Rather than approaching the art of precocious young artists with autism as enigmatic and symptomatic, their work is explored as having its origin in human physiology and in the intrinsic human need for meaning. The narrative images in these young artists' exceptional art serve as both evidence and focus, allowing us to see the commonalities of all art and image-making. No art has been considered more enigmatic than that of young children with autism, for their often extremely early drawings intrigue viewers with their vivid, visually-based, perspective emphasis. Such art, often spontaneously produced by artists frequently considered retarded, is difficult to understand within the usual constructs of drawing pedagogy that emphasizes the necessity of practice and experience for mastery. However, it is a useful means of expressing one's interior self and of sharing with others a tale of one's own creation. Finally, this expression forms enduring links with other people in the common human language of lines and forms.

Children's reactions to art can be incredibly insightful and few artists attract a young audience as much as Keith Haring, who used thick black lines, bright colors, and striking symbols to create paintings that are as open to interpretation as they are joyful and fun. This engaging book records children's reactions to Haring's most imaginative drawings, and the results are as unpredictable and profound as the work itself. Along the way, the book encourages its readers to let their own imaginations run wild. By exploring Haring's life, technique, and creativity, the book will inspire readers of all ages to express themselves, whether through art, poetry, or simply saying what is on their minds.

The author contrasts primitive & naive painting through the life & work of 2 of Cornwall's distinctive artists. The survey concludes with brief profiles of a dozen other artists whose individual visions have enriched the life of this celebrated artist's c

Much has changed in the world of folk art since the millennium. Many of the recognized ""masters"" have died and new artists have emerged. Many galleries have closed but few new ones have opened, as artists and dealers increasingly sell through websites and social media. The growth and popularity of auction houses has altered the relationship between artists and collectors. In its third edition, this book provides updated information on artists, galleries, museums, auctions, organizations and publications for both experienced and aspiring collectors of self-taught, outsider and folk art. Gallery and museum entries are organized geographically and alphabetically by state and city.

Bringing Latin American popular art out of the margins and into the center of serious scholarship, this book rethinks the cultural canon and recovers previously undervalued cultural forms as art. Juan Ramos uses ""decolonial aesthetics,"" a theory that frees the idea of art from Eurocentric forms of expression and philosophies of the beautiful, to examine the long decade of the 1960s in Latin America-- time of cultural production that has not been studied extensively from a decolonial perspective. Ramos looks at examples of ""antipoetry,"" unconventional verse that challenges canonical poets and often addresses urgent social concerns. He analyzes the militant popular songs of nueva cancion by musicians including Mercedes Sosa and Violeta Parra. He discusses films that use visually shocking images and melodramatic effects to tell the stories of Latin American nations. These art forms, he argues, appeal to an aesthetic that involves all the senses. Instead of being outdated byproducts of their historical moments, they continue to influence Latin American cultural production today.

The anthropology of art is currently at a crossroads. Although well versed in the meaning of art in small-scale tribal societies, anthropologists are still wrestling with the question of how to interpret art in a complex, post-colonial environment. Alfred Gell recently confronted this problem in his posthumous book Art and Agency. The central thesis of his study was that art objects could be seen, not as bearers of meaning or aesthetic value, but as forms mediating social action. At a stroke, Gell provocatively dismissed many longstanding but tired questions of definition and issues of aesthetic value. His book proposed a novel perspective on the roles of art in political practice and made fresh links between analyses of style, tradition and society.
Offering a new overview of the anthropology of art, this book begins where Gell left off. Presenting wide-ranging critiques of the limits of aesthetic interpretation, the workings of objects in practice, the relations between meaning and efficacy and the politics of postcolonial art, its distinguished contributors both elaborate on and dissent from the controversies of Gell's important text. Subjects covered include music and the internet as well as ethnographic traditions and contemporary indigenous art. Geographically its case studies range from India to Oceania to North America and Europe.

The anthropology of art is currently at a crossroads. Although well versed in the meaning of art in small-scale tribal societies, anthropologists are still wrestling with the question of how to interpret art in a complex, post-colonial environment. Alfred Gell recently confronted this problem in his posthumous book Art and Agency. The central thesis of his study was that art objects could be seen, not as bearers of meaning or aesthetic value, but as forms mediating social action. At a stroke, Gell provocatively dismissed many longstanding but tired questions of definition and issues of aesthetic value. His book proposed a novel perspective on the roles of art in political practice and made fresh links between analyses of style, tradition and society.
Offering a new overview of the anthropology of art, this book begins where Gell left off. Presenting wide-ranging critiques of the limits of aesthetic interpretation, the workings of objects in practice, the relations between meaning and efficacy and the politics of postcolonial art, its distinguished contributors both elaborate on and dissent from the controversies of Gell's important text. Subjects covered include music and the internet as well as ethnographic traditions and contemporary indigenous art. Geographically its case studies range from India to Oceania to North America and Europe.

