As an underground art star, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was the antidote to the prevalent abstract expressionist style of 1950s America. He introduced popular everyday subjects into his practice and openly acknowledged the wide-ranging influences on his work. Throughout his career, his forays into advertising, fashion, film, TV and music videos, marked a fascination with mainstream popular culture. This book will position Warhol at the vanguard of artistic experimentation. Looking at his background as an immigrant, ideas of death and religion, and his queer perspective, it will explore his limitless ambition to push the traditional boundaries of painting, sculpture, film and music, and reveal Warhol as an artist who both succeeded and failed in equal measure; an artist who embraced the establishment while cavorting with the underground. It will further highlight Warhol's knowing flirtation with the commercial world of celebrity alongside his socially engaged collaborations and advocacy of alternative lifestyles. Including his iconic depictions alongide lesser-known works, as well as an installation of his Silver Clouds, this fascinating book returns Warhol to his conceptual ambition and positions him within the shifting creative and political landscape in which he worked, permitting a broad view of how Warhol, and his work, marked a period of cultural transformation.

Highlighting both the relevance of Banksy's street art and how his impact has continued to spread, Planet Banksy brings together some of the very best pieces of art from all corners of the world that have been inspired by Banksy, as well as featuring some of his own innovative, profound and controversial work. 'A thought-provoking comparison with the works of his students.' Publishers Weekly ______ Banksy is the world's foremost graffiti artist, his work adorning streets, walls and bridges across nations and continents. His stencil designs are instantly recognizable and disturbingly precise in their social and political commentary, flavoured with subtle humour and self-awareness. More popular than ever, Banksy has spawned countless imitators, students and fans alike, his fame - although unlooked-for - inevitably transmitting his ideas and work to the international arena. With a range of topics for the graffiti lover, coming from a variety of inspirational sources, this book provides an overview of how Banksy's work is changing the face of modern art - as well as the urban landscape. Distilling his influence and his genius into an easily accessible full-colour 128 pages, this is the perfect purchase for any fan of Banksy or the graffiti art scene.

The brilliance of Peter Paul Rubens' career changed forever the perceptions of painting and painters. Here was a man whose astonishing gifts were allied to a personality so cosmopolitan, engaging, and virtuous that he could mingle as easily with kings as with fellow painters. Rubens' character and achievements fascinated his contemporaries, and these three biographies of the artist show the impact of his life and art on three very different observers. Baglione, an Italian painter and art historian, records the remarkable success of Rubens visits to Rome; Sandrart, a German painter, writes on the later years of his career; and de Piles, one of the greatest early art critics, offers an evaluation of Rubens style that remains one of the most influential ever written.

The depth of history at Queen Anne's Gate - a handsome Baroque street overlooking St James's Park - is unusual even in London, and few houses resonate with more memories than the extraordinary number 14. The story of the house over the centuries features political revolutionaries, occult initiations, clandestine war meetings, and a decapitated head. It begins, however, as a museum of Roman sculpture, unrivalled outside Italy, designed for connoisseur and virtuoso Charles Townley (1737-1805). Townley embodied Enlightenment values perhaps more completely than any other figure in the art world of 18th-century Britain - his portrait by Johann Zoff any (seen above) is one of the iconic paintings of the period - yet remarkably he has never been the subject of a major publication. Written with a sparkle matching Townley's own enthusiasm, this beautiful and engaging publication tells the story of 14 Queen Anne's Gate and examines the extraordinary life of Charles Townley and his remarkable collection of over 150 Roman marble statues (mostly now in the British Museum but captured in spectacular engravings of the period). It will be a revelation. The house was designed as a temple to the past, reviving in the modern city the occult practices of the ancient world. Here visitors in eighteenth century would have found an assembly of Roman sculpture unrivalled outside Italy, as well as a library and collection devoted to understanding a universal 'generative sprit' worshipped by early civilizations. That spirit may be found in the succession of major roles the house has continued to take through generations of dramatic change up to the present day. Charles Townley, for whom the house was built, was a fi gure both marginal and emblematic. Catholic and bisexual, he forged a life literally on the borders of the Protestant British establishment. He remains little understood or appreciated in his homeland and, remarkably, has never been the subject of a major exhibition or publication. The 'emblematic' side of Townley's life was dedicated to virtu, the term used for an appreciation of fi ne art pursued for its own sake. The 'marginal' side of Townley, by contrast, manifested itself in a fascination with the ancient occult, particularly the Bacchic mysteries. The house he made for himself was at once a temple to virtu and to Bacchus and contained an unprecedented programme of Bacchic iconography.

