Originally published in Dutch and translated to Spanish for the fourth centenary celebration of the death of El Greco in 2014, this book is a comprehensive study of the rediscovery of El Greco -- seen as one of the most important events of its kind in art history. The Nationalization of Culture versus the Rise of Modern Art analyses how changes in artistic taste in the second half of the nineteenth century caused a profound revision of the place of El Greco in the artistic canon. As a result, El Greco was transformed from an extravagant outsider and a secondary painter into the founder of the Spanish School and one of the principle predecessors of modern art, increasingly related to that of the Impressionists -- due primarily to the German critic Julius Meier-Graefe's influential History of Modern Art (1914). This shift in artistic preference has been attributed to the rise of modern art but Eric Storm, a cultural historian, shows that in the case of El Greco nationalist motives were even more important. This study examines the work of painters, art critics, writers, scholars and philosophers from France, Germany and Spain, and the role of exhibitions, auctions, monuments and commemorations. Paintings and associated anecdotes are discussed, and historical debates such as El Greco's supposed astigmatism are addressed in a highly readable and engaging style. This book will be of interest to both specialists and the interested art public.

"Herzog is headed into provocative territory."-Christopher Knight "At the nexus of critical information theory, disjunctive librarianship, and gender and technology studies, ... Herzog's work is a cybernetic handle for us to use, like Palinurus' rudder, to cut through information landscapes across time and space."-Amelia Acker "In our computer age, after the impact of mechanical reproduction has been absorbed into our bodies and psyches, Herzog manufactures unique paintings that communicate with each other and with the Other of technology. These pieces address the power of words and information to be things that physically affect us. Replicating / doubling /embodying / one-step-furthuring that power, she makes them into things, with the effect that the viewer is put into the position of both experiencing the thing and becoming enlightened as to the process of how the information becomes a thing."-Andrew Choate Katie Herzog's cross-disciplinary practice addresses information economies utilizing painting as a mode of representing, producing, and deconstructing knowledge in the public sphere. For her solo exhibition, Object-Oriented Programing, at the Palo Alto Research Center in 2012 (PARC, a Xerox company), Herzog exhibited over fifty paintings in the hallways and lobbies of one of the most storied institutions in the history of information technology. Object-oriented programming is a computer programming paradigm that was introduced by PARC in the early 1970's. This new language used "objects" as the basis for computation (capable of receiving messages, processing data, and sending messages to other objects), as opposed to the conventional programming model, in which a program is seen as a list of tasks. Herzog's exhibition utilizes this concept as a conceptual and epistemic basis for how her paintings function as a language to develop meaning, where "programming" in the exhibition title connotes both contextualized computer programming as well as public programming. Works in the show provide expressive, symbolic, and conceptual narratives of an information era, including "If I Die My Email Password Is," "Documents (Heads You Lose)," and "Information Overload Syndrome," among others. Herzog's practice embodies a unique visionary approach to painting, knowledge production, and artistic research, through a multifaceted engagement of civil service, disjunctive librarianship, and animal-assisted literacy. Katie Herzog received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, a Master of Fine Arts at UC San Diego, and studied Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. She currently serves as Director of the Molesworth Institute and is based in Los Angeles, California. This exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Daniel Clowes (b. 1961) emerged from the "alternative comics" boom of the 1980s as one of the most significant cartoonists and most distinctive voices in the development of the graphic novel. His serialized "Eightball" comics, collected in such books as "David Boring," "Ice Haven," and "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron," helped to set the standards of sophistication and complexity for the medium. The screenplay for "Ghost World," which Clowes co-adapted (with Terry Zwigoff) from his graphic novel of the same name, was nominated for an Academy Award.

Since his early, edgy "Lloyd Llewellyn" and "Eightball" comics, Clowes has developed along with the medium, from a satirical and sometimes vituperative surrealist to an unmatched observer of psychological and social subtleties. In this collection of interviews reaching from 1988 to 2009, the cartoonist discusses his earliest experiences reading superhero comics, his time at the Pratt Institute, his groundbreaking comics career, and his screenplays for "Ghost World" and "Art School Confidential." Several of these pieces are drawn from rare small-press or self-published zines, including Clowes's first published interview. He talks at length about the creative process, from the earliest traces of a story, to his technical approaches to layout, drawing, inking, lettering, and coloring. The volume concludes with a 2009 interview conducted specifically for this book.