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was a clerk in the Paris customs service who dreamed of becoming a famous artist. At the age 49, he decided to give it a try. At first, Rousseau's bright, bold paintings of jungles and exotic flora and fauna were dismissed as childish and simplistic, but his unique and tenacious style soon won acclaim. After 1886, he exhibited regularly at Paris's prestigious Salon des Independants, and in 1908 he received a legendary banquet of honor, hosted by Picasso. Although best known for his tropical scenes, Rousseau, in fact, never left France, relying on books and magazines for inspiration, as well as trips to natural history museums and anecdotes from returning military acquaintances. Working in oil on canvas, he tended toward a vibrant palette, vivid rendering, as well as a certain lush, languid sensuality as seen in the nude in the jungle composition The Dream. Today, "Rousseau's myth" is well established in art history, garnering comparison with such other post-Impressionist masters as Cezanne, Matisse, and Gauguin. In this dependable TASCHEN introduction, we explore the makings of this late-blooming artist and his legacy as an unlikely hero of modernism. "Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see." - Henri Rousseau

The Outsider (Patricide 6) is an investigation into the notion of the Outsider Artist. Including essays from Roger Cardinal (author of 'Outsider Art', 1972) and Michel Remy (author of 'Surrealism in Britain', 2001) alongside articles by Outsider Artists (including George Widener, Chris Hipkiss and Tony Convey) and those who have worked with them.

Galleries of Maoriland introduces us to the many ways in which Pakeha discovered, created, propagated and romanticised the Maori world at the turn of the century - in the paintings of Lindauer and Goldie, among artists, patrons, collectors and audiences; inside the Polynesian Society and the Dominion Museum; among stolen artefacts and fantastical accounts of the Maori past. The culture of Maoriland was a Pakeha creation. But Galleries of Maoriland shows that Maori were not merely passive victims: they too had a stake in this process of romanticisation. What, this book asks, were some of the Maori purposes that were served by curio displays, portrait collections, and the wider ethnological culture? Why did the idealisation of an ancient Maori world, which obsessed ethnological inquirers and artists alike, appeal also to Maori? Who precisely were the Maori participants in this culture, and what were their motives? Galleries of Maoriland looks at Maori prehistory in Pakeha art; the enthusiasm of Pakeha and Maori for portraiture and recreations of ancient life; the trade in Maori curios; and the international exhibition of this colonial culture. By illuminating New Zealand's artistic and ethnographic economy at the turn of the twentieth century, this book provides a new understanding of our art and our culture.

"Ask the beast and it will teach thee, and the birds of heaven and they will tell thee." -Job 12:7 In the Middle Ages, the bestiary achieved a popularity second only to that of the Bible. In addition to being a kind of encyclopedia of the animal kingdom, the bestiary also served as a book of moral and religious instruction, teaching human virtues through a portrayal of an animal's true or imagined behavior. In A Jewish Bestiary, Mark Podwal revisits animals, both real and mythical, that have captured the Jewish imagination through the centuries. Originally published in 1984 and called "broad in learning and deep in subtle humor" by the New York Times, this updated edition of A Jewish Bestiary features new full-color renderings of thirty-five creatures from Hebraic legend and lore. The illustrations are accompanied by entertaining and instructive tales drawn from biblical, talmudic, midrashic, and kabbalistic sources. Throughout, Podwal combines traditional Jewish themes with his own distinctive style. The resulting juxtaposition of art with history results in a delightful and enlightening bestiary for the twenty-first century. From the ant to the ziz, herein are the creatures that exert a special force on the Jewish fancy.

Alfred Wallis spent most of his life in the Cornish ports of Newlyn, Penzance and St Ives, and went to sea as a young man. His main occupation was as a dealer in marine supplies and he was in his seventies before he took up painting 'for company'. He sold his works for a few pence, and died in the poorhouse. Wallis is now recognised as one of the most original British artists of the twentieth century, the directness of his 'primitive' vision and the object-like quality of his paintings being highly valued. This book revises previous accounts of Wallis's life in the light of new research and traces the development of his painting over seventeen years. It also looks at the mythology that grew up around Wallis and at the sustained interest in the irascible eccentric whose work affected a generation of British artists.

