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A unique approach to the history of art told through the story of
colour and pigments. Did you know that the ultramarine that
shimmers at the centre of Vermeer’s Milkmaid connects that
masterpiece with 6th-century Zoroastrian paintings found on the
walls of cave temples in Bamiyan, Afghanistan? Or that the surging
waves that crest and curl in Hokusai’s perilous Great Wave off
Kanagawa owe their absorbing blue lustre to an alchemist who was
born in Frankenstein’s Castle in 1673? And were the
Pre-Raphaelites really obsessed with a murky brown hue derived from
the pulverized remains of ancient mummies? (Spoiler: they were.)
Invented by prehistoric cave-dwellers and medieval conjurers,
cunning conmen and savvy scientists, the colours of art tell a
riveting tale all their own. Over ten scintillating chapters,
acclaimed author Kelly Grovier helps bring that tale vividly to
life, revealing the astonishing backstories of the pigments that
define the greatest works in the history of art. Interwoven between
these chapters is a series of features focusing on key moments in
the evolution of colour theory – from the revelations of the
Enlightenment to the radicalism of the Bauhaus – while
reproductions of carefully selected artworks help illuminate the
narrative’s twists and turns. The history of colour is an epic
saga of human ingenuity and insatiable desire. Read this book and
you will never look at a work of art in quite the same way.
A wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of
colour in life and art by John Gage, author of the award-winning
Colour and Culture. The complex phenomenon of colour has received
detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry,
physiology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. However, the
people who work most closely with colour – artists – have
rarely been canvassed for their opinions on this mysterious
subject. John Gage sets out to address this omission by focusing on
the thoughts and practices of artists. Colour in Art is concerned
with the history of colour, but is not itself a history; instead
each chapter develops a theme from a different scientific
discipline, as seen from the viewpoint of such diverse artists such
as Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Sonia Delaunay, Bridget
Riley and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Drawing on examples through
the ages, from ancient times to the present, the many topics
covered include flags, synaesthesia, Theosophy, theatre design,
film, chromotherapy and chromophobia. Featuring a new foreword by
art writer Kelly Grovier outlining contemporary developments in the
study of colour, and an updated bibliography, this new edition of
this classic text offers a wide-ranging and engaging introduction
to the place and power of colour in life and art.
A new way of appreciating art that puts the artwork front and
centre, brought to us by one of the freshest and most exciting
voices in cultural criticism. What makes great art great? Why do
some works pulse in the imagination, generation after generation,
century after century? From Botticelli's Birth of Venus to
Picasso's Guernica, some paintings and sculptures have become so
famous, so much a part of who we are, that we no longer really look
at them. We take their greatness for granted; our eyes have become
near-obsolete. We need a new way of seeing. Unsatisfied with
traditional interpretations of masterpieces, which are so often
interested only in learning about art, and not from it, Kelly
Grovier combed the surface of revered works from the Terracotta
Army to Frida Kahlo's self-portraits, in a quest to find the key to
their lasting power to move and delight us. He discovered that
every truly great work is hardwired with an underappreciated detail
that ignites it from deep within. Stepping away from biography,
style and the chronology of 'isms' that preoccupies most art
history, Grovier tells a new story in which we learn from the
artworks, not just about them.
For over twenty years Liliane Tomasko has explored the themes of
dreams, sleep, and the unconscious. This book follows the
development of her work as a painter. It begins with figurative
works in oil on canvas in which she captures the material qualities
of unmade beds, piles of clothes, and other melancholy still lifes
and somber interiors. It then traces the gradual dissolution of
these initial motifs and the emergence of her abstract paintings in
which intertwined lines and layers of color are woven into visual
structures and materialized as emotions that allow us to look deep
into our innermost being.
