There is surprisingly little, and certainly nothing comprehensive, written about the contemporary Russian scene now. What appear in the West are mostly reports about so-called 'dissidents', not about what is happening in this vast culture, taken as a whole. Too often, these reports seem to be primarily inspired by a desire to demonstrate Western cultural and political superiority. The aim of Russian Art in the New Millennium is not to support any one cause, but to look at the situation as it now exists objectively and to give as wide and truthful a view as possible. Russian art during the period under review - the last two decades - has been evolving rapidly and in many directions. Hence there are sections on digital art, landscape paintings, graffiti, religious art and others. Furthermore, in addition to the continuing influence of the traditional centres for art - Moscow and St Petersburg - a number of provincial Russian cities have developed distinctive art worlds of their own. Russian Art in the New Millennium attempts to discover this terra incognita and to encompass this extremely various, but also intensely national art scene in Russia in one volume.

In 1998, TASCHEN introduced the world to the masterful art of Touko Laaksonen with The Art of Pleasure. Prior to that, Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, enjoyed an intense cult following in the international gay community but was largely unknown to a broader audience. In 2009, TASCHEN followed up with the ultimate Tom overview: Tom of Finland XXL, a beautiful big collector's edition with over 1,000 images, covering six decades of the artist's career. The work was gathered from collections across the United States and Europe with the help of the Tom of Finland Foundation, featuring many drawings, paintings, and sketches never previously reproduced. Other images had only been seen out of context and were finally presented in the sequential order Tom intended for full artistic appreciation and erotic impact. The elegant oversized volume showed the full range of Tom's talent, from sensitive portraits to frank sexual pleasure to tender expressions of love and haunting tributes to young men struck down by AIDS, and was completed by eight commissioned essays on Tom's social and personal impact by Camille Paglia, John Waters, Armistead Maupin, Todd Oldham, and others, plus a scholarly analysis of individual drawings by art historian Edward Lucie-Smith. The only thing missing from Tom of Finland XXL was a widely affordable price tag-until now. The new Tom of Finland XXL is still big enough to work your biceps, and includes all of the original content, but costs a fraction of the original price. You're welcome.

In this classic survey, now updated and with full-colour images throughout, Edward Lucie-Smith introduces the art of Latin America from 1900 to the present day. He discusses in detail major figures such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, as well as dozens of less well-known artists. Those who spent their lives in exile, and artists from Europe and the US who lived in South America, such as Leonora Carrington, are all included in this broad, comprehensive view. The artists featured here have sought for indigenous roots and a local tradition; explored abstraction, expressionism and new media (video, installation, performance); entered dialogue with European and North American movements, while insisting on reaching a wide popular audience for their work; and created an energetic, innovative and very varied art scene across the continent today. A new chapter extends the discussion into the twenty-first century, summarizing key trends and most notable figures of the last two decades. A constant theme is the embrace of the experimental and the new by artists across Latin America.

As London evolves into a Babylonian-style city of lofty towers, the artist Anna Keen has been inspired to paint this London Metamorphosis. While each new edifice heads to the heavens, the exposed entrails of these vast construction sites strangely resemble ruins. Her large canvases are enriched with details stemming from patient observation and on-the-spot sketches, and from voyages around the city made by helicopter, boat, road and on foot. Like the eighteenth-century artist J.M Gandy, who simultaneously painted London in ruins and in construction, Anna Keen takes us just beneath the surface of the metropolis, to where the emotional landscape lurks and to where the soul of London is heading. London-based art historian Edward Lucie-Smith has followed Anna Keen's painting since 1995 in Rome.

This standard introduction to visual art since 1945 has been revised, updated and redesigned for the first time since 2001. Movements, trends and individual artists from abstract expressionism to the present day are summarized, with detailed coverage of major developments such as pop art, conceptual and performance work, minimal art, neo-expressionist and figurative painting, the YBAs and the globalized art scene of the twenty-first century. A new chapter on art since 2000 includes discussion of work by Banksy and Ai Weiwei, as well as recent trends in art from Russia and Eastern Europe. Writing with exceptional clarity and a strong sense of narrative, Edward Lucie-Smith demystifies the work of dozens of artists, revealing how the art world has interacted with social, political and environmental concerns. Nearly 300 images of key artworks range from the paintings of Jackson Pollock via graffiti from 1980s New York and land art of the 1970s to contemporary painting from China and video from Japan. The book is as global in its reach as art has become in the 21st century.

