The Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889) was celebrated for his exciting impromptu performances at calligraphy and painting parties. Dynamic, playful and provocative, Kyosai delighted his audience with spontaneous and speedy paintings of demons, skeletons, deities and Buddhist saints. These were often satirical, reflecting a time of political and cultural change in Japan. Among his most charming and inventive works are his brilliant depictions of animals, which humorously play the roles of protagonists of modern life. Kyosai's important place in Japanese art is here explored in depth by Sadamura Koto, a leading authority on the artist, in this catalogue of the exceptionally rich holdings of the Israel Goldman Collection.

According to Nico Muhly, the Coronation of the Virgin is "a panel of pure theatre and music". Painted in 1358 by the Venetian artist Paolo Veneziano (ca. 1295-1362), the apocryphal story of the Virgin's death is depicted in one of the artist's most thrilling and important works. Paolo Veneziano presents the Virgin and Christ in sumptuous garments and surrounded by a choir of angels playing portable organs, lutes, trumpets, tambourines, and other instruments. The angels symbolize the harmony of the universe; their instruments are the authentic components of a medieval orchestra, accurately depicted and correctly held and played. The decorative sparkle of the surface - with its brilliant, expensive colours, patterned textiles, and lavish gold leaf - reflects the Venetians' love of luxury, a taste that enriches much of 14th- and 15th-century architecture in Venice.

The nude has inspired artists for centuries and continues to inspire us today. Alongside a historical study of the nude in painting, this book introduces oil paint and gives advice on techniques when using this challenging and rewarding medium. Capturing the beauty of form and the delicate colours of the figure, it celebrates the powerful images that examine human relationships, personality and psychology. Some of the topics included in this book are instructions on materials, the colour palette and stretching your own canvas; the practicalities of working with a model in the studio; colour-mixing exercises that explore colour relationships and temperature, and finally step-by-step examples that demonstrate the progression of a painting.

The Union of Women Painters and Sculptors was founded in Paris in 1881 to represent the interests of women artists and to facilitate the exhibition of their work. This lively and informative book traces the history of the first fifteen years of the organisation and places it in the contexts of the Paris art world and the development of feminism in the late nineteenth century. Tamar Garb explores how the Union campaigned to have women artists written about in the press and admitted to the Salon jury and into the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and describes how the organisation's leaders took their campaigns into the French parliament itself. Although the women of the Union were often quite conservative politically, socially, and stylistically, says Garb, they believed that women had a special gift that would enhance France's cultural reputation and maintain the uplifting moral-cultural position that seemed in jeopardy at the turn of the century. Focusing on the developments that made the prominence of the organisation possible, Garb discusses the growth of the women's movement, educational reforms, institutional changes in the art world, and critical debates and contemporary scientific thought. She examines contemporary perceptions of both art and femininity, showing how the understanding of one affected the image of the other. This book reverses conventional accounts of late nineteenth-century French art, offering a new picture of the Paris art world from the point of view of a group of women who were marginalised by its dominant institutions.

First published in 1977. The purpose of this study is to locate the sources for the American style of painting characterised by measure and design - the representation of the specific and familiar according to principles of pictorial order. The reader shall see that there were a variety of conventions available to the artist and that his selection of one or another of them depended upon pragmatic, philosophical, and aesthetic considerations.

John James Audubon is arguably America's most widely recognized and collected artist. His Birds of America has been reproduced often, beginning with the double elephant folio printed by Havill in England, followed by a much smaller "Octavo" edition printed in Philadelphia and sold by subscription. After Audubon's death, his family arranged with the New York printer Julius Bien to produce another elephant folio edition, this time by the new chromolithographic process. It too would be sold by subscription, but the venture, begun in 1858, was brought to an abrupt end by the Civil War. Only 150 plates were produced, and the number remaining today is slight; they are among the rarest and most sought after Audubon prints. Bound in cloth with a full cloth slipcase, this beautifully produced book is the first complete reproduction of Bien chromolithographs and will become the centerpiece of any bird lover's library.

