Writings on human life and the refugee crisis by the most important political artist of our time Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is widely known as an artist across media: sculpture, installation, photography, performance, and architecture. He is also one of the world's most important artist-activists and a powerful documentary filmmaker. His work and art call attention to attacks on democracy and free speech, abuses of human rights, and human displacement--often on an epic, international scale. This collection of quotations demonstrates the range of Ai Weiwei's thinking on humanity and mass migration, issues that have occupied him for decades. Selected from articles, interviews, and conversations, Ai Weiwei's words speak to the profound urgency of the global refugee crisis, the resilience and vulnerability of the human condition, and the role of art in providing a voice for the voiceless. Select quotations from the book: "This problem has such a long history, a human history. We are all refugees somehow, somewhere, and at some moment." "Allowing borders to determine your thinking is incompatible with the modern era." "Art is about aesthetics, about morals, about our beliefs in humanity. Without that there is simply no art." "I don't care what all people think. My work belongs to the people who have no voice."

In Sketching Women, three professional studio artists (Kozo Ueda, PhD, Takahiro Okada, PhD and Minoru Hirota, PhD) join forces to show you how to sketch the female figure through 55 step-by-step drawing lessons. Each instructor walks you through their philosophy for croquis sketching. Croquis sketches are quickly-rendered drawings that capture the essentials of a subject's form and pose with relatively few expressive lines. There are four levels of sketching described in the book: 1-minute croquis: very rapid gesture drawings that capture only the artist's impressions of the form, and where the pencil stays in contact with the paper for practically the entire session 2-minute croquis: another quick sketch, but with more attention paid to the character and rhythm of the lines and how they help to express the essence of the form 5-minute croquis: a more finished drawing where added tonal variations suggest volume and anatomical details 10-minute croquis: more of a finished drawing than true croquis, the longer session allows the luxury of adding fine details such as the facial expression, the character of the hands and clothing texture Learn to sketch the following: Individual body parts (including faces) and their bone structure and muscles Standing and sitting poses Nudes and clothed figures Light and dark tonal variations Dynamic poses Color drawings You'll quickly hone your sketching skills with this life-drawing classroom-in-a-book. The expert advice and observations, dozens of poses to study, as well as easy-to-understand notes and tips make it easy to understand how the skeleton, muscles and posture all come together to express the uniquely female form.

Simon Moretti is known for his enigmatic exhibition works, presenting displays that engage with questions of agency, temporality, automatism, desire and masculinity. Incorporating appropriated images and archives as well as curatorial and publishing projects, often made in collaboration with other artists, his work addresses the role of 'curating as practice'. Presented as a non-chronological visual essay, this publication surveys 10 years of collage works by Moretti. It includes text contributions from writer Craig Burnett, curator and art historian Yuval Etgar, novelists Deborah Levy and Chloe Aridjis, and a conversation with Andrew Durbin, editor-in-chief of frieze magazine.

Bouncing Bodies

Fernando Botero's fulsome and frolicking forms

Fernando Botero is an artist with his own style. For more than six decades, the Colombian's "Boterismo" technique has captured collectors, institutions, and public spaces worldwide with a unique, fleshy, overblown approach to the human body. Through these corpulent creations, Botero has become one of the most recognized artists from Latin America, his artworks displayed in prominent places around the globe, including Park Avenue in New York City and the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

This TASCHEN Basic Art edition offers an essential introduction to this leading figure of figures in contemporary art. Tracing Botero's oeuvre from his earliest caricatures of animals through to recent large-scale bronze sculptures, the book examines the artist's diverse array of influences, from Paolo Uccello to Abstract Expressionism, and celebrates the wit, irony, insight, and critical acumen that round out his compositions, however absurd the proportions.

Street-cool visual artist-cum-nightlife guru, Andre Saraiva, whose life dovetails into graffiti subculture, chic jet-setting, and the fashion world, presents an autobiographical visual diary of sorts, a revealing window into the worlds he inhabits. Chances are that while you ve been strolling through the streets of Paris, London, New York, or Los Angeles, you may have caught a glimpse of Saraiva s signature graffiti of Mr. A on a random street wall. Or you may have seen him in the Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop; spied him in the front rows of the Paris Fashion Week shows; or seen him at one of his many chic nightclubs. Graffiti Life is a never-before-seen look at the artist s many spheres through which he effortlessly moves: street culture, contemporary art, graphic design, photography, fashion, and nightlife. This visual journey is an interactive and striking object itself, with a vibrant pink cloth cover, Saraiva s distinctive handwriting in foil, and seven pop-ups he designed. It follows Saraiva s art/life trajectory, and includes his Instagram-worthy tags on the streets of Paris; countless silk-screened posters; paintings and sculpture; creative collaborations with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Colette, and more.

