Verrocchio was arguably the most important sculptor between Donatello and Michelangelo but he has seldom been treated as such in art historical literature because his achievements were quickly superseded by the artists who followed him. He was the master of Leonardo da Vinci, but he is remembered as the sulky teacher that his star pupil did not need. In this book, Christina Neilson argues that Verrocchio was one of the most experimental artists in fifteenth-century Florence, itself one of the most innovative centers of artistic production in Europe. Considering the different media in which the artist worked in dialogue with one another (sculpture, painting, and drawing), she offers an analysis of Verrocchio's unusual methods of manufacture. Neilson shows that, for Verrocchio, making was a form of knowledge and that techniques of making can be read as systems of knowledge. By studying Verrocchio's technical processes, she demonstrates how an artist's theoretical commitments can be uncovered, even in the absence of a written treatise.

Isaac Cordal ...is a sculpture artist from London. His sculptures take the form of little people sculpted from concrete in 'real' situations. Cordal manages to capture a lot of emotion in his vignettes, in spite of their lack of detail or colour. He is sympathetic toward his little people and we empathise with their situations, their leisure time, their waiting for buses and their more tragic moments such as accidental death, suicide or family funerals. His sculptures can be found in gutters, on top of buildings and bus shelters - in many unusual and unlikely places in the capital. This book is the first time his images have been shown in together in one book dedicated to his work, many images never seen before. Cordal's concrete sculptures are like little magical gifts to the public that only a few lucky people will see and love but so many more will have missed. Left to their own devices throughout London, what really makes these pieces magical is their placement. They bring new meaning to little corners of the urban environment. They express something vulnerable but deeply engaging.

The lovely ladies and lads of Street Fighter take a break from fist fights and tournaments to hit up the world's hottest beaches, pools, volleyball courts, and more! Everyone from Chun-Li to Poison to Guile shows off their favorite swimwear, plus guest appearances from the cast of Darkstalkers, Rival Schools, and Final Fight! This beautiful hardcover tome gathers four years of UDON’s Street Fighter Swimsuit and Pin-up specials in an over-sized art book format, including rare covers and never-before-seen rough concepts.

Explores expressionlessness, inscrutability, and emotional withholding in Black cultural production Arguing that inexpression is a gesture that acquires distinctive meanings in concert with blackness, Deadpan tracks instances and meanings of deadpan—a vaudeville term meaning “dead face”—across literature, theater, visual and performance art, and the performance of self in everyday life. Tina Post reveals that the performance of purposeful withholding is a critical tool in the work of black culture makers, intervening in the persistent framing of African American aesthetics as colorful, loud, humorous, and excessive. Beginning with the expressionless faces of mid-twentieth-century documentary photography and proceeding to early twenty-first-century drama, this project examines performances of blackness’s deadpan aesthetic within and beyond black embodiments, including Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Neighbors, as well as Buster Keaton’s signature character and Steve McQueen’s restitution of the former’s legacy within the continuum of Black cultural production. Through this varied archive, Post reveals how deadpan aesthetics function in and between opacity and fugitivity, minimalism and saturation, excess and insensibility.

Professional caricature carver Mike Shipley introduces you to a whole clan of colorful backwoods characters from his native Ozarks. Whether you re a beginner just learning to whittle, or an old hand looking for some new ideas, this book delivers plenty of fun, inspiration, and satisfaction. More than 100 step-by-step color photographs guide you through whittling, painting, and staining. You ll learn Mike s quick and easy clean-cut method, plus his original formula for mixing your own wood stain in a blender. All twelve projects feature distinctive patterns with easy-to-follow cut-lines. Whittling Country Folk, Revised Edition also provides valuable Getting Started advice on tools, sharpening, wood, and safety, as well as humorous down-home tales about each friendly country character."