The sixteen studies in this book include six specially translated from Greek and another two published here for the first time. They deal with the art of painting in Crete at a time when the island was under Venetian rule. The main emphasis is on the 15th century and especially on the painter Angelos. More than thirty icons with his signature survive, and at least twenty more can be reliably attributed to him. Angelos was the most significant artist of a particularly significant era. It was at this time that the centre of artistic production migrated from Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire to Candia, the capital of Venetian-occupied Crete. These studies try to reconstruct the personality of this late Byzantine painter, Angelos, not only through his icons but also through his will (1436), now in the State Archives in Venice. In this context they also explore the status of the Cretan painter in society. The large number of extant Cretan icons clearly indicates the striking increase in production from the 15th century onwards. Similarly, archival documents are used to examine the trade of icons in Crete and the way Cretan artists had to organize their workshops in order to meet the requirements of the market.

In this book, Ales Debeljak offers a refreshing alternative to postmodernists such as Baudrillard, who declare the death of art conceived as yet another source of rootless, circulating fictions. Inspired by the melancholy critical theory of Adorno and Benjamin, and drawing on Weber, Debeljak shows that with the dawning of modernity, art was made autonomous. Art production was effectively emancipated from the exigencies of everyday life and its guiding ideal of purposive rationality. The Renaissance brought on the first stage in a long, gradual withdrawal of art from the hitherto dominant mythological, religious, and aristocratic legitimization. Yet it was not until the 18th century that art assumed the separate status of a commodity to be bought and sold. However, art paid a price for its autonomy; through commodification art production ultimately become an extension of capitalist logic and control. The deterioration of bourgeois liberal individualism into the narcissism of mass society accompanied the decomposition of art into simplified mass art and commercialized kitsch. Maintaining its formal autonomy (museums, galleries, etc.), its content became the universal object of indirect corporate exploitation. Today postmodern art, argues Debeljak, is subjected to infinite reproducibility, total integration into mass society, and political resignation-no longer representing an alternative reality. The postmodern institution of art thus cannot be simply cured of modern structures and assumptions, but is, instead, fated to a continuous and painful relationship with modernity.

A unique artist's manual that allows you to become an apprentice to one of the world's greatest painters

How can a modern painter go about learning the techniques and methods of a long-dead master? Drawing on years of research and practice, Tony Smibert brings us a virtual apprenticeship, sharing his own method and approach that emulates J. M. W. Turner yet is contemporary, original and innovative. Turner had an extraordinary capacity to paint in ways that confounded his contemporaries and still amaze us today; Smibert s method of painting in Turner s style ingeniously draws together ideas and principles from East and West to bring out an entirely new perspective on Turner s practice.

A working manual, Turner s Apprentice brings together elements of practice from historic masters, including Claude Lorrain and Claude Monet: this is a book for anyone aspiring to learn from any master. Fully illustrated with works by Turner and other major artists, as well as practical, step-by-step demonstrations, it offers a perfect companion for anyone seeking to understand by doing. Even for those who may never paint, Turner s Apprentice offers a tantalizing glimpse of the thrill of painting and learning.

Taking Freud's seminal essay A Childhood Memory of Leonardo da Vinci as his starting point and opposite, Hubert Damisch uses the preposition 'by' instead of 'of' in the title of his book to indicate that he is searching for a way of doing psychoanalysis with art that does not amount to psychobiography. The book is in some respects a parody of Freud's work on art. The return to Freud was necessary because work in psychoanalysis and art has not solved the problem of what is being analyzed. Damisch studies Piero della Francesca's painting Madonna del Parto as a construction by the artist of what viewers throughout history may have pursued on the basis of their unconscious fantasies involving what Freud considered the most characteristic question of human beings: where do children come from, and how did they get there?

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features a licensed image from Kew Gardens' Marianne North: Honeyflowers and Honeysuckers. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Kew has a gallery dedicated to the paintings of the remarkable Victorian artist Marianne North, who had a great eye for botanical detail. She set out in 1871 on a painterly progress through world flora. North's journey to South Africa was among her last, along with trips to the Seychelles and Chile.