This book examines how African-American writers and visual artists interweave icon and inscription in order to re-present the black female body, traditionally rendered alien and inarticulate within Western discursive and visual systems. Brown considers how the writings of Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, Paule Marshall, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Andrea Lee, Gloria Naylor, and Martha Southgate are bound to such contemporary, postmodern visual artists as Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Kara Walker, Betye Saar, and Faith Ringgold. While the artists and authors rely on radically different media-photos, collage, video, and assembled objects, as opposed to words and rhythm-both sets of intellectual activists insist on the primacy of the black aesthetic. Both assert artistic agency and cultural continuity in the face of the oppression, social transformation, and cultural multiplicity of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book examines how African-American performative practices mediate the tension between the ostensibly de-racialized body politic and the hyper-racialized black, female body, reimagining the cultural and political ground that guides various articulations of American national belonging. Brown shows how and why black women writers and artists matter as agents of change, how and why the form and content of their works must be recognized and reconsidered in the increasingly frenzied arena of cultural production and political debate.

The only complete career retrospective of this visionary painter, including all her most iconic works, which are prized for their exquisite visual poetry, together with personal letters and facsimiles, reprinted in Martin's own hand, adding intimacy to this classic book Agnes Martin's career spanned over seven decades, with a profile that has skyrocketed since the 2015-17 major exhibition at Tate Modern, London that travelled globally to great acclaim. Though a major influence on Minimalist painters, Martin saw her own work more closely related to Abstract Expressionism, her paintings being 'meditations on innocence, beauty, happiness and love.' This much-anticipated reissue of Martin's exhibition manager and close friend Arne Glimcher's highly-acclaimed book presents 130 of her paintings and drawings alongside her previously unpublished writings and lecture notes. Glimcher's illuminating introduction, his personal memories of visits to Martin at her studio, and their correspondence throughout her career, reveal many insights into the artist's life and work.

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig celebrates a quarter of a century this year and marks this important milestone with the launch of a beautiful volume, 'Annaghmakerrig'. The Centre is an artists' retreat set amid the lakes and drumlins of County Monaghan. An eclectic and varied list of poets, musicians, actors, directors and visual artists use the space to develop what we see on stages, pages and gallery walls throughout the country. The book is a collection and a collage that captures the essence and history of the centre, as well as the stories of its fascinating and somewhat eccentric families, not to mention the creativity of the five thousand artists who have spent time there since it was opened by Brian Friel in 1981. In the book. Eugene McCabe remembers Tony Guthrie the theatre director, while Joseph Hone provides a touching and powerful childhood memoir. Other contributors include Colm Toibin, John Banville, Gerald Barry, Anne Enright, Joseph O'Connor, Paul Muldoon, Patrick Scott, Alice Maher, Rosita Boland, Tim Robinson and Claire Keegan. The book is edited by SHEILA PRATSCHKE, Director of Annaghmakerrig, with works selected by RUAIRI O CUIV (visual art) and EVELYN CONLON (literature).

This illustrated volume highlights the rich personality of the Armenian painter Rafael Megall (born 1983), his connection with the artistic tradition of his country, and the peculiar language inspired by the story of his people. The book offers a panorama of his production, among others: the famous icons, paintings on wood first showcased at the 57th Venice Biennale; the installation The Artist and His Mother, showcased at the National Gallery of Armenia, one of the most powerful artworks dedicated to the Armenian genocide; the unpublished series of portraits dedicated to Lev Tolstoy.

Ira "Iraville" Sluyterman van Langewedye is a popular contemporary illustrator beloved for her charming watercolour illustrations of nature, small towns, idyllic scenes, and everyday life. This title brings together a collection of her best work in a giftworthy, lavishly presented hardback art book, which includes never-before-seen images, impressive portfolio pieces, insightful works in progress, beautiful photography, and the artist's own guides to handcrafting sketchbooks and watercolour paints at home. Supported by a Kickstarter campaign in summer 2018, Cozy Days: The Art of Iraville marks another high quality collaboration between 3dtotal Publishing and some of the best illustrators working today.

