In mythology, art history and religious iconography, the apple has been imbued with every imaginable human desire. It has been a symbol of love and beauty, of temptation, of immortality, peace, death and poison, of sin and redemption. From Adam and Eve to the trials of Heracles, to the art of Cezanne and Magritte, to Newton's theory of gravity, the death of Alan Turing and the growth of Steve Jobs, the apple resonates throughout western culture. It is Snow White, William Tell, it is The Beatles and the Viking gods, it is even the American frontier. Now, Barnaby Barford offers a celebration of this fruit, exploring its impact on the history of humankind. Apples have become a recent feature of Barford's eye-catching installations, whether ripe and healthy or in a state of decay. The Apple is Everything guides the reader through Barford's work and ideology.

Francis Bacon was one of most elusive and enigmatic creative geniuses of the twentieth century. However much his avowed aim was to simplify both himself and his art, he remained a deeply complex person. Bacon was keenly aware of this underlying contradiction, and whether talking or painting, strove consciously towards absolute clarity and simplicity, calling himself 'simply complicated'. Until now, this complexity has rarely come across in the large number of studies on Bacon's life and work. Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait shows a variety of Bacon's many facets, and questions the accepted views on an artist who was adept at defying categorization. The essays and interviews brought together here span more than half a century. Opening with an interview by the author in 1963, the year that he met Bacon, there are also essays written for exhibitions, memoirs and reflections on Bacon's late work, some published here for the first time. Included are recorded conversations with Bacon in Paris that lasted long into the night, and an overall account of the artist's sources and techniques in his extraordinary London studio. This is an updated edition of Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait (2008), published for the first time in a paperback reading book format. It brings this fascinating artist into closer view, revealing the core of his talent: his skill for marrying extreme contradictions and translating them into immediately recognizable images, whose characteristic tension derives from a life lived constantly on the edge. With 14 illustrations, 7 in colour

Few creative alliances flourished as productively as that of the artist Georgia O'Keeffe and the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Author Peter-Cornell Richter examines the lives of these artists to reveal the roads they took together and independently. Alternating biographical chapters interweave their stories. More than fifty exquisite reproductions of their paintingsand photographs illustrate how the two artists inspired and influenced each other, producing masterpieces of lasting relevance.

Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth, this magnificent collection celebrates the artist behind The Tale of Peter Rabbit and numerous other beloved children's books. Brimming with famous images and rarely seen gems-ranging from character sketches and notebook pages to watercolour landscapes and natural history illustrations-this monograph explores Potter's artistic process and reveals the places that inspired her timeless work. Organised geographically and featuring more than 200 images from the artist's oeuvre, The Art of Beatrix Potter includes illuminating essays by Potter scholar Linda Lear, illustration historian Steven Heller, and children's book illustrator Eleanor Taylor. A definitive volume on one of the world's most influential authors, a woman whose artistry deserves to be fully celebrated.

The centre of Tamara's universe is Shopsin's, her family's legendary greasy spoon, aka "The Store," run by her inimitable dad, Kenny - a loquacious, contrary, huge-hearted man who, aside from dishing up New York's best egg salad on rye, is Village sheriff, philosopher, and fixer all at once. All comers find a place at Shopsin's table and feast on Kenny's tall tales and trenchant advice along with the incomparable chili con carne. Filled with clever illustrations and witty, nostalgic photographs and graphics, and told in a sly, elliptical narrative that is both hilarious and endearing, Arbitrary Stupid Goal is an offbeat memory-book mosaic about the secrets of living an unconventional life, which is becoming a forgotten art.

The livre d'artiste, or 'artist's book', is among the most prized in rare book collections. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the greatest artists to work in this genre, creating his most important books over a period of eighteen years from 1932 to 1950 - a time of personal upheaval and physical suffering, as well as conflict and occupation for France. Brimming with powerful themes and imagery, these works are crucial to an understanding of Matisse's oeuvre, yet much of their content has never been seen by a wider audience. In Matisse: The Books, Louise Rogers Lalaurie reintroduces us to Matisse by considering how in each of eight limited-edition volumes, the artist constructs an intriguing dialogue between word and image. She also highlights the books' profound significance for Matisse as the catalysts for the extraordinary 'second life' of his paper cut-outs. In concert with an eclectic selection of poetry, drama and, tantalizingly, Matisse's own words, the books' images offer an astonishing portrait of creative resistance and regeneration. Matisse's books contain some of the artist's best-known graphic works - the magnificent, belligerent swan from the Poesies de Stephane Mallarme, or the vigorous linocut profile from Pasiphae (1944), reversed in a single, rippling stroke out of a lake of velvety black. In Jazz, the cut-out silhouette of Icarus plummets through the azure, surrounded by yellow starbursts, his heart a mesmerizing dot of red. But while such individual images are well known, their place in an integrated sequence of pictures, decorations and words is not. With deftness and sensitivity, Lalaurie explores the page-by-page interplay of the books, translating key sequences and discussing their distinct themes and creative genesis. Together Matisse's artist books reveal his deep engagement with questions of beauty and truth; his faith; his perspectives on aging, loss, and inspiration; and his relationship to his critics, the French art establishment and the women in his life. In addition, Matisse: The Books illuminates the artist's often misunderstood political affinities - in particular, his decision to live in the collaborationist Vichy zone, throughout World War II. Matisse's wartime books are revealed as a body of work that stands as a deeply personal statement of resistance.