Explores the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the mid 19th century; and works which figure amongst the most lasting and generally propular in British art. Renowned writer and art critic Edward Lucie-Smith contributes a study of the individual artists, their interconnection and previously unpublished material of their intricate links with the social establishment of the time. James Cahill has a special interest in the movement, having studied Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Holman Hunt. He reviews the major exhibition of 150 works at Tate Britain launched in September 2012. 'I think what I want to do is to follow a trail that leads, through many twists and turns, from the religious revival of the early 19th century to Blue Period Picasso, then to Surrealism. It may take in the Children of the Raj and the discovery of Japan along the way. It leads from rather rigid moralism, to conscious immoralism, and then at last to Freud/Dali.' Edward Lucie-Smith 05/2012

In the era of celebrity culture, we are now more fascinated than ever with the lives of our leading artists. Creative personalities are always intriguing, and to learn something new about the greatest artists of the 20th and 21st centuries - be they eccentric or sober, outspoken or reclusive - is compelling. Presented here are some of the most engaging life stories of our time, eventful, intimate and poignant. Lively short biographies, clearly grouped according to style and era, are illustrated with important works, self-portraits and photographs. Lucie-Smith vividly evokes the lives of these great personalities, from Picasso and Duchamp to Joseph Beuys and Louise Bourgeois, guiding the reader through the maze of different styles and movements with authority and verve. New entries on rising stars such as Marlene Dumas, Shirin Neshat and Zhang Xiaogang extend the book's scope to reach from 1900 to today.

In this book Edward Lucie-Smith considers the achievement of John Singer Sargent in response to a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This exhibition features Sargent's more private works - images of friends, rather than portraits painted on commission. In many ways Sargent is an ambiguous figure. The child of wealthy expatriate American parents, he was brought up in Europe, at first made his career in France, then settled in Britain. Totally cosmopolitan, he kept his American nationality, painted many American sitters, but never lived for any extended period of time in the United States, either as a child or as an adult. During his time in France he consorted with a number of artists who, at a certain point in their careers, were thought of as cutting edge. Monet is a prime example. However, his more intimate artist friends, such as Helleu, whom he painted a number of times, were not radicals, and always second-or-third rankers. Sexually he is a mystery. Biographers have tended to classify him according to their own sexual preferences, rather like the biographers of Caravaggio. For some he was a closeted gay man, for others he was definitely a lover of women. He never married and there is no proof of any liaisons, either heterosexual or homosexual. Paintings of subjects from his own social circle, made for his own pleasure rather than on commission, suggest that while he liked handsome young men, he was also fascinated by women of dominant temperament. His own mother was apparently a woman of this type. Easily social with friends, he nevertheless fiercely guarded his essential privacy. There is a parallel here with his somewhat older contemporary Lord Leighton, another hugely successful bachelor artist. Both men were strikingly masculine in appearance. In terms of his later reputation, Sargent was long regarded as a paradigmatic example of an artist who was immensely skilful but in no way truly experimental - someone who fitted perfectly into the wealthy society of his time. The reconsideration of Sargent that is now taking place has parallels with the reconsideration of Gustav Klimt, which got its start a little earlier. Neither one of them can really be described as 'avant-garde' in any meaningful sense of that much-abused term, but we have now started to see them as being extremely significant as makers of images that somehow sum up their epoch without sacrifice of aesthetic quality. Their paintings still resonate with the contemporary audience today.

Cv/VAR series 152 publishes an anthology of essays and reviews by the eminent art historian and writer, Edward Lucie-Smith. The articles cover a broad span, from the Italian Renaissance of Giotto and Antonello da Messina, Leonardo and Michelangelo, progressing to Rubens, Velazquez and Ingres, with essays on William Hogarth, John Constable and John Everett Millais for British Art. With the experience of his landmark publications on modern art, which remain in print; the author sweeps the reader on a fabulous journey of perception, disclosing the strands that bind the continuum of classic and contemporary art.

There is surprisingly little, and certainly nothing comprehensive, written about the contemporary Russian scene now. What appear in the West are mostly reports about so-called 'dissidents', not about what is happening in this vast culture, taken as a whole. Too often, these reports seem to be primarily inspired by a desire to demonstrate Western cultural and political superiority. The aim of Russian Art in the New Millennium is not to support any one cause, but to look at the situation as it now exists objectively and to give as wide and truthful a view as possible. Russian art during the period under review - the last two decades - has been evolving rapidly and in many directions. Hence there are sections on digital art, landscape paintings, graffiti, religious art and others. Furthermore, in addition to the continuing influence of the traditional centres for art - Moscow and St Petersburg - a number of provincial Russian cities have developed distinctive art worlds of their own. Russian Art in the New Millennium attempts to discover this terra incognita and to encompass this extremely various, but also intensely national art scene in Russia in one volume.

