Norman Ackroyd CBE RA has been a familiar face to the boatmen of the British Isles for the past 50 years, often requiring their services to take him out on the water, where he paints the coastal landscape in vivid watercolours. An Irish Notebook is a collection of 40 such sketches created by Ackroyd on the west coast of Ireland. From Malin to Mizen, via the rocky outcrops of Puffin Island and the emerald depths of Roaringwater Bay, Ackroyd records the Irish coast in all its rugged beauty.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) has entered mainstream culture as one of the founding fathers of modern art. Despite his popularity, books on Duchamp often shroud his work in theoretical and critical writing. Here, instead, is a book exploring the artist's life and work in a thoroughly new and engaging manner, with short, alphabetical dictionary entries written in lively, jargon- free prose that at last allow Duchamp's work and influence to be accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience. The book features more than 200 entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people and ideas in Duchamp's life, from chess, puns, the fourth dimension, love and genius, to the Bicycle Wheel and Fountain, Walter and Louise Arensberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine S. Dreier and Arturo Schwarz. A contextual introduction shows how the dictionary form has been an inspiration to artists and writers from Flaubert to the Surrealists. Underpinned by the latest scholarship and research, Thomas Girst's texts show how, in the words of contemporary artist Thomas Hirschhorn, Duchamp was 'the most intelligent mind of his time'.

Ronnie Wood is one of the foremost rock guitarists in the world, but his artistic talents extend beyond music. Throughout his stellar musical career from The Birds to the Faces and the Rolling Stones, Ronnie has never lost his passion for painting, drawing and sculpture. Exuding the same irrepressible energy as Ronnie himself, Ronnie Wood: Artist is the first ever comprehensive collection of his paintings and other artworks, created to mark the occasion of his seventieth birthday. The bright, bold volume brings together the fruits of a lifetime in the arts, brimming with six decades of memorable and diverse work, from his art college portfolio (he studied alongside Pete Townshend) to the intimate work of his personal life today. Inside, a generous selection of his Stones work, including rare watercolours of Mick, Keith and Charlie backstage, meets acrylics of contemporaries Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck and Keith Moon. Portraits of formative jazz innovators Count Basie, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday sit alongside blues heroes Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy. Paintings of Hollywood's elite - Paul Newman, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe - juxtapose real-time fashion sketches of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and deft pastel compositions from his residency at the Royal Ballet. The artist himself provides the captions and insights into the thought and motivation behind each piece. With an introduction by Emmanuel Guigon (director of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona, where Ronnie will be beginning a residency in 2018) and an afterword by none other than Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood: Artist exists where fine art and rock 'n' roll collide. This extensive and eclectic collection offers unique insights into the entire world of Ronnie Wood, and, with close to 400 works, is a fitting testament to the artistic range and ambition of rock 'n' roll's most successful artist

Many people know that Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French Impressionism, a master of landscape painting whose works include Impression, Sunrise and Water Lilies. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he created the ponds featuring those water lilies and spent 30 years painting 250 oils of them; that his water-lily work Le Bassin aux Nymphease sold in 2008 for $40 million; that his painting Cliffs Near Dieppe was stolen not once but twice; and that he was almost blind when he painted some of his most famous works. Biographic: Monet presents an instant impression of his life, work and fame, with an array of irresistible facts and figures convered into infographics to reveal the artist behind the pictures.

Pedro de Mena y Medrano (1628-1688) is the most highly regarded master of Spanish Baroque sculpture, on a par with his contemporaries, the great seventeenth-century painters Velazquez, Zurbaran and Murillo. Mena's contributions to Spanish Baroque sculpture are unsurpassed in both technical skill and expressiveness of his religious subjects. His ability to sculpt the human body was remarkable, and he excelled in creating figures and scenes for contemplation. This first monograph of Pedro de Mena shows incredible details and remarkable images of his hyper-realistic sculptures, full of passion. In addition to text by curator Xavier Bray, Pedro de Mena also features important contributions by Jose Luis Romeo Torres, curator of the exhibition Pedro de Mena, to be held in Malaga in 2019.