The most exhilarating painter of the Renaissance and arguably of the whole of western art, Tintoretto was known as Il Furioso because of the attack and energy of his style. His vaunting ambition is recorded in the inscription he placed in his studio: l disegno di Michelangelo ed il colorito di Tiziano ("Michelangelo's drawing and Titian's colour"). The Florentines Vasari and Borghini, and the Venetians Ridolfi and Boschini wrote the earliest biographies of the artist. The four accounts are related to each other and form the backbone of the critical success of Tintoretto. Borghini is the first one to give some information about Marietta Tintoretto, also an artist, and Ridolfi is the richest in anecdotes about the artist's life and personality - including the one about the inscription which he may, however, have invented. Boschini, a witty Venetian nationalist, wrote his account in dialect verse. El Greco, whose marginal notes to Vasari are included for the first time in English, Calmo and Franco knew Tintoretto personally and their writings give a real flavour of this complicated man. Unavailable in any form for many years, these biographies have been newly edited for this edition. They are introduced by the scholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artistic and literary context. Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations cover the full range of Tintoretto's astonishing output.

-- Stunning watercolour paintings by one of Sweden's best-loved artists -- Fascinating insight into Swedish rural and artistic life in the late nineteenth century -- Accompanied by an explanatory text giving more detail about his life and techniques Carl Larsson is one of Sweden's best-loved artists. His stunning watercolours of his home and family from the end of the nineteenth century are acclaimed as one of the richest records of life at that time. The paintings in this book are a combined collection which depict Larsson's family -- his wife Karin and their eight children -- his home in the village of Sundborn, and his farm, Spadarvet. The accompanying text provides a fascinating insight into Larsson family and farm life, and his painting techniques. Today, over 60,000 tourists a year visit Sundborn to admire Larsson's home and work. Also published as three separate volumes: A Home, A Family, and A Farm.

The Silent Hurt portrays a young poor country girl with a disability who was labeled harshly by society. Even so, through strong determination and a powerful inner spirit, she refused to accept those labels. Jo Ann Coleman was born in the forties and lived in a very small town in Louisiana. At age five, she started school and soon realized that she was not like the other boys and girls in her class. Struggling first in elementary school, where she was immediately labeled as retarded, she eventually lost sight in her right eye. She grew up among cousins, without her parents, and constantly felt depressed and alone, facing name-calling from her peers. She graduated from high school and received a scholarship to attend nursing school-only to lose the scholarship due to missing an important letter. Because of her silent depression as a child, she eventually attempted suicide. Her disability and low self-esteem made her feel that no one cared. When she finally let Jesus Christ direct her life, however, everything turned around. She turned adversity into triumph and now seeks to inspire those afflicted by physical, emotional, and mental handicaps and low self-esteem. Although she made many mistakes and had her flaws, those flaws would eventually become her joy, peace, and contentment. With the true peace that comes from knowing Jesus Christ, she discovered the life she had been dreaming of since childhood.

'I was raised with an artist's mentality; my first 25 years were spent as somebody who wanted to live among graphics and artwork and illustration, and then for the next 30 years it was all music. Recently, I've reverted into the arts, combining all these elements in my work, still trying to change the world. This is truly what I want to do. My deepest thanks to Genesis for giving me a place to be able to display all of this through my artwork.' - Chuck D In his first fine art book, Livin' Loud, Public Enemy founder, hip-hop pioneer and revolutionary activist, Chuck D, presents a body of artworks which continue to address the social and politically conscious issues of his lyrics. In Livin' Loud, Chuck D's artworks reveal his visual dexterity as he explores a diverse range of subjects paying homage to his musical influences and peers from James Brown and Woody Guthrie to Def Jam labelmates Run-DMC and Beastie Boys; a host of the most influential hip-hop artists from Ice Cube to Run the Jewels; his twin passions of baseball and basketball; creating a collection of landscapes on tour with Prophets of Rage, and a range of sociopolitical pieces that explore the issues continuing to shape our culture. Chuck D has been creating musical and cultural observations that challenge public opinion since 1985 and his visual compositions continue to interpret and question the world around us. Chuck D's written commentary traces his musical and artistic trajectory from his early roots and the central figures that critically shaped him and his voice, the formation of Public Enemy through to their Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction, his time with Prophets of Rage through to current day world affairs. With a foreword by Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Chuck D's art debut Livin' Loud is a visual experience of over 250 artworks, each piece reflective of the man behind the music.

