Art. Art Criticism. This monograph traces Sonia Boyce's trajectory from early graphic work to her recent mixed-media pieces which draw on elements of British popular culture and cinema to address society's positioning of individuals in terms of race, class and gender. Unquestionably serious and with an unquestionable sense of humor, Boyce's work, ranging from photography to painting and installations, is here widely represented, and well-complemented by three intelligent essays by Gilane Tawadros, a biography of the artist, and, alongside the essays, excellently chosen excerpts from Boyce's working diaries. Tawadros' essays address cultural, racial, gender and visual/art historical issues raised over the trajectory of Boyce's artistic development, using such theorists as Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Italo Calvino, and Stuart Hall to contextualize the artist's magnificent and provocative work.

Early American painter Gilbert Stuart has long been mistakenly represented as a hard-drinking rogue, habitual liar, and inexplicable financial failure. To explain his stylistic unevenness as an artist, he is assumed to have had an inferior assistant, but the documentary evidence for an assistant who painted on his portraits is non-existent-in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. This ground-breaking study demonstrates that Stuart suffered from a hereditary form of manic depression, leading him to create pictures that contain peculiar lapses characteristic of a manic-depressive, or bipolar, artist. Using documentary and empirical evidence-from diaries and letters to x-radiographs of paintings-this book fills important gaps in our knowledge of Stuart, and connects the strange visual effects in some of Stuart's paintings with cognitive deficits attendant with the disorder. In addition to Stuart, other bipolar artists, including George Romney, Raphaelle Peale, Gilbert Stuart Newton, and William Rimmer, are discussed in relation to these deficits, revealing patterns which carry broader implications for all manic-depressive artists. This volume is a significant contribution not only to studies of Stuart and the four other painters but also to our understanding of the mind of a manic-depressive artist. It bridges the broad disciplines of art history and psychopathology.

Transgendered playwright, performer, columnist, and sex worker Nina Arsenault has undergone more than sixty plastic surgeries in pursuit of a feminine beauty ideal. In "TRANS(per)FORMING Nina Arsenault," Judith Rudakoff brings together a diverse group of contributors, including artists, scholars, and Arsenault herself to offer an exploration of beauty, image, and the notion of queerness through the lens of Arsenault's highly personal brand of performance art.Illustrated throughout with photographs of the artist's transformation over the years and demonstrating her diversity of personae, this volume contributes to a deepening of our understanding of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be beautiful. Also included in this volume is the full script of Arsenault's critically acclaimed stage play, "The Silicone Diaries."

No single living artist has created as many myths, rumors and legends as Banksy. In his home town of Bristol almost everyone seems to have a Banksy story. Many of the tales in this book are from Bristol and some are from further afield. What they share is that they are all told with the wide-eyed wonder which Banksy inspires. Compiled between 2009 and 2011, some of these stories are quite old and have been told so many times they have become the stuff of legend, while others are more questionable and best described as myths.

Some are laugh out loud bollocks and some are simply gossip. You be the judge. These stories illustrate the incredible audacity, originality and sheer bloody mindedness of Banksy, who obviously will be best remembered for his art and exposing the hypocrisy and idiocy of our modern lives. The myths will be viewed as a distraction to some or part of the appeal for others. One thing is certain, the art and the myths are both larger than life.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was one of the outstanding draughtsmen of the 19th century: drawing was not only a central tenet of his art, but essential to his existence. Through an examination of the artist's drawings and pastels, Christopher Lloyd reveals the development of Degas's style as well the story of his life, including his complicated relationship with the Impressionists. Following a broadly chronological approach, the author discusses the various subject areas, not only the images of dancers (which form over half of Degas's total oeuvre) but also of nudes and milliners, and the less well-known racehorse and landscape drawings. He covers his whole career, from when Degas was copying the Old Masters to learn his craft to when he ceased work in 1912 because of failing eyesight, setting him within the artistic context of the period. Lloyd's extensive research, which includes consulting the artist's detailed notebooks, has resulted in a comprehensive exposition with, at its heart, some 250 pencil, black-chalk, pen-and-ink, and charcoal drawings and pastels of timeless appeal.

Bonus offer: Free ebook ...and talk to the authors. Over 110 color images. The origin of Vedic painting is as old as time itself. In the earliest writings of ancient Indian civilization, 7000 years ago, we find records of the practice of Vedic painting. Vedic painting requires that the artists devote themselves fully in expressing their individuality within the guidelines of specific cognitions inspired by ancient sages and kept alive through an oral tradition within the family lineage. Today there are only a handful of artists throughout India who still strive for so exalted a vision of perfection, avoiding the more lucrative path of commercialism. Few living have witnessed the great treasures of India. In modern times, her majesty has become obscured even to her native sons and daughters. Although in her long and varied history she has known more golden ages than any country of our earth, poor journalism and modern media have fooled us into believing that India is a broken, impudent country characterized by poverty, starvation, and corruption. This is true in part, but by looking between the cracks, it is impossible to miss the fundamental footprints of Indian majesty. They lay just beneath the surface squalor of it's daily life and reveal a heritage of infinite complexity and sophistication. In her past, India's character has been shaped by such abundance and freedom that all the great leaders and conquerors of history have marveled at her material wealth and metaphysical wisdom. During the early 1990s Nandini Badhwar and Rodney Charles traveled throughout India, navigating a course bound to understand the principles of the world oldest painting techniques. In the end, they barely scratched the surface of an ancient school of art that is as fundamentally transcendent as the human soul. This modest presentation is as much a memoir for the authors as it is an introduction to a greatly under-investigated goldmine of human culture and development. The authors are happily married and love to walk and ride their bikes in the Iowa countryside. "India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." Mark Twain "India conquered and dominated China culturally for twenty centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border." Hu Shih Ambassador of China to USA "If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India." Romain Roland "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made." Albert Einstein