The extraordinary sculptures of Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon The first half of Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon's (1934-2005) career was devoted to posters, illustrations, and television animations that brought him international acclaim for their diversity and virtuosity; his illustrations appeared in magazines including The New Yorker, Fortune, and Esquire. In the 1990s, he pivoted to sculpture, focusing on statuary and working with both direct carving and modeling, which he then translated to bronze or stone. This is the first publication to explore the entirety of Folon's sculptural work. Drawing inspiration from the Cyclades, the Etruscans, from African masks and Indian totems, Folon's sculptures are characterized by their frontality and corporality. Distributed for Mercatorfonds Exhibition Schedule: Villers-la-Ville, Brussels (October 24, 2020-February 21, 2021)

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.

2019 jahrt sich Rembrandts Todesjahr zum 350ten Mal. Die Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, die eine der bedeutendsten Sammlung seiner Gemalde, Zeichnungen und Druckgrafiken bewahren, nehmen dieses Jubilaum zum Anlass, den Kunstler in einer Ausstellung des Kupferstich-Kabinetts zu feiern. Rembrandts Strich wird sich auf den Grafiker und Zeichner konzentrieren und einen frischen Blick auf ihn suchen, der vielleicht wie kein zweiter bis heute als sogenannter "artists` artist" andere Kunstler zur Auseinandersetzung angeregt hat. Die einzigartige Dresdner Sammlung - etwa 20 Zeichnungen, die Rembrandt heute zugeschrieben werden und das nahezu vollstandige druckgrafische Werk - bildet die Grundlage fur die herausragende Ausstellung. Sie wird ein besonderes Augenmerk auf seine erzahlerischen Kompositionen, radierten Selbstbildnissen und die Studien seiner Frau Saskia richten. Die Ausstellung umfasst rund 100 Werke aus allen Schaffensperioden Rembrandts und etwa 50 Radierungen und Zeichnungen von Schulern seiner Werkstatt sowie von spateren Kunstlern, die Rembrandt als Autoritat und kreative Inspirationsquelle verstanden haben. Die lange Reihe derer, die ihr Selbstbildnis in Auseinandersetzung mit Rembrandt definierten, reicht von unmittelbaren Nachfolgern und Meistern des 18. Jahrhunderts wie Benedetto Castiglione und Georg Friedrich Schmidt, uber den kongenialen Francisco de Goya ins 20. Jahrhundert bis heute. Als Beispiele moegen Edouard Manet, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Lovis Corinth, Kathe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann und Pablo Picasso sowie Marlene Dumas und William Kentridge, aber auch Kunstler aus der DDR wie A.R. Penck dienen. Indem Werke dieser Kunstler einbezogen werden, wird Rembrandt als einer der wichtigsten "Kunstlerkunstler" aller Zeiten vorgestellt. Ausgewahlte Gegenuberstellungen werden den heutigen Betrachtern helfen, das Feuerwerk an Kreativitat besser zu verstehen, das Rembrandt nicht nur zu seiner Zeit freisetzte, sondern auch heute noch entzundet. Zeitlos fesselnd bleibt Rembrandt durch seine Radikalitat in Auswahl und unkonventioneller Interpretation christlicher und profaner Bildthemen, nicht weniger durch seine Experimentierfreudigkeit - besonders im Gebrauch grafischer Techniken - als auch durch seinen reflektierten und dabei oft humorvollen Intellekt, der von seinem sinnlich zupackenden Blick auf die Welt erganzt wird. Mit leichter Hand, fast spielerisch doch voller Energie, sprengte er in seiner Zeit Konventionen. Mit seinem freien, unverkennbaren Strich schuf er Bildwelten, aus denen sein schier unerschoepfliches Interesse an der Natur als Schoepfung spricht, sei es die aussere oder die innere des Menschen. Damit bietet sich eine Fulle von Anknupfungspunkten und Anregungen fur Kunstler und Betrachter.

