Lucian Freud (1922-2011) was interested in the telling of truths. Always operating outside the main currents of 20th-century art, the esteemed portrait painter observed his subjects with the regimen and precision of a laboratory scientist. He recorded not only the blotches, bruises, and swellings of the living body, but also, beneath the flaws and folds of flesh, the microscopic details of what lies within: the sensation, the emotion, the intelligence, the bloom, and the inevitable, unstoppable decay. Despite rejecting parallels between him and his renowned grandfather, the correlation between Lucian Freud's sitting process for portraiture and Sigmund Freud's psychotherapy sessions is a fascinating element to this figurative oeuvre. Despite the thickness of the impasto surfaces, Freud's portraits of subjects as varied as the Queen, Kate Moss, and an obese job center supervisor penetrate the physicality of the body with a direct and often disarming insight. The result is as much a psychological interrogation as it is an uneasy examination of the relationship between artist and model. This book brings together some of Freud's most outstanding and unapologetic portraits, to introduce an artist widely considered one of the finest masters of the human form. 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

The life and work of an essential photographer whose feminism and pictorialist images distanced her from the mainstream In the first book devoted to Anne Brigman (1869-1950), Kathleen Pyne traces the groundbreaking photographer's life from Hawai'i to the Sierra and elsewhere in California, revealing how her photographs emerged from her experience of local place and cultural politics. Brigman's work caught the eye of the well-known photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who welcomed her as one of the original members of his Photo-Secession group. He promoted her work as exemplary of his modernism and praised her Sierra landscapes with female nudes-work that at the time separated Brigman from the spiritualized upper-class femininity of other women photographers. Stieglitz later drew on Brigman's images of the expressive female body in shaping the public persona of Georgia O'Keeffe into his ideal woman artist. This nuanced account reasserts Brigman's place among photography's most important early advocates and provides new insight into the gender and racialist dynamics of the early twentieth-century art world, especially on the West Coast of the United States.

Ceramics are an unparalleled resource for women's lives in ancient Greece, since they show a huge number of female types and activities. Yet it can be difficult to interpret the meanings of these images, especially when they seem to conflict with literary sources. This much-needed study shows that it is vital to see the vases as archaeology as well as art, since context is the key to understanding which images can stand as evidence for the real lives of women, and which should be reassessed.
Sian Lewis considers the full range of female existence in classical Greece - childhood and old age, unfree and foreign status, and the ageless woman characteristic of Athenian red-figure painting.

The Wilton House sculptures constituted one of the largest and most celebrated collections of ancient art in Europe. Originally comprising some 340 works, the collection was formed around the late 1710s and 1720s by Thomas Herbert, the eccentric 8th Earl of Pembroke, who stubbornly 're-baptized' his busts and statues with names of his own choosing. His sources included the famous collection of Cardinal Mazarin, assembled in Paris in the 1640s and 1650s, and recent discoveries on the Via Appia outside Rome. Earl Thomas regarded the sculptures as ancient - some of them among the oldest works of art in existence - but in fact much of the collection is modern and represents the neglected talents of sixteenth-and seventeenth-century artists, restorers and copyists who were inspired by Greek and Roman sculpture. About half of the original collection remains intact today, adorning the Gothic Cloisters that were built for it two centuries ago. After a long decline, accelerated by the impact of the Second World War, the sculptures have been rehabilitated in recent years. They include masterpieces of Roman and early modern art, which cast fresh light on Graeco-Roman antiquity, the classical tradition, and the history of collecting. Illustrated with specially commissioned photographs, this catalogue offers the first comprehensive publication of the 8th Earl's collection, including an inventory of works dispersed from Wilton. It re-presents his personal vision of the collection recorded in contemporary manuscripts. At the same time, it dismantles some of the myths about it which originated with the earl himself, and provides an authoritative archaeological and art-historical analysis of the artefacts.

Selling your soul to the Devil has never paid such delicious dividends! Here is a collection of satanic sirens who use their under-worldly charms to entrance and entrap mortal men to their eternal doom. This is the latest in one of our most popular line of books - fiery females in bed with the Dark Lord himself! It includes art by Boada, Tomas Giorello, Meriggi, Pelaez, Maraschi, Blas Gallego, Pascarelli, Torres, Quintabani, and others. Cover Painting by Dorian Cleavenger.

