Time is of no importance here. Past and present are one and eternal. The history of Peyrassol, in the massif des Maures, France, is that of an ancient place where Templars used to have a base. Today this enormous estate of over 1000 hectares has one again found its splendour. The owner Philippe Austruy has lovingly renovated Peyrassol, restoring it to its former glory. The stone walls surround the symmetrical vineyards, and centenary oak trees contribute to a unique atmosphere that simply breathes history. Wine is not the only guest of honour in Peyrassol, as the domain also houses one of the most beautiful modern sculpture parks.

Claes Oldenburg's commitment to familiar objects has shaped accounts of his career, but his associations with Pop art and postwar consumerism have overshadowed another crucial aspect of his work. In this revealing reassessment, Katherine Smith traces Oldenburg's profound responses to shifting urban conditions, framing his enduring relationship with the city as a critical perspective and conceiving his art as urban theory. Smith argues that Oldenburg adapted lessons of context, gleaned from New York's changing cityscape in the late 1950s, to large-scale objects and architectural plans. By examining disparate projects from New York to Los Angeles, she situates Oldenburg's innovations in local geographies and national debates. In doing so, Smith illuminates patterns of urbanization through the important contributions of one of the leading artists in the United States.

The art of Makoto Azuma uses flowers and plants as its starting point, but juxtaposes their timeless yet transient beauty with an incredibly diverse range of striking settings. In a series of sculptures, installations and interactive events, he delights in blurring the boundaries between nature and artifice. Azuma founded the floral atelier Jardins des Fleurs in 2002, taking commissions from private clients as well as brands and corporations, both in Japan and all over the world. His parallel career as an artist began in 2005 and involves creating and exhibiting artworks that turn flowers and plants into a medium for self-expression. In 2008, Azuma founded AMKK (Azuma Makoto Kaju Kenkyujo), a group specializing in experimental floral creation, with the aim of seeking new forms of botanical beauty and new ways to exhibit them. His works have travelled the globe, from barren deserts to frozen expanses, from thousands of feet below the sea to the very edge of space. Featuring more than sixty projects captured in breathtaking photography, this beautiful book is the most comprehensive showcase of Azuma's art ever published.

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) was, with Calder, Noguchi and David Smith, one of the great American sculptors of the 20th century. She created extraordinary work, from room-size installations composed of boxes to gnarled and majestic steel structures. Her life story is no less interesting. She was born in czarist Russia, but her family emigrated to the States and she grew up in Maine. Nevelson endured a repressive marriage to a New York millionaire, whom she escaped to pursue the life of an artist. She gained recognition as an abstract sculptor at the age of 59, and spent the next 30 years taking the art world by storm, becoming a colourful New York personality and minor celebrity. Laurie Wilson, who knew Nevelson personally, draws extensively on her own research in this crisp new biography. She conducted interviews not just with Nevelson but with her siblings, son, and gallery owner Arne Glimcher. Wilson has also had complete access to Glimcher's archives, Nevelson's personal assistant, Diana Mackown, and Lippincott studios, where much of Nevelson's work was cast, among others

This impressive work of scholarship brings together anthropology, religion, popular culture, and history in its focus on Bakhtiari lion tombstones that have remained largely unknown and hence little studied. Although lions have long figured in Iranian history, art and myth as symbols of rulership, power, religious leadership or as steadfast guardians, art historians have tended to concentrate their attentions on court traditions and the role of lions in popular culture, especially in religion, has remained little considered until this book. Funerary stone lions are to be found throughout western Iran, but are concentrated in the summer and winter pasture areas of the Bakhtiari, today's provinces of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari, west of Isfahan, and Khuzistan. This highly illustrated colour volume draws on meticulous fieldwork and includes over three hundred photographs, drawings, charts and maps. The recording of this rare sculptural heritage, dating from the 16th century to the early 20th century, has become ever more pressing as some tombstones have been taken from their original settings and re-erected in parks, others damaged by the elements and some recently broken up to be used in road repairs. 'Pedram Khosronejad's Lion Tombstones among Bakhtiari Pastoral Nomads in South West Iran is to be greatly welcomed... [It is ]based on extensive fieldwork and represents something of a rescue project....This volume, however, goes further in raising three inter-related issues: why have these important artifacts been neglected even by specialists; how do they relate to a richer understanding of Iranian art and culture; and how does vernacular art relate to the accepted traditions of Iranian art?.... This volume will prove to be important in bringing the lion tombstones to a larger public attention.' G. R. Garthwaite, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor in Asian Studies, Emeritus & Professor of History, Emeritus

