The work aims at bringing the Persian texts into the study of the arts and technology of the Indo-lranian world - an approach much neglected so far. Drawing upon Persian sources (both from Iran and India), viz., technical treatises, historical chronicles and poetical texts, the work deals with painting and the art of book making during twelfth to nineteenth century. The introduction presents the geographical and chronological dimensions of the study. After a brief history of Persian painting before the twelfth century, the book discusses mural painting, manuscripts, origin of paper and its fabrication, the composition of the page, colours/pigments used in the paintings, painting subjects, bookbinding, etc. The painter, man and artist, his origin, his training, his status, aesthetics and taste, his workshop and its organisation and distribution of tasks therein, modular construction of the manuscripts, library, the caligraphy surrounding the painting, its illuminations and binding are all analysed. In fact the book reconstructs the entire process of making an illustrated manuscript from its ground work to its binding. Persian text and illustrations enhance the utility of the work.

• Showcases today's most influential architectural voices who have been instrumental in shifting the direction of design in the last decade • Includes perspectives of influential architects, practitioners and academics, as well as critics including philosophers • Case studies and essays engage and deploy a range of topics and technologies from speculative realism and Object Oriented Ontology to high computation, Big Data, parametricism, digital fabrication, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality • A rigorous account of architecture's theoretical and technological concerns over the last decade

This book presents a counter-history to the relentless critique of the humanist subject and authorial agency that has taken place over the past fifty years. It is both an interrogation of that critique and the tracing of an alternative narrative from Romanticism to the twenty-first century which celebrates the agency of the artist as a powerful contribution to the wellbeing of the community. It does so through arguments based on philosophical aesthetics and cultural theory interspersed with case histories of particular artists. It also engages with a second issue that cannot be separated from the first. This is the question of what the role and purpose of art is in society. This has become particularly important since the 1990s because of the "social turn" in art in which it is claimed that the only valid role for art was one that had explicit social consequences. This book argues that a political role for art is valuable, but not the only one that can be envisaged nor indeed is it the most obvious or most important. Art has other social roles both as a means to engender empathy and community, and to re-enchant a world bereft of meaning and reduced to material values. The book will appeal to practising artists as well as scholars working in art history, philosophy, aesthetics, and curatorial studies.

Counterfactual thinking has become an established method to evaluate decisions in a range of disciplines, including history, psychology and literature. Elke Reinhuber argues it also has valuable applications in the fine arts and popular media. A fascination with the path not taken is a logical consequence of a world saturated with choices. Art which provokes and explores these tendencies can help to recognise and contextualise the impulse to avoid or endlessly revisit individual or collective decisions. Reinhuber describes the term in broad strokes through the disciplines to show how counterfactualism finds shape in contemporary art forms, especially in photography, film, and immersive and interactive media art (such as 360 Degrees content, virtual reality and augmented reality). She analyses the different stages of counterfactuals with examples where artists experience counterfactual thoughts in the process of art production, explore these thoughts in their artwork, and where the artwork itself evokes counterfactual thoughts in the audience. A fascinating exploration for scholars and students of art, media and the humanities, and anybody else with an interest in choices, the art of decisionmaking and counterfactualism.

Originally published in 1964, The Englishman's Chair is a history of English chairs, written as a continuous story from the 15th to the 20th Century and because of the revealing powers inherent in chair-making and design, it is also an unconventional footnote to English social history. The changes in taste, and fashion, the increase of skill, the introduction of new materials and the long battle between dignity and comfort are discussed, as is the impact that modern industrial designers have had on chair design.

