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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > General
Ethan Allen and HGTV may have plenty to say about making a home look right, but what makes a home feel right? In House Thinking, journalist and cultural critic Winifred Gallagher takes the reader on a psychological tour of the American home. By drawing on the latest research in behavioral science, an overview of cultural history, and interviews with leading architects and designers, she shows us not only how our homes reflect who we are but also how they influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions. How does your entryway prime you for experiencing your home? What makes a bedroom a sensual oasis? How can your bathroom exacerbate your worst fears? House Thinking addresses provocative questions like these, enabling us to understand the homes we've made for ourselves in a unique and powerful new way. It is an eye-opening look at how we live . . . and how we could live.
From Edouard Manet's portrait of naturalist writer Emile Zola sitting among his Japanese art finds to Van Gogh's meticulous copies of the Hiroshige prints he devotedly collected, 19th-century pioneers of European modernism made no secret of their love of Japanese art. In all its sensuality, freedom, and effervescence, the woodblock print is single-handedly credited with the wave of japonaiserie that first enthralled France and, later, all of Europe-but often remains misunderstood as an "exotic" artifact that helped inspire Western creativity. The fact is that the Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon of which there exists no Western equivalent. Some of the most disruptive ideas in modern art-including, as Karl Marx put it, that "all that is solid melts into air"-were invented in Japan in the 1700s and expressed like never before in the designs of such masters as Hokusai, Utamaro, and Hiroshige in the early 19th century. This volume, derived from the original XXL monograph, lifts the veil on a much-loved but little-understood art form by presenting the most exceptional Japanese woodblock prints in their historical context. Ranging from the 17th-century development of decadent ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," to the decline and later resurgence of prints in the early 20th century, the images collected in this edition make up an unmatched record not only of a unique genre in art history, but also of the shifting mores and cultural development of Japan. From mystical mountains to snowy passes, samurai swordsmen to sex workers in shop windows, each piece is explored as a work of art in its own right, revealing the stories and people behind the motifs. We discover the four pillars of the woodblock print-beauties, actors, landscapes, and bird-and-flower compositions-alongside depictions of sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, or enticing courtesans-rock stars who populated the "floating world" and whose fan bases fueled the frenzied production of woodblock prints. We delve into the horrifying and the obscure in prints where demons, ghosts, man-eaters, and otherworldly creatures torment the living-stunning images that continue to influence Japanese manga, film, and video games to this day. We witness how, in their incredible breadth, from everyday scenes to erotica, the martial to the mythological, these works are united by the technical mastery and infallible eye of their creators and how, with tremendous ingenuity and tongue-in-cheek wit, publishers and artists alike fought to circumvent government censorship. As part of our 40th anniversary series, this edition compiles the finest extant impressions from museums and private collections across the globe in a lightweight, accessible format, offering extensive descriptions to guide us through this frantic period in Japanese art history. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.
First published in 1952, John Constable and the Fishers is based on original letters which have never been published in full before. These have been woven into a connected narrative dealing with the friendship which existed between Constable and various members of the Fisher family, more particularly the Bishop of Salisbury (a personal friend of George III who entrusted him with the education of Princess Charlotte as heiress to the throne) and his nephew the Archdeacon of Berkshire. The Archdeacon's letters give a picture of life in a cathedral closed and country vicarages, reminiscent of Trollope's Barchester and Thomas Hardy's Wessex. In return Constable confides his ideals and ambitions; and as Mr. Grigson suggests in his introduction, the encouragement he received from the Fishers may have had a decisive effect on the future of landscape art. The letters are fully annotated and are illustrated with connected works done by Constable. This book will of interest to students of history, art and literature.
Originally published in German, Italian and French these articles have been translated into English for the first time by the author, the former archivist of The Warburg Institute, London. Aby Warburg's research and writings centred on images, their origins and metamorphoses, and their explanations and interpretations.