Introduces readers to a more advanced level in icon development, exploring more complex imagery and skills Step-by-step instructions for painting icons, from original drawings through finished product Includes eight full-color plates of the author's original icons This is the sequel to the authors previous work, A Brush with God, for advanced beginners, intermediate, and advanced iconographers. It presents greater detail and instructions for creating entirely new icons. One major feature of the new book is the full-page sketches that artists can photocopy and use as the basis of their own icons, providing a unique and much-requested resource. Chapters and topics include: Introduction and contemporary reflections on iconography, spirituality, and technique. Highlighting folds on full-length figures, including black and white renderings of draped legs, arms, and torsos. Architectural and landscape renderings in Byzantine iconography, including background shadow and highlighting techniques, plus inverse perspective. Festal icons, involving multiple figures, landscapes, architecture, furniture, vegetation, and animals. Construction of heads, figures, and analysis of whole compositions, sacred geometry and proportion.

Aus Leonardos künstlerischem Werk und seinen umfangreichen schriftlichen Ausführungen werden von der Kunstgeschichte häufig Zusammenhänge abgeleitet, die einer genauen Überprüfung nicht standhalten. Die Vorstellung vom Universalgenie erweist sich zu großen Teilen als Wunschkonstruktion. Leonardo, der sich selbst auch als schreibender Wissenschaftler versteht, vermag sich schriftlich nicht systematisch auszudrücken und seine durch Beobachtung und Zeichnung gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zu ordnen. Auf tausenden von Blättern ist kaum ein einziges Notat länger als eine Seite und zwischen den vielen Einzelnotizen fehlen übergeifende geistige Verknüpfungen. Für wesentliche Werke kann es zudem keinerlei Einfluß der Texte auf seine Praxis geben, denn Leonardo bleibt bis etwa zu seinem 35. Lebensjahr schriftstellerisch stumm. Seine Bildsprache ist jedoch schon aufs höchste ausdifferenziert, viele bedeutende Werke sind vollendet, bevor ihr Urheber die erste theoretische Zeile zu Papier bringt. Auch seine Zeichentechnik hat Leornado zu diesem Zeitpunkt bereits perfektioniert. Sein Einsatz von Text und Bild erfordert daher eine genauere Untersuchung. Mit welcher Zielsetzung und welchen Mitteln Leonardo zeichnen und schreiben muß, zeigen die Befragungen von Leonardos Exkursionen u. a. in die Bereiche der Anatomie, Technik, Perspektive, Proportion, Komposition und des Sfumato sowie auch die Analyse des Layouts seiner Notizbücher. Zusammengeführt werden die Beobachtungen zu wörtlichen, zeichnerischen und gemalten Weltdeutungen in einer Analyse des auch für die Leonardo-Rezeption paradigmatischen Blattes: Mann-im-Kreis-und-Quadrat. Unausgesprochen, aber nachweisbar, vereinen die Bereiche Text und Bild kein kohärentes Wissensgebäude, sondern das Verlangen nach Autonomie der Kunst. Selbst in den Irrtümern des schriftstellernden Wissenschaftlers unternimmt Leonardo nichts anderes als die radikale Befreiung des Bildes.

Many well-known male writers produced fictions about colonial spaces and discussed the advantages of realism over romance, and vice versa, in the 'art of fiction' debate of the 1880s; but how did female writers contribute to colonial fiction? This volume links fictional, non-fictional and pictorial representations of a colonial otherness with the late nineteenth-century artistic concerns about representational conventions and possibilities. The author explores these texts and images through the postcolonial framework of 'exoticism', arguing that the epistemological dilemma of a 'self' encountering an 'other' results in the interrelated predicament to find poetic modalities - mimetic, realistic and documentary on the one hand; romantic, fantastic and picturesque on the other - that befit an 'exotic' representation. Thus women writers did not only participate in the making of colonial fictions but also in the late nineteenth-century artistic debate about the nature of fiction. This book maps the epistemological concerns of exoticism and of difference - self and other, home and away, familiarity and strangeness - onto the representational modes of realism and romance. The author focuses exclusively on female novelists, travel writers and painters of the turn-of-the-century exotic, and especially on neglected authors of academically under-researched genres such as the bestselling novel and the travelogue.