For 40 years, the Cold War dominated the world stage. East and West Germany stood at the frontlines of the global confrontation, symbolized by the infamous Berlin Wall, which separated lovers, friends, families, coworkers, and compatriots. The Wende Museum in Los Angeles, California, is named after the period of change immediately following the wall's destruction. It was established in 2002 to study the visual and material culture of the former Eastern Bloc, and, with physical and psychic distance, to foster multiple perspectives on this multilayered history that continues to shape our world. This encyclopedic volume features around 2,000 items from its extraordinary collections. Based on our XL-sized volume, this edition includes a full spectrum of art, archives, and artifacts from socialist East Germany: official symbols and dissident expressions, the spectacular and the routine, the mass-produced and the handmade, the funny and the tragic. Accompanying these remnants of a now-vanished world are texts from scholars and specialists from across Europe, Canada, and the United States, with themes ranging from the secret police to sexuality, from monuments to mental-mapping. More than 800 pages, featuring around 2,000 objects. A smaller, more accessible version of our XL-sized volume, the most comprehensive overview of GDR visual and material culture to date. Several dozen images of everyday life and public events from the most famous GDR photographers. Special two-language edition featuring texts both in English and German. From November 18, 2017, visit the Wende Musem at its expanded campus in Culver City's Armory Building, a site originally created in preparation for World War III but re-designed by Michael Boyd, Christian Kienapfel, and Benedikt Taschen to welcome its 100,000+ collection of artifacts.

Originally published in 1958, A Guide to Western Architecture charts the origins of the system of architectural design that was perfected in Greece, follows its development under the Roman Empire and describes the achievements of the Byzantine architects. Passing through Romanesque to Gothic, the contributions made by Mediaeval builders to structure and design are recorded, and then the impact of the Renaissance on architecture, and its characteristic development in the different European countries. The transplanting of Renaissance ideas to the New World is covered, and finally the origins and nature of the new Western architecture occupy the last section of the book. The Appendix includes a list of the principal architects, and brief notes on their work, from the 5th century B. C. to the end of the Renaissance.

Through a collection of 13 chapters, Peggy Deamer examines the profession of architecture not as an abstraction, but as an assemblage of architectural workers. What forces prevent architects from empowering ourselves to be more relevant and better rewarded? How can these forces be set aside by new narratives, new organizations and new methods of production? How can we sit at the decision-making table to combat short-term real estate interests for longer-term social and ethical value? How can we pull architecture-its conceptualization, its pedagogy, and its enactment-into the 21st century without succumbing to its neoliberal paradigm? In addressing these controversial questions, Architecture and Labor brings contemporary discourses on creative labor to architecture, a discipline devoid of labor consciousness. This book addresses how, not just what, architects produce and focuses not on the past but on the present. It is sympathetic to the particularly intimate way that architects approach their design work while contextualizing that work historically, institutionally, economically, and ideologically. Architecture and Labor is sure to be a compelling read for pre-professional students, academics, and practitioners.

The Book of Durrow is among the earliest surviving decorated manuscripts in north-western Europe, dating to the late seventh century AD. A masterpiece of Celtic art, it is believed to be the oldest fully decorated Insular Gospel that survives, pre-dating the Book of Kells by more than a century. Created in a monastery associated with the Irish saint Colum Cille (St Columba), its text and artwork reflect the formative years of a `golden age' of artistic production in Ireland and Britain. This richly decorated introductory guide explores the manuscript's distinctive artwork and tells the extraordinary story of its preservation in the Irish monastery at Durrow - first as sacred text then as relic - and its acquisition in the seventeenth century by the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

First published in 1980, Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England is a detailed and comprehensive survey of the steel engravings that were so popular in the nineteenth century. With an extensive range of illustrations, the book refutes the assumption that steel engravings are of little artistic value or importance, a common attitude rooted largely in the connection between steel engravings and mass-produced books. Beginning with an exploration of the identification problems and early history of steel engravings, it moves through the production and printing of the plates and on to a study of several engravers and artists, as well as of the books themselves. Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England will appeal to anyone interested in the history of printing and illustration.

First published in 1962, Hogarth and his Place in European Art attempts to convey the historical relevance, both in its native and European context, of perhaps the most outstanding English painter of the eighteenth century. Dr. Antal applies his method of establishing the close relationship between the political and social history and the arts and letters of the period. Thus, the book goes far beyond the limits of art historical appreciation. It gives a panoramic picture of the first half of the eighteenth century in England with all its social, literary, and artistic connotations. He shows how England, which during those years became both politically and economically the most advanced country in Europe, could provide in Hogarth, in spite of the slender native tradition, the most progressive artistic personality of his time - whose work revealed the views and tastes of a broad cross-section of society. He traces Hogarth's stylistic origins back to their European sources and analyses his impact on contemporary European and English art as well as the influence he exerted on generations to come. This book will be of interest to students of art, art history, literature, and European history.