In his third book, Strauss delves into the mysterious process whereby an idea is born in the mind and materialized through the hand in the expression of an artwork. How exactly does this happen? It's a question so basic, an act so fundamental to art-making, that it has rarely received attention. It makes an ideal topic for Strauss, a writer with an exceptional ability to animate art's philosophical dimensions in a clear, persuasive manner. During this time when craft and the direct manipulation of materials by the artist appear to be in eclipse, Strauss comes to their defense in a spirited cri de coeur.
Featuring over 35 illustrations, the book examines a wide variety of media and individual examples. It explores the works of sculptors Martin Puryear, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Donald Lipski; painters Leon Golub and Ron Gorchov; and writers Robert Duncan, Robert Kelly, Guy Davenport, John Berger, and Leo Steinberg. In addition, there are essays on Joseph Beuys's 7000 Oaks in Ireland, contemporary Haida carvers Reg Davidson and Jim Hart, Cecilia Vicuna's "memory of the fingers," and the influence of curators Harald Szeemann and Walter Hopps on the staging of contemporary art exhibitions.
Known primarily for his writings on photography and politics, Strauss here focuses on the least mediated arts--painting, sculpture, and writing. His claims are supported by a series of close readings which succeed in recovering the immediacy of the hand and revitalizing contemporary art's connection to the past."

A single carving knife and an afternoon is all that is needed to create one of the charming little characters in this book. The whittled little folk are full of personality, from the Monk, to the Policeman, to the Woodsman, acclaimed artist Harley Refsal provides patterns and instructions for carving over 20 delightful characters in wood. At the beginning of "Whittling Little Folk", readers will find step-by-step carving and painting instructions for a Scandinavian inspired man and woman. Once they have learned to carve these two projects, they will find an additional 20 patterns that can also be created with the same technique and some subtle changes. Each project includes four separate patterns (for each view) and carving/painting notes. Also included is a brief overview of the Scandinavian flat-plane style of carving and instructions on how to customize patterns.

Taking place examines feminist and queer alternative art spaces across Canada and the United States from the late-1960s to the present. It looks at how queer and feminist artists working in the present day engage with, respond to and challenge the institutions they have inherited. Through a series of regional case studies, the book interrogates different understandings of 'alternative' space and the possibilities the term affords for queer and feminist artistic imaginaries. -- .

Ceramicists searching for new ways to fire their creations now have a wealth of options. Authors James Watkins and Paul Wandless, along with a group of distinguished artisans, demonstrate in detail how to build low-cost, low-tech, yet high-quality kilns and varied firing techniques. The plans range from an easy, affordable and versatile Raku Kiln to a unique wood-fuelled Downdraft Stovepipe Barrel kiln. These clever devices make it possible to produce rich surface effects from alternative reduction firing techniques. In addition to showing the basic procedures for using each kiln, easy-to-follow directions for many fast-fire methods unfold in color photographs: you'll see how to achieve terra sigillata surfaces with direct chemical application and how to do traditional crackle-glaze raku and smoke finishes.

No matter what kind of carver you are or what difficulty level you've reached, bird wood carving is for you! Featuring a compilation of 15 step-by-step projects from Woodcarving Illustrated, Complete Guide to Bird Carving includes easy-to-follow guidance, expert tips, and wood carving patterns for a variety of recognizable birds, including woodpeckers, chickadees, owls, blue herons, goldfinches, and more. From simple whittled songbirds and a comfort bird to realistic hummingbirds and a stylized wren, this must-have project guide features various techniques on how to carve wood birds - such as whittling, relief carving, and power carving - and is perfect for tailoring to your comfort and skill level, from beginner to advanced. Also included are helpful overviews on materials, tools, adding texture, painting, and finishing. Original projects and patterns contributed by well-known and talented carvers in the industry, including Chris Lubkemann, Greg Young, Randy Conner, Sandy Czajka, and others.

Having met the elusive Maggi Hambling, This book is pure Maggi at her best.The book details the first ideas for the scallop to its placing on Aldeburgh beach .The book also tells us how Maggi became an artist. Anyone from Suffolk will relate to Maggi's work.First published in hardback 2010.

LAND ART IN THE U.S.A.

A study of land art in America, featuring all of the well-known land artists from the 'golden age' of land art - the 1960s - to the present day.

This book explores all of the major American land, environmental and earthwork artists of the past 40 years, as well as European land artists working in North America. The book includes chapters on James Turrell and his vast volcano site Michael Heizer's Mid-West earthworks Robert Smithson and his giant spiral, entropic earthworks Robert Morris's environments and observatories Walter de Maria's Romantic Lightning Field and Earth Room Dennis Oppenheim's concentric snow circles Alice Aycock's mysterious underground mazes Mary Miss's sunken pools and pavilions Nancy Holt and her observation sculptures and the enigmatic floor sculptures of Carl Andre. And Europeans such as: Hans Haacke's Conceptual art Richard Long and his art of walking Andy Goldsworthy's natural, spontaneous, eco-friendly sculptures and Christo's wrapped buildings and islands.