Winslow Homer was the antithesis of the unkempt bohemian artist of the nineteenth century. Yet he is ranked as one of America's greatest painters. The reason is not hard to discover, for Winslow Homer's powerful epic statements spoke for America with a breadth that few other artists have achieved. This is a lively, intimate, and immensely readable portrait of the artist that throws a new light on Homer's life and puts it in fresh perspective, concentrating on Homer's years at Prout's Neck on Maine's rugged coast, where he would create his finest paintings, from 1883 until his death in 1920.

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'We have lost touch with nature, rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned?... The only real things in life are food and love, in that order, just like [for] our little dog Ruby... and the source of art is love. I love life.' DAVID HOCKNEY Praise for Spring Cannot be Cancelled: 'This book is not so much a celebration of spring as a springboard for ideas about art, space, time and light. It is scholarly, thoughtful and provoking' The Times 'Lavishly illustrated... Gayford is a thoughtfully attentive critic with a capacious frame of reference' Guardian 'Hockney and Gayford's exchanges are infused with their deep knowledge of the history of art ... This is a charming book, and ideal for lockdown because it teaches you to look harder at the things around you' Lynn Barber,The Spectator 'Designed to underscore [Hockney's] original message of hope, and to further explore how art can gladden and invigorate ... meanders amiably from Rembrandt, to the pleasure principle, andouillette sausages and, naturally, to spring' Daily Telegraph On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquillity for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the change of the seasons; a place to keep the madness of the world at bay. So when Covid-19 and lockdown struck, it made little difference to life at La Grande Cour, the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where Hockney set up a studio a year before, in time to paint the arrival of spring. In fact, he relished the enforced isolation as an opportunity for even greater devotion to his art. Spring Cannot be Cancelled is an uplifting manifesto that affirms art's capacity to divert and inspire. It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney's new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others. We see how Hockney is propelled ever forward by his infectious enthusiasms and sense of wonder. A lifelong contrarian, he has been in the public eye for sixty years, yet remains entirely unconcerned by the view of critics or even history. He is utterly absorbed by his four acres of northern France and by the themes that have fascinated him for decades: light, colour, space, perception, water, trees. He has much to teach us, not only about how to see... but about how to live. With 142 illustrations in colour

London-based artist Stephen Willats is a pioneer of conceptual art and has made work examining the function and meaning of art in society since the late 1950s. His first South London Gallery exhibition in 1998, entitled Changing Everything, brought together a body of work made in partnership with local residents over a two-year period. Aiming to create a cultural model of how art might relate to society, the work invited visitors to make their own contributions to it, shifting the way the art institution relates to the world around it. For his latest SLG show, Surfing with the Attractor, Willats re-presents material from Changing Everything alongside a new installation featuring a huge 'data stream' spanning 15 metres and made in collaboration with 14 London-based artists. Comprising hundreds of carefully ordered images in various media, the data stream documents two contrasting streets of London: Rye Lane in Peckham and Regent Street in the West End.Extending beyond the gallery space, the show also includes films from the data stream shown on monitors in shops on Peckham Road and Camberwell Church Street, and graphic stickers will be widely distributed.

N.C. Wyeth's illustrations to Treasure Island and Kidnapped - first published in 1911 and 1913, respectively, by Charles Scribner's Sons - made his artistic reputation. With a bold mastery of light and colour, Wyeth brilliantly conveyed action, character, and setting, lending an extra excitement to Robert Louis Stevenson's tales of pirates and buried treasure, and intrigue in the Scottish Highlands. Now readers can enjoy this classic author-illustrator pairing in a handsome two-volume slipcased set, typeset anew and printed and bound to a high standard. This collectible set also includes a new introduction by Christine B. Podmaniczky, a leading expert on N.C. Wyeth. She reveals Wyeth's daring approach to these illustrations - which he painted at a large scale, directly on the canvas - and explores their later influence on visual culture, including stage and screen adaptations of Stevenson's novels. Also available: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn boxed set, ISBN 9780789213679

