Fact or fiction? An imaginative collection of statements about Vincent van Gogh that challenges what we think we know about the artist’s much mythologized existence. Van Gogh is the most famous artist in the world, yet our understanding of his life is full of contradictions. Art historians, filmmakers, journalists, psychologists and conspiracy theorists have offered theories on his life and work, yet their views are often poles apart. Van Gogh has been described as a suffering genius, a madman, the embodiment of peace and compassion, a man of violence who was a danger to himself and others, a religious fanatic and a Marxist. Where does the truth lie and the myth begin? This book examines the continual rewriting of Van Gogh’s story since the first publications on the artist appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. Presenting a collage of succinct facts and ‘counterfacts’, the text is drawn from a wide field of sources: fellow artists, friends and family, doctors and psychoanalysts, actors and writers, theorists, crackpots and scholars. Conflicting statements go hand in hand with an unconventional curation of images, which include postcards of locations associated with the artist, photographs of a fraudster’s legal trial, a children’s toy, a bottle label and a rusty revolver. Turnbull presents a kaleidoscope of fact and fiction about the world’s most discussed artist – sometimes funny, sometimes heartrending, always revealing – giving readers new insights into the artist, his work and his legacy. Van Gogh himself would be amazed not only to see what people have said about him, but also to grasp the global phenomenon that he has become. A must-have for art lovers and museumgoers, this book invites all readers familiar with Van Gogh to challenge long-accepted ideas about the man and his work.

In this pioneering volume, Howell addresses the extent to which fictional characters are legally recognized and protected as intellectual property. Through a judicious selection of cases chosen for their bearing on the popular arts, the author reviews the basic legal principles involved--copyright, trademark, unfair competition, and contract law--and analyzes their applications to fictional characters. In addition to tracing the evolution of the law relating to the protection of fictional characters, Howell explores the feasibility of isolating characters and protecting them via stringent copyright and/or trademark laws, addresses character merchandising and the associated legal issues, and suggests legal reforms aimed at protecting the creator. Detailed case information serves both to illustrate the legal principles and actions discussed and to stand as a model for the proprietors of future characters.

Divided into two major sections, the volume begins by offering a comprehensive introduction to intellectual property law. Specific topics addressed include basic concepts of property, statutory protection of intellectual property, elements of an infringement action, defenses to copyright infringement, unfair competition, and the application of trademark principles to literary properties. In the second section, Howell analyzes the extent to which the fictional character is legally regarded as intellectual property. She reviews situations in which copyright and trademark law have been invoked to protect the creator of a fictional character, examines cases involving such well-known characters as the Lone Ranger, Superman, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise, and presents an extended analysis of the case of Tarzan. Finally, Howell considers whether right of publicity and merchandising offer additional protection for fictional characters. In the concluding chapter, she offers an analysis of copyright decisions and a proposal for their reconciliation. Both practicing attorneys and students of entertainment law will find Howell's work an important contribution to the professional literature.

"Compressed Utterances brings focused attention to collage in a Germanic context, whose contours and impact are still so little appreciated. As this stunning volume shows, collage serves as a key medium not only for understanding art historical developments but social and political transformations as well, often embodying the dynamic forces of avant-garde criticality." (Thomas O. Haakenson, Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, California College of the Arts) "A deep dive into the paradigmatic medium of the twentieth century, Compressed Utterances is the foundational text of the growing field of collage studies. The book's established and emerging authors investigate an astonishing range of previously unknown collage work to explore German artists' and writers' deployment of this medium as appropriative, intertextual, alienating, and temporally slippery." (Elizabeth Otto, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, The University at Buffalo, State University of New York) Composite pictures create narratives and images from many fragments. They turn often disparate and juxtaposing images and text into a singular image or message. Collage makes from the broken and, arguably, no other country has reflected the fractious nature of its history more than Germany. The collage form is one of the best expressive forms to be taken up and experimented with by German artists since 1912. Compressed Utterances: Collage in a Germanic Context after 1912 brings together essays by scholars, students and curators to examine the use of collage by German-speaking artists, making in their homeland and abroad, whose works are closely connected to the tumultuous histories of Germany and neighbouring German-speaking nations since 1912 to the late 2000s.