Two acclaimed South African artists offer a cross-generational dialogue on history, memory, and the power of self-narration Three decades after the dismantling of apartheid began, South Africaās so-called āborn freeā generation has reached adulthood and its artists have used their work to navigate their difficult inheritance. At the same time, the historical distance between their experience and that of an older generation grows. This book brings together two of South Africaās most acclaimed contemporary artists to reflect upon this moment. In their respective practices, Sue Williamson (b. 1941) and Lebohang Kganye (b. 1990) incorporate oral histories into film, photographs, installations, and textiles to consider how, just as formal statements determine collective histories, so the stories our elders tell us shape family narratives and personal identities. Exploring the complexities involved in the passing down of memories, their works implicitly and explicitly address racial violence, social injustice, and intergenerational trauma. This richly illustrated catalogue features essays that consider themes of voice, testimony, ancestry, and care, and a dialogue between Kganye and Williamson that explores how art can mobilize the healing powers of conversation. Distributed for the Barnes Foundation Exhibition Schedule: The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (March 5āMay 21, 2023)
Given the rapid development of new technologies such as smart devices, robots, and artificial intelligence and their impact on the lives of people and on society, it is important and urgent to construct conceptual frameworks that help us to understand and evaluate them. Benefiting from tendencies towards a performative turn in the humanities and social sciences, drawing on thinking about the performing arts, and responding to gaps in contemporary artefact-oriented philosophy of technology, this book moves thinking about technology forward by using performance as a metaphor to understand and evaluate what we do with technology and what technology does with us. Focusing on the themes of knowledge/experience, agency, and power, and discussing some pertinent ethical issues such as deception, the narrative of the book moves through a number of performance practices: dance, theatre, music, stage magic, and (perhaps surprisingly) philosophy. These are used as sources for metaphors to think about technology-in particular contemporary devices and machines-and as interfaces to bring in various theories that are not usually employed in philosophy of technology. The result is a sequence of gestures and movements towards a performance-oriented conceptual framework for a thinking about technology which, liberated from the static, vision-centred, and dualistic metaphors offered by traditional philosophy, can do more justice to the phenomenology of our daily embodied, social, kinetic, temporal, and narrative performances with technology, our technoperformances. This book will appeal to scholars of philosophy of technology and performance studies who are interested in reconceptualizing the roles and impact of modern technology.
Extending the scholarly discussion of visual history, this book examines eighteenth-century engraved book illustrations in order to outline the genealogy of the modern visualisation of the past in Britain. This study is based on a body of more than a hundred engraved historical plates designed in the second half of the eighteenth century in Britain and published in more than a dozen pictorial histories. Focusing on these previously unstudied engravings, this work contributes to the study of eighteenth-century visual culture and is informed by current interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of visual and book studies. Eighteenth-Century Engravings and Visual History in Britain is about the urge to envision the past and about the establishment of the new relationship between visual media, visuality, and history in eighteenth-century Britain. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, British history, book studies, and visual culture.
This book traces the history of a campaign that took place over nearly half a century, from the last years of the Victorian era to the new world of post-World War II Britain. It was a campaign that started with the simple aim of spreading the idea of the garden city - a concept dating from the 1890s -, and of encouraging others to build these settlements as a humane response to the slum housing of the industrial cities. Within a few years of the start of the campaign, the first garden city was built at Letchworth. The author records the history of the campaign and sets out to assess the political influence of the Garden City Association as an environmental pressure group. In the 20th century, the association was drawn into wider debates about the role of the State as opposed to the kind of private and voluntary initiatives that had led to the foundation of Letchworth. In this book, the campaign is set in the wider context of the social, political and economic change of the 20th century. The last stages of the campaign saw the introduction of a national programme for new towns in 1946 and the author argues that the campaigners had to accept that these new towns were of a different g
Design in Japan is deeply rooted in the countryās historic craft culture, profound understanding of materials and commitment to functionality. These qualities yield chairs, cups and other daily use items which are easy on the eye, comfortable in the hand and always do their job well. Even as mass manufacturing became widespread in the post-war period and cross-cultural exchanges began to take place with the West, Japan held fast to these core values and practices. This dedication has given rise to timeless objects of great beauty and utility as well as innovations in materials, form and technology. Far beyond design icons such as the Kikkoman Soy Sauce Bottle, Sori Yanagiās Butterfly Stool, and the Sony WalkmanĀ®, the products and objects created in Japan over the past seven decades serve to delight and draw admiration. In recent years, a new generation of designers, including Naoto Fukasawa, nendo and Tokujin Yoshioka, have taken Japanese creativity into exciting new territory: some are eliminating objects entirely, others are reimagining what an object could be. Though Japan has developed some of the worldās most sophisticated robotic manufacturing complexes, many of its most appealing products are made by small factories and workshops whose artisans use their hands as much as machines. This impressive volume is the most complete overview of Japanese design to date and its exquisite presentation is itself a beautiful example of Japanese design. Including profiles of over 70 creators, the book is based on the authorās interviews with designers, their colleagues and family members, as well as leading curators and critics. The profiles are accompanied by short takes on iconic products and essays on related topics by Japanese and Western design experts. Featuring hundreds of objects, this volume will become the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.
