An eye-opening presentation of largely unknown figurative drawings by a renowned pioneer of abstraction Featuring one hundred figurative works on paper by Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), this volume shows a new side of an artist best known for abstraction. These informal depictions of friends and expressive self-portraits—all rarely or never previously displayed or published—span the entirety of Kelly’s career, from the mid-1940s to the early 2000s. Throughout his life, Kelly made portraits as a means of keeping his hand adept at drawing, which provided a place to test his ideas, refine his bold use of lines, and interrogate the space between naturalism and abstraction. These works also capture his social milieu, which intersected with other creative circles and the queer community. He painstakingly recorded how his own appearance changed over time, and once described some of these sketches by saying, “I use myself in order to draw.” The accompanying critical essays unpack the ways in which such intimate efforts were fundamental to Kelly’s practice and situate this important aspect of his work within the artist’s wider oeuvre. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: Art Institute of Chicago (July 1–October 23, 2023)

Frances Burke was Australia's most influential and celebrated textile designer of the 20th century. From the late 1930s to 1970, her designs achieved a prominence unparalleled in Australia before or since. Displaying imagery and colours from native flora, marine objects, Indigenous artefacts and designs of pure abstraction, Burke's innovative fabrics remain fresh and appealing, distinctive and evocative of Australia. In New Design, her fabric showroom and interior design consultancy, Burke presented modern furniture by emerging local designers of the postwar period. Drawing on regular visits to the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Taiwan she became an authoritative advocate for modern design. Burke also collaborated with leading architects and interior designers, including Robin Boyd, her fabrics making arresting contributions to influential modern buildings. In this long-awaited, richly illustrated work, Nanette Carter and Robyn Oswald-Jacobs have located and unpacked the different components of a body of work never presented as art or intended simply for display, but which contributed so much to the felt experience of Australian life in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

In this remarkable, inspiring collection of essays, acclaimed writer and critic Olivia Laing makes a brilliant case for why art matters, especially in the turbulent political weather of the twenty-first century. Funny Weather brings together a career's worth of Laing's writing about art and culture, examining their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O'Keeffe, reads Maggie Nelson and Sally Rooney, writes love letters to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, she celebrates art as a force of resistance and repair, an antidote to a frightening political time. We're often told that art can't change anything. Laing argues that it can. Art changes how we see the world. It makes plain inequalities and it offers fertile new ways of living.

'Art is theft,' Picasso once proclaimed, and much of the best and most 'original' new art involves an act or two of unequivocal, overt theft. Paradoxically, the law relating to artistic borrowing has grown more restrictive. 'The plagiarism and copyright trials of the twenty-first century are what the obscenity trials were to the twentieth century', Kenneth Goldsmith, has observed. 'These are really the issues of our time.' Beg, Steal and Borrow offers a comprehensive and provocative survey of a complex subject that is destined to grow in relevance and importance. It traces an artistic lineage of appropriation from Michelangelo to Jeff Koons, and examines the history of its legality from the sixteenth century to now.

In 1968 Palle Nielsen approached the Moderna Museet in Stockholm with a proposal for turning the museum into an adventure playground. From 30 September to 20 October 1968 Modellen. En modell for ett kvalitativt samhalle (The Model - A Model for a Qualitative Society) was installed and children under eighteen were offered free access. The event attracted more than 35,000 visitors. Nielsen's insistence on using institutional space for advancing artistic critique was precocious, prefiguring activist uses of the white cube. This book presents a selection of the material donated to the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) by Palle Nielsen in 2009, and shown the same year as part of the exhibition Time as Matter. MACBA Collection. New Acquisitions. It includes an essay by Lars Bang Larsen, various texts by Palle Nielsen as well as the artist's documentary photos from The Model.

Federico Solmi: Escape Into The Metaverse examines the work of Federico Solmi, a leading practitioner in the genre of new media art. As a narrative and figurative artist, Solmi utilises lurid colours and satire to portray a dystopian vision of contemporary society, highlighting the contradictions and fallibilities that characterise our time. Employing video, painting, drawing, sculpture, sound and digital game design, he creates a carnivalesque virtual reality with historical and present-day world leaders - animated by computer script and motion capture performance - in a critique of Western society's obsession with power. Inspired by real events and fabricated myths, Solmi explores, re-interprets and concocts celebrated moments in history. As reconfigured narratives, these social and political commentaries disrupt the mythologies that underpin Western society, revealing its ties to nationalism, colonialism, religion and consumerism. The book documents Solmi's unique process of melding traditional art practices and digital technologies in a case study of his most ambitious video-painting to date, The Bathhouse (2020). Pioneering new modes of cultural production and art experience afforded by the metaverse, Solmi's absurd rewriting of past and present merge dark humor and a sense of the grotesque in a virtual world that indicts our own reality. Solmi was born in 1973 to a working-class family in Bologna, Italy. He is self-trained and self-educated. In 1999, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, to pursue his career. His perspective reflects his outlook as a cultural voyeur, questioning the nationalistic and revisionist American mythologies that are often presented as fact. In 2003, Solmi began to experiment with the tools of video game design, fascinated by the parallel universe made possible by 3D graphics, which he saw as a structure to create narrative video sequences using drawings and paintings. Every visual texture is painted and scanned on the computer up to three times to achieve the intentional flickering effect. The art of Paolo Uccello, Giorgio Morandi and Giorgio di Chirico serve as references for his visual compositions, while the writings of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Oriana Fallaci serve as inspiration for his social and political commentary.