Examining the literary career of the eighteenth-century Irish painter James Barry, 1741-1806 through an interdisciplinary methodology, The Writings of James Barry and the Genre of History Painting, 1775-1809 is the first full-length study of the artist's writings. Liam Lenihan critically assesses the artist's own aesthetic philosophy about painting and printmaking, and reveals the extent to which Barry wrestles with the significant stylistic transformations of the pre-eminent artistic genre of his age: history painting. Lenihan's book delves into the connections between Barry's writings and art, and the cultural and political issues that dominated the public sphere in London during the American and French Revolutions. Barry's writings are read within the context of the political and aesthetic thought of his distinguished friends and contemporaries, such as Edmund Burke, his first patron; Joshua Reynolds, his sometime friend and rival; Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, with whom he was later friends; and his students and adversaries, William Blake and Henry Fuseli. Ultimately, Lenihan's interdisciplinary reading shows the extent to which Barry's faith in the classical tradition in general, and the genre of history painting in particular, is permeated by the hermeneutics of suspicion. This study explores and contextualizes Barry's attempt to rethink and remake the preeminent art form of his era.

On June 10, 1935, Dorse Lanpher was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. After he was resuscitated by the doctor, Dorse began living a meaningful life ruled by his vivid imagination, artistic talent, and passion for creating unforgettable special effects environments for the animated characters.

In his memoir, Dorse shares a revealing glimpse into his fascinating life as an artist in the animated film industry. He begins by offering entertaining childhood anecdotes that describe cherished moments like skinny-dipping with his friends, saving his money and buying his family their first television, and constructing a homemade golf course in a field of wild grass. After he graduated from high school in California and entered the Art Center School of Los Angeles, Dorse's talent was recognized by his teachers; after five challenging semesters, however, he left the school. As Dorse embarked on a journey to conquer a new world with nothing but a portfolio of his best art and a desire to live his dream, he soon discovered that, with a little tenacity, he could do anything.

Dorse's captivating story proves that following one's passion is never free from struggle, but staying true to a dream can lead to a life fulfilled.

Widely acknowledged as a major turning point in the history of visual depictions of war, Francisco de Goya's renowned print series The Disasters of War remains a touchstone for serious engagement with the violence of war and the questions raised by its artistic representation. The Art of Witnessing provides a new account of Goya's print series by taking readers through the forty-seven prints he dedicated to the violence of war. Drawing on facets of Goya's artistry rarely considered together before, the book challenges the notion that documentary realism and historical testimony were his primary aims. Michael Iarocci argues that while the depiction of war's atrocities was central to Goya's project, the lasting power of the print series stems from the artist's complex moral and aesthetic meditations on the subject. Making novel contributions to longstanding debates about historical memory, testimony, and the representation of violence, The Art of Witnessing tells a new story, print by print, to highlight the ways in which Goya's masterpiece extends far beyond conventional understandings of visual testimony.

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.

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

As he turns 100, the definitive monograph of Wayne Thiebaud's work is now available in a reformatted, accessibly priced edition, and including his most recent paintings. This is the most comprehensive monograph to date on Wayne Thiebaud, with new works added, in a reformatted size. Spanning the length of his career from the 1950s to the present, the book has been made in close collaboration with the artist. Thiebaud selected the works himself, making the book an act of autobiography in a sense. At age 100, he looks back over his life and his work, rich with breakthroughs in painting and masterful individuality. Required reading for those who have a healthy appetite for provocative art. -Bloomberg Business This comprehensive monograph of more than 200 illustrations can literally be considered eye candy. American artist Wayne Thiebaud is famed for his brightly coloured canvases of cakes, diner pies, pastries, ice cream cones, candy and brightly coloured gumball machines. . . . Whether still lifes or landscapes, Thiebaud's paintings are akin to visual Prozac; you simply cannot be in a bad mood looking at them. -Kansas City Magazine While Thiebaud is best known for his heavily pigmented still lifes of cakes, pies, and candies, [this] book shows his broader range, from vibrant landscapes depicting highways and farmland to portraits of solitary figures. . . The texts examine Thiebaud's influences as well as his impact on the art world and the individual viewers of his work. -Architectural Digest

For more than five centuries The Last Supper has been an artistic, religious and cultural icon. The art historian Kenneth Clark called it 'the keystone of European art', and for a century after its creation it was regarded as nothing less than a miraculous image. And yet there is a very human story behind this artistic 'miracle'. Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper is both a 'biography' of one of the most famous works of art ever painted and a record of Leonardo da Vinci's last five years in Milan.