Although a quintessentially English sculptor, Henry Moore experienced outstanding success in the United States. A man much admired and revered, he was the natural choice for corporate and civil commissions, with many seeing ownership of his work as an expression of rank and aspiring wealth. The fact that the United States contains the greatest number of his sculptures, as opposed to his home country, cannot simply be attributed to superior spending power. Based on original sources, and containing many previously unpublished images, Pauline Rose's book explores the reasons for Moore's fame in America, and the construction of his American persona. An autonomous, creative genius was a seductive and popular idea for the Americans, a perception encouraged by the photographs, films and writings of him in the press. The impact of Moore's presence was likely even stronger precisely because he did not fulfil the expected traits of either the modern artist or the modern celebrity. Rose's work focuses on contextual factors surrounding Moore's reception: political and economic imperatives within the United Kingdom and the transatlantic Special Relationship between the United Kingdom and America. Exploring the ways in which Moore was presented to an American audience via text and imagery and the influential network of his supporters which spanned the two countries, this insightful book examines a range of sculptural commissions in key American cities. His popularity is likely to be related to the ambitions of politicians and businessmen alike who perceived Moore's monumental sculptures as expressions of citizenship and humanity, particularly against the backdrop of the Cold War. This text is a valuable and innovative addition to studies on Moore. It will be indispensable to all those interested in twentieth century art history and cultural studies, Anglo-American relations, and the vibrant relationship between text and image.

This career-spanning publication features conceptual, political, formal, and technical perspectives on the work of contemporary sculptor Charles Ray For Charles Ray (born 1953), sculpture is a way of thinking that informs his work across a wide range of media-from gelatin silver prints to porcelain, fiberglass, wood, and steel. Charles Ray: Figure Ground spans the whole of the artist's fifty-year career, from his early photographs and performances through his intriguing, often unsettling sculptures, some of which are published here for the first time. The essays foreground Ray's engagement with preexisting traditions, as well as charged issues around race, gender, and sexuality (notably expressed through his explorations of Mark Twain's 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and investigate the modalities of touch that run through his work. In addition, a reflection by Ray himself and a conversation between the artist and Hal Foster offer further insights into his multifaceted practice. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 31-June 5, 2022)

Throughout history people have perpetuated the memory of the dead by constructing stone monuments. The majority of early tombs honour great men, but by the 17th and 18th centuries the humble as well as the rich and powerful sought to express their love and grief by the erection of a suitably inscribed and decorated memorial, made by a local craftsman from native stone. Frederick Burgess describes the origin and development of the churchyard and analyses the different types of monument and ornamentation of each period. He examines the symbolism and lettering and concludes with a section about stonemasons themselves, their training and their methods. He also includes an appendix on epitaphs. This book is an invaluable guide to the historian, the antiquarian, the art historian, and the clergy. Above all, the general reader will find it of absorbing interest, as will those who enjoy exploring the countryside and visiting ancient churches.

The groundbreaking sculptor's most comprehensive monograph to date

Jean-Michel Othoniel is an artist who creates sculptures that explore themes of fragility, transformation, and ephemerality. Using the repetition of such modular elements as bricks or beads, his work deploys various strategies that hint at loss and despair – cracks in his objects' perfect surfaces, negative spaces and, early in his career, transient materials such as sulfur. The most authoritative study of the artist's work to date, it includes intimate gallery pieces as well as monumental public commissions around the world.

Inspired by Robert McCloskey's beloved children's book of the same name, the iconic bronze Make Way for Ducklings sculpture in Boston's Public Garden has come to serve as something of a record of the recent decades of life in the city itself. In a series of delightful photographs taken by members of the public, Ducks on Parade! chronicles many of the original, moving, humorous, and startling outfits that artistic Bostonians have dressed the ducks in. From summer hats to winter scarves, from the Women's March to Black Lives Matter, the ducks reflect the life of the city and our country. Featuring a text by sculptor Nancy Schoen, this book is a tribute to all Bostonians whose creativity and generosity have made this constant collaborative art possible. More than this, it is a revealing look at the lasting power of public art and how viewers can also be participants. Ducks on Parade! is perfect for whimsical readers of any age.

