Leading art critic and writer Richard Cork tells the stories of his personal encounters with some of the world’s most influential modern and contemporary artists. Richard Cork draws on his impeccable skills as a critic and writer to tell the story of his encounters with some of the world’s most influential artists. Through a series of frank interviews, some scheduled, others serendipitous, he uncovers artists’ inner thoughts, anxieties and creative ambitions, to reveal the personalities behind the art. From individuals who are able to look back over a lifetime’s work, such as Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns, to young artists encountered at the beginning of their careers, including Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, from a drive through the Yorkshire countryside with David Hockney to a tour of Soho drinking establishments with Francis Bacon, alongside remarkably insightful encounters with artists as varied as Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Sonia Boyce, Luc Tuymans and Steve McQueen, Richard Cork has found that ‘talking to artists can in my experience be surprising, revealing, salutary, testing, provocative, stimulating and at times capable of overturning all my preconceptions about the individuals I encounter.’ Cork has played a significant role in popularizing late modern and contemporary art. In the words of art critic Louisa Buck, his ‘lucid, even-handed and at times trenchantly critical judgement has been invaluable in helping to create the multiplicity of approach and vigorous debates of today’s artistic climate’.

Written by an international team of artists, art historians and curators, this absorbing and beautiful book gives readers unparalleled insights into the world's most iconic artworks. Art: The Whole Story traces the development of art period by period, with the illustrated text covering every genre, from painting and sculpture to conceptual art and performance art. Cultural timelines are there too, to help to the reader with historical context. Masterpieces that epitomize each period or movement are highlighted and analysed in detail. Everything from use of colour and visual metaphors to technical innovations is explained, enabling you to interpret the meanings of world-famous masterpieces - Mughal miniatures; Japanese prints in the 19th century; the colour theories behind Seurat's remarkable La Grande Jatte; and why Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was so shocking in its day.

Revealing the processes and production of nine artists during the ground breaking Sculpture Shock award (2013-2015) for temporary site-specific interventions. It took sculpture out of the often clinical confines of the gallery space and into non-traditional environments, with a view to reintegrating art into everyday life.The site-specific interventions took the form of installation, performance, socially engaged and object-based work in media as diverse as light, sound and text into unusual sites: subterranean (the unseen world beneath our city), ambulatory (without physical confines in movement through space and time) and historic (an illustrious building in London). This richly illustrated publication is contextualised throughout by: Dave Beech, writer, curator and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art; Richard Cork, British art historian, editor, critic and broadcaster; and Sarah Kent, former visual arts editor of Time Out and the ICA's Director of Exhibitions.

A unique exploration of the close relationship between art and design, explored through the historic and contemporary fabric designs of Liberty, where avant-garde art has influenced the colourful, geometric collections for more than half a century. Liberty is renowned internationally for its fabrics, especially its floral patterns, but it also has a long history of developing bold, geometric designs. Many of these have been inspired by early 20th-century avant-garde art, notably by the Italian Futurists – by artists such as Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni – and their English contemporaries the Vorticists, including Christopher Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth.  In anticipation of Liberty’s 150th anniversary, esteemed couturier and interior designer Federico Forquet has curated a striking new range of fabrics – the FuturLiberty Collection – that carries Liberty’s creative heritage into our own age.  The Futurist and Vorticist art that lies behind the new designs is explored by specialists Ester Coen and Richard Cork, while archivist Anna Buruma examines Liberty’s rich history of avant-garde designs. By illuminating the process by which the FuturLiberty Collection came into being, this highly visual study also reveals how art can inform design, making it contemporary, relevant and engaging.

Hugely admired by artists and writers from Henri Cartier Bresson to the Booker prize winner Howard Jacobson, the extraordinary life and work of painter Dennis Creffield (1931-2018) are explored in this, the first major monograph on the artist. The narrative traces the artist's 'Dickensian' upbringing, his formative experiences as a teenager under the tutelage of David Bomberg, his conversion to Catholicism and his award-winning years at the Slade. Focus is given to Creffield's passions for the stories of England, not only in the Cathedral drawings, but in his expressive work on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, on Blake and in his paintings and drawings of London, the great Petworth House, Cornish tin mines and the eerie military buildings on Orford Ness. Complementing his work on England's sacred and profane identity is an equally audacious body of work on the human body, from tender paintings of mother and child to erotic paintings of women to his late paintings of men near death - Turner, Nelson and Rimbaud. To quote his fellow artist R.B. Kitaj, Creffield's cover has been 'well and truly blown.'

Reflecting on the vitality of the past, through the works of one of Britain's most audacious 20th-century painters The British painter David Bomberg (1890-1957) was among the most precociously talented artists of his generation, and the influence of his legacy continues to be felt. This catalogue is the first to explore Bomberg's early work in relation to the collection of London's National Gallery, demonstrating the importance of painterly tradition for this deeply innovative artist. As a teenager Bomberg intensively copied old master paintings; Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1480-85) was reportedly one of his favorites. But after joining the Slade School of Art, he embraced the idea of a new, increasingly abstract art that would reflect the drama of the world around him. By placing Bomberg's rebellious, youthful works alongside those he most admired in the National Gallery, this book explores the true extent of the young artist's engagement with history, and how it shaped his contribution to the language of early 20th-century modernist art. Published by National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: National Gallery, London (November 27, 2019-March 1, 2020)

A fascinating insight into the lives and work of a remarkable range of contemporary artists Conducted by Richard Cork, one of the UK's most distinguished art writers, these intimate and revealing interviews provide a wealth of fascinating insights into the work of leading British artists. They discuss, often very frankly, their lives and art, their working methods and aspirations. The collection features an array of highly engaging and articulate artists, from Frank Auerbach, Anthony Caro, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin to Cornelia Parker, Tacita Dean, Grayson Perry and Rachel Whiteread. Drawing out Francis Bacon's impassioned musings on mortality, Tracey Emin's obsessive methods and subjects, the intensity of Anish Kapoor's internal journey and Richard Long's epic explorations of landscape, Cork is a penetrating, insightful and accessible interviewer. These conversations, brought together for the first time, brilliantly affirm his belief that 'talking to artists is like embarking on voyages of discovery'.

Richard Cork is one of the most serious, most influential, and best-informed art critics in Britain today. These four volumes contain a selection of his articles from the seventies, eighties, nineties, and the year 2000. The result is a fascinating chronicle and invaluable record of a turbulent period that gives an overview and survey of British art and its reception over the past thirty years which is wholly unprecedented in its scope.

British artist Michael Landy (b. 1963) is known primarily as an installation artist. His work, along with others associated with the Young British Artists (YBAs), was first catapulted to the world spotlight when it was featured in the notorious Sensation exhibition (1997). His sculptural installations and performances explore political and social themes, such as the nature of consumerism and commodity. In 2009, Landy began a three-year artist residency at the National Gallery, London. He chose to focus his project on representations of saints and their accompanying stories, often gruesome, which were once part of common culture but are now largely unknown. Landy's preoccupation with recycling narratives and repurposing imagery results in Saints Alive, the subject of this book, conceived to include drawings, collages, and a series of kinetic, interactive sculptures with moving parts and sounds.

Richard Cork is one of the most serious, most influential, and best-informed art critics in Britain today. These four volumes contain a selection of his articles from the seventies, eighties, nineties, and the year 2000. The result is a fascinating chronicle and invaluable record of a turbulent period that gives an overview and survey of British art and its reception over the past thirty years which is wholly unprecedented in its scope.