and turns that path has taken so far.

In Brave Birds, cut-paper artist and writer Maude White presents an entirely new collection of sixty-five stunning cut-paper birds. As a source of inspiration, each bird is paired with an original message of kindness and strength associated with its particular traits to encourage bravery and perseverance. Inside, you'll find birds for experiencing Joy, Creativity, Patience, Kindness, Resilience, Communication, Strength, Awareness, Action, and Transformation, and each composition, beautifully photographed by Laura Glazer, reflects thousands of intricate cuts, lending an astounding level of texture to these delicate and ethereal creatures. Appealing to any bird lover or collector of bird art, Brave Birds is a beautiful resource for those wishing to practice a life of kindness and empathy.

Angel Vergara’s (1958 – based in Brussels) work is a continued investigation into the power of the image. By means of performances, videos, installations, paintings and drawings, he tests the limits of art and reality. Each of his works is an attempt to break through the image and to make its impact on an aesthetic as well as a socio-cultural and political level. Thus, Vergara creates a new, suspended reality, grown from the artist’s personal dialogue with reality and with the image by which it has already been transformed. Decontextualised images of reality are mediated by the artist and transformed into art, encouraging the viewer to question their way of perceiving the everyday as well as the way it is presented to them in images. Vergara’s art disorients and disconcerts the viewer. It questions what is known and opens paths to new modes of signification. Accompanying the 2023 retrospective exhibition "In the Instant" that the MACS is dedicating to Angel Vergara, this important book reviews the career of the Belgian artist and highlights the close relationship between his painting and the cinematic medium.    Distributed for Mercatorfonds  Exhibition Schedule: 02.11.2022 – 02.06.2023 Outside installation. Musée de la batellerie – Conflans Sainte Honorine, France.   24.11.2022 > 19.03.2023 Photo Brut - Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels   23.04.2023 – 08.10.2023 Angel Vergara. In a Moment. Monographic exhibition. MAC’s in Mons, Belgium.  

It has recently become apparent that criticism has fallen on hard times. Either commodification is deemed to have killed it off, or it has become institutionally routine. This book explores contemporary approaches which have sought to renew criticism's energies in the wake of a 'theatrical turn' in recent visual arts practice, and the emergence of a 'performative' arts writing over the past decade or so.

Issues addressed include the 'performing' of art's histories; the consequences for criticism of embracing boredom, distraction and other 'queer' forms of (in)attention; and the importance of exploring writerly process in responding to aesthetic experience. Bringing together newly commissioned work from the fields of art history, performance studies, and visual culture with the writings of contemporary artists, "After Criticism" provides a set of experimental essays which demonstrate how 'the critical' might live on as a vital and efficacious force within contemporary culture.

Architecture is a constant presence in the study of human interaction-acting as both the ground on which human social behavior is performed and a means of shaping subjectivity itself. Proxemics was an attempt to visualize and instrumentalize these dynamics, appealing to both the social sciences and the emerging field of environmental design. Founded by anthropologist Edward T. Hall and taking shape between the departments of architecture and anthropology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, proxemics developed amidst cold war political tensions and intense social and civil unrest. Proxemics and the Architecture of Social Interaction presents selections from Hall's extensive archive of visual materials alongside a critical analysis that traces transformations in the fields of design and science. Together these materials illuminate a moment in American history when new spatial practices arose to challenge the environmental conditions of cultural, political, and racial identity.

In Drifting Studio Practice, artists Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan discuss their participatory documentaries Episode of the Sea (2014) and Stones Have Laws (2018), which they made in collaboration with the Dutch fishing community of Urk and with the Saamaka and Okanisi maroons of Suriname, a former Dutch colony in the Amazon. The artists outline how they experimented with collective script writing and performative storytelling, including both human and other-than-human actors. Starting from their earlier artwork Monument of Sugar (2007), the account develops into a practice-driven exploration of co-authorship and (non)human rights as strategies to cope with the plantationocene. Languages: Dutch and English