Xu Bin Jueyi's sculpture breaks nearly a hundred years of stasis in Buddha sculpting. Using contemporary materials such as metal, resin and wood, Jueyi literally reshapes the aesthetic for Buddha imagery while retaining the compassion and tranquillity that lies behind it. Through the study and sketching of Chinese and Tibetan natural scenery and folk customs, the artist has gained an in depth understanding of the supreme place of spirituality in Buddhist followers' lives. The purity and serenity of their quest, and Xu Bin's own quest, are shown in the sculptor's creative energy which inspire their quests for peace and serenity. The resulting Buddha sculptures bring together contemporary and traditional images and ideas. Simple and clear, they display a minimalism in keeping with the Buddha's life example, while inviting the viewer to delve deeper into the Buddha's expansive teachings.

This is the first major monograph on the work of one of Britain's most dynamic artists, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz. His striking paintings and drawings mine the hallowed halls of art history and popular culture in search of visual languages, imagery, themes and motifs that he can appropriate, adapt, use and abuse, bringing together different movements, genres, periods and styles in dialogues that are surprising, innovative and sometimes provocative. Lenkiewicz's imagination and energy seem to be inexhaustible, concocting endless amazing hybrids such as iconic Renaissance paintings invaded by characters from nineteenth-century Japanese woodblocks, French Revolutionary masterpieces spliced with German Romanticism, or Cubism infiltrated by Victorian children's illustration. The result is a peculiar and fantastical cast of characters and scenarios, whether Nazi soldiers trampling through the snow towards a crashed UFO in the middle of a village scene by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Snow White making an uncomfortable guest appearance in an already troubling Balthus interior, or a guillotined head assuming a cameo role in an otherwise serene still life. These painterly chimera are cultural mash-ups. Sometimes irreverent, sometimes witty, other times simply beautiful, odd and arresting amalgams, they are always poignant, pertinent and decidedly thought-provoking, inviting the viewer to think across time, cultures, countries and ideologies about the many languages of art. In the process, Lenkiewicz has established his own distinctive oeuvre, one that perhaps perfectly illustrates the notion of post-modernity within painting - an oeuvre of juxtapositions and non-sequiturs, binary oppositions and the uncanny, ruptures and elisions, the real and the irrational. As well as often encouraging us to look at the history of art with fresh eyes, Lenkiewicz's practice asks about visual culture today, about how our understanding of the past rests on shifting sands. With an introduction by distinguished art critic Edward Lucie-Smith and a major new essay by writer and editor Richard Dyer, this beautifully designed and produced hardback book presents an impressive selection of works produced by the artist between 2009 and 2015. Born in 1966 and based in London, Lenkiewicz is of German and Polish descent; he studied philosophy at York University, graduating in 1990. He is the son of the late painter Robert Lenkiewicz and great grandson of Baron von Schlossberg, court painter to King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the Swan King.

The mention of 'Faith in The City of London' conjures up images of ceremonial events in St. Paul's Cathedral, but there are over 40 other Anglican churches, as well as Jewish, Dutch, Catholic and Welsh places of worship squeezed in between The Square Mile's towers of commerce. Intrigued by this incongruity, highly acclaimed London photographer Niki Gorick has gained unique access to capture the day-to-day workings of these ancient buildings and discovered a vibrant, diverse spiritual life stretching out into many faiths. This is a book about London and Londoners from a completely new angle, revealing a rich mix of characters, traditions and human interest stories. From weddings, communions, evangelical bible studies and Livery company carol services, to Knights Templar investitures, huge wet fish displays, Afghan music and vicars wielding knives, the photographs show an extraordinary range of spiritual goings-on and charismatic personalities. For the first time, it's possible to get a real insight into a side of London's Square Mile not dominated by money-making, where City workers are trying to connect to life's deeper meanings and where religious traditions and questions of faith are still very much alive.

A book of new paintings and works by Shani Rhys James, one of Britain's leading and most distinctive artists. Her latest work has developed a lighter palette to deal with new subjects of flowers and colourful patterned wallpaper backgrounds. These themes of domesticity are not anodyne however, but informed by 'The Yellow Wallpaper', Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 story about the plight of women in the home. Rhys James's paintings continue her exploration of the position of women in society, and in particular how women can be imprisoned by consumerism and the domestic environment. The 52 colour images in the book include photographs of a new development in Rhys James's work, automata based on the motifs of past paintings. The paintings are accompanied by a Foreword by the artist and critic William Packer, a perceptive interview of Rhys James by Francesca Rhydderch, in which the artist discusses her background and her interest in the position of women, and an essay by Edward Lucie-Smith which explores her paintings in an art history context. Produced to accompany a touring exhibition, this is a comprehensive introduction to the latest work of a fine painter.