First published in 1956, Fuseli Studies deals with the many-sided artistic achievements of Zurich-born Fuseli's baffling personality, who was one of the most erudite and renowned intellectuals of his day in Europe. The author's intention has been to place his subject in clear historical perspective within his own epoch, and thus traces Fuseli's contacts back to sixteenth-century mannerism and forward to twentieth-century expressionism. In this book, the social background of that absorbing period covering the artist's working years at the turn of the nineteenth century is evoked not only in analysing his style, poised between classicism and romanticism of the age, but also accounting for its appeal and relevance to the present day. This book will be of interest to students of art, art history, European history, and literature.

Sinan was the greatest architect of the Ottoman Golden Age of the sixteenth century - when the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith of power and magnificence. His style marks the apogee of Turkish art. Under Suleyman the Magnificent and his succcessor Selmi II, Sinan designed hundreds of buildings: mosques, palaces, tombs, mausolea, hospitals, schools, caravanserai, bridges, aqueducts and baths, many of them presented and analysed in this book. In his greatest works, he adapted Byzantine and Islamic styles to produce something quite new: a centralized organization of absolute space unhindered by pillars or columns and covered by a soaring dome. An architect of genius in a dynamic new empire expanding into both Asia and Europe, he was a true man of the Renaissance.

Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal presents a survey of the artist's prolific and extraordinary interdisciplinary career, with a particular focus on the work's relationship to the photographic image and to issues of representation and perception. At the core of Hank Willis Thomas's practice, is his ability to parse and critically dissect the flow of images that comprises American culture, and to do so with particular attention to race, gender, and cultural identity. Other powerful themes include the commodification of identity through popular media, sports, and advertising. In the ten years since his first publication, Pitch Blackness , Thomas has established himself as a significant voice in contemporary art, equally at home with collaborative, trans-media projects such as Question Bridge, Philly Block, and For Freedoms as he is with high-profile, international solo exhibitions. This extensive presentation of his work contextualizes the material with incisive essays from Portland Art Museum curators Julia Dolan and Sara Krajewski and art historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, and an in-depth interview between Dr. Kellie Jones and the artist that elaborates on Thomas's influences and inspirations.

A collection of fascinating quotations from the legendary artist and graffiti pioneer Futura is a living legend-a world-renowned painter, designer, and photographer who was a pioneer of graffiti art and New York City's "subway school." His radical abstract work in the street and on canvas established him as a central figure in an important art movement that included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Rammellzee, Lee Quinones, and Dondi White. Futura-isms is a collection of essential quotations from this fascinating artist. Gathered from four decades of interviews and panel discussions, this memorable selection illuminates Futura's thoughts on legal and illegal art, his influences, fellow artists, and the past, present, and future. He also offers colorful memories of his adventurous life-growing up in New York City, serving in the Navy, touring with The Clash-and reflects on how his experiences have shaped his art. Select quotations from the book: "Graffiti was a way for me to exist. I wanted the world to know my name. I wanted to be somebody." "The essence of what graffiti is . . . is creating this identity and taking it to the public." "My whole life, I think, I've been a nomad." "I was always at home in the subway system." "People say, 'Let's play within the rules.' I say, 'No-let's break the rules a little bit.'"

Features thirteen essays by the influential late architect, philosopher and teacher Dalibor Vesely (1934-2015). For the first time his full range of writing is presented in one volume, including new and hard-to-access material. Edited and introduced by Vesely's teaching partner at Cambridge Peter Carl and former student Alexandra Stara and includes over 80 illustrations.