Glamorous young wife Alma Rattenbury takes her chauffeur as a lover and their scandalous relationship leads to a murder most foul. The 1935 murder of architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury, famous for his design of the iconic Parliament Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, and the arrest and lurid trial of his 30-years-younger second wife, Alma, and the family chauffeur, George Percy Stoner, her lover, riveted people. Francis and Alma had moved to Bournemouth, England, after the City of Victoria had ostracized them for their scandalous, flagrant affair while Francis was married to his first wife. Their life in Bournemouth was tangled. Francis became an impotent lush. Deprived of sexual gratification, Alma seduced George, previously a virgin who was half her age. They conducted their affair in her upstairs bedroom with her and Francis’s six-year-old son in a nearby bed, “sleeping,� she said, and the near-deaf Francis in his armchair downstairs in a drunken stupor. The lovers were tried together for Francis’s murder at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, resulting in intense public interest and massive, frenzied media coverage. The trial became one of the 20th century’s most sensational cases, sparking widespread debate over sexual mores and social strata distinctions.

"Vince uses written and artifactual evidence of theatre history to explain the nature of its current state. His study of theatre's early forms discloses a wealth of significant facts, and some conjectures, that stimulate understanding and appreciation of the art." Backstage

"Walking between these figures feels like an interruption; being a spectator is itself a performance. They seem to know more than we do, about the status of being an artwork and the place of the viewer. The joke, if there is one, is on us." - The Guardian Munoz's revolutionary oeuvre creates emotional and evocative narratives through sculpture, installation, drawing, writing, and sound. Situating viewers between his work and amongst each other, he creates an intimacy between works of art and viewers. Munoz thought deeply about art history and in particular the tradition of Spanish painting. Before his untimely death at the age of forty-eight, he produced an extensive, powerfully evocative body of work that uniquely explores the narrative and philosophical possibilities of art. Published on the occasion of the two-floor exhibition at David Zwirner in New York in 2022, this catalogue provides an expansive overview of Munoz's career from the 1980s onwards. In an accompanying text, art historian and curator Guillaume Kientz contextualizes Munoz's influences within the art-historical canon. Acclaimed writer Siri Hustvedt writes a thoughtful response to the artist's iconic Conversation Piece. In an imagined interview between Munoz and himself, Maurizio Cattelan further propels the artist's artistic momentum and potential in the time before his death. Also featured is a never-before-published interview between Munoz and the art historian Michael Brenson that took place in 2000, less than one year prior to his untimely death.

The crime melodramas of the 1940s known now as film noir shared many formal and thematic elements, from unusual camera angles and lighting to moral ambiguity and femmes fatales. In this book Robert Pippin argues that many of these films also raise distinctly philosophical questions. Where most Hollywood films of that era featured reflective individuals living with purpose, taking action and effecting desired consequences, the typical noir protagonist deliberates and plans, only to be confronted by the irrelevance of such deliberation and by results that contrast sharply, often tragically, with his or her intentions or true commitments. Pippin shows how this terrible disconnect sheds light on one of the central issues in modern philosophy--the nature of human agency. How do we distinguish what people do from what merely happens to them? Looking at several film noirs--including close readings of three classics of the genre, Fritz Lang's "Scarlet Street, " Orson Welles's "The Lady from Shanghai, " and Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past--Pippin reveals the ways in which these works explore the declining credibility of individuals as causal centers of agency, and how we live with the acknowledgment of such limitations.

More than twenty years after the peace agreement signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998, an assessment is overdue, particularly given the current political context in Northern Ireland. A serious political crisis led to the suspension of the regional institutions from January 2017 to January 2020, and the Brexit negotiations did not facilitate the search for a solution, especially as the confidence-and-supply agreement between the British Conservative Party and the DUP prevented London from acting as an honest broker between Sinn Fein and the DUP. At the same time, the issue of the Irish border created tensions between Dublin and London. This situation was compounded by the resurgence of rioting, mostly in Loyalist areas of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry, in April 2021, against the backdrop of Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol and communal resentment. Emanating from a conference jointly organised at the University of Caen Normandy and La Rochelle University, this collection of essays - bringing together academic and independent scholars from various disciplines and nationalities - takes a critical look at the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, from the collaboration between Dublin and London to the new political configurations in Northern Ireland, as well as interfaith, cultural, social and economic developments. Divided into three main parts, it furnishes an opportunity to better understand the reasons for the apparent deterioration in inter-community understanding since 1998, but also to study the numerous initiatives that have sought to promote reconciliation, be it in the economy, the working environment, in the literary and artistic spheres, in schools or in the urban landscape.