From Drop Caps to Deluxes, Penguin Creative Director Paul Buckley presents a visual overview of the innovative covers that have put Penguin Classics at the forefront of the book design world Since the launch ofPenguin Classics in 1946, innovative cover designhas been one of its defining aspects. Today, Penguin Classics remains at the leading edge of the book-design world. In this curatedtour featuring illuminating commentary by artists and writers, including Malika Favre, Mike Mignola, James Franco, Jessica Hische, Jillian Tamaki and many more, Penguin creative director Paul Buckley showcases more than a decade of stunning cover designs and the stories behind them. For lovers of classic literature, book design, and all things Penguin, Classic Penguin has you covered. Paul Buckley is creative director for Penguin Classics and oversees a large staff of exceptionally talented designers and art directors working on the jackets and covers of sixteen imprints within the Penguin Random House publishing group. Over the past two decades, his iconic design and singular art direction have been showcased on thousands of covers and jackets, winning him many awards and frequent invitations to speak in the United States and abroad. In 2010, he edited and introduced Penguin 75. Matt Vee is a designer and illustrator who attended School of Visual Arts and Pratt Institute. He has received two Gold Scholastic Art Awards and created logos for worldwide brands. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Slate, Print magazine, Paste magazine, and UnderConsideration s Brand New. Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and writer. In addition to the bestselling novels The Time Traveler s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, she is the author of three illustrated novels and the editor of Ghostly. Elda Rotor is vice president and publisher for Penguin Classics. She has created and edited several series, including Penguin Civic Classics, Penguin Threads, Couture Classics, Penguin Horror, and Penguin Drop Caps."

Contemporary Jewish art is a growing field that includes traditional as well as new creative practices, yet criticism of it is almost exclusively reliant on the Second Commandment's prohibition of graven images. Arguing that this disregards the corpus of Jewish thought and a century of criticism and interpretation, Ben Schachter advocates instead a new approach focused on action and process. Departing from the traditional interpretation of the Second Commandment, Schachter addresses abstraction, conceptual art, performance art, and other styles that do not rely on imagery for meaning. He examines Jewish art through the concept of melachot-work-like "creative activities" as defined by the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides. Showing the similarity between art and melachot in the active processes of contemporary Jewish artists such as Ruth Weisberg, Allan Wexler, Archie Rand, and Nechama Golan, he explores the relationship between these artists' methods and Judaism's demanding attention to procedure. A compellingly written challenge to traditionalism, Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art makes a well-argued case for artistic production, interpretation, and criticism that revels in the dual foundation of Judaism and art history.

One of the most fascinating artistic phenomena in tropical Africa, mbari houses are little known outside Igboland. Art historian Herbert M. Cole has drawn from his extensive research in eastern Nigeria to produce the first book-length study of this unusual art form. Cole describes the building of a mbari mud house to honor the gods, a process rich in tradition and ritual, marked by body painting, drumming, dancing, singing, and chanting. The ecology, socio-cultural systems, and religion of the Owerri area are examined as a backdrop to the elaborate stage of the building process, which may take up to two years to complete.

Illustrated with rare field photographs and superb line drawings, this volume describes and interprets mbari houses not as isolated works of art but as monuments growing out of, and expressive of, the values and beliefs of Owerri Igbo culture.

A celebration of female inventiveness and aesthetic sensibility, Shedding the Shackles explores women's craft enterprises, their artisanal excellence, and the positive impact their individual projects have on breaking the poverty cycle. In the first part of the twentieth century, suffering from a legacy inherited from the Victorian era, craft skills, such as weaving, sewing, embroidery, and quilting were regarded largely as women's domestic pastimes, and remained undervalued and marginalised. It has taken several decades for attitudes to change, for the boundaries between 'fine art' and craft to blur, and for textile crafts to be given the same respect and recognition as other media. Featuring artisans and projects from across the globe Shedding the Shackles celebrates their vision and motivation giving a fascinating glimpse into how these craft initiatives have created a sustainable lifestyle, and impacted upon their communities at a deeper level.

This updated edition of Volume 2 of the Photographic Guide catalogues the North American Indian baskets accessioned at the Peabody Museum between 1990 and 2004. Basket photographs and descriptions are grouped by geographic region and tribal affiliation. All catalogue information, including collection date, description of the basic technology used, provenience, function, materials, and maker, is specified when known. The guide serves as a valuable tool and stimulus for further research into North American Indian baskets, of which the Peabody Museum holds more than 3,000 examples.