Insane Acquaintances explores a range of exhibitions, organisations and institutions that mediated and promoted modernism in Britain. In a series of case studies on subjects ranging from the first Postimpressionist exhibition in London in 1910, the teaching of modernist art in schools, the decoration and design of the modernist home, the International Surrealist exhibition in London in 1936 and the Festival of Britain in 1951, Insane Acquaintances charts some of the ways in which modernism not only sought to improve the quality of art but also the quality of art's reception in Britain. It also provides an institutional history of some of the groups and organisations that fostered modernist art in Britain during that period.

A New American Sculpture, 1914-1945 is the first publication to situate the individual contributions of Gaston Lachaise, Robert Laurent, Elie Nadelman, and William Zorach into a compelling constellation of artists with shared aesthetic and social concerns. Although each European-born, American artist cultivated his own distinct style, their creative priorities were all deeply rooted in quiet composition, synthetic approaches to anatomy, and architectural unity of curves and volume. At a time when abstract forms were popular, Lachaise, Laurent, Nadelman, and Zorach were all ultimately in favor of maintaining the integrity of the human body to explore modernist styles. This handsome book underscores their unrelenting search for a novel American visual tradition at the intersection of modernism, historic visual culture, and contemporary popular imagery. Distributed for the Portland Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Portland Museum of Art (05/26/17-09/08/17) Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee (10/14/17-01/07/18) Amon Carter Museum of American Art (02/17/18-05/13/18)

Shine allures and awakens desire. As a phenomenon of perception shiny things and materials fascinate and tantalize. They are a formative element of material culture, promising luxury, social distinction and the hope of limitless experience and excess. Since the early twentieth century the mass production, dissemination and popularization of synthetic materials that produce heretofore-unknown effects of shine have increased. At the same time, shine is subjectified as "glamor" and made into a token of performative self-empowerment. The volume illuminates genealogical as well as systematic relationships between material phenomena of shine and cultural-philosophical concepts of appearance, illusion, distraction and glare in bringing together renowned scholars from various disciplines.

They were not only two of the outstanding artists of the Bauhaus, but also a well-known couple. Their many famous works and the artists they influenced as teachers and role models bear witness to their life and work. But that is not all, as another ingenious couple literally shows us. The photographer duo Lake Verea has joined forces with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation to trace the material and intellectual traces of their artistic creativity in their estate. Correspondence with Bauhaus colleagues, tubes of paint and fabric fibers are captured with an extraordinary feel and vividness. Seeing the objects gives wings to the imagination. For inevitably, one sees the hands of the artists at work, who formed their very own contribution to 20th century art history from these objects, conversations and trains of thought.