Czech artist Miroslav Sasek (1916-1980) was remarkable for his unique and pioneering approach to non-fiction picture books, illustrating daily life as if seen from a child's perspective. His bestselling This Is... series eventually totalled eighteen books. A witty collection of travel guides for children, the books employ an avant-garde synthesis of word and image that captures the joyous idiosyncrasies of life and culture in cities and countries around the world. With great insight, acclaimed author Martin Salisbury analyses Sasek's multifarious oeuvre, and how he became one of the twentieth century's most beloved and significant contributors to the world of picture books. The artist's charming travelogues continue to appeal to adults and children alike, even in a digital age exploding with travel imagery. In this beautifully designed book, illustrated with sketches and original artwork, and featuring examples spanning from Greece to Hong Kong, Rome to San Francisco, Ireland to Israel and more, Sasek's best-known works come alive alongside lesser-known aspects of his practice, such as painting and puppet-making. With 119 illustrations

The Life and Times of Moses Jacob Ezekiel: American Sculptor, Arcadian Knight tells the remarkable story of Moses Ezekiel and his rise to international fame as an artist in late nineteenth-century Italy. Sephardic Jew, homosexual, Confederate soldier, Southern apologist, opponent of slavery, patriot, expatriate, mystic, Victorian, dandy, good Samaritan, humanist, royalist, romantic, reactionary, republican, monist, dualist, theosophist, freemason, champion of religious freedom, proto-Zionist, and proverbial Court Jew, Moses Ezekiel was a riddle of a man, a puzzle of seemingly irreconcilable parts. Knighted by three European monarchs, courted by the rich and famous, Moses Ezekiel lived the life of an aristocrat with rarely a penny to his name. Making his home in the capacious ruins of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, he quickly distinguished himself as the consummate artist and host, winning international fame for his work and consorting with many of the lions and luminaries of the fin-de-siecle world, including Giuseppe Garibaldi, Queen Margherita, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Sarah Bernhardt, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Annie Besant, Clara Schumann, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Alphonse Daudet, Mark Twain, Emile Zola, Robert E. Lee, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Isaac Mayer Wise. In a city besieged with eccentrics, he, a Southern Jewish homosexual sculptor, was outstanding, an enigma to those who knew him, a man at once stubbornly original and deeply emblematic of his times. According to Stanley Chyet in his introduction to Ezekiel's memoirs, "The contemporary European struggle between liberalism and reaction, between modernity and feudalism, between the democratic and the hierarchical is rather amply refracted in Ezekiel's account of his life in Rome." Indeed so many of the contentious cultural, political, artistic, and scientific struggles of the age converged in the figure of this adroit and prepossessing Jew.

The first book dedicated to Picasso's self-portraits, many held in private collections and published here for the first time. Much has been said and written about Picasso's life and art, but until now his self-portraits have never been studied and presented in a single book, perhaps because the artist always left many doubts about his work. However, there is no doubt that Picasso represented himself ceaselessly, whether in a dashed-off pencil sketch, as a flourish at the bottom of a letter, or on a giant canvas. At the suggestion of Picasso's widow Jacqueline, the distinguished art historian Pascal Bonafoux began researching Picasso's self-portraits more than forty years ago. This meticulously researched book presents the fruits of his decades-long project. From the first attributed painting in 1894 as a thirteen-year-old boy, until Picasso's final self-portrait in 1972, a year before his death, Bonafoux charts the evolution of the artist's life and art. Here is Picasso as a student; as a young bohemian; an impetuous artist in Paris; as harlequin; as lover, husband and father; and finally, as an old man confronting his mortality. The book comprises about 170 drawings, paintings and photographs, some from private collections and previously unpublished, bringing together for the first time the attributed self-portraits of this genius of 20th-century art.