In the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) lies an impact akin to a sudden acquisition of sight. His landscapes and seascapes scorch the eye with such ravishing light and color, with such elemental force, it is as if the sun itself were gleaming out of the frame. Appropriately known as "the painter of light," Turner worked in print, watercolor, and oils to transform landscape from serene contemplative scenes to pictures pulsating with life. He anchored his work to the River Thames and to the sea, but in the historical context of the Industrial Revolution, also integrated boats, trains, and other markers of human activity, which juxtaposes the thrust of civilization against the forces of nature. This book covers Turner's illustrious, wide-ranging repertoire to introduce an artist who combined a traditional genre with a radical modernism. 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

As portrayed in this monograph, sculptor Simeon Nelson's work examines human attempts to define, order, and classify nature throughout the ages, questioning how human understanding of the natural world has evolved in relation to the changing fashions of scientific and artistic inquiry.

Each year between 1819 and 1825, John Constable (1776-1837) submitted a monumental canvas to the Royal Academy of Arts in London for display in the annual Exhibition. These so-called six-footers vividly captured the life of the River Stour in Suffolk, where Constable grew up and where he returned to paint each year. The Leaping Horse, the last of these, now a major work in the Academy's collection, is the subject of this fascinating new book. Humphreys explores Constable's often avant-garde working methods, as well as his struggle to gain full acceptance within the art establishment of the early nineteenth century. With reproductions of his full-scale preliminary sketches as well as brand new photography of the painting itself, this book is the ideal companion for art lovers who seek a deeper appreciation of Constable's iconic depictions of the English countryside.

Caravaggio was one of the most important Italian painters of the 17th century. He was, in fact, the wellspring of Baroque painting. In Hibbard's words, Caravaggio's paintings "speak to us more personally and more poignantly than any others of the time". In this study, Howard Hibbard evaluates the work of Caravaggio: notorious as a painter-assassin, hailed by many as an original interpreter of the scriptures, a man whose exploration of nature has been likened to that of Galileo.

An authoritative introduction to one of the most influential painters in the history of art, written by the pre-eminent authority on the subject and informed by the latest research. More versatile and less idiosyncratic than Michelangelo, more prolific and accessible than his mentor Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, though he died at only thirty-seven, is considered the single most influential artist of the Renaissance. Here, art historian Paul Joannides explores the different social and regional contexts of Raphael's work and discusses all aspects of his artistic output. He traces Raphael's career from his origins in Urbino, through his altarpieces made in Umbria in the shadow of Perugino, to the first flowering of his genius in Florence where he painted a series of iconic Madonnas that are among the most beloved images in Western art. Raphael's employment by the dynamic and demanding Pope Julius II gave him opportunities without parallel and encouraged the full expansion of his genius. As a sophisticate entrepreneur, he dominated Rome's artistic life and extended the range of his activities to that of architect, designer, pioneer archaeologist and theoretician. The foundation of Raphael's versatility and range was his supreme clarity of mind as a draughtsman. Knowledge of his drawings, on which Joannides is a leading expert, is central to understanding of his achievement, and they are thoroughly explored here.

Anton van Dalen: Community of Many chronicles the historic artist Anton van Dalen's lifelong visual investigation informed by the influences of war, religion and migration, his devotion to nature, and his dedication to documenting the technological and cultural evolutions within our society across a variety of mediums, from drawing and sculpture to collage and painting. Born in the Netherlands in 1938 to a conservative Calvinist family, Anton witnessed first-hand the terrors of both technological and human destruction during the Second World War. Since he immigrated to New York in 1966 and settled in the East Village, Anton has served as witness, storyteller and documentarian of the dramatic cultural shifts in the neighbourhood through his masterfully honed and singular iconography. Featuring critical essays by John Yau and Tiernan Morgan, this heavily illustrated publication is the first comprehensive monograph on Anton van Dalen's work that provides a language by which to discuss the consequences of human brutality towards nature and our entanglement with technology. Anton has been included in group exhibitions at notable institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; New Museum, New York; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; and the New-York Historical Society. He has also been the subject of solo exhibitions at Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia; University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Exit Art, New York. His Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre has toured since 1995 both nationally and internationally and has been shown at numerous institutions including The Drawing Center, the Museum of Modern Art, and The New-York Historical Society.