Recent events have pushed artists to visualize ideas of closeness in a new light. Kinship, published on the occasion of the National Portrait Gallery's tenth "Portraiture Now" exhibition, features the work of eight leading contemporary artists who explore familial relationships through photography, painting, sculpture, and performance. Contemporary portraiture offers a way to consider the mutable yet enduring qualities of familial relationships and the internal and external forces that affect our bonds with others. For example, interpretations of distance - whether emotional, physical, or geographical - have recently become more fraught. By recognizing the transformations that occur in the genre of portraiture and the threads that today's portraits share, we can better understand the universality and specificity of kinship. List of artists: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, Anna Tsouhlarakis

Contents:
1. Naked truths about classical art: An introduction 2. 'Ways of seeing' women in antiquity: An introduction to feminism in classical archaeology and ancient art history 3. Female beauty and male violence in early Italian society 4. divesting the female breast of clothes in classical sculpture 5. When painters execute a murderess: the representation of clytemnestra on attic vases 6. Sappho in attic vase painting 7. Gender and sexuality in the Parthenon frieze 8. Naked and limbless: Learning about the feminine body in ancient Athens 9. Nursing mothers in classical art 10. Making a world of difference: Gender, Asymmetry, and the Greek nude 11. The only happy couple: Hermaphrodites and gender 12. Violent stages in two Pompeian houses: Imperial taste, aristocratic response and messages of male control 13. Epilogue: gender and desire

Life Drawing for Artists teaches a contemporary approach to figure drawing that includes both the familiar poses-standing, sitting, lying down-but also how to capture figures in movement and in more dynamic and engaging positions. Author Chris Legaspi is a dedicated, life-long artist and admired instructor who is known for his dynamic figurative drawings and paintings, and as a successful illustrator in the entertainment industry. Whether you are an aspiring illustrator, art student, or a professional artist looking to develop your abilities, Life Drawing for Artists shows how to build your skills by combining fundamental building blocks, such as gesture lines, shape and design, structure, value control, and edge or line control. You'll focus on different skills while working on both quick timed drawings and longer detailed drawings. The book covers important topics, such as drawing different views, understanding perspective, foreshortening strategies, and how to deal with various lighting conditions. The examples and tutorials explore virtually every pose scenario, as well as many active and dynamic movements. Breathe drama into your figures as you master the fundamentals with this fresh approach to life drawing. The For Artists series expertly guides and instructs artists at all skill levels who want to develop their classical drawing and painting skills and create realistic and representational art.

While candy-colored pinup may be popular with some, this is a collection of dark, sexy images that truly reflect the sophisticated side of the pinup genre. Seemingly ripped from the men's magazines of yesteryear, these photos are so authentic looking down to the smallest detail as if they were actually taken decades ago. Bullet bras, seamed stockings, high heels, and girdles bursting at the seams! Internationally published photographer Mark Anthony Lacy specializes in bringing out the allure and sensuality of his female subjects. He combines his backgrounds in art, architecture, film, and photography to create incredibly authentic vintage tableaus in his New York studio.

The subjects of her recent art are a logical continuation of the larger narrative of Benjamin's body of work: She works to excavate the female human experience as she knows it. Benjamin muses on intimacy, sexuality, self-perception, body dysmorphia, and trauma through her avatars. Her work is diaristic, approaching her subjects through the lens of her own personal experience; each piece can easily feel like a self-portrait. Her women are simultaneously self-assured and crumbled, standing defiantly on their own two hairy legs, yet seeking the shoulder of an empathetic viewer to cry on. Benjamin uses her art to sort through her own trauma and self-analysis, and seeks to give faces, bodies, and narratives to the different facets of her own womanhood.

Newly revised and expanded, this second edition of Timon Screech's definitive "Sex and the Floating World" offers a real assessment of the genre of Japanese paintings and prints today known as shunga. Changes in Japanese law in the 1990s enabled erotic images to be published without fear of prosecution, and many shunga picture-books have since appeared. There has, however, been very little attempt to situate the imagery within the contexts of sexuality, gender or power. Questions of aesthetics, and of whether shunga deserve a place in the official history of Japanese art, have dominated, and the question of the use of these images has been avoided. Timon Screech seeks to re-establish shunga in a proper historical frame of culture and creativity. Shunga prints are not like any other form of picture for the simple fact that they are overtly about sex. And once we begin to examine them first and foremost as sexual apparatus, then we must be prepared for some surprises. The author opens up for us the strange world of sexual fantasy in the Edo culture of eighteenth-century Japan, and investigates the tensions in class and gender of those that made and made use of shunga.

It has long been thought that imperial portrait types were officially commissioned to commemorate specific historical moments and that they were made available to both the mint and the marble workshops in Rome, assuming a close correspondence between portraits on coins and in the round. All of this, however, has never been clearly proven, nor has it been disproven by a close systematic examination of the evidence on a broad material basis by those scholars who have questioned it. Through systematic case studies of Faustina the Younger's and Marcus Aurelius' portraits on coins and in sculpture, this book provides new insights into the functioning of the imperial image in Rome in the second century AD that move a difficult, much-discussed subject forward decisively. The new evidence presented here has made it necessary to adjust the established model; more flexibility is needed to describe the processes and practices behind the phenomenon of 'repeated' imperial portraits and how the imperial portrait worked in the mint of Rome and in the metropolitan marble workshops.