EXTRACT FROM THE CHAPTER ON ROBERT SMITHSON

Robert Smithson is the key land artist, the premier artist in the world of land art. And he's been a big favourite with art critics since the early Seventies. Smithson was the chief mouthpiece of American earth/ site aesthetics, and is probably the most important artist among all land artists.

For Robert Smithson, Carl Andre, Walter de Maria, Michael Heizer, Dennis Oppenheim and Tony Smith were 'the more compelling artists today, concerned with 'Place' or 'Site''. Smithson was impressed by Tony Smith's vision of the mysterious aspects of a dark unfinished road and called Smith 'the agent of endlessness'. Smith's aesthetic became part of Smithson's view of art as a complete 'site', not simply an aesthetic of sculptural objects. Smithson was not inspired by ancient religious sculpture, by burial mounds, for example, so much as by decayed industrial sites. He visited some in the mid-1960s that were 'in some way disrupted or pulverized'. He said he was looking for a 'denaturalization rather than built up scenic beauty'.

Robert Smithson said he was concerned, like many land (and contemporary artists with the thing in itself, not its image, its effect, its critical significance: 'I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation'. Smithson's theory of the 'non-site' was based on 'absence, a very ponderous, weighty absence'. Smithson proposed a theory of a dialectic between absence and presence, in which the 'non-site' and 'site' are both interacting. In the 'non-site' work, presence and absence are there simultaneously. 'The land or ground from the Site is placed in the art (Non-Site) rather than the art is placed on the ground. The Non-Site is a container within another container - the room'.

William Malpas has written books on Richard Long and land art, as well as three books on Andy Goldsworthy, including the forthcoming Andy Goldsworthy In America. Malpas's books on Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy are the only full-length studies of these artists available.

Fully illustrated, with a newly revised text for this edition. Bibliography and notes. ISBN 9781861714060. 328 pages.

www.crmoon.com

Netsuke have once again come to the fore in the popular imagination of the public. In part this is due to the phenomenal success of Edmund De Waals 2010 book, Hare with the Amber Eyes, which highlights a treasured netsuke collection that was challenged by war and the vicissitudes of time. Intricately carved from various materials including ivory, wood and metal, these small toggles served a practical purpose in Japan: a netsuke was used to fasten a mans sash, an integral part of Japanese costume. Up until the seventeenth century netsuke were relatively insignificant objects that were rarely of artistic interest, but as time passed they evolved in terms of both materials and workmanship, and were then used by men to flaunt their wealth or as an expression of status. Today netsuke are considered an art form in their own right and are prized by collectors around the world. They are found in a variety of forms and depict a wide range of subjects including figures of human and legendary form, ghosts, animals, botanical subjects and masks. Skilfully worked, these miniature carvings are of great artistic value, but they also provide a window into Japanese culture and society. This book brings together one hundred of the most beautiful and interesting netsuke from the extensive collection of the British Museum, each of which has its own special charm and story to tell. Uncovering the stories behind these netsuke and coupling them with stunning new photography, this book reveals why these tiny objects have captivated so many, the meaning they have held for those who wore them, and what they can tell us about Japanese everyday life.

This is a book about classical sculptures in the early modern period, centuries after the decline and fall of Rome, when they began to be excavated, restored, and collected by British visitors in Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century. Viccy Coltman contrasts the precarious and competitive culture of eighteenth-century collecting, which integrated sculpture into the domestic interior back home in Britain, with the study and publication of individual specimens by classical archaeologists like Adolf Michaelis a century later. Her study is comprehensively illustrated with over 100 photographs.

In recent years, the Anglo-Italian sphere of artistic exchange in relation to painting has been an increasingly productive area of research. Here, contributors shift the focus onto the two countries' equally significant sculpture trade. This volume of selected essays by economic and social historians and historians of material culture and art investigates the varied roles and functions of sculpture and the ways in which this particular cultural exchange was manifested. Issues of business and the markets for sculpture are highlighted, both in the context of producers of "high" art and in the wider market for religious, garden, and decorative sculpture.