This volume explores how Italian institutions, dealers, critics, and artists constructed a modern national identity for Italy by exporting - literally and figuratively - contemporary art to the United States in key moments between 1929 and 1969. From artist Fortunato Depero opening his Futurist House in New York City to critic Germano Celant launching Arte Povera in the United States, Raffaele Bedarida examines the thick web of individuals and cultural environments beyond the two more canonical movements that shaped this project. By interrogating standard narratives of Italian Fascist propaganda on the one hand and American Cold War imperialism on the other, this book establishes a more nuanced transnational approach. The central thesis is that, beyond the immediate aims of political propaganda and conquering a new market for Italian art, these art exhibitions, publications, and the critical discourse aimed at American audiences all reflected back on their makers: they forced and helped Italians define their own modernity in relation to the world's new dominant cultural and economic power. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, social history, exhibition history, and Italian studies.
The American Construction Industry meticulously chronicles the evolution of the construction industry from its roots in the medieval guild system to the high-tech jobsite of tomorrow. While celebrating more than two millennia of progress and innovation, this resource for students and professionals uncovers the ways of working that crossed the Atlantic with the earliest European settlers and will continue to define building trades in the United States today and in the years and decades to come. Full color illustrations bring the past to life and provide visual links to the present day.
The artists who came and formed the tight-knit northern New Mexican
artistic community that flourished between the wars and later were
as diverse as the styles they developed and brought with them. Not
all, of course, were painting in the modern idiom, but it is
undeniable that many of the most talented and interesting of these
painters were.
From the late nineteenth century onwards the concept of Mother India assumed political significance in colonial Bengal. Reacting against British rule, Bengali writers and artists gendered the nation in literature and visual culture in order to inspire patriotism amongst the indigenous population. This book will examine the process by which the Hindu goddess Sati rose to sudden prominence as a personification of the subcontinent and an icon of heroic self-sacrifice. According to a myth of cosmic dismemberment, Sati's body parts were scattered across South Asia and enshrined as Shakti Pithas, or Seats of Power. These sacred sites were re-imagined as the fragmented body of the motherland in crisis that could provide the basis for an emergent territorial consciousness. The most potent sites were located in eastern India, Kalighat and Tarapith in Bengal, and Kamakhya in Assam. By examining Bengali and colonial responses to these temples and the ritual traditions associated with them, including Tantra and image worship, this book will provide the first comprehensive study of this ancient network of pilgrimage sites in an art historical and political context.
Countless dollars of art are stolen or looted every year, yet governments often consider art theft a luxury problem. With limited public law enforcement, what prevents thieves, looters and organised criminal gangs from flooding the market with stolen art? How can theft victims get justice - even decades after their loss? What happens if the legal definition of a good title is at odds with what is morally right? Enter the Art Loss Register, a private database dedicated to tracking down stolen artworks. Blocking the sale of disputed artworks creates a space for private resolutions - often amicable and sometimes entertainingly adversarial. This book is based on ten cases from the Art Loss Register's archive, showing how restitutions were negotiated, how priceless objects were retrieved from the economic underworld and how thieves and fences end up in court and behind bars. A fascinating guide to the dark side of the global art market.
