Featuring decorative, religious, and utilitarian objects from the Geometric period to the Hellenistic Age, this is the ideal introduction to Greek sculpture Introducing eight centuries of Greek sculpture, this latest addition to The Met's compelling and widely acclaimed How to Read series traces this artistic tradition from its early manifestations in the Geometric period (ca. 900-700 BCE) through the groundbreaking creativity of the Archaic and Classical periods to the dramatic achievements of the Hellenistic Age (323-31 BCE). The 40 works of art featured represent a broad range of objects and materials, both sacred and utilitarian, in metal, marble, gold, ivory, and terracotta. Sculptures of deities and architectural elements are joined by depictions of athletes, animals, and performers, as well as by funerary reliefs, perfume vases, and jewelry. The accompanying text both provides insight into Greek art as a whole and illuminates centuries of Greek life. Detailed commentaries on each work and an overview of major themes in Greek art offer a fascinating, object-focused introduction to one of the most influential cultures in Western civilization. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

The ethnographic literature of the 20th century focused mainly on the sculptural traditions of the numerous ethnic groups that populated Southern Nigeria while the more northern areas remained largely terra incognita. In 2013 Jan Strybol published a study on the sculpture of Northern Nigeria. He pointed out that in many parts of this region there are people who still had, at least until recently, their own sculptural tradition. In this study the author restricted himself to what is referred to as the Middle Belt and especially to the part between the Bauchi Plateau, the Gongola River and the Katsina Ala River. In 1974 Roy Sieber pointed out that, with a few exceptions, the people who were members of the Niger-Congo language family laid the foundations for the great African sculptural traditions south of the Sahara. However, the largest group of iconophile peoples in the Central Middle Belt of Nigeria is to be found in the Chadic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. In this book of objects from private collections the author shows the great variety of the sculptures of the Middle Belt. This study mainly deals with wooden figures but also contains four wooden masks and three bronzes. Text in English and French.

A visually inspiring guide to making gorgeous spoons, using a variety of readily available woods, minimal tools and entry-level woodworking skills (think carving, whittling, sanding). Written by Josh Vogel, the upstate New York wood artisan whose exquisite and highly coveted one-of-a-kind spoons, bowls, and boards are showing up in gift guides everywhere. Over 100 of Vogel's unique spoons - all created and photographed for this book - wow and inspire. Readers learn the basics of simple spoon-making in straightforward, no-experience-required instructions and via one beginning, one intermediate, and one advanced project, each of which provides the basis for an infinite number of designs. Notecards and a notebook collection featuring the beautiful photography from the book will be published simultaneously.

From casting to sculpture Cast materials become solid, yet they originate as fluid materials that can take on any imaginable form. This simple yet radical paradigm allows for the exploration of volumetric formations through process-oriented casting and experimentation with alternative ways of manufacturing, presenting, and shaping casting molds. Working with hardening bodies fundamentally challenges the notion of formal rigidity; conventional formwork models are reconsidered, and a new aesthetic emerges. Fluid Bodies presents a variety of objects created using alternative casting methods. The book documents experimental artistic research and showcases innovative and surprising sculptures in concrete and plaster. Alternative ways of manufacturing, presenting, and shaping casting molds Concrete and plaster sculptures, parametric designs, and the further development of conventional formwork models and casting processes With numerous large-format photographs

Diamond jewelry has long been symbolic of political power and authority in Europe. This book focuses on the individuals who commissioned and wore extraordinarily precious diamond ornaments from the mid-14th century until the ‘democratization’ of diamonds that followed the opening of mines in South Africa in 1867. This enthralling story covers seven centuries of history, showing the way in which rulers such as Charles V of France, Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain, Louis XIV of France and Catherine II of Russia used diamond jewelry to reinforce their power and authority. As works of art, these precious creations mirror the successive styles of each period – late Gothic naturalism, the culture of the Renaissance, Baroque splendour, Rococo elegance and the Imperial grandeur of the First and Second Napoleonic Empires. The recurring themes – religion, sentiment, heraldry, military glory, miniatures and cameo portraiture – are reinterpreted by each generation of jewelers. Like royal dress, diamond jewelry was worn to dazzle and impress – at weddings, coronations, christenings and state visits – and was presented as gifts reflecting princely generosity. Over the centuries, these displays proved remarkably successful as instruments of government, symbolizing the pride and glory of a nation. Arranged chronologically, Diamond Jewelry includes some legendary masterpieces of diamond jewelry. Written by an acknowledged expert, it offers an intriguing overview of one of the world’s most precious gems.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Randy Wood was a forerunner in the vintage instrument industry. Known as the instrument repairman to the stars, the list of Wood's clients reads like a Hall of Fame roster: Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, Billy Gibbons, Bill Monroe, Keith Richards, Roy Acuff, Ricky Skaggs, and Hank Williams Jr. . . . to name a few. In Randy Wood: The Lore of the Luthier, Daniel Wile traces the life and work of a man who quietly influenced a hidden history of bluegrass and country music. In his twenties, Wood vowed to avoid complacency in his work. What started simply as a quest to find fulfillment turned into a career that has shaped a generation of musicians, professional and amateur alike. Through his incredible gift for lutherie, Wood brought cherished pre-WWII instruments back to life, many of which were considered beyond repair. He crafted his own instruments as well, based on what he learned from vintage instruments, and these instruments found their way into the hands of some of the most renowned musicians, thanks in part to Wood's strategic location in Nashville during the resurgence of country music in the 1970s. Humble, unassuming, and unfazed by the presence of celebrities, Wood has spent his life devoted to building and repairing stringed instruments. Wood also built community. After tiring of big-city Nashville, he retreated to the Georgia coast, where his home shop became a hub of bluegrass activity. He eventually opened a new shop near Savannah, where a new generation of friends and strangers can come in, visit, and pick a little. Randy's stories, complemented with those of his friends and family, create a compelling picture of a modest man with a talent for his craft, a genuine care for people, and the courage to follow his passion.

20 kawaii trinkets in polymer clay from Kawaii Studios! Kawaii is becoming the ultimate buzzword for all things cute and miniature, and in this new Twenty to Make title, Ruth Thompson shows you how to create 20 cute miniature charms and trinkets out of polymer clay. As well as learning how to colour the clay and add super-cute expressions, there's also advice on how to turn your charms into wearable jewellery. From adorable sushi earrings to panda paperclips, there's something sweet to suit everyone!

The Making of George Wyllie has been co-written by his elder daughter, Louise Wyllie, and arts journalist Jan Patience. Containing never-beforeseen images and fresh insight into his influences and early life, this book seeks to answer questions about the forces which shaped Wyllie's unique worldview.The voyage begins with Wyllie's Glasgow childhood - a period 'disadvantaged by happiness' - and moves on to time spent serving in the Pacific with the Royal Navy during WWII, where he witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by the world's first atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. After the war, like Robert Burns and Adam Smith before him, Wyllie became an Excisemen. He made 'time for art' in his forties, going on to create memorable public art works such as the life-sized Straw Locomotive, which hung from the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow, and the giant seaworthy Paper Boat, with the letters QM (Question Mark) on her side.By the time of his death at the age of ninety in 2012, this idiosyncratic self-taught artist had laid out his vision of himself as the artist-shaman, arrow in hand, making a last Cosmic Voyage.

'You will have a moment of quiet delight and a mood of introspection to carry you away.' Edmund de Waal Prized by collectors from East to West, Japanese netsuke are tiny objects of wonder that originated as utilitarian accessories for traditional Japanese dress. Over the centuries these small carved toggles, designed to hook over the top of the kimono sash, evolved into high-fashion depictions of all aspects of Japanese life. In this richly illustrated and highly accessible book, Julia Hutt draws on the V&A's world-famous netsuke collection to explore the origins and techniques of this captivating art form.

Inn-keepers and prostitutes, kings and cardinals, artists and soldiers rub shoulders in the pages of Cellini's notorious autobiography. Benvenuto Cellini was a celebrated goldsmith and distinguished sculptor, yet it is on his autobiography that much of his fame rests. Begun in Florence when he was fifty-eight, it was primarily intended to be the story of his life and art, his tragedies and triumphs. However, as he was an active participant in the wars and struggles of the period, and drew his friends and enemies from all levels of society, it became a vivid and convincing portrait of the manners and morals both of the rulers of the sixteenth century and of their subjects.

With enviable powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humour, reflected in an equally vigorous and extravagant style, Cellini has provided an intriguing and unrivalled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici. For this edition, George Bull has revised and expanded his Introduction, added comprehensive notes and updated the Bibliography.

Lesley Dill is an American artist working at the intersection of language and fine art in printmaking, sculpture, installation and performance, exploring the power of words to cloak and reveal the psyche. Dill transforms the emotions of the writings of Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Tom Sleigh, Franz Kafka, and Rainer Maria Rilke, among others, into works of paper, wire, horsehair, foil, bronze and music — works that awaken the viewer to the physical intimacy and power of language itself. Lesley Dill – Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me features a uniquely inspired group of sculptures and two-dimensional works more than a decade in the making. It is testimony of Dill’s ongoing investigation into the significant voices and personas of America’s past. For the artist, the American voice grew from early America’s obsessions with divinity and deviltry, on fears of the wilderness out there and wilderness inside us. The plates, in colour throughout, are supplemented with essays by Lesley Dill, Brooklyn-based writer Nancy Princenthal, Figge Art Museum’s curator Andrew Wallace, and researcher and tribal historian Juaquin Hamilton-Youngbird. The book also features a literary text by writer by Tom Sleigh and a poem by author and poet Ray Young Bear.

Gardens provoke thought and engagement in ways that are often overlooked. This book shines new light on long-held assumptions about gardens and proposes novel ways in which we might reconsider them. The author challenges traditional views of how we experience gardens, how we might think of gardens as works of art, and how the everyday materials of gardens - plants, light, water, earth - may become artful. The author provides a detailed analysis of Tupare, a garden in New Zealand, and uses it as source material for his analysis of the philosophical issues art gardens raise. His new account of gardens highlights the polymodal, multi-sensual, and improvisatory character of the garden experience, it offers an ontological comparison between gardens and humans and other animals, and it explains how identical plants, and arrangements of plants, may be mundane when encountered beyond the garden but artful, meaningful, and aesthetically valuable when experienced within it.

Gender and the Body in Greek and Roman Sculpture offers incisive analysis of selected works of ancient art through a critical use of cutting-edge theory from gender studies, body studies, art history and other related fields. The book raises important questions about ancient sculpture and the contrasting responses that the individual works can be shown to evoke. Rosemary Barrow gives close attention to both original context and modern experience, while directly addressing the question of continuity in gender and body issues from antiquity to the early modern period through a discussion of the sculpture of Bernini. Accessible and fully illustrated, her book features new translations of ancient sources and a glossary of Greek and Latin terms. It will be an invaluable resource and focus for debate for a wide range of readers interested in ancient art, gender and sexuality in antiquity, and art history and gender and body studies more broadly.

This is the seventeenth volume in the series the Public Sculpture of Britain, part of the PMSA National Recording Project, which will eventually cover the whole of the country. The introduction considers the ways in which the rural and urban landscapes of Sussex, from market town, rural village and country estate, to city, major seaside resort and new town development, are reflected in the county's public sculptures. The historical period covered ranges from the allegedly pre-historic (the Long Man of Wilmington) to the present day (the most recent entry is Maggi Hambling's The Resurrection Spirit, 2013). There is a high proportion of nineteenth- century sculptures, including significant works by John Flaxman, Michael Rysbrack, Frances Chantrey and John Edward Carew; the 'statuemania' that characterised the last part of this century is well illustrated by Thomas Brock's imposing statue celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on Hove seafront. The achievements of major twentieth and twenty-first century sculptors are represented by Elisabeth Frink and William Pye among others. Many works from this period are the result of public art initiatives by local councils, often as part of more wide-ranging regeneration schemes for Sussex towns. The patronage of health authorities, influenced by new thinking about the calming and healing qualities of art in public places has also benefitted both local sculptors and those based elsewhere in the country. Each individual work is catalogued, with precise details of location, condition and history, including commissioning, opening ceremonies and re-siting. Most are individually illustrated in black and white. Biographies of local and less well-known sculptors, together with a selected bibliography are included at the end of the volume.

Calder by Matter offers an intimate and wholly unique window into the life and work of Alexander Calder, as seen through the lens of his friend and acclaimed photographer Herbert Matter. Given unprecedented access to Calder s work and life during the course of their friendship, Herbert Matter captured Calder s sculptures, the artist at work in his studio, and at home with his family in Roxbury, Connecticut. Calder by Matter includes original essays by esteemed art critic and Calder biographer Jed Perl, Calder Foundation President and Calder grandson Alexander S. C. Rower, and Matter student and colleague John T. Hill. This unique collection of over 300 images, many of which are published here for the first time, offers a new perspective on Calder s oeuvre, life, and creative process."