This beautiful book explores the beloved writer's achievements as a storyteller, artist, and naturalist. Beatrix Potter's universe of characters-Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck-have delighted audiences for over a century. A creative pioneer and determined entrepreneur, she combined scientific observation with imaginative storytelling to create some of the world's best-loved children's books. This volume showcases Potter's charming charac-ters against the backdrop of her exquisite botanical drawings, humorous illustrated letters to friends, Lake District landscapes, and rarely seen photographs. Beatrix Potter's endearingly hand-painted world of animals and gardens made her one of the most celebrated children's book authors of all time, yet this is but one facet of her creative life. Drawn to the picturesque English countryside after a London childhood, Potter had a passion for nature that influenced her many achievements as a naturalist, artist, storyteller, and later in life as a fervent conservationist and "gentlewoman" farmer. This book sheds light upon the connections between her art, entrepreneurial success, and legacy in preservation.

The most comprehensive book yet on this inspired, inventive chronicler of the African-American experience Alabama-born, Chicago-based Kerry James Marshall is one of the most exciting artists working today. Critically and commercially acclaimed, the painter is known for his representation of the history of African-American identity in Western art. Conversant with a wide typology of styles, subjects, and techniques, from abstraction to realism and comics, Marshall synthesizes different traditions and genres in his work while seeking to counter stereotypical depictions of black people in society. This is the most comprehensive overview available of his remarkable career.

A revised edition of this classic survey that presents a thorough overview of Georgia O'Keeffe's life and work. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was a major figure in American art for seven decades. Throughout that long and prolific career she remained true to her unique artistic vision, creating a highly individual style that synthesized the formal language of modern European abstraction and the themes of traditional American pictorialism. The main subjects to which she returned again and again were the flowers, animal bones and the landscapes around her studios in Lake George, New York, and finally New Mexico, with which she has been ultimately identified. This comprehensive and illuminating book by a noted scholar on O'Keeffe and her work, surveys the complete oeuvre - drawings, watercolours and paintings from all periods - and explains her life in the context of her artistic output. Now revised with updated bibliography, this edition features colour reproductions of artworks throughout.

'Ought to become a classic. It is an enshrinement of [Meades's] intense baroque and catholic cleverness' Roger Lewis, The Times 'One of the foremost prose stylists of his age in any register . . . Probably we don't deserve Meades, a man who apparently has never composed a dull paragraph' Steven Poole, Guardian 'There are more gems in this wonderful book than I could cram into a dozen of these columns' Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph 'Such a useful and important critic . . . He is very much on the reader's side, bringing his full wit to bear on every single thing he writes' Nicholas Lezard, Spectator This landmark publication collects three decades of writing from one of the most original, provocative and consistently entertaining voices of our time. Anyone who cares about language and culture should have this book in their life. Thirty years ago, Jonathan Meades published a volume of reportorial journalism, essays, criticism, squibs and fictions called Peter Knows What Dick Likes. The critic James Wood was moved to write: 'When journalism is like this, journalism and literature become one.' Pedro and Ricky Come Again is every bit as rich and catholic as its predecessor. It is bigger, darker, funnier and just as impervious to taste and manners. It bristles with wit and pin-sharp eloquence, whether Meades is contemplating northernness in a German forest or hymning the virtues of slang. From the indefensibility of nationalism and the ubiquitous abuse of the word 'iconic', to John Lennon's shopping lists and the wine they call Black Tower, the work assembled here demonstrates Meades's unparalleled range and erudition, with pieces on cities, artists, sex, England, France, concrete, faith, politics, food, history and much, much more.

