Titian (c. 1488-1576) was recognised very early on as the leading painter of his generation in Venice. Starting in the studio of the aged Giovanni Bellini, Titian, with his contemporary Giorgione, almost immediately started to expand the range of what was possible in painting, converting Bellini's statuesque style into something far more impressionistic and romantic. This restless spirit of innovation and improvisation never left him, and during his long life he experimented with a number of different styles, the brushwork of his last great paintings showing a mysterious poetry that has never been equalled. This volume in the series Lives of the Artists collects the major writings about Titian by his contemporaries and near contemporaries. The centrepiece is the biography by Vasari, who as a Florentine found Titian's very Venetian sense of colour and transient forms a challenge to his concept of art as design. The poet Ariosto and sparkling letter writer Aretino had a more nuanced view of their friend's work, and Priscianese's account of a dinner party with Titian, and the contributions by Speroni and Dolce, and the slightly later Tuscan critic Borghini, round out the picture of this hugely thoughtful, intellectual artist, whose paintings remain some of the most sensual and affecting in all of Western art. Mostly unavailable in any form for many years, these writings have been newly edited for this edition. They are introduced by the scholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artistic and literary context. Approximately 50 pages of colour illustrations cover the full range of Titian's great oeuvre.

Arthur Melville was arguably the most innovative and modernist Scottish artist of his generation and one of the finest British watercolourists of the nineteenth century, yet he avoided categorisation. In 1943 that the Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson confessed that although they never met, "his work opened up to me the way to free painting - not merely freedom in the use of paint, but freedom of outlook". This book offers a comprehensive survey of Arthur Melville's (1855-1904) rich and varied career as artist-adventurer, Orientalist, forerunner of The Glasgow Boys, painter of modern life and re-interpreter of the landscape of Scotland. His travels inspired spectacular watercolours and paintings. This book illustrates around sixty of his works, each with a catalogue entry, and an essay by Kenneth McConkey, which discusses Melville's art and career.

"Revelatory and sublime...Her work remains conceptually open enough for viewers to draw their own conclusions, insert their own meaning and feel transported to other glorious worlds." -The New York Times One of the most inventive artists of the twentieth century, Hilma af Klint was a pioneer of abstraction. Her first forays into her imaginative non-objective painting long preceded the work of Kandinsky and Mondrian and radically mined the fields of science and religion. Deeply interested in spiritualism and philosophy, af Klint developed an iconography that explores esoteric concepts in metaphysics, as demonstrated in Tree of Knowledge. This rarely seen series of watercolors renders orbital, enigmatic forms, visual allegories of unification and separateness, darkness and light, beginning and end, life and death, and spirit and matter. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Tree of Knowledge at David Zwirner New York in 2021 and David Zwirner London in 2022, this catalogue features a text by the art historian Susan Aberth examining af Klint's spiritual and anthroposophical influences. With a conversation between the curator Helen Molesworth and the US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo discussing connections between Tree of Knowledge and native theories about plant knowledge, the publication broadens the scope of philosophical interpretations of af Klint's timeless work. Also included is a newly commissioned essay by the celebrated af Klint scholar Julia Voss, a contribution by the artist Suzan Frecon, and a text by art historian Max Rosenberg that further develops the conversation around why af Klint's work was not recognized in its time.

This monograph gathers and presents the largest assemblage in one volume about the life, work, and ideas of Banksy - the world's most discussed artist of recent decades. Featuring hundreds of works - Girl with Balloon, Mickey Snake, Dismaland, Love is in the Air, Barcode, Monkey Queen -- the book includes reproductions of paintings, serigraphs, and stencils. The most iconic works are here, but so too are numerous installation objects and a selection of memorabilia all with the official approval of Pest Control, the group that manages all things Banksy. Banksy is considered the world's greatest practitioner of street art at work today. His work has always implied political critiques - of inequality, injustice, discrimination, consumerism, pollution, and the establishment. But, Banksy is a ghost -- no one knows his identity. He is an exemplary case of fame and notoriety built upon absence, anonymity, and the denial of one's explicit contribution to the public debate if not in terms of creative activism. Banksy's relationship with the art market is also complex: at the same time mocking, distant, and hostile and yet all he does is based upon a marketing logic that has proven to be among the most effective ever attempted. In short, an apparent (or real) contradiction between adhesion to the market and ferocious criticism of the market itself. This volume is published to coincide with a major traveling exhibition of over one hundred Banksy works, but it is sure to be a must have for art lovers and Banksy fans alike for years to come.