Let Jerry Yarnell teach you how to paint acrylic landscapes

You can master landscape painting with the help of popular painter Jerry Yarnell. Jerry starts by exploring different areas of landscape painting that often create problems for beginning and intermediate artists. He'll walk you through individual studies, so you can practice and explore new techniques without worrying about ruining a complete painting, then he'll show you how to apply those techniques to create finished works of art.

Learn how to:

• Work with the right materials
• Master all essential techniques
• Choose, mix and apply color

Shanghai, second largest city in the world, is a hub of humanity. Never sleeping, never quiet, it is a flourishing centre of commerce, finance and art. To Jin Yucheng, bestselling author of Blossoms, Shanghai is home. His art is steeped in the city’s rhythms and quirks. The paintings in this volume compose a love poem to Shanghai, while acknowledging the lonely absurdity of modern urban life, and offering incisive commentary on traditional and modern China. From the famous Lujiazui skyline to the bustling crowds, from cosy corners to vibrant streetscapes, these pages capture the Shanghai of the present. Yucheng also delves into Shanghai’s history, paying particular attention to the 1960s-1990s. Later chapters focus on Chinese culture, the contrast between megacities and remote villages, and Yucheng’s favourite animal – the horse. While this book is the perfect companion piece to Blossoms, a novel set in late-20th-century Shanghai, it will also appeal to anyone interested in Chinese culture and art.

Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential painters of the 20th century and is widely considered a style icon thanks to her eclectic taste and love for colour, print and hauls of jewellery. From a young age, Kahlo forged her own path, overcoming polio as a child, and stoically battling the after-effects of a tragic road accident that left her with lifelong injuries.

Pocket Frida Kahlo Wisdom is an inspiring collection of some of her best quotes on love, style, life, art and more, and celebrates the Mexican icon's immense legacy.

Some quotes from Frida Kahlo:

'Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.'

'The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.'

'I must fight with all my strength so that the little positive things that my health allows me to do might be pointed toward helping the revolution. The only real reason for living.'

'I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.'

Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Notebooks. Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. And they're powerfully practical: a pocket at the back for receipts and scraps, two bookmarks and a solid magnetic side flap. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Kew Gardens' Marianne North: Foliage and Flowers of a Chorisia and Double-Crested Humming Birds, Brazil. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Kew has a gallery dedicated to the paintings of the remarkable Victorian artist Marianne North, who had a great eye for botanical detail. She set out in 1871 on a painterly progress through world flora. She arrived in Brazil in 1872 and stayed until September 1873.

This book illuminates the original meanings of seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century mural paintings in Britain. At the time, these were called 'histories'. Throughout the eighteenth century, though, the term became directly associated with easel painting and, as 'history painting' achieved the status of a sublime genre, any link with painted architectural interiors was lost. Whilst both genres contained historical figures and narratives, it was the ways of viewing them that differed. Lydia Hamlett emphasises the way that mural paintings were experienced by spectators within their architectural settings. New iconographical interpretations and theories of effect and affect are considered an important part of their wider historical, cultural and social contexts. This book is intended to be read primarily by specialists, graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in new approaches to British art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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.

In her second book, botanical artist Harriet de Winton shows you how to paint modern watercolour artworks to treasure and share. Picking up where New Botanical Painting left off, this books aims to expand readers' repertoires into fauna as well as flora, with easy-to-follow instructions for a variety of difficulty levels. Through more than 30 step-by-step projects, you'll discover how to paint beautiful butterflies, bumblebees, birds and botanicals from around the world. In the final chapter, you'll find a guide to composing stunning patterns and scenes with your own botanical watercolour creations. Use your new skills to make art for your wall, unique cards, invitations, or simply paint for pleasure. Projects include: Bengal Tiger Chilean Flamingo Prickly Pear Zebra Bumblebee Garden Tiger Moth Peacock White-tailed Deer Polar Bear Arctic Poppy And many more!