A unique insight into the life and art of Sean Scully, an
internationally celebrated artist and creative practitioner at the
height of his powers. Sean Scully's paintings of brushy stripes and
blocks of sumptuous colour are critically acclaimed and widely
admired. Less well known is what a gifted storyteller and profound
commentator on the history of art he is. In this fascinating book,
the record of countless hours of conversations with Scully's
friend, the art critic Kelly Grovier, the painter reflects on his
extraordinary journey - from homelessness on the streets of Dublin
in the mid-1940s to his current position as one of the most
important abstract artists working today. In these revealing
conversations, Scully recalls with poignancy and wit his
rough-and-tumble childhood in London (where his family moved when
he was a toddler), his tenacity in the face of rejection from
nearly every art school in England, and his rise to prominence in
New York in the 1980s. Illustrated throughout with images that
capture both the artist and his work, this volume explores Scully's
relationship with past masters, from Rembrandt to Rothko, and
delves deep into his eventual rejection in the late 1970s of
minimalism - the dominant force in abstract art at the time.
Punctuated throughout by passionately recounted stories of struggle
and loss, perseverance and triumph, the portrait that emerges from
these pages is at once intimate and surprising. The book reflects
the scope of Scully's broad interests and opinions, with segments
devoted not only to his attitudes towards the art world and his
most significant works, but also culture, politics and philosophy.
Scully communicates with a raw pugnacity that is every bit as
hard-hitting as his big brushstrokes. With 146 illustrations in
colour
The years since 1989 have seen a complete untethering of what art
can be, who makes it and where it can be found, which has been
matched by a reassessment of art's appropriate place in society and
the financial value that should be attached to it. In this new book
in the World of Art series, Kelly Grovier surveys the dynamic
developments in art practice worldwide since 1989, going in search
of those artists who have undertaken to shape a fresh visual
vocabulary and whose work reflects on these turbulent years. The
book's ten chapters examine the key themes in contemporary art,
from portraiture in the age of face transplants and facial
recognition software, to political activism, science and religion.
Artists discussed include Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Damien
Hirst, George Condo, Marlene Dumas, Sean Scully, Cindy Sherman,
Banksy, Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley, Christo and Jean-Claude, Jenny
Holzer, Chuck Close and Cornelia Parker. The final chapter, a
timeline, traces the evolution of art practice in this period by
looking closely at one key artwork from each year.
Sean Scully (b.1945) is an Irish-born, American-based painter and
printmaker, best known for his monumental oil paintings which draw
on the traditions of Abstract Expressionism. This catalogue
showcases a recent body of work inspired by the National Gallery's
own collection and in particular by J.M.W. Turner's The Evening
Star (c.1830). For Scully, this elegiac picture constitutes one of
Turner's most profound paintings, leading to new departures in his
own work. Using the motif of stripes or chequerboards, Scully
evokes landscapes and architecture, horizons, fields, and
coastlines, in which his contemplative forms become reminders of
personal experiences and distinctive moments. Vast, bold panel
paintings with richly textured surfaces are illustrated together
with delicate works on paper: aquatints and luminous pastels. The
accompanying text includes newly commissioned essays, and poetry by
Vahni Capildeo and Kelly Grovier, while a unique photo essay by
Irish novelist Eimear McBride highlights the sweeping impasto,
strong brushstrokes, and vivid colors that distinguish Scully's
painting.
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The Gaol (Paperback)
Kelly Grovier
1
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R386
R313
Discovery Miles 3 130
Save R73 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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For over 800 years Newgate was the grimy axle around which British
society slowly twisted. This is where such legendary outlaws as
Robin Hood and Captain Kidd met their fates, where the
rapier-wielding playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe
sharpened their quills, and where flamboyant highwaymen like Claude
Duval and James Maclaine made legions of women swoon. While
London's theatres came and went, the gaol endured as Londons
unofficial stage. From the Peasants Revolt to the Great Fire, it
was at Newgate that England's greatest dramas unfolded. By piecing
together the lives of forgotten figures as well as re-examining the
prison's links with more famous individuals, from Dick Whittington
to Charles Dickens, this thrilling history goes in search of a
ghostly place, erased by time, which has inspired more poems and
plays, paintings and novels, than any other structure in British
history.
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