Join the home pottery revolution! Whether you have access to a communal studio or not, hand building projects can travel just about anywhere. Take your clay outside or work at the kitchen table, with instruction from best-selling ceramics author Sunshine Cobb. In this book, you'll find all the necessary fundamentals, including a thorough discussion of clay as well as helpful tips for keeping your body and mind in top shape. Then pick the path that's right for you in the chapters that follow. Develop new skills and unlock your own creativity as you explore: Sculptural projects like miniature animals and plants. Functional items like scoops, a citrus reamer, and a coffee pour-over vessel. Mixed media projects including a candlestick holder, mobile, and a soap dish. All along the way, skill-building is front and center, with conversational instructions and tips to help you make pieces you're proud to show off. Gallery work from some of today's top artists are sure to inspire potters of all levels. What will you make first? For beginners and those returning to ceramics, the Essential Ceramics Skills series from Quarry Books offer the fundamentals along with fresh, contemporary, and simple projects that build skills progressively.

There is no soundtrack is a study of how sound and image produce meaning in contemporary experimental media art by artists ranging from Chantal Akerman to Nam June Paik to Tanya Tagaq. It contextualises these works and artists through key ideas in sound studies: voice, noise, listening, the soundscape and more. The book argues that experimental media art produces radical and new audio-visual relationships challenging the visually dominated discourses in art, media and the human sciences. In addition to directly addressing what Jonathan Sterne calls 'visual hegemony', it also explores the lack of diversity within sound studies by focusing on practitioners from transnational and diverse backgrounds. As such, it contributes to a growing interdisciplinary scholarship, building new, more complex and reverberating frameworks to collectively sonify the study of culture. -- .

Inspired by radical Italian designer Enzo Mari, this practical book with step-by-step DIY projects for hand built, beautiful furniture is a tribute to his simple ideas that challenged the consumerism of the furniture industry. Many interpreted Enzo Mari's book Autoprogettazione? as a manifesto of nostalgic longing for a pre-capitalist society where people built what they needed themselves, but Mari's goal wasn't to make people cease consuming. Mari wanted people to consider the more basic aspects of the objects we surround ourselves with and what it is that makes a piece of furniture, beautiful, comfortable and functional. Taking Enzo Mari and his book as his influence, Erik Eje Almqvist unpacks the practical aspects of the Autoprogettazione? theory, offering simple designs for handbuilt, beautiful furniture. Using just a hammer, nails and boards cut to standard dimensions, Hammer & Nail explores only a few techniques but arms the reader with skills and inspiration for life. With easy-to-follow instructions and diagrams, there are basic methods for making furniture joints, and includes tips on how to avoid cracking boards as you go, making clean cuts with a saw, and ideas on surface treatments. Projects include: Sheep chair, Tilting Shaker chair, Pinstol/Windsor chair, Garden chair, Arts & Crafts chair, Ski chair, Mirror stool, Stackable stool, Beer table, Kitchen bench, Park bench, Sofa, Top and tail bed, Dining table, Worktable, Cabinet, Gun Kessle's shelf and Giraffe lamp.

Statues of important Romans frequently represented them nude. Men were portrayed naked holding weapons--the naked emperor might wield the thunderbolt of Jupiter--while Roman women assumed the guise of the nude love-goddess, Venus. When faced with these strange images, modern viewers are usually unsympathetic, finding them incongruous, even tasteless. They are mostly written off as just another example of Roman "bad taste."
This book offers a new approach. Comprehensively illustrated with black and white photographs of nude Romans represented in a wide range of artistic media, it investigates how this tradition arose, and how the nudity of these images was meant to be understood by contemporary viewers. And, since the Romans also employed a variety of other costumes for their statues (toga, armor, Greek philosopher's cloak), it asks, "What could nudity express that other costumes could not?" It is Hallett's claim that--looked at in this way--these "Roman nudes" turn out to be documents of the first importance for the cultural historian.

Fiona Banner, Phyllida Barlow, Anthony Caro, Richard Deacon, Laura Ford, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum, Susan Hiller, Anish Kapoor, Tania Kovats, Richard Long, David Nash, Cornelia Parker, Marc Quinn, Peter Randall-Page, Eva Rothschild, Richard Wentworth, Rachel Whiteread, Richard Wilson and Bill Woodrow - these are the sculptors who have helped define sculpture, and here they are in their own words. From the Sculptor's Studio is a unique collection of personal conversations with 20 seminal artists, each of whom have created iconic work, exhibited worldwide, and pushed past the boundaries of sculpting in their own way. From the Sculptor's Studio contains 165 colour images of the artists' work, as well as portraits of each of the sculptors.