The beauty of nature and man's loneliness are dominant themes in the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). The artist often places a small human figure in a broad landscape, as in his famous paintings Monk by the Sea and The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. For a long time the importance and influence of this great Romantic painter were underestimated. When he died, Friedrich had already been forgotten by his contemporaries and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. Today he is considered to be the most important German painter of his generation and a precursor of Expressionism. Once Friedrich gave the following advice to an artist-colleague of his who was constricted by academic rules: "Shut your physical eye so that you first see your painting with your spiritual eye. Then bring to light what you saw in the dark so that it has an effect on others, shining inwards from outside." In other words, concentration and not imitation, essence and not frivolous brushwork. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Canadian cartoonist Gregory Gallant, pen name Seth, emerged as a cartoonist in the fertile period of the 1980s, when the alternative comics market boomed. Though he was influenced by mainstream comics in his teen years and did his earliest comics work on "Mister X," a mainstream-style melodrama, Seth remains one of the least mainstream-inflected figures of the alternative comics' movement. His primary influences are underground comix, newspaper strips, and classic cartooning.

These interviews, including one career-spanning, definitive interview between the volume editors and the artist published here for the first time, delve into Seth's output from its earliest days to the present. Conversations offer insight into his influences, ideologies of comics and art, thematic preoccupations, and major works, from numerous perspectives--given Seth's complex and multifaceted artistic endeavours. Seth's first graphic novel, "It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken," announced his fascination with the past and with earlier cartooning styles. Subsequent works expand on those preoccupations and themes. "Clyde Fans," for example, balances present-day action against narratives set in the past. The visual style looks polished and contemplative, the narrative deliberately paced; plot seems less important than mood or characterization, as Seth deals with the inescapable grind of time and what it devours, themes which recur to varying degrees in "George Sprott, Wimbledon Green," and "The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists."

Nina Summer has put together a charming collection of ink drawings in her new volume The 24H Book. Reflecting on the idea of time, her whimsical 24 unique panels capture vignettes of life with humour and tenderness. From a tireless jogger to a pair of sleepy cats, her unique style elicits a smile, a chuckle or a dreamy thought. This book will undoubtedly please art lovers everywhere.

2014 bronze medal winner eLit Awards, 2013 gold medal winner Living Now Awards, March 2014 #1 book of the month Stevo's Internet Reviews, June 2013 book of the month Pacific Book Review. Wild Among Us: true adventures of a female photographer who stalks bears, wolves, mountain lions, wild horses and other elusive wildlife is a fascinating series of autobiographical stories by Pat Toth-Smith. The story telling pulls you into her perilous world, where you share the strange and sometimes dangerous situations she navigates as she travels the highways and wilderness areas of North America. In the end it all seems worth it when we see the results of her labors, the stunning wildlife photos, the vivid observations of the animal s behavior and the hard earned knowledge gleaned from learning on the job. Wild Among Us is unique in that it has the aesthetic beauty of a fine art photo book combined with the powerful stories of pursuit, danger and life-threatening wildlife encounters, that push the author to face her fears and rely on her intuition to survive and become stronger for it."

In 1904 a young Danish woman met a Sami wolf hunter on a train in Sweden. This chance encounter transformed the lives of artist Emilie Demant and the hunter, Johan Turi. In 1907 8 Demant went to live with Sami families in their tents and on migrations, later writing a lively account of her experiences. She collaborated with Turi on his book about his people. On her own and later with her husband Gudmund Hatt, she roamed on foot through Sami regions as an ethnographer and folklorist. As an artist, she created many striking paintings with Sami motifs. Her exceptional life and relationships come alive in this first English-language biography. In recounting Demant Hatt's fascinating life, Barbara Sjoholm investigates the boundaries and influences between ethnographers and sources, the nature of authorship and visual representation, and the state of anthropology, racial biology, and politics in Scandinavia during the first half of the twentieth century.

This is the collection of interviews with artists developed in two phases; first researched from 1988-92 and published in "Cv Journal"; then as an anthology, "Interviews with the Artists: Elements of Discourse", (editions in 1993/1996/2001/2007). The second phase was researched from January to July 2010, published in September as "Interviews-Artists: Volume Two". "Cv/VAR 48" documents an interview with British artist Stuart Brisley recorded in 1989 which recounts his sculpture, installations, actions, and performance work from the 1960s including events at The Middle Earth and The Royal Court, and the Georgiana Collection.