In 2017, twenty-five years after its initial release, a new season of Twin Peaks shook the world of television. This new book is a detailed analysis of the third season of the television series and aims to elucidate some of the meanings of Twin Peaks: The Return and explain these in terms of philosophical, mythological and spiritual approaches.  It focuses on the third season of Twin Peaks but also refers to the first two seasons, and to the film, Fire Walk with Me. Divided into three sections, the book first examines the third season as expanded storytelling through the lens of Gene Youngblood's theory of synesthetic cinema, intertextuality, integrationist, and segregationist approaches in the realm of fiction, and focuses on the role of audio and visual superimpositions in The Return. It goes on to question the nature of the reality depicted in the seasons via scientific approaches, such as electromagnetism, time theory, and multiverses. The third and final section aims to transcend this vision by exploring the role of theosophy, the occult, and other spiritual sources. The author’s focus on the role of spirituality and science in Twin Peaks is what distinguishes this book from other works on the famous television series. The work of a scholar who is also a fan, the book should appeal to any hard-core Twin Peaks viewer.   Foreword by Matt Zoller Seitz, editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for New York magazine. This will be essential reading for fans of Twin Peaks and academics writing about it. Also of interest for students with an interest in philosophy, religion, science or spiritualism in visual and popular culture.

A Dance Book Club main selection, this guide offers a general explanation of anatomy, kinesiology, and technique for ballet dancers, students, and teachers.

Sweden's place in film history is secure and prominent. Swedish films are associated internationally with Ingmar Bergman's successful and high quality works. However, another breed of Swedish film is notorious for its laissez-faire attitude towards nudity, relaxed sexuality, drugs, and shocking violence. Produced in the backyard of the Swedish film industry, these sexually daring films join countless sensational Swedish movies dealing with shocking or taboo subjects--street punks, space aliens, hard drugs, and drunken vikings. Other efforts are simply too strange and Swedish to ignore. Once again, "Swedish Death Metal" author Daniel Ekeroth delves into the arcane culture of his homeland, returning with the first comprehensive overview of "Sensationsfilms"--Swedish Exploitation Cinema.

A collection of the Pulitzer-Prize winning oral historian's remarkable conversations with some of the greatest luminaries of theatre and film. Among the many highlights are Buster Keaton explaining the wonder of unscripted silent comedy and interviews with Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Tennessee Williams. Because Studs knows his subjects' work intimately, he asks precisely the right questions to elicit the most revealing responses.

Examining work by novelists, filmmakers, TV producers and songwriters, this book uncovers the manner in which the radio – and the act of listening – has been written about for the past 100 years. Ever since the first public wireless broadcasts, people have been writing about the radio: often negatively, sometimes full of praise, but always with an eye and an ear to explain and offer an opinion about what they think they have heard. Novelists including Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Evelyn Waugh, and James Joyce wrote about characters listening to this new medium with mixtures of delight, frustration, and despair. Clint Eastwood frightened moviegoers half to death in Play Misty for Me, but Lou Reed's ‘Rock & Roll’ said listening to a New York station had saved Jenny's life. Frasier showed the urbane side of broadcasting, whilst Good Morning, Vietnam exploded from the cinema screen with a raw energy all of its own. Queen thought that all the audience heard was ‘ga ga’, even as The Buggles said video had killed the radio star and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers lamented ‘The Last DJ’. This book explores the cultural fascination with radio; the act of listening as a cultural expression – focusing on fiction, films and songs about radio. Martin Cooper, a broadcaster and academic, uses these movies, TV shows, songs, novels and more to tell a story of listening to the radio – as created by these contemporary writers, filmmakers, and musicians.