This facsimile edition of a 1922 children's book features seventy-three dynamic and whimsical woodcut illustrations-the first woodcuts that the famed American craftsman Wharton Esherick produced. A high-quality replica authorized by the Wharton Esherick Museum, this book reveals the foundation of Esherick's direction as an artist. Edited by Museum director Paul Eisenhauer, it also features a foreword by Museum assistant curator Laura Heemer. The illustrations frame verses that introduce children to the principles of evolution, a highly controversial topic at the time: the book was published three years before the famous Scopes "Monkey" trial of 1925 that resulted in the inclusion of the teaching of evolution in public schools. Drawn by the excitement of the controversy, Esherick threw his passion into these illustrations. Afterward he would go on to carve over 300 woodcuts, leading to decorative carving, and ultimately, to Esherick's realization that he was a sculptor rather than a painter.

Drawing was central to Cezanne's indefatigable search for solutions to the problems posed by the depiction of reality. Many of his watercolours are equal to his paintings, and he himself made no real distinction between painting and drawing. This book's six chapters are arranged thematically covering the whole range of Cezanne's oeuvre: works after the Old Masters such as Michelangelo and Rubens; his period as one of the Impressionists; his exploration of both portraiture and the human figure, including the magnificent bathers; his interaction with landscape, particularly in his native Provence and the dominating form of Mont Sainte-Victoire; and finally the magisterial still lifes. In the Introduction, as well as throughout the book, Lloyd sets the drawings and watercolours in the context of Cezanne's life and overall artistic development. The result is a greater understanding of the process that led to some of the most absorbing art ever produced.

Barbara Earl Thomas's new body of work carries within it the sediments of history and grapples with race and the color line. At the heart of it lies a story of life and death, hope and resilience-a child's survival. With her quietly glowing portraits of young Black boys and girls, Thomas puts before us the humble question: can we see, and be present to, the humanity, the trust, the hopes and dreams of each of these children? The Geography of Innocence offers a reexamination of Black portraiture and the preconceived dichotomies of innocence and guilt and sin and redemption, and the ways in which these notions are assigned and distorted along cultural and racial lines. Two interconnected visual arguments unfold: a portrait gallery of children from the artist's extended community and an illuminated environment that appears like a delicate paper lantern. To accompany the visual elements, the book's essays examine Thomas's work in the context of different art historical portraiture traditions and political relevance. Thomas also contributes an interview and an essay reflecting on the current climate in which the work exists.

Varied and deliberately diverse, this group of essays provides a reassessment of the life and work of the popular nineteenth-century artist Samuel Palmer. While scholarly publications have been published recently which reassess Palmer's achievement, those works primarily consider the artist in isolation. This volume examines his work in relation to a wider art world and analyses areas of his life and output that have until now received little attention, reinstating the study of Palmer's work within broader debates about landscape and cultural history. In Samuel Palmer Revisited, the contributors provide a fresh perspective on Palmer's work, its context and its influence.

Henri Michaux is widely recognized as a major twentieth-century French poet and painter. Although his fascination with universal languages has attracted the attention of several of his critics, it has up until now been treated as a marginal concern. Henri Michaux: Poetry, Painting, and the Universal Sign argues that his ideas on what might constitute a universal language are central to an understanding of his works. It suggests that both his ambivalent articulation of his relationship to the languages and literary traditions of his native Belgium and adoptive France, and his efforts simultaneously to exacerbate and subvert the differences between words and images, are rooted in Enlightenment theories of the relationship of the self to nature and its language
Rigaud-Drayton's study makes a substantial and original contribution to the study of this complex artist, exploring the intricate relationships between word and image in his poetry and paintings, and his quest for a single, unifying language or sign.