British-Iranian photographer and filmmaker Mitra Tabrizian creates an unsettling imagery out of ordinary daily life. Atmospherically, she evokes almost unreal scenes, which push reality and its inhabitants into the sublime realm of a fathomless emotional interior. She addresses the incidental and mundane, yet her agenda reaches deeper. With a unique perspective, she inquires the complex social roles of the individual. By revealing too often unnoticed phenomena of contemporary living she challenges our established conceptions of the world. The book presents all of her works since 2012.

Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, questions of identity have dominated the culture not only of Russia, but of all the countries of the former Soviet bloc. This timely collection examines the ways in which cultural activities such as fiction, TV, cinema, architecture and exhibitions have addressed these questions and also describes other cultural flashpoints, from attitudes to language to the use of passports. It discusses definitions of political and cultural nationalism, as well as the myths, institutions and practices that moulded and expressed national identity. From post-Soviet recollections of food shortages to the attempts by officials to control popular religion, it analyses a variety of unexpected and compelling topics to offer fresh insights about this key area of world culture. Illustrated with numerous photographs, it presents the results of recent research in an accessible and lively way.

After the example of Noah, who saved the animal species in his ark for posterity, this volume, an "Illustrated Animal Bible by Artists from all over the World," aspires to rescue and house the animals among us today. Recruiting over 200 artists, illustrators and designers from every corner of the globe, each of whom was invited to select a creature (animal or species) to represent their birthplace, and add it to the Ark, the project has resulted in an amazing illustration bible that mixes styles and techniques, showing how astonishing nature is and why we should take better care of the planet and the species on it. At once fun, graphically charming and ecologically intelligent, "Ark "wil immediately appeal to children and design audiences. The final parade of animals is astonishing: the burrowing owl for Canada, the capybara for Uruguay, the Carey turtle for Colombia, the Caribean manatee for Puerto Rico, the nene goose for Maui, the spectacled bear for Peru... "Ark "also supplies a section of "Nature Facts," an illustrated tale of Noah and a list of all the artists involved--among them Allan Deas, Gustav Dejert, Drew Funk, Chris Garbutt, Kronk, Cecy Meade, Meomi, Noper, Shen Plum and Roland Tamayo.

This first cross-national book-length study of street art as political protest and communication focuses on art forms traditionally used by collectives and state interests in the Hispanic world--posters, wallpaintings, graffiti, murals, shirts, buttons, and stickers, for example. Professor Chaffee examines the motives behind the use of street art as propaganda and seeks to explain how it is effective. Using field research and a sociopolitical approach, he assesses contemporary street art in Spain, the Basque country, Argentina, and Brazil. He shows how street art is a barometer of popular conflicts and sentiments across the political spectrum. This comparative analysis is intended for students, teachers, and professionals in the fields of communication, political science, history, and popular culture.

Celebrating the best drawings by contemporary artists! The celebrated Strokes of Genius series follows the beautiful, ongoing story of contemporary drawing through the work and words of some of today's top artists. Focusing on the theme "Creative Discoveries," this thoughtfully curated 9th edition features the artists' most compelling aha! moments. Triggers for these artistic epiphanies are wide ranging--from experiments with new materials, to private meanderings in a little notebook, to fleeting moments of magical light, and one particularly charismatic pelican. Artists and art lovers alike are sure to be inspired by the resulting energy and expressiveness showcased on these pages. 140 modern-day masterpieces in charcoal, pencil, pastel, colored pencil, scratchboard, pen and ink, and more A breathtaking diversity of styles and approaches Subject-themed chapters include animals, the human figure, still life, outdoor scenes, and portraits Comments from the artists offer fresh-from-the-studio advice, insights, and anecdotes not found anywhere else "The greatest creative discoveries are those that find you." --Carolyn Judson, p73