This is an inspiring must-have resource for artists seeking new approaches to drawing the human figure. It features more than 20 fundamental figure drawing exercises. It empowers students and artists of all levels to make progress with the figure beyond their expectations. Throughout the history of art, figure drawing has been regarded as the very foundation of an artist's education and at the centre of the art-making process. In "Expressive Figure Drawing", innovative teacher and author, Bill Buchman, explores the idea that the way we draw is a direct expression of our emotions and perceptions. It includes 20 plus fundamental figure drawing exercises that are undertaken one step at a time so that students and artists of all levels are empowered to make progress with the figure beyond their expectations. Throughout the book, the author reveals his methods for developing proficiency using a variety of traditional media and the latest art materials available today.

Award-winning artist Hashim Akib's striking portraits are at the heart of this inspirational book. The subject of portraiture is seen by many as the zenith of art, and Hash's easygoing, unpretentious style puts fantastic results within the reach of hobby artists and aspiring professionals alike. Assuming nothing and starting from the basics - making it suitable even for the enthusiastic beginner - this book includes six step-by-step projects to follow; along with friendly but in-depth advice on colour palettes; skintone; composition; working from photographs and models; markmaking; lighting; atmosphere and much more. The book covers many types of portraiture - from the self-portrait to full-length portraits - all presented in Hash's striking, free and contemporary style.

Maternal bodies in the visual arts brings images of the maternal and pregnant body into the centre of art-historical enquiry. By exploring religious, secular and scientific traditions as well as contemporary art practices, it shows the power of visual imagery in framing our understanding of maternal bodies and affirming or contesting prevailing maternal ideals. The book reassesses historical models and, in drawing on original case studies, shows how visual practices by artists may offer the means of reconfiguring the maternal. It will appeal to students, academics and researchers in art history, gender studies and cultural studies, as well as to general readers interested in the maternal and visual culture. -- .

Draw amazingly accurate portraits starting today! Even if you're an absolute beginner, you can render strikingly realistic faces and self-portraits! Instructor and FBI-trained artist Carrie Stuart Parks makes it simple with foolproof step-by-step instructions that are fun and easy to follow. You'll quickly begin to: Master proportions and map facial features accurately Study shapes within a composition and draw them realistically Use value, light and shading to add life and depth to any portrait Render tricky details, including eyes, noses, mouths and hair Proven, hands-on exercises and before-and-after examples from Parks' students ensure instant success! It's all the guidance and inspiration you need to draw realistic faces with precision, confidence and style!

Text in English & German. Sean McCall lives and works in Los Angeles. A professional fashion and advertising photographer looks back at a career spanning three decades in the industry. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Allure, Bazaar, Glamour, GQ, Mademoiselle, Sunset, Vogue and several books. He has worked together with fashion designers Gaultier, Dior, Tommy Hilfiger and Hudson. Many sports stars and screen legends have posed for him, including Ali McGraw, Angelina Jolie, Art Link Etter, Bo Derek, Caprice Bourret, Charlton Heston, Chris Farley, Dita Von Teese, Erwin "Magic" Johnson, Gary Busey, James Coburn, Muhammed Ali, Steve Guttenberg and Tommy Chong. Like many photographers, McCall has an impressive back catalogue; there are enough erotic photos of Dita Von Teese, among others, to fill an entire library. Together with the artist, we perused the archive and made a selection we have called "LA Nudes Confidential". It gives insight into some "hot" photo sessions.

Venus, maiden, wife, mother, monster-women have been bound so long by these restrictive roles, codified by patriarchal culture, that we scarcely see them. Catherine McCormack illuminates the assumptions behind these stereotypes whether writ large or subtly hidden. She ranges through Western art-think Titian, Botticelli, and Millais-and the image-saturated world of fashion photographs, advertisements, and social media, and boldly counters these depictions by turning to the work of women artists like Morisot, Ringgold, Lacy, and Walker, who offer alternative images for exploring women's identity, sexuality, race, and power in more complex ways.

Stephen Rogers Peck's Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist remains unsurpassed as a manual for students. It includes sections on bones, muscles, surface anatomy, proportion, equilibrium, and locomotion. Other unique features are sections on the types of human physique, anatomy from birth to old age, an orientation on racial anatomy, and an analysis of facial expressions. The wealth of information offered by the Atlas ensures its place as a classic for the study of the human form.