A history of the development of the art market spanning the 17th century to contemporary art today.In modern times the profession of the dealer had its start in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries and was essentially due to the revolution brought about by the invention of the printing press. Prints could be offered as readymade images to a widespread market. Durer said he made more money out of his prints, more easily than he did from his commissioned paintings. His mother was his dealer, offering them in the marketplace at Nuremberg.With the rise and expansion of mercantile capitalism the sale of readymade works, supplied by third parties, not directly commissioned from the artist himself nor directly specified by the ultimate client, became a more and more common form of trading in art. This was particularly the pattern in the Low Countries and it also helped to sustain the increasingly large community of foreign artists, Netherlandish and German, who made their way to Italy, where they had no immediate social connections and needed intermediaries in order to make a livelihood. These intermediaries undoubtedly encouraged artists to tackle subject matter they believed would sell.By the early 18th century the profession of art dealer was well-established, in opposition to the official academies. Watteau's painting L'Enseigne de Gersaint portrays an upmarket Parisian establishment of this type. It is perhaps no accident that it shows a portrait of the reigning French monarch, Louis XV, being unceremoniously packed away in a box. Emblems of power now counted for less that symbols of luxury. A large mirror propped up on the right suggests that little distinction needed to be made, in this context, between paintings and looking glasses. Both were furnishings, the essential trappings of a civilized life-style, and both served to display not only their possessors' taste, but also their wealth. The big mirror, in fact, may have been more valuable than any of the paintings crowding the walls.The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that followed it saw a radical redistribution of art works. Naturally dealers played a large part in this - also in defining what was prestigious, therefore saleable, and what was not. In the Victorian period in London, as attention swung towards then contemporary creations, dealers such as the still surviving Fine Art Society (founded in 1877) played a major role in shaping taste. The history of this gallery in Bond Street and that of the late 19th century Aesthetic Movement are closely intertwined.In late 19th century, dealers such as Durand-Ruel (in this case through his support of the Impressionists) were increasingly important in changing the currents of taste. In Durand-Ruel's case, his influence became international. This went hand in hand with a different kind of international influence, exercised by the great British dealer Lord Duveen, In alliance with the art historian Bernard Berenson, Duveen devised a way of selling Old Master paintings, often of religious or esoteric mythological subjects, to a clientele who had little natural liking for that kind of subject-matter, by emphasizing the formal qualities of these works, rather than what they portrayed. This was a first step towards the acceptance of abstraction in art.As the Modern Movement progressed dealers such as Vollard and Paul Guilluame had a greater and greater say in defining what was important in contemporary art and what was not. This influence continued as the centre of avant-garde activity moved from Paris to New York. Galleries such as that of Pierre Matisse and Peggy Gugenheim's Art of This Century Gallery pioneered the way to the acceptance of new forms of artistic expression. Later, Leo Castelli, an immigrant from the cosmopolitan Italian city of Trieste, was instrumental in establishing the reputations of Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. Castelli's 1962 solo show for Lichtenstein was a major step in the worldwide success of Pop art.This pattern continues today, on an even more ambitious and global scale. Galleries such as Gagosian (with multiple international sites) and White Cube here in London play a major part in creating contemporary perceptions about what is and is not important in art.

Goya - the Witches and Old Women Album', now on view at the Courtauld Gallery in London, is fascinating for many reasons. It is a brilliant example of painstaking detective work. The long separated drawings of this album, which dates from 1819-23, have been brought together in their original sequence. Only one sheet, out of 23, now appears to be missing. It also represents a bridge between once traditional ideas about art and those we have now. Some of its roots are in the long-established tradition of personal caricature, and the related tradition of grotesque genre portraits of the poor and disadvantaged. Remote, but still present, are echoes of the little grotesque figures made in Hellenistic Alexandria. One can also see traces of influence from 17th century and later caricature drawings - those made, for example, by Guercino and Pier Francesco Mola. Even more strongly visible are what Goya owed to the drawings made by Giandomenico Tiepolo - the Punchinello series in particular.Giandomenico lived and worked in Spain from 1762-70, as assistant to his father, G.B. Tiepolo.What is highly original is the fact that these drawings, often extremely ambiguous in meaning, form a meditative sequence, not apparently intended for public consumption, but entirely self-reflexive. They record the artist's dreams and fantasies, but strictly for his own contemplation. As such they represent a major psychological breakthrough, a next step forward from the late self-portraits of Rembrandt. Their successors are the images created by major Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dali and Max Ernst. The exhibition enables us to see our contemporary ideas about the nature of the self at the very moment of their first formation. These are the issues Edward Lucie-Smith will discuss in his text about this pioneering show, which not only reconstructs Goya's long-dispersed album, but places it in the context of other drawings and prints by the same great artist.