Donna Reed has been called "everyone's favorite mother" and her recognition as such has stood the test of time. But before she became known as the "ultimate mom" for her role on "The Donna Reed Show," Miss Reed was already a veteran film actress with almost forty films to her credit. Among these are her performances in "It's a Wonderful Life" and "From Here to Eternity." Her role in the latter garnered her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. This book is a comprehensive reference to the life and work of Donna Reed for use by researchers as well as fans. Performing arts researcher Brenda Scott Royce has compiled a self-contained reference work to Donna Reed's career and life. A brief biography begins the book, followed by detailed examinations of Miss Reed's work in motion pictures, television, and radio. Also listed are media reviews of her work, a listing of awards and nominations, and a chronology of major events in her life. An annotated bibliography follows these sections, and it lists all articles and other items about Donna Reed that appeared in major magazines, fan magazines, books, and newspapers. The entries in each section are cross-referenced for easy referral by the reader. This bio-bibliography will be an important addition to libraries with a performing arts collection, students of media arts, and Donna Reed fans.

This magnificent publication surveys the vital role of women in the development of Abstract Expressionism by looking at more than 50 paintings, collages and sculptures all accompanied by carefully selected quotes from the artists themselves. The dominant movement of the New York and San Francisco art scenes of the mid-20th century, Abstract Expressionism is celebrated as the first development in American art to gain international status. The movement is synonymous with the work of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning, but also belonging to this generation who changed the course of modern art were numerous female artists; only in recent years have their contributions received the recognition they deserve. The remarkable women in this exciting new book - among them Perle Fine, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Gechtoff, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell - studied at the same art schools as the men, exhibited at the same galleries, and were part of the same social scene. But their work was not shown and reviewed as widely or considered as valuable as that of the men. This beautiful book presents the works of the Levett Collection, an unparalleled private collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture by women Abstract Expressionists. Richly illustrated essays by the scholars Ellen G. Landau and Joan M. Marter, leading authorities on the subject, consider, respectively, the vital role of women in the development of Abstract Expressionism and the work of women sculptors of the movement. Full of exuberant, explosive colour and densely layered expression, the main part of the book is devoted to more than 50 paintings, collages, and sculptures, all accompanied by pertinent quotes from the women about their artistic practice and concerns. An illustrated timeline and 35 artist biographies provide further insight, making this volume an essential addition to the study of Abstract Expressionist women, innovators in their own right, whose time in the art-historical spotlight has finally come. AUTHOR: Ellen G. Landau is Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Joan M. Marter is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 170 illustrations

'Celebrates the capacity to master pain and betrayals with wit sister-sharing, reckless daring, and flight and forgetfulness if necessary' Toni Cade Bambara 'The force of Shange's writing seemed to say, "Fuck the old rule of not airing your female business in front of colored men, white people, let alone the rest of the world." You own the copyright on your life' Hilton Als 'Encompassing, it seems, every feeling and experience a woman has ever had' New Yorker 'Totally extraordinary' New York Times i will raise my voice / & scream & holler / & break things & race the engine / & tell all yr secrets bout yrself to yr face From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for encompassing...every feeling and experience a woman has ever had, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world. With an introduction by Bernardine Evaristo A W&N Essential

The 1st of the 24 Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Saga film titles being published as a complete set. This fully illustrated tome treats fans to a comprehensive, unique and privileged behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind the state-of-the-art technology used in the blockbuster motion picture. Follow the film’s complete artistic evolution, from initial concept through armor design and on to the final rendering seen on screen. Here is everything you need to know about the making of the movie from all the key players – including director Jon Favreau; the special-effects gurus at Stan Winston Studios; and the award-winning concept illustrators, visual-effects designers and storyboard artists who worked on the set and behind the scenes to create the art of Iron Man.

After an unconventional childhood that ended in the tragic death of her mother and the murder of her Alaskan mobster father, Kim Rich was left on her own at the young age of fifteen to fend for herself. Ever since then, she began a nearly lifelong pursuit in chasing what most others had—a normal life. Rich tugs at your heartstrings as you follow her journey toward normalcy, from her teen years, freshly orphaned, through her high school years spent couch-surfing at local families’ homes, then through her college years, a failed first marriage, and a rising career as a journalist. Through frank and down-to-earth storytelling, Rich also tells of her grandfather’s kidnapping, a frightening health crisis, and a six-year attempt to have children. Picking up right where her first memoir, Johnny’s Girl, left off, A Normal Life recounts the author’s vivid story of being an ordinary girl faced with extraordinary circumstances—at seemingly every turn in life—with grace, humility, and wit.