This rich, colorful retrospective celebrates the offbeat, inspired, and highly original artistic career of San Francisco-born painter Joan Brown. This exhibition catalog accompanies a retrospective exhibition of prolific San Francisco-born painter Joan Brown (1938-1990), the first significant survey of her work in more than twenty years. Joan Brown charts the turns and devotions of a vision that was once dismissed by critics as unserious but was in fact rooted firmly in research and impassioned curiosity that remains uniquely compelling today. Deeply embedded in the Bay Area art scene, Brown drew inspiration from many sources to create a charmingly offbeat body of work that merges autobiography, fantasy, and whimsy with weightier metaphysical and spiritual imagery and themes. Featuring texts by curators Janet Bishop and Nancy Lim as well as essays by Solomon Adler, Marci Kwon, and Helen Molesworth, this lavishly illustrated book establishes Brown's relationship to the self and family, to art history, and to her wider artistic community, while examining the unique materiality of her paintings and exploring her singular vision. In addition, select Brown works will be paired with commentaries by contemporary artists ranging from friends and peers, such as Ron Nagle, to younger artists inspired by her work, such as Woody De Othello. Published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Exhibition dates: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, November 19, 2022-March 12, 2023 Carnegie Museum of Art, May-September 2023

Rain Later, Good is the award winning story of Peter Collyer's extraordinary journey around the Shipping Forecast areas. The Shipping Forecast is a national institution, relied upon by mariners but also strangely comforting and poetic to landlubbers. Published in 1998 to great acclaim, Rain Later, Good was chosen by the RNLI to celebrate their 175th anniversary, and has since sold over 25,000 copies. Fifteen years later, this gorgeous book will be available in paperback for the first time, completely revised and updated, with several new paintings. Peter Collyer's brilliant and detailed paintings offer a series of images which help conjure up the most mythical locations, whilst his delightful idiosyncratic text provides a wealth of fascinating insights. He introduces us to the people who live and work in these areas, and passes on snippets of tantalising information to give a powerful impression of the place and convey a real feeling of being there. The beautiful paintings from his travels truly capture the spirit of these wild and isolated spots, and this new edition includes new paintings, sketches and up to date text. This is a much-loved book celebrating an iconic broadcast, and its reissue will be welcomed by Peter's many admirers. 'A very remarkable painter. His work is simply stunning with an observed intensity which makes him very special indeed.' Chris Beetles in The Daily Telegraph 'The most delightful and unexpected book I've encountered this year... a wonderful book.' John Naughton, The Times 'He is not only a marvellous, delicate draughtsman and watercolourist...but a drily observant writer and amateur naturalist.' Libby Purves

The Chinese artist Liu Ye's meticulous, colorful canvases convey his love of literature in the first publication dedicated to his paintings of books. The Beijing-based artist Liu Ye is known for his precise, deftly rendered representational paintings. Drawn equally from contemporary culture and old master painting, Liu's wide-ranging visual touchstones include Piet Mondrian, Miffy the Bunny, and Prada advertisements. In this new publication devoted to his book paintings, the artist examines the book as both a physical object and cultural totem. Playing with geometry and perspective, Liu creates extraordinary and disorienting portraits of this most familiar subject. Liu's Book Painting series, begun in 2013, depicts close-up views of books that are turned open to reveal empty pages, an approach that emphasizes the object's form over its content. Rendering books' material structure-endpapers, binding, spine-in sensual detail, these paintings indicate an obsession with the book as an object and a lifelong love of literature. Liu's father was a children's book author who introduced him to Western writers at a young age, fueling his curiosity and imagination. Many of the books in Liu's father's collection were banned in Cultural Revolution-era China and the artist read them secretly throughout his childhood. This formative experience figures in his popular Banned Books series and in his book paintings in general. Published on the occasion of a solo exhibition presented at David Zwirner, New York, in 2020, this catalogue includes new writing by the acclaimed poet Zhu Zhu, who traces the evolution of the book form in Liu's work, as well as an interview with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

This title is a commemorative volume celebrating the life and work of the architect and architectural historian Alan Colquhoun, who died in December 2012.