Written by Musa Mayer - Philip Guston's daughter and President of The Guston Foundation - this book brings Guston's life and his hugely rich and diverse output together into one succinct volume. Split into three sections covering Guston's early career, his mid-century Abstract Expressionist work, and his controversial but now hugely influential late period, the book offers a complete introduction and overview of a mercurial figure.

Man Ray is one of seven new titles being published this spring in Thames & Hudson's acclaimed 'Photofile' series. Each book brings together the best work of the world's greatest photographers in an attractive format and at an easily affordable price. Handsome and collectable, the books are printed to the highest standards. Each one contains some sixty full-page reproductions printed in superb duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography.

Furuya Korin was a Japanese designer and painter. His woodblock-printed books of textile designs, created in the first decade of the 20th century are represented here in our QuickNotes notecard box. 20 notecards and envelopes, 5 each of 4 images. Packaged in a sleek, sturdy flip-top box with magnetic closure. Cards printed on coated paper stock to bring out their full colour. Cards and envelopes bundled together with a paper belly band inside each box. Box measurements 143 x 120 x 34mm.

Aliza Nisenbaum is an internationally acclaimed painter best known for her bright, large-scale portraits of community groups. Inspired by the dedication of Liverpool's key workers, the artist decided to create a series of new paintings of NHS staff from Merseyside who have worked tirelessly for their community during the pandemic. In the summer of 2020, Nisenbaum contacted a few key members of Merseyside NHS staff, who agreed to sit for portraits. The staff included a professor of Outbreak Medicine, a respiratory doctor who became a father during the first wave, and a student nurse from a family of nurses who all chose to return to frontline work. Over the next few weeks, talking to them via video link from her studio in the US, Aliza Nisenbaum created a series of poignant and powerful portraits, with each sitter depicted with the things that sustained them and given them hope. This publication captures these extraordinary portraits together, and tells the stories of the sitters, revealing the impact of the pandemic on their jobs, and on their lives.

The first monograph on Richard Smith, a key figure in the development of British art. Richard Smith (1931-2016) was one of the most original painters of his generation, and one of the most underrated. As Barbara Rose said of Smith's major Tate Gallery retrospective in 1975, he was 'at once in and out of touch with the currents of the mainstream ... au courant and aloof at the same time.' That he latterly slipped under the radar to some extent is partly explained by his detachment from the mainstream as well as by his frequent switching of studios between England and the USA, although this helped charge his creative batteries. He is the only artist of his stature who has not been represented by a monograph, which the dazzling presentation of images in Richard Smith: Artworks now fulfils. It has been produced with the generous collaboration of the Richard Smith Foundation. Richard Smith: Artworks traces Smith's entire career, from the breakthrough lyrical abstraction of the early Pop-inflected paintings, through the radical shaped canvases and three-dimensional works that he produced in the 1960s, to the 'Kite' works beginning in 1972 and, eventually, his return to the flat canvas. As a Senior Curator at Tate, Dr Chris Stephens knew Smith well, and he contributes a wide-ranging introduction to Smith's art and life. Prof David Alan Mellor investigates and explains the Anglo-American cultural contexts that drove Smith's art, while Alex Massouras's two themed essays, 'Young and British' and 'From Motion Pictures to Flight', explore Smith's originality from fresh perspectives. The book is completed with an Afterword by its editor, Martin Harrison.

With his instantly recognizable decorative style, Czech artist and Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) defined the look of the fin-de-siecle. In evocative shades of peach, gold, ochre, and olive, his seductive compositions of patterns, flowers, and beautiful women became paradigms of the Belle Epoque years. Mucha's work permeated illustration, posters, postcards, and the advertising designs of his day. His striking posters of star actress Sarah Bernhardt were particularly famous. Alongside this delicate decorative work, Mucha also harbored strongly felt political ideas. With his monumental cycle The Slav Epic, he expressed his staunch support for Pan-Slavism, promoting the political independence of the Czech and Slavic nations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Compiled in association with the Mucha Foundation, this book presents key works and introduces the full reach of Mucha's oeuvre from patterned decoration to his book illustrations, posters, photographs and monumental paintings. 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

For more than five centuries The Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark called it 'the keystone of European art', and for a century after its creation it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic 'miracle'. Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper is both a 'biography' of one of the most famous works of art ever painted and a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan.