A fresh and engaging look at the controversial work of Jeff Koons, with insightful analyses and illustrations of all of his iconic pieces alongside preparatory works and historical photographs Examining the breadth and depth of thirty-five years of work by Jeff Koons (b. 1955), one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 20th century, this highly anticipated volume features all of his most famous pieces. In an engaging overview essay, Scott Rothkopf carefully examines the evolution of Koons' work and his development over the past thirty-five years, offering a fresh scholarly perspective on the artist's multi-faceted career. In addition, short essays by a wide range of interdisciplinary contributors-from academics to novelists-probe provocative topics such as celebrity and media, markets and money, and technology and fabrication. Also included are preparatory sketches and plans for sculptures and paintings as well as installation photographs that shed light on Koons' artistic process and trace the development of his work throughout his landmark career. Koons has risen to international fame making art that reimagines and recontextualizes images and objects from popular culture such as vacuum cleaners, basketballs, and balloon animals. Created with painstaking attention to detail by a team of fabricators, these objects raise questions about taste and popular culture, and position Koons as one of the most lauded and criticized artists working today. Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: Whitney Museum of American Art (06/27/14-10/19/14) Centre Pompidou (11/26/14-04/27/15) Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (06/05/15-09/27/15)

An exploration of public performance in everyday life, by the leading cultural and social thinker 'All the world's a stage' declares the melancholy Jacques in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Today that's an unhappy thought. A cluster of demagogues has recently dominated the public realm through their powers as actors; they are brilliant performers. More unsettling, the demagogue, the dancer, the musician all share the same non-verbal realm of bodily gestures, lighting and blocking, costuming, stage architecture. So too, the roles and rituals of everyday life and everyday acting can be malign or sublime, repressive or liberating. Performing constitutes one art - an ambiguous art. In this book, the acclaimed sociologist Richard Sennett explores uncomfortable connections between performances in life, art, and politics. He draws on his own early career as a professional cellist as well on histories both Western and non-Western. He is not a pessimist; at the end of his study, he shows how this ambiguous art might become more ethical.

This spectacular collection of nearly 200 jewelled weapons and priceless accoutrements from the Indian subcontinent was assembled over many decades by Sheikh Nasser and Sheikha Hussah al-Sabah for The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait. Produced for aristocratic patrons who valued the arts, these richly decorated edged weapons and other princely objects bear witness to the legendary opulence and refinement of the Indian courts during the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Many incorporate decorative features originating in Central Asia, the Iranian world, China, and even Renaissance Europe, testifying to centuries of trade, travel and warfare. At the same time, these ornate and uniquely Indian weapons are masterpieces of a long and unparalleled tradition of artistic craftsmanship on the subcontinent, displaying distinctive techniques of gemstone setting, hardstone carving, enamelling and blade damascening.

The streets and public spaces of London are rich with statues and monuments commemorating the city's great figures and events - from Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and Sir Christopher Wren's Great Fire Monument to the charming Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens. Executed in stone, bronze and a range of other materials, London's statues and monuments include work by some of the world's greatest sculptors, such as Edwin Lutyens and Sir Christopher Wren. This newly revised book takes account of the many new statues erected between 2012 and 2017, including those of Mary Seacole at St Thomas' Hospital and Amy Winehouse in Camden, and is a fully illustrated guide to the works and their stories: sometimes surprising and occasionally controversial, but always fascinating.

Im Rahmen der aktuellen Diskussion zur asthetischen und kulturellen Bildung gehen Autorinnen und Autoren unterschiedlicher kulturwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen der Frage nach, was asthetische Erfahrungen sind. Indem sie interdisziplinar sowie asthetisch-transformatorisch arbeiten, koennen sie eroertern, wie sich etwas derart Fluchtiges und der Subjektivitat Verhaftetes empirisch fassen und in Bildungsinstitutionen initiieren und vermitteln lasst. In den Projekten verlassen die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer den gewohnten Lernort, ubersetzen Materialien in Sprache und Schrift, Texte in Film oder Literatur in Tanz oder werden dazu angehalten, ihre eigenen Wahrnehmungsmuster zu hinterfragen.

Why did Roman portrait statues, famed for their individuality, repeatedly employ the same body forms? The complex issue of the Roman copying of Greek 'originals' has so far been studied primarily from a formal and aesthetic viewpoint. Jennifer Trimble takes a broader perspective, considering archaeological, social historical and economic factors, and examines how these statues were made, bought and seen. To understand how Roman visual replication worked, Trimble focuses on the 'Large Herculaneum Woman' statue type, a draped female body particularly common in the second century CE and surviving in about two hundred examples, to assess how sameness helped to communicate a woman's social identity. She demonstrates how visual replication in the Roman Empire thus emerged as a means of constructing social power and articulating dynamic tensions between empire and individual localities.

The Art & Times of Daniel Jocz presents the entrancing and challenging work of American jewellery artist and sculptor Daniel Jocz. There is a spontaneous quality to the work, yet it is always rich with meaning. His open spirit is fully embodied in the 2007 neckpiece series An American's Riff on the Millstone Ruff. Inspired by the extravagant scale of 17th-century Dutch ruffs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, he decided to update them with automobile paint. Jeannine Falino takes an in-depth look at the twists and turns of Jocz's long career, from his early geometric sculptures to the fashion-forward flocked Candy Wear collection, and from his ruminations on Marlene Dietrich in the form of necklaces featuring enamel smoked cigarettes to the wall reliefs he explores today. Wendy Steiner considers Jocz's place in the avant-garde through the lens of fashion and culture, while Patricia Harris and David Lyon explore his involvement in the rollicking Boston jewellery scene of the late 20th century.

This book presents the first full length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Starting with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages and to the re-evaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator.

Originally published in 1916, this book discusses, debates and demonstrates the inextricably entwined nature of architecture and sculpture, in terms of their principles, ideals and practices. Providing a detailed overview of the history of the two arts and the harmony which has existed between them throughout the centuries, this book endeavours to disentangle the historic assumption that the two arts exist independently of one another. A broad range of chapters are included, ranging from 'The treatment and placing of sculpture in the historic periods' to 'Decorative sculpture' to 'Large monumental layouts'. Photographs depicting international examples of architecture and sculpture are included throughout. This book explores the necessity for practitioners to understand the requirements and limitations in both fields and will be a valuable resource to students, scholars and researchers of the history of architecture and sculpture.

Engravers Gerd and Patrick Dreher are famous the world over for their masterly animal figures, each of which is cut from a single gemstone. In the early twentieth century, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather all cut gemstones for Faberge - mostly agate but also ruby, obsidian, aquamarine, citrine and rock crystal. Today, creations are still being meticulously made by hand using traditional techniques. The realistic miniature forms of mice, snails, toads, monkeys and hippos are designed by the two artists in multilayered and coloured gemstones so that, for example, the faces, palms of the hand or soles of the feet shine in an iridescent red-brown agate while the bodies are worked in the glossy deep black part of the stone. These unique engravings are today some of the rarest examples of the highest quality in craftsmanship, and represent fascination of the highest cultural degree in a world of increasing globalisation.

This inspiring book provides a wealth of fascinating projects for woodturners. It will extend their skills and give them a chance to try more unusual, challenging pieces. The book reflects the author's fascination with complex geometrical shapes, puzzles and mathematical curiosities. It gives woodturners the chance to try their hand at making twisted polygons, gravity-defying clocks and much more. A wealth of close-up photographs guide the reader through each project and a gallery section provides further inspiration, showing how a range of artists have decorated the author's work. David Springett's interest in woodturning began when he was a woodwork teacher - by reading each of the few books available, experimenting and persevering, he improved his skills. Since leaving teaching nearly 20 years ago, he has earned his living doing what he enjoys most. David and his wife Christine live in Rugby, Warwickshire.