This is the catalogue that accompanies a solo exhibition of the work of Domenec, an artist born in 1962 in Mataro, a town in Catalonia. The exhibition sets out to contemplate, through the artist`s work, how neoliberalism destroys social projects with its escalation of individualism. In doing so it offers a retrospective of Domenec`s work from the late 1990s to the present, and includes some new projects. Using certain emblematic buildings or monuments as referents, Domenec analyses the proposals of the modern movement and its legacy within contemporary practice. Supporting his research are projects in situ, installations, maquettes, photographs, workshops, seminars and videos. Based on various local contexts, his work establishes a dialogue with other international themes to highlight the impact on the present of the utopian ideas that resulted from the Industrial Revolution, and are seen as a stand against capitalism. The rise of an urban proletariat in the C19 led to discourses and social models based on social justice and egalitarianism. Utopian communism and socialism developed architectonic models promoting a concept of coexistence in the urban space based on services to the community and better living conditions. Domenec investigates these exemplary systems and the breakdown of what he calls the ` fragile contract between capital and the social body` . The transformations of the socio-political circumstances generated by these systems can also lead, at times, to changes of usage and the creation of dystopic models. Social housing turned into military barracks or internment camps; statues of circumstantial heroes that were pulled down because of their meaning, or counter meaning; or the absurdity of a ghost city used for military training in urban warfare, but never officially recognized, are some of the cases used by Domenec to investigate the dysfunctions of the processes of modernity and the political accounts marginalised by these narratives. In other words, the breakdown of a social project that has become, as a result of neoliberalism, the exacerbation of individualism. Domenec`s work gives voice to the protagonists of that story, to unofficial discourses, and avoids the dominant narratives to bring back memory

The texts gathered in this volume embrace women artists-only exhibitions, festivals, collective art projects, groups and associations, organised in the long 1970s in Europe (1968-1984). These all-women art initiatives are closely related to developments within the political and politicized women's movement in Europe and America but what emerges is the varied and plural manner of their engagements with feminism(s) alongside their creation of `heterotopias' in relation to specific sites/ politics/ collaborative art practices. This book presents examples from Italy, Spain, UK, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Germany (East and West), The Netherlands, France and Sweden. While each chapter is largely devoted to one country, the authors point to how the local and specific political situation in which these initiatives emerged is linked to global tendencies as well as inter-European exchanges. Each chapter of this book thus assesses the impact of travelling views of feminism, by considering connections made between women artists (often when travelling abroad) or their knowledge of art practices from abroad. Distinct and highly varied attitudes towards political activism (from strong engagement to a clearly pronounced distance and even hostility) are shown in each essay and, what is more, they are shown as based on radically different premises about feminism, politics and art.

Colonial and imperial powers have often portrayed arid lands as “empty” spaces ready to be occupied, exploited, extracted, and polluted. Despite the undeniable presence of human and nonhuman lives and forces in desert territories, the “regime of emptiness” has inhabited, and is still inhabiting, many imaginaries. Deserts Are Not Empty challenges this colonial tendency, questions its roots and ramifications, and remaps the representations, theories, histories, and stories of arid lands—which comprise approximately one-third of the Earth’s land surface. The volume brings together poems in original languages, conversations with collectives, and essays by scholars and professionals from the fields of architecture, architectural history and theory, curatorial studies, comparative literature, film studies, landscape architecture, and photography. These different approaches and diverse voices draw on a framework of decoloniality to unsettle and unlearn the desert, opening up possibilities to see, think, imagine it otherwise. With contributions from Saphiya Abu Al-Maati, Menna Agha, Asaiel Al Saeed, Aseel AlYaqoub, Yousef Awaad Hussein, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Danika Cooper, Brahim El Guabli, Timothy Hyde, Jill Jarvis, Bongani Kona, Dalal Musaed Alsayer, Observatoire des armements, Francisco E. Robles, Paulo Tavares, Alla Vronskaya, and XqSu.