This is the first monograph on Arne Quinze (b.1971), an internationally known Belgian contemporary artist, painter and sculptor. He is best known for his monumental outdoor sculptures, which can be found all over the world. This book gathers his large-scale work, and includes other mediums he works in, including paintings, smaller sculptures, and light installations. With 500 images, an elaborate essay by Xavier Roland, the director of the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Mons (Belgium), and a revealing and exclusive interview by Herve Mikaeloff, this beautifully illustrated publication marks the opening of a retrospective of his work at the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Mons (Belgium) in May 2021.

This beautifully illustrated monograph presents the first overview in English of the life and work of Luisa Roldan (1652-1706), a prolific and celebrated sculptor of the Spanish Golden Age. The daughter of Pedro Roldan, a well-known sculptor from Seville, she developed her talent in her father's workshop. Early in her career she produced large polychromed wooden sculptures for churches in Seville, Cadiz, and surrounding towns. She spent the second half of her career in Madrid, where she worked in both polychromed wood and polychromed terracotta, developing new products for a domestic, devotional market. In recognition of her talent, she was awarded the title of Sculptor to the Royal Chambers of two kings of Spain, Charles II and Philip V. This book places Roldan within a wider historical and social context, exploring what life would have been like for her as a woman sculptor in early modern Spain. It considers her work alongside that of other artists of the Baroque period, including Velazquez, Murillo, and Zurbaran. Reflecting on the opportunities available to her during this time, as well as the challenges she faced, Catherine Hall-van den Elsen weaves the narrative of Roldan's story with analysis, revealing the complexities of her oeuvre. Every year, newly discovered sculptures in wood and in terracotta enter into Roldan's oeuvre. As her artistic output begins to attract greater attention from scholars and art lovers, Luisa Roldan provides invaluable insights into her artistic achievements.

Renowned American textile artist and sculptor Gyoengy Laky (b. 1944) was once described as a 'wood whisperer'. Her highly individual, puzzle-like assemblages of timber and textiles helped to significantly propel the growth of the contemporary fiber-arts movement. Laky's art traverses an extraordinary personal story: Born amid the bombings of World War II, she escaped from post-war, Soviet-dominated Hungary; was sponsored by a family in Ohio, went to grade school in Oklahoma, and went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley. She followed this by founding the Fiberworks Center for Textile Arts in the 1970s and fostering innovations as a professor at the University of California, Davis. This book provides insight into her studio practice, activism, and teaching philosophy, which champions sustainable art and design, original thinking, and the value of the unexpected.

The Italian Renaissance was a golden age for bronze sculpture, both on a grand scale-such as Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, or Cellini's Perseus-and more intimate statuettes and small-scale functional objects. Bronze, being both costly and luxurious, embodied power, authority, and eternity and emulated the classical past. Yet it was one of the easiest materials to recycle, especially at a time when the need for artillery was ever-present. Drawing on the latest research, and including some 200 superb images, The Culture of Bronze explores the material and making of bronzes and the interrelationships and collaboration between sculptor, foundry, and owner. Encompassing works made for domestic, religious, and civic environments, the book studies the symbolism of bronze, and the bronzes themselves, within their broader societal context. Features works from sculptors including Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacoisi (Antico), Benvenuto Cellini, Donatello, Adriano Fiorentino, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giambologna, Bertoldo di Giovanni, Leone Leoni, Barthelemy Prieur, Benedetto da Rovezzano, Adriaen de Vries and Agostino Zoppo

This book investigates how British contemporary artists who work with clay have managed, in the space of a single generation, to take ceramics from niche-interest craft to the pristine territories of the contemporary art gallery. This development has been accompanied (and perhaps propelled) by the kind of critical discussion usually reserved for the 'higher' discipline of sculpture. Ceramics is now encountering and colliding with sculpture, both formally and intellectually. Laura Gray examines what this means for the old hierarchies between art and craft, the identity of the potter, and the character of a discipline tied to a specific material but wanting to participate in critical discussions that extend far beyond clay.