By the early 1970s, an active bohemian colony had developed in Santa Fe and it became a cultural boom town. The number of art galleries went from two to a hundred. Besides the Santa Fe Opera, there came into being endless festivals: for art, music, literature, theater, movies, fashion, and the crafts of Indians and Spanish Americans. The city's complex heritage of three interlocked cultures became "Santa Fe Style." But the fifteen years between 1964 and 1980 held a special magic. And Eli Levin experienced it all: the fading generation of older artists and the newly arriving younger generation; wild night life at Claude's Bar; artist's battles with conservative arts organizations; questionable successes and tragic failure of careers; exemplary examples of lifetime dedication; and a number of suppressed scandals, one even involving possible murders. Packed with amusing anecdotes about the various artists with whom Levin painted, plotted and partied, this vivid memoir testifies to the exciting rebirth and burgeoning growth of one of this country's most well known art colonies. Eli Levin, the son of novelist Meyer Levin, is known for his paintings of Santa Fe night life. He has run art galleries, written art reviews and taught art history. He hosts two artist's gatherings, a drawing group since 1969 and the Santa Fe Etching Club since 1980. Levin studied painting with Raphael Soyer, George Grosz and Robert Beverly Hale, among others, and has Master's degrees from Wisconsin University and St. John's College.

What did it mean for painter Lee Krasner to be an artist and a woman if, in the culture of 1950s New York, to be an artist was to be Jackson Pollock and to be a woman was to be Marilyn Monroe? With this question, Griselda Pollock begins a transdisciplinary journey across the gendered aesthetics and the politics of difference in New York abstract, gestural painting. Revisiting recent exhibitions of Abstract Expressionism that either marginalised the artist-women in the movement or focused solely on the excluded women, as well as exhibitions of women in abstraction, Pollock reveals how theories of embodiment, the gesture, hysteria and subjectivity can deepen our understanding of this moment in the history of painting co-created by women and men. Providing close readings of key paintings by Lee Krasner and re-thinking her own historic examination of images of Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler at work, Pollock builds a cultural bridge between the New York artist-women and their other, Marilyn Monroe, a creative actor whose physically anguished but sexually appropriated star body is presented as pathos formula of life energy. Monroe emerges as a haunting presence within this moment of New York modernism, eroding the policed boundaries between high and popular culture and explaining what we gain by re-thinking art with the richness of feminist thought. -- .

en Lauschmann's work is informed by his interest in the earliest forms of magical entertainment and the latest technical innovations. In his largest solo exhibition to date, he explores the use of tools, techniques and systems to solve problems, with the aim of bypassing the tension between optimistic and sceptical attitudes towards technology. Startle Reaction uses Lauschmann's interest in automatons and cinema to play with the notion that we are capable of believing in things we know are false.

A beautifully designed gift book devoted to the work of the renowned ceramics firm Wedgwood. Looking back at key moments in Wedgwood's design history, this book celebrates the visual power and great design encapsulated by Wedgwood from its founding in 1759 to the present day. The name 'Wedgwood' has come to stand for something far beyond its illustrious and energetic founder: uniting art and industry; introducing design and artistic collaborations; the iconic blue and white of Wedgwood jasper. This book tells that story through the lens of design, reflecting the continuing role that Wedgwood and its designers, artists and employees played in setting trends, responding to the market and producing high-quality, desirable ceramics for a broad range of consumers, yet tied to the traditions established by Josiah Wedgwood in the eighteenth century. It presents highlights from the V&A Wedgwood Collection, reflecting the unique proposition of Wedgwood's business: by operating in both the 'ornamental' and 'useful' markets, Wedgwood was able to bring innovative ceramic design to large areas of a captive market. These ceramics and their stories demonstrate the artistic heritage, craft and innovation that have become synonymous with the Wedgwood name.

William Morris's interests were wide-ranging: he was a poet, writer, political and social activist, conservationist and businessman, as well as a brilliant and original designer and manufacturer. This book explores the balance between Morris's various spheres of activity and influence, places his art in the context of its time and explores his ongoing and far-reaching legacy. A pioneer of the Arts & Crafts Movement, William Morris (1834-1896) is one of the most influential designers of all time. Morris turned the tide of Victorian England against an increasingly industrialized manufacturing process towards a rediscovered respect for the skill of the maker. Morris's whole approach still resonates today, and his designs are popular and much admired. Published to mark the 125th anniversary of Morris's death, this book includes contributions from a wide range of Morris experts, with chapters on painting, church decoration and stained glass, interior decoration, furniture, tiles and tableware, wallpaper, textiles, calligraphy and publishing. Additional materials include a contextualized chronology of Morris's life and a list of public collections around the world where examples of Morris's work may be seen today. This study is a comprehensive, fully illustrated exploration of a great thinker and artist, and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of design. With 668 illustrations in colour

The bestselling visual biography of one of the twentieth century's most innovative, influential artists Andy Warhol "Giant" Size is the definitive document of this remarkable creative force, and a telling look at late twentieth-century pop culture. A must-have for Warhol fans and pop culture enthusiasts, this in-depth and comprehensive overview of Warhol's extraordinary career is packed with more than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography, and artwork. Dave Hickey's compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution combines with chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders to give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. It also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the New York art world of the 1950s to the 1980s. From the publisher of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne, Volumes 1 - 5.