The Riviera in the 1950s and 1960s was culturally rich with modernist icons such as Matisse and Picasso in residence, but also a burgeoning tourist culture, that established the Cote d'Azur as a center of indigenous artists associated with Nouveau Realisme, Fluxus, and Supports/Surfaces, emerged under the mantle of the "Ecole de Nice." Drawing on the primary sources and little known publications generated during the period from museum archives, collections in the region, and privately owned archives, this study integrates material published in monographic studies of individuals and art movements, to offer the first in-depth study of this important movement in twentieth-century art. The author situates the work of the Ecole de Nice within the broader social currents that are so important in contextualizing this phenomenon within this internal region of France, and underscores why this work was so significant at this historical moment within the context of the broader European art scene, and contemporary American art, with which it shared affinities. Despite their stylistic differences, and associations with groups that are generally considered distinct, O'Neill discloses that these artists shared conceptual affinities"theatrical modes of presentation based on appropriation, use of the ready-made, and a determination to counter style-driven painting associated with the postwar Ecole de Paris. Art and Visual Culture on the Riviera, 1956-1971 suggests that the emergence of an Ecole de Nice internally eroded the dominance of Paris as the national standard at this moment of French decentralization efforts, and that these artists fostered a model of aesthetic pluralism that remained locally distinct yet fully engaged with international vanguard trends of the 1960s.

In this book, Dan Adler addresses recent tendencies in contemporary art toward assemblage sculpture and how these works incorporate tainted materials - often things left on the side of the road, according to the logic and progress of the capitalist machine - and combine them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity. Adler develops a range of aesthetic models through which these practices can be understood to function critically. Each chapter focuses on a single exhibition: Isa Genzken's "OIL" (German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007), Geoffrey Farmer's midcareer survey (Musee d'art contemporain, Montreal, 2008), Rachel Harrison's "Consider the Lobster" (CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, 2009), and Liz Magor's "The Mouth and Other Storage Facilities" (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2008).

Not so very long ago, some might have considered wood a material of the past, long since replaced by more modern components such as concrete and steel. The truth is radically different. Bolstered by new manufacturing techniques and ecological benefits, wood has seen a fabulous resurgence in contemporary construction. This Bibliotheca Universalis edition explores how architects around the world have created and invented with this elementary material. Featuring follies, very large buildings, and ambitious urban renewal schemes, it celebrates the diverse deployment of wood by architects around the world. We see how wood can at once transform urban spaces, as in the Metropol Parasol in Seville by Jurgen Mayer H., and allow for sensitive interventions in natural environments, such as at the Termas Geometricas Hot Springs Complex in Pucon, Chile, by German del Sol. True to all TASCHEN architecture titles, the book pays tribute to many emerging international talents as well as to such renowned figures as Tadao Ando and Renzo Piano. It celebrates each architect's vision and innovation, as well as investigating the techniques, trends, and principles that have informed their work with wood. It examines the computer-guided milling that has allowed for novel new forms, the responsible harvesting that allows wood to align with our environmental concerns, and, above all, wood's enduring appeal to our senses and psyche, comforting hectic modern lives with a sense of Arcadian simplicity. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

"Hassan Massoudy's calligraphies are arranged to loosely follow the seasons, beginning and ending with autumn: sombre, wintry hues at one end, brilliant tones full of vibrant reds at the other."--Venetia Porter

Hassan Massoudy's elegant calligraphy depicts the four seasons of the garden. From the icy palettes of winter and the fading hues of autumn to delicate spring growth and the dazzling sunshine and blooms of summer, he captures in calligraphy what countless poets have wrought with words.

Massoudy draws his seasonal inspirations from writers and artists, including Kahlil Gibran, Henri Matisse, Lao Tzu, William Blake, and Victor Hugo, as well as from Hungarian, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese proverbs.

Hassan Massoudy was born in Najaf, Iraq. He moved to France in 1969, where he studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and is in the permanent collections of the British Museum and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, among others. Nineteen books of his calligraphy have been published in France, along with his autobiography, "Si loin de l'Euphrate: Une jeunesse d'artiste en Irak."

Landscape architecture is a form of high art for Erik Dhont, who has brought both nuance and sensitivity to various sites. Playing with flowers, grasses, shrubs or trees, he creates unique spaces, structures and textures. His timeless green paradises which are the result of true craftsmanship, are deeply rooted in the European garden tradition. They stand for longevity, evolution, dreams, and life. In this second monograph, Dhont presents his creations from over the last twenty years, combining photographs with abstract drawings, colorful planting plans, and sculptural models that reflect on his artistic approach. Intimate views of seminal creations such as the garden of fashion designer Dries van Noten immerse one into Dhont's creative and sensual universe.