This dynamic visual biography is Jeffers's personal chronicle of an artist who blends his love of creating stories with his love of art and his infectious charm, and is a must-have for art lovers and bibliophiles both young and old. Oliver Jeffers takes a dive into Oliver's own origin story, inspirations, art evolution, and passion for storytelling: from growing up loving art and creating stories as a young boy in Belfast, Ireland; to finding a huge audience for his loveable stories; to what led him to his enormously clever found painting; to his collaborations with U2, TED, Colette, and Apple, to his newest meditative dipped painting art events. Oliver Jeffers is a fresh canvas for his imagination, and includes a pass through his most popular work, never-before-published illustrations and art, and a look into his more personal world of sketchbooks and doodles. Oliver's own story, infused with the whimsy and joy his work is famous for, is must-have not only for current fans of Oliver Jeffers's picture books, but also new fans, art lovers, and bibliophiles both young and old.

Ley lines mark alignments of sacred sites such as ridgetops and ancient megaliths and create pathways between them. This book too marks alignments and creates pathways, but its sacred sites are not monuments, they're artworks and poems. Its various forms of exchange between writers and artists offer unique access to contemporary art, poetry, and the creative process. In this unique anthology, working poets respond to questions about their recent books, painters and other artists offer statements about their work, and writers respond to artworks. These offerings and exchanges are juxtaposed so as to speak to one another in a capacious, resonant dialogue. The result is a broad-minded and inclusive poetics, a vision of creative work as a constituent of personal and civic life. Anyone who nurtures the creative impulse will enjoy Ley Lines and return to it again and again. Writing students, art students, and any reader engaged in artistic practice will find in Ley Lines not a how-to manual or step-by-step instruction but an inexhaustible vein of instructive reflection on imaginative work and the creative life.

Richly illustrated and boasting an array of distinguished artists, scholars and curators, thingworld is the catalogue of the International Triennial of New Media Art held at the National Art Museum of China. From metal balls ascending in an uncanny anti- gravitational movement to a Victorian sofa standing precariously a l'attitude; from miniature instruments which require a magnifying glass to peek at their elegance to monumental inflatables that entwine and elongate to permeate 5,000 square feet of gallery space; from murmuring tweets from the virtual void to billions of algorithmically generated configurations of a mere 24 cards depicting an 18th-century genre painting; the exhibition unfolds its three themes: Monologue: Ding An Sich; Dialogue: Ding to Thing; and Ensemble: Parliament of Things in a reciprocal interrelation. In celebration of thingworld, there emerges an opportunity to reinvigorate the impasse of cultural production that is contingent solely on the premise of a human subject through a much- expanded field of operation; there will be a newfound world of discussions, concerns giving rise to new forms of artistic experimentation and new vocabularies of aesthetic manifestation that resonate with a vision of equity molded by a renewed political ecology, that is the "Equality of All Things".

This work examines the fascinating life and art of the African American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). Jean-Michel Basquiat was barely out of his teens when he rocketed to the center of New York's art scene. He was 27 when he died of a heroin overdose. Always controversial, Basquiat is now established as a major contemporary painter whose unique work continues to enthrall. Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography covers the artist's Brooklyn childhood, his teenage years as a homeless graffiti painter, and his rise through the art world. Along with a discussion of his life and work, including his use of Afrocentric themes, the book offers background on related contemporary art movements. Special attention is given to Basquiat's friendship with Keith Haring and collaborations with Andy Warhol. The book also explores Basquiat's difficult relations with gallery owners and other authority figures, his problems with drug use, and his early death. A final chapter covers his continuing relevance and ongoing influence.

The most comprehensive monograph to date on the groundbreaking Swiss artist and international art star, Pipilotti Rist A pioneer of experimental video art, Pipilotti Rist is celebrated for her expansive installations that bridge the spaces between fine art and popular culture, the natural world and the technological sublime. Through vivid colors, audaciously sensuous imagery, and playful sexuality, Rist's art-which ranges from single-channel videos to multilayered environments-absorbs viewers in a hyperfeminine aesthetic interlaced with deeper themes of pain, innocence, and transformation.

Mati & The Music is a book about the 52 paintings by Mati Klarwan that appeared on album covers, this body of work started in the mid 1950s and continued for half a century. Klarwein was heavily involved in the New York art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He was mainly commissioned to paint covers by the musicians themselves the most famous being Miles Davis 'Bitches Brew' and 'Live Evil', Carlos Santana's 'Abraxas', Earth Wind & Fire, Buddy Miles, Gregg Allman. He was also employed by major records labels including Blue Note for Jackie McLean, Reuben Wilson and Douglas records for the Last Poets, Howard Walkes and Jerry Garcia. This book is an introduction to a painter's work through his passion for music.