Images of Change focuses on the visual propaganda employed by Catholic popes in Rome during the time of Tridentine Reform. In 1563, at the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church decided to reform its own use of imagery, in response to Protestant criticism. This volume examines how different sixteenth-century popes dealt with church reform by looking at the variety of artworks that were commissioned particularly in the city of Rome, the immediate sphere of influence of papal power. Based on original research in the Vatican archives, the book argues that because of the contradictory media strategies employed by individual popes, the papacy began to lose its spiritual and temporal influence and power. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in the Roman Catholic Church in and around the sixteenth-century, as well as Early Modern religious reform and Papal influence.
The interdisciplinary nature of the volume allows for a more nuanced understanding of how court culture was connected with the political, confessional, spatial, material and performative. With a range of topics including dress, scent, portraiture, gardens, games, porcelain rooms, and beauty, accompanied by over 100 images, allows students and scholars to better comprehend the vitality of the early modern European court which will be useful for a number of disciplines. The volume includes 35 contributions from international leading scholars in the field, providing the most up-to-date and in-depth study of the early modern European court.
From its origins as a major Roman settlement to its current status as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the UK, Leicester has a proud and distinctive identity. This extraordinary history is embodied in the buildings that have shaped the city. Leicester in 50 Buildings explores the history of this rich and vibrant community through a selection of its greatest architectural treasures. From the ancient Jewry Wall to the shiny and modern National Space Centre, this unique study celebrates the city's architectural heritage in a new and accessible way. Well-known local author Stephen Butt guides the reader on a tour of the city's historic buildings and modern architectural marvels. The churches, theatres, pubs and factories of Leicester's industrial heyday are examined alongside the innovative buildings of a twenty-first-century city.
The essays and artworks gathered in this volume examine the visual manifestations of postcolonial struggles in art in East and Southeast Asia, as the world transitioned from the communist/capitalist ideological divide into the new global power structure under neoliberalism that started taking shape during the Cold War. The contributors to this volume investigate the visual art that emerged in Australia, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Okinawa, and the Philippines. With their critical views and new approaches, the scholars and curators examine how visual art from postcolonial countries deviated from the communist/capitalist dichotomy to explore issues of identity, environment, rapid commercialization of art, and independence. These foci offer windows into some lesser-known aspects of the Cold War, including humanistic responses to the neo-imperial exploitations of people and resources as capitalism transformed into its most aggressive form. Given its unique approach, this seminal study will be of great value to scholars of 20th-century East Asian and Southeast Asian art history and visual and cultural studies.
'I love this city, and always shall. I write about it. I dream about it. I walk its streets and see something new each day - traces of faded lettering on the stone, still legible, but just; some facade that I have walked past before and not noticed; an unregarded doorway with the names, in brass, of those who lived there sixty years ago, the bell-pulls sometimes still in place, as if one might summon long-departed residents from their slumbers.' Edinburgh is a city of stories - a place that has witnessed everything from great historical upheavals, to the individual lives of a remarkable cast of characters. Every spire, cobblestone, bridge, close and avenue has a tale to tell. In this sumptuous new book, Alexander McCall Smith curates his own, distinctive story of Edinburgh - combining his affectionate, incisive wit with a wealth of stunning imagery drawn from Scotland's national collection of architecture and archaeology. Through a series of photographs, maps, drawings and paintings - many never before published - he takes the reader on a unique tour. Just like the city's architecture, the book can move in an instant from sweeping views to secret, hidden vignettes. This is a story of famous landmarks and lost buildings; the people who made them; the people who lived in them. A Work of Beauty is an intimate portrait of a city by one of Scotland's greatest storytellers.
Expanding Nationalisms at World's Fairs: Identity, Diversity, and Exchange, 1851-1915 introduces the subject of international exhibitions to art and design historians and a wider audience as a resource for understanding the broad and varied political meanings of design during a period of rapid industrialization, developing nationalism, imperialism, expanding trade and the emergence of a consumer society. Its chapters, written by both established and emerging scholars, are global in scope, and demonstrate specific networks of communication and exchange among designers, manufacturers, markets and nations on the modern world stage from the second half of the nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth. Within the overarching theme of nationalism and internationalism as revealed at world's fairs, the book's essays will engage a more complex understanding of ideas of competition and community in an age of emergent industrial capitalism, and will investigate the nuances, contradictions and marginalized voices that lie beneath the surface of unity, progress, and global expansion. |
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