It is so good, after so many years of public indifference, even hostility towards Vincent and his work, to feel towards the end of my life that the battle is won.' JO VAN GOGH-BONGER TO GUSTAVE COQUIOT, 1922 'It is a sacrifice for the sake of Vincent's glory.' JO VAN GOGH-BONGER ON THE SALE OF 'THE SUNFLOWERS' TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY, UK, 1924 Little known but no less influential, Jo van Gogh-Bonger was sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh, wife of his brother, Theo. When the brothers died soon after each other, she took charge of Van Gogh's artistic legacy and devoted the rest of her life to disseminating his work. Despite being widowed with a young son, Jo successfully navigated the male-dominated world of the art market-publishing Van Gogh's letters, organizing exhibitions in the Netherlands and throughout the world, and making strategic sales to private individuals and influential dealers-ultimately establishing Van Gogh's reputation as one of the finest artists of his generation. In doing so, she fundamentally changed how we view the relationship between the artist and his work. She also lived a rich and fascinating life-not only was she friends with eminent writers and artists, but she also was active within the Social Democratic Labour Party and closely involved in emerging women's movements. Using rich source material, including unseen diaries, documents and letters, Hans Luijten charts the multi-faceted life of this visionary woman with the drive to shake the art world to its core.

How many times have you seen a woman artist solely referred to as the wife, girlfriend, muse, or 'mistress' of a man in the public eye? Throughout history, the achievements of women working across artistic disciplines - from visual artists to writers to filmmakers - have been largely undervalued, with the title of 'genius' reserved mainly for men. More than a Muse unpacks the complex romantic relationships that left women overshadowed, anonymous or underestimated in their work. Katie McCabe shines a light on the stories of talents like photographer Dora Maar, pioneering film editor and Hitchcock-collaborator Alma Reville, jazz pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong and many more. Exploring a broad scope of art movements and moments from Surrealism to early British silent film, Katie reexamines the contributions of women that have too often been ignored. More than a Muse views our history through the lens of artistic partnership, and positions women solidly in the foreground.

William Reid Dick (1878-1961) was one of a generation of British sculptors air-brushed out of art history by the Modernist critics of the late twentieth century. This long-overdue monograph adds to the recent revival of interest in this group of forgotten sculptors, by describing the life and work of arguably the leading figure of the group in unprecedented depth. The facts of Reid Dick's life and his most important works are presented against a backdrop of the historical, social and aesthetic changes taking place during his lifetime. Dennis Wardleworth elucidates why Reid Dick's reputation plummeted so quickly, and why his position in the history of British art deserves to be restored. This study draws upon a wealth of previously unpublished material, including over 2000 letters, and press cuttings and photographs in the Tate Archive, as well as letters and photographs held by Reid Dick's family. It traces the sculptor's story from his birth in the Gorbals in Glasgow, to his election to the Royal Academy and knighting by George V, to the decline of his career and his late-life connection with American millionaire and art collector Huntington Hartford. The first monograph on Reid Dick since 1945, the book also includes images of over 40 of his works and a listing of over 200 works identified by the author.

If you were a consumer of literature in the nineteenth century, chances are the volumes in your library featured the illustrations of Gustave Doré. From the Bible to Shakespeare, Balzac to Milton, Cervantes to Poe, Doré’s intricate, romantic, and exuberant drawings brought great works to life, and were as treasured as the stories and poetry they depicted. Furthermore, as this magnificent book reveals, he was also a skilled sculptor, painter, and cartoonist. This book spans Doré’s entire career, with chapters dedicated to specific works such as The Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and medieval fairy tales—each featuring exquisite full-page reproductions that allow Doré’s genius for line, shading, and texture to shine through. The authors also provide a background on the techniques that Doré employed to achieve his exquisite works. Fans of Doré will appreciate this volume’s spectacular production, which features quarter binding, gold foil stamping, embossing on the cover and spine, a belly band, and silkscreen printing on three edges. Filled with incisive analysis and expert historical perspectives, this book is the consummate collector’s item—a volume as expansive and sensational as the artist himself.