Timed to coincide with the release of Walter Isaacson's latest biography on the famous painter and inventor, as well as the latest thriller in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code series, this book includes 101 in-depth facts about Leonardo Da Vinci. 101 Things You Didn't Know About Da Vinci provides you with all the fascinating facts you didn't know about the famous artist, inventor, and creator of the Mona Lisa and the Vitruvian Man, including details about his personal life, information about his inventions and art, his interactions with his contemporaries, and his impact on the world since his death. Some facts include: -Da Vinci was left handed, and wrote from right to left, even writing his letters backwards. -Da Vinci's The Last Supper started peeling off the wall almost immediately upon completion, due to a combination of the type of paint Leonardo used and the humidity -Among Leonardo's many inventions and creations was a mechanical lion he created to celebrate the coronation of King Francois I of France Whether you're seeking inspiration, information, or interesting and entertaining facts about history's most creative genius, 101 Things You Didn't Know About Da Vinci has just what you're looking for!

This second volume from Titan Books is a collection of world-renowned visionary artist John Harris' unique paintings captures breath-taking, otherworldly vistas on a massive scale. The Art of John Harris II: Into the Blue is the third collection (second collection published by Titan) of world-renowned visionary artist John Harris' unique paintings that capture future worlds on a massive scale, from vast landscapes and towering cities to breath-taking vistas. Readers will get a unique insight into the creative process behind the worlds depicted in the paintings as Harris takes them on a journey from sketch to finished painting, as well as his striking covers for a variety of esteemed science fiction authors, including John Scalzi, Ben Bova, Jack McDevitt, Orson Scott Card, Ann Leckie and many more.

This book examines Theodore Gericault's images of black men, women and children who suffered slavery's trans-Atlantic passage in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including his 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa. The book focuses on Gericault's depiction of black people, his approach towards slavery, and the voices that advanced or denigrated them. By turning to documents, essays and critiques, both before and after Waterloo (1815), and, most importantly, Gericault's own oeuvre, this study explores the fetters of slavery that Gericault challenged-alongside a growing number of abolitionists-overtly or covertly. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, race and ethnic studies and students of modernism.

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at the Guggenheim Museum, launched in early 2013, strives to advance the achievements of contemporary Chinese artists by commissioning major pieces that will be exhibited in the museum and enter its permanent collection. Selected for the first commission, Beijing-based artist Wang Jianwei is recognized throughout Asia and Europe for his bold experiments in new media, video, performance, conceptual and installation art. His highly innovative works consider space and time in elaborate ways, working from the notion that the production of artwork can be a continuous rehearsal. The exhibition comprises a multifaceted space that includes painting, installation, sculpture, film, and a theatrical production. The accompanying catalogue includes three texts in English and Chinese: a curatorial essay on Wang's artistic practice; a look at the artist's recent work by Gao Shiming; and a text by the artist on contemporary Chinese art. In addition, this volume includes a chronology of the artist's oeuvre to date.

Get Your Shit Together is the first book that exclusively features recent artwork in color by beloved British artist David Shrigley. This volume celebrates Shrigley's absurd, deadpan sensibility through both his signature drawing style and accompanying text. Organized by chapters with titles such as Stupid, Nonsense, Dirt, Fear, Paranoia, Love, and Self Delusion, this collection is sure to delight die-hard Shrigley fans and new ones alike. This is the largest-format book to date on Shrigley's prolific work, and features design details such as a ribbon marker with one of his mordant sayings printed on it, as well as hand-written, humorous essays throughout.

This book discusses an important theme in art history - artistic emulation that emphasizes the exchange between Flemish and Dutch art in the seventeenth century. Since the Middle Ages, copying has been perceived as an important step in artistic training. Originality, on the other hand, has been considered an indispensable hallmark of great works of art since the Renaissance. Therefore, in the seventeenth century, ambitious painters frequently drew inspiration from other artists' works, attempting to surpass them in various aspects of aesthetic appeal. Drawing on this perspective, this book considers the problems of imitation, emulation, and artistic rivalry in seventeenth-century Netherlandish art. It primarily focuses on Rubens and Rembrandt, but also discusses other masters like van Dyck and Hals. It particularly results in expanding the extant body of knowledge in relation to Rubens's influence on Rembrandt and Hals. Moreover, it reveals certain new aspects of Rubens and Rembrandt as work-shop masters - collaboration with specialists, use of oil sketches, and teaching methods to pupils for example.

Born into a large, musical, and bohemian family in London, the British artist John Craxton (1922-2009) has been described as a Neo-Romantic, but he called himself a "kind of Arcadian". His early art was influenced by Blake, Palmer, Miro, and Picasso. After achieving a dream of moving to Greece, his work evolved as a personal response to Byzantine mosaics, El Greco, and the art of Greek life. This book tells his adventurous story for the first time. At turns exciting, funny, and poignant, the saga is enlivened by Craxton's ebullient pictures. Ian Collins expands our understanding of the artist greatly-including an in-depth exploration of the storied, complicated friendship between Craxton and Lucian Freud, drawing on letters and memories that Craxton wanted to remain private until after his death.