What is heritage? When was it invented? What is its place in the world today? What is its place tomorrow? Heritage is all around us: millions belong to its organisations, tens of thousands volunteer for it, and politicians pay lip service to it. When the Victorians began to employ the term in something approaching the modern sense, they applied it to cathedrals, castles, villages and certain landscapes. Since then a multiplicity of heritage labels have arisen, cultural and commercial, tangible and intangible - for just as every era has its notion of heritage, so does every social group, and every generation. In Heritage, James Stourton focuses on elements of our cultural and natural environment that have been deliberately preserved: the British countryside and national parks, buildings such as Blenheim Palace and Tattersall Castle, and the works of art inside them. He charts two heroic periods of conservation - the 1880s and the 1960s - and considers whether threats of wealth, rampant development and complacency are similar in the present day. Heritage is both a story of crisis and profound change in public perception, and one of hope and regeneration.

In February 2012, in a Munich flat belonging to an elderly recluse, German customs authorities seized an astonishing hoard of more than 1,400 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. When Cornelius Gurlitt's trove became public in November 2013, it caused a worldwide media sensation. Catherine Hickley has delved into archives and conducted dozens of interviews to uncover the story behind the headlines. Her book illuminates a dark period of German history, untangling a web of deceit and silence that has prevented the heirs of Jewish collectors from recovering art stolen from their families more than seven decades ago by the Nazis. Hickley recounts the shady history of the Gurlitt hoard and brings its story right up to date, as 21st-century politicians and lawyers puzzle over the inadequacies of a legal framework that to this day falls short in securing justice for the heirs of those robbed by the Nazis.

Edited by leading scholars in the field, this collection brings together contributors from around the globe and includes international examples and case studies. The multi-disciplinary approach makes it particularly suited for a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sculpture, public art and social practice, art history, cultural geography and cultural studies, performance, visual culture, design theory, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, arts administration, museum studies, and city planning. Engages with contemporary issues including the Black Lives Matter protest and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on arts education and public art.

Worship Sound Spaces unites specialists from architecture, acoustic engineering and the social sciences to encourage closer analysis of the sound environments within places of worship. Gathering a wide range of case studies set in Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, the book presents investigations into Muslim, Christian and Hindu spaces. These diverse cultural contexts demonstrate the composite nature of designing and experiencing places of worship. Beginning with a historical overview of the three primary indicators in acoustic design of religious buildings, reverberation, intelligibility and clarity, the second part of this edited collection offers a series of field studies devoted to perception, before moving onto recent examples of restoration of the sound ambiances of former religious buildings. Written for academics and students interested in architecture, cultural heritage, acoustics, sensory studies and sound. The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: https://frama.link/WSS

This edited volume traces cultural appearances of disgust and investigates the varied forms and functions disgust takes and is given in both established and vernacular cultural practices. Contributors focus on the socio-cultural creation, consumption, reception, and experience of disgust, a visceral emotion whose cultural situatedness and circulation has historically been overlooked in academic scholarship. Chapters challenge and supplement the biological understanding of disgust as a danger reaction and as a base emotion evoked by the lower senses, touch, taste and smell, through a wealth of original case studies in which disgust is analyzed in its aesthetic qualities, and in its cultural and artistic appearances and uses, featuring visual and aural media. Because it is interdisciplinary, the book will be of interest to scholars in a wide range of fields, including visual studies, philosophy, aesthetics, sociology, history, literature, and musicology.

Winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Criticism.

One of the most highly regarded books of its kind, On Photography first appeared in 1977 and is described by its author as “a progress of essays about the meaning and career of photographs.” It begins with the famous “In Plato’s Cave”essay, then offers five other prose meditations on this topic, and concludes with a fascinating and far-reaching “Brief Anthology of Quotations.”

This book investigates the pictorial figurations, aesthetic styles and visual tactics through which visual art and popular culture attempt to appeal to "all of us". One key figure these practices bring into play-the "everybody" (which stands for "all of us" and is sometimes a "new man" or a "new woman")-is discussed in an interdisciplinary way involving scholars from several European countries. A key aspect is how popularisation and communication practices-which can assume populist forms-operate in contemporary democracies and where their genealogies lie. A second focus is on the ambivalences of attraction, i.e. on the ways in which visual creations can evoke desire as well as hatred.