In the perpetual quest for the new, the exciting and the innovative, the attention of the global art community has in recent years been more and more focused on the Middle East. Exhibitions and articles have highlighted a remarkable burst of creativity in the region, as Arab countries from Syria to Algeria, Egypt to Lebanon and Palestine to Saudi Arabia have launched some of the most fascinating artists in recent years. The conceptual playfulness of Hassan Khan, the charged paintings of Jeffar Khaldi, the organic sculptures of Diana Al-Hadid, and the moving photography of Yto Barrada have dazzled audiences with their variety, innovation and thoughtfulness. Until now, however, nobody has captured the vitality of the region's art in a single book. New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century offers the most comprehensive, scholarly and in-depth survey yet of what is currently happening at the cutting-edge of art in the Arab world. It begins with five groundbreaking essays that offer the best context to date for contemporary Arab production. Between them they discuss the critical issues of diaspora, globalization, identity and audience, and also explore the origins of the current boom in the political upheavals of the late 20th century. These essays are then followed by some 90 superbly illustrated profiles of key artists, organizations and galleries. Mixing the well known (such as Mona Hatoum or Susan Hefuna) with the up and coming (for example, Steve Sabella or Mireille Astore), this section offers a vibrant perspective on the current state of Arab art.

This artist s book presents 84 reproductions of sketches taken from a notebook made by Gerhard Richter between 2004 and 2009. Some sketches feature figurative motifs, human forms and faces, while others appear as purely abstract shapes, configurations and patterns.

German artist Neo Rauch, championed as "the painter of the zeitgeist" by The New York Times's Roberta Smith, presents new paintings in PROPAGANDA. Rauch is widely celebrated for his captivating compositions that bring together figurative painting and surrealism into an entirely new kind of visual encounter. They often hint at broader narratives and histories-seemingly reconnecting with artistic traditions of realism-but they remain dreamlike and impossible to reduce to a single story. Though his art is highly refined and executed with great technical skill, Rauch himself stresses the intuitive, deeply personal nature of how he works. As the artist notes, "My process is far less a reflection than it is drawing from the sediments of my past, which occurs in an almost trance-like state. "Eight large-scale canvases and seven smaller, more intimately scaled works continue the artist's exploration of figuration and the ambiguous nature of meaning in visual art. In some of the larger works, the saturation of the canvas with characters, objects, and, forms, all rendered at different scales and in conflicting arrangements, creates a collage-like quality-a figurative scrapbook of Rauch's personal iconography. The publication features a short story by German novelist and playwright Daniel Kehlmann, which was inspired by the paintings in this book. The fantastical text moves between present-day New York and an unknown time of enchanted forests, knights, and witches, exploring the many layers found in Rauch's canvases. Published on the occasion of the artist's solo exhibition at David Zwirner, Hong Kong in 2019, Neo Rauch: PROPAGANDA is available in both English only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.

In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in 'design classics', both in their increased availability and affordability through re-issues, and in their widespread re-interpretation by contemporary designers and artists. Focusing on chairs, this book examines this significant aspect of contemporary design practice. It does so, not only in terms of works by well-known designers, but also relative to ubiquitous designs such as the monobloc, Thonet number 14, and Ming chairs. These varied examples of re-imagining and re-working are examined from an international perspective as designers and artists across the globe seek to bring new formal, material, and narrative interpretations to these iconic designs. Renewed interest in do-it-yourself, together with the growth of hacking, open-source design and digital fabrication, have all contributed to an expansion of the concepts of re-imagine and re-make in the new millennium. Embraced by professionals, amateurs and companies alike, these developments further attest to the diverse practice of re-interpretation in contemporary design. Bringing together key examples of the re-issuing, re-imagining and re-making of design icons, the book draws on observations from designers, artists and manufacturers in order to understand the varied motivations behind these activities. It places the works within their historical and cultural context, and considers the boundaries between art and design. Further, the book interrogates the issues of authenticity and authorship and the ethical and legal rights to copy and to alter iconic objects that are raised by these re-interpretations.

With more than 480 illustrations, this is the most comprehensive publication to date on one of the greatest painters of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Lucian Freud

Created in collaboration with the Lucian Freud Archive and David Dawson, Director of the Archive, and edited by Mark Holborn, this sumptuous, two-volume, slipcased publication celebrates Freud's work from the 1930s to his death in 2011, and includes hundreds of paintings, drawings and sketches, and etchings - even illustrated private letters. Nearly all the artworks included have been newly photographed by celebrated British photographer John Riddy.