At the 25th International Colloquium of the Corpus Vitrearum, which took place in one of the greatest of all museums, The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the researchers of many countries discussed stained glass collections for the first time. The present conference transactions, published in the three official languages of the international Corpus Vitrearum, are dedicated to the reawakening of interest in ancient stained glass from the late eighteenth century. The contributions are concerned partly with the creation of collections and the motives of their collectors, but also with the odyssey of various panels and groups of windows. Other studies address wider aspects of the history of collections and the museum display of stained glass. Anlasslich des 25. Internationalen Kolloquiums des Corpus Vitrearum, das in einem der groessten und bedeutendsten Museen der Welt, der Staatlichen Eremitage in Sankt Petersburg, stattfand, wurden Glasmalereisammlungen erstmals von einer internationalen Autorengruppe des Corpus Vitrearum breit diskutiert. Die Beitrage in den drei offiziellen Sprachen des Corpus Vitrearum behandeln das wiedererwachte Interesse an alter Glasmalerei. Die Autoren widmen sich der Entstehung bestimmter Sammlungen, der Motivation der Sammler, oder aber der Odyssee ausgewahlter Denkmaler sowie sammlungsgeschichtlichen Aspekten bis hin zu Fragen der musealen Prasentation von Glasmalereien. Lors du 25e Colloque international du Corpus Vitrearum qui a eu lieu a l'Ermitage de Saint-Petersbourg, un des plus grands et des plus prestigieux musees, les chercheurs venus de nombreux pays ont discute pour la premiere fois des collections de vitraux. Les contributions aux actes du colloque, publiees dans les trois langues officielles du Corpus Vitrearum international, sont consacrees au reveil de l'interet pour le vitrail ancien. Les articles sont consacres a la creation de plusieurs collections et aux motivations des collectionneurs, ou bien encore a l'odyssee que des panneaux ou des groupes de vitraux ont vecue. Certaines etudes traitent de l'histoire des collections, des aspects plus generaux du collectionnisme ou de la museographie du vitrail.

The Watercolour Sourcebook is a compilation of four selected titles from the What to Paint series, chosen specially to illustrate the wide range of scenes and subjects that can be captured in watercolour. The works of four master watercolourists - Geoff Kersey, Terry Harrison, Peter Woolley and Wendy Tait - are brought together in a collection of 60 beautiful, detailed projects on the subjects of trees, woodlands and forests; landscapes; hills and mountains and flowers respectively. Each project results in a full painting that is accompanied at the end of the book by a full-size outline that can be copied and applied to the artist's own watercolour paper using tracedown paper and pencil. The Watercolour Sourcebook aims to provide a wealth of inspiration to the painter who struggles to decide upon their subject matter, and arms the artist with everything they need to know about what they're about to paint, from colour palette to useful techniques.

This book is a comprehensive study of visual humour in ancient Greece, with special emphasis on works created in Athens and Boeotia. Alexandre Mitchell brings an interdisciplinary approach to this topic, combining theories and methods of art history, archaeology, and classics with the anthropology of humour, and thereby establishing new ways of looking at art and visual humour in particular. Understanding what visual humour was to the ancients and how it functioned as a tool of social cohesion is only one facet of this study. Mitchell also focuses on the social truths that his study of humour unveils: democracy and freedom of expression, politics and religion, Greek vases and trends in fashion, market-driven production, proper and improper behaviour, popular versus elite culture, carnival in situ, and the place of women, foreigners, workers, and labourers within the Greek city. Richly illustrated with more than 140 drawings and photographs, as well as with analytical tables of comic representations according to different themes, painters, and techniques, this study amply documents the comic representations that formed an important part of ancient Greek visual language from the 6th through 4th centuries BC.

Painting, according to Jean-Luc Marion, is a central topic of concern for philosophy, particularly phenomenology. For the question of painting is, at its heart, a question of visibility--of appearance. As such, the painting is a privileged case of the phenomenon; the painting becomes an index for investigating the conditions of appearance--or what Marion describes as "phenomenality" in general.
In The Crossing of the Visible, Marion takes up just such a project. The natural outgrowth of his earlier reflections on icons, these four studies carefully consider the history of painting--from classical to contemporary--as a fund for phenomenological reflection on the conditions of (in)visibility. Ranging across artists from Raphael to Rothko, Caravaggio to Pollock, The Crossing of the Visible offers both a critique of contemporary accounts of the visual and a constructive alternative. According to Marion, the proper response to the "nihilism" of postmodernity is not iconoclasm, but rather a radically iconic account of the visual and the arts that opens them to the invisible.