The book is made up of 10 classical sculptures from the Hermitage Museum (mostly Roman and one or two Greek), removed from their plinths and repositioned to share a raised floor with the viewer; and 17 highly abstracted body-forms by Antony Gormley. The idea is to juxtapose ancient, idealized statues with Gormley's more disinterested sculptures and see whether, in Gormley's work, the abstract language of Euclidean geometry can make a shelter for feeling, and whether, in the case of the classical works, demounting and putting the viewer on the same level as their original makers can re-establish them as made things. The interaction of the public, captured in documentary photographs, is key to a project that aims to show how classical marbles, Gormley's own sculptures and the living human visitors inhabit the same space and can converse with each other. All Gormley's body works are the residue of an action or event of a real body that is absent translated into an abstract architectural language (which in the Hermitage is in acute contrast to the ornate interiors). His work takes the body as a `found object', something already made, as a reflexive object that engages the viewer less as a representation than an acknowledgement of its opposite: the `lost subject'.

This book presents a personal collection of ancestor sculpture and protective deities, following the ancient migratory and trade routes of the Austronesian, Southeast Asian Bronze Age, and Hindu-Buddhist peoples. The author, Thomas Murray, has spent a lifetime studying this art through his endeavours as a peripatetic dealer, collector, and field researcher. The objects illustrated come from a swath of widely varied cultures from Nepal eastward to Hawaii, with the overwhelming majority from Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Murray's eye is highly informed and based on an unusually large sampling of objects to which his experience and research have exposed him. The artworks documented represent some of the top examples he has acquired and retained over the course of a long career. They are characterised by sculptural balance and a harmony of line, as well as a rare quality of expressiveness. Each ranks high in terms of aesthetics and desirability within its own particular style as perceived by the art market and by other western aficionados.

In the 1970s, in the region of the Landes, between Bayonne and Peyrehorade, on the banks of the Adour River, the photographer Jeannette Leroy and the art dealer Paul Haim created a sculpture garden around a modest farm, La Petite Escalere. With the help of the faithful gardener Gilbert Carty, amidst canals, bridges, paths made of railway ties, and many trees and flowers, they installed about 50 works, some of them monumental, by artists such as Rodin, Maillol, Niki de Saint Phalle, Zao Wou-Ki, Francoise Lacampagne, Cardenas, Mark Di Suvero, Leger, Matta, Zigor... Paul positioned the sculptures, and to help them vanish into the natural environment Jeannette would plant a shrub, a rosebush, dahlias, an oak, a maple, a gingko, a Caucasian walnut... "I don't want this garden to become ridiculous!" she said. Paul Haim has evoked the bewitching beauty of La Petite Escalere better than anyone else: "The nonchalant visitor will pass from the shade of Les Barthes to the brightness of the Moura, from the freshness of the fountains to the suffocating heat of the forest. Coming around a bush, he allows himselfto be surprised by an unusual presence. Immutable. ... Far from the agitations of the world, sinking into nothing-ness, watching the clouds go by, contemplating the places of joy." Text in English and French.

Aesthetic seduction, superb workmanship, and historical interest are the three central themes in the collection of Fondation Gandur pour l'Art (Geneva), created in 2010 and still expanding. The aim of this first volume is to catalogue the works in the collection, whose decorative aspects are every bit as important as their narrative content. The works are for the most part sculptures - statuettes and ornamental reliefs - although two-dimensional decorations depicting figurative scenes associated with classical antiquity or Christianity are no less important. The periods represented by the sculptural works discussed in this book reflect the scope of the whole collection, which ranges from the 12th to the 18th century. And since the goal of the collection is to document centuries of cultural exchange between France and neighbouring countries, all the works included in the book come from these latter regions. The hybrid styles are closely linked, and this is an aspect of considerable importance, as is the originality certain pieces display and, last but not least, their aesthetic quality. The book is arranged by topic, which brings out the great originality and extraordinary richness of the collection, as well as the extremely varied nature of the subjects, narrative episodes, and figures portrayed. More specifically, the topics are divided into five sections: ancient gods and heroes; biblical and allegorical figures; scenes from the life of the Virgin; episodes from the life of Christ; and saints and intercessors. Each work has its own entry that describes the historical and geographical context in which it was made, analyses its iconographic content, and includes a bibliography and a list of the exhibitions where the work was exhibited.