This is both a vital contribution to art scholarship and a gorgeous addition to the bookshelves of art lovers around the world.

Published by Phaidon, the global publisher of books on art, architecture, photography, design, performing arts, decorative arts, fashion, film, travel, and contemporary culture, as well as cookbooks and children's books.

SingaporeEye features seventy-five of the country's most dynamic contemporary artists, as well as contributions by experts tracing the origins and history of artistic development in Singapore, offering insight of new trends arising from the city's young artists of today and of the perspectives behind their work. The publication of this volume coincides with the 50th anniversary of Singapore's independence. A cosmopolitan and multicultural city with a global outlook tempered by Asian traditions, Singapore and its contemporary artists are starting to gain a foothold in the international art world.

Few figures tower over twentieth-century art like Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. Their works were ground-breaking and incalculably influential, yet at the same time both artists were wildly popular in their lifetime and have only become more so in the decades since their deaths. Despite the striking differences in their art and personalities, the two men nonetheless had a lot in common the most obvious being a strong sense of the power of publicity and an affinity for eccentricity and extravagance. They also shared a love of New York, which both men made the heart of their social lives; it was there, in the 1960s, that they met for the first time. This book offers the first-ever direct juxtaposition of Dali and Warhol as personalities and artists. Torsten Otte builds his account through perceptive analyses of similarities in their lives and work, and reconstructs their many encounters based on first-hand accounts by some 120 people who knew and worked with the men. Around sixty images, many of them published here for the first time, by eminent photographers such as Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Philippe Halsman, Christopher Makos, Man Ray, or Robert Whitaker, round out the book.

This fully illustrated anthology showcases key images from Peter Kennard's work as Britain's foremost political artist over the last fifty years. The book centres around Kennard's images, photomontages and illustrations from protests, year by year, which provoked public outrage; including Israel/Palestine protests, anti-nuclear protests, responses to austerity, climate destruction, and more. Each image is accompanied by captions detailing not only the events in question, but Kennard's approach to the work, including the genesis of the images and the techniques employed. Ultimately, the book highlights Kennard's extraordinary contribution to political art in the twenty-first century.

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.

The paintings and architecture by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser are nothing less than revolutionary with respect to nature and individual creativity. His work is not about silent conformity, but about life itself: each individual, in society and in the environment. With their strong, colorful formal vocabulary, Hundertwasser's works allow nature its space. Even beyond his artwork, though, the Austrian environmentalist fought for new ideas and ideals. In many conversations, lectures, letters, and manifestos, he formulated his notions-from recycling, the greening of roofs and facades, and the democratization of living space-in order to lend them weight. What seemed like a utopia to his contemporaries is now urgently virulent and surprisingly current. Commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Hundertwasser's death, this attractive book compiles his statements, excerpts from his manifestos, his paintings, examples of his utopian architecture, and his ideas for the future.

Robert Hernandez traces the history and assesses the impact of VIVA Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists, a nonprofit artists' coalition founded in 1987 in the Silverlake community of Los Angeles. Their aim was to increase the representation of lesbian Latina and gay Latino artists in the LA art scene. VIVA sponsored exhibitions, theatrical performances, and educational outreach. It worked closely with other gay and lesbian organizations in Los Angeles, using arts-based projects to address cultural and sociopolitcal issues that were of concern to their community and the AIDS crisis in particuar. The first organization of its kind in Los Angeles, VIVA offered a stage and a voice for artists who had been routinely marginalized.

The VIVA collection of papers is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. It includes administrative papers, photographs, artwork, VIVA publications, and documents related to the organization's exhibitions, performances, educational projects, and other events.

London is full of landmarks that you'll be very familiar with. From the historic St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge to the modern-day architecture of The Shard. It is a city that is forever changing and full of surprises around every corner. But there are a few corners you will never see without looking through the eyes of this book. It will show you a reimagined version of these famous landmarks that will make you question what you see and have you asking, what is real? In this book, London towers transform into giant robots, stars are born from flowers, gateways to other worlds open up through the London Eye and show you a different reality. Every image in this book will show you a surreal version of London, taking you on a visual journey through the city you thought you knew.